Motherwell Vs Levante Discussion Thread

[pingu]

 

Humphrey was our best player last night, the pace he has scared the life out of them.

 

 

 

Sorry but Humphrey was ganting

[Brazilian]

Agree with everything apart from Hump wasnt our best (not bad but not best) and the diving Muzz, as you say the ref was good he didnt allow for any significant amount of that, he even booked one early for trying to get our player booked, the feigning injury and time wasting yes the were at it, and going down easily when only lightly nudged etc yeah (suppose that might be your diving?) but didnt relate to any amount of actual diving in my book

 

on reflection after half a nights sleep, I still cant believe the team are getting slaughtered for a first half performance as being worst ever performance and not up to the Pana performance etc, when to me it was clear they were under instruction, to keep it tight hold lines and not chase out and risk free kicks, not commit fully up the park and risk being left open etc

 

sure it was awful to watch, but the team were only a couple minutes away from achieving that first half goal, hard to say what then would have happened but 0-0 in the first leg would have been one of our best ever european results, shite to watch but a good result going into the second leg

 

sadly the mistake gave them the goal, and makes the first 42 minutes look like a waste of time for everyone.

 

after that the basic mistakes have been well covered, Murphy on left up against two or three, Hammell never venturing beyond him, only two in midfield against stronger opposition, high ball against stronger opposition, Fullbacks sleeping on the job, only really creating two/three chances on goal

[carlukemurray]

Wow, what a thread!

 

 

I'll just add my opinions;

 

1) Motherwell could have gone for it a bit more.

2) That said, they looked quite happy sitting back and taking what we had. Martinez (in the excellent programme from last night) said that is their style of play.

3) I think Levante had a lot more to offer, they simply didn't need to step up a gear.

4) It was also only their second competitive game of the season.

5) I would have liked to see Murphy move into the middle last night and offer us some pace there.

[Easy Target]

Humphrey was our best player last night, the pace he has scared the life out of them.

 

[weesacs]

higy a good player? He is shocking. He cant turn he cant use his left foot. He cant jump. He cant head a ball, i have had enough of this high ball to higdon crap. A striker needs balls played into space for them to run at, but there again higdon cant run !!!

 

you obviously do not know anything about football - he is that bad he was our top scorer last season. The bit in bold is the only bit i agree with!

and you;re last point, if all they need to do is run - why do we not sign a 100m sprinter??

 

Stevie Hammell was slow as shite for the second goal, why do we not play zaine over him? Much better player with pace and can run with the ball, something hammell can't do.

 

i dont think the second goal is Hammells fault, if i were to point the finger at anyone, it would be Law for switching off and not following him into the box. As I mentioned before, football isnt all about pace........Gary Harkins doesnt have it, but continues to rip through us everytime. An U17 team against an Over 35 team..........the 17s have the legs, but I bet the over 35s would destroy them. You can pass a ball quicker than you can run with it

 

Anyway - onwards and upwards, a good performance on Sunday will put the smile back on my face before heading out to Spain on Tues. Hopefully a few young lads will be given a chance on Sunday as we seem to have a few injuries. With Hutchy out of next Thursdays game, maybe Kerr will start alongside Cummins before being thrown in at the deep end in Spain.

 

I would like to see Carswell start with Las in the middle of the park, a bit more dig.........with Law either being more advanced or put back out wide. He has ability, we just need to find the best way to utilise it

 

SIWY

[AlmostFrazzled]

This "Levante are pish" patter amuses me, alright they're not exactly Barcelona but by fuck they are an effective side.

 

They're a better side than Panathanaikos, that's for sure.

[Wearethemotherwell]

I think you'll find that if 6th is the best they've ever finished, and they wind up back fighting relegation this season, then a fluke is exactly what it was.

 

 

You can get a few lucky results here and there but they played 38 games in the league last season. It makes no sense to suggest finishing sixth after playing that amount of games is a fluke.

[Wellfan1984]

Key word.... Last season. They will end around 17th if lucky, although Valladolid look good early on and have a highly rated coach in Dukić so 17th would be a success for Levante.

[Brazilian]

Key word.... Last season. They will end around 17th if lucky, although Valladolid look good early on and have a highly rated coach in Dukić so 17th would be a success for Levante.

 

and just to try and understand where this comparison is relevant can you make one of your educated guesses as to where Motherwell would finish in La Liga with only around 10% of Levantes resources?

[Bop]

Didnt even know what the score was when I woke up this morning and until I had a look on here I thought Hutchy had been subbed off.

[Wellfan1984]

and just to try and understand where this comparison is relevant can you make one of your educated guesses as to where Motherwell would finish in La Liga with only around 10% of Levantes resources?

 

Not sure what that has to do with anything. As I am not the one caught up in where a team who ended in a position last season despite them losing key players from that side and another from this not being able to travel.

[B.K.]

Agree with this x 10

 

 

"If the pace he has scared the life out of them"

 

Please explain the following.

 

a) twice in the 1st half, their full back beat him over a 10 yard burst.

 

b) 2nd half, their Right Sided midfielder chased him and caught him when he ran down the line at the full back.

 

c) 2nd half, when the ball broke out from a corner their centre forward beat him to the ball over a 20 - 25 yard run

 

d) Why only twice in 90 mins did he get beyond his man into space ( & one of them was a deflection)

 

Thats 3 out of 11 players that I seen that were no slower than our own speedy gonzalez.

 

I wish folk on here would realise there is more to playing football than being fast, they were fast and streetwise, took up the correct starting position, leaned in when they had to, slight nudge before getting up to speed and doubled up when needed, all easy was to nulify someone who is fast but niave, as well as powder puff.

 

If only it was as simple as pure speed, we could offer Linford Christie and Ballyregan Bob a contract and play them up front with the "HUMP" !!

[tottenmfc]

I don't want to go into too much detail about last night as I'll just end up raging again but can we forget this line of "Levante finished 6th in La Liga"?! The discussion is about one leg of a european tie where we attempted some horrible tactics and the manager never had the intelligence / ability to realise it wasn't working and change it. We failed to turn up last night and the first goal would have been embarrassing for a pub team to lose never mind a professional team playing in the europa league!

 

I also have to give special mention to Tom Hateley... why does he hit every single set-piece we get??? Even when it's set up for a left footed player he trots over and delivers his usual disappointing ball out of the park. Then there's the matter of him still pretending to be a centre mid and McCall actually encouraging this by moving him in there at the end, absolutely honkin!

[huggins]

Bit off topic but does anyone know what the flower presentation was all about?

 

Just a Spanish thing?

[Malky79]

We lost the game last night more than they won it for sure. They showed signs of being a good team, they looked a solid unit, they took their chances and as first half went on were controlling the game more and more.

 

Our defending at the first goal was criminal however. Should never ever lose a goal like that. That will forever be a source of irritation. Especially as after Cummins tackle on the boy that had to be subbed it had largely killed that bit of momentum they had been building.

 

Only plus side and it a small one was the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half. I don't think we quite had them panicing but we started playing a bit and were getting a bit closer to their goal and playing in an area where chances might have came. Nothing to concrete came out of that spell, a good Hump run and cross, Ojammas sclaffed shot, the poor effort from 25 yards when he had a couple of good options to pass. But if we hadn't given up another soft goal I think we good hvae kept going and maybe got something.

 

Overall the performance was a big let down, poor compared to how we played the Panathanikos game and we haven't done ourselves justice. I just hope the players put that frustration to good use in the next few weeks in the league.

 

I not going to slate individuals, everyone will no doubt feel they could have done better. Maybe Cummins and Randolph excepted.

[sailor_h]

Agree with this, McCall's build up to this game was wrong. To stress how much 'Well were underdogs despite having years of European experience compared to tonight's opponents must have set the team up to put on the crap performance that we witnessed.

 

 

Agreed! We went into this game defeated. McCalls interview before it was crap. For the first 20 mins or so, I thought we looked right up for it then we started the crap of just passing the ball about and not trying.

 

For me, until its impossible then you need to keep trying why the hell in the last 10 mins were we trying to hold on to a 2-0 DEFEAT?!?

 

Someone near us shouted, its this way, your scoring up here and someone else said do you think they know we swapped sides at HT?

 

Terrible mindset McCall puts across to his players

[WeeToonWellFan]

Sure they announced that the captain was presenting them in memory of Phil.

 

They then did the huddle to a chorus of boos.

[mfc88]

1345812785[/url]' post='357262']

 

For me, until its impossible then you need to keep trying why the hell in the last 10 mins were we trying to hold on to a 2-0 DEFEAT?!?

 

That really really pissed me off as well. The ties not over until its over and we really should have been doing everyting we could to give us the best possible chance next week, it would still be a tough task but 2-1 is so much more surmountable than 2-0. We could do something over there, they weren't any better than us - even if theyre Spanish and play in Barcelona strips.

Obviously Im often disappointed with results, decisions etc but this is the first time I have felt really disappointed in the team for some time.

[Brazilian]

Key word.... Last season. They will end around 17th if lucky, although Valladolid look good early on and have a highly rated coach in Dukić so 17th would be a success for Levante.

and just to try and understand where this comparison is relevant can you make one of your educated guesses as to where Motherwell would finish in La Liga with only around 10% of Levantes resources?

Not sure what that has to do with anything. As I am not the one caught up in where a team who ended in a position last season despite them losing key players from that side and another from this not being able to travel.

 

no but from your posts here and elsewhere you seem to have some knowledge of the spanish game, and you seem deeply offended that anyone thinks Levante are even a half decent side.

 

so surprisingly maybe I thought your opinion amidst all this mentality may count

 

Levante may not be a good Spanish side, but as many comparisons have already been speculated on and considering they have resources at least ten times we have, if you think they'll finish 17th, where do you think Motherwell would finish

 

PS I'd agree that the performance is more depressing than the result, but I think we tried to get a scoreline that ended Levante nil and it didnt work, and thus the performance looked so bad from not at least 'having a go'

[Brazilian]

Sure they announced that the captain was presenting them in memory of Phil.

 

They then did the huddle to a chorus of boos.

yeah the flowers were presented in memory of Phil

 

the boo's just embarassing, jeez we used to huddle at the start of the match, just shows how hung up some are about sellick

[weeyin]

PS I'd agree that the performance is more depressing than the result, but I think we tried to get a scoreline that ended Levante nil and it didnt work, and thus the performance looked so bad from not at least 'having a go'

 

Possibly true, but after the 42nd minute it was impossible to get that scoreline and a rethink in strategy was required.

[Brazilian]

Possibly true, but after the 42nd minute it was impossible to get that scoreline and a rethink in strategy was required.

and we did for the next 15-20 minutes played half decent, which they mopped up due the the inadequacies that have been mentioned, Murph wrong footed and doubled up, Hammell not getting beyond him, our midfield being out numbered and unable to pick out any killer forward movement due to be closed down etc. or being able to overlap Higdon holding the ball up

 

so that left around a quarter of the match and thats the section that disappoints me, as I think the changes couldve been better, but with some realism that we dont really have the resources to effect changes that turnaround matches

[WeeToonWellFan]

yeah the flowers were presented in memory of Phil

 

the boo's just embarassing, jeez we used to huddle at the start of the match, just shows how hung up some are about sellick

 

Booing the huddle was a bit daft in itself but it was pretty pish to boo when they'd just announced they were presenting flowers to us for Phil.

[Scarecrow]

Booing their huddle right after the presentation wasn't the classiest thing our support have ever done!!

 

Oh....and what was the partial standing ovation for Hutch after he got his red card all about?

[mfc88]

Hutchy was unlucky with his red card. He had no choice but to go for it and as soon as he did, gekas got his body in a position where he was going to be fouled. Clever play from gekas I suppose even if it's a bit sneaky. I'm more concerned at the fact we found ourselves in that position than the red card itself.