MelvinBragg

Don't fine them. Make all of them take the place of a Motherwell fan at work or at school tomorrow and let them take the slating for such a humiliating display...

Anyone watching confirm if it was a soft penalty decision? Given it's Thomson, I'm kind of assuming it was but we are prone to acts of stupidity...

Their last four league games were home to Kilmarnock and Hearts and away to Accies and St Mirren Given the money spent in the summer to improve an already expensively assembled squad, anything less than 12 points from those games has to be seen as underwhelming...

Add in cup games and ignore the first disastrous season with us (playing in that bizarre Moult-McDonald-Bowman front three) and it's one goal every 292 minutes or three and a bit games. But as weeyin points out, he's always going to be the 'second' striker. The work he does running the channels or taking central defenders on has created space for Moult and Main in the past. France just won the World Cup with a striker that doesn't score goals but brings out the best in others. Problem is if the guy he's making the space for is missing the chances. Similarly you could slate wingers or midfielders for lack of assists but what if the striker is missing sitters? That reflects poorly in the statistics. Bowman and Johnson would be my front two. I suspect that Johnson's conversion rate would be better than Main's...

If I were a sports journalist, I would no doubt have time to research it and break it down to goals per minute but I'm not and I don't. The point I was making is that 14 goals in 79 appearances doesn't tell the full picture if 20 of those appearances were 20 minutes sub appearances when the team was losing and struggling to create chances. Neither does the stat of 14 in 49 appearances. Who was it that said that statistics are like miniskirts in that they give you a good bit of information but don't show you everything..?

Funny thing is that I checked his stats as well before I read your post. Another way to look at it would be 14 goals in 49 starts. Almost one in three. Not bad for a second striker if your main (no pun intended) striker is banging them in. Sadly isn't the case at the moment. I know that some might say dismissing the number of sub appearances is ridiculous but I always feel that if Motherwell are bringing a striker off the bench the chances are that we're losing and not playing particularly well. To judge any striker on a number of 20-25 minute appearances when the team aren't playing well seems harsh to me...

Bigirimana is a tricky one. If you say he's fine against the weaker teams, how do you explain his performance against Rangers? Is he actually better against the better teams who are less concerned with pressing us and play their own game more? Tied in with this is any discussion of a new contract for McHugh. He gets a lot of criticism but the number of headers he wins in midfield is important. Our defenders themselves have mentioned the protection they feel he offers. Does he track runners, something that Bigirimana has been seen as neglecting this season? Centre midfield is an area where, if you're looking to trim the budget, there are a lot of bodies so in theory we could make savings. At the minute, I'd be looking at McHugh, Campbell, Bigirimana and Turnbull as the midfielders that I'd definitely be looking to keep. Harsh on Grimshaw who when he gets a run of games can make a contribution and Rose who is a steady player who rarely has a poor game? Possibly. And could McHugh be replaced by Maguire if the management see him as a defensive midfielder long term? Or Donnelly who plays there for Northern Ireland U21s? Gorrin? Where he fits in, who knows? Having seen him a couple of times, he looks decent but do we need him? We need to look at a squad where we have so many centre midfielders and only one winger and strikers that don't seem good enough. Problem is pretty much every player we have has either been signed by Robinson or has had their contract extended by him. Will he be ruthless enough to get rid of 'his' players? After all, they're a super bunch of boys...

Hibs away conceded 3 Hamilton home conceded 1 Rangers home conceded 3 Dundee away conceded 1 Hearts home conceded 1 Aberdeen away conceded 1 Kilmarnock away conceded 3 Livingston home conceded 1 St Johnstone home conceded 1 Not 'shipping' masses of goals. Only three league games when we've conceded more than one goal. If in each of the games we have conceded 1 goal, we had scored 1 more goal than we did then we would have six more points than we have now. We have played 11 league games and failed to score in 5 of them. I'd suggest that while our defence may not have been great, the forward area is a bigger problem....

I'd like to pretend to be shocked....

Live or later on?

They're a special case though as they only allow players from the Basque region to play for their team, although I gather they've been stretching the definition of Basque origin recently...

Didn't realise that Livingstone only played 45 minutes of the reserve game. Would still be astounded to see him in the team. Fully expect Tait and Cadden as wing backs in a 352...

I know I've banged this drum before but anyone suggesting a back four with Aldred and Hartley as centre backs needs their head read. Taylor-Sinclair being out added to Livingstone playing in the reserves yesterday pretty much puts to bed any notion of us playing a back four tomorrow anyway. It slightly amuses me that those claiming Robinson is too wedded to the 352 seem almost equally wedded to the idea that changing formation will help. Personally reckon it might just be that the majority of the players aren't good enough. That being said, it might be worth changing formation only to try and surprise the opposition. If Dunne is fit to play I'd go Carson Tait Aldred Maguire Dunne Turnbull McHugh Campbell Cadden Bowman/Johnson Frear Struggled to decide between Bowman and Johnson. Bowman is useful at dragging defenders out of position, creating space but Johnson looks a more natural finisher. Main? I'll pay his train fare back down south myself... Suspect a 0-0 is the very best we can hope for, hope I'm proved wrong

Having a track record at our level doesn't guarantee you will be in either of those categories. Just looking for a manager who can somehow fashion a team to score goals against the likes of Accies and St Johnstone. That's a long list..

Whoever it is should be someone with a track record of getting a team to create and score goals as that's clearly where we're lacking. We have a good goalkeeper and with Dunne back and some decent defensive midfielders, we should remain pretty solid, we're not conceding loads of goals. Who that would be? No idea but then again, it's not my job to find a new manager, that's down to the board...

Managers are judged on results and signings. Results this season are clearly disappointing. Signings? Robinson has signed 25 players in his time at the club. Gk Carson Griffiths Xenodochov Ferguson Gillespie DF Kipré Dunne Hartley Aldred Donnelly Hendrie Taylor-Sinclair Mbulu Plummer MF Rose Grimshaw Bigirimana Tanner Gorrin Petravicius FW Fisher Newell Main Sammon Johnson Obviously some of those players (Mbulu, Ferguson, Xenodochov) have never featured for the first team and a few (Newell, Donnelly, Taylor-Sinclair, Johnson, Sammon) have had limited opportunities. Some have already moved on again (Fisher, Plummer, Griffiths and a few others). Looking at the list though, I'd be interested to think how many of them would be seen as unqualified successes? For me, there's maybe four or five. Mainly they're in the defensive area of the field. Kind of ties in with results in that we're not conceding lots of goals but we're not scoring enough. Makes it kind of easy to portray him as an unimaginative, defensive coach whose only strength is stopping other teams. Problem is that it only takes one mistake to concede a goal. A long way of saying for him to turn a corner, he'll have to address the attacking side of the game. Which will be difficult given the lack of success in his attacking signings. I suspect he won't be our manager on December 1st...

Was Robbie Leitch not also involved? I heard he's, like Luke Watt, in Croatia. Via Burnley and Paisley. A weird world tour...

I heartily agree...

Fair point. If you'd told me before the games that we'd concede one at home to each of Accies, Livi and St Johnstone then you'd have to figure that we'd have at least three points from the three games. Sadly it only takes one goal to beat us at the minute...

I think one of the things that has frustrated me the most about the criticism of Donnelly is how Aldred and Hartley have performed but don't seem to face the same scrutiny. Both are fine at the centre of a back three with quicker, more powerful guys either side. You can't play both of them. To be honest, the only comic relief on this forum has been people suggesting four at the back with Aldred and Hartley as centre backs. Hilarious...

Sorry, but I'm not giving Robinson the budget as an excuse. If we're running with a tight budget then why do we have so many centre midfielders? Rose, Grimshaw, McHugh, Bigirimana, Gorrin, Campbell, Garden, Donnelly, Turnbull can all play there. Do we have one proper right winger at the club? People are suggesting playing 433, how do you do that without a right winger? Our budget may be small but a bigger question is how it is being used. Hartley, Dunne, Aldred, Mbulu, McHugh, Donnelly, McGuire can all play centre back. People complain about a lack of width in the team. Most of our budget, you could argue, has been spent on centre midfielders and centre halfs...

I think replacing Kipré with someone with similar quality would be difficult but a criticism would be that he's not replaced him with the same type of player. Aldred would have been an ideal replacement for Hartley but doesn't have the pace or stature of Kipré. Moult was always going to be difficult to replace. But we seem to have signed too many strikers who are very similar in style with the exception of Johnson who is unproven...

Not a lot anyone can argue with here. Loss of Dunne and Kipré and their pace has also meant the back three that our full backs are in line with is about 20-30 yards deeper than it was last season. Increasing the distance our full backs have to cover to get into dangerous areas...

I don't think it's lack of effort so much as a lack of ability. Purple patch when he first arrived but now looking like the player his previous stats suggested he was..

A bald Alex Fisher, yer just a bald Alex Fisher...