Season 2020’21: Game 3 Livingston (home)

[Kmcalpin]

9 minutes ago, MelvinBragg said:

I thought tonight was more worrying than Saturday against Dundee United and that was poor. At least on Saturday our midfield seemed to control the game for spells. Tonight they were overrun. Guys like Bartley and Pitman dominated. 

Absolutely and that for me Greg, is the main reason we failed to register a win. Although we’re limited by injuries, the midfield mix just isn’t right. Whatever O’Hara is he isn’t a defensive midfielder - he’s a box to box type. Campbell took his goal very well but couldn’t compete with the likes of Bartley and Pittman. Maybe he isn’t fully fit? Turnbull is getting there but only slowly. 

[MelvinBragg]

1 minute ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I've said it before but we've barely kicked a ball since James Scott departed.

Imperfect he may have been but he had a knack of dragging us up the park  The combination of big, fast and strong we lack 

Having said that, he's only one of a host of former players who would walk into this team. I'll get slaughtered for this but Elliot Frear, Ryan Bowman and Carl McHugh (at centre back) would all improve our team...

[Ya Bezzer!]

22 minutes ago, MelvinBragg said:

Up front is where the problems lie. White is not good enough, neither is Long. The fact that we signed Hastie while Livingston signed Forrest looks like a bad move on tonight's evidence. 

I don't think Long is absolutely terrible but I don't think he's been great either.  Yet even though he didn't want to be here and didn't set the heather on fire I think it's rather strange that Robinson went back out there and brought him back.  I'd have thought he might think he could bring in someone at least as good, if not better.  I mean, he must know he doesn't fit into his preferred formation, right?

They are different types of players of course, but presumably ourselves and Livingston have scouted the Championship last season and they have brought in Forrest and we've brought in White.

That sets off some alarm bells for me.

[Ya Bezzer!]

1 minute ago, MelvinBragg said:

Carl McHugh (at centre back) would all improve our team...

It's not that bad! 

[ropy]

53 minutes ago, Blue3 said:

Well that's my third game as a new Motherwell fan and my thoughts are;

The negatives

1. Poor start to season 

2. Great start tonight at 2-0 at home game should have been over

3.  No left back and lack of creativity in midfield 

4. Some difficult games to come and team not jelling 

5. Injuries mounting up and it's only game 3 we could be adrift if they are not back soon

6. The stream was awful, no radio comentary to be found I never realised how bleeding difficult it is trying to follow a game in Scotland from England it's like we are on diffrent planets not next door to each other, plus it's unbalivable hot and humid down here, trying to sleep is a nightmare which makes me really techie and difficult to live with  (rant over)

The Positives

1. We are off and running our first point on the board

2. At least we are not Aberdeen right now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even Motherwell fans count the opposition goals, it wasn’t 2-0.

There will usually be a commentary on the BBC Scotland website (Sportscotland), I synced it up with the visuals on Saturday although tonight the commentary was fine.  Jock Brown from the ‘80s was doing the talking, old skool.

[MFCL84]

That was a tough watch. I was pleasantly surprised by Mugabe,  who I thought had his best game for Motherwell tonight. His passing is still awful, but he defended reasonably. Defensively though, we are in trouble. I thought Lamie would be a decent addition to the back line, but so far I have not been impressed.

Up front I don't  think we can say much about the contribution of Long or White because they saw so little of the ball, the service was poor. I'd like to see Watt get more game time though.

[MelvinBragg]

4 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

It's not that bad! 

I'm not actually joking. McHugh or Mugabi? In fact, on tonight's performance McHugh or Gallagher? 

Not saying I think McHugh was fantastic. Or Bowman or Frear. More an indication of how things have gone backwards that they would improve us. 

Last summer we let Frear go and signed Ilic, Seedorf and Hylton. Improvement..?  Was Frear good enough? Possibly not. Was he better than the three wingers we signed? Probably...

[gee]

Feel sorry for Robinson but he’s ultimately responsible for the money spent and the squad we now have. 

We celebrated signing Chris Long as if it was some sort of coup. Doesn’t look interested and has started every game despite missing most of preseason and being in shite form.

What was the point in some of the signings that can’t get game time ahead of players way off form? 

Turnbull, Gallagher, Carson are quality players and we should be ok over the course. 

However given the number of signings we made in the situation clubs are in, it’s a disgrace County and United seem to be better equipped than us. 
 

 

 

[MelvinBragg]

1 minute ago, gee said:

However given the number of signings we made in the situation clubs are in, it’s a disgrace County and United seem to be better equipped than us. 

A Dundee United without their main striker...

[Welldaft Mk1]

It is not like he did not know Long is a difficult character or moody at best. I actually thought he was a decent re-signing but he would need to apply himself. He actually did better defensively than in attack. 

Bevis was actually decent tonight. Not great but a better performance than v United. 

Gallagher does look as if he has gone backwards a little. Maybe he is injured. 

We were fairly decent going from midfield forward last season but that has disappeared. 

Robinson has a habit of turning things around. We need that to happen as soon as. At least he has had a go at a few players who clearly need a kick up the backside. I think most of them believed the pre season hype about how good we are or were going to be. 

At least we scored 2 and did not lose but I actually feel 2nd half v Ross County was better than last Saturday or tonight. 

Only Hibs away up next. In saying that we generally lose at Easter Rd when we are going well. Here is hoping we can turn that on it’s head. But no way Hibs are not going to score 2-3 goals and that means Nil points and 1 from 12 :-(

[Great Balls of Shire]

47 minutes ago, MelvinBragg said:

We could play name the four? Long, Gallagher, Grimshaw and one other? 

I thought tonight was more worrying than Saturday against Dundee United and that was poor. At least on Saturday our midfield seemed to control the game for spells. Tonight they were overrun. Guys like Bartley and Pitman dominated. 

Defence looks dodgy although I'm slightly more willing to cut them some slack given the back four injuries have left us with was probably not one we envisaged using. Given the length of time we are going to be without the injured players, we either need to find a way to make it work or find some alternatives. 

Up front is where the problems lie. White is not good enough, neither is Long. The fact that we signed Hastie while Livingston signed Forrest looks like a bad move on tonight's evidence. Hylton looks a threat but what good is that when he isn't fit for longer than 30 minutes. Our defence may be imperfect but if you had told me we would concede 1 goal away to Ross County and 1 goal at home to Dundee United, I would hope for a minimum of 2 points out of those games. Unless Lang is some kind of Louis Moult/Pele hybrid, prepare for a relegation battle...

I don’t think Grimshaw will be one , the guy tries but he’s just not very good ....Our best performance was v Ross Co. Only consolation is there’s not really home or away games now, so onwards and upwards.

[Goggles & Flippers]

Anyone able to put me back in a medically induced coma for another 10 weeks? 
 

Cheers

[fizoxy]

I assumed Robinson was alluding to Gallagher and Long. However he’s done this before and started with the same XI in the next game.  

I wasn’t at all impressed by White. He won a couple of things in the air but committed way too many fouls. He did win the penalty against County and scored* against Utd, so useful sub is probably where he is right now.  I have to assume that Watt isn’t fit, and the same for Hylton. 

Donnelly is more important to us than we all want to admit, outside of pish penalties. 

Bevis was ok, but surely Maguire, Hussain or Devine could do a similar job? 

My biggest concern is that of all the injuries, none are right backs, but we look weaker there than anywhere. I like grimshaw, but he’s not giving us anything at either end of the pitch right now, he needs competition at the very least.

It’s going to be a long, weird, season. 

[texanwellfan]

I’ve got to think, with all the long balls, that the manager told them to play like that. If that’s the case we Should have been pressing much higher up the field. I’d much rather have us try to play on the ground, we should at least have done that sitting at 2-1 up. Livingston were having most of the ball cause our long “passing” was not working.  We needed to maintain possession and control the game. Not once did we look on control of the game tonight. Although we got a point this was far worse than the other 2 games by a mile. 

[stv]

1 hour ago, Goggles & Flippers said:

Anyone able to put me back in a medically induced coma for another 10 weeks? 
 

Cheers

Can i come too ? Please.

[texanwellfan]

Still can’t believe that penalty! WTF was he trying to do or thought he was doing.  That’s as blatant a PK as you’ll see. 

[Ya Bezzer!]

6 hours ago, fizoxy said:

I assumed Robinson was alluding to Gallagher and Long. However he’s done this before and started with the same XI in the next game.  

It's all a bit mixed up.

As a club we've been putting out a 'come to Motherwell, we'll get you a big move' type message.

Then we lose a couple of games and the managers tearing strips off players for having agents.

 

[Yorkyred]

It’s worth remembering the vast majority of last seasons squad that finished third are still with us, it’s not about a lack of quality. I think a number of players are struggling with  injuries or are not yet fully fit. Campbell, Gallagher, Long, Turnbull all look less than 100%. The main problem after that  is Robinson just does not know his starting 11, he’s shuffling players around game on game when we need to see a settled starting 11. Can’t wait for Carroll to return on the left. It’s certainly been a poor start to the season and a worry to listen to Robinson’s comments after last night game regarding certain players and their attitude. I think in reality Robinson is probably as shocked as anyone else, he himself stated this was the strongest squad he has had since joining the club and on paper I think it probably is. 

[Kmac]

A complete shitshow from top to bottom. I actually agree with Robinson that we look like a team that thinks we are better than we are but he’s certainly not helping matters. First and foremost, we need to be hard to beat, which we just are not at the moment. This, for me, traces alL the way back to the Accies game at new year. We were absolutely cruising, playing nice football and it was like someone flicked a light switch and we completely lost the plot. It has been the same ever since. On paper, this team this arguably the third best in the league but in reality, we are looking like a relegation stick on

[Yorkyred]

53 minutes ago, Kmac said:

A complete shitshow from top to bottom. I actually agree with Robinson that we look like a team that thinks we are better than we are but he’s certainly not helping matters. First and foremost, we need to be hard to beat, which we just are not at the moment. This, for me, traces alL the way back to the Accies game at new year. We were absolutely cruising, playing nice football and it was like someone flicked a light switch and we completely lost the plot. It has been the same ever since. On paper, this team this arguably the third best in the league but in reality, we are looking like a relegation stick on

I’ve always said we will never be relegated under Robinson and stick by that, he always has a way of turning it around. The guy is not perfect and no Motherwell manager ever will be, that’s why they are managing Motherwell and not Liverpool. But the start of the season has without doubt been a mess, even our better players are under performing for some reason and the likes of Hastie is showing why we did well to get what we did for him. A lot has been made of the strikers and defence but i’m more disappointed with the midfield performance. We have one of the strongest group of midfielders in the division but not one player has impressed at this point. Sadly it’s looking likely that we are going to end up with 1 point out of the first 15 and that’s going to heap huge pressure on everyone.

[wellwell91]

9 hours ago, steelboy said:

Yip I think this is an issue. I don't think we can afford to have a DM, Turnbull and Campbell and two attacking wingers. We needed someone who can play one of the wide attacking roles but also tuck in and help the midfield to give us more balance.

The other massive issue is as GazzyB said you can't play any football these days without full backs who can pass and we have two atrocious footballers at fullback. Every opponent knows this and it allows them to crowd our midfield.

The natural defensive midfielder at the moment is Barry Maguire …… was groomed for it for 2 years but obviously Robinson doesn’t fancy him 

[Great Balls of Shire]

9 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I don't think Long is absolutely terrible but I don't think he's been great either.  Yet even though he didn't want to be here and didn't set the heather on fire I think it's rather strange that Robinson went back out there and brought him back.  I'd have thought he might think he could bring in someone at least as good, if not better.  I mean, he must know he doesn't fit into his preferred formation, right?

They are different types of players of course, but presumably ourselves and Livingston have scouted the Championship last season and they have brought in Forrest and we've brought in White.

That sets off some alarm bells for me.

I really don’t think White has been that bad , unlucky not to have bagged a couple of goals between Sat and last night...problem for me is Long , takes too many touches, even Campbell’s goal came from him losing the ball . There was also a breakaway in 2 nd half where he lost it rather than pass.

The fact Robbo said about players looking for a move makes me think he’s got to be one of the players singled out.

[Great Balls of Shire]

9 hours ago, gee said:

Feel sorry for Robinson but he’s ultimately responsible for the money spent and the squad we now have. 

We celebrated signing Chris Long as if it was some sort of coup. Doesn’t look interested and has started every game despite missing most of preseason and being in shite form.

What was the point in some of the signings that can’t get game time ahead of players way off form? 

Turnbull, Gallagher, Carson are quality players and we should be ok over the course. 

However given the number of signings we made in the situation clubs are in, it’s a disgrace County and United seem to be better equipped than us. 
 

 

 

Going by the games against them, I thought we were better Than Ross Co and should finish above them , Dundee Utd was 50/50 and could go either way

[Great Balls of Shire]

1 hour ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

It's all a bit mixed up.

As a club we've been putting out a 'come to Motherwell, we'll get you a big move' type message.

Then we lose a couple of games and the managers tearing strips off players for having agents.

 

Probably means while they’re here , they should put a shift in ? Then the move may come 

[WishyWell]

19 hours ago, Pepper said:

Jesus wept..... Adam Livingstone.  

I don't recall him being particularly impressive when he made his cameo appearances and was Robinson not in fact quite scathing of his lack of fitness? He's hardly going to have improved since then especially now that he is without a club. 

 

 

I’ve seen the fitness thing come up a few times since the manager said it, so just for the sake of accuracy...

The allusion to a lack of fitness came after the Celtic game when Adam took cramp 60 mins after coming on. However, he had played a reserves game 48 hours earlier and had been included in a full first team training session the day before the Celtic game when the normal procedure would have been a recovery session the day after playing. The manager had forgotten this when he made his comment, but then he did have a lot on his mind in the immediate aftermath of that game. It was ironic, though, as Adam was considered one of the fittest players at the club. 
 

Much as I (and he) would be overjoyed to see him in a Motherwell strip again right now, he needs to be somewhere where he’ll get a run of games for the sake of his career.