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Ross County v Motherwell 07/05/2022


SteelmaninOZ
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1 hour ago, wunderwell said:

Hmmm ok  team selection!

Kelly

Grimshaw Mugabi Soljohm(ojala if not) Lamie

O'Hara

Tierney Slattery Cornelius

Van Veen, Woolery

Certainly not what everyone will agree discuss!

 

I assume SOD is not fit for this one but I would be happy with that line up, GA won't  play 442 though, so Tierney could play in behind woolery and KVV  a sort of 4-3-1-2  formation 

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I think we'll win this one. It's our turn.

It will be the same formation with KVV in for Shields (or maybe Tierney).

Tierney will get someone sent off for child abuse, and we'll break our streak of being shite against ten men by immediately sending on all our defenders.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

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12 hours ago, dennyc said:

Merely pointed out you were incorrect in suggesting our downturn was due to losing our top scorer in January. Or am I misreading the above comment.

It was a big part of the reason. Again, if any club is robbed of one of their best players and their top goalscorer and they are unable to replace him adequately it's going to cause problems. Or do you think that's not the case?

12 hours ago, dennyc said:

We have scored as many goals in the games since Watt left as we did in that same number of games immediately before he left. And created as many chances. You failed to respond to that fact and instead seem to be yet again using Watt's departure to deflect from how poor Alexander has been in the past four months, if not before when points gained offset some awful outings.

As someone else pointed out, Watt isn't just a goalscorer. If it was simply a case of losing someone who puts the ball in the net we'd have continued on our pre-Christmas form with Van Veen leading the line. He's a goalscorer, but in no way would he ever be considered our best player. Watt offered goals this season, plus a ton of other factors. 

As I said above, losing your top scorer and one of, if not the best player in your team will hurt any team. It's just how it goes. 

13 hours ago, dennyc said:

Teams, even poor teams, worked out how to negate our one dimensional approach and until Saturday Alexander showed no willingness or ability to try anything different. He did adapt on Saturday and in my opinion it was our best performance in months. Still a defeat, but this time a defeat that was not deserved. 

And yet, we're in the top six and those poor teams aren't. 

I've said it elsewhere in the Alexander thread, but there's a reason why most of the teams in the league have all been poor and separated by the finest of margins. The Covid situation, meaning every club had to inflate their squads which spread the budget much thinner, meaning a lack of quality, played a part.

The argument that Alexander is a fraud and a failure would stand up if the other clubs were all battering on as normal, and we'd found ourselves finishing 9th or 10th. But that isn't the case. 

This season has been mental for a reason. And that reason affected most of the clubs in the league.

13 hours ago, dennyc said:

Oh and just to emphasise why top six should be a minimum expectation and not the Holy Grail, the last time your projected  top 6 worked out as you suggested, in any order,  looks to have been  1991-92. So history does not support that reasoning either.

Top six will never be a "minimum expectation" and rightfully so. Thankfully those that are tasked with running the club know that.

 

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2 hours ago, David said:

Again, if any club is robbed of one of their best players and their top goalscorer and they are unable to replace him adequately it's going to cause problems. Or do you think that's not the case?

 

How far from adequately did we replace him?

We were 13 points ahead of Ross County prior to our meeting in January, and 6 ahead of Dundee Utd at the same point. How did those 14 & 10 point swings come about?

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I get why we sold watt but it was always going to be a gamble and it's backfired on us.i don't think all our problems since coming back from the break are down to him leaving but there's no doubt we have really missed him,his ability to get us up the park,hold up play and win fouls in the opposition half has been really missed.we were never going to sign someone that came straight into the team and carried on what watt was doing but not bringing in an actual central striker and signing another anywhere across the front merchant in efford was the mistake,I don't rate him at all but he just wasn't the type we needed to sign.to be honest if I never hear the words anywhere across the front three again when we sign a player,it will be to soon.

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5 minutes ago, David said:

In my opinion? Not very.

They were in the market for a new house, couldn't find one they liked/could afford, so bought a couple of hats in case it rained.

With those huge swings since the New Year, if we finish 6th and miss out on Europe, will that still be considered success? Better than we might've hoped for at the start of the season, but it feels a bit like getting to a cup final, then losing to Morton.

 

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12 minutes ago, bobbybingo said:

They were in the market for a new house, couldn't find one they liked/could afford, so bought a couple of hats in case it rained.

With those huge swings since the New Year, if we finish 6th and miss out on Europe, will that still be considered success? Better than we might've hoped for at the start of the season, but it feels a bit like getting to a cup final, then losing to Morton.

It will still be a success in my opinion, simply because of how our targets are structured. But it will certainly be seen as a missed opportunity, that's for sure.

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19 hours ago, mfc said:

If that's up for it then god help us

well if all else fails, let's hope the big guy really is a well fan...seriously if we had scored 4 or 5 on sat, it wouldn't have been ridiculous.  ..but I know ,we didn't and it is the most crucial part of the game, the woodwork ones in 1st half were unlucky tbf , sometimes u can hit them too well

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3 hours ago, 2plus8 said:

For me (but sadly I’m not GA)

                         Kelly

O’Hara Mugabi Lamie Carrol

Woolery Slattery Cornelius Goss

                      Tierney

                        KVV

that looks quite a good line up on paper...I thought slattery got forward well on sat and tierney showed good touches, but he defo needs a preseason to get a bit fitter

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58 minutes ago, mfc said:

I get why we sold watt but it was always going to be a gamble and it's backfired on us.i don't think all our problems since coming back from the break are down to him leaving but there's no doubt we have really missed him,his ability to get us up the park,hold up play and win fouls in the opposition half has been really missed.we were never going to sign someone that came straight into the team and carried on what watt was doing but not bringing in an actual central striker and signing another anywhere across the front merchant in efford was the mistake,I don't rate him at all but he just wasn't the type we needed to sign.to be honest if I never hear the words anywhere across the front three again when we sign a player,it will be to soon.

Of course it’s always about more than one player. However saying that I firmly believe we would be top four if Watt had stayed, it’s been so close in many games and his abilities as mentioned above would no doubt have pushed one or two games in our favour and given how tight it is that’s all we needed. These things are always a gamble and you want a happy player but it worked against us this time.

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Leaving the Watt debate aside, I really hope that GA does something to combat the threats of Hungbo and Charles-Cooke from the wide areas 

They have been a real pain in the arse and caused us all sorts of problems in our previous games this season. I think if we can negate them, you limit Ross Countys ability to hurt us.

Of course, you have to marry that with a plan to allow us to retain a goal threat of our own and there in lies the problem. However, if we line up in our regular shape with Woolery and/or Efford in wide areas in a 4-3-3, we will just expose our full backs to another roasting. I guess a lot will depend on who is fit and able to play right back. But this is certainly not a game for punting big Bevis out there.  Id be tempted to go with something like.......

Kelly

SOD/OHara   Mugabi  Lamie Carroll

OHara/ Cornelius Donnelly Slattery Goss

Tierney

KVV

 

If SOD is fit then take your pick from Cornelius/Donnelly/OHara for the midfield spot.

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1 hour ago, Yorkyred said:

Of course it’s always about more than one player. However saying that I firmly believe we would be top four if Watt had stayed, it’s been so close in many games and his abilities as mentioned above would no doubt have pushed one or two games in our favour and given how tight it is that’s all we needed. These things are always a gamble and you want a happy player but it worked against us this time.

I agree he could easily have been the difference in a number of the tight games,the run of fixtures we had in march in particular come to mind.

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I thought the set up on Saturday worked well and we saw a much improved performance. Mugabi looked much more at ease, Carroll pushed forward enough to put some telling crosses into the box. Also thought O'Hara played the SOD role pretty well. Might need to find another Centre Back though as Ojala looked goosed when he came off.  So for me something like this. Trying to provide options to cover for Ojala and SOD probably missing out.

                                                                              Kelly

                                      Mugabi        Ojala (Donnelly/O'Hara)    Lamie

SOD (O'Hara)                                                                                                  Carroll

                    Woolery                           Slattery                            Goss (Cornelius/O'Hara/Donnelly)

                                                     Tierney

                                                                      VVD

Goss by default because I'm far from convinced by him. Shields off the bench to best use his strength and pace later on if need be,

Formation allows us to defend in numbers when required providing a challenge in wide areas , but also to have numbers in midfield/out wide  providing decent ammunition for Tierney and VVD. Would also restrict the space that Charles-Cook thrives on to do his thing. Might also allow our strikers to play further upfield rather than coming back deep in search of the ball in open play. 

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On 5/4/2022 at 9:18 AM, 2plus8 said:

For me (but sadly I’m not GA)

                         Kelly

O’Hara Mugabi Lamie Carrol

Woolery Slattery Cornelius Goss

                      Tierney

                        KVV

IMO with that back four, I am pleased you are not GA

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I see we have a few players struggling with illness who havent trained all week. With the injuries and suspensions we have already had, its shaping up to be another tough weekend.......

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