joewarkfanclub

Im usually one of the last to turn, and tonight Im officially "concerned". Being beaten 2-0 by Celtic at home in itself isnt usually something to get perplexed about. But the nature of the performance and the failure of the manager to hold up his hands, or call it out are. There are many moving parts for which he will be given time. But some signs of a structure/gameplan/identity sometime soon, wouldnt go amiss.

Paulsen by a distance. With creditible mentions for Seb, who ploughed a lone furrow and Said who showed more in his brief cameo than most of the others combined.

He certainly had a bit of physicality about him, which was sorely missing today.

Alfred absolutely isnt going to be sacked anytime soon. The board have chosen a football philosophy for the club and appointed a manager to implement it. They simply have to stand by their man and give him time. However, he does have to start demonstrating he understands the problems and that he is able to coach improvement into the team and our performances. Jens didnt start well as far as points were concerned, but he was able to point to performances and quality of play as signs that things would get better. Right now our performances are getting worse and we are not picking up any points. One of those things needs to change.

Not gonna lie. Starting to get a bit concerned. I raised an eyebrow at the starting line up when I saw Vogt in it. However, I did feel more comfortable seeing Levitt's name on the teamsheet with what I felt sure looked like a box 4 midfield. What transpired though just looked weird. No idea why we set up the way we did with Hodge of the left. Lowry seemed to be playing in advance of Fadinger and Levitt with Vogt wide. It all appeared very lopsided. Ive heard Alfred talk throughout the break about wanting more intensity in and out of possession and about having more movement off the ball, but I didnt see any of that today. We let Celtic have the ball, didnt get in their faces, didnt track runners, didnt engage opponents in the tackle. It was so passive it was ridiculous. We were lucky to go in at the break only 1 down and the changes should have been made there and then. I really want Vogt to be a success, and he started brightly enough today, but he faded quickly again and by half time he needed hooked. Levitt was also having a very poor game, so I would have changed those 2 for Said and Kanga and moved Hodge back to the middle. The fact that Alfred waited until we were 2 down before making those changes is a real concern. As poor as we had been we were still in the game at that point and could have rescued something from the game. His comments afterwards are not filling me with confidence that he is seeing what we are seeing, or that he knows how to fix it. We now go to Kilmarnock next week where a heavy defeat could leave us at the bottom of the league. I do hope Im wrong about all of this as it IS too early to be calling for tge managers head. But its hard to ignore the alarm bells right now.

I think the biggest thing we miss about Slattery is his ability to take it in tight spaces and win fouls. It allowed us to get up the park and keep the pressure on opposing teams whenever it looked like they might get a foothold. Obviously he had great technical ability too, but I think Lowry has that in buckets. For me Just has been the biggest miss for his work rate and winning the ball back high up the pitch (not to mention his goals and assists), closely followed by Watt for his ability to dictate the tempo of the game. To lose all 3 in one window was a sore one. Hoping Oscar isnt far away from full fitness as his return will help us and a few more weeks on the training pitch should have helped build the relationships between Fadinger, Hodge and Lowry. Shame Williams has got injured as it would have been nice to see Longelo utilised further forward, but I guess he will maintain his LWB role for now. Looking forward to this today. Its been a long window, even for those of us who follow the national team, so good to get back to club football. Up The Well! 🧡❤️🧡

We are also 3 points off 5th. We do need to get points on the board sooner rather than later though. Not sure whether it will be tomorrow or not. Id settle for a good solid performance, to see that some of the work on the training pitch has been absorbed by the players. It would also be nice not to get ripped apart at the back.

I like Alfred. I think he treats interviews in a similar manner to Jens. Just with a little less menace! 😍😍😍

And telling Rangers fans they let their club die annoys them. Happy to play both sides of the coin! 😉😉😉

I think there is a general malaise right now because the sexy possession football stuff has been shown to be fallable. The overall feeling hasnt been helped by the fact that the SFA went down that route with Poconogli and the start he has had has been less than inspiring. Of course this totally feeds into our media machine and their old pals network of dinosaurs who are desperate to show that "Scottish Players Canny Play that way" Willie Miller on Sportsound on Tuesday night was a case in point. I did listen to The Hampden Roar Podcast today though and they had the Raith Rovers analyst on who has his A Licence and he was very much of the opinion that decent players of all levels can be coached to play this way and it just needs a bit of time on the training pitch. Hopefully we see an improvement on Sunday and, if Alfred is to be believed, the other side of the November break will be the time to truly judge him and this Motherwell team.

To be fair, when you get asked whether you are worried that the fans will not love you as much because the previous manager was better looking than you, Im not sure where he has to go! 😍😍😍

That would be hilariously funny! The meltdown would be spectacular! 😆😆😆

Watching the socials it appears that Oscar and Jordan McGhee are both back in training which is good news. Was also good to hear Alfred talk about intensity and movement in and out of possession. Shows that he has at least identified the problem. Ive felt all season that we just havent been showing for the ball enough and our rotations have been poor. Also Im not sure we have been working as hard off the ball to win it higher up the pitch. Whether he can coach that into the players remains to be seen. I guess we will find out on Sunday!

Its hard to know whether this would be a good idea or not. Ive heard people that know say that Gunn is the better goalkeeper. Ive also heard the same people say that Bain is better with his feet. Given our experience last year, having a keeper thats good with their feet can certainly help with the system Poconogli wants to play. If Bain is better with his feet, can he really be much worse than Gunn at catching it? It always feels like Gunn is a second slow going down to everything and his poppadom wrists are difficult to ignore. That said, if teams keep cutting thru us like a knife thru butter, does it matter who we play in goals? Maybe Lennon could get a shot there? 😆😆😆

Thats the problem......