joewarkfanclub

I think Kaleta looked like cramp again. He hasnt played a lot of senior football and puts in a power of running so probably not surprising. Hopefully he will be ok. I think Davor back in alongside Lennon to give him some protection alongside Sparrow or Wilson. I think we need Maswanhise up with Stama. Problem for me is that Halliday seems to be part of the leadership group and without McGinn or SOD he seems certain to start. To me, it looms like his legs have gone and he just cant get around the field quick enough anymore. Might be less of an issue against St Johnstone than it was against Celtic and Rangers. He does pass the ball better than Davor though so maybe he should be preferred? Expect another closely fought contest. Hopefully with us winning by the odd goal.

Yesterday was just a load of chickens coming home to roost. As KMcAlpin correctly identifies, we just dont have a lone striker capable of feeding off the scraps currently being served up. You could say that is a failure of recruitment, but I dont think SK started the season intending to play that way. The injury to Vale has been a big loss for me as I think he is the one player we had that could properly support a loan striker and connect the play. The injuries to Nicholson, Paton and Callachan have clearly impacted our midfield and we were getting by with McGinn and/or SOD distributing from the back. Now both of them are injured the balls out of defence are not of the quality required to keep possession. Sparrow and Wilson have done well when called upon but they offer legs and energy more than great quality. The only real footballer we have left in midfield is Lennon and he spent most of yesterday seeing the ball fly over his head. Some will say its all on SK due to poor recruitment, but we have had a lot of injuries to contend with and are already carrying quite a big squad. He would have to have had 100% success in recruitment to cover every eventuality and thats just not possible. Personally, I think we have over achieved so far this season. Im hoping it will improve as players return to fitness, although I accept, it doesnt always work out that way.

You make some good points. But you undermine them with your visceral dislike of the manager. Yesterday wasnt his best day at the office. But he is also the same manager that got us to the semi final and had us sitting 4th in the league (before yesterday) and 3 points behind Rangers. Some of our recruitment doesnt look great (Robinson, Tavares, Watt) but others have shown they have something (Kaleta, Balmer, Gordon, Seddon, Maswanhise, Stama). I dont think the tactics were intended to be negative, but they turned out that way as Rangers turned up and played some decent football in midfield. I will give you the substutions, as they were honking. But Im not sure Watt and Moses would have altered the outcome.

Thought first half today was passable, albeit we werent brilliant. Limited Rangers to 2 decent chances and scored a very good goal. Second half, I expected us to tweak things a little to get more control of the midfield, but if anything we regressed. Not sure whether that was down to tactical failure or whether Rangers were just better then us at moving the ball. The subs were wrong and made us weaker instead of better and thats on Ketts. Cant fault the players for endeavour, but feels like an opportunity lost.

Not the point I was making. You said Watt would be raging. He would have a cheek. Just get fit.

Not saying I wouldnt have brought Watt and Moses on instead of Robinson and Tavares, but Watt would have no right to be raging. If he put the work in to lose weight and get fitter he would be a shoe in for a start far less as a second half sub. He is a shadow of the player we had before and if he isnt willing or able to get himself in shape, I would have no interest in offering him a contract at the end of his loan.

Kaleta. Pace to burn. If we actually ever work out how to use him properly we might create more chances for our forward players.

Lets do this! 🧡❤️🧡

There are so many variables tomorrow there isnt really any point trying to predict what is going to happen. Needless to say we will have to play close to our best and hope Rangers have an off day to get a result. Lets just get to Hampden tomorrow and enjoy the occasion. Its a no lose situation for us as we arent a team that is expected to get to cup finals on a regular basis, just getting to a semi final is a big deal. Enjoy Lennon Miller leading the team out. Enjoy being part of a big Motherwell support. Enjoy the fact that we have a chance of doing something really special, even if it doesnt pan out that way. And maybe, just maybe, this underdog will have its day! Up The 'Well! 🧡❤️🧡

Steelboy raised it in the CEO monthly chat thread. Got a reply from Brian Caldwell claiming there was no overcrowding, merely migration from top tier. Followed by some debate questioning how that could be the case when it appeared visibly to the contrary. The thread then turned into another binfire.

For me the major benefit is that it shuts up all the naysayers who kept moaning about lack of follow through by the WS Board on strategic partners. First ones in the bag less than 4 months after Barmack got chased. Hopefully more to follow.....

Just bumping this for those at work....

Hey folks. I have one spare ticket for Sunday. East stand Motherwell section, fairly well back in the corner so should be a decent view. If anyone is interested please message me directly.

SOD confirmed as out on Sunday. So midfield is really the only question mark. For me Sparrow has to play, so the only question is, do we play Wilson in midfield and 1 up top or leave him at full back and go 2 up top. Neither have been that successful for our strikers. But I like the control we get with the extra midfielder. Id go....... Ox Balmer Gordon Casey Kaleta Wilson Halliday Miller Sparrow Maswanhise Stamatelopoulos

Id play Sparrow from the start with Miller in the middle and bring Halliday on later when we need an experienced head to close the game out. But SK obviously rested Halliday last night as he intends to play him on Sunday so you are probably not far away with that. I hope its not going to be a return to Davor and Halliday in the middle with Miller further forward again, as that would be a step back imho. I think the last 2 games should have shown SK how important legs and energy are in midfield the way we set up.

Clement and Rangers under serious pressure. The Bears wont be doing patience on Sunday. We need to be in their faces from the start and show them we wont be bullied. Dont let them play and we might have a chance.

Very pleasing result. Great confidence boost ahead of Sunday. SOD going off injured is a concern, but with Gordon to come back we have cover. Big decisions for SK to make. Clement and Rangers under serious pressure. The Bears wont be doing patience if they dont start well.

Im not implying anything. The CEO could have been provided accurate information from those in charge of the turnstyles and has communicated it in the belief it is correct. It is also possible that Celtic fans have found a way to enter the ground whilst circumnavigating that information. There doesnt have to be a conspiracy.

If he achieves that and we win on penalties, I think I can forgive him! 😉

I dont think for a minute that Brian Caldwell is lying. He is making a response with the data available. Its good to hear that preventative measures were in place, as it protects the club, but the stand was clearly overcrowded. There were no huge empty spaces in the top tier. In fact there were fans standing on the stairwells up there too. Given that you couldnt actually see any of the stairwells on the bottom tier, there would have to have been huge gaps in the top tier for migration to be the only problem. Something clearly doesnt add up. I think the matter requires further examination.

Ineffective? At what? He is light years ahead of Robinson at what we ask our strikers to do. He has good positional awareness, good first touch, wins his fair share of headers for a small guy (he is 6ft) brings other players into play, scored a very good goal at Easter Road, all in a stop start season where he has been injured, moved his family over here from the other side of the world. If you cant see a player in him I really do wonder what you expect for £300k!

Have you decided Stama is shite already?

Pretty sure the club will be aware of the problem and will be having discussions behind the scenes with Celtic and the SPFL to try and stop this. Much as I would love to see the CEO going public on it and "outing" Celtic on the matter, its not really the way these things are handled if you want to keep good relations between the clubs (again, I understand most fans couldnt give a shit about that, but the club will and should). There certainly should be greater responsibility placed on Celtic to "police" their own support. Additional stewarding both sides of fire exits, more police checking tickets before fans even get anywhere near the turnstyles are all possible and Celtic should be charged with picking up the cost of this given their fans are repeat offenders. I would ve concerned if there is doubling up on turnstyles given we dont have e-turnstyles. Its mostly young lassies scanning barcodes. Id hate to think they were being intimidated into letting this occur. One things for sure, it cant continue. Sunday was the worst Ive seen it in both top and bottom tiers and it is an accident waiting to happen. The club will know this and wont want to be held liable when it all goes wrong. Be nice to hear the views of the Society Board on this, at least to acknowledge the issue and that efforts are being made to address it.

Its a difficult one. His loyalty to players is how he always manages to keep the dressing room, regardless of performance or results. I agree the team needs to evolve and I have no doubt SK knows that. But its a much harder thing to do in practice and he certainly wont be saying it out loud. I actually thought Saturdays team selection was a veiled admission of our weaknesses. Putting Kaleta and Sparrow in provided much greater drive and energy into the team and dropping Robinson for Stama gave us more of an out ball quite simply down to the number of duals he won compared to Robinson. Ultimately it still wasnt enough, but until Paton, Slattery and Nicholson are fit SK is going to be left tinkering around the edges. I do expect to see Maswanhise or Tavares get a run out tomorrow night though.

Its actually something I regularly forget about when picking starting 11s is that Tavares and/or Maswanhise are options for midfield. Probably because SK rarely favours them from the start. But obviously we could play Seddon and rest Wilson altogether and put one of the wingers on in front of Seddon.