Kmcalpin

I was a bit disappointed in Stuart's post match interview on BBC Radio tonight. No problem with him saying that Celtic were the better team and deserved to win, but did he have to go on and on about how good Celtic were? He hardly mentioned his own team. Surely he's paid to manage Motherwell FC and improve us. I dread to think what his team talk will be prior to our next visit to Parkhead. "We've no chance/Celtic are a great team etc etc". That'll motivate the players ...not.

That midfield, and SM may well select it, is very lightweight and would get bulldozed, Gav. We'd be playing much of the game in or around our penalty box.

Good post Alan. In the main we're just too lightweight and soft, especially in the midfield and defence, critical areas of the pitch. In recent years we've implored the team to get in the OF faces; hassle and harry them. That has not happened. Instead the OF players get in our lads' faces and bully them. We've had some months now to strengthen the team in critical areas and have not done so. I'm not referring to multi million pound players here - just robust solid, and reliable players who can show a bit of aggression and steel. Watching Levante and Panathanaikos was a real eye opener for me. Both typical European sides if there is such a thing. I was expecting to see players around 5-8 or 5-9 in height and in need of a good square meal. Not a bit of it - they had pretty big lads in all areas well capable of holding their own physically; more capable than us. Oh for a McVie, Millar or MacLaren right now.

A fair question Haggis. All I would say is that neither lad is the "Jenno" type of player. What we need right now is a Billy Bremner, Dave Mackay, Colin O'Neil or Stewart MacLaren sort. A guy who is going to advance, on his own if needs be, against a wave of attackers and get stuck in. I believe that Ian Davidson of Dundee is earning rave reviews right now. A big lad he apparently dominated the midfield physically against us and only when he retired injured did we begin to turn the screw. He didn't come from Barcelona or Inter Milan but from Raith Rovers.

I can't add much about the performance to whats been said already. All I will say is that our central midfield is the root cause of a lot of our problems. Steve Jennings has not been replaced and thats left a huge hole. Keith Lasley is struggling at 32. We have no ready made replacement to step in. The nearest we can come to that is Simon Ramsden who hasn't yet been played in midfield. There's far more to it than that of course, but this critical issue should have been addressed months ago. The players and management have a lot of making up to do on Saturday.

There little doubt that our defenders have been responsible for a few of the goals we have lost recently. However I firmly believe that we are paying the price for not replacing Steve Jennings with a similar type of player. Someone who can get in the opposition's faces and break up attacks. If we can't defend cross balls in the box why let the opposition cross into our box in the first place? For all his faults, Jim Gannon rightly identified this as our achilles heel. Going back to the Levante game, I thought they defended excellently - we were not allowed to go anywhere near their penalty box and certainly not test their to test their keeper. We're doing well just now but if we want to improve then we have to bolster the midfield and learn to defend higher up the pitch.

Very true Alan, Jennings is being badly missed. Keith Lasley was never the fastest player and he's now 32. Central midfield needs bolstering badly. Now that we have Hately and Fraser Kerr to vie for the right back slot I'd be tempted to try out Simon Ramsden in that position until we can sign someone. We do have the comfort though of being looking to strengthen from a position of strength ie first place.

A good result today in what was always going to be a very tricky game. Great to see Higgy come good and notch an important brace for us. I think Dundee will now start to pick up points but thankfully it wasn't against us. Credit to Stuart McCall and Kenny Black for masterminding the win. Their changes although a wee bit late paid off and turned the game.

I doubt if Templeton is much of a threat to be honest. A bit like Stuart Elliott, he turned up in roughly one game in five for Hearts last season. One of these games happened to be against us.

You'd think so but they do vary for some reason.

Our financial year ended on 31 May. The annual accounts will be presented to the shareholders in the next month or two - possibly November? Presumably the Directors now know the exact figures.

My take on the incident too FC. At the time it looked like a possible penalty, but after having watched it on a televised replay I'd have awarded a clear foul to Cummins. Don't forget too that O'Reilly denied us a late stonewall penalty at Tannadice last season when Henrik was the victim of a simultaneous 2 foul incident (the game ended 1-1). That error could have cost us 3rd place as it gave United a potential 4 point uplift.

Good result today and credit to Stuart McCall for making some changes today, many of which were enforced. Substitutions, in the main, worked. Good to see young players perform well - they are the lifeblood of our club. Thought that Higdon just shaded MOTM the match from Darren Randolph. Chris Humphrey too put in an excellent shift although the referee, an old friend of ours, afforded him little protection. Of the young lads, Fraser Kerr and Adam Cummins were the pick of the bunch. Francis Angol impressed too, but to me looks more of a midfielder than defender. Bob McHugh and Jon Page really need to make their mark soon - time is running out tfor them. Inverness made it easy for us with some poor defending but credit to Higgy - his finishing was very clinical. Quite a few lads were carrying knocks so good on them for lasting the pace today. I'll be interested to see our penalty claim - the BBC chose not to show it. It did look a stonewaller. We still need a defensive central midfielder to replace Jenno - there was a big gap in front of the defence today and at 32 Keith Lasley can't be expected to do too much running around. The international break should give the lads a well earned rest. Top of the table too :-)

Pretty much agree. He had a reputation for being a bit of a dead ball expert but also for being a bit lazy.

Although just a rumour at this stage, I think Ryan Stevenson would be a decent signing for us. Ok we know he isn't the quickest player in the world but he's fine with the ball at his feet and has an eye for goal. He split the Gorgie Road support, some of whom didn't think he was Hearts class - whatever that is, and was moved on after speaking out about Vlad and non payment of wages. A little surprised that we're going for an offensive midfielder with Nicky Law still still on the books at the moment. Perhaps SM sees Steve Hetherington or Stuart Carswell cementing their place in the team this season to take the defensive pressure off Keith Lasley.

What I'm saying is if someone does well, which Stuart McCall did last year (very well in fact) then they deserve credit, which he was given. If they make mistakes or don't do so well then they deserve constructive criticism which I think I've done to some extent this season. Even someone doing a good or very good job isn't perfect and makes mistakes. Whats wrong with that? This season, I can't speak for the games in Athens or Kilmarnock as I wasn't at them. However to win at Kilmarnock would suggest the players and SM did well. So that leaves home games against Panathanaikos, Levante, St Johnstone, and St Mirren and an away game at Dingwall. I don't think we played well in any of them. Not saying we should have won them all of course. Now thats not all down to Stuart McCall. We have a very thin squad; there have been injuries; despite SM's best efforts players can play badly on the day - which quite a few have done; and we've had a taxing European campaign. However these factors alone don't explain our failure, as a team, to play as well as we could have done. I happen to think that Stuart McCall could have used fringe players (McHugh, Page, Francis Angol and Carswell) slightly more than he has done, thereby keeping first picks a bit fresher. Quite a few others have made exactly the same point. Then we come to tactics. At Dingwall we showed no imagination whatsoever; against St Mirren the formation was all wrong and we allowed our opponents the freedom of the wings to rain cross after cross into 2 big strikers. Jamie Murphy (one of my favourite players) isn't suited to his current roving role; Nicky Law is being wasted in a deeper role; our build up is slow, laboured and predictable despite having three fast guys in Humphrey, Ojamaa and Murphy. Finally, our set pieces have in the main been consistently very poor. These points have been made by many others incidentally. Now its quite possible that even if we had played to our full potential that this would not have resulted in a single better result, not one. As you say we are not Barcelona (or even Barnsley). But my main gripe, so far, is that we have not done ourselves justice. In most of the games I've mentioned we could have played considerably better and quite a few folk have said just that. Just for the record I thought that Levante's defensive tactics were absolutely spot on Ross County are a very hard team to beat and St Mirren are a half decent team. Hopefully that explains my view.

Vincent Lunny. This is where the system falls down. If the media, for whatever reason, decide not to screen an incident then the chances are that it won't be investigated.

There was a meeting of shareholders (of MFC) to approve the purchase of shares by the Society and this was passed. Now that this legal hurdle has been passed, I believe there will be a meeting od the Society in the next few weeks. The shareholders meeting had been delayed because of the Rangers saga.

I did not say they have been found out what I wrote was "but this campaign they are being caught out big time". There's a big difference. For the record I think that both have done a very good job so far but they have made mistakes. This season has been very difficult so far with a very thin squad and injuries/suspensions but I still think they have made significant mistakes in some of our early games. We all make mistakes but that doesn't mean to say we're bad at our jobs.

Please explain.

The referee today was shockingly inconsistent and booking Hutchinson for not leaving the field quickly enough was ludicrous. Our European campaign and a thin squad are taking their toll but mistakes on and especially off the field are costing us big time. Yesterday Stuart McCall got it wrong big time. After a promising start, we put little into the game and St Mirren controlled large periods of the game. We just about deserved a draw. We played well in flashes particularly in the first half but for long spells simply weren't in the game. A reshuffle of personnel wasrequired but not what we got. The midfield set up was all wrong and should have been changed well before half time. I'm all for giving youth a chance but Steve Hetherington had a mare really should have been replaced after 30 minutes. For most of the match we were totally exposed down both wings with Nicky Law not really knowing where he was meant to be playing. Jamie Murphy again flattered to deceive and his roving role from a deep position caused our lads more trouble than it caused St Mirren. Keith Lasley is struggling badly just now and may be missing Jennings' presence to protect him. At 32 are his best years behind him? Steve Hammell had another nightmare and was all over the place, but in his defence he was given little assistance on the left wing. We were slow to make changes and when they did arrive they were a bit baffling, Chris Humphrey apart. Stuart McCall got it badly wrong when he signalled his intention to sit back by taking off offensive players and bringing on more defensive minded ones. Over the years we've learnt that we cannot sit back and defend. We simply don't have the players. The midfield sat far too deep and we allowed Saints to rain in cross after cross into the box. McCall and Black did us proud last season but this campaign they are being caught out big time. Finally a word about those shocking free kicks we're taking just now - short and quick they inevitably result in pass backs into defence or losing the ball alltogether. I though Kerr had a good game and Cummins wasn't far behind him but that was about it. Possibly our central defensive partnership in the coming months? The events of the next few days will go a long way to determining our season - who if anyone we sign.

With the players we have I'd think very carefully about playing that formation again....ever.

Last night was desperately disappointing. We'll probably never really know how good Levante were, but their next set of results of Europe may provide a clue. Anyway, I felt we made serious errors off the pitch and on it. We clearly did not learn from playing Panathanaikos. Our weaknesses this season are many but I didn't see anything last night that wasn't evident against Ross County or St Johnstone. I'll take 3 quotes from the Ojamaa thread which sums up our key weaknesses perfectly for me. Step forward Real Dosser - "We are so pedestrian when we get the ball the other team have all the time in the world to get back and then we play 20 passes across the park or back to the defence before somebody makes an arse of it and gives it away." Then Wellfan 1984 "Sometimes it seems our team is too scared to go for a killer ball, instead we move side to side with no real plan of what to do next then we just pass it back a across the field." and finally Well4Europe "I've said it before, I'd get Law out of centre mid and back to a more advanced position. He's the most creative player we have and we're wasting him where he is in my opinion."

In this day and age £5.00 is a hell of a lot to some folk on a limited budget. It could easily be the difference between being able to and not being able to. Not every fan earns megabucks. Incidentally Hearts are charging their fans £45 full whack for the Liverpool game.

Losing players is no big deal. I've seen scores of irreplaceable players leave Fir Park only to be replaced by others. When Faddy left the club was supposedly going to implode. It didn't. The same thing happened with Ian St John, Bobby Roberts, Dixie Deans, Keith McRae, Gary McAllister, Lee MacCulloch, Phil O'Donnell, Brian McLair, Scott MacDonald, to name but 9. The club is still here. Our problem is our reputation or rather lack of it. Any young player breaking through at Easter Road, Tannadice or Pittodrie is automatcially a world beater. It might not be true but English clubs believe that.