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Ah'll dae the jokes.....or at least attempt to....

Well said pal

Meagre? I would say accurate. The Hibs win was excellent and the winning goal was memorable. We did however ride our luck. Against Helsinki, we were very good for 60 mins but we did require the individual magic of Said to make the breakthrough and clinch the win. Overall, I would say our performances have ranged from outstanding for the first 25 minutes in Paisley and very impressive against United, to alarm bells ringing against Aberdeen and dreadful versus Celtic and Stenhousemuir.

Dogs are intelligent creatures , Scottish journalists are not.

But. We have great journalists in Scotland 🤪

I thought AJ spoke well and there does a seem a determination about him. Not sure if that was Peter Martin firing some questions at him but jeez the journos are like a dug with a bone. Lets get this bad run out the way and have us all smiling again. COYW

Which is why they're likely enjoying watching the Motherwell fanbase lose their shit over our current plight less than ten games into the season. It provides an opportunity for them to point and say "Ah, you were lucky last year! JBA is obviously a great manager, and you lot just lucked out in getting him. We were correct though, and the answer is to end this silly 'experiment' with the foreigner who has never played the game and get back to reality!"

At the beginning of this season, we were pinging in crosses and shooting from the edge of the box. I’d like to see us start doing both again.

O’Donnel or JK at right back for me. JKL along with Moorman in the middle. as soon as Preistman is available i‘d put him in for hodge. Preistman amd Fadinger play well together. Hodge I think is more Suited to playing when we are ahead. I’d start Said again amd keep Lowry. Paulsen JK. JKL Moorman Longelo Preistman Fadinger JT Lowry Said PH I suppose Hodge starts if Preistman not back.

I see Johnny K is available for selection on Saturday. I wonder if we will see him make an appearance or whether SOD goes to RB with Sparrow in front of him. We certainly need to strengthen the RHS of the pitch somehow. We cant be go into Saturday as wide open as we were last week.

I see Hibernian are taking decisive action with some of their support for allegedly misbehaving, i wonder if it will catch on. Hibs ban fans group for three games after disorder - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cmde8dx2263lo

I am one of AJ biggest defenders but even i would question him if he started Vogt. Personally Sparrow needs rested also

Exactly why he needs to get the team selection and tactics right on Saturday. Trust has to be earned before it is given.

True, but do the players trust him? I'm sure several are pissed off after Saturday.

If your giving meagre praise in victory, hopefully same in defeat? We win as a team and lose as a team

I really hope not. That really would be verging on insanity. We need a result. He needs to play the players that have shown him he can trust.

I dont think we are actually miles apart in our viewpoints. I support a lot of what you are saying about the fans, lack of patience or knowledge about what may or may not be going on behind the scenes.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him start again on Saturday, with Sparrow dropped to the bench instead. "Don't back down, double down"

I think 20 - 30 minutes as a sub, and if successful putting him in against Kilmarnock away might have been kinder/less precipitous. But aye, its hard to see a way back for him now. I hope Im wrong. I really want him to make the grade.

Ok. When Wellfan, Kmcalpin and joewarkfanclub collectively disagree with my take on this, I have to admit defeat. As I said before the debate is generally a good one and the points you all make are reasonable. For some perspective regarding the weekend past, we do have to remember that Celtic have a budget that is x100? (is that an exaggeration?) our own and they were galvanised after an OF humiliation. I think if AJ had any doubts about the mindset of our fanbase regarding the patience for a project, he knows now. The good vibes of the warm summer European evenings are long gone and any mistakes the manager or his players make from this point onwards will be treated with generic football fans impatientce. We are not quite in the must win category yet but it is very quickly trending that way. I think it will turn nasty fairly quickly if we lose this weekend. AJ has made it past the Russell Martin October 5 th watermark but that is with a very good first month honeymoon period behind him. I have the fear for him unfortunately. Already there is no room for error. There is a slightly depressing air of familiarity about it all.

Thats the best way to find out if all the coaching, words of wisdom, confidence boosting, tactics etc that AJ and his staff have no doubt given Vogts in recent weeks has been absorbed and learned by the player. Sadly for me after his lack of any meaningful contribution last Sunday the answer would seem to be no. Stamatelopoulos was not up to standard but early on he gave glimpses of him potentially being a decent player, we dont even get that with Vogt, hes like a rabbit in the headlights no idea where he should be aimlessly wandering about the pitch. For me i really dont think hes at the or ever going to make the standard we need at the club.

I dont condone fans booing individual players at any time. As you say, it is entirely counter productive. Im also sympathetic to the general theme of your posts. But I agree wholeheartedly with the subsequent posts of KMcAlpin and Wellfan. Giving Willy Vogt his first start in weeks against the best team in the league was frought with danger. I could understand giving him 30 minutes at the end if the game was going well. But Alfred effectively threw him in at the deep end and told him to go swim.

In terms of responsibilty to individuals, we have discussed Willy Vogt's situation and understandably so. That includes the effect on him personally of hooking him. However, what about the effect on Tom Sparrow, of not hooking Vogt? Sparrow was made to look silly, by having no effective cover in front of him. That said, he still isn't a full back. So, its not as simple as looking at Vogt in isolation.

There’s a world of difference between writing someone off as a lost cause and taking them off at half-time after a shocking performance. He’s clearly a project player and should be treated as such. Probably not, but that’s on the manager for starting him in the first place. Regardless, I’d argue that the overall wellbeing of the team on the pitch takes precedence over any one player’s feelings about being hooked after a shite performance. At the end of the day, we lost to Celtic for a variety of reasons, one of which was shockingly bad player management.