Al B

Murphy did the square root of fuck all today, and hasn't for a while. In fairness to him though, he's forced to play far too close to the half way line most of the time. He's just not being used in the right areas of the pitch to play to his strengths. Although, that's one of our massive massive flaws. We have a lot of players that play well when we can play exactly to their strengths, but as soon as they have to take a step outside their comfort zone they are fucked. We don't have nearly enough in-game adaptability.

That was just surreal today....bizarre. It wasn't even a poor performance, because in a poor performance a few players don't play well, make a few mistakes and things don't come off. This beyond that and was every single player. It was like watching a group of guys who have all had a fucking massive argument, and then went out and tried to play football while they are all still thinking about it. If Chris Humphrey INSISTS on looking to run inside every single time, FUCKING PLAY HIM ON THE LEFT! It's no difficult to figure out....

What? No-ones talking about us making it through finishing above them as a result of a points deduction. If they are in Admin, they are in eligible for European competition even if they win the league.

Aye, it would be a right beamer playing Juventus or Real Madrid in the Champions League at Fir Park, not to mention the added riddy i'd get from the return leg at the Bernabeau or the new Juve stadium. I dunno how i'd be able to look my Falkirk supporting mates in the eye.

The undersoil heating pipes had baked the clay in the soil creating a solid layer between the grass and the drains. The drains were fine but the water wasn't even reaching them. To solve this they drilled down through the solid layer to allow the water to drain away, but also drilled through some of the heating pipes, which then meant the system had to be replaced too. The following year when we had all the snow, SPL requirements forced us to have our covers and undersoil heating on, but because we grew the new pitch from seed, the year-old roots weren't strong enough to cope with that, and they were basically cooked and killed off. Last time round they took it right back, around 4 feet from surface if I remember rightly. New sub-layer and foundations, new and additional drains, new heating system, new base and topsoil, and new turf.

Coming back aye? Even if we wanted him back, and even if he chapped the main door at Fir Park and said "i've made a c**t of it, im sorry....can I come back?" Have I missed the point where we became able to buy players out of a 5 grand a week, 3 year contract?

Ah I didn't necessarily mean on here, it might have just been in conversation. I just remember using that same example as it's a good parallel for true meaning Vs context.

I made that exact point a wee while ago, and it's bang on. The worrying thing for me, is that too many people can't/don't separate the meaning of something from the context of something. They are two very different things.

Yeah, 20-odd posts previous...then the subject got changed, and then I brought it back up . Regarding the 2 different flags, you can't compare someone bringing a flag to every single Motherwell game home and away regardless of the opposition, which has no other conceivable connotation other than to show support to an extremely popular player from that country, which wasn't used once before that player signed and hasn't been seen since the player left..... To someone bringing a flag to one specific game because it's associated with the unsavoury views which are the polar opposite of the equally unsavoury views of the opposing fans, and therefore will noise them right up. Which then has the appearance of also associating you with those initial unsavoury views...but feeling it's worth the trade-off just to piss them off a bit? I'd have thought it fairly self explanatory why there is fuss kicked up about one, but not the other? For the majority of people, the second example is infuriating because for them that trade-off isn't worth it. They don't care about pissing off Celtic fans, and certainly don't care for the attached association that comes with the methods, yet they are lumped in with it whether they like it or not and have to deal with the consequences at work, in the pub, with their mates etc. Whereas the first example is a just a guy with a flag. As for anyone making the point about why should we care what the Celtic fans think? Surely the people that are taking the Union Flag etc are the ones that are worrying about what Celtic think? After all, they are the ones making specific efforts to piss them off and wind them up. The rest of the folk couldn't give two shits about Celtic or pissing their fans off, and are quite content to concentrate their efforts on Motherwell regardless of what other team happens to be there.

That is, always has been and always will be an utterly utterly bizarre point to make. And don't ask why....you know fine well why in relation to connotation within context. Anyway, the reason I brought this up earlier in the thread was nothing to do with the flag itself or the beliefs or opinions of individuals. If someone's into that kinda thing that's none of my business, and if someone isn't, then likewise. My point was and still is, that if a group of people are trying to change things within our support and get people on board with their singing, chanting, flags etc (which has been working exceptionally well so far this season), then you have to leave personal opinions and beliefs at home and go out of your way to make a point of being completely neutral, otherwise you can only ever appeal to people that agree with you, which defeats the point of doing it.

Still going for this..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Evu8L2pF7w&feature=related

It doesn't wind them up though mate. It merely justifies what they say about us and makes them right. You think you're winding them up, when in actual fact you're just making their point for them and they can just sit back and say "see?"

I doubt Page will start. I fully expect our back four will be Hateley, Clancy, Craigan and Hammell. Personally i'd like to see Page given the opportunity to step up, but I don't think he will be.

With someone holding up a Union Flag on your way out. I have been a huge fan of our singing section this season, has really made a difference to both my enjoyment of the games and the team and players themselves, and I do agree that the police and stewards were just waiting for the first excuse to wade in, but with both of those in mind, I have to say that the Union Flag and the Seig Heil additions into the chants, put me off more than any stewarding or police issues. What a pile of absolute pish to be associated with. If folk want to do that, then that's their business, im not particularly commenting on those things themselves or to get into a debate about it. What I am saying however, is that if the aims for that group of lads revolve around getting as much of our support as possible to join in (which has been happening to great effect at games so far), then you have to keep and personal beliefs/interests/opinions out of it, and appeal to the masses. Like I say this season the guys responsible for that section have been amazing, but the reason for that seemed to be there was a bit of maturity and responsibility coming through, and have rightfully been revelling in the fact that they represent the wider fanbase, and doing it in a way that has really earned the respect of the rest of the support. Yesterday im afraid just saw a few things slip back into the reasons that many Motherwell fans have spent the last 2 seasons writing them off as an embarrassing annoyance. If you want the wider support to join in with the chants and that kind of atmosphere to become widespread at our games, then it's completely counter-productive to include things that alienate people and make them not want to be a part of it. Like I say, the tail end of last season...particularly the cup final efforts, and everything from this season was really starting to grow a lot of genuine respect from the rest of the fans, the club and in the last few weeks, the media. Don't fuck it up after all that with petty wind-up pish that many folk just don't want anything to do with. If your aims are to get as many people involved as possible, you have to keep it neutral and appeal to as many people as possible. If your aim is to express your own personal opinion of what you think should be okay, then you have to accept that most won't agree, and you'll always be a tiny minority within the support, and all your efforts will be pointless as the majority folk won't want to be associated with it. You can't have it both ways.

In addition, as far as I'm concerned that's the solution to the whole Murphy/Goodwillie debate. In terms of player ability, they are fairly similar (maybe Goodwillie just shades it), but the reason his career is taking off, is that he plays that way instinctively whereas Murphy doesn't. He'll have to learn it which automatically puts him way behind in terms of development. Trouble is for him to learn it, someone has to coach it.

The main difference between the two teams yesterday was a fairly simple and basic one, and it's the thing that marks the difference between two sides of differing ability. When Celtic play, the runs made dictate what pass is played. When we play, the pass that is played dictates the run. That may sound as if there's not much of a difference, but irrespective of tactics, formations and individual player ability, it's the one thing that determines your penetration, your movement, whether your possession is in a key area or not, your ability to unlock a defence, and many others. All too often when we have the ball, the other players are waiting to see what he looks to do with it, therefore what happens next is decided by the guy playing the pass. That's fine in essence, and you'll have some excellent periods of possession against anyone and If you have players with good ability you'll win games against teams who also play that way. The difference with Rangers,Celtic and any team that plays on a level above us, is that this is reversed. In their case what happens next is dictated by the players who don't have the ball. They dictate where the ball should go next, and the job of the player in possession is to spot it and deliver it there. Even when we're playing well, our forward thinking players will look to see where the guy with the ball is looking to play it then when he does, the pass dictates the play, and then they will try to get on to the end of it. The downside of that is that defending players will spot it as well, and it's then just down to which of them is faster and stronger to get to it first, and has a wee bit more ability to do something with it if they do. We're winning games against the other sides who play like that because we have players with those qualities. In sides that are on a level above us though, forward thinking players don't wait. They make the run anyway and it's then the job of the guy with the ball to spot it. Ideally 2 or maybe three players make the run knowing that there's only a one in 2 or 3 chance the ball will come, but they make the run anyway. Those runs are what dictates the play, it's it's the job of the player in possession to spot it, choose the best option, and deliver the ball. Doing this, by the time the pass is played the receiving player is already away, has already lost his man, and they cut through even the most organised defence. Unless defenders can predict the future, they don't know where the pass is going to go so they can't commit until it is played. Forward players don't have that responsibility as they can commit and it doesn't matter if the ball doesn't come. But if it does...they are already 5, 6, 10 seconds ahead of the defender. Runs dictate where the ball will go, defender can't commit, defence sliced open. In addition to that, ideally you will have front men who are thinking even further ahead...Gary Hooper is excellent at this. When the Celtic midfield have the ball, the 3 players who will be looking to make a run will be say...Stokes, Hooper and Forrest. Stokes and Forrest will make their run in the hope that they will receive the ball, but Hooper won't. His run will be with a view to receiving the ball from Forrest (who doesn't even have it yet), on the assumption that that is where it's going to go. He's thinking two passes ahead and making his run off that, and if it turns out Forrest doesn't get the ball it doesn't matter...his run goes un-noticed as it wasn't used, and he simply looks to make another. if Forrest does get the ball however, the defending players then have to turn their attention to him....but he has the option of playing a first time ball which will put defenders on their arse because they haven't had time to set themselves....made possible because Hooper is already in space as he has worked on the assumption that Forrest will get the ball and made his move beforehand, while everyone else was waiting to see what was going to happen. That's really fucking difficult to explain in writing! But in essence, we're winning games against teams on our level, because it's a like-for-like contest in terms of approach, and our players have decent/better ability with the ball. Teams above our level however, win games because of the ability of the players who don't have the ball.

Null. Pish. Haven't been to Parkhead in a little over 10 years, but went today because we won 2 tickets from Clydesdale Bank in the M/POTM competition. Went as it would have been a shame to waste them as they were free, but left 20 mins before the end for the first time in 17 seasons, and completely reminded me why I don't spend money on that shite. I won't be back to a game against the OF, I just can't afford to waste money like that.

Wasn't getting it from anywhere, just what i'd heard during a conversation about how misleading the size of the actual stadium was when it came to pitch size (similar to the way that Hampden is talked about as being huge, but the actual pitch is the same size as McDiarmid). Few seasons ago mind, so could have lost a few yards when work was done like Weeyin said and it's different now, or may well just have been wrong info in the first place as like I say, wasn't based on anything more than a conversation from a few years back.

The pitch at Celtic Park is much smaller than Fir Park.

Think that link is wrong mate?

I disagree. A huge part of the problem is because there is too much focus on things that happen outwith our own league. Who cares about whether we can compete with teams in another league because quite frankly, they are in another league, so what does it matter in relation to our game? Do you make the 3rd division better by trying to equate the teams there to the SPL? Is the 3rd division shite because when they come up against teams from a better league they generally don't win? Of course not! The football may be of a lower standard...but that doesn't make the games, or the league, shite by default. If it did, then everyone in the world would only get enjoyment from one league...the best one, and everything else would die. For a league to be good, the teams in it don't have to be able to compete at a higher level... they just have to be able to compete with each other. For a league to be good, the teams in it don't have to be able to match teams from a different competition...they just have to be able to match each other. To the first bit i've highlighted, i'd say...so what? The key to having a decent league has nothing to do with how good the teams within it are on their own, it's to do with how good they are in relation to each other. To the second bit i've highlighted, id say...why? If we're trying to improve Scottish football, why set our focus as something outwith it?

Lots of ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the state of the game, no money in Scottish football meaning it's going down the tube etc etc. I genuinely believe the opposite. Right now we are at the beginning of a stage where football is the way it should be. There is no money in the game, that much is true, but that leaves us with, like Lobey Dosser says, everyone in the same boat. If you want to win games you have to do it by working with what you have, developing players, tactics and systems to try and better the opposition. There's no such thing as a team with more money, because none of us have any...there's less of a situation where a team wins more games because they can bring in the players they need. At one point a few days ago, 4 of the bottom 5 were Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee United. It's no coincidence that these are teams who are used to being able to spend a bit of money to bring in players. Now that they can't they are struggling, because they don't have the experience of having to try and win games with no money. Obviously there are one or two little anomalies within that, and things that buck that trend slightly, but for the most part the money has all but left the game, and it's coming down to who can coach their players better, who can develop their players, who can apply tactics, and who can outwit and outplay the opposition. Scottish football is dying? Balls.....Scottish football is just starting to be able to breathe again. Right now, is the best thing that could happen to the game in this country.

Just said on the news there that Omar Daley's work permit has been approved.

See to be honest, I can't believe anyone gives a shit .

Centre everything around Majstorovic, as he's fucking brutal. Get Higdon in about him and chuck the ball in there...if we have it at the feet of Murphy or Law, then basically aim for him, running right at him. Other defenders can't come and help him out as they would be leaving their man free, so literally chuck everything at the guy and force him to deal with every attack...be it a pass, a long ball, a run. Make him their busiest player and he WILL fuck up at least 3 or 4 times.