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- Today
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He's an honest trier I'll give you that, but he's definitely shaded this year and even when Carroll has played Grimshaw has been our first choice right back, a point made originally by OTF. Despite my early reservations, Carroll has looked decent when he's played but neither he nor Grimshaw are good defenders. When they play, more often than not avoidable pressure is put on the central defenders and goalie. We do not have a decent right back nor back up left back.
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To be fair I do think Carroll was brought in to rectify this. I don't think Tait has started a game at left back this season unless Carroll has been suspended or injured.
- Yesterday
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Who should have played at left back on Saturday?
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Richard Tait was brought in as a Right Back and is a brilliant Right Back in my opinion. Cannot agree enough with you that he's wasted at left back, been saying it since last season. How can the management team not see this. You see it week after week that he's not comfortable and it's costing us. Wake up Robinson and fix this before we lose Tait at the next transfer window because where from where I sit he does not look happy.
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It's comforting to think we're 3rd in the league and our best player hasn't kicked a ball all season. Either he comes back into the team and improves us or we sell him for decent £ and we will still be challenging for top six.
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Keep Turnbull and sell Polworth for £4 million. Sorted.
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I don't know. I think we might be "protected" in January to some extent if Celtic don't meet the original valuation given that he extended his contract until 2021 in March this year. But if when he recovers he doesn't quite reach the heights of last season and we begin to move into that last year then I would think that would be quite a dilemma for the club. Do they hope with a full pre-season he recovers the form of old or begin to lower their expectations a little. Tricky one again.
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The main duty of a defender is to defend … anything that they offer going forward is a bonus As said above we have a midfielder playing at right back whose positional sense in the position leaves a lot to be desired and a right back playing at left back !!!! A back four needs defends as a unit and having two out of the four struggling in with positional sense of the role we are in bother Also with only playing 3 in midfield if as was the case on Saturday young Campbell has an off day [ normally does the work of 2 men in there ] we struggle defensively
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at aberdeens 1st goal on saturday when we were down to 10 men tait was away up the park supporting attack when if he had been in line with his central defenders the pass into inside left channel would not have been as easy. Our full backs get caught out attacking at wrong times. Tait was also out position at celtics 1st i think with grimshaw out position at ross county. Saturday was really disappointing due to fact we were down to 10 men and someone should have been saying right lets hold the ball till we are back to 11. We are all being a bit too harsh i feel on everyone as saturday and ross county were both imo decided by lack of experience which you only get by playing. Maguire still has loads to learn obviously and although campbell has played lots of games now trying to hold the ball in the position he was in on saturday was crazy. also gallagher should never have passed to him. The 3rd goal was a great strike and 9 times out of 10 i would fancy gillespie not getting beat from that distance. Charles dunne at left back is most solid option for us defensively as hes not as keen to charge up the park but unfortunately he will not be for a while due to injury. Because our midfield is imo lightweight and we play with 2 wingers i feel we need 2 defenders at full back rather than the ones we have which primarily want to attack
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To be fair we’ve had defended out injured and suspended this season with a full back playing on the wrong side and a midfielder playing as a full back.
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The 'Magnificent' David Turnbull Discussion Thread
Yorkyred replied to sailor_h's topic in Club Chat
I doubt it will go on long. Celtic well and truly in the driving seat this time. That injury will end up costing the club big style. People thought 3 million was not enough, watch what he goes for now. -
The 'Magnificent' David Turnbull Discussion Thread
ScottW1886 replied to sailor_h's topic in Club Chat
Can you imagine if there's not a working scanner that day.... -
How do we compare with the rest of the league as regards goals lost in away games? I don't know the answer I was just wondering.
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With one more home game to go before the first round of fixtures is complete, we've now shipped more goals at home, 10, than any other team in the league and we're in 3rd place. Yes, we have deficiencies up front such as the lack of an out and out striker, but I think our main weakness lies in our defence. Sunday's game in Glasgow will also prove a severe but interesting test. Tellingly , all our goals against at home have been conceded to other top 6 sides. We've recorded clean sheets against bottom 6 opponents. Its not all down to the back 5 though. Defence does start further up the pitch. Our central midfield seems to lack confidence and sits too deep and perhaps doesn't put in enough effort off the ball in closing players down. Saturday's 3rd goal illlustrates this well. Aberdeen take a throw in deep inside our half with our midfield sitting very deep. No-one covers at the throw in and the Aberdeen lad can move inside unhindered and fire off a shot on target without a tackle. Our wingers don't protect the full backs. Our full backs sit far too deep and infield making it easy for opponents to get to the by line or fire in crosses. Whilst our centre defenders aren't world class they're not too bad, or at least Gallagher isn't. I'm not sure we have the right partner for him though. The above mentioned weaknesses makes life difficult for the centre defenders and Gillespie. They're left exposed to runners and crosses, avoidable corners and shots coming in. Now our defensive frailty could also be due in part to tactics i.e. getting caught on the break. Our defence does seems to be short of top 6 standard. Its concerning too that many of our defensive weaknesses have been apparent in games against bottonm 6 teams but fortunately their attacks haven't been good enough to punish us. Overall we've done well this season so far to reach 3rd place so thats the overall context of my post, but there is undoubtedly scope to improve our defence considerably.
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We'll be in a good position to really judge our progress after the first round of fixtures is complete i.e. after the Kilmarnock game. The Livingston game will also be a useful barometer.
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Whilst I’m not looking forward to Sunday, we may still well finish the first round of fixtures in 3rd place which is a vast improvement on last season. Even after our defeat on Saturday I think there is still reason for optimism. We find ourselves in or close to being third after having played everyone and we all know there is still lots of room for improvement. COYW
- Last week
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I expected Polworth to take the penalty
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I don't want to lose full stop and a 3-0 loss does nothing for the goal difference either but the manner in which we lost yesterday will hopefully lead to lessons being learned more than it were a narrow scrappy single goal loss. For there is plenty to learn from. My eyebrows were raised a little when James Scott stepped up to take the penalty. I don't really know who else on the park would have been a candidate mind you but I was impressed at his eagerness and lack of fear in stepping up (I remember thinking likewise when David Turnbull took his first penalty also). It goes down as a miss but at first viewing it seemed more a great save than bad miss. The loss of the first just compounded the frustration. The build up to it has been well discussed, and to be fair to Cosgrove it was a great finish, but suddenly from licking our lips at taking on a team that apparently had to put two full-backs in midfield to put out a team, we were now a goal behind to team with a minimum of six defensively minded players. And we just never really seemed to come to terms with it. The second just seemed to perfectly illustrate the malaise when two of your most consistent performers of the season fanny about, lose possession and gift them what even as early as it came felt like the clinching goal. Their third was another good finish whilst we waited to bring on another forward. It certainly raises major question marks over whether we have it within us to be contenders for in and around 3rd place but the more realistic target of a top half finish remains very much achievable. A defeat to an Aberdeen team, regardless of scoreline yesterday, expected for finish above us isn't going to change that. Given how we defended and the potential loss of Hartley I can't say I'm confident at all and looking forward much to next Sunday though.
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Cadden at right back v Hastie on left wing yesterday, Hastie got a shot away that Cadden punched off the line, Cadden’s team wins, so what but I thought it was interesting.
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I would agree with all of that, we will never know if things would have turned out differently if the pen had gone in, they may have lost a bit of confidence. I though every players was a good 10% down yesterday and as a team we were very sloppy. I thought we missed Donnelly who would no doubt have put away the penalty and is a better fit in midfield than Maguire who I still think is a centre half learning his trade. Robinson has stated he was told Hartley was going back on so no real blame on him there. I still think the main thing we lack is a competent centre forward and that’s going to be the difference this season. I don’t believe Cole or Long are the answer, Long never seems to have the ball fully under control and Cole is still very much a work in progress, Scott will get there but is still a bit off.
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Agreed That was my point earlier Grimshaw never a full back and Tait never a left back … hence we were weak in the wide defensive areas Any team that does their homework on us will expose this area
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This was the game where it all went wrong: a missed penalty, an unfortunate injury to Hartley, a goal lost while down to ten men, a silly mix-up and a freak goal. Aberdeen did not have to try very hard to get their points, which was most disappointing. How important that first goal is... We seemed to lack a leader without Hartley, Campbell looked jaded after Scotland duty and once again we struggled to get behind a packed defence. Without Donnelly our midfield was easily outmuscled. I'm bemused by Robinson's habit of taking Scott off and leaving Seedorf on. The latter achieved nothing yesterday, rarely produced a final ball and for every screamer he has nine Row Zs. Scott is stronger and can actually beat his man, given the chance. With a proper striking partner Long might possibly be effective but Cole doesn't look to be that man. A pity we have to go to Mordor next Sunday after this knockback. I can't see anything but a confidence-sapping going over from The Hens and then only a few days to get the heads up for a well-organised Killie, Aberdeen mini-mes. Given our squad, this will be a yo-yo season as far as our performances are concerned.
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Amazed to see votes for Long and Gallagher...... Long played a huge part in gifting the first goal and was generally ineffective all afternoon, Gallagher played well in general, however he made two huge mistakes, one in the 1st half that wasn’t punished and one in the 2nd half that was (2nd goal).
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If back in January I anticipate another deadline day soap opera like in the summer, except this time not for a club-record fee...
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That will be more of a realistic test of our standing than yesterday's game Iain, given respective budgets. I've not seen a lot of Killie in the last couple of years but they give me the impression of being a hard working, organised, robust and solid side, but without much flair. Probably a very different team to us.
Twitter @MotherwellFC
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