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Season 2020’21: Game 29: St Johnstone (H)


Andy_P
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2 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Im not so sure, Having watched their highlights I don't think they are. They are losing narrowly 1-0 and we were lucky to beat them. Accies and RC have more metal about them that us. I am now convinced after tonight we are this seasons fall guys. I wonder if GA contract is dependent on us staying up. Maybe we should get Gallaghers agent to get us an escape clause.

 

2 hours ago, underboyleheating said:

They are slowly but surely leaking less goals, we are getting thumped, they are losing narrowly. 

Aye true. I'm working on the naïve  assumption we'll start getting some key players back soon. If that's not the case then we're heading doon.  

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Even with the passing of a day or so (and I know others have mentioned it )  but I still can't get my head around the 4-3-3 formation when we had a severely depleted defence and midfield. 

Put another midfielder in place either by moving Watt into that area or pushing forward Carrol to left midfield and letting Mc Ginley go to LB.

GA should also have taken a leaf out of Robbo's book when against the same opposition earlier in the season he set us up not to lose. Outcome 1-0 to us. 

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On 2/20/2021 at 8:07 PM, Stevie73 said:

Look at the players we let go who would do a far better job in this current squad,  Peter Hartley a born leader and a guy who gave 100%, may have not been technically the best but played for the badge, Richard Tait gave everything every game, Adam Livingstone better than the full backs we have now.

This is absolute nonsense, Hartley and Tait were done with us, they were great servants on the park and good leaders in the dressing room however there time was up. As for Adam Livingstone, every Motherwell fan going wanted him to get a run in the team, it never happened for one reason or another, he is though now in playing league 2, to say he is better than any left back on the books is way off the mark.

I have said before, and stand by it, that our own youth players seem to be protected from fans which is understandable, one of our own and all that but if Maguire was signed from Solihull moors he wouldn't be getting as easy a ride.

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On 2/21/2021 at 10:23 PM, star sail said:

Watching GA's post match interview, what strikes me is that he has aged somewhat over the last month. I think I would be placed in the happy clapper camp because I tend to argue for the managers we have. This comes from a base point of recognising how tough it is to be a manager at any football club but particularly a club like Motherwell. I think the strain on GA's face tells it's own story there. Replacing managers is not an easy fix. 

My other main reason for generally backing managers is that I am no fan of player power. The Gannon saga was mentioned a few pages back and whilst I will admit to losing the argument then regarding Gannon being a decent manager, I still believe that something was rotten then regarding one or two of the senior players behaviour. Possibly the same could be said about Baraclough's last month in charge.

It lightning striking again? Possibly. We will never know the full story but again the current situation has a stench about it that is becoming an all to familiar theme at Motherwell. For my money this squad of players are more than capable of staying in this division and since the first ball was kicked in August, they have constantly underachieved. I have said a good few times before that in August, I don't think I heard anybody on this board saying we had a poor squad of players, infact, it was quite the opposite.

If Declan Gallagher is refusing to play for contract reasons then I don't think we have to look any further for reasons why all is not well in the dressing room. If your club captain is refusing to play it is bound reflect in the other players. Given however that this is sheer speculation I am going to assume for now that he is genuinely injured and will be back soon.

Looking at the positives, it is always small margins between success and failure as this particular team has shown repeatedly this season. As it stands we have two Scotland internationalists who we must assume, will be highly motivated to play in the Euro's this summer. This has to be to Motherwell's advantage no matter what else may be going on in the background. A rested invigorated Alan Campbell would also make a big difference to this team. I also believe that if Christopher Long could score a few goals we would have a transformed striker on our hands. I believe his issues lie in a lack of confidence  rather than any inherent poor attitude. The enigma for me is Polworth? A good player who is visibly showing signs of being in the huff. Get him switched on and suddenly the team looks strong again. It is the very, very difficult job of a Motherwell manager to get all the pieces of the jigsaw in place. 

Yes I have to agree with that.

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Consensus so far only me thinks we will go down.  Skybet are offering 20-1 on Motherwell being relegated straight out and 6-1 the play offs.  Couldn't let that go stuck a tenner on the 20-1.  Happy to lose a tenner but may as well cash in if the worst is gonna happen. If we lose to St Mirren on Wednesday I'm sticking another £100 on straight relegation.

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14 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

Lets take a straw poll yes or no , no explanations just your gut feeling. 

Will we go down this season?

Me: Yes

I think the chances of us finishing bottom are slim with a 4 point advantage over three other teams, a game in hand over some and the 2nd best goal difference from 4.

So I'm saying the likelihood is if we did go down it would be via the play offs.

So you have us losing a play off to Raith Rovers or Dundee?

 

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1 minute ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

I think the chances of us finishing bottom are slim with a 4 point advantage over three other teams, a game in hand over some and the 2nd best goal difference from 4.

So I'm saying the likelihood is if we did go down it would be via the play offs.

So you have us losing a play off to Raith Rovers or Dundee?

 

No I've bet on us going straight down 4 points is nothing. Especially if we are level on points going into the split. The head to heads will be key. I wouldn't put bad money on us against Accies. I expect us to lose our next two games without ant fight whatsoever and if that happen we are praying for others results.

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9 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

No I've bet on us going straight down 4 points is nothing. Especially if we are level on points going into the split. The head to heads will be key. I wouldn't put bad money on us against Accies. I expect us to lose our next two games without ant fight whatsoever and if that happen we are praying for others results.

I think we will take nada from our weekend game away to Hibs. So Wed night is crucial. 

Small comfort maybe but we have 3 wins and a draw from our last 4 Wed games since Alexander came in. Also worth noting that St Mirren are missing 3 or 4 key players. So if we can get OHara and Campbell back with SoD returning from suspension and maybe one other then in truth our team will be as strong or weak as St Mirren. That may mean little but it would give me some confidence we could make a game of it. 

That said lose on Wed night and if Killie or Hamilton get a result this weekend I would say our odds on finishing bottom 2 become more likely than less likely. 

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26 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

No I've bet on us going straight down 4 points is nothing. Especially if we are level on points going into the split. The head to heads will be key. I wouldn't put bad money on us against Accies. I expect us to lose our next two games without ant fight whatsoever and if that happen we are praying for others results.

It's not nothing.

It's taken Kilmarnock 10 matches to acquire their last 4 points and they only have 8 matches left.  

And assuming they did make up the 4 points in the next 8 we'd have to not take a single point for the rest of the season which, even by the most negative forecasts, seems unlikely, for them to catch us.

Out of our four fixtures going to the split we have't lost ANY of the corresponding fixtures this season (1 win, 3 draws) and I think it's nonsense to say we are in worse form now than the rest of the season.

In fact if you look at the last 8 matches of the relegation candidates it's as follows - Motherwell 10 pts, Ross County 10 pts, Hamilton 5 pts, Kilmarnock 0 pts.

We might get relegated but let's put it into perspective.

Right now, we have the best chance of surviving of any of the bottom 4.

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3 hours ago, livivoice said:

Even with the passing of a day or so (and I know others have mentioned it )  but I still can't get my head around the 4-3-3 formation when we had a severely depleted defence and midfield. 

Put another midfielder in place either by moving Watt into that area or pushing forward Carrol to left midfield and letting Mc Ginley go to LB.

GA should also have taken a leaf out of Robbo's book when against the same opposition earlier in the season he set us up not to lose. Outcome 1-0 to us. 

I would go further and keep young Johnstone at RB and play O'Donnell in right midfield, that way both full backs have got protection in front of them and our midfield is instantly strengthened.

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2 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

It's not nothing.

It's taken Kilmarnock 10 matches to acquire their last 4 points and they only have 8 matches left.  

And assuming they did make up the 4 points in the next 8 we'd have to not take a single point for the rest of the season which, even by the most negative forecasts, seems unlikely, for them to catch us.

Out of our four fixtures going to the split we have't lost ANY of the corresponding fixtures this season (1 win, 3 draws) and I think it's nonsense to say we are in worse form now than the rest of the season.

In fact if you look at the last 8 matches of the relegation candidates it's as follows - Motherwell 10 pts, Ross County 10 pts, Hamilton 5 pts, Kilmarnock 0 pts.

We might get relegated but let's put it into perspective.

Right now, we have the best chance of surviving of any of the bottom 4.

I don't disagree points wise we have the best chance,  you don't get odds of 20/1 otherwise. but 4 points is nothing its one game result and then its head to head stuff. Yeah Kilmarnock have lost 8 on the bounce so chances are they are due a result sooner or later. I look at the way we are playing, even including the games we won we were hanging on, and we are utter garbage. Kilmarnock played us off the park and lost unluckily. Hamilton were taking the piss out of us before we went down to 10 men. Ross County have beaten Celtic twice this year,  we couldnt do that if Celtic walked off the pitch. 

I realise its all about opinions but I am of the opinion we play the worst football at the moment. I struggle to recall a game where we were actually comfortable.  

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4 minutes ago, santheman said:

I would go further and keep young Johnstone at RB and play O'Donnell in right midfield, that way both full backs have got protection in front of them and our midfield is instantly strengthened.

Said the exact same to my brother this morning.  I’d be looking at Johnston, Lamie & Mcginlay at the back - frightening I know but we’re not winning or even drawing at the moment so we need to try something else - O’Donnell & Carroll added to midfield on the wings doiubling up as defenders when required and two strikers playing through the middle. 

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