ECL Sligo Rovers v Motherwell 28/7/22

[steelboy]

I wasn't at the Albion Rovers game so that was the worst game I've ever attended. 

To me it looks like Alexander and Lucketti want a payoff. There's no other explanation. He has to go now, I quite liked him until about March but there are so many fans against him now that we need a fresh start. Tonight was brutal and if results don't change next Saturday at Fir Park will be carnage. 

It's also pretty obvious the players aren't playing for him. The situation with SOD is farcical.

[Great Balls of Shire]

3 hours ago, texanwellfan said:

McGuire keeps shooting with his left foot. It’s terrible. 

2 great feet apparently, never been a footballer

[Great Balls of Shire]

3 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

We've won 1 out of our last 15 European matches and that was at home against Glentoran who caused us all sort of problems until they had a player sent off.

Scottish teams don't compete in Europe because they are crap.  That's a depressing fact but it's not what we should be defining the club against.  

I don't mind if we fire Alexander and bring in someone better.  But I think our fans need to think very carefully about that.  Alexander has a 7th and 5th place finish in two seasons.  Are you really that confident that the next guy does better?  With this squad of players?  With our finances? In our league? What if the next guy does worse?  What if he gets us relegated?

Fans need to give it a break with the moronic raging two games into the season in a competition that we pretty much had no chance of going further than qualifying rounds.

 

i have never called for any manager to be sacked , but there must be better than this..like i said, its context, going out so meekly to the 5th best team in Ireland and losing a good bit of money...also the football is awful to watch

[mfc]

9 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

2 great feet apparently, never been a footballer

Somebody mentioned on here the other day that maguire is just another stuart carswell,they nailed it with that comparison,he's very lucky to still be at a premier league club at what 24.he offers absolutely nothing,I'm not saying cornelius is the answer but atleast he could offer a couple of things that were lacking I'm midfield.

[Great Balls of Shire]

2 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

If you think we have a decent squad then we have traced the root of your delusion.

I'll judge Alexander on our league performances.  If we have a poor opening round of matches he'll be under a lot of pressure.

I'm not judging him on these European matches where facts show we are the minnows while our support adopts a delusion based assumption of superiority.

We had exactly the same situation last season against Airdrie.

how are we minnows versus the 5th best team in Ireland? i enjoy European football , a change from the slog v Livingston, St Mirren etc.We cant say we even made any chances v Sligo, utter garbage...ive paid a portion of my season ticket and really dont know whether to just lose it , i want to see some action

[spudmfc]

Im not one for slatting my team n always try t look for the positives but by fuck that was painful t watch tnight..it looked like mugabi n carroll swapped boots n wore them on the wrong feet,i said after the first game that the sligo players were in the shop window,well after tnight there will b buyers going into the shop for them,ive read on here numerous times that we need CB,LB,ST..blaney,23 years old,kirk,24 n keena,23 years old all of them worth a punt,i thought they in particular were excellent,but i think after the 2 legs against us they're destined for bigger and better things than joining our shambles of a club

[Spiderpig]

1 hour ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I've made my position clear.  I judge him after 11 league matches.

My prediction is that our next result will be a win, loss or draw.  Your prediction is that we will definitely lose.

There is no comparison in positions.  

Seriously wake up and smell the coffee ffs. Hundreds of well fans over here tonight for the game and let down big time. I was prepared to give GA the benefit of the doubt but no more after tonight that was embarrassing , the manager is an arrogant clueless fud, sticking with a system that does not work.

There is obviously more going on than  we know, he has lost the dressing room, so never mind judging him after so many league games he needs to go now, but the club probably won't have the balls to punt him.

[joewarkfanclub]

Its hard to know where to start with a performance like that.

With the greatest respect, Sligo arent even that good a team. All they had to do was be organised, work hard and wait for our mistakes. The sad thing is, that was more than enough and they thoroughly deserved to progress to the next round.

We have been none of those things since Christmas and it cant all just be down to losing Tony Watt.

When I saw Tierney in the team I thought that maybe GA was gonna change things up a bit, but alas no. Just more round pegs in square holes.  No surprise really when the same level of performance was served up. 

The substitutions equally as mistifying. Given how little of the ball Sligo were having, why not take a defender of and put an extra midfielder or forward on? Bringing Shields on for Spittal made absolutely no sense, and his triple substitution? The only positive out of that was that Goss provided a little better quality on the cross ball, but by then it was too late.

Its taken me a while, but I dont think GA has any intentiion of changing his tactics/philosophy, so reluctantly, I  cant support him any further. I dont think he will be sacked before Sunday.  But he should, and I dont think he can survive a defeat in Paisley, with a home game the following week.

 

 

[mfc]

18 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Its hard to know where to start with a performance like that.

With the greatest respect, Sligo arent even that good a team. All they had to do was be organised, work hard and wait for our mistakes. The sad thing is, that was more than enough and they thoroughly deserved to progress to the next round.

We have been none of those things since Christmas and it cant all just be down to losing Tony Watt.

When I saw Tierney in the team I thought that maybe GA was gonna change things up a bit, but alas no. Just more round pegs in square holes.  No surprise really when the same level of performance was served up. 

The substitutions equally as mistifying. Given how little of the ball Sligo were having, why not take a defender of and put an extra midfielder or forward on? Bringing Shields on for Spittal made absolutely no sense, and his triple substitution? The only positive out of that was that Goss provided a little better quality on the cross ball, but by then it was too late.

Its taken me a while, but I dont think GA has any intentiion of changing his tactics/philosophy, so reluctantly, I  cant support him any further. I dont think he will be sacked before Sunday.  But he should, and I dont think he can survive a defeat in Paisley, with a home game the following week.

 

 

Some good points in there.i don't think alexander has a clue about changing formation or tactics,he knows one way to play and that's it,he will stick with the 433 with guys out of position,even when making a sub,it's just player on player off,there's no change in approach.i didn't think we would walk all over sligo but would have enough over the two games,I certainly wasn't expecting us to hardly lay a glove on them,we could still be playing now and wouldn't have scored.i think the most telling thing about tonight was that there was absolutely no reaction to last week,if anything it was worse,I think that's down to some players not being good enough but the players as a whole not interested in player for the manager.like you I don't see him going before sunday but wouldn't be surprised if it was to happen,there's little hope for a manager when the fans turn and judging by the comments I've seen on here and elsewhere tonight,it's a matter of when not if.

[joewarkfanclub]

7 minutes ago, mfc said:

Some good points in there.i don't think alexander has a clue about changing formation or tactics,he knows one way to play and that's it,he will stick with the 433 with guys out of position,even when making a sub,it's just player on player off,there's no change in approach.i didn't think we would walk all over sligo but would have enough over the two games,I certainly wasn't expecting us to hardly lay a glove on them,we could still be playing now and wouldn't have scored.i think the most telling thing about tonight was that there was absolutely no reaction to last week,if anything it was worse,I think that's down to some players not being good enough but the players as a whole not interested in player for the manager.like you I don't see him going before sunday but wouldn't be surprised if it was to happen,there's little hope for a manager when the fans turn and judging by the comments I've seen on here and elsewhere tonight,it's a matter of when not if.

Absolutely.

No hunger, no desire, no hurt or anger at last weeks defeat.

Whether thats feeding off the managers comments and attitude, whether they simply dont have it in them, or whether they have downed tools on him, I dont know. But as professional footballers you would think their own pride would have stirred something in them.

Simply unacceptable.......

 

[ppower]

Motherwell will not sack Alexander because they do not have the money to pay him and his backroom staff for the time left on their contracts. Blame Burrows and company for that piece of business genius. It is clear that the players are not buying into his philosophy (hoof it up the park and feed on the scraps) and he has lost the dressing room. 

I do not have a crystal ball but my feeling is that he will be at FP for as long as he wants. He will not resign because as stated we can't afford to sack him.  

Maybe being relegated is what we need. A new start with young players coached correctly and playing football. It worked for Hearts.  The current squad that Alexander has assembled is the poorest I can remember. Sure we always had our collection of duds in the past but not on the industrial scale that Alexander has managed to sign. 

If people want to continue and pay money to watch this drivel then that is their choice. I do not.  I take my hat off to the 5000 brave but deluded fans who bought a season ticket. I live 5 minutes from Fir Park and you couldn't pay me enough money to watch what is simply shite of the highest quality.

[texanwellfan]

2 hours ago, mfc said:

Some good points in there.i don't think alexander has a clue about changing formation or tactics,he knows one way to play and that's it,he will stick with the 433 with guys out of position,even when making a sub,it's just player on player off,there's no change in approach.i didn't think we would walk all over sligo but would have enough over the two games,I certainly wasn't expecting us to hardly lay a glove on them,we could still be playing now and wouldn't have scored.i think the most telling thing about tonight was that there was absolutely no reaction to last week,if anything it was worse,I think that's down to some players not being good enough but the players as a whole not interested in player for the manager.like you I don't see him going before sunday but wouldn't be surprised if it was to happen,there's little hope for a manager when the fans turn and judging by the comments I've seen on here and elsewhere tonight,it's a matter of when not if.

Not just on here. There were several occasions where the team earned a resounding chorus of boos from the traveling support. I’m not one for booing but I can’t say the performances don’t deserve it. 

[MJC]

1 hour ago, ppower said:

Motherwell will not sack Alexander because they do not have the money to pay him and his backroom staff for the time left on their contracts. Blame Burrows and company for that piece of business genius. It is clear that the players are not buying into his philosophy (hoof it up the park and feed on the scraps) and he has lost the dressing room. 

I do not have a crystal ball but my feeling is that he will be at FP for as long as he wants. He will not resign because as stated we can't afford to sack him.  

Maybe being relegated is what we need. A new start with young players coached correctly and playing football. It worked for Hearts.  The current squad that Alexander has assembled is the poorest I can remember. Sure we always had our collection of duds in the past but not on the industrial scale that Alexander has managed to sign. 

If people want to continue and pay money to watch this drivel then that is their choice. I do not.  I take my hat off to the 5000 brave but deluded fans who bought a season ticket. I live 5 minutes from Fir Park and you couldn't pay me enough money to watch what is simply shite of the highest quality.

If the support as a whole become vocal in calling for the managers head then I think the board will act. They have done so in the past with Baraclough, McGhee second time around. 
 

But as I’ve said before, we have issues at the club that run far deeper than the man in the dugout. A massive clear out is needed, on and off the park. 

[Spiderpig]

40 minutes ago, MJC_mkII said:

If the support as a whole become vocal in calling for the managers head then I think the board will act. They have done so in the past with Baraclough, McGhee second time around. 
 

But as I’ve said before, we have issues at the club that run far deeper than the man in the dugout. A massive clear out is needed, on and off the park. 

"Motherwell were outclassed by an inspired Sligo Rovers as the hapless Scots were deservedly dumped out of Europa Conference League qualifying."

Waking up in Sligo and reading that  headline from the BBC match report, " outclassed by Sligo Rovers ffs" that should be all the evidence the board need to get rid of Alexander, before this season starts badly as it will with his tactics etc i only hope someone at Fir Park has the balls to do it.

 

[Motherwell Daft]

Doubt it piggy doubt it 

[Ya Bezzer!]

I said in the very beginning despite a 7th and 5th league placing our fans had an irrational dislike of Alexander and were just waiting to get him.

I said Motherwell fans should manage their expectations as we might well lose - they didn't and we did.

I said that Scottish teams at our level have a negligible gap of superiority over League of Ireland and none with start of season fitness - I was right.

I said none of our outfield players would be stand outs in the League of Ireland - Sligo were better in every area.

I said we'd probably lose last night - again correct.

Now instead of going into some demented Daily Mail reader style rant, Motherwell fans have to face reality.

We are a small self financed club, we have probably our worst ever squad because we cannot pay wages and we've sold all the family silver and there is nothing left.  

 Alexander has comfortably kept us up with a very weak squads twice.  It would be utter folly and an incredible and dangerous risk to fire him now. 

Bringing in an unproven manager, with this squad,  could be a history altering decision for the club and not in a good way.  Falkirk anyone?  Dunfermline anyone?  

We lost a Euro tie.  Our Euro record is abysmal.  1 win 15.  Big surprise.   Alexander doesn't get any free pass.  He'll be judged on his league results.  Now stop this mewling red faced infant tantrum stuff and behave like thinking adults. 

Back in the day when I was almost a lone voice trying to protect standards at our club I was derided, dismissed even threatened in private messages.  Well you know what, that time has passed, sorry Motherwell fans but we are where we are and it's time to eat the gruel YOU ordered.

This ridiculous bi polar fan base standing ovations one match, utter rancour the next, sometimes even within matches (Livingston) is going to drag our club down into a very bad place.

[joewarkfanclub]

1 hour ago, Spiderpig said:

"Motherwell were outclassed by an inspired Sligo Rovers as the hapless Scots were deservedly dumped out of Europa Conference League qualifying."

Waking up in Sligo and reading that  headline from the BBC match report, " outclassed by Sligo Rovers ffs" that should be all the evidence the board need to get rid of Alexander, before this season starts badly as it will with his tactics etc i only hope someone at Fir Park has the balls to do it.

 

Hapless and deservedly dumped, no doubt, but outclassed?

Thats just nonsesne.

As I posted elsewhere, Sligo were organised, hard working, defended well and waited for our mistakes which duly came.

They didnt outclass us. If they had it wouldnhave been 5 or 6 on that perdormance.

[wellfan]

37 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I said in the very beginning despite a 7th and 5th league placing our fans had an irrational dislike of Alexander and were just waiting to get him.

I said Motherwell fans should manage their expectations as we might well lose - they didn't and we did.

I said that Scottish teams at our level have a negligible gap of superiority over League of Ireland and none with start of season fitness - I was right.

I said none of our outfield players would be stand outs in the League of Ireland - Sligo were better in every area.

I said we'd probably lose last night - again correct.

Now instead of going into some demented Daily Mail reader style rant, Motherwell fans have to face reality.

We are a small self financed club, we have probably our worst ever squad because we cannot pay wages and we've sold all the family silver and there is nothing left.  

 Alexander has comfortably kept us up with a very weak squads twice.  It would be utter folly and an incredible and dangerous risk to fire him now. 

Bringing in an unproven manager, with this squad,  could be a history altering decision for the club and not in a good way.  Falkirk anyone?  Dunfermline anyone?  

We lost a Euro tie.  Our Euro record is abysmal.  1 win 15.  Big surprise.   Alexander doesn't get any free pass.  He'll be judged on his league results.  Now stop this mewling red faced infant tantrum stuff and behave like thinking adults. 

Back in the day when I was almost a lone voice trying to protect standards at our club I was derided, dismissed even threatened in private messages.  Well you know what, that time has passed, sorry Motherwell fans but we are where we are and it's time to eat the gruel YOU ordered.

This ridiculous bi polar fan base standing ovations one match, utter rancour the next, sometimes even within matches (Livingston) is going to drag our club down into a very bad place.

Are you Alexander? 

[joewarkfanclub]

12 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I said in the very beginning despite a 7th and 5th league placing our fans had an irrational dislike of Alexander and were just waiting to get him.

I said Motherwell fans should manage their expectations as we might well lose - they didn't and we did.

I said that Scottish teams at our level have a negligible gap of superiority over League of Ireland and none with start of season fitness - I was right.

I said none of our outfield players would be stand outs in the League of Ireland - Sligo were better in every area.

I said we'd probably lose last night - again correct.

Now instead of going into some demented Daily Mail reader style rant, Motherwell fans have to face reality.

We are a small self financed club, we have probably our worst ever squad because we cannot pay wages and we've sold all the family silver and there is nothing left.  

 Alexander has comfortably kept us up with a very weak squads twice.  It would be utter folly and an incredible and dangerous risk to fire him now. 

Bringing in an unproven manager, with this squad,  could be a history altering decision for the club and not in a good way.  Falkirk anyone?  Dunfermline anyone?  

We lost a Euro tie.  Our Euro record is abysmal.  1 win 15.  Big surprise.   Alexander doesn't get any free pass.  He'll be judged on his league results.  Now stop this mewling red faced infant tantrum stuff and behave like thinking adults. 

Back in the day when I was almost a lone voice trying to protect standards at our club I was derided, dismissed even threatened in private messages.  Well you know what, that time has passed, sorry Motherwell fans but we are where we are and it's time to eat the gruel YOU ordered.

As one of the more respected posters on here, Im a bit disappointed with a lot of the content of your post.

Sure there are some fans who have irrational expectations and sure there are fans who have never liked Alexander, but thats not where we are at here.

Last Thursday and last night we have a situation where the vast majority of fans have turned on the manager. 

That didnt happen overnight, it was a slow war of attrition as gruelling as watching Alexanders brand of football for 18 months.

I normally base things on where my thoughts are. Im a pretty loyal guy and one of the last to turn on any manager.  So when it gets to the stage that Im at the end of my tether things are pretty bad.

I fully supported Alexanders appointment, I thought it was brave out of the box thinking keeping us away from the usual "jobs for the boys" merrygoround that is Scottish Football.

I havent been a big fan of his brand of football, but in the first 12 months I saw teamwork, organisation, togetherness and spirit that made us the highest points accumulating team in the top flight behind the big two.

In the last 7 months, that has all gone.

The boo boys will always be there. Every club has them. But when you lose the majority of the support, its because something is seriously wrong and it rarely ends well.

I dont think most fans do disrespect the league of Ireland. I think most understand it has improved significantly, whilst ours has, in the main, regressed. But no one looking at that game last night can come away thinking Sligo are world beaters. 

You can talk about standards slipping and you would be correct. You can talk about them being half way through their season and yes, that does make a difference.

But you know what, Alexander knew all of those things before we broke up for the summer. He knew the dates of the games and he picked the pre season programme and schedule. Despite our dwindling resources we still have a bigger budget than Sligo, we still have better facilities and infrastructure.  One of our outfield players WAS a stand out in the League of Ireland, thats why we signed him, but because we wont play to a system that suits our players, he was invisible last night.

So Im sorry, any failure to be ready for these games falls on Alexander, and its just one failure too many for me. He has lost the support, he looks like he has lost the players and shows no sign of accepting this and doing anything about it.

Thats what will get him the sack.

 

 

[Great Balls of Shire]

7 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Its hard to know where to start with a performance like that.

With the greatest respect, Sligo arent even that good a team. All they had to do was be organised, work hard and wait for our mistakes. The sad thing is, that was more than enough and they thoroughly deserved to progress to the next round.

We have been none of those things since Christmas and it cant all just be down to losing Tony Watt.

When I saw Tierney in the team I thought that maybe GA was gonna change things up a bit, but alas no. Just more round pegs in square holes.  No surprise really when the same level of performance was served up. 

The substitutions equally as mistifying. Given how little of the ball Sligo were having, why not take a defender of and put an extra midfielder or forward on? Bringing Shields on for Spittal made absolutely no sense, and his triple substitution? The only positive out of that was that Goss provided a little better quality on the cross ball, but by then it was too late.

Its taken me a while, but I dont think GA has any intentiion of changing his tactics/philosophy, so reluctantly, I  cant support him any further. I dont think he will be sacked before Sunday.  But he should, and I dont think he can survive a defeat in Paisley, with a home game the following week.

 

 

sunday must be a stick on for a draw, saves both manager's jobs...mind you was sad to see Robbo go, but , sorry Graham , change is required

[Spiderpig]

35 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Hapless and deservedly dumped, no doubt, but outclassed?

Thats just nonsesne.

We were never allowed a sniff at goal all night, the Sligo keeper never had to make a serious save, their defence was well organised, they moved the ball quickly and got in behind us on numerous occasions especially after 3 mins and scoring a beauty from the free kick, they sat back virtually the whole game as they had us sussed and knew we carried no threat, and took their chances when they came.

So for me that's being outclassed by an opposition  and they got what they deserved a place in Q3.

[Great Balls of Shire]

55 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I said in the very beginning despite a 7th and 5th league placing our fans had an irrational dislike of Alexander and were just waiting to get him.

I said Motherwell fans should manage their expectations as we might well lose - they didn't and we did.

I said that Scottish teams at our level have a negligible gap of superiority over League of Ireland and none with start of season fitness - I was right.

I said none of our outfield players would be stand outs in the League of Ireland - Sligo were better in every area.

I said we'd probably lose last night - again correct.

Now instead of going into some demented Daily Mail reader style rant, Motherwell fans have to face reality.

We are a small self financed club, we have probably our worst ever squad because we cannot pay wages and we've sold all the family silver and there is nothing left.  

 Alexander has comfortably kept us up with a very weak squads twice.  It would be utter folly and an incredible and dangerous risk to fire him now. 

Bringing in an unproven manager, with this squad,  could be a history altering decision for the club and not in a good way.  Falkirk anyone?  Dunfermline anyone?  

We lost a Euro tie.  Our Euro record is abysmal.  1 win 15.  Big surprise.   Alexander doesn't get any free pass.  He'll be judged on his league results.  Now stop this mewling red faced infant tantrum stuff and behave like thinking adults. 

Back in the day when I was almost a lone voice trying to protect standards at our club I was derided, dismissed even threatened in private messages.  Well you know what, that time has passed, sorry Motherwell fans but we are where we are and it's time to eat the gruel YOU ordered.

This ridiculous bi polar fan base standing ovations one match, utter rancour the next, sometimes even within matches (Livingston) is going to drag our club down into a very bad place.

ive never been one to call for manager to go, so why , like a lot of others , are we saying ga must go? There has to be better than this

[David]

9 hours ago, steelboy said:

It's also pretty obvious the players aren't playing for him. The situation with SOD is farcical.

This is key for me. Motherwell have been in this position before, but usually the players are still behind the manager, such as with Robinson. It just wasn't working for him. But there's something else behind this I think.

Obviously we'll never know for sure, but the team just looked completely disinterested last night. 

However, with that said, I'd be shocked if Alexander was sacked any time soon. I think he'll get until October at the very least, and if things are looking horrible then he'll be let go. 

[El Grew]

Alexander said after last night’s debacle “We have to be honest with ourselves.  We weren’t good enough tonight.”

Really!!?  Wake the f*ck up. We haven’t been good enough now for over 25 games!! 

 

[stv]

3 hours ago, MJC_mkII said:
 

But as I’ve said before, we have issues at the club that run far deeper than the man in the dugout. A massive clear out is needed, on and off the park. 

Rubbish . We have a bad manager ok. But we have just renewed the full playing surface and sub surface , upgraded the stadium, finances seem alright , sold loads of season tickets again , in the cold light of day last year was a successful season ,top six . All within the confines of a relatively small support. Where are you making that up from. We are no Barcelona after all . Wring out yer knickers .