Ya Bezzer!

ETERNAL OPTIMIST If we can score early second half we are right back in this.

That's why the physio's most important medical kit was a tube of Airfix glue.

I've got a few teams but I don't think any of them still have 11 men! Know I have Spain and Italy of the Butragueno/Altobelli vintage.

I think the blend of Goss, Slattery and Maguire has been our best midfield combination so far this season. Goss not playing is especially concerning because because he's the guy with a wee bit of technique that can change a game. Don't think Grimshaw gives you anything like that so it's not even as close to a like-for-like change as we could have made. Goss has created 4 goals in 6 starts, Grimshaw has created 0 goals in 10 starts. That's a worry for me. Still, fingers crossed. I'll take a scrappy 1-0 win.

Dundee have a very poor home record....except they beat us in the League Cup there. Dundee have the worst defence in the league though and have shipped 9 goals in their last two home matches against Celtic (4) and Ross County (5). On current form you'd expect us to get something but we all know what supporting Motherwell is like!

The best Motherwell team I've ever seen, the early to mid ninties side didn't exactly do much in the cups either. The McFadden team was our best chance. Played Rangers off the park in the semi but still managed to lose 3-4 with a poor Dunfermline side waiting in the Final. If we'd got through we would have won it. No doubt whatsoever.

To be fair, and I think a lot of people have been well off it with criticism of Alexander, there is just more to discuss after a defeat. That's the way it is, especially when it's a heavy defeat to a team we haven't beaten in the league for 20 years. Loads of folk have been going on about how 4-3-3 doesn't work and how 'stubborn' the manager is for persisting with it. I don't agree with that and I'll argue the case but at the same time I don't expect those other people to come on and say how wrong they got it off one, two results. With football it's an ever evolving situation and as soon as we lose again you'll hear the same thing again. Some people see it one way, others a different way. That's just the way people are. Personally I don't get the scale of the animosity against Alexander when only Rangers and Celtic have won more games this season than us. We are also fourth top goal scorers and we've scored in 12 out of 14 league matches this season but whatever. I get the standard of football played hasn't been great but again I don't think the standard has been good for quite a while going back at least a few managers, with maybe the Turnbull period as an exception. Still, I think the purpose of the forum is to give people a chance to express an opinion, not to agree with me personally. It worries me, here and in society in general, that people would rather pull up the drawbridge than actually engage with a range of opinions. We all need to be a bit more robust and less sensitive to different view points.

Ha! A few games back I was talking to someone at the game and I was saying that if you played Mugabi upfront as a striker he'd probably get you 10 goals a season at least. Someone that size that's good in the air, I reckon I wouldn't be far wrong!

Quite a few contenders today but there can only be one MOTM and I'll give it to Ricki Lamie.

I have it as a 4-3-1-2 formation Carson Tait - Kipre, Hartley - Dunne Grimshaw, McHugh, Rose Cadden Moult, Bowman

Don't know if the younger fans have quite the same level of animosity towards Hearts but I absolutely love beating them every bit as much as Rangers and Celtic. Best display of the season. Absolutely dominated from start to finish and should have probably won by quite a few more than we got. Was a 2-0 going on 5-0. The one thing I took away from the match today was the fantastic performances from some of the more 'unfashionable' players. Lamie, Maguire, Shields, Mugabi to name but four but everyone can be very pleased with their performance today.

Doesn't really narrow it down much!

Also has the best passing accuracy of any of our midfielders.

If you are playing 4 at the back full backs should be defenders first and foremost. You defend as four in a line and if the full backs are getting forward you are just asking for trouble because you are defeating the whole point of having a back four. If you want to play wing backs you go for 3 at the back. Like McLean did when we played Shannon and McKinnon.

I've said this before but when I was a school kid Stevie used to go to the same chippie at lunch time and he always got a bag of fritters! Must be some correlation between fritters and tap ins at the North Terrace end.

With 5 wins in 13, 18 points and a Top 6 spot someone needs to tell 'stubborn' Alexander 4-3-3 doesn't work.

Applause

It's greener than it was when we were 11th and sitting on 19 points in January '21. And Robinson had league runs of 1 win in 14 and another of 1 win in 13. Alexander longest run is 5. There is currently no comparison between Alexander and Robinsons performance. If at any point there is, I certainly won't be defending him.

Kelly came in on loan previous to Alexander so he obviously wasn't an 'Alexander' target. Likewise Roberts probably wasn't a Alexander target either. Count them if you wish though. Out of today's team Kelly, O'Donnell, Mugabi, McGinley, O'Hara, Watt all played previous to Alexander being manager so that's still more than half the team. Then you have others 'senior' players in the squad like Lamie, Donnelly, Grimshaw, Carroll, etc. He picks the XI and the tactics of course but I think it's misguided to say this is an 'Alexander' team in terms of personnel. And the idea that you can just get rid of players like it was a Football Manager games is rubbish. It's not that easy to move contracted players on or bring players in. I will say though that I think our transfer policy has been utter garbage but it goes way beyond the incumbent manager so I think it's unfair to blame Alexander for it.

At a stage of the season when only 33 points have been available in total. We are also only 6 points off a European place. Alexander has to be given more time and I'm afraid we just have to hunker down and deal with the situation that the club was left in. As you said you re-assess it after the 2nd round of matches are played.

This. The standard of player that's being brought in has stunk beyond this manager and even the previous manager. I've said for a while that our transfer policy needs looking at as we have often been linked with a player under one manager and then brought them in under a different manager. I also think our youth system has gone backwards but to be fair a lot of that is beyond Motherwell's control and much of the responsibility for that lies with the clowns that run Scottish football. I think we should still be doing better though.

Four of the team today were signed by Alexander and that's if you include Roberts. And three of the four of them have hardly had any game time - Goss (4 starts), Solholm (3 starts), Roberts (2 starts). There is still a major hang over lingering around this squad from the Robinson era.

There is an expression that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Alexander inherited a sow's ear. People forget we were genuine relegation candidates when he came in and he's turned us into a mid table side. Has it been pretty? Certainly not but there is only so much you can do with the players we have. The standard of the player in the squad has been very poor for a long, long time and you don't turn that round in one transfer window. We have to play a certain style of football with the players we have. We are never going to play football that's easy on the eye with what's available. It's a totally different situation from when Robinson had class players on the sidelines and then brought them in. Pretty much everyone, especially in midfield, is much of a muchness. Until we improve the quality of player at the club it's not going to be pretty but let's just all remember were we've come from. And just for clarification there are definitely things I'd do differently from Alexander but overall I don't see a huge number of game changing options open to him. Right now we are 9 points clear of the relegation place and we are equalling or bettering Hibs, Aberdeen and St Johnstone's points tally. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water here.

That happens every week. I think our team selection and set up is more worthy of investigating rather who we are playing.

First 5 matches of the season we conceded 5 goals with (mostly) Mugabi at right back and Carroll at left back. Last 5 matches of the season we conceded 14 goals with O'Donnell at right back and McGinley at left back. What changed?