MelvinBragg

Strikers need an early goal when they get to a club. Takes the pressure off the 'Still hasn't scored yet' burden. Doesn't always work out (I give you Wes Fletcher) but it definitely helps. Had Fisher scored even a couple of goals in the league cup group stages or even scored when he hit the post against Rangers, I reckon his Motherwell career could have been different. The longer he was at our club, the guy looked more like a guy that would never score again. Got to affect your confidence. To be fair, any time he was picked, he gave 100%. Just didn't work out...

If you want to change it up, would you not be better dropping the guys that are off form at the minute rather than McHugh? I can see three in your lineup at least whose form is worse than that of McHugh..

I can see the logic in some of your choices but Main should be nowhere near the first team. If you think we'll send a team out without Andy Rose, yer kidding yerself...

For me, pretty much all our centre midfielders have the same qualities, perhaps with the exception of Cadden if you play him there, or Turnbull. Even Bigirimana is pretty similar to Rose, McHugh and Grimshaw in that he prefers a 20 yard sideways pass. One can argue that the midfield is not that much to blame as our tactics involves bypassing them. All our central defenders have similar qualities. Elliot Frear, offers something different, but where does he fit in our 352 system. Maybe time for us to step away from the 352 in order to try and get the best out of the players we have..?

I don't necessarily think any individual player in the squad isn't good enough. What I would say is that the squad is very one dimensional. Grimshaw, Rose, Gorrin, McHugh, Bigirimana, are these players that are capable at SPL level? Probably. Could you combine them into a serviceable SPL midfield? I'd argue not because none of them offers anything massively different. The same applies to the forward line we started on Saturday. Are both capable at this level? You could make a case that both have shown in the past that they are. As a pair, no. We're pinning our hopes on Johnson or Bowman. At least Bowman drags defenders around the pitch by running the channels better than Sammon and Main. Likewise with Saturday's back three. Obviously the sale of Kipré and Dunne's injury has forced our hand there but short of Mbulu proving a revelation, the limitations of the back three will be there for the first third of the season. Sadly the size of the squad doesn't allow for bringing in any players offering anything different. I suspect that the wage bill might be at breaking point.. For me, if we're pinning our hopes on Bowman, Johnson and a Tanner that hasn't played in six months to try and win us games, we're effectively crossing our fingers and hoping for the best...

I wouldn't be so sure that that team would stay up. Have you seen Curtis Main this season? I think they're great players but I wonder when we'll see the best of Tanner or Dunne? Generally, I like to think I'm not the most negative fan. But I can see nothing to feel optimistic about on the field..

Accies may lack a leader (I actually think that it's the worst Accies team I've seen in years), but at least they were organised. As the game wore on and subs were made, it started to look like no one knew where they were supposed to be playing. Every other team you have listed have at least a point on the board. Livingston got a point at home to Kilmarnock. A great result? Far from it, but a result that we'd struggle to match right now...

If I had £50 to spare, I'd be all over this. Or more likely, checking the bookies' odds.. I can see no one in that squad that will either lead the team or do something special to win us a game, that's why I can't see us getting the ten wins that would see us having a shot of staying up. Transfer window isn't closed but signing a leader or a matchwinner would be difficult and further add to the bloated squad you described...

Livingston have Kenny Miller who while getting on, will score goals at this level St Mirren have momentum on their side and Accies came looking for a point and left with three without having to break sweat. Dundee under McCann look a poor side but they have Caulker, a leader, at the back and McGowan, loathsome as he may be, a player that makes things happen. What do we have? The best keeper in the league but he can't score goals or dictate play for us . We are going down. And my first game was in 1982, so I've seen it before and I'm not hysterical about it. But I'm certainly allowed to be pissed off about it..

I agree with a lot of this. I reckon we could be cut adrift from the rest pretty early. In recent seasons when relegation threatened, I always felt there was a player that would get us out of it. Two seasons ago it was Moult. Season under Baraclough, you had Johnson and McDonald. Under Malpas, it was McDonald. There was always a player you could look to that was capable of dragging the team from a draw to a win. Or a leader. This season, I see nothing...

My own opinion is that we have lost the easiest fixture of the season as I struggle to see how anyone could be worse than Accies today (other than us). By eleven games gone, we will be a minimum of six points adrift at the bottom of the league. Not beyond repair but on that basis, the club will stick with Robinson till it is too late...

That's because we don't overuse the grass with the ball...

That Hamilton side was the worst Premier League team I've seen come to Fir Park in a long long time. And they beat us without their goalie having to work that hard. That Hamilton team will finish above us this season. And they will finish in the bottom two. You can work out what that means. No leadership on the park. No intensity. No meritocracy in team selection. No belief. No real quality. No chance we're staying up with this squad and management team. I'm not even sure another manager could get a tune out of this squad. They look demoralised and not even sure what the plan is...

Anyone who picks Main ahead of Sammon on current form needs either their eyes tested or their head read...

You clearly misunderstood me. I'm willing to give Donnelly and Maguire time, I just feel our manager might not be. As for Robinson seeing McHugh as a centre midfielder, why then was he playing centre back against Clyde with Donnelly on the bench? All I'm suggesting is that one centre half would have been enough. Personally, I'd be playing a back three of McHugh, Aldred and Donnelly at the minute. That would leave Hartley and Maguire for cover before this latest signing with Dunne still to come back. For a manager that goes on so much about getting crosses into the box, he seems to like to sign a centre midfielder and a centre half...

Doesn't reflect well on the impact that Donnelly has made or Maguire's chances of featuring in the first team, the fact we've signed two defenders. One to replace a player that has left is understandable but I thought our signings this summer were aimed at helping us cope with injuries. If Maguire or Donnelly can't step in when Dunne is injured, then what are they doing here?

I have a horrible feeling of a 3-1 defeat. Obviously hope I'm proved wrong..

Given we invariably play 352 or 442 with a diamond midfield, a winger is the last thing we need. The one we have, we use as a wing back...

Aldred wasn't that slow. Lack of real physical presence is a concern...

Does anyone think that the English transfer window closing early could help us this season? More chance of picking up players on loan or permanently who clubs couldn't get moved on in time?

If we were to go into Saturday's game without Carson, Campbell and Cadden then I wouldn't be confident at all. So on that basis, I tend to think that we couldn't sell all four and survive...

I took it as an advert that Bigirimana was looking to go back to England...

If we sign Callachan, I would suggest it means that McHugh is playing at centre back and someone is leaving. Even with McHugh at centre back, it leaves us with Campbell, Rodriguez, Rose, Grimshaw, Cadden, Turnbull and Bigirimana. With Tanner returning some time in September, this would seem excessive...

Surely not? Even if we play McHugh at centre half, we still have no need for any more bodies in there. Unless someone leaves. Someone that the manager announced recently might want to go back down South...

Feel free to point out that one of those 2 goals was a penalty. Bowman also only scored 2 league goals in that time. Sammon scored 3 in a rotten Partick Thistle side. Doesn't suggest any of them are necessarily the answer but puts to bed the lie that Sammon is rubbish and Main is magic...