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Motherwell v Celtic 06/02/22


SteelmaninOZ
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Celtic are a million miles better than us in terms of budget, players and ability but on top of that they out fought and out muscled us at every opportunity.

Alexander hung the club out to dry with that starting 11 and formation. We never laid a glove on them and allowed them to play. The 3 centre midfielders were nothing short of dreadful first half not supporting KVV and not getting back to help defence -caught in no mans land continually-  they actually didn’t know what to do but they certainly allowed McGregor all the space in the world and everything went through him - they made him look world class. Why did Alexander not see this and put someone on him man for man - probably because he is too stubborn to admit his own mistakes. 

Why not pick play 442 and pick the best players we have for that formation , try be solid at the back, competitive in the middle and a basic threat up front. That might mean some of his chums in SOD, Goss, Donnelly and Carroll or Mcginley miss out but f**k me that today I’m afraid lacked effort desire and some know how on basic footballing awareness and tactics.

 

Alexander overall has done ok in terms of keeping us in the league but he would get football stopped with his tactics and lack of entertainment . Boosting of 3.5 million profit after a massive loan and Turnbull money isn’t anything to shout about when we have a squad of conference level players at very best with hearts the shape of polo mints. 

 

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1 hour ago, Kmcalpin said:

Now Celtic's biggest away win of the season. What does that tell us?

Not a great deal. Unless Celtic played the same eleven in every one of their away games and they played equally well in each. I know the argument would be that we allowed them to play that well today, but you have to factor in the opponent's form when you compare results. Right now was the wrong time to play them..

On a more general point, is our form against the Old Firm appalling? Yes...

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57 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

you are talking nonsense . "all but have the top six sealed after Utd game"  with 21 points left to play for is ludicrous???  and we then face Aberdeen  and Rangers. if you were saying that with 3 games to go after Utd I could give it some credibility.

What am I saying? It’s simple arithmetic.

 

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33 minutes ago, ZT_1886 said:

Surely there isn’t a team in the league with a worse record vs the OF in recent years than us?

I don’t know about that but our record against both of them can’t be far off the worst in the league over the past four/five years. Two 1-1 draws against Rangers apart in 2021 we have lost every single meeting and it’s now eleven straight defeats against Celtic.

I said it after we were rode 6-1 here against Rangers back in October, it’s not just that we are losing these games, it’s the amount of absolute hammerings we are on the end of against them both just about every single time we play them nowadays. Yes they are better than us and should beat us, but they don’t even need to break sweat to never mind beat us anymore, they hammer us nine times out of ten.

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The growing gulf between the big two and ourselves gets more depressing by the year but there’s not much we can do about it with the widening finances. Specific to today, we were up against a Celtic team that’s in a very good place just now so it’s not a performance to dwell on. 

It’s vital though that we get a response to our dip in form at Tannadice, then follow it up against Aberdeen. The challenge for Alexander is finding the shape and personnel that can carry a threat going forward post Watt. I’d be surprised if we persist with the box in midfield any longer, I’d revert to 433 or 4312 and get some pace and creativity back in the team. 

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Why the obsession with our record against the old firm? Doesn’t matter who we beat, we get 3 points. So what, if other teams have a better record against the OF, the goal is to have as many points as possible at the end of the season as in top 6. We should be worried about how we are playing in general. Yes, I am happy to be in 4th spot after 25 games but obviously we need to start picking up points again to stay there. Would be nice to start against Utd in mid week. 

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9 minutes ago, texanwellfan said:

Why the obsession with our record against the old firm? Doesn’t matter who we beat, we get 3 points. So what, if other teams have a better record against the OF, the goal is to have as many points as possible at the end of the season as in top 6. We should be worried about how we are playing in general. Yes, I am happy to be in 4th spot after 25 games but obviously we need to start picking up points again to stay there. Would be nice to start against Utd in mid week. 

Because of how they influence everything to do with Scottish Football. There is nothing better than being able to give one or both of them a bloody nose. The fact we havent been able to do it for so long when others have been able to is quite depressing.

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Not much I can say in defence of that performance. We were totally outclassed in every area of the field. Was always likely to happen given the form they are in. Im not sure how we become more competetive in these fixtures, but todays tactics and formation certainly didnt work. Lets not kid ourselves that we were doing ok up until the first goal, Kelly had kept us in it up until that point and it looked only a matter of time. 

Carroll showed today why McGinley has been playing in front of him. Time and again he left Abada goalside of him and made no effort to track back and help McGinley.  

The changes made at half time did seem to give us some impetus until the 4th goal killed the game. Tierney looks to have some ability with the ball at his feet and appears to have the heart and desire to make thimgs happen.

Efford looks quite direct and offered more than KVV.

Woolery looked absolutely clueless up top and ambled around aimlessly as if he wasnt really sure what he should be doing.

All in all, a thoroughly depressing experience. The only good news is that we dont have to face that level of opposition on Wednesday.

I would expect to see wholesale changes and a much improved display.

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Three of the slowest midfield players in the league up against a well oiled machine was always going to be a disaster . GA saying he knew what to expect from Celtic well he fooled me . I think we all knew they would come at us from the wings everybody that is bar GA . 

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2 hours ago, MJC_mkII said:

Exactly. Celtic had their worse season in over a decade last year yet we still couldn’t lay a glove on them in any of the meetings. And nothing needs said about our record against Rangers in the last twenty years.

Still, “Welcome to our great wee club” :rolleyes:

The fact that Celtic lost twice in the league last term to anyone other than Rangers during "their worst season in over a decade" kinda shows how massive the gap is.

Between them they have lost 5 league matches in the last 126, excluding defeats to each other.  

Our points total from the Old Firm over the last two seasons is pretty typical for a non city club 

Livingston      7pts from 5 results
Ross County    4pts from 2 results
St Mirren        3pts from 1 result
Motherwell    2pts from 2 results
St Johnstone    2pts from 2 results
Kilmarnock    1pt from 1 result
Hamilton        1pt from 1 result

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9 minutes ago, steelboy said:

The formation was a shambles today. It was terrible on Tuesday and we gave Celtic advance notice of it.

Alexander needs a result in either of the next two games, if not the pressure is on Alexander and Burrows for extending him. 

 

First paragraph yes,the second no chance

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