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People suggesting the manager should be sacked when he saved us from probable relegation last season, has us in the Top 6 virtually all of this season and are 8 points max away from Premiership survival in February, need to have a look at themselves. We are running a professional football club with 4,000 supporters in a footballing backwater with a shoestring budget. It is what it is. Most of our problems are symptomatic of the league not the manager. Until we start producing better quality players or can afford to import them the quality of the football isn't going to improve any. We are on a poor run with a lot of away fixtures and tough home matches but we're in a decent position overall. Even if we end up 7th or 8th that's a reasonable performance for a team that doesn't have a single outfield player that could step up a level.

Fucking meltdown on here. Get a grip.. A bit of Cup Football to come and then the same team in the league after that..Back to home to steady the form and confident we will win both. Bit of optimism. You were all moaning before the break about complete lack of possession and we were winning, now we dominate possession, making plenty of chances and losing (53% last night 17 shots on goal 2 on target)...can't win with you lot. Goals will come whether that comes from Efford or Shields or someone else, we will turn this around

I agree with everything you say but the big worry for me is that since the U20 League got ditched youth development seems to have been sidelined. Who have we produced since the 'Craigan' team? Cornelius might come through, his last couple of performances have shown promise, but I don't think that's enough over the time period. Especially when the standard of the league is so poor. All those youth players came through 3 or 4 years ago. I know I'm a broken record but producing youth has to be THE central focus of a club like Motherwell, both in terms of having players in the squad worth watching and the financial benefits of selling on. If we don't we're only going to see the sort of slow decline that players like Campbell, Turnball and Scott jolted us out of for a while cos 95% of the players we bring in are going to be journey men. What happens when we need another jolt and there is no one there? I think it says a lot that we have one striker at the club and there isn't anyone that can move up from the youths and even sit on the bench.

What you need to ask yourself is what was your realistic expectation of the clubs position before the season started? For me I was just hoping we might get top six or at least be out of trouble at the tail end of the season. I based that on thinking that Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts would all improve and make reaching the top six harder. I think we all thought that to be honest. Now we are 5th after 26 games and yes its been a terrible run we have been on and due to the results since Xmas the league outside the top 3 has bunched up together and means you could easily drop a few places very quickly in the coming weeks. So after those 26 games we are still 5th and are still in the Scottish Cup. Its not all a disaster. For me the main worry is the style of play and that GA doesn't seem to know what his best team and formation is, this could be down to the form of players and mixing it up due to the number of games. I also feel there is a lack of fight amongst the squad right now but that also could be down confidence. I also feel we should have done our upmost to keep Watt. He galvanised the team and is in the form of his life, we were never going to have the budget to replace him so should have paid him what he wanted. That for me is the biggest mistake the club have made this season. I am not sure what these 'problems run way deeper than the first team manager' are? I mean we have posted record finacial results, sold more season tickets than ever in years and the club are doing loads to improve the matchday experience. Not really sure what people expect on here to be honest.

we aren pish but we were better than St Mirren and better than Dundee Utd , teams dont need to be good against just patient. we will ALWAYS gift goals.

That’s what happens when you ask poor quality full backs to spend a lot game time as auxiliary wingers. It leaves massive gaps in the flank areas for teams to exploit. I may be old fashioned but for me the full backs first priority is to be able to defend. Anything else is a bonus. And in that respect Alexander needs to get back to basics and go with a 4-4-2 set-up. Utilise the two banks of four and make it hard for teams to play through us and it beefs up our midfield which far to often gets out-numbered. Stop the rot.

Fan ownership is reality not an idyll. Half the top six is fan owned. The problem is signing players who are shite and signing too many of them. If we had just signed one quality replacement for Watt using his fee and wage, the fee and wages we could have had for punting Lamie, the fee we paid for Effront and his wage and the wages of Shaw and Niernold we would be better off. The manager publicly stated he didn't want a direct replacement for Watt. Our transfer policy in January has crippled us on the park.

If you look on other teams forums, notably Hibs and Aberdeen most recently but every other team outside the old firm at some point this season, they're all pretty much having the same issues and discussions that we're talking about so it's just not us. This is the poorest quality of League I can remember for a long while

Having competition for places means that you can shuffle the pack, he sees the players in training. Who's playing well and who's not he is also hampered with injuries, how many on here were crying out for Carroll to come back in, now he's shit and why are we playing him. How many wanted Ojala back and all we got at the start of this thread was how slow he was. Shaw was deemed to be too slow when he started. We as a support are never satisfied. How many have written of Efford and Tierney already.

Definitely not a ‘like fir like’, top scorer is a misnomer - it’s the hold/link up play being missed most. As I’ve mentioned previously, all the eggs put into a Tierney basket. Would take some evolution, no offence to the player - it’s miles from where we need to be.

I spotted this image on Twitter , it was a proposed new stand design for a potential ground based on Airbles Street. The plans were designed by architect James Bell and was dated 1890.

Alexander needs to up his game, for some reason he can’t seem to decide on his best 11 and he’s playing strange formations that just don’t work, the forward line last night looked like a disaster from the start. But we should still not forget that in a 12 month period he was the most successful manager outside of the old firm and that’s with a club with a core support of 4000. Paying off a management team that’s just signed a new long term contract is going to be expensive and we have a core of players on long term contracts that are going nowhere. Other managers are out of work for a reason, it’s never as simple as just bringing in a sure fire success and at Motherwell what is success, for some being 4th in the league and reaching 2 cup finals in a season is not good enough. We’re on a bad run and that’s down to Alexander and it was quite obvious in his post match interview he’s fully aware he’s now under pressure and it’s what he does next starting on Saturday that matters.

i ain't pant wetting i just think we are shite to watch and its utterly mind numbing game after game.

Anyone saying that Watt wasn’t crucial for us is kidding themselves. As I said before, he is the only reason we are sitting where we currently are in the table at this stage. Without his goals we would be fighting relegation just now as we have nothing in the way of goal threat in that side of ours.

Not replacing Watt was a big mistake. Said so at the time. Our best midfield this season was Goss - Maguire - Slattery. We've not been able to play that midfield due to injuries and I'm afraid Donnelly isn't up to scratch. Alexander needs to back what worked previously if these players are available again.

Loose and Saturday and it’s time to go Alexander. This is fucking shite. Zero heart, zero entertainment and zero quality. Unfit and disinterested.