Ya Bezzer!

Shaun Hutchinson by miles.

There is no bigger fan of Randolph than me but I thought he got away with a nasty one today.

Instead of kicking on from last weeks result our home form got even worse! The first half was probably the worst Motherwell performance I've seen since the Malpas days. Players literally couldn't pass the ball to one another. I'd like to see what the pass completion stats were because I suspect that there would be players out there down at 30 or 40%! We didn't even manage a single shot on goal unless I'm forgetting some tame effort. The one single threat we had was a Higdon header that, to be fair, the keeper did well to save. The second half was much the same apart from a little bit more urgency for the last 15 minutes when we created a couple of chances. Why McCall waited until the 88th minute to make a substitution and then when he did, replace a left back with a left back is anyones guess. Not even close to good enough. McCall, it's your job to come up with a team and tactical set up that can win home matches as well as away matches and if things aren't working out then figure out on the touch line where its going wrong and then CHANGE IT. Honestly that today was just tripe. Can you image what the attendance is going to be against Ross County? Sub 4,000 probably. Actually going Christmas shopping would probably be more entertaining than going to Fir Park these days.

I think we are at the stage now where it's worth more to us to keep both Randolph and Murphy and let them go for nothing than it is to sell them on for some nominal sum like we did with Reynolds. The league table is very tight and without both those players I suspect we are going down the table rather than maintaining our current position or even rising up it. Perhaps the Aberdeen game will determine our strategy. If there is no cup run money it may force us to accept a bid that would otherwise be unacceptable.

In response to that I'd say it's different when it's your home ground. I think it must effect confidence when players come out to their home ground and there is only a smattering of fans around the stands. Our recent away wins have been at grounds that struggle to attract a home crowd, in that case its been to our advantage. Of course, there is no one reason for anything, your opinion on the counter attack is also valid, partly down to the kind of players we have,partly down the the kind of manager we have. But I do think low attendances don't help on a whole number of levels.

Maybe the big win against Inverness will help us break out of our home rut but I think one of the things affecting us this season has been the dismal attendances at Fir Park. Can't see too many coming out due to the recent weather, kick off time, poor home form and television coverage. Cue flat atmosphere in a virtually empty stadium, it can hardly be inspiring for the players when our numbers are so low. Hearts away form has been poor for quite a long time and they very rarely win on the road but I think this one has a draw written all over it. Hopefully we get a good performance but if we don't I can see some negative reaction from the support because it's getting to the point now where the home supporters need to see improvement. Even if you exclude Celtic, Panathinaikos and Levante it would still only be 1 win in 5 and that's £100 worth of football.

In the very recent past most of our neighbouring countries (and by that I mean Ireland and Scandinavia) had part time or mostly part time leagues that were essentially feeder leagues to the English, German or Italian leagues. As far as I can see the SPL is now just a feeder league for the English league and although Scottish players have always gone south it's only a recent phenomenon that almost every English League club can out bid almost every Scottish club for a player. The Scottish game is now completely subservient to the English game. As far as I can see we are trying to maintain a feeder league as if it was a 'buying' league. The boom years aren't coming back and the logical conclusion is that clubs will have to reduce player wages. Currently they are trying to do that by reducing squad sizes but I think eventually they will have to actually substantially reduce 'the going rate' of the average professional. We aren't at a point quite yet where I can foresee the top tier of our game having to go part time but I can see a time, in the not too distant future, when clubs reduce the number of professionals to a bare minimum (perhaps only 14 or 15 pros)with the rest either low paid youngsters or part time players. In actual fact this used to be the model for most of the clubs outside the top division and occasionally top tier clubs (didn't Hamilton Accies, Clydebank and possibly Dumbarton play in the top division with mixed squads?). The lower leagues back in those days used to produce some excellent players many of whom went on to international level so I don't think its necessarily the worst thing that could happen. Incidentally the Norwegian Tippeligaen, which only became professional in 1992, has a TV deal worth £45 million a year in contrast to the SPL deal which is worth only about £16 million a year. Financially, we are miles behind right now.

Obviously forgotten about Khaled Kemas.

Currently playing in Cyprus for Aris Limassol. Swapping Motherwell/Dundee for Cyprus is probably quite a good idea to be fair.

Randolph Corrigan Craigan Reynolds Hammell O'Brien O'Donnell Lasley McCormack Clarkson McDonald For me the back four and goalkeeper more or less picks itself. In midfield I'd have O'Brien on the right wing and pick McCormack narrowly over Pearson. Both had excellent ability although both were inconsistent. Still I think McCormack at the top of his game with his pace and goal threat betters Pearson. In the middle Lasley and O'Donnell. Although the donkey work is important in midfield I think both those players could do that but still provide a bit more football than Jennings was capable of. Upfront I've picked Clarkson ahead of Jutkiewicz on the basis that Jutkiewicz, excellent as he was, was only with us for one season while Clarkson was probably our best player in the last couple of seasons he was at the club (IMO anyway). At that stage he was also scoring as many if not more goals than Jutkiewicz got. McDonald was far and away the best striker we've had since the Coyne/Arnott/Coyle days.

Another vote for Ojamaa. I've set my thoughts out on him in the game thread.

First half we were dire. If we played like that every week we'd be relegated without a shadow of a doubt. Not organised, no confidence, no touch, no invention, nothing. It was ironic that Higdon scored as I thought he was the worst player on the pitch and I'm not one of the Higdon haters. He improved a bit in the second half and that 'honour' was passed to Hateley/Humphrey who were abysmal and hardly put a good ball in all match. There was one moment in the first half when Humphrey took a first touch and then had to sprint 10 yards to retrieve the ball. It was school football stuff. No big surprise then that the one good ball came in from the left but where I was sitting it was impossible to see if it was offside or not. Dundee were the worst side I've seen this season and yet we were a bit lucky to get a point since Randolph had to bail us out at the other end on a couple of occasions with some excellent saves although I have to also point out that Randolph's distribution yesterday was terrible. There just seems to be an attitude of half heartedness, laziness around the whole team right now, with the exception of Ojamaa who I think is being played in the wrong position and isn't as effective as he could be despite his industry. He's at his best coming inside from a wider position and works best when he's along side Law on that flank. Of course both of those players are currently playing through the middle. Ojamaa is a player for a 4-3-3 not a 4-4-1-1. That's not a criticism of Ojamaa of course, it's a criticism of those that set the team up.

I don't think we need a new centre forward just another centre forward. It was pretty obvious early on last night that Higdon wasn't going to do something. He needed someone to pick up flick on and knock ons and that's why I thought McHugh should have come on much earlier to partner him. Higdon's goal scoring record overall is good but there are a number of games, not just one or two, when he is completely nullified as an attacking threat. I'm sure if he'd had some help from another 18 yard box striker he would have had more joy. Even if the other striker doesn't touch the ball it still completely alters the dynamic of the match. The whole way the match went last night we were screaming out for a second striker. Dundee United were quite happy to sit back and counter attack so it's not like there was a midfield battle to win.

Went for Jamie Murphy. Hammell and Law did OK as well and Randolph made a couple of decent saves.

No one has mentioned that it looked like Dundee Utd had a decent goal shout chopped off. Looked over the line from where I was but it's hard to tell what with the 'whole of the ball' rule. My initial reaction was that it was over though.

Our centre back partnership tonight was as poor as I've seen in a long time. Although we had most of the possession and chances I thought Dundee Utd were always likely to get a goal which meant we had to get one just to get a point. I thought we played reasonably well middle to front but I blame McCall's tactical inflexibility for the defeat. We were absolutely crying out for a 4-4-2 tonight. Ojamaa is not a striker and Bob McHugh should have be on much earlier to give us a chance. Playing with just Higdon upfront made us predictable and made it a lot easier for Dundee Utd to defend. Having said that we created enough chances to score tonight but if we'd had two out and out strikers on I strongly suspect we would have hit the back of the net. I think if we play at the level we did tonight we should win against Dundee as I don't think they will be as defensively disciplined as Utd were tonight and they don't have a striker of the quality of Johnny Russell. Disappointing but disappointment that can be tempered at the weekend.

It's not the kind of night were you'd take kindly to watching a rotten performance so hopefully we do the business tonight. The last time I saw us play we won 4-1 so more of that please!

Jamie Murphy is our best offensive player. I've only been to 3 matches this season so I can't really say for sure but by all accounts he's not performed as well as he can but I think you could probably say that about a lot of the players this season. I don't think he's shown the level of consistency you should require to get into the Scotland squad. I agree the likes of Mackay-Steven, Johnny Russell, Leigh Griffiths and even Tony Watt are better shouts at the moment. However I will say this 4 goals in 9 league starts isn't bad for a player who's 'off form'. Also 43 goals in 202 matches would be decent for an out and out striker. For a player that's not an out and out striker it's pretty darn good and even better when you take into account about 40 of those appearances were substitute appearances. He's not good enough for Scotland right now and possibly might never be but I would always have him in my Motherwell line up.

Not really because the league is very very tight and a couple of good or bad results effect the league position a great deal. The match against Dundee United is important, win that and it creates a wee gap again. Lose that and it's a different story.

St. Johnstone fans must really hate us!

I've not been to a game since the Inverness match due to work and I can't wait to get to a game! We are in poor form and things look a bit grim but I honestly believe supporters play a part in getting teams out of these situations so we have to do our bit as well.

I won't be putting Motherwell on my coupon but I think some people are getting a bit carried away with the old doom and gloom stuff. It's Motherwell, anything can happen! I won't be there but hopefully the fans get behind the team and we can get something from the match. St. Johnstone are favourites and I said even before their good run that they had the strongest squad of any non city club in the SPL but I'm not going to be amazed if we get a point or even a win. McCall has had an easy time up till now - now it's time to earn his corn. More than a few players need to stand up and be counted as well.

Sorry! Your theory doesn't stack up. Since Jennogate O'Reilly has officiated 9 Motherwell matches. Hamilton 0-0 Kilmarnock 0-1 Dundee Utd 2-1 Hearts 1-0 Dundee Utd 1-1 Hibs 1-1 Celtic 0-3 Inverness 4-1 Hibs 0-4 So I make that Played 9 Won 3 Drawn 3 Lost 3. Can't get much fairer than that!

There have been times in the past when we've had to rely on young players coming through and generally we've found a few gems that have injected some enthusiasm and youth into the side. I look at the current crop of young players that have come through our youth system and I have to say I'm a bit concerned. To me they aren't of the same quality as players who had come through previously. Ironically the one that impressed me most, Lawless, was released. But I look at Carswell, Hetherington, Cummins, Page, Francis-Angol, Kerr and McHugh and I don't see anyone of real first team quality. McHugh has probably deserved a better crack of the whip than he's got from McCall but the fact remains that 3 seasons after he made his debut we still don't know if he's good enough to be an SPL striker. Cummins has shown some potential but clearly isn't ready to be a first team regular at this stage. The rest, from what I've seen, I don't really rate, which might be a little unfair given their limited on field experience but it's just my general impression from having watched them. Shouldn't we be asking some serious questions about the way our youth development is being run? It seems to me that we seem to have changed the focus from bringing in young local players to snapping up youth players that have been released from English clubs. No doubt there are good players to be found that way, Shaun Hutchinson is testament to that but I think perhaps we've gone too far down that road. Also the way the youth set up has been treated prior to this season when it was more or less forced on McCall has been very shoddy. Young players have been all but ignored during successful periods when that is exactly the time to give young players some game experience when there is no where near as much pressure and the squad has an air of confidence about it. Fairly successful youth teams have been released on mass and young players given professional contracts by McCall (Halsman, McKinnon, Pollock, Smith etc.) had as much chance of getting a game as I had. I just feel that whole side of the club, one that should be pretty high up on our list of priorities given the financial conditions, has been allowed to wither on the vine for the last couple of years.

Raith Rovers equalized in the last minute with a superb free kick from Hetherston. One of the great kick in the baws, that one!