Odense 2nd Leg

[Motherwell Football Club]

So you would bring a player on because he had a decent game 13 months ago ?

 

Silly question. We all know that Forbes can offer a moment of magic, tonight could have been the night. When they went to ten I wanted someone to come on, maybe not Forbes, but I wouldn't have moaned if it was.

[airfinz]

So you would bring a player on because he had a decent game 13 months ago ?

Better that than 7/8 seasons ago! Lasley is pish.......he was booted out a pish poor league 1 team for a reason. No number of lung bursting interceptions (for a throw in when there is no danger) will change that fact!

 

A midfielder that cannot control the ball nor pass is a waste of a jersey in my opinion. Yes, he tries hard, and perhaps the fact he gets paid to play football speaks volumes for the lack of quality in our national team......well that and of course the endeavors of our great manager!

[Well73]

Better that than 7/8 seasons ago! Lasley is pish.......he was booted out a pish poor league 1 team for a reason. No number of lung bursting interceptions (for a throw in when there is no danger) will change that fact!

 

A midfielder that cannot control the ball nor pass is a waste of a jersey in my opinion. Yes, he tries hard, and perhaps the fact he gets paid to play football speaks volumes for the lack of quality in our national team......well that and of course the endeavors of our great manager!

 

 

Lasley was class tonight. Covered every bit of ground and got in about the big number 18. Right enough tho airfinz if you say it must be true

[wellmanandy]

Close run thing between Murphy and Saunders, but I'll go for Murphy.

[Onthefringes]

Who would you have brung on?

 

The pace of the game would have passed Forbes by and there was no-one who was having a mare.

 

As for Lasley, I thought Traore ran the game in the first half hour, just a pity Lasley was chasing him.

That's where we missed Jennings tonight, not so much for his battling qualities, but, his energy.

 

Notable mentions for all, Murphy shaded it for me, only the style we adopted easing him out the game for a spell.

[Finlay]

Saunders.

[underboyleheating]

Special mention for Murphy who put in a good shift. He was always a threat going forward. Humphrey also ran himself into the ground. But my choice for last night has to be Saunders.

[dosser1886]

Lasley for me, always puts in a shift.

 

WTF is the score with Hately he looks unfit as fcuk blowing out of his arse the last 35 mins.

 

Blackman demoed why he is a fringe player at Blackburn good feet but couldn't score in a barrel of fannies. Hopefully early days and he will come good but we needed somebody last night with the ability to put one of those, what feels like, hundreds of of chances away and he wasn't it.

 

Missing the penalty about summed it up.

[gdalli10]

its a close one between hump and murphy for me. as for Saunders he's solid enough defensively but i wish he would show for the ball more and he needs to work on his distribution but he's only a kid and playing out of position so im not going to be hard on him.

 

thought reynolds played utaka really well last night as well.

[Andy_P]

Seems a bit inconsistent to me to read some absolving a 20 year old Jamie Murphy with about 100 appearances to his name for missing from 11 yards but willing to hang out to dry a 20 year old Nick Blackman with about a quarter of his experience for missing about 8 yards.

 

Their chances were both equally important and game changing chances but to hold it against one and not the other seems unfair.

 

I'm not quite getting how Jim Gannon's stock has risen either. I agree that there were changes that could have been made - at one point I turned to my mate and mooted Forbes for either Lasley or Hateley, or even fired Hutchinson up as a target man given we were firing loads into the box.

 

But I don't see where JG's noted acumen for positional changes and willingness to switch comes in on this occasion given were actually playing pretty well and were largely dominating the game. For me it ultimately boiled down to our strikers failing to take gilt edged opportunities rather than any formation or matters of personnel.

 

Oh and I'm still struggling to pick a MOTM between Murph, Humph and Saunders.

[steelboy]

But I don't see where JG's noted acumen for positional changes and willingness to switch comes in on this occasion given were actually playing pretty well and were largely dominating the game. For me it ultimately boiled down to our strikers failing to take gilt edged opportunities rather than any formation or matters of personnel.

 

exactly. everything was perfect last night apart from the finishing, we were a bawhair off one of our greatest ever performances. unfortunatey it was the same problems as the hibs game where we did everything apart from score the goals we needed.

 

i don't see where the criticism of lasley comes from either. his job is to win back possesion and get the ball to forwards and he did both those jobs last night.

[Steve Diggle]

I think we played really well as well. An excellent team performance - but tragically flawed.

 

As I've said many times but don't want to get into the guts of it again - Gannon's approach had a lot going for it. history has re-written itself. there's a thread on here from December time (less than a month from his departure)where the vast majority of posters were still in the Jim Gannon's Motherwell army camp. His stock hasn't risen - it's just been demonised and rubbished far more than it should have. Albeit his problems with the 'people' side of things have been well aired and us Gannon supporters need to take that on the chin. Unfortunately that's the reason why he had to go.

 

Without mentioning specific players - one of his big bug bears was our inability to play it out from defence at pace and on the deck. For me therein lies our biggest current problem and could be the rock on which our top 6 aspirations perish this year if not addressed.

 

we play the big punt game on sunday it will be like feeding buns to an elephant!

 

Oh and much as I respect the 'effort' that keith lasley always gives us every time he pulls on that shirt - his 'effectiveness' and 'success' isn't quite there.

 

We saw last night how much we missed jennings

[steelboy]

Oh and much as I respect the 'effort' that keith lasley always gives us every time he pulls on that shirt - his 'effectiveness' and 'success' isn't quite there.

 

We saw last night how much we missed jennings

 

i don't think we missed him that much. we dominated possesion, created plenty of chances and restricted their attacks.

 

i'd say we missed keith more on sunday than we missed jenno last night. last night we did everything we had to except score. on sunday we were gash and could barely get any pressure in the final third. hopefully they'll both be playing in tamden again this weekend.

[Ernie]

A close run thing for me but I thought Saunders just shaded Murphy and the Humph. I agree with what has been said about Humph he always crosses to the back post but we never seem to have anyone attacking from that angle. Blackman was in two minds about whether to head or kick and never really made up his mind, a few palyers took too long to make up their minds last night and I see no reason to have a go at anyone in particular.

As the game progressed I started getting to get the feeling that I had seen this movie before and that we wouldn't prosper as in the past. It was obvious that we don't have that bit of class that will allow us to progress in a tournament like this.

However, I enjoyed another wee sojourn in Europe with the 'Well and I look forward to the next. Hopefully that will be next year but one thing is for sure the rollercoaster ride that is being a 'Well fan is once again in full swing.

BTW we are the only Scottish team who got through a round in Europe this year and I can say that in the confidence that the h**s will probably be pointless in the Champions League. <_>

[milo]

I think we played really well as well. An excellent team performance - but tragically flawed.

 

As I've said many times but don't want to get into the guts of it again - Gannon's approach had a lot going for it. history has re-written itself. there's a thread on here from December time (less than a month from his departure)where the vast majority of posters were still in the Jim Gannon's Motherwell army camp. His stock hasn't risen - it's just been demonised and rubbished far more than it should have. Albeit his problems with the 'people' side of things have been well aired and us Gannon supporters need to take that on the chin. Unfortunately that's the reason why he had to go.

 

Without mentioning specific players - one of his big bug bears was our inability to play it out from defence at pace and on the deck. For me therein lies our biggest current problem and could be the rock on which our top 6 aspirations perish this year if not addressed.

 

we play the big punt game on sunday it will be like feeding buns to an elephant!

 

Oh and much as I respect the 'effort' that keith lasley always gives us every time he pulls on that shirt - his 'effectiveness' and 'success' isn't quite there.

 

We saw last night how much we missed jennings

 

That sums it up for me as painful as it is. The phrase "tragically flawed" has an all to familiar ring to it sadly.

[foghorn]

Las for me 100%

[CoF]

I voted Blackman. Thought the long ball tactics worked well as he was winning everything in the air.

[Steve Diggle]

I voted Blackman. Thought the long ball tactics worked well as he was winning everything in the air.

 

*rubs eyes in disbelief*

 

 

 

no great beef with your comment - but i just don't understand how we could say the long ball tactics worked. how can you define that as a success when we got papped out and our chances came primarily from work down the flanks

[hippo]

Saunders for me. The boy has come on a ton recently and is looking more and more like the real deal.

 

I don't get all this criticism of other players. We played well last night and the goal just wouldn't go in. Seen plenty of games like that over the years, just a pity it happened in a game as huge as last night's.

[CoF]

*rubs eyes in disbelief*

 

 

 

no great beef with your comment - but i just don't understand how we could say the long ball tactics worked. how can you define that as a success when we got papped out and our chances came primarily from work down the flanks

 

 

It's a funny one. I think Blackman had a job to do (win the punted balls) and he done that job very well. 9 out of 10 times he controlled the ball well or knocked it down for someone else. It was the starting point to a fair few of our attacks.

[andybug]

I must have been at a different game I thought Humphrey was rank rotten.

[Well Up For It!]

Can pick a fault in everyone last night, but can also give huge credit to them all...

 

Went for Blackman, showed great touches and full of running, marred only by his miss.

[joewarkfanclub]

The worst player I have to say was Blackman, he was a waste of space out there tonight and should be on the first bus back to blackburn.

I was in the Copper stand and couldnt believe how bad he is when the ball landed at his feet 5 yards out and he tried to head it and kick it at the same time

He had a couple of chances to get a shot away but wasted time.

I might be alone on this

But if hes supposed to be a striker he should be able to shoot on sight and not panic like a school kid.

Ref was shite and as for thier antics.

Bunch o cheating dirty Danish arseholes.

Sorry folks just had to get that out of my system

 

Dont mean to be critical, but I cant agree with you there.

 

Thought the big man was immense and led the line well, patricularly in the first half. Thought the number of times he plucked the ball out the sky when it was launched at him from 80 yards showed excellent touch and control and allowed our midfield to get up and support him. He also brought other players into play with some neat footwork at times.

 

That said, the miss WAS an absolute shocker!

 

He's not up there with Big Lucas yet, but I think Broonie has done well to identify someone who can at least have a go at filling his shoes.

 

As for MoM, thought everyone played pretty well. Hately was probably the most disappointing, but thats only measured against his performances last season.

 

Saunders and Reynolds merit special mention but I think for sheer impact in the first half it has to go to Murphy (like many others I would give it to Humphrey every week if the final product was there. Hopefully that will come!).

 

Overall, I should be gutted at not making the group, but for some reason 'm not. I just feel proud that we once again have a team that is capable of playing attractive attacking football. Gives us hope for the rest of the season, and who knows,maybe next year!

 

God Bless Craig n Archie.

[superwell87]

Humphrey gets my vote.

[MFCGaryMFC]

Humphrey. Unfortunately we don't have anyone clever enough to peel off to the back post when he crosses