Jump to content

Motherwell v Rangers 31/10/2021


SteelmaninOZ
 Share

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, steelboy said:

The second half was a disaster but the first half did go well for 40 minutes and Watt missed an open goal for 2 nil. 

If Alexander keeps on picking SOD, McGinley and Goss he's going to be under pressure but if he sorts the selection he can turn this round. 

he didn't really  miss an open goal, he was under pressure and got to it , cant really blame him,  agree with your second paragraph ....watt is one of the few good footballers in the team

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Kelly came in on loan previous to Alexander so he obviously wasn't an 'Alexander' target.  Likewise Roberts probably wasn't a Alexander target either.  Count them if you wish though.

He brought them back after they had officially left in the summer, so I think we have to count them -  unless we blame McLeish for Lawleff's return.

I'm not saying I wouldn't have brought them back too, nor do I think it's easy to get rid of all the dead wood, but it's his job to make it work. We'll see how it pans out, but I don't agree with his assessment of how well we've been playing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is Alexander’s squad - no mistake about it. 
He built a squad to play with his style which is eye bleeding shite.  A horsing has been coming for weeks. Our tactics and shape are predictable all over the park (short corners and 11 men’s defending a corner) through to camping in our final third and allowing sides to pick passes in and around our box and clearing to a striker to drag us up the pitch in the Hope we win a throw or free kick - it’s fucking dreadful. 
We have nothing about us. We’re carrying players that are either not interested or not good enough. The three centre halves in Ojala, solholm and Mugabe have been our best performers of the season (alongside watt) however the full backs have been Shite beyond belief. Exploited by our shape or not, both Mcginley and O’Donnell have been woeful. Goss is basically Alan Gow; a ghost of a player who cannot read a game. Shields is a trier but not up to the level and the options off the bench aren’t much better but we have the ability to bring in Donnelly and Maguire in midfield who can add a bit of dig which we are missing badly (not the best players but with a change of shape will be a Mile better than the shite we’re seeing just now). Grim

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

At a stage of the season when only 33 points have been available in total.  We are also only 6 points off a European place.

Alexander has to be given more time and I'm afraid we just have to hunker down and deal with the situation that the club was left in.  As you said you re-assess it after the 2nd round of matches are played.  

Theres no question of him not being given time we are not the type of club to do kneejerk reaction. For me hes had a year and we are still watching mind numbing shite every week. I have no confidence he's the man yo change it. But what I think doesnt matter a fuck. Never mind Goss will be the best passer in the SPF or should that have been passenger

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Absolutely dire today. Alexander's sole objective is to secure enough points to stay in the league. If we sneak into the Top 6 - bonus. It is going to be a helluva bumpy road this season with zero football played. Is that going to be acceptable to the majority of Well fans? Not sure...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see both sides of the debate. GA came in and turned things around. We were almost certainly doomed without him and with Tommy Wright (who many wanted) took Killie down.

All that said I do feel as if we have the squad depth to be performing better than what we are seeing. We also must have any permutation of 11 players that can be more difficult to beat.  Right now 4-3-3 and leaving our flanks exposed time and again is NOT working. We are constantly overrun out wide and in midfield.

At the moment he does not appear to have a plan B.  I am not saying 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 or any other formation will yield a dramatic turnaround but we simply need to be more difficult to beat and we need to bolster the midfield. That and try and get two full backs that look like they know how to defend properly. Then we might just see an improvement. 

But if at Pittodrie we see 4-3-3 and McGinley at left back I think he should be fired before KO. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Welldaft Mk1 said:

I see both sides of the debate. GA came in and turned things around. We were almost certainly doomed without him and with Tommy Wright (who many wanted) took Killie down.

All that said I do feel as if we have the squad depth to be performing better than what we are seeing. We also must have any permutation of 11 players that can be more difficult to beat.  Right now 4-3-3 and leaving our flanks exposed time and again is NOT working. We are constantly overrun out wide and in midfield.

At the moment he does not appear to have a plan B.  I am not saying 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 or any other formation will yield a dramatic turnaround but we simply need to be more difficult to beat and we need to bolster the midfield. That and try and get two full backs that look like they know how to defend properly. Then we might just see an improvement. 

But if at Pittodrie we see 4-3-3 and McGinley at left back I think he should be fired before KO. 

Killie were pretty much doomed by the time Wright took over he just inherited a bigger pigs ear than Alexander and Tommy Wright wont be out a job by January

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Benson said:

Best team in league? that's been stuttering of late

At the top by how many points. Stuttering form ? Come to fir park and we will get you back on track, that applies to any team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I understand the criticism aimed at it being “Alexander’s team” and agree with most of it.

He’s definitely had enough time to stamp his own ideas on the team and it’s tactically I think he’s at fault currently, not his transfers.

There was no way he was going to bring in a player to fill every position we needed in one transfer window so he’s stuck with some players who I think even he’ll understand are not up to it.

GA needs to make sure that he finds replacements for those players in January otherwise serious questions will be asked of him and his recruitment staff.

Until January, it’s all about his tactics, what does he do with the squad he’s got. Hopefully we start to see the team move away from the useless 4-3-3 and into a formation that doesn’t leave our midfield overrun and strikers isolated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, Kmac said:

This is Alexander’s squad - no mistake about it. 
He built a squad to play with his style which is eye bleeding shite.  A horsing has been coming for weeks. Our tactics and shape are predictable all over the park (short corners and 11 men’s defending a corner) through to camping in our final third and allowing sides to pick passes in and around our box and clearing to a striker to drag us up the pitch in the Hope we win a throw or free kick - it’s fucking dreadful. 
We have nothing about us. We’re carrying players that are either not interested or not good enough. The three centre halves in Ojala, solholm and Mugabe have been our best performers of the season (alongside watt) however the full backs have been Shite beyond belief. Exploited by our shape or not, both Mcginley and O’Donnell have been woeful. Goss is basically Alan Gow; a ghost of a player who cannot read a game. Shields is a trier but not up to the level and the options off the bench aren’t much better but we have the ability to bring in Donnelly and Maguire in midfield who can add a bit of dig which we are missing badly (not the best players but with a change of shape will be a Mile better than the shite we’re seeing just now). Grim

Couldn’t agree more . A truly dreadful watch . Kelly punts the ball up the park, our strikers challenge and we win a shy . Then a long throw shy into the box . End of attack . Repeat ……….same again Repeat……. same again repeat …….. same again . 
Full time . Well that was entertaining ……..NOT !!!!!

Be glad to see the back of this manager . Terrible style of play 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, gazzetta19 said:

Absolutely dire today. Alexander's sole objective is to secure enough points to stay in the league. If we sneak into the Top 6 - bonus. It is going to be a helluva bumpy road this season with zero football played. Is that going to be acceptable to the majority of Well fans? Not sure...

Not for me it’s not . I’m nearly done and we’re not half way through the season yet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is GA another one who comes North and thinks the Scottish game is a piece of piss? He had zero knowledge of SPFL football  when appointed and I am concerned he doesn't seem to understand that the first thing you have to do in games here is to match your opponents workrate and win individual battles. Not for the first time this season, we did neither today. Against Rangers/Celtic  it is a big ask and yes, they have better quality players. Check out the games against others though and we really don't match up too well in terms of possession, corners won and goal attempts. My point is, if we upped the effort and won a few more tackles, the other elements follow. We are too defensive and allow teams too much time to play their game. Today was a very sore bloody nose but look at previous managers record v Rangers. Not exactly great reading either. We lose too many goals (last 4 games have been at least 2) and when the general opinion is that Alexander is defensive minded, that's even more worrying. Don't know what the answer is, but then I'm not getting paid the big bucks to be the boss...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, gazzetta19 said:

Is GA another one who comes North and thinks the Scottish game is a piece of piss? He had zero knowledge of SPFL football  when appointed and I am concerned he doesn't seem to understand that the first thing you have to do in games here is to match your opponents workrate and win individual battles. Not for the first time this season, we did neither today. Against Rangers/Celtic 

I'm not sold that's his problem.

He has a win rate of +40% as a manager but hasn't lasted more than 2 years at most clubs he's been at.

I suspect  he has a proven method that get's decent results (+40% win) but dreadful to watch and eventually clubs get rid of them as fans can only last so long without losing their shit with anti football. 

He had a +48% win rate at Salford and on paper it looked very harsh to get rid of him.  With this style of play it's understandable why it doesn't last beyond a couple of seasons. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Against Rangers/Celtic it is a big ask and yes, they have better quality players. Check out the games against others though and we really don't match up too well in terms of possession, corners won and goal attempts.

We haven’t beaten Rangers in a league game for 19 years. Ross County are the only team in the league with a worse record than that against them. Too often we are beaten before the first whistle.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am now generally worried for us as there is no games left that we can safely say that we could get points, I honestly thought we had the players to have a good season, but alas it looks like survival is a must, a few questions have to be asked, we have leaked goals left right and centre recently yet GA maintains that they are working on that in training, I am sorry if they are not doing as instructed I think it’s time to drop a few of the non performers ( I hate to think how many that is!)

For me Slattery has been the biggest disappointment considering we payed money for him and came in high regards, but for me he hasn’t performed, let’s hope they do a Dundee get a hammering in one game and win the next game?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, ZT_1886 said:


We haven’t beaten Rangers in a league game for 19 years. Ross County are the only team in the league with a worse record than that against them. Too often we are beaten before the first whistle.

of all the clubs who have been in the league for all those 19 years we are by far the worst. Its shameful and our record against Celtic is going the same way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, AllyMax said:

For 42 mins they were still all over us, the difference was they didn't take any of their chances, so if 'how you wanted it to go' was camped in your own penalty box and breaking up the park 3 times in 42 mins, then he's right. It was going well.

This is it for me. We didn't play well for the first  42 minutes and made exactly the same mistakes, and had exactly the same weaknesses, as we did and had in the remainder of the game. It was only a matter of time before Sevco scored but few of us would have predicted the team would crumble as it did. For much of the game our strikers played in midfield or deeper so why not select midfielders to play there? We seemed determined to  cram all of our players in our own box at times and that sums up our attitude.

Not good enough.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...