MelvinBragg

I'm only too aware that it won't happen. Could probably stick money on your line-up being 100% correct for Wednesday although two changes after that car crash on Saturday would seem like dismissing how bad it actually was..

Normally after a bad result, I take the approach of 'another game as soon as we can to make amends' but given quite how badly we played on Saturday, not sure this applies here. Hibs will be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of facing us. Saturday at Dens is the big one but given the fixtures the three teams below us in the table have on Wednesday night, even a point would be a fantastic result. Line-up wise, Tait and McCormack being nowhere near fit, I'd be going with Gillespie Grimshaw Aldred Dunne Livingstone Campbell McHugh Turnbull Hastie Scott Frear I realise there's more chance of me playing centre half for Motherwell on Wednesday night than that being our line-up but that would be my choice. Bodies in midfield and two wingers with a striker who might have half a chance of winning a cross. Some pace in the centre of defence and a left back at left back. Like I say, chance would be a fine thing. Half fit players and two or three playing in roles that don't suit them is what I expect...

Taking it position by position GOALKEEPERS As others have said, Robinson's record is decent here. Carson and Gillespie are good goalkeepers. Xenodochov was clearly a short term fix, would seem harsh to judge him on that. Griffiths (for he signed him permanently too) was far from the worst back-up keeper we've had but wouldn't have wanted him as first choice. DEFENDERS. Maybe this should be in two sections. Centre halfs, generally he's done ok. Kipré and Dunne were both excellent last season. Hartley was great til January 2018, Aldred great after that (still unsure whether they should play as a pair). Giving Hartley a permanent deal while carrying an injury was a bad decision as he hasn't looked the same player since. Plummer was a waste of a wage due to injury and sadly Liam Donnelly looks to be heading the same way. On Donnelly, I don't think he's looked as bad as some have made out and certainly hasn't been helped by coming in at a time when we lost Dunne and Kipré and Hartley was returning looking half the player he was when he first arrived. Full backs, or to be more precise left backs is another story. Hendrie and Taylor-Sinclair are strange in that he signed them and you got the impression, having signed them, he didn't like the look of them. Neither of them have convinced in the role but without extended runs who can tell. A preference for playing Frear there or Tait, allowing Cadden to play right wing back certainly suggests they aren't doing anything in training. MIDFIELDERS Sigh. Where to start here. He has signed a fair few centre midfielders but they all look pretty similar. Rose and Grimshaw do a lot of unfashionable dirty work. In his few cameos, Gorrin looks to do the same job despite the suggestion he would be more creative (take better care of the ball was, I think, the phrase used). Bigirimana, has shown in flashes what he can do but as soon as Robinson stumbled across his McHugh-Campbell-Rose midfield and it fitted his plans, he's been marginalised. Doesn't track runners but certainly can pass. Would his defensive frailties have been as noticeable had he had last season's back three playing behind him earlier this season? Maybe not, but like the left backs, seems like a signing Robinson decided very quickly wasn't for him. Tanner is the real shame. A creative player that seemed to fit into our team. I suspect had he been fit, we'd be a good few points better off given one goal would have made a difference in so many results. FORWARDS Fisher and Sammon are guys that from word one, just haven't seemed to have fit in, it hasn't for whatever reason worked. Petravicius. Not sure of the point of his signing. Signed a winger at a time when Robinson would rather have cut off his own leg than play a winger. Ciftci just seemed like a bad fit, short term panic signing (I fear we may end up saying the same about McCormack). Main looked like a world beater for four months but for whatever reason, now looks like he hasn't seen a football before. Did he start to believe his own hype or were the first four months an anomaly? Starting to suspect the latter. Newell, like Plummer, a waste of a wage on injury record alone. Johnson is simply a goalscorer who doesn't add much else. Fine if you have another striker to do the hard yards (Still can't fathom why we didn't see more of Johnson and Bowman as a pair other than the manager's perseverance with Main). Looking at it (and obviously it's not just Robinson but the scouts that this applies to), he seems to do alright signing goalkeepers, centre halfs or hard working midfielders. Struggles to see a creative player, or spot one that he can fit into his tactics. Tanner being the notable exception. Guess that explains why as we get further into his tenure, we're scoring fewer and fewer goals...

That's a fair point but any new manager might be unaware of how those not in the team perform in training. If a candidate was basing his assessment on what he's seen on the park this season, he'd bin 90% of the squad. But maybe seeing the lesser spotted Gorrin, Livingstone or Scott in training, he might feel there are options that aren't immediately obvious if you're just looking at match performance statistics...

Three year deal when he signed...

There's a reason that no one plays 442 anymore. Invariably, you get outmanned in there. The only side to do it successfully recently were Leicester and they had Kante who could do the work of three men and were set up as a counter attacking team. Call it a 4231 all you like, in a 4231 your number 10 contributes to your midfield. Whether due to lack of fitness or whether it was the gameplan, he contributed nothing to the midfield. McHugh and Turnbull were hung out to dry by Robinson. If I were Turnbull, I'd be on the first available taxi out of FirPark. McHugh being subbed for another centre midfielder seemed to be saying Carl McHugh was the problem, not the shape. Tactically out of his depth, manager seems to have brought in a winger with no end product. And brings on a striker that he says let the club and his teammates down less than a month ago. And takes off the one striker that has looked like scoring goals all season. Playing a left centre back at left back. Signing an injured player for the second January in a row. Today felt as shambolic as the 5-1 defeat to Dundee a couple of years ago and we all know what happened after that...

Who's your midfield three then? If he sets up 352 with that personnel then it should be an automatic sacking offence..

At the minute, for me the jury is out. One young centre back away on loan, a striker sold and a centre midfielder moved on. A winger returning from a loan spell at Alloa, another winger in on loan and a striker returning from injury on loan (albeit a striker with an excellent pedigree). I like the idea of adding pace and width but how we plan to set up is a mystery to me. Robinson has talked of now having 433 as an option. Where does McCormack fit in there? As the central striker? Not the best use of his talents. 352 to allow him to play off a main striker makes the signing of Aribiyi and recalling of Hastie pointless. Before anyone points it out, I know it's good to have different options but the thinking doesn't seem very joined up to me...

I agree with pretty much all of what you've said and your last post brought back into my mind a thought that had occurred to me a couple of days ago when reading the McKinstry story. Semple was being touted as a real prospect two seasons ago and yet others seem to have moved ahead of him. Has his progress stalled or is it a case of openings in his position being limited?

On our budget? A striker with all those attributes? You're not asking for much....

I was only kidding. But bearing in mind we replaced his width and pace with Petravicius, Ainsworth was nowhere near as patchy as some made out. And yes, nowhere near as good as others made out As far as I'm concerned, for the playoffs and for the cross to Moult at Douglas Park that pretty much secured our safety, I'll always think of him fondly...

Cue some people asking if we should bring him back...

My money is on three at the back with Tait playing centre back and Grimshaw and Taylor-Sinclair as wing backs...

The Ryan Mason injury did nothing to change things down in England so I don't know if a serious career ending injury would even change things up here...

Sammon, I don't mind. Why bring (rush?) Hartley back from injury on that pitch? On this season's form, Maguire or Tait would do no worse anyway...

And so you don't have one shoe, I'll eat the other one...

The choice of club captain in the summer was, for me, a huge mistake. While realising it's really a symbolic role, the fact that the role was given to a player who is all mouth with an inability to back it up kind of sums up our season...

I made this point weeks ago. If you'd said to any of us the start of the season that we'd concede one goal in each of those home games then you'd expect that we'd have got points from most of those games if not all of them. Certainly suggests that the defence isn't the main problem. Or it's certainly being put under too much pressure by our lack of goals...

How did we initially set up?

Hartley should be nowhere near the team...

Same 352 as last Saturday then. Slight concern that it was so obvious that we'd go with the same team that St Mirren have had all week to plan for it...

Not surprised given he has had previous run ins with officials. Banned from the touchline for three very important games so hopefully he learns his lesson...

Notice Dunne came off with 3 minutes to go. Injury?

We've changed the back three in that McHugh has gone back to play in the back three with Mbulu dropping out. Not entirely surprised by this. Robinson likes McHugh so I didn't think he'd drop him. By playing him in the back three, it hopefully limits the amount of chasing the ball he'll have to do. As I stated before, the midfielders and strikers will have a lot of chasing to do tonight so playing the guys unlikely to start on Saturday makes sense...

Robinson frustrates the life out of me and there have been many occasions where I've thought 'this is only getting worse, time's up for him' but slowly but surely, he might be turning it around. If in December of last year you had said to me that we'd go to Perth without Carson, Cadden, Rose, Tanner, Hartley, Kipré and Moult (all key players then) and come back with three points, I'd have laughed at you. Maybe strengthening 12-18 wasn't so ridiculous now. Three of his summer signings were key on Saturday with goals and a penalty save. Turnbull has been introduced and is contributing. Grimshaw suddenly showing why he was worth a contract and Mbulu maybe looking like a useful signing. There's obviously room for vast improvement but the points picked up on Saturday and against Aberdeen and Celtic certainly suggest that I and others were maybe getting ahead of ourselves in saying that he had to go...