MFCL84

This will be my first away game in a few years. I'm going because, I saw enough on Tuesday night to suggest that the football that we will be watching this season will be worth the entrance fee. I like the manager's interviews and I am buying into his philosophy. So, I am going along tomorrow to see a little bit of improvement and some attractive football. I will accept the risks of this new style of play and have high hopes for the season ahead. That said, it won't be plain sailing tomorrow. I expect that we'll lose a goal, but will eventually win out. 3-1 to The Well.

To give SOD credit, he did change the game a bit when he came on. He played a wicked cross into the box and rolled a nice through ball into the box (sorry, I don't recall who got on to the end of it). Unfortunately, he also sclaffed one right across field that could have been a bit more embarrassing than it was. He gave 100% when he came on, and I will always appreciate players that give their all.

Of the new guys tonight I thought that Fadinger and Watt did well. I have high hopes for those guys as the season develops. I need to see more of Longelo, Just and Sule. Longelo had a couple of decent strikes, was keen to go forward, but wasn't tested defensively. Just has good feet, but tries to do too much at times. Sule got next to no service.

Yeah, and that was another one tonight, but at least we got the win (just).

This'll be my first game this season, and even after the Clyde result, I am excited about the prospect of seeing some progressive, positive football from Motherwell. I expect that the first half will be difficult, but we will eventually win through by a clear margin, 3-0 to The Well.

Never has a truer word been said. It'll be interesting to see how the idea of playing from the back develops with Gordon and Ward. Ward certainly isn't a keeper that knows what to do with a ball at his feet.

I don't agree with this. Surely, the manager will dictate the type of players that are needed and will have to become familiar with the squad before any instructions are passed to the recruitment team. Swimmer said during a few interviews that he had to compromise his approach because the players at his disposal couldn't execute his style of football. Recruiting before the new manager is in place and understands the abilities of the squad would be a serious error. Recruitment will now have to be late in the window.

Exactly this. However, at no time in the 2nd half did it look like we were going to lose this one. Total domination, which is not something that Motherwell do very often. When the 1st went in it looked like we'd score every time we went forward and the scoreline was merited in the end. Ultimately, a good end to the home season. Another season in the top tier. Well done to the players and staff. A professional performance is now required against Ross County to put a seal on what has been a difficult season.

I gave it to Slattery for his all round contribution. Hallway and Watt also had a very good game.

A bit of an improvement today, but still hugely frustrating. We were, amazingly, still in the game at 90 minutes, but for some reason didn't seem to think that we should or could take a risk in the final 10 mins or so try to win the ball and push for an unlikely point. Once again, a very passive performance from the midfield and defensive areas. Good debuts by Thomson and Armstrong. The other debutants didn't really have enough time to show much. Sparrow was our most effective midfield player.

Sparrow for me. Armstrong caught the eye based on attitude and work rate, and of course he got our goal, but Sparrow's all round contribution edged it for me.

I expect that we'll put up a reasonably dogged defensive performance in the first half, going in 1 goal down and then capitulate in the final quarter of the game, finally losing about 4-0. I hope that I am wrong.

I have no problem with that, it is just the way that I saw it.

This is a huge part of the problem that we have. Lack of worthwhile possession puts the back line under constant pressure. This leads to the guys at the back making mistakes. Keep the ball better and play as much of the game as possible on your own terms in the opposition half and the defence will make fewer mistakes.

Having watched that interview, I got the distinct feeling that he didn't care.

Can I ask why you go to the games and what you get from them if survival is the main thing. Don't you go to the games to be entertained? As I said when I opened this thread, going to games seems like no more than a bad habit now, I certainly get very little enjoyment from the football on display.

I think the fact that we are talking about this when sitting in 5th says a lot about how bad the football has been. Motherwell fans would usually be happy with their team sitting in this position. Why is it different this time? Probably because the football on show is brutal.

Are you happy with points or do you want more entertainment? I’ll start by saying that I am satisfied with the points tally and league position at this time. Indeed, given the horrendous list of injuries experienced this season, the points tally is commendable. However, the entertainment on show is non-existent. The persistent use of an overly negative approach, combined with hit-and-hope hoofball is absolutely dreadful to watch. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been just for the past few games, but has been the case for most/all of this season. I used to look forward to going to the game on a Saturday, but now it just feels like a bad-habit that I should give up. What really frustrates me is that I don’t think that the squad at Motherwell is any worse than most of the squads in the league, but week-in-week-out I see the opposition dominate possession, while appearing to be technically better on the ball and playing with more cohesion and purpose. I haven’t bothered to look at the possession stats, pass completion stats or number of goal attempts made; I don’t need to, because I know that to be entertained I want Motherwell to do better in all of those areas. Maybe I’m in the minority, maybe many are being entertained with this brand of football. I most certainly am not. Are you happy with the entertainment provided by Motherwell?

I have to agree. He was very slow to react on a number of occasions today and didn't look interested. Maybe he was suffering from a knock or a virus. Definitely should have been replaced earlier than he was.

A bit off topic, but the Sportscene coverage was absolutely appalling. All about Rangers, no real analysis of the key points in the game. Completely amateurish production and presentation. Finally, does anyone think that Rangers first goal had a distinct possibility of offside? It looked to me that a Rangers player, in an offside position, interfered with Ox line of sight to the ball.

I just watched back the Sportscene coverage of the game today. Butland's error was just that. From what i saw on Sportscene, Watt held his ground, Butland tried to jump over him to punch clear and simply made a mess of it. For me, a ridiculous decision to rule out a goal for that. There was a much more blatant push on a keeper shown on Match of the Day tonight and VAR decided that the goal stood. What a state our game is in.

Indeed and Davor does not too bad a job. However, he seems to be being asked to take more of a creative role. A large proportion of the play through midfield seems to go through Davor. This is something that, in the current setup, Halliday should be doing.

Interesting stats. They certainly don't reflect my perception of what Davor does for the team. Those stats would suggest that Davor is the most effective midfielder that we have. His pass accuracy is better than Miller's across the board. Maybe we should be asking big money for Davor. Davor is decent at breaking up play and retaining possession by going sideways and back. It would be interesting to understand what constitutes a forward pass in this context.

I have to agree with this. Davor is a breaker of play, not a play maker. That said, the way that we currently setup in midfield means that Davor frequently has to become a bit of a play maker. His tendency to turn back means that opportunities to make something happen in the final third are often lost, and we make so few chances from open play. That may be where some of the fan frustraion comes from.

A great result. Three points very welcome. I'm very happy with the way the league is shaping up. Well done to the team and management on getting the hard earned points. However, I'm not going to get carried away, the general level of team performance was very poor. No team can continue winning games when they give up so much territory, give the opposition so many chances and lose possession so easily. The stats today show that we managed only 37% possession. We must get better at ball retention or there won't be too many games where we get the 3 points.