Motherwell v Aberdeen 01/11/2023

[Lobey_Dosser]

Despite our run of poor results, I’ve got lots of faith in Kettlewell and this group of players and was quietly confident going into tonight. The performance though was shocking, not miles off the real lows we experienced under Hammell. 

Two tricky away trips ahead. Big response needed or the pressure will build. If the players are all pulling in the same direction, I’m sure we’ll be fine. I am however wary that with so many key players in the last year of their contracts, heads may start to turn and relationships may fracture - hopefully I’m a mile out with that inclination.

[MFCL84]

Once again, a very slow start handing the initiative to the opposition. This set the tone for the game. No intensity in our play. A half-hearted press on occasion that was easily played through. Apparently, no game plan other than to sit back and punt the ball when the opportunity arises. It is almost as though the team and the manager don't see any way to score with our striking options.

Only when we got Biereth on the pitch did we seem to show any urgency and a little belief that we could go forward with purpose.

I'll also add that the team look drained of all confidence. While the football isn't pretty and often frustrating, we really need to get behind them, because they are all that we have.

[robsterwood]

19 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Wake up and hit reality ffs, kVV is allegedly on 10k a week at Groningen, thats  520k a year for 1 player, that's probably more than the entire squad budget For his season, oh and he did not want to stay.

He did want to stay. We show no ambition as a club. We wont speculate. And take it to next level..Gamble yes but what we got is mediocre. Club ownership not working. 

[Stevie73]

Just now, robsterwood said:

He did want to stay. We show no ambition as a club. We wont speculate. And take it to next level..Gamble yes but what we got is mediocre. Club ownership not working. 

We’re mince, slow all over the park, we saw it with Hammell last season, we are so easy to play against, slow weak press and we can’t keep hens out a close, recruitment has been very poor, think third bottom is our target for this season.

[bobbybingo]

7 minutes ago, robsterwood said:

He did want to stay. We show no ambition as a club. We wont speculate. And take it to next level..Gamble yes but what we got is mediocre. Club ownership not working. 

If he's getting 10K a week (or anywhere near that) at Groningen, you think we should have paid him that? Where would that money come from - whatever billionaire you think would like to buy the club?

[Spit_It_Out]

When we are pinning our hopes on a on loan striker to stay fit then we know we are in a bit bother next three games could be bottom if results against us or could be top 6 but i fancy on the form we are in the bottom two could on the cards.

Just out of curiosity has the search for a Ceo just ended just thought we shall save the wage?Cause we seriously need fresh ideas from an outsider at the club its so stale it stinks.

[Jastons]

Only thing the ref got right all night was booking the Aberdeen player for waving an imaginary card

[Kmcalpin]

2 hours ago, wellsince75 said:

for sat it will be 5-4-1 with Bair up front. 

I sincerely hope not. That system has been well and truly sussed. Just ask the likes of Martindale, Mackay and now Robson. 

[Kmcalpin]

2 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

How feckin bad is this league? if we won our game in hand we'd be above Kilmarnock and Hibs and level with Hearts. No I'm not suggesting for one minute we would , we couldnt beat a carpet. but there are some amount of shite teams this season.

Agreed and we've taken 1 point from 18 from them!

[El Grew]

I’m afraid a few players seem to have reverted back to how they were under Hammell - McGinn, O’Donnell, Slattery, Paton and Spittal. Also Bevis Mugabi is a whole-hearted honest big guy but he is most certainly not a footballer. Kelly’s mind seems to be elsewhere at the moment as he seems to have been absorbing all the media pish about how we might struggle to keep him following his 45 minutes for Scotland v France.

Its a statement of the bleeding obvious, but the major problem is our inability to defend properly and stop leaking poor goals. Kettlewell had better wise up to some of his non-performers and fast or he’ll find himself in the dole queue.

[Yabba's Turd]

Paton played for Hammell?

[MJC]

6 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

We drew the 2nd half so not all bad!!

We didn’t draw the second half. You can’t win/lose/draw a half of a game and get points for it. That is another of these phrases used by pompous, po faced pundits nowadays that means absolutely nothing.

The game lasts 90 minutes plus whatever injury time is added on and for the fifth time in our last six games we lost the match and have no points to show for it. 
 

There were no positives to take last night. None whatsoever, not even two consolation goals when the game was well and truly beyond us.

[grizzlyg]

1 hour ago, MJC said:

We didn’t draw the second half. You can’t win/lose/draw a half of a game and get points for it. That is another of these phrases used by pompous, po faced pundits nowadays that means absolutely nothing.

The game lasts 90 minutes plus whatever injury time is added on and for the fifth time in our last six games we lost the match and have no points to show for it. 
 

There were no positives to take last night. None whatsoever, not even two consolation goals when the game was well and truly beyond us.

I was joking

[grizzlyg]

3 hours ago, Yabba's Turd said:

Paton played for Hammell?

Nope.....SK signed him 

[Great Balls of Shire]

7 hours ago, Kmcalpin said:

I sincerely hope not. That system has been well and truly sussed. Just ask the likes of Martindale, Mackay and now Robson. 

Do you think Aberdeen won last night because they " sussed our system" , the goals we lost were so basic, down to people not following runners , not great play by Aberdeen ...who look bang average 

[pretzel]

It's like a carbon copy of last season so far, we started really positively picking up points, and we played great in some games despite falling to defeat before each performance got worse than the last. You can also throw in a ton of training injuries and a game where we equalized in injury time only to lose.

I have just watched the highlights back, the goals we lost were so poor. The first the ball seems to skim off Casey's head and McGinn has a fresh-air swipe at it. I thought it was a tremendous last-gasp challenge by McGinn at the second goal but everyone is just ball-watching waiting for the inevitable and Devlin has the freedom of Motherwell to prod home. For the third goal, Mika has a shot blocked and it's like ten seconds later the ball is in our net, I felt Miller could have defended it much better by at least attempting to tackle and then doing better at blocking the shot. The less said about the fourth the better, the smallest man on the park, Duk heads straight in from a corner beating Butcher, McGinn, and Kelly to the ball. Brutal stuff losing like that to a garbage Aberdeen team.

In the first half, there were three occasions where we broke forward with a man advantage and we were either too slow moving forward to capitalize or misplaced the pass.

The concerning thing is, that we have looked like quite a robust unit under Kettlewell for the best part but since that Livingston game, a lot of players have let their standards slip big time.

Special mention to the ref, the worst performance I've seen since Stevie O'Reilly subbed himself off at Fir Park as he knew he lost the plot. He lets McGrath away with scything down Paton not to mention his handball but he penalised Well players for everything, I think we got four yellows in like seven minutes. While it's widely mentioned about the two Aberdeen players tackling each other there was one incident where Biereth nipped in front of a centre-back only to get booted for his troubles and the ref gave them a foul. Shinnie was in the ref's face moaning about something but when Kelly did the same he was swiftly booked. 

 

[wellfan]

33 minutes ago, pretzel said:

Special mention to the ref, the worst performance I've seen since Stevie O'Reilly subbed himself off at Fir Park as he knew he lost the plot.

The ref was a total donkey, but he was one of several donkeys on the pitch last night. 

[Kmcalpin]

In truth we lost the game before kick off last night. The formation and line up was all wrong and that was down to management. 5-4-1,  3-4-2-1 or whatever is a busted flush and we don't have the personnel to play that way. Too many square pegs in round holes last night. Defence was shocking, midfield non existent and lone striker totally isolated and ineffective. Just 30 minutes into the game I messaged our group that our formation was the main issue, and I'm no tactical genius.

In game decisions were also questionable.  Miller should have been taken off well before half time as he was clearly suffering after have been on the receiving end of 2 bad tackles. 

The team is chronically short of pace, especially out wide and in midfield. Both wing backs look vulnerable and thats where many of our defensive issues stem from. Aberdeen were poor but at least they looked organised and closed us down, just as Ross County did.

Paton was the best of a poor bunch in midfield and Slattery and Spittal were totally ineffective. They tried, but were far too isolated from Wilkinson. Too many high balls thumped aimlessly in Slattery's direction when he was being marked by 2 men. Too often he was out wide - not a role for which he is suited. Midfield formation just isn't right.

Up front? I said before the game, that Wilkinson is not suited to be a lone striker. He asked for balls to be played to his feet (Bair last Saturday?) but was frequently on the end of high balls thumped up to him when being marked by 2 big defenders. I saw a post on P & B by Fat Tony, which I'll quote, which sums up exactly my thoughts on him.

"Wilkinson up top alone I think has the same problem KVV had under Hammell, in that we're lumping the ball up and not getting anyone close to him in the event that he does win it. I'm not saying he's even on the same planet as KVV but I can understand how we didn't get anything out of Wilkinson playing him that way. He looked brighter in the second half with Biereth alongside but was obviously struggling a bit given his lack of game time. I think there's *something* there, if we can get him fit and not just stick him up top on his own against 3 strapping big CBs."

Biereth is our one bright hope, but how much can he achieve on his own? Unlike KVV in the second half of last season, he doesn't have the luxury of having an effective midfield and defence behind him.

One final note. It wasn't all down to SK last night, the players must take some responsibility.       

[steelboy]

1 hour ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

Do you think Aberdeen won last night because they " sussed our system" , the goals we lost were so basic, down to people not following runners , not great play by Aberdeen ...who look bang average 

The definitely did. They stretched the park easily because we were unable to press them and had free men all the time because after playing couple of passes Wilkinson, Slattery and Spittal were all in no man's land.

[Great Balls of Shire]

19 minutes ago, steelboy said:

The definitely did. They stretched the park easily because we were unable to press them and had free men all the time because after playing couple of passes Wilkinson, Slattery and Spittal were all in no man's land.

All 4 goals were very preventable whatever system is being deployed unless it's the "don't mark Ur man "system 

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

Do you think Aberdeen won last night because they " sussed our system" , the goals we lost were so basic, down to people not following runners , not great play by Aberdeen ...who look bang average 

In significant part yes, although not exclusively. 

[Great Balls of Shire]

3 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

In significant part yes, although not exclusively.  

Just watched highlights of Celtic v st mirren , helps if you've got a competent keeper too, Kelly , if he had made a couple of comfortable saves, we could've drawn that game.

[MJC]

1 hour ago, wellfan said:

The ref was a total donkey, but he was one of several donkeys on the pitch last night. 

He was but the ref didn’t cost us that game last night, we lost because we are a rank rotten piss poor side who can’t defend, can’t score and are far too easy to play against.

[SteelmaninOZ]

You got to say well taken goal. 

 

[steelboy]

26 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

All 4 goals were very preventable whatever system is being deployed unless it's the "don't mark Ur man "system 

If the opposition have the freedom to bring the ball up and pass it into the final third under zero pressure they will make chances.

If you combine that with the fact the only way we can get up the park due to our hopeless strikers (other than Mika) is to play tight passes and throw too many bodies forward then we will lose goals because we have no defensive shape.