mfc88

Totally agree, the blame for what were seeing on the park is entirely at Robinson's door. The players he's signed, the formation he persists with, players shoehorned into any and every position. I seriously hope it doesnt get worse, but as others have suggested, at this point in the season he will be judged on keeping us in a safe position and (hopefully) a cup run and not the product on the park. I would say that mains attributes are holding the ball up, strength and doing a power of work. He has rightly come under criticism for his strike rate this season, but for me, with the crop of players we have we are a better team with him in it.

Robinson has made some serious mistakes over the summer in particular. For a team that "likes to get balls in the box", we have no width whatsoever, our only natural first choice wide players (when fit) are out of position in the system we play, and strikers whose main attributes aren't getting on the end of crosses. WTF. The only shed of light i can take is that I believe he recognises it and so should be looking to address it in january. Not sure I trust him to do that though, but while he meets his remit by hook or by crook, he won't be sacked so heres hoping he can turn it around. I just hope it doesnt put the fans off longer term because we really have had to endure some poor poor stuff this season. And don't get me started on the "strategy" of the last week - total bulls**t. We are not bottom but for 2 factors IMO. Dundee and st mirren somehow being worse than us, and the emergence of Turnbull - where would we be had he not came onto the scene.

Yeah i agree we probably would have still got beaten. My main issue is if every team in the league took that approach then it defeats the point of the whole competition. It's easy enough for Celtic as it is.

Absolute shambles today. Absolutely zero width and the only player even trying to create is Turnbull, and maybe tait. I will NEVER back throwing the game midweek v Celtic. It defeats the point of having a competition, and cheats the fans who went along. But I'll just about accept it as a management tactic if we take 7 points from these 3 games. Then that is what is served up in the first of 3? Shocking. When bigi came on I knew that was either going to make or break us.... with a strong suspicion it would be the latter. Awful. A lot to answer for, Robinson.

Voted for Gillespie. Good solid all round performance, topped by a great penalty save. Don't think he had much chance with the goal, but not seen it again. Thought main also did a lot of good work and tireless running.

What a result. Did not see that coming. A few very good performances in awful conditions there. And, in spite of the weather, it was not a bad game. We probably rode our luck at bit at the end of the first half but, equally, so did they at times in the second. Deserved 3 points. Hopefully we kick on from here.

I thought they'd be for the taking and they absolutely were - maybe last season's team might have had the belief to go and take all 3 points. Delighted with a point, all things considered, but that was a poor game!

Celtic could be for the taking after a tough match on sunday but I don't hold much hope for this one in the wake of Robinson's latest comments. I'll take a 0-0 park the bus job now but reckon a 1 or 2 nil defeat is on the cards.

"We've had to tweak things, we haven't been quite as physical, we haven't had people that were rattling about, we have had to put more footballers in the team due to injuries and circumstances." Awful words, I'm shocked at that tbh. Why would you even come out with that? Especially since the best "footballer" in the team that hes thrown in, Turnbull, has saved his job. And again on Saturday, he refers to having to play Maguire as a bad thing - he was one of our better players ffs!! It's HIS signings that are letting us down, and that's been the case all season. Disappointing to read that. I hope its mis-quoted or we're misinterpreting it.

Voted Johnson for his goals but on another day would have been grimmy - that was his best game in a motherwell shirt.

Hmmm.... the tone of that article and continual use of the word "hopeful" doesn't exactly fill me with confidence..... Really do hope we can tie him down for a while. The lad looks a player.

For me, it's too often with Thompson, every f**king time in fact.... while we can't control the refs behaviour on the park, as a minimum i feel the club should be making some noise and sticking the boot in here. Put the pressure on to not to let him ref a motherwell game again. Absolutely no excuse for the result in this instance though.

Never a first booking for mchugh, morelos made an absolute meal of it. And Thompson wasn't going to book him for the handball either until morelos went and told him to. Which says everything you need to know about the untouchable referee. Mchugh went flying in with his hands above his head and for me it's a pen. I can see where michael stewart was coming from, it wasn't deliberate, but come on.... We were hard done by in some ways and looked not bad at 1-1, but unacceptable, pathetic second half showing.

A good performance I thought, though a bit nervy at the end. Glad Robbo's finally moved away from the 352, and I hope it carries on, though we've still got square pegs in round holes in places - have to say though the midfield has absolutely worked. Turnbull has been a breath of fresh air since coming in. His composure for a 19 year old is incredible. And great to see cadds rediscovering himself. As another poster mentioned we need more out our strikers - I was at the game yesterday with a neutral fan, who asked who our top scorer is............. Johnson? Doesn't say on website but in the league I have him and now Turnbull on 2! All in all a great few days, 2 clean sheets, 6 points..... and away at ibrox up next

I'd say our youth setup is pretty fruitful tbh. The athletic Bilbao stat above is indeed impressive, but look at our own graduates to cement a first team spot in the last 5 seasons: 14/15 - Erwin 15/16 - Cadden, Hall 16/17 - N/A 17/18 - Campbell 18/19 - Turnbull? Ross McLean was unlucky with injury in the 16/17 season, and currently got Maguire firmly knocking on the 1st team door. Averaging 1 a season seems reasonable to me, I think..... that said I've no idea what the aim/ expectation is.

Does the compensation fee for a young player change depending on where they end up? I mean I know it's often a mutual agreement between clubs. But if its not, and it goes to tribunal surely the fee is calculated objectively?

I see where you're coming from with a lot of your post, except have to disagree with this bit. The loss of kipre and Moult was no doubt massive, but we should have been able to deal with it a whole lot better than this. For me his failing has been the failure to sign players to fit the system he's trying to play. As much as i hate the 352, if we are playing it, do it right! And if it's not working, a plan B. I feel that he was so focussed on plan A working that we don't have the flexibility to implement a plan B. Our squad is bloated with central players. We've 7 or 8 centre mids around the 1st eleven, while only 2 naturally left sided players, ATS and frear, who Robbo clearly doesn't fancy. As a result we're forced to play one of our only 2 naturally right sided players (tait and cadds) on the left. As much as I want plan B to be reverting to a 442 or 451 for the next game(s), I've been trying to plot out a team, but despite the plethora of midfielders and generally bloated squad, I can't get a left side I'd be confident with. (Dunne wasted at LB, IMO) Carson Tait aldred/hartley Dunne ATS/livingstone? Cadds Turnbull Campbell rose frear Main By the sounds of things Livingstone looks the part, but I've not seen him enough myself. Would love if he was the answer but slightly discouraging that he's not been on the bench much tbh.

That today was 2 sh*te teams cancelling each other out for 90 mins and them nicking it, which was so so predictable. The only ray of hope was Turnbull. Our most composed player is a 19 year old.

Last week I said I'd give him another 2-3 games to convince me, but after that I change my mind. Time to go. The system isn't working, we didn't sign the players to make it work in the summer, and just about every player is devoid of confidence. Thanks for last season.

After last season I have to think Robbo is deserving of some time to put things right. While the last 2 weeks has been some of the worst football I have ever witnessed, I still reluctantly stand by it. However, the next 2 games are massive. If we're no better off, at least performance wise, or don't see any attempt to shake up system or personnel, it'll be near impossible to keep that up.

Had an evening to ponder on it and let emotion pass but yep.... that is the worst performance I have seen. I genuinely believe any other team in the league would have thumped us - we have Livingstons brand of anti-football to thank for that. The manager has to take the rap for the failure in the summer signings and persisting with a system thats not working, but my main worry is has he lost the dressing room as well? It's beginning to look that way.

Yeah i read that post from ya bezzer and thought it was a good one. I take your points re signings. I guess regardless of whether they were in fact signed as starters or not, the general quality could have been higher had we been a bit more sensible about numbers. Would a greg stewart have been a possibility for example? Someone tried and tested at this level who can offer something different, and could really make a difference. Similarly, as you mention, some contract extensions: I'll see your grimshaw and raise you Newell, who is miles from the first team now after the summer additions! I am far from the "Robinson out" camp just yet, but do feel he's made some serious errors here. I hope I'm wrong. The next few games are critical.

IMO: Mchugh, Donnelly, possibly cadds and bigi? I'll be surprised if Maguire isn't starting next Saturday.

Have generally tried to stay positive but that.... was f**king shite.

That's the thing for me and i think many others - how the budget is being spent. No one is suggesting compromise the budget. Our squad wasn't exactly thin at the end of last season ( at least compared to recent years, e.g. under McCall). So spending the same amount in total on 3 or 4 quality starters, instead of 7 or 8 bench warmers is surely how you build on last season's success. Selling our best defender and signing a bench worth of players isn't the way forward IMO.