Scottish Cup 4th Round Motherwell v Ross County Sat 19th January (H)

[Shotts Well Fan]

Just now, ECOSSE1991 said:

Can’t remember a game where Stephen Robinson was so motionless particularly in the 2nd half (I wasn’t watching him closely  during the 1st half), there was little or none of his usual shouting/gesturing/talking with his staff, looked as though he was watching the game but his mind was on other things. Like when do I pack this in?

On his way to luton hopefully!!!

[daver]

29 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

It looks and sounds like we completely underestimated Ross County and were taken aback when they got set about us. 

You wonder how much we watched them. Did we only watch them losing 4-0 in Dumfries last week which seems to have been a one-off. 

We couldn't match them in midfield and I don't know if we can play two wingers and David Turnbull as it leaves us too lightweight. 

It was as if Robinson had thought "I've been criticised for not being attacking enough, I know - I'll put more attacking players on" without thinking what sort of shape we would have. How you could then change things to three wingers and one centre forward is beyond me. I'd have had Hastie on for Frear rather than Johnson. Any time we did play the ball to Main (who I thought made some good runs),  he was completely isolated. 

 

[Onthefringes]

28 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Not sure what you mean.  When the line up was announced I thought it was very ambitious.  Its the kind of line up I'd have expected to field against a lower Division 2 side and was very risky.  Little in the way of bite, defensive cover or drive in the midfield and playing with 2 attacking wide men.   Johnson, a poacher, and a probably unfit MacCormack seemed an odd partnership up front.  I was expecting before the game that MacCormack might see 10 minutes at the end of the game but to start????  Shocked also that there was no starting place for Campbell and perhaps Grimshaw. 

Ambitious? In what way? It’s anti-football.

A back four was demanded by many on here - pace alongside Aldred? Moving Dunne across one and giving Livingstone game time is an easy remedy. 

[Big Stall]

Complete dross! Im usually in the glass half full camp but thats enough for me. Style and tactics have been brutal for too long but today i had some optimism going to the game with the new players and what seemed an adventurous line up with football players........

 

Sadly after 5minutes it was obvious that despite the formation, the tactics remained the same. Big high balls over the top. Not intent to try play through the middle or down the sides, no attempt to get our footballers (Turnbull, McCormack, Ariyibi?, even Freer) on the ball. McCormack may have been unfit but there was nothing for him today as the ball was continually launched over the top.

The players on the pitch lacked desire and to be honest, in the second half looked as though they had no clue!

That was a deplorable performance and baws need booted both in terms of the management and the players. Iv been reasonably supportive of Robinson but after that, thats me in the get him to fuck camp.

[Kmcalpin]

25 minutes ago, Yorkyred said:

Not sure about us underestimating Ross County, more that they could probably not believe how bad we were.

That line up suggested to me that Robbo expected us to win any midfield battle relatively easily to bring our attcking players into the game or to play effective hoofball and snuff out any County attacks in midfield without much bother.  It seems we weren't capable of doing either.  I don't know much about County but I do know they have a big defence and tough & hard central midfield.  I was expecting them to come to FP prepared for a midfield scrap.  Cup runs are not all about playing scintillating footie sometimes a bit of fight and aggression is required.  

[Ya Bezzer!]

3 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

That line up suggested to me that Robbo expected us to win any midfield battle relatively easily to bring our attcking players into the game or to play effective hoofball and snuff out any County attacks in midfield without much bother.  It seems we weren't capable of doing either.  I don't know much about County but I do know they have a big defence and tough & hard central midfield.  I was expecting them to come to FP prepared for a midfield scrap.  Cup runs are not all about playing scintillating footie sometimes a bit of fight and aggression is required.  

If you play a 4-2-3-1 with two sitting midfielders and three attacking midfielders you need a forward that can hold the ball up (Johnson can't), you need wide players that are going to come inside (Frear doesn't do that, Ariyibi didn't show much evidence of that either), you need your most creative midfielder in the forward attacking row (Turnbull wasn't) and you need two dedicated defensive midfielders (Campbell was on the bench).

A total cluster fuck.

[Kmcalpin]

16 minutes ago, Onthefringes said:

Ambitious? In what way? It’s anti-football.

A back four was demanded by many on here - pace alongside Aldred? Moving Dunne across one and giving Livingstone game time is an easy remedy. 

No problem with a back four in principle and other changes further up the park.  I know many on here wanted that.  But, as you hint, you have to have the players to play it that way and to select them.   His team selection didn't suit his formation.

[Yorkyred]

7 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

That line up suggested to me that Robbo expected us to win any midfield battle relatively easily to bring our attcking players into the game or to play effective hoofball and snuff out any County attacks in midfield without much bother.  It seems we weren't capable of doing either.  I don't know much about County but I do know they have a big defence and tough & hard central midfield.  I was expecting them to come to FP prepared for a midfield scrap.  Cup runs are not all about playing scintillating footie sometimes a bit of fight and aggression is required.  

I think Big Stall summed it up in part of his post above. Despite the formation all we did 9 times out of  10 was punt  balls up from the back. There was actually little or no intent on keeping the ball on the ground and using the width the formation needed. Given neither McCormack or Johnstone are giants that was just plain crazy. Second half and again as Big Stall has stated we did not have a clue what we were doing, it just deteriorated into a complete, desperate, shambles.  You would have had no idea we were the Premiership team.

[Ya Bezzer!]

1 minute ago, Yorkyred said:

I think Big Stall summed it up in part of his post above. Despite the formation all we did 9 times out of  10 was punt  balls up from the back. There was actually little or no intent on keeping the ball on the ground and using the width the formation needed. Given neither McCormack or Johnstone are giants that was just plain crazy. Second half and again as Big Stall has stated we did not have a clue what we were doing, it just deteriorated into a complete, desperate, shambles.  You would have had no idea we were the Premiership team.

We've done that pretty much through the whole Robinson era.

So it's down to the manager or the players completely ignore him.

Either way is inexcusable.

[swami]

‘We’re 2-0 down gaffer, they’re running over the top of us in the midfield and we look like we won’t score this side of Easter because there’s no creativity in the whole side. What are we going to do?’

 

’Get Alex Rodriguez-Gorrin stripped’. 

[Yorkyred]

12 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

We've done that pretty much through the whole Robinson era.

So it's down to the manager or the players completely ignore him.

Either way is inexcusable.

The problem for me is that was often effective with the players we had and it got us to two cup finals and a very decent league finish. We did that today with the formation and players that demanded something different and forwards that were totally unsuited to that style of play.  I think as you say some thing went wrong communication wise because it was always going to end up a disaster.

[postiejim]

Big stall spot on ,nothing has changed on the evidence today. 

[MearnsWell]

Due to personal circumstances, that’s the first I’ve seen us in the flesh this season, and we were utterly, utterly abject.    The Malpas era looks like f**king Barcelona Tiki-Taka compared  to that.

What’s the point of changing formation to 4-4-2 with wingers and still playing hoofball?   Major clear out required from top to bottom, the Accies result cannot be allowed to mask this.

[mfc88]

Today was a reality check as to how shit we actually are and how greatful we should be for the teams below us in the league. I hope the board were taking note. 

I would have accepted toddling along in the league and just doing what it takes to avoid relegation, as long as we had the cup to look forward to. Now we don't have that.

I've had enough. The last 3 home games have been amongst the worst I've seen. Accies just temporarily papered over the cracks.

 

[prideoflanarkshire]

What a total let down that was...shocking. We couldn't get out of first gear.

My comments would be:

New boy played so much better on the left hand side..then the manager put him back on the right in the second half.

Midfield got totally over ran never in the game.

Subs were strange..Campbell or grimy should have came one.

We they scored the second they went ultra defensive yet we still had a back 4..madness.

The subs meant that we had two forwards on the park that have no partnership and never played together.  I would have thought the best chance of scoring would be danny and main as they have at least played together and danny is our top goal scorer

 

[2/6 tae get in]

Changed a winning team again, No way should the two new guys have started. McCormack was played in Turnbull's  position and was way of the pace.  Turnbull looked lost as a result.  Wrong team selection again.  Young players (Livingstone) left out the team to put in players obviously not ready for 20mins never mind 90. Poor show all round.

[BAZ]

Again I have to say that this is a terrible team. Playing hoofball and any player with the slightest football ability is completely lost. Today was so cold and there was nothing at all to raise one's spirits, so demoralizing. On the way home with the car radio on, the Ross County owner said that going down has cost £600,000. If that happens to us then we at Motherwell will be finished. Time those at the top realise that and do something before it's too late. If we had put in shifts like these players have done we would have been given the boot!

No doubt we will be treated to the usual apologies from the players and management but come the next home game we will be treated to the usual dross. We have an appalling home record and I can only remember 1 game where we played decently. All teams must love to come to Fir Park, it is so easy for them.

I am so fed up I am considering not going back. That's bad after all these years of supporting the claret and Amber.

[The African]

A tricky draw, and so it proved to be. We can now concentrate on the main business of avoiding the drop. Unfortunately this will leave a bit of a hole in our finances as we probably budgeted for a quarter final.

[Burn_Broomfield]

It baffles me with every passing shitfest how Robinson has managed to ascend to achieve the UEFA Pro Licence and be an assessor fro the Irish FA.  There is almost nothing on the park that suggests we are a top  flight footballing team.  If we aren't relegated this year, then we will most certainly be the following season.  I've gotten bored of even bothering to start picking apart how shite a footballing team we are.

That was a fucking holocaust of a performance against a really, really average side.  In a season of demoralising mediocrity, especially at Fir Park, that disaster is right up there.

The season's pretty much over unless we get even worse and get caught by 3 of the worst teams ever to blacken the Scottish top flight.  Unbelievably grim stuff.

[gaz7]

1 hour ago, daver said:

You wonder how much we watched them. Did we only watch them losing 4-0 in Dumfries last week which seems to have been a one-off. 

We couldn't match them in midfield and I don't know if we can play two wingers and David Turnbull as it leaves us too lightweight. 

It was as if Robinson had thought "I've been criticised for not being attacking enough, I know - I'll put more attacking players on" without thinking what sort of shape we would have. How you could then change things to three wingers and one centre forward is beyond me. I'd have had Hastie on for Frear rather than Johnson. Any time we did play the ball to Main (who I thought made some good runs),  he was completely isolated. 

 

frear was our only player who kept creating.  im going against the grain here but if we had scored 1st and obviously we didn't. we would have won. i like their midfielder lindsay and also big draper in front of their defense when they are defending a lead was good. they have a team full of 27 to 33 year old experienced pros and hence the reason they are top off championship.  last 25 mins you can call it timewasting or whatever but its what all good teams in that position do. ps they aren't that good but they beat us and that says it all. davy turnbull is too safe when in a 2 centre mid and the negativity from 65 in was ridiculous but typical well fans. how some people left after their 2nd goal went in was embarrassing and i feel those people arent interested in football but only to say to other people they are. our season is over and i am gutted. And yes i agree robinson out and personally id want craigan in.

[Kmcalpin]

So we started with one striker, Johnson of all people, up front supported in the middle by a very unfit MacCormack. Have I got that right???

[MearnsWell]

Yes.  McCormack lasted 45 minutes of lack of fitness-driven ineffectiveness before being replaced by Main, who couldn’t get a banjo on nodding terms with a cows nether regions...

[Lobey_Dosser]

The starting lineup seemed to be well received on social media but I couldn’t get me head round it. For a manager who favours a conservative 352 to go with a balls out 424, it struck me Robinson had ran out of ideas and/or was showing disrespect to the opposition. It proved to be both! Where were Campbell and Grimshaw? How the fuck could we expect to ‘win the battle’ with a midfield 2 of McHugh and Turnbull?

As poor as we’ve been for the last 12 months, a tricky Scottish cup tie is not the time for experimenting or pinning your hopes on a new striker that is miles away from being fit. 

If it weren’t for keeping an eye on the progress of the likes of Turnbull, Campbell, Cadden and hopefully Hastie, I don’t think I’d bother going back this season. We are a horrible fucking team to watch. Having watched the brilliant Steelmen last night, the one bright spot from today is that some of the clowns in our current team will never fluke their way to being mentioned in the same breath as proper hero’s that possessed real quality and desire. 

 

 

[Kmcalpin]

Just now, MearnsWell said:

Yes.  McCormack lasted 45 minutes of lack of fitness-driven ineffectiveness before being replaced by Main, who couldn’t get a banjo on nodding terms with a cows nether regions...

Unbelievable just unbelievable. It doesn't take a nuclear physicist to work out that that formation would fail to deliver.

[davkel]

Must admit , have been a Robinson fan since day one , but his body language after we went behind today was shocking . Instead of geeing the players up  , getting them lifted , he just gave up ...any players looking at him would be thinking the same , no inspiration at all .  It reminded me of McCall and McGhees last games in charge .