joewarkfanclub

Just from watching them both. Carroll regularly gets caught sleeping or out of position and has to use his pace to try and recover the situation. Its one of the reasons he gets booked or sent off as he has a tendency to lunge into a tackle to try and remedy the problem. McGinley isnt miles better, but it happens to him less often. Carroll is miles better on the ball though, so it is potentially worth putting up with his defensive frailties just to be better when we actually have it. You are probably right about the 3-5-2. He probably hasnt played it much. But it stands to reason he would be much less of a risk defensively if he had an extra defender in behind him and he could focus on what he does best.

Does that depend on whether they died or not?

Anyone else think Tony is saying, "Im staying right here" ?

I agree Carroll is much better going forward but I think McGinley is a better defender. Carroll is much better in a 3-5-2, as is SOD.......

I agree with that. Alexanders subs continue to baffle even more than Robinsons did. The obvious sub was KVV for Shields who had ran himself into the ground. I did think O'Hara looked much better when he came on than Goss or Slattery and has surely played himself into a start on Sunday? Similarly, what was the point of the Carroll substitution after St Mirren equalised? Surely not holding out for a point? If that is the case its terribly defeatist.

A lot will depend on who is fit fot this. If Ojala is fit, Id definitely go 3-5-2. If we match their 4-3-3, they have better players, so you would expect them to come out on top more often than not. We need to find another way to exert an advantage. Best way to do that is to try and keep their fullbacks pinned back and have ours pushed further up the park to try and do that. In that scenario we definitely need the extra man at the back. Id go with..... Kelly Mugabi Sondre Ojala SOD O' Hara Grimshaw Slattery Carrol KVV Watt

Its the age old connundrum isnt it? Would you rather be a Ross County fan right now, who certainly on the evidence of their game against us, knock it about nicely and are reasonably entertaining to watch, yet took 11 games to get their first win. Or be in our position. Sitting comfortably mid table, but for the most part can best be described as playing dull but effective football. Id pick the latter every time. My problem is that it shouldnt have to be either / or. It should be possible to strike a balance. Id accept it if it was just Alexanders way of getting the most out of someone elses players in order to ensure we stay in the league. But he has now had the opportunity to get shot of those he doesnt want and get in those that he feels fits with his style of play. So he is effectively choosing to play this way. Now, it might be that one window isnt enough to complete the picture and we might still be a work in progress, but it would be nice to hear some acknowledgement of that and hope for a brighter future so we know this isnt as good as its gonna get under him. I still like lots about GA and I think there are decent players in our squad, but the entertainment on show has to improve. There were glimpses of it 2nd half last night. But we need more control of the ball to see that develop.

I didnt say he shouldnt come out. I said he shouldnt have come out so far. There is a fine line between narrowing the angle and selling yourself. He did it earlier on in the half when there were more defenders around and it was entirely unecessary. Its obviously just something he has in his game/head (see the penalty v Hearts) . It was a great finish from Brophy though.

Agree with this. Grimshaw looked much better in the middle and was able to just keep it simple. He can be infuriating though. His little pirouette and pass to the left in the lead up to the first goal when Woollery had bust a gut to give him an easy pass to the right, had me off my seat. However, he is clearly a football visionary who could just see the play opening up in front of him 5 moves ahead and made the correct decision!

Kelly made a few excellent saves, but I felt he was rash for the first goal and didnt need to rush so far off his line. I thought Grimshaw had a much better game in the centre where he could keep it simple. But ultimately, and not for the first time this season, there was only one player on the field for us showing the required touch, quality and endeavour required to be considered MOTM and that was Tony Watt.

Tight game as anticipated and fine margins making the difference yet again. The concern for me is our style of play. Its absolutely brutal to watch. You can get away with it when you are winning, but thats 3 defeats on the bounce, so tactics and formation get way harder to defend when there is precious little entertainment on offer. Usually a big supporter of McGinley who, although limited going forward is generally a better defender than Carroll. However, his 2nd half today was very poor and his decision making has cost us a point today. Overall I didnt think we deserved to win. But the goals apart, I didnt think United troubled us that much (even though they played way more football) so I dont think we deserved to lose. I really hope GA has a rethink on how we are set up, but I wont hold my breath......

Only saw the 2nd half, but Mugabi, Ojala and Watt were the only ones with pass marks until OHara came on. He provided more quality from the set piece in 20 mins that Slattery, Goss et al showed previously.....

I love Viking! Hope Sondre is fit. Shieldwall!

He is the only midfielder we have that looks like he has a bit of genuine quality about him. If we get some players of similar quality around him or increase the numbers around him to give him some support we might get to see how good he can be. Hard to look good when you are carrying a whole midfield.

Sorry David. I agree with your general point about O'Donnell, and he did make amends later in the first half with a goal saving tackle, but if he tucks in a little at the goal, Jota has to go around the outside and doesnt get a clear run through on Kelly. His body shape and positioning are just a little out and allow the pass to be played inside him. Overall though he does more right than he does wrong and I dont see Grimshaw or Mugabi doing any better in that position.

Re O'Donnell, no one can argue he hasnt made mistakes this season, or that his performances havent been better for Scotland than for us. However, if we start dropping every player that makes a mistake we wont have many players to choose from. O'Donnell is the best right back at the club. It may well be that playing 3-5-2 suits him better than playing 4-3-3, but there is no chance he will be dropped unless we sign someone who is better, which seems unlikely. Mugabi could play there I suppose, but he is a centre half and you wont get anything from him going forward. It is really frustrating just now, because there is some promise in the team but there is clearly still something missing and the management are showing no signs of changing it in terms of set up or personnel. United appear to he in good form just now and Tannadice is a traditionally difficult venue for us. Id take a scrappy hard fought draw right now, but wouldnt surprised with a single goal victory either way.

Bevis. No real competion this week. Ojala, Woolery and Watt were ok, but no more than that.

Bit surprised at the team selection today. If ever there was a team we were set up to play against this season it is Celtic. They like to keep possession, push forward but are week at the back, so as a counter attaxking team, today was made for us. So dropping KVV for Roberts was a surprise and also OHara for Goss, guven the work rate we needed from the midfield. That aside, I thought we started strongly and looked good until Collum decided to intervene. The decision against McGinley for a very good tackle was laughable, but to then compound it moments later by not giving a foul on Slattery in the run up to their goal was incredible. Yes, we should defend it better after that, but big decisions change games and we go from not getting a foul 30 yards from their goal to being 1-0 down. We lost our way after that, and it wasnt until well into the 2nd half before we really looked dangerous again. Then enter the officials. Or not as the casr may be! Its a stonewall penalty. Yes we have to score it and yes, that would only make it 2-1, but at least then its a game. Overall, I think we can do much better. We all know our midfield is dysfunctional, and we should defend the first goal better, and despite Turnbulls great strike, I still expect Kelly to get his feet off the ground for the 2nd. I also couldnt believe Kelly never once played the ball over Raltons head for Woollery to run on to, the amount of space there was in behind was ridiculous. This wont define our season, but its frustrating as hell not to really lay a glove on a team who have so many weaknesses.

Seriously dude. Do you ever read your posts back? Your having a go at a guy for questioning how you support football, by having a go at how others support football? Ive watched Motherwell for the best part of 50 years and Ive seen plenty of turgid shite. Same with Scotland. But I dont do it to be spoiled with silky flowing football. I do it because its in my blood and its who I am. If Scotlands not for you thats fair enough, bit dont try and pretend that its because watching Motherwell is more entertaining. Its just not true.

Scotlands failure to qualify for tournaments has nothing to do with fans having a piss up. Its due to the systemic failure if the SFA to move with the times and adapt to changes in society. Thankfully there is a plan in place now that seems to be bearing fruit, but the pace of change has been so glacial its almost impercetible. They could and should be doing much more. In respect of the fans, I dont think we do celebrate failure. Numbers always drop off significantly if the team is playing badly, which is why the Israel game was the first sell out for 4 years. Ive been to plenty of games where the team has been booed off at half time and full time. It may be a perception amongst some that dont actually go to Scotland games that its all about the drinking, but in all honesty thats just a front to hide behind the pain of defeat and its certainly a stereotype that is lazily played upon by a willing media. Ive found over the years that there is always far more of that shit goes on when we are doing well or going to somewhere easy to get to or that is attractive for a jolly (see Wembley/Amsterdam etc). In short, Scotland fans are no different from any other group of fans who love to follow their team win lose or draw....

That comment shows as much misunderstanding and disrespect to genuine Scotland fans as the original poster showed to your good self.

Im not stat obsessed, and I certainly couldnt be arsed checking thru their games to see what player did what. However, if one of our players committed 9 fouls in a game I would certainly have expected him to pick up a yellow for repeated fouling regardless of how soft the fouls were. Not sure what the threshold is considered to be, but after 5 or 6 I would be thinking they are skating on thin ice.

The above stats are certainly interesting and I certainly wouldnt argue with the fact that in games against us, Celtic get a lot more decisions than we do. However, my experience is that so do Rangers, so Im surprised at the disparity in their figures. I was always just of the opinion that the bigger crowds both clubs got swayed referees decision making during games, albeit power and influence cannot be ignored when it comes to the mindset of our officials.

You mean like we did in Serbia?

If this is true, and Ive no reason to doubt it, why would Lawless agree to that? I wouldnt. He would effectively be agreeing to no wages until January, unless of course the club have paid up his contract until January to get him out the building.