MJC

As I said yesterday signing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse could well cost Kettlewell his job.

It certainly wasn’t the worst performance in decades yesterday, we saw much worse at the tail end of Hammell’s tenure and plenty of much worse displays the season before under Alexander. However I think the “worst in decades” comment was more a description of our current forward options rather than the performance itself*. And Biereth apart then that’s an understandable view to take. To have Bair, Shaw, Obika and Wilkinson on our books at the same time takes some beating as far as dreadful forward options go. I don’t know if it’s the worst we’ve had in 40 years but it can’t be far off it. If we lose Biereth again to injury then we are fucked because we simply cannot rely on those four to get goals, lead the line and create chances. *edit: it was a different post made by a different poster I was referring to, my mistake.

VAR in Scottish football was always going to be a disaster. It’s bad enough everywhere else in world football so in the shambling, amateurish, half arsed incompetent two-bit world of not just Scottish football but Scotland as a whole then it was always going to reflect how bad everything Scottish football/Scotland does. I don’t know why anyone is surprised by how bad VAR has made things.

Wilkinson and Biereth need to be our striking partnership going forward, we and the manager just need to pray that Mika stays fit. That performance from Shaw and Bair yesterday should ensure that neither start again unless absolutely necessary. I would even look at recalling Mark Ferrie from his loan ahead of playing either of those two again. Things are definitely starting to look grim. That was a must win game yesterday. Off the back of four straight defeats a home game against Ross County is one we should be winning, I don’t care if anyone thinks that sounds ‘entitled’ or ‘Old Firm-ish’ or any of that nonsense. We should be beating Ross County at home, end of. And yet we were fortunate to scrape a draw in the end. That’s just not good enough. Looking at our upcoming fixtures I just don’t see a win coming. We will lose to Aberdeen on Wednesday, then we’ve got Killie on that shitey pitch of theirs next week so we won’t win there either. Then St.Johnstone in Perth on a Tuesday night. I think that’s got 0-0 written all over it and then we will lose to Hearts at home before going into the international break. And then we return with a trip to Parkhead. Grim and bleak right enough.

0-2 defeat.

This is the big issue for me. Kettlewell clearly did a fantastic job rallying the team last season when he took over but what are his tactics? We did well under him from Feb-May basically because we had KvV who could score goals and as we know goals change games. When you have that talisman figure then you know that you always have a chance in games. Since KVV has left we have failed miserably to both replace him and adapt our game adequately. Our signings, Biereth apart, have been dismal and we now find ourselves struggling to get a draw at home against Ross County. That is hugely worrying.

My thoughts too. We were dismal today, for the vast majority of the game. We offered nothing in an attacking sense, Bair and Shaw up front both looked hopeless and we conceded three cheap goals. And on top of that we have failed to win a game that we really should be winning. However going by context (0-2 and 1-3 down) it was a good point.

Point stands. We are rank rotten but I’ll take the draw. Well done for not giving up.

If we somehow spawny a point out of this it will do nothing other than paper over the cracks. We are rank rotten.

Kettlewell’s summer signings are going to get him sacked.

Fucking pathetic.

Penalty or not, that is what a striker needs to do…put the ball in the net. Well done Biereth!

Same old script. We can’t score goals and we can’t keep goals out and that is a recipe for disaster. We should have signed Steven Fletcher in the summer. For the wages we have wasted on Obika, Shaw, Bair and Wilkinson we could surely have been able to put together a deal that would have given him the ‘buzz’ he was after. He would have scored more goals than the four of them put together, I have no doubt of that.

We are slow fucking slow as a team.

Thoroughly uninspiring stuff. Shaw and Bair are both utter dugmeat and both should be hooked at half time.

That’s true. Big test for both of them today.

Shaw starts and so does Bair, undroppable by the looks of things. Butcher and Biereth make the bench.

If we go with one man up again, especially if it’s Bair, then questions will start to be asked of Kettlewell. I think we’ll see a different approach today though. Unfortunately I can’t see us winning. I reckon it’ll be a drab, stodgy 1-1 draw.

He keeps up this form then he must be in serious contention for the Ballon d’or. Hopefully we draw Utd at home in the Scottish Cup so we can give Louis a heroes welcome. It doesn’t matter if he scores the winner against us, Louis Moult could shit on the steps of the Main Stand and he’d still be a hero to me. 👍

That’s the way of it unfortunately. Ironically enough we had the opposite last year. We were supposed to play Killie on Christmas eve (the Saturday) and TV moved it to the 23rd/Friday night.

Some Motherwell fans are like a dog whenever they hear a packet of crisps getting opened the minute any popular ex player leaves or even merely hints about leaving his present club. 😂 That said on this occasion I wouldn’t be against a short term deal for KvV in January if it was atall possible, which it almost certainly won’t be. When he’s two years older and been out injured for a lengthy period mind you…

100% this if both are fit. We’ve given Bair his chance to lead the line and it’s got us nowhere. Time for a different approach.

We have to win this one, no two ways about it. If we don’t then we’re in trouble.

This place will be some laugh if a 41 year old Craig Gordon gets the nod for Scotland before Liam Kelly. Never mind the fact that he’s won over 70 caps for Scotland, won numerous trophies for Celtic, a Scottish Cup for Hearts, played in the English Premier League and is still clearly a top class goalkeeper. Nah get oor Liam in there. I like Kelly, I think he’s a very good goalkeeper for us but he’s nowhere near Craig Gordon’s level.

Perhaps they were only taking into account the condition of the playing surface and the immediate surrounding areas when they put that out? Jumping the gun of course but maybe they hadn’t taken travel and police advice properly on board at that point? Obviously it was the right decision to postpone given the weather warnings and as I said much better to do it today rather than tomorrow.