Dundee United v Motherwell 23/10/2021

[Walker86]

Is it just me or is the current personnel crying out for 3-5-2? I feel it would work so much better with Watt and Van Veen as a two. We would certainly get more out of O'Donnell and Carroll who should be back in the team whipping balls into the box knowing they had a wee bit extra cover behind them. We have more than enough options to pick 3  solid CB's.

I Don't understand the Kelly hate all of a sudden. The guy has pulled of a multitude of amazing saves to pull the team out a hole. Brainfart against Hearts aside there is not much he can do when he is left exposed. 3pts on Wednesday is a must.

[gaz7]

That today sums up the league. Nothing between any of teams.

Big difference was their keeper who is huge and  comes and dominates the box so any wee dink into the box he claims whereas kelly who I like but the reason he is at us is coz he is too wee to be top class although he is up there with best in league at shotstopping.  We had loads of balls into box today got a goal ruled out for a foul and a penalty for one where they only had a few and scored from 2.  Both their goals a big keeper would have claimed the ball I feel and the crosser cant put it as close to goal coz he knows that will happen.

Midfield today I felt were all in wrong positions. Why not goss on left grimy on right and slattery in middle. Grimmy isn't gd enough on ball to be in middle and other 2 were having to cut back all time. Ohara in middle with slattery on right and goss on left going forward I feel is worth a chance.

Wooley had a couple of gd moves in 1st half. watt was busy but van veen poor although subs on up front hardly touched the ball when on.

Some of our fans at game being really negative just before we equalised which yes I get their frustrated but it does wind me up and demoralised players I'd imagine. 

As I said nothing in game look at stats and their very even . I'm starting to think 352 might be better same as others so that if kelly cant come for cross balls then we need another defender in there to help out . Decisions Decisions. 

[Kmcalpin]

Quick question. Can Van Veen and Watt play together up front in a 4-3-3 formation?

[smiddy]

1 minute ago, Kmcalpin said:

Quick question. Can Van Veen and Watt play together up front in a 4-3-3 formation?

another quick question       can that starting 11 play together   and that is a serious question   cause i think there is something wrong with either the set up  or the positions there playing 

[Kmcalpin]

46 minutes ago, gaz7 said:

That today sums up the league. Nothing between any of teams.

Big difference was their keeper who is huge and  comes and dominates the box so any wee dink into the box he claims whereas kelly who I like but the reason he is at us is coz he is too wee to be top class although he is up there with best in league at shotstopping. 

Absolutely. That has always been Kelly's achilles heel. He isn't suited to our current style of playing by allowing crosses into our box and then trying to deal with them.

[mfc]

9 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Quick question. Can Van Veen and Watt play together up front in a 4-3-3 formation?

Not for me,i would like to see them play together as a two and try and strike up some kind of partnership,there both good players and I think they would work together.our front three looks pretty disjointed in general and playing either watt or van veen on the left of that just doesn't work.

[wellsince75]

1 hour ago, Walker86 said:

Is it just me or is the current personnel crying out for 3-5-2? I feel it would work so much better with Watt and Van Veen as a two. We would certainly get more out of O'Donnell and Carroll who should be back in the team whipping balls .

It’s such an obvious thing to try .

I don’t see GA doing it - 433  and repeat . Even though we don’t have the players to make it work. 

 

[GawnUpBy?]

I’ve always thought McGinlay gets a bad time of it from our fans unfairly. Not just on here, but on social media and in the stands too. Criticism was justified today though as he was honking. The full back on the other side though? Deserves any criticism he gets. Not fit to wear the shirt. 

Not going to repeat what many others have said about the midfield but I feel our midfield has got much worse without O’Hara being in it the past couple of games. 

Still not overly concerned though, if we pick up the three points on Wednesday night we will be in the top 6 after the first round of fixtures. I think we would all be delighted with that at the end of the season considering how dismal it was last year. 

[joewarkfanclub]

Tight game as anticipated and fine margins making the difference yet again.

The concern for me is our style of play. Its absolutely brutal to watch. You can get away with it when you are winning, but thats 3 defeats on the bounce, so tactics and formation get way harder to defend when there is precious little entertainment on offer.

Usually a big supporter of McGinley who, although limited going forward is generally a better defender than Carroll. However, his 2nd half today was very poor and his decision making has cost us a point today.

Overall I didnt think we deserved to win. But the goals apart, I didnt think United troubled us that much (even though they played way more football) so I dont think we deserved to lose. 

I really hope GA has a rethink on how we are set up, but I wont hold my breath......

[mfc]

I said in an earlier post about the forward line being disjointed but the midfield is even worse,we could play a combination of any three we have and it wouldn't make us play any different,we don't have players with the legs to get about the pitch,it's all very samey in midfield for us,players should be complimenting each other but at times it looks like strangers playing together for the first time.its far from panic stations but that's three poor performances in a row albeit against teams in form but we have been the architects of our downfall each time.the st mirren game certainly isn't must win but it would be nice to end the mini slump were in.

[Coatsy]

Can't understand this O'Hara love, from what i've seen he does what Grimshaw did most of the time pass back. His thought process is slow as well. We need more players in the midfield would be tempted just to go 442.

[Great Balls of Shire]

11 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Tight game as anticipated and fine margins making the difference yet again.

The concern for me is our style of play. Its absolutely brutal to watch. You can get away with it when you are winning, but thats 3 defeats on the bounce, so tactics and formation get way harder to defend when there is precious little entertainment on offer.

Usually a big defender of McGinley who, although limited going forward is generally a better defender than Carroll. However, his 2nd half today was very poor and his decision making has cost us a point today.

Overall I didnt think we deserved to win. But the goals apart, I didnt think United troubled us that much (even though they played way more football) so I dont think we deserved to lose. 

I really hope GA has a rethink on how we are set up, but I wont hold my breath......

you're right , it is fine margins but we are on the wrong end of them Past 3 games. 

that's why the goalkeeper and full backs need to stay switched on and we could be a few points better iff.

Joe Hart had  nothing to do but Siegrist and Gordon are top keepers and have made big saves against us to win games.

[Ya Bezzer!]

16 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

If GA keeps coming out with his nonsense match assessments he will very quickly lose the fans backing,  he must think we are all thick if he believes that was an excellent performance. Cut out the stubbornness and loyalty to players GA and we might see an improvement 

That was a bit worrying.

I mean we weren't as bad as some people are making out but the managers assessment was just as far, if not further than the truth.

[Ya Bezzer!]

You know I love my stats, so I wanted to see where we are in terms of defending crosses into the box, following the Edwards goals.  Turns out we aren't that bad and a couple of other teams have much bigger problems there.

HEADED GOALS CONCEDED

Ross County - 8
Hibernian - 7
Aberdeen - 3
Celtic - 3
St Mirren - 3
Dundee Utd - 2
Hearts - 2
Motherwell - 2
Rangers - 2
Dundee - 1
Livingston - 1
St Johnstone - 1

[steelboy]

Aye Hibs are horrific at crosses. 

Porteous is the most over rated player in the league.

[smiddy]

2 hours ago, steelboy said:

Aye Hibs are horrific at crosses. 

Porteous is the most over rated player in the league.

maybe he is BUT heez not got scotland caps like sod so maybe heez the second most over rated player in the league 

[FirParkCornerExile]

18 hours ago, Motherwell Daft said:

I agree a bit with GA, we had our chances to score a couple of goals but McGinley n SOD were crap, think Carrol deserves a return, surely can’t be any worse than McGinley and maybe Grimmy to RB? 
But why oh why do we persist on short corners Goss to Slattery who then couldn’t hit a Motherwell barn door at 5 yards the whole game? 
Ohara comes on and in 10 minutes has more quality balls to heads than Slattery n Goss had the whole fecking game, predicable fir United not needing to defend one decent corner with KVV standing waiting, and waiting..and waiting, we need a victory on Wednesday, without it we are in free fall, time for your fingers to be pulled out rear arseholes boys!

SOD, McGinley n Goss to the bench for Wednesday for me.

Grimmy should be right back, aye right back in the reserves, hes honking.  Goss is a shocker too. When Solholm is fit Id have him and OJala at centre of defence, put Mugabi to right back drop SOD,  Carroll to Left back and drop McGinley.  Drop Grimshaw replace with with O'Hara. Im rapidly coming to the view that Van Veem aint up to much either. 

[FirParkCornerExile]

3 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

That was a bit worrying.

I mean we weren't as bad as some people are making out but the managers assessment was just as far, if not further than the truth.

In the main supporters aint daft. Football players, coaches and pundits try to overly complicate the simplicity of the game,  invariably trying to be too clever with their technical jargon. Most fans know if they've watched a decent performance or not irrespective of the bollocks slant the professionals want to try and put on it. Almost to a man every Motherwell fans thought we were pish yesterday. Therefore we can confidently say we were pish irrespective what nonsense GA is trying to spin. 

[Great Balls of Shire]

56 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Grimmy should be right back, aye right back in the reserves, hes honking.  Goss is a shocker too. When Solholm is fit Id have him and OJala at centre of defence, put Mugabi to right back drop SOD,  Carroll to Left back and drop McGinley.  Drop Grimshaw replace with with O'Hara. Im rapidly coming to the view that Van Veem aint up to much either. 

I am for replacing the full backs but would mugabe be up to getting up and down and getting crosses in.Hes looked ok in the middle , so 3 at the back seems best option ??

[ropy]

I don’t really care who is on the pitch I would just like us to move the ball forward.  Cross the ball into the middle, not back to the keeper.  Thread a ball through, don’t play it back.  Trust the forwards to compete for it.

Free kick on the half way line, centre back to full back to goal keeper, another wasted opportunity.

[yosemite sam]

A few on here have suggested we should go 352, I tend to agree, as at the moment we play virtually nothing through midfield, and this might help us get some possession there.

We are punting long balls virtually all the time, and get very little second ball.

But one thing is certain (I hope I'm wrong) this manager will not change his tactics. It will be 433, we will continue with the 2 man corners. So disappointed that he cannot change and tries to tell us that Saturday was the best the team had played in the first half. 

[wellsince75]

1 hour ago, yosemite sam said:

A few on here have suggested we should go 352, I tend to agree, as at the moment we play virtually nothing through midfield, and this might help us get some possession there.

We are punting long balls virtually all the time, and get very little second ball.

But one thing is certain (I hope I'm wrong) this manager will not change his tactics. It will be 433, we will continue with the 2 man corners. So disappointed that he cannot change and tries to tell us that Saturday was the best the team had played in the first half. 

This is the issue for me .

ga a bit thatcher esk “not for changing “

we are very predictable club to play against . The personnel may be swapped but the play and approach is one dimensional 

[texanwellfan]

23 hours ago, gazzetta19 said:

Is it really that bad (or surprising) that we lost the last 3 games? Played 2 of the top 3 teams away from home and the other against Celtic who we haven't beat at home for God knows how long? Defeat at home to St Mirren on Weds would deffo start the alarm bells ringing so that really does become a must win.

Had we won 2 of our last 3 games we would be clear in 2nd spot. So it would seem we are all upset because we are not in second spot. Progress indeed. 

[FirParkCornerExile]

2 minutes ago, texanwellfan said:

Had we won 2 of our last 3 games we would be clear in 2nd spot. So it would seem we are all upset because we are not in second spot. Progress indeed. 

if you think thats what bothering everyone you are just not reading the room . Folk are commenting on the performances , which in the main are pish and the fact that GA is trying to tell us a turd is fillet minion and if my granny had bawz shed have been my grandad.

[texanwellfan]

If you see one of my earlier posts you’ll find I said exactly that.