foghorn Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Well done again the team and manager. Yes we had a few under performers again, but we won as a team because some players made up for others mistakes. Naming players and abusing them on forums is not good, and we need to get behind the full squad between now and Tuesday. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welldaft Mk1 Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 and because both strikes were executed superbly there's never any mention the poor attempts to close down. By whom. The media? I have been talking constantly about the fact we allow teams to roam freely in that key area. Worse still is our inability to stop crosses from coming into our box ably demonstrated last weekend v Aberdeen in the cup. A simple defensive duty and we would not have to turn up to Fir Park this coming Tuesday. We are sitting one point of second place - so cannot moan to much, but I knew the second Ross county goal was coming and by the sound if things so did most in the home ends. With all due respect Ross county are not Barcelona...we should be in a position to not allow them 3-4 attempts at goal until they score. I think this is the way it will be till end of the season. Depends who leaves at Xmas. But we have more flair players in our team, which in summary means they create better than defend. There will not be manyn 0-0 games involving the Well this season that much is for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weeyin Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 I think we miss Jennings's ability to disrupt things in midfield. Defending isn't just down to the back four. The guys in the midfield should at least be slowing things down and giving our defenders a chance to regroup and position. Having said that, I still see far too much backing off and poor marking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joeboy Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 By whom. The media? I have been talking constantly about the fact we allow teams to roam freely in that key area. Worse still is our inability to stop crosses from coming into our box ably demonstrated last weekend v Aberdeen in the cup. A simple defensive duty and we would not have to turn up to Fir Park this coming Tuesday. We are sitting one point of second place - so cannot moan to much, but I knew the second Ross county goal was coming and by the sound if things so did most in the home ends. With all due respect Ross county are not Barcelona...we should be in a position to not allow them 3-4 attempts at goal until they score. I think this is the way it will be till end of the season. Depends who leaves at Xmas. But we have more flair players in our team, which in summary means they create better than defend. There will not be manyn 0-0 games involving the Well this season that much is for sure. I'm sure McCall said regarding Grainger's goal "There's not much you can do when you're beaten by a strike like that" or words to that effect. Have yet to hear his thoughts on the first goal yesterday. Being a point of second is tremendous, yes. I was delighted with the victory yesterday, I think it was important to get a home victory and get the proverbial monkey of our back, the manner it came was secondary really. But it won't always be the case that Hollis scoops that header out at the death and the "standing off" comes to cost us. I do really think we are missing Jennings and the role he would play in such a scenario and the position he would take up and we could do with a bit more bite in midfield - perhaps a chance for Carswell - but it's a really difficult one because on top of the skipper Lasley on current form none of Law, Humphrey or Murphy deserve to be dropped to make way for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelboy Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 I do really think we are missing Jennings and the role he would play in such a scenario and the position he would take up and we could do with a bit more bite in midfield - perhaps a chance for Carswell - but it's a really difficult one because on top of the skipper Lasley on current form none of Law, Humphrey or Murphy deserve to be dropped to make way for him. i'd move murphy up front and stick carswell or zfa in midfield. drop henrik. 1 goal in 21 games is poor. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweed Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Disagree with that change, I think we are a better shape when Ojamaa is with Higdon. Agree with the defensive aspect of it, I actually wonder if Law is the man to drop out as the luxury we just can't afford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelboy Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Disagree with that change, I think we are a better shape when Ojamaa is with Higdon. Agree with the defensive aspect of it, I actually wonder if Law is the man to drop out as the luxury we just can't afford. i would say law has been our best player over the past month or so, he seems to have found his bearings in centre mid. there is no chance mccall will ever drop him. nicky's his boy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GazzyB Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Law doesn't need to be dropped; our best outfield player IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweed Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 No, I don't want him dropped out either - but I think Ojamaa is the wrong man to drop. Law is one of, if not our best player but the shape of the team is leaving us to open to letting goals in so we need to do something to rectify it. I'm not saying it is the right decision but I don't think Ojamaa is either - of course we could drop Higdon and play with Murphy and Ojamaa up top but we lose something defending corners then as well and it maybe makes us a bit one dimensional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazzie Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 We're unbeaten in six (I think). Why we dropping someone? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welldaft Mk1 Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 The team is fine as it is...in terms of what is at our disposal at any rate. The way I see it from a midfield 4 we have 3 forward thinking playesr in Murphy, Humphrey and Law. This is why we have been exposed time and again in midfield. This would happen less if Carswell came in for Law, but then we would not score a second goal like yesterday. As stated in a previous post it does mean that we will be under the cosh for some games and just have to hope we can score more than them.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fat_tony Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Highlights are up: Hollis' save right at the death was even better than I remember. A couple of absolutely phenomenal moves in there too: Ojamaa leading up to our first goal, the one leading to Murphy blazing over and finally the one leading to Lasley's goal. Really great stuff, with some fantastic movement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lobey_Dosser Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Hollis reminds me of Buzz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madscot Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Hollis reminds me of Buzz. Buzz was a great shot stopper but a bit like Dracula. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmcalpin Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 I have been talking constantly about the fact we allow teams to roam freely in that key area. Worse still is our inability to stop crosses from coming into our box ably demonstrated last weekend v Aberdeen in the cup. A simple defensive duty and we would not have to turn up to Fir Park this coming Tuesday. We are sitting one point of second place - so cannot moan to much, but I knew the second Ross county goal was coming and by the sound if things so did most in the home ends. With all due respect Ross county are not Barcelona...we should be in a position to not allow them 3-4 attempts at goal until they score. Couldn't agree more with you Iain and other posters. Its been a fault of ours for a few years now and cost us more than few goals. I've no problem with opponents scoring with great shots if they're put under pressure and hassled by our midfield but more often than not they aren't - they are allowed free shots on goal from the 20/25 m range. It might be a freak shot, it might be a deflection, it might be a goalie's error but why give them a chance in the first place? Crosses - we are notoriously bad at defending crosses. We don't have a big defence and when Lee Hollis is in goal we have a small keeper who doesn't like to venture off his line, for obvious reasons. So why do we allow opponents to pepper our goal with crosses? Earlier in the season it was an education watching Levante at Fir Park. They did not allow us to reach nearer than about 25m from goal ie within shooting distance and did not permit us to whip in crosses. If we had beee able to they a big enough defence to gobble them up anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC_MKI Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Hollis reminds me of Buzz. Buzz was a great shot stopper but a bit like Dracula. Graeme Smith was a liability as a goalkeeper for us. He occasionally pulled off some good point black saves but his ability to deal with crosses was abysmal and we lost countless goals due to him completely shitting it from crossballs with attackers challenging him in the air. I'd only put him behind Stevie Woods in the category of 'Worst Motherwell goalkeeper in the last two decades" due to the fact that he wasn't with us half as long as Woods was. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Stall Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Dont forget how bad Buzz was at kicking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madscot Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Graeme Smith was a liability as a goalkeeper for us. He occasionally pulled off some good point black saves but his ability to deal with crosses was abysmal and we lost countless goals due to him completely shitting it from crossballs with attackers challenging him in the air. I'd only put him behind Stevie Woods in the category of 'Worst Motherwell goalkeeper in the last two decades" due to the fact that he wasn't with us half as long as Woods was. Dracula didn't like crosses either. Did u not get the joke ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC_MKI Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Dracula didn't like crosses either. Did u not get the joke ? Fair do's, I missed that one. But my point about Buzz, the goalkeeper, I stand by completely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinjy Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 There was so much to be positive about yesterday. Our attacking play at times was brilliant. The move where Lasley dummied it got the return and passed for Murphy to shoot over was great. There was good hold up play from Higdon in the first half. Although the change they made at half time snuffed him out. Humphrey's pace makes him almost unplayable. On the other hand our defence was terrible. I can hardly remember Hutch having a worse game. He hardly won a ball in the air and that was against average size forwards. Every time they came forward I felt they could score. Our defending at corners was terrible. Early in the second half their forward had a free header and should have scored. Then right at the end Hollis saved us with a wonder save after another free header. At 3-2 I was not confident that we would hold out and win. I thought Hollis looked a bit nervous in his first home game and came tearing off his line a couple of times when he shouldn't have. He doesn't look too good at corners and with our defence we need someone to dominate. However his save in the last minute did more than enough to ensure that he should get his chance when Randolph goes. A lesson too for McCall. Subs can change games. I thought we were flat and had settled for a draw at 2-2 when ZFA came on. How refreshing to see a left winger who went round the outside and crossed with his left foot. I thought he sparked the whole team into action. However we will need to defend much better on Tuesday if we are to win. Heres hoping Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yabba's Turd Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Fair do's, I missed that one. But my point about Buzz, the goalkeeper, I stand by completely. Did we not finish 3rd and 2nd with Buzz and Woods as keeper? Moaning for moaning's sake 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joeboy Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Fair do's, I missed that one. But my point about Buzz, the goalkeeper, I stand by completely. I don't think he was quite as bad as you make out. I'd have Buzz in my team before Kaven, Dubordeau, Corr, Meldrum or Fraser. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelboy Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Graeme Smith was a liability as a goalkeeper for us. He occasionally pulled off some good point black saves but his ability to deal with crosses was abysmal and we lost countless goals due to him completely shitting it from crossballs with attackers challenging him in the air. I'd only put him behind Stevie Woods in the category of 'Worst Motherwell goalkeeper in the last two decades" due to the fact that he wasn't with us half as long as Woods was. 3 good seasons out of 4 and the bad one can be attributed to the malpas effect. he barely put a foot wrong in his first season and during his last 18 months. motm when we won at parkhead and the wonder save against aberdeen when we clinched europe were huge in finishing 3rd and the penalty save in nancy was a great moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yabba's Turd Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Game of his life in Nancy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC_MKI Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 Graeme Smith had his good games for us, to say otherwise would be wrong. However over the piece he was a poor goalkeeper who made the same type of errors on a regular basis and that resulted in many goals being lost. Yes you can rightly raise the saves he pulled off against Nancy away, especially his penalty save and some good saves in some important games in the season before. However, he was always prone to costing us a few goals due to his inability to deal with cross balls and indeed did so on more than a few occasions. You always had the fear whenever the opposition put a cross into our box when he was in goal because he could rarely, if ever, deal with it properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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