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There is just as much chance of us winning the ECL as there is the league cup 🤣 I appreciate the game is just finished but some of the overreaction here today is a bit mad given the last 12 months we have had!

We’re not going to win the league and we’re not going to go any further in Europe, so the domestic cups are our best hope for tangible success. So to treat it with such disrespect by not fielding the strongest eleven is blindly arrogant and downright stupid. We have a history of treating the cups as if they’re not all that important. Jens did it last season and paid the price, McCall was notorious for it, Kettlewell and Robinson were guilty of it too. And all the while we have to watch on as St.Mirren and St.Johnstone get to lift the league cup trophy in recent years. It’s just not good enough and a slap in the face to the support.

Apart from you maybe, nobody ever remembers or cares how much cash the club earned in a season, but win a trophy or a title etc and its remembered and discussed for generations, especially at s club of our size as has been said earlier " thats our cake" a run in Europe is the reward for the team being the star bakers and producing a great cake over the season.

A positive balance sheet allows us to invest in the team and infrastructure in a way that a league Cup trophy never will

We fluked a result there last season so I'm not hugely surprised. It's a bad pitch and not an inspiring place to play. Scape goating young players is totally out of order, we weren't good enough as a team and Stenhousemuir were just better than us. If we know anything about football coming off a European match is always dangerous and that's something you just have to deal with if we are in Europe. We were poor against Falkirk as well. You have to believe in the system and there is no point going ape shit at the first set back, that's the 'old' Motherwell coming out there.

I’ll be forever grateful that 1991 happened in my lifetime because I just don’t see us ever winning silverware ever again.

Not an ideal result, but the harsh truth is we're playing games on a lot of fronts at the moment with a fairly small squad available to us. If the manager has to rank the League Cup, League, and European football in order of priority, I know which I would have at the bottom of the list. Europe and the league are more important at the moment. Just how it is.

On plus side I might make it to freiburg away now as flight prices probably dropped massively

His body language suggests he doesn't know he's on the pitch.

Appreciate a few players needed to be given a chance throughout the game + huge opportunity in Europe. To play Connelly, Wilson, Ross, Whyte and Booth from the start. Add to that it's Hodges first game and Vogt has been poor. For me it's over reaching in terms of changes and no surprise that we've been poor.

It’s one of the only two trophys we can realistically win. That kind of outlook might work in England for the top sides but we aren’t going to win the league title and we’re never going to do anything of note in Europe. Just dismissing it as “it’s only the league cup, let’s just rest players” is an incredibly arrogant and naive take on it.

I was coming from the perspective that we get to compete in the league cup every season, we get to compete in Europe maybe every 5 years or so. So for me I would take a Euro run over a league cup run. Each to their own.

“Sorry, you cannot add anymore reactions today” I went to give you a like for that comment. I genuinely don’t understand the mindset of some Motherwell fans when it comes to domestic Cups.

I do not believe at all there is any bad reaction at all to todays result . Everyone who is supporting Alfred and all the players still will be on Thursday night , that is guaranteed My personal take I wanted to see us get to Hampden , and win any cup . Other fans will say it is more important to win and get through in Europe Nobody is right or wrong , I want to win every game me personally , don't believe any genuine Well fan doesn't 💯

If we somehow manage to do anything v Freiburg, its been a gamble worth taking. It's very unlikely but if we had lost players for Thursday people would say mgr should have rested them v Stenny. The league Cup is a Diddy Cup, Europe whatever happens is going to make us at least a million so its hardly worth f*ckin.

Yes it would, we have a massive game on the horizon...players have been run into the ground in certain positions, while others have only just returned from injury and their load needs managed

Agree. The load on faddinger priestman is massive Lowry hodge just in the door Williams is out. SOD McGinn out need a fresh MM for Thursday. We haven’t been able to really work on patterns of play due to the weekend and mid-week games. Could we have performed better? Yes but with the psychology of Thursday we have lost today. Learn from it. First loss of the season. Now we need a performance on Thursday. The team owe us. The team need us. we knew there would be a drop from last year with the players we lost we are still in the process of rebuilding, let’s see where we are at the end of the window.

Nae c**t

On top of the ones we came into the season with, we've lost Williams, Sparrow and Priestman (maybe for some time, I'm hearing) already. So there's definitely something in that...

Correct. We need to realise Europe is the icing on the cake. The League Cup and the Scottish cup are the fucking cake. The perennial fuck ups in the cups is depressing. We get to a position where we avoid the group stages and we fuck up against the easiest team left in the draw. That is entirely on the manager today. Disgraceful.

My final point before I focus on Thursday. I think Scottish cup at Aberdeen was worse than today. We had genuine chance last season but JBA rested players thinking we still had league chances ( which was never happening). AJ is juggling europe with domestic fixtures. Also we have 6 out injured and now priestman so I fully understand the line up which also I dont think was that bad. If we had lost to helsinki....won today then drawn away to sellik in quarters would that be better? For me its no. We have earned good money so far un Europe and Thursday is a fixture we don't get to experience much abd we should all make the most of it . COYW

I wouldn’t. Beating Helsinki was far more important than winning this competition.

I totally understand that frustration however I was much more raging last year when we lost to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup when Jens rotated the team because the only team that were left in it that we wouldn't have been favourites against were Celtic and even then I would have fancied us last season. We have basically got a full team out injured already and are having to play on a Thursday then Sunday so I totally get why we would rest players anyway never mind playing on that abomination of a pitch. Can you imagine how raging everyone would be if Said or Longelo ended up getting bad injuries that then puts them out of league games too. I think everyone is getting a bit bent out of shape because of the European game coming up and thinking we are resting players for that. There's guys there that need rested for the league games which like it or not are the main priority for a team the size of ours in the eyes of coaches and the board.

Hearts hibs and Celtic through and rangers winning so unlikely we would have got further on this form.

I am mainly glass half-full guy. Think some of the reaction a bit OTT. no one is denying its a bad result but that starting line up was still strong. Longelo missed a few games early in so was maybe fatigued to start this one. In midfield Hodge started and up front we had almost strongest line-up. I would expect AJ to be raging with that performance but I understand the changes. Transfer window shuts in a few weeks so hopefully get a few in and I think we will be fine.

Again, agree 100% with this. Raging.

Forgot wilson,not even good enough as a squad player,voght is a dud.

I'm not buying into being down the bare bones and resting players,shite pitch etc,we should have had enough at any point in that game to get the job done and we have massively fucked it up,we barely created a chance in 120 minutes and thats unforgivable.weve brought in a fortune over the summer and it's about time we got a couple of forwards in that can make a difference,cooke is poor and vogt looks like he's won a competition to be here and that should be the end of the road for the likes of wilson and ross.

The worst thing about the game itself is having to play ET on that pitch. Hopefully no further injuries. Not a great performance but may work in Alfred’s favour - can now push the board for a few more signings as we don’t really have any squad depth. hopefully forgotten about by the time they get on the bus and full focus on Thursday.

Up there with the worst of Kettlewell, Hammell etc. This is our bread and butter. There is little prospect of us progressing in the ECL. Priorities massively mixed up.

Absolutely disgusted but not surprised in the slightest. Motherwell FC just cannot be trusted to win cup ties. And blame has to go to the manager today for arrogantly dropping half the first team. He’s not the first manager to do this and unless we as a club start making it crystal clear to managers then he won’t be the last. And spare me “Ach it’s only the league cup, we’ve got bigger fish to fry” because quite frankly I don’t give a toss right now. And fuck Europe while we’re at it. Unacceptable Motherwell.

A costly miscalculation from AJ today.

Shows the squad lacking. Dire stuff

We have had a great start to season so always going to be a blip. If we were playing on grass game would have been different. Relax folks

And my Monday morning 😳

On the plus side, Freiburg will learn F all about us from this game.

I thought we may have got Vogt off there. He is a man down today.

Crap pitch or not now we need to use rested first team players to try get this over the line. If anything it proves our bench quality for the season might not be good enough as folk think.

Well you can just do your Arthur montford on here for us 😂😂

Prem Sports Day pass at a tenner.

Doubtful for cup game, don't think it will even be on the dodgy stick

If a player hadn't fully recovered from Thursday they absolutely should be rested, but we should be fielding our strongest available team.

I definetly do not think we should be resting players today, get the game done and dusted then hopefully bring on a few fresh faces While winning European games and progressing the way we have done so far is great and the icing on the cake , for me both Domestic cups are more important as I want to see us walk up those Hampden stairs and lift another trophy regardless of which cup it is

You have my total sympathy and the more folk that keep highlighting the problem then surely the club has to act. Everything been getting run so well but this is definitely an error that needs fixed

Yes and no. We need to move on but we absolutely should not forget or stop highlighting the scandalous officiating at the end of this game.

For me the only viable solution to the problem is for the club to acknowledge a mistake has been made in fitting these seats and then start the process to get them replaced with something fit for purpose.

I must admit that I have completely changed my view on AJ's media presence. I thought his first couple of interviews and his introductory speech to the players was a little underwhelming but he is completely owning his media interviews now. A mixture of intelligence, humour, approachability but at the same time clear in his own thoughts and beliefs. In a more subtle way, like JBA he does not suffer fools gladly. Overall his first few months have been hugely impressive under demanding circumstances. It is so refreshing not to have to listen to the ' these European games come too early ' rhetoric of Scottish managers past. Our wee club appears to have batted one out the park once again on managerial appointments. As Well fans it should give us great pride that we have shown that there is an alternative to the traditional Scottish football way. I think that the press/ media are responding favourably too. The BBC write up on Thursday nights game showed real affection for what is happening at Firpark. Happy days.

Alan Gow?

His cross to pick out Maswanhise in the six yard box was outstanding. I know what you mean about the misplaced passes but, to be fair, they weren't necessarily the wrong pass. There was one that he played out to the right wing that would have taken out a couple of defenders but Johnny checked back rather than make the run. Went out for a throw, so looked like a bad pass. The players will get to know what he is capable of over the season.

Hilarious last night at end of game. Guy in front of me on stairs was carrying his seat and handed it into the Director's box on way out. From what I saw it was held in place by one giant screw which had come loose. Maybe we should all try that. Never got a chance to ask him what the reaction was.