Motherwell v St Mirren 27/10/2021

[SteelmaninOZ]

Hopefully back to wining a game 

[grizzlyg]

3 5 2,   

Kelly

Ojala  lamie Mugabi 

SOD                                Carroll (don't rate but not any worse than mcginley)

Ohara   Donnelly    slattery 

KVV   Tony  

[GawnUpBy?]

I think 352 is the only way to go. Lamie or Donnelly weren’t on the bench yesterday so can’t see them being in the starting 11. 

If it’s 3-5-2 the change will probably be Solholm for Woolery and potentially O’Hara for Grimshaw.

I would be excited to see Watt & Van Veen as a front two instead of one of them pushed wide as part of a three although KVV has done absolutely nothing of late so if he does go for the two up top Alexander could opt for Woolery’s pace along with Watt. Woolery does seem to be his first pick every week. 

[The African]

The last three results now make this a very important fixture. A couple of weeks ago we were in the fortunate position of having discovered a winning habit. Three loses and we suddenly are staring down the barrel of a damaging losing streak. In a league where almost any team is capable of taking points in any fixture, a run of consistent bad results can very quickly land anybody in the mire. We had a fair amount of positive momentum but that is now gone. This fixture represents our best opportunity to address this situation and the manager has to realise this. I somehow doubt that he will have the inclination to change too much at this stage. As such, we are left hoping that we can take a couple of chances while hoping that we have fewer self inflicted wounds at the back. If not, the " same old same old" will result in the continuation of our bad run and with Rangers and then a trip to Aberdeen, I can easily see three defeats on the bounce becoming six and a major cause for concern. 

[davkel]

As of now , St.Mirren are unbeaten in 6 , before they play Rangers today, so I don’t see anything other than a very tough one here… we are not favs going into this one IMO

[Kmcalpin]

16 minutes ago, davkel said:

As of now , St.Mirren are unbeaten in 6 , before they play Rangers today, so I don’t see anything other than a very tough one here… we are not favs going into this one IMO

Very much so. The same old same old just won't be good enough.

[CoF]

What's the ticketing for home matches these days? I've got a season ticket, but got some family coming up who want to go. Do they need to buy at the ticket office on the night, or can they just pay cash at the gate? 

[Ya Bezzer!]

2 hours ago, The African said:

The last three results now make this a very important fixture. A couple of weeks ago we were in the fortunate position of having discovered a winning habit. Three loses and we suddenly are staring down the barrel of a damaging losing streak. In a league where almost any team is capable of taking points in any fixture, a run of consistent bad results can very quickly land anybody in the mire. We had a fair amount of positive momentum but that is now gone. This fixture represents our best opportunity to address this situation and the manager has to realise this. I somehow doubt that he will have the inclination to change too much at this stage. As such, we are left hoping that we can take a couple of chances while hoping that we have fewer self inflicted wounds at the back. If not, the " same old same old" will result in the continuation of our bad run and with Rangers and then a trip to Aberdeen, I can easily see three defeats on the bounce becoming six and a major cause for concern. 

Pretty much although I suspect Alexander, given his post match comments, will give the players another chance against St Mirren.

St Mirren are coming into form as well, while we seem to be leaving it and in fact St Mirren have only lost to Celtic in 7 away fixtures this season so they obviously like it on the road.

As I also mentioned elsewhere St Mirren often play with 6 in midfield which is going to make it difficult if we play a 4-3-3.  I think the 'numbers in midfield' idea is a bit simplistic but when you are talking about a 2 to 1 ratio rather than 1 or maybe 2 extra players that's a different story.

Finally, St Mirren can leapfrog us if they win (assuming they don't today against Rangers) and that would put us out the Top 6 which would be a bit of a blow.

The game isn't going to decide anything but I think it it an important one given our tough looking fixture list it's important to get confidence back up and stay in the Top 6.

[wellwell91]

41 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Pretty much although I suspect Alexander, given his post match comments, will give the players another chance against St Mirren.

If McGinley keeps his place after that performance yesterday …… Alexander will have serious questions to answer 

[Ya Bezzer!]

9 minutes ago, wellwell91 said:

If McGinley keeps his place after that performance yesterday …… Alexander will have serious questions to answer 

He got ripped apart against Celtic and kept his place.

[MJC]

2 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

Very much so. The same old same old just won't be good enough.

If we play against St.Mirren like we did yesterday, or against Hearts, or against Ross County for that matter then we will be lucky to get a draw.

I’d be dropping O’Donnell and Grimshaw for this one, 100%. 
 

1-2 defeat I reckon.

[GawnUpBy?]

20 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

He got ripped apart against Celtic and kept his place.

He got ripped apart against Celtic as those in front of him showed no support whatsoever.  I think if we stick with the 4-3-3 and Carroll takes McGinley’s place then the formers poor defending will be worse for us and see us exposed even more down that side. For me Carroll should only come in we move to a 3-5-2. 

Bar his display yesterday I think McGinley has done a reasonable job in the back 4 but he’s an easy target for criticism. 

[wellwell91]

6 minutes ago, GawnUpBy? said:

He got ripped apart against Celtic as those in front of him showed no support whatsoever.  I think if we stick with the 4-3-3 and Carroll takes McGinley’s place then the formers poor defending will be worse for us and see us exposed even more down that side. For me Carroll should only come in we move to a 3-5-2. 

Bar his display yesterday I think McGinley has done a reasonable job in the back 4 but he’s an easy target for criticism. 

He could easily have picked up 3 bookings yesterday …… why he was not booked for the deliberate handball only Clancy knows.

As for his absolute brain fart leading to their  winning goal only McGinley knows what he was trying to do

[Spiderpig]

1 hour ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Pretty much although I suspect Alexander, given his post match comments, will give the players another chance against St Mirren.

St Mirren are coming into form as well, while we seem to be leaving it and in fact St Mirren have only lost to Celtic in 7 away fixtures this season so they obviously like it on the road.

As I also mentioned elsewhere St Mirren often play with 6 in midfield which is going to make it difficult if we play a 4-3-3.  I think the 'numbers in midfield' idea is a bit simplistic but when you are talking about a 2 to 1 ratio rather than 1 or maybe 2 extra players that's a different story.

Finally, St Mirren can leapfrog us if they win (assuming they don't today against Rangers) and that would put us out the Top 6 which would be a bit of a blow.

The game isn't going to decide anything but I think it it an important one given our tough looking fixture list it's important to get confidence back up and stay in the Top 6.

St Mirren currently beating Rangers 1-0 and looking good for it, moves us down to 7th

Normal service resumed now 2-1 Rangers

[Kat]

17 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

St Mirren currently beating Rangers 1-0 and looking good for it, moves us down to 7th

They started the game really well, scored a wonder goal but shot themselves in the foot with some horrific defending, conceding two goals in minutes. 

It will be a tough task on Wednesday as they overload the midfield and I can see us struggling a bit in that area if we persist with 433.

Never realised they had been in such good form. 

[GawnUpBy?]

1 hour ago, wellwell91 said:

He could easily have picked up 3 bookings yesterday …… why he was not booked for the deliberate handball only Clancy knows.

As for his absolute brain fart leading to their  winning goal only McGinley knows what he was trying to do

Hense why I said bar his performance yesterday. I don’t recall a time he has let us down this season. 

[smiddy]

9 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

He got ripped apart against Celtic and kept his place.

GA doesnt give a feck what we think   its his way or no way      i am beginning to think heez a very stubborn manager     bring back"in the know "  he knows 

[Spiderpig]

18 hours ago, smiddy said:

GA doesnt give a feck what we think   its his way or no way 

That's a shocker a fully trained and UEFA licensed pro coach, ex player with lots of experience in football not listening to what the fans think about his tactics and player choices each week, where will  it end

[Yodo]

55 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

That's a shocker a fully trained and UEFA licensed pro coach, ex player with lots of experience in football not listening to what the fans think about his tactics and player choices each week, where will  it end

In tears for the fans 

[smiddy]

6 hours ago, Spiderpig said:

That's a shocker a fully trained and UEFA licensed pro coach, ex player with lots of experience in football not listening to what the fans think about his tactics and player choices each week, where will  it end

so spider after saturdays performance  which GA said was our best of the season so far, 3 duck eggs in a row, do we stick or twist ? if as he said, then we will start with the same 11 ??

nope not for me thanks, time to shake it up a bit 

[weeyin]

1 hour ago, smiddy said:

so spider after saturdays performance  which GA said was our best of the season so far, 3 duck eggs in a row, do we stick or twist ? if as he said, then we will start with the same 11 ??

nope not for me thanks, time to shake it up a bit 

It's too much change that's been one of our main problems. We need to find a settled first 11 (or 13) and stick with it.

 

[GazzyB]

For the first time since I was about 13 I didn't watch the Dundee Utd game or read the match report. From what I gather we weren't very good though. I watched the highlights and both full backs had a shocker. Let's hope we see Carroll back in for this one. Would like to see us go 3-5-2 as well.

 

Gonna go for a 2-0 win to us.

[texanwellfan]

5 hours ago, weeyin said:

It's too much change that's been one of our main problems. We need to find a settled first 11 (or 13) and stick with it.

 

I wouldn’t think saturdays 11 would be the one to stick with. 

[Ya Bezzer!]

12 hours ago, weeyin said:

It's too much change that's been one of our main problems. We need to find a settled first 11 (or 13) and stick with it.

 

We need a wee bit perspective.

We've 14 points and we just lost away to high flying Hearts, Dundee Utd and Celtic without getting turned over.

Obviously we don't want to go on a bad run that could effect confidence and the performances could be better but that's why this is a more important tie.  This is one we should be looking to win where, realistically, we were underdogs in the last three.

None of our limited midfielders are going to turn into Modric over night so I think it's a bit knee jerk to change a system that's got us where we are right now but I do think for this match St Mirren's system might cos us some problems. 

[yosemite sam]

23 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

None of our limited midfielders are going to turn into Modric over night so I think it's a bit knee jerk to change a system that's got us where we are right now but I do think for this match St Mirren's system might cos us some problems. 

It would appear everybody's system causes us problems in the midfield. We don't really play anything through our midfield, we just hump it from back to front and hope it sticks, and if it doesn't we seem incapable of picking up second ball. It would be nice to see a bit more football being played.