Yorkyred

I just generally have the perspective that Scottish football is of a very poor standard regardless. A team like Celtic that have dominated the domestic game get found out time and again against pretty modest opposition in Europe. We simply don’t have the quality of footballer to make a difference and even against very average sides we are still a level down. That’s just the way it is and as much as you can always point to individual mistakes the long and short of it is it’s damage limitation pretty quickly in Europe and we probably got as far as could be reasonable expected.

Anyway, a game that we were underdogs and that’s the way it panned out, not going to do the whole player assassination thing. We’ve made decent money and I would guess got as far as anyone expected so we move on.

I don’t have a problem offering Campbell improved terms making him one of the highest earners. However I don’t agree that we should be offering silly money. No one player is bigger than a club and there are further tough times ahead.

Absolutely, and that’s where continuity is important, clubs that go from one manager to another rarely have success. Let’s be honest we could have had three managers over the last three years if the board had crumbled every time we were on a bad run, Robinson would have been gone a couple of weeks ago this season. Personally I don’t believe there has been a single time over that period that justified Robinson been sacked.

I’ve always been of the opinion we won’t be relegated under Robinson, he always has a way of turning things around.

Let’s be fair an amazing result which shows we really still do have more than enough quality in the squad. Things are looking up.

Fantastic, no doubt Aberdeen will come out all guns blazing second half after a rollicking though so we will need to keep focused. Four wins out of the last five would be very nice.

Surely we are back to the same point, the ones that were up to it broke into the first team and did well, the ones that were not got some game time but did not show enough to retain a place. As pointed out in a previous post no one that’s been released over recent times has gone on to prove us wrong. Really I can’t see what the argument is, it’s not like we are doing a Rangers and paying a fortune for players while the academy players get nowhere near the first team squad.

I don’t believe we are playing well enough to get anything from this, the best hope for me would be a 0-0. However my prediction 2-0 Aberdeen.

He’s not good enough for the top flight down south, lack of pace which would leave him running around like a headless chicken at that level. For me league one/ championship.

I think we need to accept that there will be players coming through that are not good enough, you don’t keep playing them if that’s the case. As far as I know every player we have let go over the last three years or so has not gone on to shine in a big way ? happy for someone to point out otherwise. In the case of McGuire he’s really a central defender if truth be known, he’s just not been able to make the step up. When they are good enough they get their chance, Turnbull, Campbell, Scott, Hastie. If they need further development they go out on loan. People were up in arms that Hastie did not get a long contract earlier, clearly now seen to be the right decision, Turnbull and Scott were offered long contracts and signed signed them, clearly again the right decision. I can’t see how the club have done anything wrong here as nothing at this point shows their judgement was anything less than spot on. You don’t pick players ahead of others just because they came through the ranks, they have to still be good enough. What I do agree on is we need two or three “ quality additions” the club can”t carry on pleading poverty forever. However I’m happy to give the new guy a chance before writing him off just because he did not come through the ranks.

I think the guy would be better going back now, I can see him being labelled as “pish” Within 15 minutes of being on the pitch.

I do think we now have to invest, with careful consideration. As my earlier post my first signing would be an experienced centre half, we miss that organisation at the back that we had with the likes of Aldred, give Carson the captains armband, it’s not doing well on the arm of Gallagher. We are a bit of a mess out wide, Hylton, Seedorf , Hastie are a waste of squad places this season I’m afraid, let’s even look at a couple of loan wingers. Maybe with that we will see better balls coming in for Lang, Long, and Watt who really should be good enough, I really like Lang and think he’s very close to coming good. I also like McGinn and think he will end up a good, solid signing. I’m not convinced that Lamie or Mugabi should be in the starting 11 sadly. So overall I don’t believe the summer signings are the disaster some are making out, a mixed bag as it always is at any club. Other than that I’m afraid Robinson needs to get his act together because he’s also responsible for some pretty poor decisions this season. We look a complete mess at times and I’m still not convinced he knows his best 11, sadly that is his job so improvement needed.

So on reflection a game of two half’s. We were by far the better team first half and the game should have been over, knocked the ball around well with plenty of energy, I thought Campbell was excellent with some nice touches from Watt and Land looking very sharp. Honestly I thought we would go on to win by four or five but as we’ve seen before if we start off a half sluggish it generally carries on that way and it’s fair to say that second half we were dreadful with Robinson even having to change the formation which seemed to calm us down at first before panic set in again. Not sure if Campbell picked up an injury but he was hardly seen and that alone made a huge difference, we were second to just about every ball and just not switched on, the pens were soft and I don’t like to keep highlighting Mugabi but he’s caught out far to often ball watching, he should not be losing his man, especially at this level but it happened again two or three times. Lamie was also poor and Gallagher has gone backwards, I’m not a fan of these long diagonal balls. I think we need an experienced centre half rather like Hartly or even better Aldred although I’m still of the opinion letting him go was the right decision, we just failed to replace him. We also need another midfield player given who we have lost along with decent wide men. Three decent additions and I believe we will push on because there are still plenty of very good players in the squad. Having said all that it’s three wins from the last four and any talk of Robinson out is rediculous.

Well that was easy, deep breaths and we move on.

I thought we were decent first half but second half has been dreadful I’m afraid, the energy levels dropped big style. Really feel we will go on to lose this now.

Sadly true and maybe the third time in the game.

Mugabi caught cold yet again I’m afraid, not switched on. The sooner we bring in another centre half the better.

I though that overall that was a pretty decent first half from us. We had the majority of possession and knocked it about well. Lang, Watt, Campbell all looking very sharp.

There is a massive 3 points between us and 5th, it really is plain daft for anyone to talk of relegation at this point. I think we could well see another couple of players come in after the sale of Turnbull and the long term injuries. Things could turn around so quickly, we really are not a million miles away.

It’s not if but when regardless of how much we offer him, that the nature of Motherwell, we develop players and try to maximise the transfer fee when they leave. I don’t agree that selling him means certain relegation, no player is bigger than the club and it’s about reinvesting a portion of the fee in other players. We are clearly short in certain areas with midfield being pretty poor this season in my view. Ideally I would like to see another centre half through the door along with an out and out striker with an eye for goal but that costs. I still believe we have plenty of quality in the squad although losing Turnbull is obviously a blow even though we all knew it was coming. We have not suddenly become the worst team in the league, we should certainly have had more points so I don’t buy this relegation certainties line a few games in.

I think it was probably worth a shot, we needed someone out wide and to be fair he was still rated by a lot of Motherwell supporters. Sadly I think even at this stage he’s looking like someone that got a big move on the back of a short, hot streak. I still feel McGinlay could end up being a very good signing.

Take a look at yourself mate, that’s well out of order.

Hopefully some confidence for the players and we can now kick on.

Let’s just take the first win and move on