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Welcome to Motherwell Graham Alexander


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28 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Agreed but who will be our outball target?

Id play Watt up top. I think he is the most likely to make it stick long enough for the midfield to get up and support.

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9 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Id play Watt up top. I think he is the most likely to make it stick long enough for the midfield to get up and support.

That's our main problem though, we defend too deep and the midfield don't get forward to support whoever is up top, so inevitably the ball comes straight  back at the defence.We saw it in the last game, held out for over 70 mins but eventually caved in.

I hope GA sorts this as a priority  so if we are sitting in and  being hard to beat we have an outball  allowing us to get forward, 

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1 hour ago, Spiderpig said:

That's our main problem though, we defend too deep and the midfield don't get forward to support whoever is up top, so inevitably the ball comes straight  back at the defence.We saw it in the last game, held out for over 70 mins but eventually caved in.

I hope GA sorts this as a priority  so if we are sitting in and  being hard to beat we have an outball  allowing us to get forward, 

In the last game we played nobody up top. We played 2 banks of 5 for 70 mins and when we lost the goal and did change the answer was Jordan White.  No offence, but the change came too late and when made it was the wrong one.

I dont think we can play open against Rangers as they have the quality to pick us off. But that doesnt mean we should just sit back and invite them onto us. 

We could play a high press and try and keep Tavernier and Barisic from pushing up. But thats a long shift as well and we still have Kent and Morelos to take care of. On the plus side I think Arfield and Roofe are still injured so thats 2 less to be concerned about. Particularly Arfield as I think he is the type of player that really gives our defence problems with late runs into the box.

Its a fine line playing good teams. Hopefully we can get the balance right for once.

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5 hours ago, Spiderpig said:

That's our main problem though, we defend too deep and the midfield don't get forward to support whoever is up top, so inevitably the ball comes straight  back at the defence.We saw it in the last game, held out for over 70 mins but eventually caved in.

I hope GA sorts this as a priority  so if we are sitting in and  being hard to beat we have an outball  allowing us to get forward, 

Absolutely Allan. The problem is that just now we are limited in how we play by the players we have. An all out cavalry charge approach or trying to play open football will only result in a skelping. So, we have to play more defensively, but not too deeply. We don't have a good enough defence to do that. Our midfield also is not good enough to defend too deeply as we saw on Saturday and they badly lack pace to support our striker(s). In short we need to bolster the defence, midfield and play someone to provide an outball.

Ideally we want our midfield to defend 40 yards out and make teams really break sweat to get anywhere near our penalty box but thats not going to happen in the next week or two.  As you say, hopefully GA sorts this as a priority. A start would be an experienced head with a combative streak to shield our central defence and kick backsides to get other midfielders pushing forward.

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27 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

PROBLEM SOLVED.

Home strip - P18 W2 

Away strip - P3 W2

Hey it worked with the Dortmund top back in the day!

I remember seeing that stats from last season that we were the only Premiership team who averaged more points away from home than at home. Given there are no fans allowed in, maybe we should offer to play all our remaining games away this season.

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Was doing all my stats today and noticed a couple of things.

We've only scored 3 headers all season and 2 of those were from centre backs, so in other words our midfield and forwards have scored 1 header all season.  Obviously a deficiency there.  Whether it's the strikers not putting their heads where it hurts or poor delivery or whatever.

We've scored 1 goal from outside the box.  Again, not really good enough.

Also we are one of only three teams in the league not to have scored from a free kick.

All these things, for me at least, tend to show up technical deficiencies in our squad.  There are too many things we can't do.

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16 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Was doing all my stats today and noticed a couple of things.

We've only scored 3 headers all season and 2 of those were from centre backs, so in other words our midfield and forwards have scored 1 header all season.  Obviously a deficiency there.  Whether it's the strikers not putting their heads where it hurts or poor delivery or whatever.

We've scored 1 goal from outside the box.  Again, not really good enough.

Also we are one of only three teams in the league not to have scored from a free kick.

All these things, for me at least, tend to show up technical deficiencies in our squad.  There are too many things we can't do.

Just out of curiosity, how does the headers stat compare against other teams. Admittedly we've scored fewer than most, but I would've thought headers make up a minority for most teams.

Quite glaring when you see it broken down like you have but I wonder how it stacks up against others. 

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21 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Was doing all my stats today and noticed a couple of things.

We've only scored 3 headers all season and 2 of those were from centre backs, so in other words our midfield and forwards have scored 1 header all season.  Obviously a deficiency there.  Whether it's the strikers not putting their heads where it hurts or poor delivery or whatever.

We've scored 1 goal from outside the box.  Again, not really good enough.

Also we are one of only three teams in the league not to have scored from a free kick.

All these things, for me at least, tend to show up technical deficiencies in our squad.  There are too many things we can't do.

Doesn’t help when Lang and Watt are hitting the keeper at point blank.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So 5 games into GA reign, 2 wins 2 draws 1 defeat.   I think he has started well and will be getting to know all the players.  I genuinely believe he will be an excellent appointment . I like the way he comes across and if long improvement is an example then hopefully he can get more out of this squad and in time add his own players come the summer...COYW

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  • 2 weeks later...
41 minutes ago, middleeastdave said:

As a matter of interest if SR was still in charge where do you think our team would be sitting at the moment?

Personally I think we would be sitting 11th or 12th, I am afraid a sad reflection on a man that got us to two cup finals and European football, we thank him for that but his days were up for us.

There's always a chance it could've turned round, but there's little evidence it actually would have. The players looked down and out, he admits he was done and the new signings clearly wouldn't have changed things for the better. Best thing for everyone. We stay up and get to look back at his time fondly when the shit hits the fan.

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22 minutes ago, milo said:

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Alexander is now the latest in a long line of managers unable to motivate the players to turn up v Accies. 
 

That today was as embarrassing a home  result as we’ve had in recent years.

Where would we be without each other? We're the main source of points that keep them up and they're a buffer that ensures we don't get relegated.

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52 minutes ago, milo said:

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Alexander is now the latest in a long line of managers unable to motivate the players to turn up v Accies. 
 

That today was as embarrassing a home  result as we’ve had in recent years.

It was reminiscent of the season when Baraclough took over. I remember him saying he watched the 4-0 pumping that McCall was in charge of earlier in the season and we were out to right some wrongs for that but it proved to be far worse as we got done 5-0, I think that year we got beat 5 out of 4 games against them. I didn't think we could sink any lower than the New Year Derby but here we are.

 I don't know what the issue is but Accies always treat this game like a derby and seem motivated for it while we always seem to approach it in first gear as if we need to just turn up to secure points, its actually amazing when you think of the sheer number of players and managers that have come and gone for both sides since they came back up but it always remains the same, out with turning them over a few times we seem to struggle against them.  I can accept getting beat but that was dreadful today, it was a shame really as we had a chance to make a massive gab between us and the bottom few. We now likely have the joys of playing them in another fixture at NDP, hopefully we have pushed on up the table by then.

Does anyone know what the deal is with the absent players that were signed before the deadline? I know Lawless is injured but are the likes of Nolan, Smith and Foley also on the treatment table or are they just much of a muchness to what we already have?

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