wellsince75

I thought Grimmy did reasonably well. Sadly our squad isn't getting stronger , too many players aren't good enough as has been the case all season. Irrespective of poor defending we don't create chances.

I thought pre season things were looking well but with the loss of Turnbull and the complete average Jo's this is a hard hard season. Campbell, Watt, Carson are the players with passmarks so far this season .

he has been dreadful - absolutely dreadful

sadly we lack quality - lots of players who work hard but little creativity. Can't remember working their keeper or their defence.

shame we don't have decent wide players - this team were there for the taking.

so naive - pressed the self destruct button

get subs on - get long off - he's offered hee haw

can't see 11 men staying on the park at the end of this one.

that could have been a pen for them. we need to stop trying to tackle wrong side of the man

what a joke - can't believe he only got a yellow

we need to stop giving away stupid free kicks.

I thought it was Gallagher but either way it was too easy. Overall we're growing into this game.

We should have let maguire leave - he’s been around for long enough and if he was good enough as either a central defender or midfielder he’d have been in the team and stayed there . Worried that we have a lot of very average jo’s on the books who aren’t good enough . Fingers crossed Crawford is better than having a grimmy or maguire

hope this means we can go 4-4-2. Carson ODonnell Gallagher. Mugabi /Lamie McGinley Crawford Polworth. Campbell Ohara Long / Lang or Watt

he deserves his move - now is a good time for him to continue his growth. Not sure he'll learn much more at FP.

cracking post - you've nailed a lot of the key issues. I genuinely believe we've lost the plot , there is no game plan and that comes from the manager. I couldn't believe his comments ,stating last night is tough place to come - what ? a semi pro team, who's season hasn't started yet !. We lost it completely after 20 mins. We have a decent bunch of pros and very decent midfield players - if we start playing through our midfield and bolster it to at least 4 players (who are actually midfield players) we'll be fine.

The issue for me is 1) formation 2) approach to the game. Not a fan of 5-3-2 - maybe against old firm but not against lower quality teams. Our tactics are defence pass to one other - tap tap tap and then hoof it up. We completely by pass the midfield and because we've don'e the tap tap tap thing the opposition have man marked everyone and there's no space to play. As you mention we have good players but we are not a teams.

Individually there were horrendous performances and decision making BUT more worrying we don't look like a team. Why we play 5-3-2 against such a poor opposition is beyond my understanding. For me MuGabi, Lamie, Maguire, Hastie, Seedorf, Lang , White are not good enough and have all featured as first team players. I was really looking forward to this season but we've been dreadful to watch.

This is one of the worst Motherwell teams I can remember . Complete lack of energy Or ideas . second half performance was brutal . I don’t think the manager has a clue what he wants his team to be doing as an attacking force

I agree. I think he's doing a decent defensive mid role but would like to see him pushed up. Adding a defensive mid player would help.

really enjoyed this post, summarised well. Agree that midfields our problem area, I think we're missing Donnelly/a defensive midfield player and thats messed up our formation. Yesterday we had 5 in midfield but both Odonnell and McGinley are defenders which prevents us moving from midfield to attack well. Both looked a bit out of place. Our wingers are average which is why we weren't penetrating defences when we had possession in the earlier games. Personal view is 4 -4 - 2 (without wingers - just wingbacks) or 4-3-3 (with 3 strikers) could work better for us against most teams. We need to find a formation and give it a run of 5-6 games to bed in.

I agree that McGinley could be a good signing - if we play a back 4 it will be perfect for him at left back. it should be a choice between who to keep from Lamie and Mugabi in centre of defence.

I don't believe it's a 3-5-2 . Today was 5-3-2. Mcginley is not a player who'll go up and down the line. if we keep 3-5-2 we need to play Hastie and hope he comes good. I'd be cool with a 4 - 3 - 3 and just play Long/Watt/Lang together up front.

that was hard to watch - a good 3 points but that was brutal

agree - we're out numbered in midfield with 3 v's 4. I'd take either Lamie of Mcginley off and put on another midfield player to balance us out.