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Motherwell Vs Kilmarnock Discussion Thread


David
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I'm not quite getting the criticism of Hateley's corners. Cast your mind back to the days of Kevin McBride.

 

I can think of 3 poor deliveries but there were a number of cracking deliveries that should have led to good efforts on goals.

 

Porter, McDonald, Sutton & Juke would all have scored from at least one of they corners today. Sadly we don't have a striker that thrives on such opportunities.

 

 

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It's not rocket science, Higdon up front on his own, drops deep to win a flick on or to lnk up play and when the ball comes into the box he can't make up the ground. Needs some support, crazy idea maybe play Murphy up front with him. Let's face it he's doing fuck all wherever he's meant to be playing at Fir Park, move him forward and give Higdon support.

 

Pretty well spot on. Our 4-5-1 formation is causing us problems at home. We can get men up to the edge of the penalty box but not into it. In a nutshell we're short of firepower up front. Jamie Murphy is being wasted in his unrestricted role. For a short spell in the second half he was even playing as a holding midfield player when Michael Higdon badly needed his support up front. He's more suited to playing in open games.

 

The team is more suited to playing counterattacking football away from home. If teams come to Fir Park to defend robustly then we'll struggle with the current set up. Had Killie come to Fir Park to take us on toe to toe, as I expected them to, then I'm confident we'd have beaten them but they were too wily and experienced for that. Credit where its due Killie were streetwise and professional and played us and the referee well.

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It certainly does appear that poor perception runs in the She ls family, Killie were so bloody boring with their tippy tappy rubbish in defence it was absolutely chronic to watch and we failed to break them down, another two points dropped to them as they are woeful.

 

Thought Nicky Law was outstanding today as per, he and Higdon done a power of work and Law seemed to pop up everywhere, as did Jennings who is playing brilliantly since the international break.

 

Another game where Murphy was doing his chocolate kettle impression, ineffectual and weak. Several times today he would be standing in space, with the ball coming towards him and instead of offering any option, would run and stand next to a Killie player and hide. Horrible, has hoped his goal last week would have gave him a boost but apparently not, bench next week please McCall.

 

Obligatory ref note of the week: it's all about him. Thomson clearly wanted to show the audience that he was running the show, pulling everything back, failing to give any advantage to us and then trying to make us take the free kick from the exact blade the foul was given only to let us take it wherever we wanted after one blow of the whistle. Poor.

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We sound like a moaning bunch of cnuts.....

 

But IMHO all posters are fairly spot on with their viewpoints apart from the usual suspects.

 

1st half we were marginally on top and 2nd half Killie probably edged it for the first 30 mins. Let us not forget that only one week ago this Killie team were 3-0 up against Celtic. They have decent players, god knows how they can afford them, but Sissoko was class all game.

 

0-0 not bad as it is another clean sheet and the other results went for us. I watched the game again when I got home and actually felt Hateley crosses were by and large better than I remember at the game. That said 50% of decent crosses is not great.

 

Jennings was SUPERB in defence and made a couple of vital blocks. Hammell did similarly.

 

How many crosses went across the 6 yard line with no-one anywhere near. We do not have a goal poacher or we would have won by a few today.

 

Final word on the game...here is an idea...radical I know, but how about shooting when in and around the edge of the box. Several times today Murphy and Law went along the edge of the Killie box and were looking for a Well player to pass too. Other times they got into a decent position and turned back the way. They were not alone. Have a GO who knows what may happen.

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Final word on the game...here is an idea...radical I know, but how about shooting when in and around the edge of the box. Several times today Murphy and Law went along the edge of the Killie box and were looking for a Well player to pass too. Other times they got into a decent position and turned back the way. They were not alone. Have a GO who knows what may happen.

 

Do we have Arsenal Syndrome wallbash.gif

 

I'm fairly happy with the draw, fcuked ma coupon but heh, we got a point, clean sheet and heh we're still 2nd cheers.gif

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Killie have been draw specialists all year long and we've only had two in twelve games, ironically both against them. For the first half hour today we were the dominant force but just couldn't get the strikers and final ball delivery players on the same wavelength. But as we approached half time they came more and more into it. And that trend continued through the second half. We generally defended well enough but we made poor decisions, poor final balls and striker just wasn't in the right place. But thats a tough nut to crack and given where we are a point is a good result. Agree with some of the comments about Craig Thomson. His foul detection was A1 but he gave us an advantage where there was none right at the start and then pulled the game back when they were developing later on. He also seemed to get in the road an awful lot. Overall a point is no disastser against a good outfit but I feel we could have done a little more to have got the three.

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From watching it on the TV my overall impression was we were powder puff up front. So many crosses into the box & not a Motherwell player even close to being on the end of one. If that amount of crosses had gone into our box I'm pretty sure Killie would have buried one or two of them. Murphy was a complete waste of a jersey & it's time McHugh was given a chance as he can't do any worse than the hiding Murphy was doing.

Lasley was great at winning the ball but his distribution was awful. I don't remember him finding a Motherwell player with any of his passes. Hammel, Clancy, Hately & Jennings had good games. Big Higdon put in a lot of work & Craigan showed his experience with his reading of the game to break up a few Killie attacks.

The makings are there for the team to have a stormer of a season but we need to really sort out or attack at Fir Park as at the moment we have no way to break down a team that parks the bus. Last 3 league home games: Motherwell 0 - St.Johnstone 3, Motherwell 1 - Aberdeen 0, Motherwell 0 - Killie 0. One goal against 3 very beatable opponents at home is pretty poor in my book and even then we were fortunate to get that one goal as it started with an opponent making an arse of it. Iv'e no idea if a change of tactics would help but McHugh needs to be given a chance to see what he can do.

The current tactics are working brilliant away from home & if we keep the away form up we will do alright this season but it's time to make Fir Park a place where teams know that just coming & parking the bus won't do any good.

Anyway I'm off to look at the table to cheer myself up :yahoo:

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From watching it on the TV my overall impression was we were powder puff up front. So many crosses into the box & not a Motherwell player even close to being on the end of one. If that amount of crosses had gone into our box I'm pretty sure Killie would have buried one or two of them. Murphy was a complete waste of a jersey & it's time McHugh was given a chance as he can't do any worse than the hiding Murphy was doing.

Lasley was great at winning the ball but his distribution was awful. I don't remember him finding a Motherwell player with any of his passes. Hammel, Clancy, Hately & Jennings had good games. Big Higdon put in a lot of work & Craigan showed his experience with his reading of the game to break up a few Killie attacks.

The makings are there for the team to have a stormer of a season but we need to really sort out or attack at Fir Park as at the moment we have no way to break down a team that parks the bus. Last 3 league home games: Motherwell 0 - St.Johnstone 3, Motherwell 1 - Aberdeen 0, Motherwell 0 - Killie 0. One goal against 3 very beatable opponents at home is pretty poor in my book and even then we were fortunate to get that one goal as it started with an opponent making an arse of it. Iv'e no idea if a change of tactics would help but McHugh needs to be given a chance to see what he can do.

The current tactics are working brilliant away from home & if we keep the away form up we will do alright this season but it's time to make Fir Park a place where teams know that just coming & parking the bus won't do any good.

Anyway I'm off to look at the table to cheer myself up :yahoo:

 

Fortress Fir Park eh Ian?

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Agree with some of the comments about Craig Thomson. His foul detection was A1 but he gave us an advantage where there was none right at the start and then pulled the game back when they were developing later on.

 

I don't know about that Tweed. Yes, he did get in the road 4/5 times in the game. He missed an awful lot of niggly fouls from Killie and that set the tone of the game unfortunately. Jamie Murphy booked for his first foul and yet the Kilmarnock guy who halved Keith Lasley got off scot free??? The crowd around us remarked that it took all of 82 minutes to yellow card a Killie player. Can't recall who it was but a Killie player took a blatant dive, Thomson acknowledged it but took no action.

 

Fourth offcial's timekeeping also seemd a bit awry given the substitutions.

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9 corners in the first half. 7 in the second.

 

We need to work on these at training.

 

Overall a draw probably a fair result.

Totally agree with this, we seem to have had more corners this year than previous years and it's the same old lump the ball in all the time, why not change it a bit?

 

We did a cracking corner earlier in the season against Rangers i think which was obviously rehearsed and nearly resulted in a goal. We have to take more adavantage of these situations and get some more movent in the box.

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I don't know about that Tweed. Yes, he did get in the road 4/5 times in the game. He missed an awful lot of niggly fouls from Killie and that set the tone of the game unfortunately. Jamie Murphy booked for his first foul and yet the Kilmarnock guy who halved Keith Lasley got off scot free??? The crowd around us remarked that it took all of 82 minutes to yellow card a Killie player. Can't recall who it was but a Killie player took a blatant dive, Thomson acknowledged it but took no action.

 

Fourth offcial's timekeeping also seemd a bit awry given the substitutions.

 

Murphy didn't get booked that I can remember and his name aint on the list on either the BBC or FPC?

 

Hammell, Lasley and Craigan were all booked for us and I really don't think I could argue with any of them as every time it broke up a promising Killie move. I don't think any of the yellows in the game were because of the ferocity of the challenge - they were all because of the cynicism of them. Therefore he didn't create a yardstick like that for the foul on Lasley. Though from the once I saw it that was close to being worthy of one if not.

 

I couldn't criticise him for the dive decision as from down the other end of the ground it was impossible to tell whether he took a tumble, lost his balance or was clipped after the ball had been won. Though it was pretty clear there was no foul by Craigan.

 

Thing about niggly fouls is it cuts both ways and I really think we are a better team when the game flows rather than is interrupted all the time so I would rather referees try and let it run. And I don't remember ever thinking that we ended up in bother because of a blatant refereeing error also there were cries for fouls from the East Stand at times yesterday (and in every game) that were frankly nonsense.

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You would have but any Killie fan I have spoken to sees last Saturday as a crushing disapointment and without a doubt two points lost. Killie are a good team playing good football......but 2 wins in 21 games is no doubt worrying Shiels. To be fair I'm impressed that the vast majority of your fans are still behind him after that return. I don't doubt for a second a large section of our support wouldn't be as forgiving..

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I don't know anybody who isn't backing him, although the stats are worrying. Is it really 2 in 21 games? We've drawn 6 this season, which has resulted in our league position being poor.

 

I expect us to be top six.

 

Actually counting it it would be 2 in 20 (8 last season and 12 this season). I think that is why Shiels comes away with over exagerations (dominated game yesterday) as he is quite rightly concerned. If you avoid Celtic I can see you at the CIS Cup Final. Killie have the potential to finish anywhere from 4th place to 9th imo. It will be the draws that could scupper you. I fancy you to finish 6th.

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Actually counting it it would be 2 in 20 (8 last season and 12 this season). I think that is why Shiels comes away with over exagerations (dominated game yesterday) as he is quite rightly concerned. If you avoid Celtic I can see you at the CIS Cup Final. Killie have the potential to finish anywhere from 4th place to 9th imo. It will be the draws that could scupper you. I fancy you to finish 6th.

 

Was the win before that, the game we hammered you at RP?

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I'd be more concerned about how on Earth Kilmarnock are bank-rolling this current team. Where is the money coming from as I was under the impression they were over £10Million in debt, or has that changed?

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I'd be more concerned about how on Earth Kilmarnock are bank-rolling this current team. Where is the money coming from as I was under the impression they were over £10Million in debt, or has that changed?

 

Our budget has been slashed each of the past three years. Think KS has £500,000 a year less than what JJ's lowest wage bill was.

 

We also can't compete with the likes of motherwell or even st mirren in terms of wages. Harkins and Pasca top earners.

 

The likes of McKeown, Pursehouse, Dayton, etc from those they played yesterday will be on peanuts. Guys like Fowler, Kelly came through youth system and won't be earning megabucks, whilst Shiels and Sissoko are on loan.

 

The bank call the shots, whatever our budget is, they've agreed to it.

 

Our debt was £13m at one point but should be around £8m by the time next set of accounts are out. Mainly due to the cost of building hotel, sports bar etc.

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Don't buy the 'we can't compete with St Mirren and Motherwell for wages' line... Was informed the football budget differed at Kilmarnock to the tune of £500,000 in their favour. Used as a bargaining tool to little effect I hasten to add.

 

Admirable the vast array of contacts used to the fullest and creative use of the budget - doesn't hide the fact they've won 3 out of what, 20 games?

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We also can't compete with the likes of motherwell or even st mirren in terms of wages. Harkins and Pasca top earners.

 

 

I don't know what Kilmarnock or Motherwell pay in wages. However, it seems to me that Kilmarnock have alarger squad than we do and that will impact on the total wage bill.

 

In very crude weekly terms it could be a case of :

 

14 X £1,600 = £224,000 V 19 X £1,300 = £247,000

 

However it does appear that Killie are picking up very good players.

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