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Scottish Premiership Motherwell V Dundee Sat 27 Aug 15:00


Yabba's Turd
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2 points dropped. Said before the match Dundee weren't better than us and today proved that.

 

The story of the match was Chris Cadden roasting the left back and going down the wing, then looking up at the box to see Scott McDonald being man marked by a guy about 6 inches taller than him and two spare defenders to mop up any second balls. No one else. No runners, no Ainsworth, no Johnson, no Clay, no one at all.

 

That was the match, no changes made, no lessons learned.

 

Positives - Chalmers and Clay were as good as I've seen them first half although Clay fell off a cliff in the 2nd, Lasley has better legs than him by a mile. McDonald deserves a medal for bursting his guts for 90 minutes with virtually no support whatsoever and Cadden was tremendous. Tait and Heneghan seem like improvements on last season.

 

Negatives - Ainsworth and Johnson should be looking a Cadden today and coming off the field ashamed of themselves. No hunger, no desire, no energy, absolute jobber performances from those two. Both needed a kick up the backside at half time and either didn't get one or it wasn't hard enough.

 

If Moult and Pearson had played today we would have won comfortably. Unfortunately they didn't and we need other players to step up and make the runs into the box and no one did, whether it be through lack of confidence or just laziness.

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We didn't do too badly today some of our play was fine. No cutting edge and looking forward to Moult and others coming back and watching a Motherwell team that NEVER NEVER NEVER has Ainsworth and Johnson on the park at the same time. Anyway a wee break now and a welcome one for players and fans.

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I thought we were pretty fantastic in the first half in all honesty. Cadden was outstanding, and Lasley, Chalmers and Clay were all as good as I've seen them this season (and arguably in Chalmers' case, ever).

 

Much improved, though crashed a bit in the second half and McDonald must have been beyond pissed off getting left stranded as often.

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Excellent possession in the first half without really looking like scoring. Fell away badly in the second half.

A number of outstanding performances McDonald, Caddon, McManus throughout while others had an excellent first 45, Clay for example.

The team needs Moult back big time. McDonald has a thankless task and the centre of midfield can't or won't burst forward to support.

Certainly one of Johnson's worst performances.

On the whole a decent performance that could have been so much more. Early days yet, but we need to start turning possession into chances and goals.

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we badly need moult back in the team and when he is we really need too hope he stays fit because were struggling up front without him.when laing left i said hopefully we could use the freed up wages too sign a midfielder but after that today i think were more in need of a striker.

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A frustrating day but when you have too narrow a focus (i.e.only one striker) it's so much easier to defend against us.

 

Unfortunately we continually chose the wrong options (Johnston and Ainsworth in particular) but I thought the defence looked secure, although DFC had little to offer in attack. They look quite feeble without Hemmings and Stewart.

 

We look alarmingly sparse on the bench and Mr McG seems to have little faith in its inhabitants. I pray Moult is fully fit on return.

 

Activity in January would be nice.

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This was my first game in a wee while and I feel sorry for anyone who has to pay to watch that week in, week out. Both sides could have played until next Saturday and still not scored. Entertainment value was zero out of ten and it will take something drastic to tempt me back. Whilst I don’t think we will be in any danger this year, if we have any top 6 aspirations we will need to improve on that performance.

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Relatively content with a point. The first half performance was the best I've seen this season with the majority of our team looking good. There was a nagging feeling from early on however that we wouldn't score today and almost inevitably we ran out of steam in the 2nd half.

 

With McDonald always dropping deep to link up the play, we had nobody stretching the play or offering presence in the box. I imagine McGhee would have hoped for more from his inverted wingers in that respect.

 

The other big miss is in midfield. Cadden offers plenty of running power and Clay had a very impressive first 45 but neither offer that wee bit of a quality and composure Pearson possessed in the final third.

 

Work in progress.

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2 points dropped. Said before the match Dundee weren't better than us and today proved that.

 

The story of the match was Chris Cadden roasting the left back and going down the wing, then looking up at the box to see Scott McDonald being man marked by a guy about 6 inches taller than him and two spare defenders to mop up any second balls. No one else. No runners, no Ainsworth, no Johnson, no Clay, no one at all.

 

That was the match, no changes made, no lessons learned.

 

Positives - Chalmers and Clay were as good as I've seen them first half although Clay fell off a cliff in the 2nd, Lasley has better legs than him by a mile. McDonald deserves a medal for bursting his guts for 90 minutes with virtually no support whatsoever and Cadden was tremendous. Tait and Heneghan seem like improvements on last season.

 

Negatives - Ainsworth and Johnson should be looking a Cadden today and coming off the field ashamed of themselves. No hunger, no desire, no energy, absolute jobber performances from those two. Both needed a kick up the backside at half time and either didn't get one or it wasn't hard enough.

 

If Moult and Pearson had played today we would have won comfortably. Unfortunately they didn't and we need other players to step up and make the runs into the box and no one did, whether it be through lack of confidence or just laziness.

This is EXACTLY 100% agree

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I think people must have been watching a different game to me. McDonald was very poor and should have been the first one off.time and time again he was beaten to the ball or went to deck looking for a foul. He gave away possession all afternoon and spent most of the second half standing up front with his arms out. Dundee were not comfortable on the ball at the back, but the only person putting in the effort to press was Cadden, McDonald was just a lazy empty Jersey!

Johnson was also poor and his laziness near the end where twice he tried to just punt the ball in to the box rather than run at the defender was shocking.

Why do we have the boy Lucas on the bench if we won't give him a chance?

We clearly miss Moult and we'll see how things look when he and McHugh are back.

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Samson - untroubled

Tait - the odd wobble, but played the ball out rather than just heaving

Chalmers - no pace, but again got on the ball and passed and moved well

Heneghan - dominant in the air, crucial blocks at times. Happy to take the ball on at his feet

McManus - composed , won his challenges. El Bakhthoui only skinned him once first half

Clay - really impressive for 60 minutes. Won tackles, kept possession , interlinked well. Totally ran out of gas after that.

Lasley - put himself about, paced himself better than Clay.

Ainsworth - one good shot second half, just didn't do enough in the final third

Johnson - played in bursts, did his share of tracking back, work rate impressed, lack of final ball and brutal shooting

Cadden - MOTM for me, absolutely tireless shift. On a couple of occasions he opted to check back inside but could have driven on

McDonald - isolated up front far too often. But his first touch and ball retention were poor

McFadden - debut#4 , barely involved

 

Moult is the missing ingredient

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Am i the only one who thought Mcdonald was rank rotten today?

He spent most of match throwing himself to the deck looking for a foul, snowed no desire, started arguing with someone in the east stand.

Cadden was outstanding today

Nope, absolutely nothing stuck to him at all today, fair enough you don't expect him to win a majority of high balls, but his inability to pass the ball three yards is incredibly frustrating.

 

Cadden was head and shoulders above the rest today.

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What a frustrating afternoon. Could have won. Should have won! Frustrating and annoying that we didn't.

 

The first half was a masterclass in how to completely dominate a game without actually doing anything to trouble the opposition. The lack of cutting edge apart I actually thought the first-forty was pretty good. We played some neat and tidy stuff when we actually got the ball down and played. Much more effective and a damn sight easier on the eye than the hoof to the shortest and generally most isolated man on the park that's for sure. Several good performances, more to come from the creative types, keep it going and stick in during the second half and the goal will surely come, right?

 

What the fuck happened at half time?

 

Sloppy kick-off followed by possession given away, missed challenges and within seconds we're defending a corner from our own kick-off and the tone for much of the second half is set. It was really disappointing that we didn't pick it up and take the game by the scruff of the neck. It took us quite a bit of time to wrestle the game back from Dundee and even then they remained a threat on the break.

 

It is early, we do have our main source of goals sitting injured but we are already missing out on points that could and arguably should have been attainable. Zip from a winning position against St Johnstone, same at Ibrox last week and only one from a game that should been three today. That's not a habit we want to continue.

 

On the positive good to see Faddy back (again) decent displays from the maligned Chalmers and Clay again and Cadden was outstanding. When he is powering his way up the wing past people he is a genuine joy to watch. If he had a shade more self belief in his ability to shoot from distance and a wee bit more of the "greedybastardness" that perhaps comes more naturally to Marvin or Lionel and not check his runs when in full flow, that could take him up another notch again but he's a key figure in that team already. What a year it's been for him and long may his rise continue.

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