pingu

I seem to remember Andy Roddie scoring an amazing overhead kick in a 5-3 win against Falkirk at Fir Park, sometime around 1995. Anyone shed any light on that one?

The Sun is reporting that we impressed the Levante fans so much that 'their drummer led the support in a chant slauting Mccall's men' or something to that effect. Any know about that?

every single bit of this has been pure speculation so not sure how people are so quick to jump to conclusions. If we sign Stevenson, good stuff, if not then im sure there are other areas we could strengthen.

Or Cherno Samba...

An mate who supports Oxford United has told me that the rumours are we have been looking at Peter Leven, formerly of Old Rangers and more notably Kilmarnock. Centre mid. Don't know how valid that is but thoughts anyway?

Bump them up to 300-400k and I'm all good with that. I'm sure he's a nice guy, bags of pace, pops up with a goal or two, not to mention Dazzer's soulmate, but I would prefer if we brought in someone who can consistently control and cross a ball.

What would other people do with the personnel we have then? The reason it didn't work was because I don't think the roles were properly defined in terms of wide play and holding midfield. People have to remember we were a few players short, just a few days after a Euro tie against a decent St Mirren side who have improved from last year. If we had won, would you still be saying the same? It's like someone new having a mediocre to bad debut (Jennings, Jutciewitz, Porter spring to mind). Are you gonna tell me they should never play again? No, things need time to bed in. Although, with this site and Motherwell fans in general, we are too quick to judge. People are not happy with the tippy tappy, non-penetrative displays before today, people are not happy with today - lets discuss some alternatives.

Was quite surpised to see Motherwell line up almost exactly as I had stated. Not sure why I get a red dot for it? I don't think there was anything inherently wrong with the tactcs today to be honest. The formation requires a shift and a half from Murphy and Ojaama who have to track back down the wings when not in possession and work forward in and around behind Hidgon otherwise. They didn't really do that, so any exposure down the left, which incidentally was after Murphy was hooked for Humphrey was the fault of the manager/Ojaama for not making that cover once Humphrey moved to the right. It also requires the defence and holding midfields to be strong in the tackle, and the centre backs to be able to clear crosses, which Cummins and Hutchinson did all day. For those saying we were overrun, again I think when we don't have possession then the Ojaama and Murphy roles need to flood the midfield to make it 5 man strong. It's also a personnel thing. I think I would play that again, but it could use a new, experienced defensive midfielder (or Ramsden?), take out Ojaama and stick Law in behind the strikers where he can be a bit more creative.

A thought that has been occuring to me recently when thinking about this season's games so far is that we are really not playing to our strengths and if PLan A isn't working then there is a lack of a Plan B. I'm gonna try and post what I think is happening just now, our stengths and weaknesses, and a proposed way of playing which I think I would like to see given a shot.. I know people use the match threads for lineup discussions but i thought this might be a place to discuss more fundamental things tactics-wise. Discussion, constructive criticism welcome! This might be completely redundant after today's game but I have worries for the season ahead so I think it is still worthy of debate. As I see it at the moment, and I know we have a chance to go top today and it's the start of the season, we severly lack a cutting edge. How often are we seeing the ball being worked out wide to say Murphy, for him to have two defenders on him, he rightly plays it back to Hammell and the ball then gets squared via the entire defence to end up at Humphrey who faces the same problem - then he either tries to take the guy(s) on and gets little change from it, or plays it backwards for the same thing to happen again. Because we are not Barcelona, someone eventually miscontrols or loses it and because the majority of the team is up the park and a high defensive line we are immediately prone to the counter as we saw against Panathinaikos and Levante. The current tactic of tippy-tappy play it out wide is not working just now. In effect we are playing a back 4 with sometimes pushing up full backs, a midfield two of Lasley and Law, a striker out of position on the left, a right winger and a little and large forward combo. Often this is a 4-2-4. I have my reservations because: It is predictable. Better teams will park men behind the ball, double up on wingers and hit of on the break when our defence are sitting just over the halfway line offering an outlet for the ball. The lack of defensive protection when Lasley and Law are upfield is startling Murphy is probably getting some unfair criticism in my opinion. What can he do when there are two defenders to beat? He is not left footed so taking them on and swinging a cross in from the left is pretty ineffective Hammell often can't overlap because of said breakaway potential Humphrey, for me, is completely off the boil Higdon is often isolated and has few places to lay off to Lasley is having to do almost all of the ballwinning work in the midfield - he seems to be trying 'harder' and I can forsee him picking up a lot of cards again There is not enough height in the team to constantly work the ball wide and get crosses in from open play, nor anyone who can consistently provide a good cross. Therefore, I would like to see a style of play as follows: ------------------------------------------------Randolph-------------------------------------------------- Hateley -------------------Cummins/Ramsden-------------Hutchinson----------------- Hammell --------------------------------------------------Carswell/Lasley----------------------------------------- ------------------------------Law-------------------------------------- Lasley/Hetherington ---------------------- Murphy------------------------------------------------------ Ojamaa/McHugh -------------------------------------------------- Higdon---------------------------------------------------- I think this would suit our strengths a lot better: It allows a sitting midfielder to break up play and offer protection against the break and offer a 'safe ball' along with the two centre backs, who are pretty comfortable on the ball anyway. The sitting midfielder can cover either wing if either of the full backs are advanced and a counter comes down there whilst the full back is out of position. Murphy and Ojaama/McHugh are pulled in off the wing and given a free floating, interchanging role behind Higdon, where they can take through balls from the ball playing Law, Lasley and Hetherington. Higdon has players closer to lay off to and they can take a shot - resulting in more shots on goal. Higdon also has the potential to flick headers over the defence for them to run onto. Murphy and Ojaama have space to run and make runs, which are their main strengths. If needed, Hateley and Hammell can sneak up on the overlap outside of Murphy/Ojaama for the cross (and are both probably better crossers of the ball than Murphy/Ojamaa/Humphrey/Daley). It might also suit ZFA when he comes through as he seems fairly attack minded. This of course could be morphed into something with a bit more width if you introduced Humphrey or Daley for any of the forward players. What do we think? Any alternative systems?

. Nah i know. Was half cut last night and it was seriously pissing it down southside, was just a thought.

Welcome to the forum LevanteGuest and thanks for posting! I'm sure all of us can recognise being the underdog and that is something we share in common! Did you see the game in Motherwell? I think a lot of Motherwell fans did not realise that we didn't just play bad, we played bad because Levante made us with their tactics and better players. Although Levante are not a 'tiki-taka' team I think there is a lot of our support that give Levante a lot of respect because of their recent achievements. Anyone who says Levante are no better than an SPL team does not know much about football! I think a lot of people, me included, are frustrated with our performance because we know we can play better, like we did against Panathinaikos (we did not deserve to lose 2-0 and 3-0) What do Levante fans think of Motherwell, Scotland and Scottish football? I would be interested to know. .

waterlogged pitch with the way the rain is going at the moment?! Wouldn't be the worst thing after the midweek games

Sorry but Humphrey was ganting

on my way back from the game. I know technically they are better and higher calibre players but I felt the tactics were wrong. To play high halls to Higdon with the two centre backs and holding midfielder who were all taller than him was a bit ridiculous. The play it wide and get the crosses in was as tedious as it was predictable, who is gonna finish them? I think McCall realised this and went to playing the usual, tippy tappy non penetrative football that is so infuriating at times. Usual defesive lapses and zero cutting edge means the tie was over before it started Sorry if im being negative but that's how I feel about it, I wasn't massively impressed by levante, just as I wasn't with pana. It is the lack of cutting edge that will see us struggle this year.

Is it me or was Murphy really THAT bad yesterday? I actually thought he was one of the main threats in the first half. St Johnstone doubling on him everytime didn't help. Second half he switched flanks and often didn't find Hately on the overlap supporting like Hammell does.

I bet they are better than Odense. Odense was the golden ticket. I'm trying not to be negative but look at the facts: They have only never qualified for Europe because they play in arguably the best league in the world, in which they finished 6th last year. Many Spanish Second Division teams would beat us I'm sure. They beat Barca at the Nou Camp They pumped Europa League finalists Bilbao 3-0 on the last day of the season. I ma hopign as much as the next person but this really isn't a great draw at all, and I cannot see where comments like yours come from.

Unfortunately got to say I agree. Just because they're maybe not a glamour team, you don't top La Liga after quarter of the season and skelp last season's finalists Athletico Bilbao 3-0 to secure Europa League football if you're not a bit good. I fear that they will be a bit better than Panathinaikos.

For a player playing in League 2 last year to Champions League on his competitive debut, I was pretty impressed with Ramsden. He will do a job for Motherwell anyway. Lasley and Law were the outstanding Motherwell performers, Law looked incredibly composed on the ball against a higher quality opposition and Lasley put in some shift. I was worried about a midfield with Murphy, Law, Lasley and Humphrey before the game, in that essentially it'salmost a 4-2-4 and I thought we'd get run over. That just wasn't the case and it's credit to Law and lasley. However, just wasn't to be last night, no-one seriously expected a win and the manner of defeat was acceptable in that we played a lot of the better football and gave them a right good game. We just lack that creative quality and killer instinct in the final third when teams are going to sit back and soak up the pressure. Very positive for the SPL games. I know it is unrealistic but it would be great if in this new Rangers-less SPL, the team got that level of support and backing every week.

Just watched this and I am champing at the bit...

Not read every page of this thread so apologies if its mentioned already but with Clancy out of contract at the end of the season - I would assume the majority of posters here would want his contract extended?

Do you see that happening?

This thread through its various stages makes interesting, if pretty negative reading...! Just wish I stuck the 10/1 on Motherwell without the OF. I'm not digging it up to say 'I told you so' and I know its not finished, but perhaps it can go to show a) how negative some people can be and b) we are there on merit because we have turned in a consistently good level of performance right since that Leeds friendly where we played them off the park. Cracking season so far and my only regreat is that we could not seize the opportunity against Rangers to fight them for 2nd.

Great atmosphere, doesnt really come through on the BBC highlights. Cheers to big Higdon for scoring too, won me 80 notes at a ridiculous 8/1 first scorer at Hills!

i was thinking about bringing along my recorder but wasnt too sure...