Leaderboard

Richard Tait even at his worst was a better right back than anyone in the current squad. Robinson wasted him on the left . Don't know why he cant see we need a true right back.

Nothing like a match like last night to kick you in the stones at the start of the season - missed sitters, missed penalty, missed challenge... and Allan Campbell just missed.

Morning all my first Motherwell game watched last night well most of it my stream failed last fifteen minutes! The result was obviously a disappointment but as a newbe I enjoyed the game and for what it's worth this is my assessment, The negatives we started very slowly for first fifteen minutes we were pedestrian Ross County were pinging the ball around us, The penalty having seen it several times I am convinced Gallagher did touch the ball before taking their forward down from the referees view point it was a clumsy challenge and awarded the penalty which was well put away giving Carson no chance. At this stage of the game we looked misshapen especially at the back with no pace to counter Ross Counties left winger in particular The not so negatives after the goal we then started to improved while Ross County sat back we clawed ourselves back into the game not pretty to watch but 60% poccesion says domination away from home. The positives Carson one increabable save from an almost point blank range kept us in the game as this early stage but then the penalty which gave Carson no chance that said overall very assured with hands and feet Donnelly in particular stood out playing some great defence splitting passes that deserved better but let down by his penalty miss Last fifteen minutes my comments are based only on post game highlights Lang and Seedorf completly changed the balance of the game total domination on another day we walk away 1-2 winners as the manager said you win games by putting those chances away. The Lang sending off was very clumsy unessasary it was only just over the half way line and the player still had a wall of Motherwell players in front of him, no idea why Lang made the challenge Which deserved a clumsy yellow not a stright violent conduct red. Never mind we move on its a marathon not a sprint early days let's see where we are after the magical 10 game mark and be not to damming after just the one game.

If you just changed you mind it’s ok, it was worth a go.

Some ridiculous over reaction by many Motherwell fans tonight. To listen to Kris Boyd and some of our fans you'd think RC had us on the rack. Other than one effort early on the caused us no problems. We did enough in that game to win it as pedestrian as we were. If we have 60% possession in most of our games we will win more than we lose. The over reaction to the defeat is because tonight was so typically Motherwell they build us up then we can't deliver when expectation is there.

It was a shocking performance, however some of the comments are way over the top. Making judgemental comments about new player’s after 45 or 90 minutes is pointless. Polworth made more chances than any other player in the Premiership last season yet he’s being unfairly criticised after one game. If they’re playing as poorly after 6 games then I’ll judge, but having watched the ‘Well for decades I know to have patience and to trust the manager, especially the current one. This is a team led by a damn good manager who finished in 3rd place last season. Calm down guys.

First of all on a forum level, albeit its almost all down to the fact none of us can get to games at the moment, its quite nice to see a match thread almost hit double figures in pages again. Just like old times! Remember your friendly forum will still be here for your pre and post match rants when we can get back inside grounds again! As for the game itself it was one of those losses that really rankle because so much of it was self-inflicted. Daft challenge for the penalty, abysmal attempt to convert ours and passing up a couple of decent opportunities when they came our way. Robinson said as much himself but we're marking time a little until we get to the end of the transfer window. Whether it's Campbell or Turnbull or whoever the breadth of choices in midfield suggest we are future proofing for a sale. That being the case there was always going to be a decision to be made as to the make up of that midfield. It looked like Robinson fudged the issue to an extent to begin with and concocted a somewhat curious looking midfield to start with. What I would say is that playing David Turnbull on the left-wing didn't cost us the game, but we certainly weren't as effective as we might have been in that opening half. I don't quite agree with the suggestion that we are resigned to playing 4-3-3 because we have no other options but it is a formation that helped us do pretty well and if we are going to use it, it makes sense to use players in the roles they are most effective, most suited to it and that brings the necessary balance within it. If that means Polworth (whom I really rate and were it not for having Turnbull around would have starting most weeks) has to bide his time so be it. If it means one of O'Hara or Donnelly are benched then again so be it. The penalty you could see coming. Difficult to contest. From then on in I thought we gradually took control of the game but it was particularly painful viewing in the first half as they sat back, let us pass the ball around for a couple of minutes at a time until it wound its way to Grimmy and he fucked it out the park. The anticipated and obvious change came at the break and the balance got a lot better. We just didn't create many chances from our territorial dominance and missed the opportunities that did come. I felt a bit sorry for Lang. Foul in the opposition half. Cover behind him. It seemed harsh. Assuming we do start with a genuine winger against Dundee Utd I presume that will be Hylton and I hope in Lang's absence he can look as similarly revitalised as Seedorf did in his cameo. McGinley showed a good bit more last night than what we saw in the Rangers friendly and a "new" defence that included Lamie and the returned Carson and was only beaten by a penalty gives us something to build on. All in all not especially great but that it was really through us shooting ourselves in the foot that prevented us coming home with a point gives a modicum of comfort at this point in time. You would not want to go very much longer before we register that all important first win however.

Manzinga signed for Linfield.

You guys do remember how honking Donnely was at Left Back....moving him to RB is madness

I actually felt for Hastie a bit last night. If we play him we need to play to his strengths and thats getting him running on to the ball at pace or getting a pass facing forward where he has space to run into. The few times we did that he actually skinned the young RB, the problem was that most of the time he was chasing back in cover Grimmy and getting the ball with his back to goal, where the County RB just shut him off. Ironically when Seedorf came on we then started putting him into space down the wing to make runs! And those wondering about wether pre season call offs affected us, Ross County played only 3 games, 2 of them within 24 hours, and had another game called off. Why were they then better organized, fitter and hungrier? Weve painted ourselves into a corner with our recruitment. 4-4-2 neuters Turnbull because the wingers arent good enough defensively meaning He & Campbell would be pissing in the wind most games. We cant play 3-5-2 as we now dont have any viable wing back options. So we are limited to 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, variations on the same thing essentially. Donnelly started as a RB but Robbo got a hardon about him playing DM. We MUST give Donnelly a run of games at RB now as Grimmy is fucking hopeless, when the commentator is laughing at your inability to complete a fucking shy you know the game is up! We also need to get away from this modern abomination of inverted wingers too. Get Hastie on the left, Seedorf on the right and let them get to the by line. Gk. Trevor Carson (Scott Fox) Rb. Liam Donnelly (Liam Grimshaw) Lb. Jake Carroll (Nathan McGinlay) Cd. Ricki Lamie (Yusuf Hussein) Cd. Declan Gallagher (Bevis Mugabi) Dm. Mark O'Hara (Barry Maguire) Dm. Allan Campbell (Dean Cornelius) Am. David Turnbull (Liam Polworth) Rw. Sherwin Seedorf (Jermaine Hylton) Lw. Callum Lang (Jake Hastie) St. Tony Watt (Jordan White / Chris Long) That above is our best team , Starter & Backup (only RW really a question mark) this is the blueprint we need to start with and work from. Fuck this square pegs in round holes bollocks. Keep the team settled and formation stable, play your best players in their best positions, make sure the players are fucking fit, and stop thinking you are Guardiola. Its not fucking hard really

Lots to digest. Robbo clearly got the starting selection wrong. We looked unbalanced from the off and it cost us the first 20 mins. I get that we have so many options now in midfield and up front, but not one of us would have David Turnbull anywhere other than in the middle controlling the game. He is our best player. Play him where he is most effective. To be fair to Robbo, he did change it around and we looked much better 2nd half. I dont agree with those that say DT and Polworth cant play together. They are both good footballers and if both played centrally they will easily find ways to break teams down. Against better teams though we may have to drop one for a more defensive player. Those criticising the defence. Other than the penalty and the shot that hit the bar, Im struggling to think of any clear cut chances Ross County created? Certainly 2nd half there was next to nothing. I share everyones concerns re Grimmy, much as he is a great guy, he will cost us at right back and we do need to try someone else in there. Donnelly, OHara? The manager does aslo leave himself open for criticism for not getting in a replacement after Tait chose to leave. However, the rest of the defence looked fairly solid to me. Lamie looks an upgrade on Hartley. He is certainly more mobile and his distribution is better. Positioning needs a little work but thats to be expected in a new team. McGinley for me did great after a shaky start and grew into the game. At 23, he has time on his side to improve. Midfield/Upfront, surprised to see no Campbell. Hopefully he is not offski as we will need him going forward. But Donnelly and OHara are good defensive midfielders. Whether we need them both on the park against Ross County is another matter. OHara was unlucky to be subbed as he had been the better of the 2 in the first half. Donnelly is a player I like. His athleticism is suited to the Scottish game but he needs to stick to what he is good at. He should never be on pens when David Turnbull is on the pitch. That decision alone cost us a point. Similarly corners. Polworth needs told no floaty pish! Get the ball driven in for our defenders to attack or stand aside for someone that will. To be fair to the players both decisions should sit with the manager who needs to get that sorted out pronto. Lang looks a decent addition on that brief cameo. Certainly has enough pace and trickery to trouble teams at our level. Bad miss and terrible judgement for the red card, albeit it should only have been a yellow. Hastie either needs played on the left, or given considerable work in training to go past his man and cross with his right foot. Far too predictible at the moment, as he was before he left for the dark side. Long needs to get sharper quickly. We have competition for places now, so if he cant hit the net, he might be out the team. Makes some really good runs, but if he is played as a loan striker we need to forget wingers and play thru the middle. The pass from DT to him when he hit the post was sublime and thats how to get the best from him. Formation wise we could certainly go with 2 up top, but that may weaken us further back the pitch. Finally, the surprise package of the night, Sherwin Seedorf! Where was that guy all last season? Other than his goal v Hearts he offered little. Here's hoping it wasnt a flash in the pan last night. Giving Jake Hastie some competition for his place could be very beneficial to us. Overall, very disappointing result last night which was mostly self inflicted. However, there were lots of positives and if we can learn our lessons and find a settled formation, there is still much to be positive about.

I feel like the possession and shots stats are a bit misleading, as for the most part we didn't do much of note and RC were happy to sit in and soak it up. Dead balls were poor barring one or two corners, and the decision not to play never mind start Campbell is a weird one (hopefully carrying a minor knock, and not anything more sinister like an imminent transfer...) Having said all of that, we controlled most of the game. Gallagher will win us more points than he loses us over the course of the season, we're not going to give away daft penalties on the regular. We're also not going to miss penalties on the regular. The defence was totally untroubled all night, and McGinley looks like he may be able to offer something going forward and give Carroll a good bit of competition. The red card was also incorrect in my opinion, not sure if we will appeal it but I did think Lang looked very promising. Seedorf was also looking very good when he came on - despite what some others have said on here, you're an outright liar if you think he should have started as he was totally ineffective for 90% of last year regardless of what side he played on. Also worth bearing in mind he was up against an 18 year old debutant who had played an hour of football more than he had, be interested to see if he is as good against more established defenders when on from the start. All in all, I'm still fairly optimistic for the season ahead. Turnbull needs to be central, and Campbell needs to play. He's maybe not as mobile as Grimmy but I'd even look at moving Donnelly to RB to accommodate it as our distribution down that side was poor last night. Not a fan of the inverted winger when teams don't come on to us and leave space in behind, I'd be quite happy dropping Hastie to play Long/Watt through the middle with DT in behind pinging through balls for them. I'd rather play with no wingers than having a lop-sided team that is totally ineffective out wide.

IF we field 2 wingers on Saturday then we have to play with a pairing of Watt/White/Long up front i.e. a 4-4-2 formation or start with either Watt or White on their own up front but not Long (just seen your post WEllwell91 after posting myself) Looking back on last night I just wonder if our disrupted pre season led to a lack of preparation? I had thought that Robbo would have tried to give his preferred 11 a 90 minutes run out beforehand to iron out any snags or issues or finalise experiments. Maybe he was like a kid in a toyshop; just too many players from which to choose a starting 11. Certainly he overthought things. Anyway lets hope we don't repeat organisational mistakes from last night or indeed last season. Right back? Maybe time to test Donnelly there or give young Dean Cornelius his much overdue chance.

Part of the game is knowing when not to make a challenge. When players make these sort of challenges when it's completely unnecessary it actually really irritates me. It wasn't a red for violent conduct but some times I think players deserve red cards just for stupidity.

Does Grimmy need to take the throw ins, could he not be the duffer who receives the ball and plays it back to the thrower who could be a ball player, possibly straight out the park 50% of the time but that would be a higher retention rate than last night.

It's the first game. Plenty of time to iron out the creases. Should we and could we have won last night? Probably. County scored and then tried to see the game out for an hour, putting everyone in two banks of defence, making it difficult to unpick through the middle. Hastie didn't look interested in beating his man for much of the first half, but glad to see that Seedorf did. McGinley made lots of positive runs down the left and put in some decent balls, the one for Whyte in particular. Long and Turnbull linked very well in first half and penalty aside, Gallagher and Lamie coped well with anything coming into them. Distribution from Dec was hit and miss. Donnelly's miss was as poor as you'll see and Grimshaw seemed like he had the wrong boots on. Carson did what he had to, Lang looks like he could be a handful and with quality delivery from either side, and better Polworth set pieces, Whyte could be a Sutton/Higdon type target man. I agree with the gaffer, that while the result is obviously at the forefront of everyone's minds, there were a few positive signs to be seen from the squad last night. The bar has been set for "worst" performance of the season so we can only improve from this point on.

Can I change mine to 10th?

He managed to talk Celtic into signing Virgo as his best mate was the manager.

This was my thought, but might not have been the Club's decision

We missed Hartley defending and attacking corners as well.

I remember getting his autograph when I was about 9 or 10 (I'm now 68!). I was visiting my uncle in Law Hospital and Willie was a patient there as well having suffered a bad leg break. Long long time ago but I can still remember how pleasant he was to me.

Nope, I believe he is in it for the long run