Aberdeen v Motherwell 6/11/2021

[Yorkyred]

Very happy with an unexpected win, but those stats don’t make good reading again. 

[GawnUpBy?]

35 minutes ago, Yorkyred said:

Very happy with an unexpected win, but those stats don’t make good reading again. 

Stats mean sweet FA when you get the 3 points. Enjoy the win and enjoy yer morning. 

[joewarkfanclub]

9 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

If you are playing 4 at the back full backs should be defenders first and foremost.  

You defend as four in a line and if the full backs are getting forward you are just asking for trouble because you are defeating the whole point of having a back four.

If you want to play wing backs you go for 3 at the back.  Like McLean did when we played Shannon and McKinnon.

Which pretty much answers the McGinley/Carroll, O'Donnell/Mugabi argument.

[joewarkfanclub]

First of all, great 3 points. Most welcome.

Our points total and league position cant be argued with and quite rightly make the manager bomb proof.

But there is no getting away from how unenjoyable it is to watch.  

We are going over old ground, but it will only be suffered as a stop gap while we are maintaining our league position.  

If he doesnt think our current midfield is capable of playing more football than we are, fair enough. I would disagree with that, but can suffer it until he can sign better players.

However, if this is the way we are going to play for the duration of his tenure, I may have to find something more enjoyable to do on a Saturday afternoon.

[pretzel]

56 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

First of all, great 3 points. Most welcome.

Our points total and league position cant be argued with and quite rightly make the manager bomb proof.

But there is no getting away from how unenjoyable it is to watch.  

We are going over old ground, but it will only be suffered as a stop gap while we are maintaining our league position.  

If he doesnt think our current midfield is capable of playing more football than we are, fair enough. I would disagree with that, but can suffer it until he can sign better players.

However, if this is the way we are going to play for the duration of his tenure, I may have to find something more enjoyable to do on a Saturday afternoon.

Obviously delighted with the win and three points, I think the frustrating thing is when we came out for the second half it was totally night and day performance wise, the side blew Aberdeen away in a short space of time with some nice football, we actually sprayed the ball around nicely, proved to be lethal in front of goal which  shows the side do have the ability in their locker to compete in a more entertaining way. Naturally with the nice lead Alexander went back to the defensive tactics and we held on for a great result. As sad as it sounds I couldn't get enough of the Dons fans tears on social media about our tactics so I had a peak at P and B and their own forum which brings some fantastic reading.

[Great Balls of Shire]

7 hours ago, claretband said:

....fans? This is because of who he plays for....

doubt that...costs Motherwell too many goals by switching off is my issue , last weeks sending off was stupid, when we were already under the cosh.

[wellwell91]

2 hours ago, Yorkyred said:

Very happy with an unexpected win, but those stats don’t make good reading again. 

Sorry but it’s a known fact “Stats don’t win football match’s “

[spudmfc]

18 hours ago, GrahamH said:

I’m beginning to suspect he might know better than some of the experts on here.

Ill give ye that one..but it was a flexible 4 3 3 with different personel which didnt work in first half as we got hammered 0-0 lol,and too b fair we didnt work hard for our goals,but the work rate and effort after getting them was excellent..still a work in progress 

[AllyMax]

1 hour ago, wellwell91 said:

Sorry but it’s a known fact “Stats don’t win football match’s “

So you fully believe we can give opposition teams 70% possession and 15-20 attempts on goal on a weekly basis and come out on top more often than not ??

[wellsince75]

I don't mind giving the opposition possession overall. Plenty of teams did that to us last season as we couldn't break them down.

My frustration is it doesn't need to be an either or. We defend brilliantly (most of the time) + we have some very decent players who will score and create chances. 

If we can cut out the giving so much possession in and around our box, cut out the 15+ chances we give teams and just push up the park 20-30 yards we'll be a very difficult team for 9 or 10 teams in this league .    

At some point in time entertainment value is required. 

[wellwell91]

18 minutes ago, AllyMax said:

So you fully believe we can give opposition teams 70% possession and 15-20 attempts on goal on a weekly basis and come out on top more often than not ??

Naw just stating a fact that stats don’t win football matches ……… scoring goals and not conceding them does ……… take what you want from that 

Doesn’t matter how you do it but if you score 1 more goal than your opponents you win the game … … … FACT !!!!!

[santheman]

All I would say is rewind our brains to this point last season and ask if we were any more entertained back then.

I'm in my sixties so I cannae remember.

[Yorkyred]

2 hours ago, wellwell91 said:

Sorry but it’s a known fact “Stats don’t win football match’s “

No argument from me on that one but it’s certainly a factor in the pressure the defence has been put under this season and again we relied a lot on Kelly again. I just worry it’s not sustainable over the course of the season. Hopefully we strengthen midfield n January and see a change of tact and with that we may also see the entertainment factor improve slightly.

[joewarkfanclub]

3 hours ago, santheman said:

All I would say is rewind our brains to this point last season and ask if we were any more entertained back then.

I'm in my sixties so I cannae remember.

We were knocking it about like Aberdeen and couldnt buy a win.

Funny old game innit!

[weeyin]

4 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

We were knocking it about like Aberdeen and couldnt buy a win.

I remember saying at the time that felt worse than losing with a poor performance.

[steelboy]

2 hours ago, Yorkyred said:

No argument from me on that one but it’s certainly a factor in the pressure the defence has been put under this season and again we relied a lot on Kelly again. I just worry it’s not sustainable over the course of the season. Hopefully we strengthen midfield n January and see a change of tact and with that we may also see the entertainment factor improve slightly.

Tierney is coming in January. But if we could get a holding midfielder of the quality of Ojala and Sol that would be magic. 

[weeyin]

The bottom line is we're having to try and replace Campbell and Turnbull in the midfield - which is an impossible task.

We do need to try and find some balance, though, and like the defence, having or choosing to play a different starting combination every week isn't helping continuity.

[mfc]

1 hour ago, steelboy said:

Tierney is coming in January. But if we could get a holding midfielder of the quality of Ojala and Sol that would be magic. 

Tierney seems to be highly rated so it'll be interesting to see how he does.a good quality holding midfielder would be nice,i wonder if we're already looking at players from scandinavia giving how well ojala and sol have done for us.

[GazzyB]

We certainly have a big squad this year.

 

Tierney, Slattery, Maguire, O’Hara, Donnelly, Goss, Crawford and Grimshaw for centre mid.

 

Bevis, Lamie, Sol, Ojala and O’Connor for centre half.

 

You’d think/hope we get one or two out the door in January. 

[GawnUpBy?]

1 hour ago, GazzyB said:

We certainly have a big squad this year.

 

Tierney, Slattery, Maguire, O’Hara, Donnelly, Goss, Crawford and Grimshaw for centre mid.

 

Bevis, Lamie, Sol, Ojala and O’Connor for centre half.

 

You’d think/hope we get one or two out the door in January. 

I liked what I seen of O’Connor during the league cup games, but it’s clear that Solholm & Ojala are the first choice centre halves so will be hard to break through. Bevis & Lamie have been solid back ups too. Lamie has had some very good performances this year. Seems a different player to the bombscare we had last season. 

Midfielde wise, I think (and hope) we will see the end of Crawford’s Motherwell stint. You have forgotten to mention Cornelius whom I think is injured at the moment? I suspect we may try to get shot of Donnelly in January too. Doesn’t seem to have gotten over his injury from last season. 

[SteelmaninOZ]

MOTM 

 

[joewarkfanclub]

11 hours ago, SteelmaninOZ said:

MOTM 

 

I hadnt realised at the time that he actually gets a touch on it before it hits the post. It was a good enough save already but a triple save is quite phenomenal. 

[David]

21 hours ago, AllyMax said:

So you fully believe we can give opposition teams 70% possession and 15-20 attempts on goal on a weekly basis and come out on top more often than not ??

We only need to come out on top more often than four to six other clubs over the course of the season.

Would I be right in saying that Graham Alexander teams have a history of playing football that isn't easy on the eye? Salford City fans were grumbling about the same thing it seems.

Coincidentally, when Alexander was sacked Salford were 5th in League 2 and unbeaten in their first five games. Now they're 19th with four wins out of 15 this season.

I read they're a lot nicer to watch now though, so there is that (legit what I've read, not sarcasm for those who are interested )

[Yorkyred]

1 hour ago, David said:

We only need to come out on top more often than four to six other clubs over the course of the season.

Would I be right in saying that Graham Alexander teams have a history of playing football that isn't easy on the eye? Salford City fans were grumbling about the same thing it seems.

Coincidentally, when Alexander was sacked Salford were 5th in League 2 and unbeaten in their first five games. Now they're 19th with four wins out of 15 this season.

I read they're a lot nicer to watch now though, so there is that (legit what I've read, not sarcasm for those who are interested )

The amount of possession and shots given to the opposition does worry me, I’m just not convinced it’s a sound tactic moving forward if we want to try and build something which I thought was the whole point of giving longer contracts. Maybe it is looked at as a short term fix until he gets the midfield he really wants which is fine by me, I just hope that’s the case.

[David]

3 hours ago, Yorkyred said:

The amount of possession and shots given to the opposition does worry me, I’m just not convinced it’s a sound tactic moving forward if we want to try and build something which I thought was the whole point of giving longer contracts. Maybe it is looked at as a short term fix until he gets the midfield he really wants which is fine by me, I just hope that’s the case.

I do think there's maybe something to that. I know we tend to think that it's as easy as just getting rid of players we don't want, but when managers have to work with limited transfer time due to the windows, and we have players under contract that aren't wanting to move on or haven't been offered anything suitable, it can be a difficult process.

I have heard it said that a manager really needs three windows, two of which should be summer windows, to really sort out a team, which obviously isn't always an option, but I think if we can maintain a decent league position Alexander will be given the time needed to put his own team together.