Leaderboard

That’s cause they struggle to get a 1000 of their own fans through the gate most weeks. Yet they’ve beaten Rangers today, beaten Hibs, taken a point off Killie and are the only ones to take a point off Hearts so far as well. They also had to play at Celtic Park on the opening day but despite playing 5 of last seasons top 6 in their opening 7 games, they’re 10 points ahead of us already. Yet some folk want to use our ‘tough’ run of fixtures as an excuse for our piss poor start to the season.

He's hardly living on the margins. He has been given the resources to build a team. He has signed something like 20 players and extended Tait, McHugh and Bowman who were here when he arrived. If he fails to turn this round and doesn't see out October it will be nothing to do with fickle fans or the fan ownership. It will solely be because he made a complete and utter mess of this transfer window. Killie and St Johnstone brought in Greg Stewart and Tony Watt. Livi look to have found a decent striker in this Dolly guy. We signed Connor Sammon. We have no creativity and no decent left sided players. The buck for that stops with Robinson.

Much of what you say is true in your post but I think this part is particularly telling. Motherwell always have and always will be a team that live on the margins of success and failure. They are always one or two players that can make a poor season a good one. In every aspect of the clubs business they have to work harder to compete with the bigger teams. Fitness, recruitment, tactics etc all have to be worked for that little bit more. For this reason losing the players you mention above is massive for a team like ours. Robinson himself said that the loss of Dunne was a huge blow and possibly the one player in the squad that he could least afford to lose. The important thing for me is that the loss of these players is not Robinsons fault. In fact he brought each one of these players to the club. Having these players playing and on form may have brought about a very different start to the season. Should Robinson lose his job on the back of this misfortune? You mentioned Campbell. Robinson brought him into the team. A player from the youth set up who was brought in at the right time with great success. This is again a positive for the manager and contradicts slightly the theory that he never plays the young players. Moult was indeed for a time the best striker in the league. It was always going to be a tough ask to replace him and yes so that as proved. Should Robinson lose his job on the back of this. You neglect to mention in your post once more the Cup run. You mention the Aberdeen game in the League Cup and I agree, that was Robinsons finest moment at the club to date. However to dismiss the other Cup games against all Premiership opposition as of no consequence or flukes as others have argued is harsh in the extreme. The performances against Hearts at home and Rangers at Hampden in particular were very good. I have been watching Motherwell since 1980 and have never had the good fortune of seeing to Cup Finals in one season untill last season. Should Robinson lose his job at this time when we have not yet finished the first round of matches? If Robinson does not make it through the next four/ five games the one thing I can guarantee is this, that the new man whoever that might be will be living on the margins just the same, because that is the nature of the club we support I

Although I'd agree our close season transfer dealings have been poor and the players brought in aren't good enough I still believe all our current woes stem back to the beginning of last season. We won 6 out of our first 10 matches but people forget about many of the performances. Against Kilmarnock and Ross County the team was literally booed off the field at half time, we put in dismal first half displays, were generally given the runaround and were lucky, due to poor finishing from the visitors, to still be in the match. In the 2nd half we improved and we managed to get 1-0 leads with two late penalties, one each match to wrap up the points. The introduction of Allan Campbell from the sub bench turned the match against Ross County. It showed one thing, that Robinson's choices that he'd brought in - Bigirimana, Rose, alongside McHugh were not good enough as a midfield. And as has been proven time and time again ever since, when Allan Campbell is not present our midfield rarely if ever functions. Yet while this was evident to anyone actually analysing the matches rather than just looking at the results nothing was done about it. To this day, more than a year on and two transfer windows past, we still lack quality in midfield. A football team with no midfield will always be destined for disaster. And so it's proved. So how did we win 6 out of 10 then? Our initial success was based on a number of factors - new players, an unusual formation and 'throwback' tactics in an age when 'good' football meant playing on the ground, as well as having the best striker in the league, a good bit of luck and a favourable opening run of winnable home fixtures. However, we were easily figured out after one match, luck doesn't last forever and our striker was injured and then sold. Once teams had played us and adapted, we were easy to counter. The classic example was Aberdeen. Soundly beaten in what will probably be remembered as the best performance of the Robinson era in the league cup, Aberdeen returned the following weekend, changed their tactical approach and completely shut us down and won 1-0. More or less every team did the same after the first round of matches - a fact that saw our form go off a cliff and never really recover beyond a few wins against relegation bound Partick and an end of season kick about against Hamilton in the Bottom Six matches. Here was our second mistake - not replacing Louis Moult. While Main started brightly at the club it soon became apparent that he was no penalty box striker and while he often did good work outside the box the goal return was nowhere near the player he replaced. Yet, again, like the problem in midfield, nothing was done. Another transfer window and Connor Sammon was brought in, a player far too similar to existing players in the squad and a striker with a poor goal return. True, Danny Johnson was also brought in but here was a player with fitness issues and who clearly needed time and matches to adjust and step up a level. He wasn't ready to step right in. So last season while the midfield was not good enough at any point but we could get away with it because we were defensively sound and had a great striker. Then when Moult was sold we couldn't really get away with it a lot of the time because we were depending on not conceding to get anything out of games. If teams scored first they generally beat us. Form suffered badly, goals dried up and our form went into free fall. Finally we get to this close season. Both midfield and forward positions were not significantly strengthen, something that should have been apparent for some time and then disaster happened - the last functioning part of the team - the defence - fell apart. Dunne was injured, Hartley came back from a serious injury and didn't look the same player, Kipre was sold and our best player last season, Trevor Carson, took a major dip in form. So as it stands no area of the pitch is good enough. Carson's poor-ish form may improve but defensively we have been very bad - 14 conceded in 7 league matches and not a single clean sheet. We have exactly the same midfield as last season - a Chris Cadden going backwards at a rate of knots, Rose, Bigirimana, an out of position Tait, and of course ,Campbell, a player that, as good as he is, desperately needs help. The only 'improvement' in midfield was moving McHugh out of it into defence. So while it's tempting to blame Sammon, Donnelly and ATS for the poor start to the season I still maintain that, really, our problems stem back to last season for the above reasons.

Thanks SR for last season, however, your time is up for the following reasons: players now fighting amongst themselves. Never a great sign and won't help any improvement. The shape is shocking. We play with two wingers that are ment to have the skill to defend and attack. They can't do either. We continue to get overloaded and give to much space. Today he took off Tate our only natural wide defender then put Donnelly into right back? Why??? Square pegs round holes long ball ugly football it's shocking honestly too hard to watch. We go to 3-1, what's the game plan put on Conner and hit the ball longer would love to see the number of passes complete today It's a hard watch. I genuinely haven't missed a single game this year and driving home today I am seriously thinking about giving it up. There's just no enjoyment anymore.

The women's team won the league with a few games to spare, promotion to the top division at last

Whenever I hear about 'lost the dressing room', team spirit and all that, I always think about a really interesting interview I heard from Steve Parish (Crystal Palace Chairman). The basic point was that he had rarely considered sacking a manager off the back of a poor run of results if he could see that the team was still cohesive and playing for the manager. The tipping point was always when the players stopped playing for him. With that in mind, I'm not sure whether the recent frustrations and arguments on the pitch are a good sign or a bad sign. I'd be more concerned if there was an apathetic response to losing goals, however when I see opposition teams arguing among themselves I always think it's a sign that all isn't well in that squad. I've seen some good performances this season (Rangers / Dundee / first half vs Hearts on Wednesday) where team spirit play it's part and I think Robinson will be given time to try and recapture that. You've also got to consider what sacking a manager at this stage can do to how appealing we might be to potential applicants. Robinson achieved his goals last season - keep us in the league, decent cup run and make a few quid. From the outside that's all that will matter. If he's punted 7 games into the new season we'll soon get a reputation of being a trigger happy club which will naturally reduce the quality of applicant in the future. It's a tough decision, and I get folks concerns (the stat of 35 odd games being banded about isn't good at all); however I don't think we are there yet. I doubt the club are either.

Unless he wakes up and smells the coffee BACK 3 IS JUST NOT WORKING He’s persevered with it all season and we don’t have the players to play that system this season So unless he alters formation this week it will just show that he thinks that it is working ( probably the only one in the ground who does) If that is the case then it is time for him to go

Agreed 100%. Also take into consideration they have changed their manager (twice). Dont hear moans about fixtures or budgets and have ten more points than we do after 7 games. Puts into perspective the pish we have had to listen too and put up with.

Indeed he has been as big a miss as Kipre, although the other issue for me is lack of defensive midfield cover, especially in the absence of the much maligned Rose in the last 2 games. Perfect storm losing these 2 from a back 3 at same time. Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

We certainly lack pace at the back, and this is compounded by the way our midfield stands off the opposition and let's them play into the space that our defence cannot cover. I am worried that the return of Dunne is seen as a " cure all" for our defensive frailties. He will need time to rediscover his form.

Three awful goals to concede. The pace and effort to get back goalside from Tait, Bigi, Grimshaw and ATS is cringeworthy. Three big games coming up.

Absolutely - I thought multiple players reaction to Bigi on Wednesday (Carson, McHugh, Bowman, Cadden if I remember correctly); while understandable, was awful and wouldn't have happened last season. In Carsons defence, he did then put an arm round him. Despite that, he went for Bigi again today after their second. Your point about him not contributing offensively is spot-on, however I'm not sure why he was on the pitch today when the midfield was entirely bypassed for 90 minutes. He's not being played to his strengths.

I guess I'm saying a lot of Motherwell supporters chose not to support us today - only 500 out of our regular 4,000, never mind the 12,000 that turned out for the final. If you are fed up with us being beaten or turning in very poor performances, then I think that's a legitimate reason for staying away and the rest of us shouldn't get too judgemental about it. Me, I go to almost every match but we've been too bad, too long to really criticise people for not wanting to drop £30 - £40 quid going to a game.

It does sound like something you'd say though. Can we just attribute it to you anyway?

Stephen Robinson achieved a lot last season and made some decent signings but his transfer approach over the summer is now looking to be in tatters. We are on a bad run and don't look as if we know how to get out of it. He's under a lot of pressure now and he's got maybe 4 games to get him and us out of the mire. If we can't take say 10 points from our next 5 games then I'd say the Directors will have to make a decision and if they don't then the fans will do it for them. Next Saturday is a must win end of. its not just the the number of defeats but also the manner of them which is concerning. Robbo has something in the bank for getting us to 2 cup finals and staving off relegation but thats rapidly evaporating.

Finished 1-3 but might well have been 4, 5, 6. Carson has made a couple of smart saves and Tait cleared a certain goal off the line. In the end we were well beaten by probably the best team I've seen this season and that fact is what I'm taking away from this match. I keep seeing wee team mentality all over this board, that we can't expect much from a club our size and that the city teams are unchallengeable. Why then are our closest cousins, in terms of size of club, history, support, so far ahead of us? Kilmarnock have beaten Celtic and Aberdeen and are as good as any team in the country. At Motherwell we've let our standards fall drastically. That's a problem that is pre-Robinson but it's only been compounded during Robinson term in charge with atrocious outdated tactics, embarrassing style of football and the complete neglect of our youth system. Things have to change. Kilmarnock showed us today what could be.

That's the thing for me and i think many others - how the budget is being spent. No one is suggesting compromise the budget. Our squad wasn't exactly thin at the end of last season ( at least compared to recent years, e.g. under McCall). So spending the same amount in total on 3 or 4 quality starters, instead of 7 or 8 bench warmers is surely how you build on last season's success. Selling our best defender and signing a bench worth of players isn't the way forward IMO.

Ryan Bowman played his first full game since injury and scored a brilliant goal and caused the penalty. The spirit of the team is relatively high compared to their results and league position. We have players now gaining international honours on merit. We are not as bad a team as a lot of posts might suggest. We are not being heavily defeated and remain in games right to the final whistle - our heads do not go down. Lots of positives and, I am sure, we will not be relegated this season.

Can someone tell Yodo that shites meant to come out of his arse, not his mouth?