joewarkfanclub

I love Viking! Hope Sondre is fit. Shieldwall!

He is the only midfielder we have that looks like he has a bit of genuine quality about him. If we get some players of similar quality around him or increase the numbers around him to give him some support we might get to see how good he can be. Hard to look good when you are carrying a whole midfield.

Sorry David. I agree with your general point about O'Donnell, and he did make amends later in the first half with a goal saving tackle, but if he tucks in a little at the goal, Jota has to go around the outside and doesnt get a clear run through on Kelly. His body shape and positioning are just a little out and allow the pass to be played inside him. Overall though he does more right than he does wrong and I dont see Grimshaw or Mugabi doing any better in that position.

Re O'Donnell, no one can argue he hasnt made mistakes this season, or that his performances havent been better for Scotland than for us. However, if we start dropping every player that makes a mistake we wont have many players to choose from. O'Donnell is the best right back at the club. It may well be that playing 3-5-2 suits him better than playing 4-3-3, but there is no chance he will be dropped unless we sign someone who is better, which seems unlikely. Mugabi could play there I suppose, but he is a centre half and you wont get anything from him going forward. It is really frustrating just now, because there is some promise in the team but there is clearly still something missing and the management are showing no signs of changing it in terms of set up or personnel. United appear to he in good form just now and Tannadice is a traditionally difficult venue for us. Id take a scrappy hard fought draw right now, but wouldnt surprised with a single goal victory either way.

Bevis. No real competion this week. Ojala, Woolery and Watt were ok, but no more than that.

Bit surprised at the team selection today. If ever there was a team we were set up to play against this season it is Celtic. They like to keep possession, push forward but are week at the back, so as a counter attaxking team, today was made for us. So dropping KVV for Roberts was a surprise and also OHara for Goss, guven the work rate we needed from the midfield. That aside, I thought we started strongly and looked good until Collum decided to intervene. The decision against McGinley for a very good tackle was laughable, but to then compound it moments later by not giving a foul on Slattery in the run up to their goal was incredible. Yes, we should defend it better after that, but big decisions change games and we go from not getting a foul 30 yards from their goal to being 1-0 down. We lost our way after that, and it wasnt until well into the 2nd half before we really looked dangerous again. Then enter the officials. Or not as the casr may be! Its a stonewall penalty. Yes we have to score it and yes, that would only make it 2-1, but at least then its a game. Overall, I think we can do much better. We all know our midfield is dysfunctional, and we should defend the first goal better, and despite Turnbulls great strike, I still expect Kelly to get his feet off the ground for the 2nd. I also couldnt believe Kelly never once played the ball over Raltons head for Woollery to run on to, the amount of space there was in behind was ridiculous. This wont define our season, but its frustrating as hell not to really lay a glove on a team who have so many weaknesses.

Seriously dude. Do you ever read your posts back? Your having a go at a guy for questioning how you support football, by having a go at how others support football? Ive watched Motherwell for the best part of 50 years and Ive seen plenty of turgid shite. Same with Scotland. But I dont do it to be spoiled with silky flowing football. I do it because its in my blood and its who I am. If Scotlands not for you thats fair enough, bit dont try and pretend that its because watching Motherwell is more entertaining. Its just not true.

Scotlands failure to qualify for tournaments has nothing to do with fans having a piss up. Its due to the systemic failure if the SFA to move with the times and adapt to changes in society. Thankfully there is a plan in place now that seems to be bearing fruit, but the pace of change has been so glacial its almost impercetible. They could and should be doing much more. In respect of the fans, I dont think we do celebrate failure. Numbers always drop off significantly if the team is playing badly, which is why the Israel game was the first sell out for 4 years. Ive been to plenty of games where the team has been booed off at half time and full time. It may be a perception amongst some that dont actually go to Scotland games that its all about the drinking, but in all honesty thats just a front to hide behind the pain of defeat and its certainly a stereotype that is lazily played upon by a willing media. Ive found over the years that there is always far more of that shit goes on when we are doing well or going to somewhere easy to get to or that is attractive for a jolly (see Wembley/Amsterdam etc). In short, Scotland fans are no different from any other group of fans who love to follow their team win lose or draw....

That comment shows as much misunderstanding and disrespect to genuine Scotland fans as the original poster showed to your good self.

Im not stat obsessed, and I certainly couldnt be arsed checking thru their games to see what player did what. However, if one of our players committed 9 fouls in a game I would certainly have expected him to pick up a yellow for repeated fouling regardless of how soft the fouls were. Not sure what the threshold is considered to be, but after 5 or 6 I would be thinking they are skating on thin ice.

The above stats are certainly interesting and I certainly wouldnt argue with the fact that in games against us, Celtic get a lot more decisions than we do. However, my experience is that so do Rangers, so Im surprised at the disparity in their figures. I was always just of the opinion that the bigger crowds both clubs got swayed referees decision making during games, albeit power and influence cannot be ignored when it comes to the mindset of our officials.

You mean like we did in Serbia?

If this is true, and Ive no reason to doubt it, why would Lawless agree to that? I wouldnt. He would effectively be agreeing to no wages until January, unless of course the club have paid up his contract until January to get him out the building.

I think you can always tell how well or otherwise a player is regarded at a club by the length of the club statement when they leave. That one couldnt really have been any shorter......

I know. Who would want to play for their country and go on to represent them at a World Cup? Mental.........

David Turnbull deserves our respect. Anyone booing him is an idiot. Unless of course he scores the winner and celebrates down the East Stand side like Karl Higgingbottom. But we all know he has far too much class for that.......

Not sure where to start with this? I think its widely accepted by most on here that our recruitment up front and in defence has improved both areas of our squad. We look much more like scoring goals and much more solid at the back, hence our healthy points total. I think its also widely accepted that our midfield looks disjointed and outnumbered most weeks. So the question is clearly how we improve upon that. Given Goss was brought to the club and paraded as a cultured midfielder with good ability on the ball and a sweet left foot, its surely not unreasonable to think he might be a usefull addition in midfield and help Slattery and improve our ball retention. You dont need to be set up to dominate other teams to believe that keeping the ball when we have it is a good thing. Re the 9 for 3 spaces? Who are they? Other than the 3 that are playing and Goss who is injures we have Donnelly and Maguire who are more like for like replacements for Grimshaw and O'Hara. We have other attack minded players like Roberts or Amaluzor, but you cant class them as midfielders. Are we counting Cornelius, Crawford and Lawless who all appear to be well out of the picture? Robinson was criticised for his comments about strengthening 12-18 in the matchday squad and rightly so. If we want to keep progressing as a team we need to identify where we are weak and improve there. If the players we have are "contributing little" lets get them moved on and get better players in who can contribute. Thats how you constantly improve, no?

I thought both penalties were of the soft variety. Not sure there was any actual contact on Boyce for the first one and Slattery looked as if he just leaned into Devlin who just threw himself to the ground for the 2nd. Id have been claiming for them at our end without really expecting to get either of them.

He does seem to blow hot and cold. Not seen enough of Shields to judge whether he is good enough, but if KVV is injured or outnof form he deserves a chance to prove himself.

I would stick with Woolery as I think hebis improving and I dont think putting him on the bench would allow that development to continue. He is our player for 3 years so its in our interests to make sure he fulfills his potential. Ive no issue with Roberts. I think he probably is the more complete atricle, but he is a loan player and does provide us with an impact from the bench. The McGinley/Carroll conundrum is a difficult one. For me McGinley is the better defender, but his delivery has been poor. Carroll is generally better going forward but he regularly gets caught out of position causing him to make rash challenges. Both do an adequate job at our level. I just hope Goss is going to be the answer in midfield because thats where our issues lie. However, even if we get him fit and he does a job, we could be doing with another body in there in January to cover for him or Slattery if either are out, because all our other options are a drop in quality.

Not far away from what I would go with...... Kelly SOD Ojala Sondre Carroll Slattery O'Hara Goss Woolery Watt KVV

Missed most of the first half, so cant comment on their goals. Thought we finished the half strongly and but for a very good save from Gordon and a lack of composure from the resulting corner, we might have got one back before half time. 2nd half Hearts started the brighter. I thought their player went down very easily for the penalty, so it was nice to see it saved. That seemed to kickstart us and I thought for the rest of the half we had the better of the play and chances. A mixture of good goalkeeping, poor finishing and bad decision making stopped us from getting a foothold in the game. It would be interesting to see how Hearts would have handled it at that stage. Overall, a disappointing result, but the character of the team remained on display right to the end. We know the issues in midfield. Hopefully Goss and Sondre can both be fit for the Celtic game and we can get our strongest 11 on the pitch.

Agreed. I just quoted the Sun as the OP used them as a link to the story. Very little decent journalism around these days. Particularly in the tabloids.....

Its an article entirely manufactured round that tweet by The Sun. They dont appear to interview anyone or do any actual journalism anymore.....

I dont see Zander Clark every week so impossible to say. But by the same token, the elected member doesnt see Liam Kelly every week. He would have a point if he simply directed his fire at McLaughlin as he isnt playing every week for Rangers. But to say Clark isnt getting selected for Scotland because he plays for a provincial club is laughable given who Kelly plays for. Overall though its just a pish story from The Sun to fill pages by trawling Twitter to find anything remotely contraversial.