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L Cup Motherwell v FC Edinburgh 13/07/2024


SteelmaninOZ
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We weren't even that impressive and that's probably the biggest mismatch of a football game I've ever seen.  Don't think our keeper even had a cross to take, never mind a shot.

First half was sluggish and a bit raggedy. Probably to be expected for the first match of the season against a side that wasn't putting any pressure on us at all.

Pretty much everything we created came from set pieces, clearly the Edinburgh City manager is going to have to work on that cos I think we could have scored 5 today from set plays.

The two young lads, while not pulling up any trees, looked fine.  You worry though about the number of jobbers in the midfield.  Fair play to Paton for constantly looking for the ball but he's not the kind of guy you want that high up the pitch.

Same as last season O'Donnell doesn't really offer you any width in forward areas and I though Halliday looked laboured yet again.

Goalkeeper and defence had the easiest day of their careers with literally nothing to do.

Need to sharpen up, play at a higher pace, have better shape etc but you'd hope that will come with games under our belt.

Think we do need maybe one or two players in though.  A creative midfielder at least.  

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We really need to sign a replacement for Spittal. Preferably someone who isn't made of cardboard or is Paton. The one man up top routine doesn't work without that piece of the puzzle. 

Halliday is still guff. You can see he has a good footballing brain and wants to make things happen, but his body isn't keeping up with his thoughts anymore. A benchwarmer at best now. 

Impressed by Wells today. Let's hope he gets more minutes and makes us another few million in a couple of years. 

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A routine victory against a team that looked like their goalie had called off and one of players says" I have a mate that can play in goals"

Balmer looks good and I thought Robinson looked decent when he came on.   Halliday decent at set pieces 

Big shout out to guy in hunter stand after 24 mins who was going off his nut about the performance,  seriously? 🤣🤣

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We didn't really learn much today at all,:

Goalie: Who knows!

Defence: Under no pressure, O'Donnell, Casey and Blaney played like they did last season, Balmer looked a good addition, but, he had all the time in the world, Wilson was ok but I think his lack of a right foot will be exploited defensively by better opposition.

Midfield: Did ok till they got into the final third. Like the defence, Davor, Paton and Halliday showed nothing that we didn't know about them but I was impressed by Wells in terms of attitude and skill, he has a way to go yet but the early signs are promising.

Up-front: Moses doesn't really look cut out for the lone striker roll but we thought that last season with Bair so time will tell.

Subs: Sparrow and McDermott looked ok, Robinson and Stuparevic looked skillful but possibly lacking in pace. Miller is a class apart but I didn't understand why he came on, had it been 0-0 or 1-0 and we needed a bit of impetus then fair do's, but at 3-0 and cruising it seemed a bit un-necessary. 

Still, good to be back to the real stuff, roll on Tuesday.

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Hard to judge that performance against that level of opposition, which was really poor.

Balmer certainly looks to have the physical attributes to succeed in the SPFL but will need to see him tested more before we know if he is any good.

Thought Wells looked decent and is certainly worth another run out. Moses and Robinson both look like they might have something to offer.

Apart from that it was a pretty run of the mill early season performance.

What was promising was that we looked stronger after the substitutions for a change which was nice.

Once our injured players come back and SK finishes his jigsaw puzzle we might have the makings of a decent squad. However much sterner tests lie ahead.

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Regarding Hegyi, all we could really see is that he came out of the penalty area quickly to sweep up loose balls and he occasionally kicked long to our forward players. Two improvements straight away.

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Agree with many previous comments. A comfortable, if slightly laboured, win against lower league opposition who didn't do anything apart from pack 11 men behind the ball. Given their tactics it was always going to be a test of our attacking capability. The game itself was a mixture of pre season preparation and serious cup tie and a 3-0 win suggests that SK got that balance right.

On paper the team and set up looked cautious and that probably reflected our injury list and desire to give certain players gametime. I get why we played 3-5-1-1 / 3-6-1 but we simply didn't have the players for it. We do need to have a plan B. Similar to the Livingston friendly in some ways, we struggled to create chances and lacked penetration against a deep lying packed defence. The fact that 3 defenders scored from crosses says a lot.  Our most productive approach was always going to be to simply overpower them and so it proved.

Balmer looked impressive and Paton caught the eye, despite being played out of position. He's an energetic jack of all trades master of none. Dylan Wells took time to adjust but came onto a game later on. A promising talent, his bruises today will tell him just how physically tough senior football is. He'll need to be gently phased in to first team football. I thought young McDermott also looked promising nwhen he entered the fray. I was slightly disappointed with Ewan Wilson. He didn't play badly and did very well to set up our third, but he didn't bomb up and down the wing in the way I thought he would. He has the tools to do it and SK reminded him fairly vocally several times to impose himself more. 

On the debit side, we are crying out for a striker who can play in the Bair single striker role and thats a huge failing at the moment. Moses looks to be a penalty box player who can do little else apart from put the ball in the net; an odd thing to say. Hopefully the incoming striker will fill that void. Without Nicholson we have no "No 10" creativity whatsover in midfield and thats also a huge weakness. 

It will be another 2 months probably before the team settles down and we find out our best starting 11. Early indication though is that the midfield seems to full of bodies but is unbalanced in its composition.

Still, a 3-0 win is a win.  

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45 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Agree with many previous comments. A comfortable, if slightly laboured, win against lower league opposition who didn't do anything apart from pack 11 men behind the ball. Given their tactics it was always going to be a test of our attacking capability. The game itself was a mixture of pre season preparation and serious cup tie and a 3-0 win suggests that SK got that balance right.

On paper the team and set up looked cautious and that probably reflected our injury list and desire to give certain players gametime. I get why we played 3-5-1-1 / 3-6-1 but we simply didn't have the players for it. We do need to have a plan B. Similar to the Livingston friendly in some ways, we struggled to create chances and lacked penetration against a deep lying packed defence. The fact that 3 defenders scored from crosses says a lot.  Our most productive approach was always going to be to simply overpower them and so it proved.

Balmer looked impressive and Paton caught the eye, despite being played out of position. He's an energetic jack of all trades master of none. Dylan Wells took time to adjust but came onto a game later on. A promising talent, his bruises today will tell him just how physically tough senior football is. He'll need to be gently phased in to first team football. I thought young McDermott also looked promising nwhen he entered the fray. I was slightly disappointed with Ewan Wilson. He didn't play badly and did very well to set up our third, but he didn't bomb up and down the wing in the way I thought he would. He has the tools to do it and SK reminded him fairly vocally several times to impose himself more. 

On the debit side, we are crying out for a striker who can play in the Bair single striker role and thats a huge failing at the moment. Moses looks to be a penalty box player who can do little else apart from put the ball in the net; an odd thing to say. Hopefully the incoming striker will fill that void. Without Nicholson we have no "No 10" creativity whatsover in midfield and thats also a huge weakness. 

It will be another 2 months probably before the team settles down and we find out our best starting 11. Early indication though is that the midfield seems to full of bodies but is unbalanced in its composition.

Still, a 3-0 win is a win.  

I read someone on here that Stuparevic is best suited to the 10 role so we'll see if he gets the opportunity to play there.

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2 hours ago, Mad Dog said:

I read someone on here that Stuparevic is best suited to the 10 role so we'll see if he gets the opportunity to play there.

I thought he showed signs of that in his limited time yesterday. Looked to me like he was planning  his next pass well before he received the ball. One move almost linked up all three strikers for a goal but the goalie saved at Ebiye's feet to stop a tap in. I would like to see Stuparevic given a try out in that set up role on Tuesday. He certainly needs a fair bit of game time before the league kicks off.

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  • SteelmaninOZ changed the title to L Cup Motherwell v FC Edinburgh 13/07/2024

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