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Apart from the 3 Semi Final's they've played each other in the last 3 years?

Its quite simple for me. Robinson has 6 games to save his job. Anything less than a minimum of 10 points from our next 6 games and he should be sacked. And I dont trust him to spend more of our money in January! The facts are that his record in the transfer market is horrific, and we are now pishing money down the drain paying wages for guys like Grimshaw, Sammon & Gorrin that we simply dont need. Our squad is bloated and very unbalanced. Also, another fact is that our league form in the last 11 months has been horrendous. Our brand of "football" makes your eyes bleed, were throwing points away every week and the only thing that kept us up last season was Louis Moult & Ross County (being awful), both of whom are now gone!

The thing I don't like is the rhetoric that we are being punished for individual mistakes and then losing by the odd goal, seems to be implying that we make one mistake, lose a goal from it and lose the game. That bad luck is playing it's part and it will turn. It's absolutely ignoring the fact that what's actually happening is we're making 10/15 mistakes in dangerous areas every single game, and losing a goal from at least one of them is inevitable.

I can see a wee bit of that hysteria creeping in among the fans, but I do think it's completely devoid of perspective at this stage. Since August we've played 8 games. 3 of them we'd have hoped to have won (Dundee, Accies, Livi) - we've won 2. The other 5 were against Rangers, Hearts, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen. We've lost 4 and drawn 1 however, it's not 2012 anymore - the city clubs have got their shit together and are miles ahead of us in terms of finances and recruitment. Despite that, with the exception of Hibs on the opening day, there hasn't been a great deal between us and them. We really need to wait until after the opening round of fixtures to ask this question.

Unlike when we finished 2 nd a few years ago and the support swelled under McCall.... ..let's face it Motherwell managers have a pretty short shelf life with some "supporters " .....Robbo did a great job last year with 2nd lowest budget in the league, let's give the guy some backing.....I still reckon we will be pushing for top 6 when the dust settles.

You need your hole. What a miserable fucker you are.

Immediate thoughts.. I don't really agree with Robinson and some others assessment of the match. This wasn't a brilliant performance by any means. We were decent in spells but quite disjointed. We started well but Hearts quickly grow into the game after the penalty. Bigi's mistake was absolutely horrendous at this level. He had a shocker overall. From there Hearts had total control and had various chances. 2nd half we came out and managed to play even worse. There was a 15 minute period where we actually didn't seem to win a single header or challenge. We sat deeperand deeper and to me Hearts could have had 2 or 3 easily. We had some decent blocks in there so credit where it's due for that I suppose. It's just disappointing at the moment. I know Hearts are a much stronger team but I don't feel like we are playing to our full potential just now. The midfield balance looked off to me, I think we lacked Rose's legs in there. In terms of positives I thought Cadden looked a lot better in spells than he has been recently. Bowman's overall performance, hold up play and goal were fantastic. He deserves his place in the team back. I actually thought Donnelly done well too, someone I hadn't been too sure about. I don't think we should have any kneejerk reaction here but I think it's fair to question the current form and this constant chatter that 'decisions aren't going for us but we are playing well'. Ultimately we have had a hard run of fixtures and I still have faith in the guys to beat the teams around us over the next month or so.

I was pretty happy with my lot last year. Yes the football wasnt always the prettiest but nowhere near as bad as some made out. 2 cup finals and just missing out on top 6 seemed like pretty good progress from the year before. If Im really honest, I am disappointed we havent kicked on this season and built on last years success. There are reasons for that of course, losing Cedric was always going to hurt and injuries to Dunne, Tanner and Bowman havent helped our start. Main has been carrying an injury and Caddens form has dropped right off. My biggest disappointment is that other than Aldred, who isnt really new, and Johnson, who has shown some promise, none of the signings seem to have made any impact. Gillespie seems a decent back up and may eventually replace Carson. ATS, I think was signed as the left wing back we were needing, but for whatever reason hasnt shown enough to be picked. Donnelly and Mbulu are both young and probably signed as development players who might make us money in the future. Gorrin was clearly signed as a replacement for Bigi who has ended up staying so hasnt really had a chance. Sammon is the one signing that I cant fathom. With Main, Bowman and Johnson and Newell all on the books I just didnt see the need for him. I dont think he is absolute shite but we have 2 players who can play his role better. We dont know how much of last years money the manager got to spend. You can bet it was a relatively small proportion of what we made as we have to take these opportunities to pay down the debt. We also dont know who was available in our price range that wanted to come to us. That said, I would still have expected us to be able to see some improvement in the quality of the squad which hasnt really materialised as yet. Im not overly concerned with the results so far with the exception of Accies who we should have beaten, and some of our performances, particularly against Rangers have been good. Its a long season ahead and there is plenty time to improve. I still think Robbo is the right man for the job, albeit I think he has made mistakes in team selection and substitutions at times, but he is as good a manager as we are going to get and I think he buys into the ethos of the club and what we are about in terms of being a fanowned community club. Much rather have him than some of the usual suspects. There is plenty of room for improvement though, and now that we are out the cup he will have his work cut out keeping the baying wolves from the door.

No real shape to the team and a lot of aimless kicking (Although Bigi could have used that) Considering how disjointed we are, we can still run the "top" teams pretty close, so I have got to think that a few changes from the manager and we could be alright. I think we have a few winnable games coming up so I'm willing to wait and see how we look after those. I still think our only major F*** up has been against Accies but we have to make sure we minimize the number of F ups through the season.

This topic is spread around the various match threads, but I’m interested in people’s thoughts on where we expected to be at this point in the season, and what our problems have been. For me, the only result so far that I would have expected anything else from is the Hamilton one. I can’t remember the last time we could have realistically gone into games with hearts, hibs, rangers and Aberdeen and expected anything other than losses. Hibs is he only game that we could say we were never in it, but the other losses we had late opportunities to take something, and may also have some grievances regarding decisions. So my guess is that the points tally isn’t the issue here. The way we play gets plenty of attention, so if we had the same results but with more attractive performances would that change the perception? I don’t think anyone was happy with the signings as a whole, so where could we have done better (within our budget)? I’m not really decided, I may have lower standards based on the Motherwell team I grew up with, but I don’t think our style is that bad. I’d say that bringing in a proper left wing back is the biggest mistake we made in the summer. Either way, I think there is a lot of pressure going into the more “winnable” run of games. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am trying to get my head around the fact that we got lucky against Accies, Dundee, Hearts and Aberdeen (x2). I think Rangers were in there as well on the way to a league cup final. That certainly is a lot of luck over 540 minutes of football. Unfortunately I just can't get my head around it, which makes me think that maybe it was not so lucky after all.

The Motherwell Holy Grail, 1931-32 League Championship Medal

We scored 9 and conceded 1 (a penalty) on our way to the final. That's entirely down to Robinson.

Currently I don't see us challenging for the top half but I'd still like to think that we have enough about to be free of relegation worries when the business end of the season comes around. But the point you make about going forward is a good one. Now other than remarks I've seen attributed to Robinson I have no idea what our budget actually is but is it generally reckoned that we are coming in with the second or third lowest budget in the division. If that continues to be the case, we do maintain the sale of an asset each season, then we do run the risk of the post-administration years where things regressed to that point under Malpas where if the season was week longer we'd probably have gone done. It takes us back to what I remember being an excellent discussion last season where (Ya Bezzer springs to mind) made the suggestion was made that the focus had shifted too much from the team to concerning ourselves with the financials. Perhaps there is a case? Personally for now I think we are managing things fairly well between eradicating the historical debt, given that with each month that passes the period of those favourable terms becomes more limited, and ensuring we remain competitive on the park. I tend to think that taking a longer term view that a couple of years with more modest investment in the playing side in the short term is going to be worth it if you're able to secure the future of the club and will therefore be better placed to increase your investment in the team for a more sustained period further down the line. The difficulty of course comes when you hit that sticky bit as we kind of have now. Do you hold your nerve and stay on course, release funds for a refresh of the team in January or as some evidently wish, look at a change in the dugout? A test of nerves for sure that one!

A sweeping generalisation there. People are more than entitled to their views in regards to our manager and most don't want any of the above as an alternative. I'd probably guess most would be looking towards Craigan and Lasley as the men in charge firstly then to look outside the box if they don't want the gig. We've recruited incredibly poorly on the back of a financially beneficial season where we stayed in the league despite some absolutely horrendous runs of form and results. We should have been on the front foot trying to build on that good fortune as opposed to "just staying in the league" again. If those in charge at all levels set us up as a team to avoid relegation, packed full of journeymen and English lower league dross, season after season; we will inevitably be relegated in the not too distant future and will find it extremely difficult to bounce back quickly. As a footballing side we are somehow regressing and it is glaringly obvious to most the many deficiencies our team has. It's a big few months for Robbo with a run of very winnable fixtures from now up until the winter break. If things haven't improved by then, there will certainly be a call to make by the board whether he stays on and if he and his scouts are allowed to sign anymore players. I do genuinely hope he turns it around because I like him a lot, but the statistics, the results and the product on show are conspiring against him.

Fair comment. Its still only late September but I do question some of our summer signings. Gillespie and Johnson look good, whilst one or two others like Gorrin remain untested. Aldred? I like him as a player but not as a replacement for Kipre. To me he and Hartley are similar and its disappointing that after an injury to one defender, Dunne, we have to move McHugh back. ATS I don't get. I expected him to slot in, albeit after a a long term injury but he just doesn't seem to have impressed. Sammon? I agree that we needed another striker but not him. Hindsight is a great thing but we could have still improved the fringe squad slightly but also brought in another decent striker and centre back. In ohter words brought in slightly less but better quality players. Lads like Maguire and Turnbull can do a turn if only in an emergency. Bigi is a real enigma to me. On his day, against lesser teams, he can provide some creativity but struggles against better sides. He's no defender though. Still he is what he is and Robbo will pick him or not knowing his strengths and weaknesses.

Our league form last year from November on was relegation form. If it wasn't for a decent start and a dismal county/thistle pairing, we'd have been in real trouble. We need to be honest and say that despite cup finals, we were not a good side last year, and summer recruitment has made us worse. Let's not even start on tactics. There is next to no football in this side - just poor quality journeymen.

I really like the cut of Robinson’s jib and it does the club no good to be sacking managers every other season. However....,his summer transfer dealings have been astonishingly bad, the whole approach of strengthening “12-18” whilst ignoring glaring deficiencies in the first 11 in itself, coupled with a disappointing start to the season has put him under pressure even at this stage. I certainly wouldn’t trust him with any more funds in January! Unless we pick up an extremely modest 4 points from the next 3 games then there could be a decision to make. Sitting on only 4 or 5 points after 9 games doesn’t bear thinking about!!

Having never been a massive fan of Robinson, I wouldn’t be sorry to see him go. His style of ‘football’ is atrocious to watch and I’m sure was part of the reason why, despite two cup runs, we never managed to capatalise by really building any significant growth to our support despite the finals of last season. If I was swaying, I wouldn’t be ‘driven’ to watch this Motherwell Team - it’s pretty brutal most of the time. He seems incapable of stringing a few good performances back to back. As stated elsewhere, the signings have been bloody awful. I’m sorry, but Frear is just not up to the standard required, meanwhile we have a bench and squad outwith the first 11 pretty much dominated by low quality Robinson additions that bring absolutely nothing. Sammon, Donnelly, Gorrin, ATS, The eternally injured striker etc etc. the list goes on of sub quality players bloating a squad and contributing nothing. He has built a squad devoid of any real quality (outwith the goalkeeper) and given our own youth a back-seat, meanwhile is happy to chime on in the media about needing to bring in guys which aren’t the finished article. I’m sorry Mr Robinson, however you’ve been the architect of your own misery here by handing guys like Grimshaw and Rose contracts to Back-seat players like Turnbull who could’ve been playing alongside 1 quality midfielder whereby two salaries could’ve been combined to one, to allow us to bring in someone closer to the finished article. Same can be said strikers and defenders. Ultimately, the squad isn’t laden with quality ,which is self evident at the moment, and the buck stops at Robinsons door for that. Yes, guys can put in effort, however that’s the absolute minimum that you should be guaranteed each week from paid professionals in any walk of life. What we’re lacking is talent and a manager who seems capable of really understanding that and working out ways of making is very difficult to beat until such times as that can be remedied.

Yep, he’s done exactly what he was signed to do while clubs with similar playing budgets, Thistle, Dundee United, Ross County, Inverness are now in the championship. The time to judge is the start of November after a run of games we should be picking up points from. If we are bottom two at that point the club will be under pressure to act but at this point not a chance which is as it should be.

It might be worth recollecting what Robinson's remit has been since he became Motherwell manager. Both he and the club have stressed regularly that first and foremost it is to keep us in the top division, have decent Cup runs and ideally try to sell a player a season. Given that he's retained top flight status twice, never failed to reach a Quarter Final whilst selling on three players no matter how little you rate Andy Rose or how basic you believe the style of football is, he's done the key things asked of him. Not to say that will still be the case in six months but for now I can't see the club having any plans to move him on at the current time.

Motherwell v Rangers 26/8/2018 Was a fantastic game of football. The man you blame was in charge.

Agreed. Penalty apart Main couldn’t strike a ball, sclaffed everything. I genuinely believe Johnson in the first half would have scored one of the chances he had. Bigi’s mistake took all the pressure from Hearts and gave them the impetus at a killing time. Every game at the moment we make a mistake and get punished for it.

Maybe a wee blessing in disguise because after Robinson gets punted and we go back to 4-4-2. WE can concentrate on not getting relegated.

Agree..the mistake for the goal is clouding peoples opinion....Grimshaw has been worse! Keeps giving the ball away....

When Robinson goes its Lasleys job. Not sure thats a good thing but its what will happen