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*Yawn* Asked my mate Claude what caused Alife to apply for unemployment before at Rosenborg...interesting reading.... Coaching style and methods Possession-based and proactive. Pressing from a tight 4-3-3 that requires wide midfielders to cover a lot of ground both inside and outside. It’s very demanding physically and cognitively. Fixated on detail and philosophy. VG described him as a coach with a clear philosophy who is extremely focused on detail. That’s the strength and also the source of most of his problems. Willing to use gamesmanship. He drew criticism in Norway for having ball boys remove opponents’ towels for long throws, and he defended it with a quip about not wanting guests bringing their own furniture. Decisive, not consensus-driven. When asked about dressing-room complaints at Rosenborg, his answer was essentially that he listens to feedback, uses what makes the team better, discards the rest, and someone has to make the decisions. Taken one way, that’s leadership. Taken another way, it’s a coach who doesn’t think morale problems are his to fix. Rosenborg: how it went wrong 2024 (first season): genuinely good. The appointment was widely ridiculed at the time. Club legend Jahn Ivar “Mini” Jakobsen called it very strange. Johansson still finished fourth, won manager of the month in August, and Rosenborg were described as the best team in the Eliteserien in autumn 2024. In Europe they beat Banga and Hammarby and reached the final Conference League qualifying round. On the back of that he was given a contract extension to 2028 in August 2025. 2025: the unravelling. The season started well and then fell apart. Several factors combined: Loss of key players. Nypan and Broholm left, and TV 2 pundit Jesper Mathisen said the recognisable Johansson style had largely disappeared without them. He called it a grey version of the side from twelve months earlier. Goals dried up. Rosenborg were heading for their lowest goals-per-game average since 1986. Results. 16 points from 14 games, then a run of seven league games without a win, finishing seventh. They lost 4-0 at HamKam and were humiliated 3-1 at home by KFUM Oslo. The dressing-room issues, which are the important part for you: In September 2025, VG reported grumbling in the dressing room that had lasted weeks, aimed at his leadership style and his selections. TV 2 then reported a “culture of fear” among players and staff. This is the most serious allegation in his file. The worst incident came after a late equaliser against Sandefjord. Johansson confronted 19-year-old Jesper Reitan-Sunde so harshly in the dressing room that other players reacted, and the story leaked. Johansson’s explanation was that he was frustrated and angry about the result and critical of how they defended. Captain Ole Selnæs’s response cut both ways. Publicly he said he didn’t recognise the VG picture and that every dressing room has a few unhappy players. But he also gave a half-time TV interview so pointed that pundits read it as a sign something deeper was going on. After the leak, his anger was directed at the leakers (“embarrassing and shocking, we can’t have people like that”), which tells you there were people inside willing to brief against the manager. An Adresseavisen commentator described players turning up to training as though out of obligation.

Great post

The best period was the 10 minutes where Longello and Kanga worked well together. The most entertainment was Eythor’s fresh air swipes.

Is he following the blue print though? I’ve said this about hearts previously, they’ve lost the heartbeat of their team & have continued to follow the path have we? not 1 poster thinks we should be the level of last year….but what is this managers philosophy? if we’re successful we’ll lose our team if we’re shit we’ll lose our team its just the level of club we are, it should be better than it currently is either way

Behind the goals for this one, the manager won’t hear the abuse, no resignations.

My mate and I were saying in January we should have punted him. Even during his hot streak there were questions for us about his game but anytime anything was said about selling him in January was met with howls of derision. Next to no Motherwell fan wanted him punted in January so its kinda hard to now say the board dropped the ball.

We need a performance with zero mistakes and ruthless finishing to come from nowhere. Difficult to see that happening but desperate for something to turn for us.

Said for me i thought he was excellent the whole game, never stopped running, a special mention for SPH, he had a couple of decent chances and was unlucky not to score.

Aye rejecting the alleged £2 million bid from Anderlecht seems like a big error now if it was true. Given how we cashed in on our previous one season wonders like Higdon, and Bair, for me the board dropped the ball with TJ.

Thought Said put in his best performance since August, always looking to drive us forward. Also thought McGhee done very well after all his injury issues. Mental that was his first start since signing.

Well said, great post.

I think we need to do some serious soul searching as a support as to what we want the club to represent and what we want the future to look like. As a club we were on a rinse and repeat cycle of managers who offered short term fixes and early purple patches only for the results and performances to quickly slide and for the mood to turn grey around Firpark. I have read the same posters on here very quickly call for the head of just about every manager we have had for the last 25 years. Askou offered a new vision last year and we were all dazzled by what the future could potentially be. Unfortunately though it was somewhat of a mirage because it is simply not realistic to expect that we could repeat last year's achievements with a new manager. I think time will prove Askou to be exceptional. The only chance we had for a repeat of last season was to keep him into this season and that was never really realistic. Where does that leave us? To pull a second rabbit out of the hat was always going to be very unlikely. Askou was probably the managerial find of this century in Scotland. No other club has really managed something equivalent. It is very very hard to do. Even if we did by some miracle find an equivalent he would last a year and be gone. That as a model is unsustainable. What Askou did leave was a blueprint of how the club can move forward therby gaining a sense of sustainability and stability for the future. We have brought in a young manager that buys into that vision, playing a modern brand of football, with a reputation for coaching young players, Are we really going to ditch him ( and potentially the blueprint) after 3 months and the first signs of trouble? I have heard comments about AJ being inexperienced and out of his depth. He managed Rosenberg for 3 seasons, one of which they played in the Champions League. Motherwell is not a step up from that. He has experience. He has managed at a very decent level. Just maybe the young manager has a really tough task on his hands. Just maybe he needs time to get it right. Just maybe if he does get it right we will once and for all leave behind the rinse and repeat short term fixes that has plagued us ( and every other club) on and off for the last 25 years. There is no guarantee that a replacement could do any better. Look at how Hibs are struggling (foreign manager), look at how Kilmarnock are struggling (Scottish manager). Do we really want to give up on this already?

There were definitely signs of improvement performance wise today and with a bit more composure I think we would have taken something from the game. Two good finishes from Hearts but nobody tracks Braga and a poor clearance from O'Donnell, albeit I think a bit unlucky it lands straight at Miller's feet. In the next week we desperately need a couple of 90 minutes performances with minimum mistakes and conversion of chances or even something to fall for us.

Stats are irrelevant pish, Hearts had not won a game away from Tynecastle since January 26 until today. So its how the team performs on the day that matters, previous or current form or lack of count for nothing. We created a fair few really good chances today and took none of them thats why we lost, repeat the decent play that made those chances and convert them into goals and we may win on Wednesday night. Thst said we are hopeless up top just now so hopefully a solution can be found, so keep the faith people.

We dont seem to have any luck with injuries, ever.

Less than 4 points from this weeks games and he needs emptied. nice enough guy, but you don’t win games on that basis

Lowry is out for a good few games. He won’t be seen until after international break at the earliest

Get off your phone and get us a large cruzcampo............said Mrs grizzly 🤣🤣

If anyone thinks this team goes to Perth and wins they really are optimists. St Johnstone last 6 games won 2, drawn 2, lost 2 8pts out of a possible 18 Goals for 5 Goals against 8 St Johnstone conceding on average just over 1 goal in last 6 games Motherwell last 6 games won 0, drawn 0, lost 6 0pts out of a possible 18. Goals for 5 Goals against 12 We are conceding on average 2 goals a game in our last 6. They also have home advantage. I would take a draw right now.

Cheers bud 😎

😂nothing enjoy the holiday mate 👍

I have given plenty views......I am on holiday!! Can I just relax? 🤣🤣

So I understand….. Uv got nothing to back the manager on….nothing? it is a truce, I’ve got an opinion nothing more, nothing less….uv got a different opinion…..but nothing to back it up?

That's why I ain't a football manager.....and definitely not a comedian 🤣🤣, lets just call a trucecand hope for 3pts on Wednesday

Yes it does. If we look at Thor, Palmer-Houlden and Hendry,for example, none are out and out goalscorers. More a Ryan Bowman type rather than a Louis Moult. Maybe the first 2 are looked upon more as projects. The last goalscorer type we signed was Ap Stam. I've assumed, maybe wrongly it has to be said, that our 3 current strikers were signed with a view to them creating chances for others.