Motherwell v Freiburg 20/8/26

[steelman1991]

42 minutes ago, mio said:

Just watching some of the social media footage from last night. Looks like there was a bit of a skirmish in the town centre as a few of our Motherwell stone island throbbers took exception to the Freiburg fans march to the ground. Some of these wee tools are an embarrassment.

hope this doesn’t have a negative impact on the Well fans going and doing the same in Freiburg.

 

That's a bit of a wild take from "social media footage". First hand accounts tell a different story - bottles being launched by the Freiburg fans, which prompted retaliation. Questions do need to be asked of Police (and I use the term loosely) Scotland about their decision to allow both "corteos" to pass within yards of one another - details of both were widely publicised so adequate policing and alternative routes shouldn't have been a problem. Even allowing both to be in close proximity, there should have been sufficient police to "kettle" on or other, looked like there were about 2 police woman escorting the Freiburg group.

Long winded way to say - we're quick to condemn our own, but it's not always as clear cut as made out.

[Benson]

1 hour ago, SteelmaninOZ said:

Like to see this again?

 

Take it the nobhead that went over the barrier doesnt do social media and didnt see the message regarding going on trackside,or maybe doesnt give a fuck.

 

 

[steelman1991]

3 minutes ago, Benson said:

Take it the nobhead that went over the barrier doesnt do social media and didnt see the message regarding going on trackside,or maybe doesnt give a fuck.

 

 

More likely the latter 

[Kmcalpin]

21 minutes ago, steelman1991 said:

........ and also when they didn't have it. Their appetite to recover possession was immense and contributed hugely to the suggestion from some that we "retreated into our shell". We didn't, we just simply couldn't get control of the ball long enough to mount attacks. A big, very athletic team, who popped the ball around with confidence, always moving (reminded me a bit of our own team last year, minus the big and athletic bit ). Absolutely no disgrace to go down to a team of that calibre. 

That will be one of my abiding memories of the game. They treated us with total respect as if we were prime Barcelona. Their movement on the ball was terrific and a joy to watch. Off the ball they worked tirelessly to close us down and possessed the physicality and athleticism to regain possession. We simply couldn't match them. That was no slight on us. 

I hope our younger players, and there were a lot of them, were watching and learnt lessons and also that our backroom staff took cognisance of their levels of athleticism and conditioning. 

[mio]

17 minutes ago, steelman1991 said:

That's a bit of a wild take from "social media footage". First hand accounts tell a different story - bottles being launched by the Freiburg fans, which prompted retaliation. Questions do need to be asked of Police (and I use the term loosely) Scotland about their decision to allow both "corteos" to pass within yards of one another - details of both were widely publicised so adequate policing and alternative routes shouldn't have been a problem. Even allowing both to be in close proximity, there should have been sufficient police to "kettle" on or other, looked like there were about 2 police woman escorting the Freiburg group.

Long winded way to say - we're quick to condemn our own, but it's not always as clear cut as made out.

All I saw was groups of Freiburg fans who consisted mainly of da’s wife’s and weans…. The guy at the front was in a wheelchair? If you saw them launching bottles fair enough but on the footage I saw everything on their pointed at well fans being the more aggressive. If it was mainly Freiburg fans causing issues tho I’m happier with that take.

[Great Balls of Shire]

11 hours ago, robsterwood said:

Germans are cheats. Dive for the free kick for equaliser. Dive for pen. Hope the get beat in the group. 

Nah, it was a free kick, pen was a dive though

[Great Balls of Shire]

31 minutes ago, steelman1991 said:

That's a bit of a wild take from "social media footage". First hand accounts tell a different story - bottles being launched by the Freiburg fans, which prompted retaliation. Questions do need to be asked of Police (and I use the term loosely) Scotland about their decision to allow both "corteos" to pass within yards of one another - details of both were widely publicised so adequate policing and alternative routes shouldn't have been a problem. Even allowing both to be in close proximity, there should have been sufficient police to "kettle" on or other, looked like there were about 2 police woman escorting the Freiburg group.

Long winded way to say - we're quick to condemn our own, but it's not always as clear cut as made out.

...Just walk to park and  dont throw fn bottles  applies to both sets then the much maligned police dont need to get involved 

[Great Balls of Shire]

32 minutes ago, Benson said:

Take it the nobhead that went over the barrier doesnt do social media and didnt see the message regarding going on trackside,or maybe doesnt give a fuck.

 

 

Im sure he will have social media and be a star for a day

[steelman1991]

22 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

...Just walk to park and  dont throw fn bottles  applies to both sets then the much maligned police dont need to get involved 

100% agree.

[wellfan]

Gutted. That was a 1-1 at best, 1-2 at worst sort of game. They’re clearly streets ahead of us, but we didn’t deserve that final result. What can you do, though, when you’re up against a team like that, an appallingly biased referee and some utterly crazy VAR interventions?! Game over.

[Mintymac]

The clown that ran on to the park . 
Identify and Barr him . Absolute rocket . 
Another incoming fine in the thousands . 

Re game proud of team .

Some top top performers in Moorman Reich and big fella up front had a good debut .

Lots to learn from game that an average SPL game would never give you .

Finally as a Well Society member and proud to be so when are you society board members actually going to show a bit of balls  re the fan incursion and flares that’s costing our club money .

Same goes  with the club management . Very timid approach .

Get it sorted guys far to soft on your approach to it . Not good enough .

 

[grizzlyg]

1 hour ago, Benson said:

Take it the nobhead that went over the barrier doesnt do social media and didnt see the message regarding going on trackside,or maybe doesnt give a fuck.

 

 

Should be easy to identify so a nice wee stadium ban hopefully.  Getting fed up with the very small minority who cross the line. All clubs have this problem so not just us.    I will focus on the 8500 genuine fans last night that created great tifos.....great singing.....lovely car horn...etc etc 

STAND UP AND SING FOR MOTHERWELL.....HONK HONK

[wellup83]

1 hour ago, Kmcalpin said:

I hope our younger players, and there were a lot of them, were watching and learnt lessons and also that our backroom staff took cognisance of their levels of athleticism and conditioning. 

Absolutely. Plenty to be learning from.

I always wonder though and I'm no expert by any means. Is the physicality and athleticism side entirely down to fitness and gym work or is an element of that down to genetics? I don't believe our players put any less effort in in training then they do. Are clubs with better resources just able to identify players with better athleticism as well as footballing ability?

[El Grew]

Our guys did their absolute best and gave everything last night and it’s no disgrace to lose to a side that were simply better than us. I for one am really proud of them.

Freiburg are a big physical and very athletic side who are able to play at a really high tempo. Remember they are last season’s beaten UEFA League finalists and they beat current Conference League winners, Crystal Palace 3-0 in a pre-season match.

The only side of our game where we fall short and did so last season was that we lack that physicality. Never the less when you look at the teams the other Scottish clubs got it’s fair to say we got the hardest.

However it’s not the end of the world and we now need to try and get back in Europe again as it’s the only way to get better at this level. COYW.

[Great Balls of Shire]

1 hour ago, wellfan said:

Gutted. That was a 1-1 at best, 1-2 at worst sort of game. They’re clearly streets ahead of us, but we didn’t deserve that final result. What can you do, though, when you’re up against a team like that, an appallingly biased referee and some utterly crazy VAR interventions?! Game over.

I know we got some favourable draws in first two rounds but this was the hardest of all the Scots teams, I think we could've done something v the other 3.

[Great Balls of Shire]

46 minutes ago, wellup83 said:

Absolutely. Plenty to be learning from.

I always wonder though and I'm no expert by any means. Is the physicality and athleticism side entirely down to fitness and gym work or is an element of that down to genetics? I don't believe our players put any less effort in in training then they do. Are clubs with better resources just able to identify players with better athleticism as well as footballing ability?

I think I mentioned this before, all the homegrown guys seem to want to be midfielders, dont seem to get any 6ft2 ch or fwds coming through,  not in MfC youth set up anyway

[Big Stall]

2 hours ago, steelman1991 said:

100% agree.

But remember - no phones because we dont want to be recorded if we do something naughty........

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, wellup83 said:

Absolutely. Plenty to be learning from.

I always wonder though and I'm no expert by any means. Is the physicality and athleticism side entirely down to fitness and gym work or is an element of that down to genetics? I don't believe our players put any less effort in in training then they do. Are clubs with better resources just able to identify players with better athleticism as well as footballing ability?

A lot of it is down to fitness, gym work and sports science. When Lennon Miller went to Udinese, they had to work on his physicality. I suppose genetics also play a part. You can't turn a 5'6 player into one who is 6'3. 

[weeyin]

49 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

A lot of it is down to fitness, gym work and sports science. When Lennon Miller went to Udinese, they had to work on his physicality. I suppose genetics also play a part. You can't turn a 5'6 player into one who is 6'3. 

Arsene Wenger was one of the managers who introduced this approach into English football. His philosophy was a good big player was better than a good small player.

When you are a team like Arsenal (or Freiburg) you have a deeper pool of options to choose from, so you can apply your sports science and gym work to players who have the raw physical attributes.

Gone are the days when you were either a wee tricky dribbler or a big thug of a defender. Now you can be a big thug of a ball player.

[weeyin]

1 hour ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

I think I mentioned this before, all the homegrown guys seem to want to be midfielders, dont seem to get any 6ft2 ch or fwds coming through,  not in MfC youth set up anyway

I read an interesting article recently about how big number 9s playing through the middle have almost disappeared from the top levels of the game. Most modern coaches have forward (and attacking midfield) players who rotate in and out of attacking positions.

I suppose that leads to different models for youngsters too who don't have senior pros to copy.

Haaland is probably the exception.

[steelman1991]

2 hours ago, Big Stall said:

But remember - no phones because we dont want to be recorded if we do something naughty........

Yeah thought that was a strange request 🤔🤣

[AllyMax]

9 hours ago, Benson said:

Im afraid willy looks lost,postionally unaware,saw sods telling him where to go,looks like hes hiding,yes i will give him time with settling in,more coaching time,think we have been given a player from the casagolda video editing team.

I know it's common sense that players take time to settle, but that applies to all of them and not just WV. I'm sure neither Hodge nor Lowry have shown us everything they're capable of but you can see instantly that they know what they're doing an are decent footballers. Apart from flicking the ball round a defender twice before running on and losing it, Vogt has shown nothing and in fact probably less !! Not greetin' because not every signing can work out but I really can't see him making the grade and getting rid in the next window looks on the cards. From a history point of view, he's coming from a place of a similar standard to like Ayr United. How many players have we signed from the championship who have gone on to shine in the last 15 years ?

 

[weeyin]

To say Vogt has shown nothing is just confirmation bias kicking in. He started the passage of play that ended with Priestman's penalty.

He may or may not be good for us, but he's coming from an entirely different league and has an entirely different background from Hodge or Lowry.

Not to mention Lowry has come back home, and Hodge has just moved up the road - and the local language is native to both. It's not as straightforward changing countries and having to operate in your 2nd or 3rd language.

However, I'm long past being surprised when fans write off new players after a couple of league appearances.

Once we have a settled team and played our first full round of fixtures we'll have a better idea about all the signings.

[Happy Dosser]

50 minutes ago, weeyin said:

To say Vogt has shown nothing is just confirmation bias kicking in. He started the passage of play that ended with Priestman's penalty.

He may or may not be good for us, but he's coming from an entirely different league and has an entirely different background from Hodge or Lowry.

Not to mention Lowry has come back home, and Hodge has just moved up the road - and the local language is native to both. It's not as straightforward changing countries and having to operate in your 2nd or 3rd language.

However, I'm long past being surprised when fans write off new players after a couple of league appearances.

Once we have a settled team and played our first full round of fixtures we'll have a better idea about all the signings.

Let’s hope Vogt develops along the lines of that “useless fat barsteward”Higdon.

If anyone can coach him, surely AJ can?

[star sail]

It is far too early to judge Vogt.

Higdon is the obvious example but I could name two more at least who had very uninspiring debuts butwent on to do well with us.

Lukas Jutkiewitz ( excuse spelling)

Debuted at Aberdeen under Gannon. He was slow looked unfit, the ball kept bouncing off him. Remember how he turned out?

Louis Moult

Debut at Inverness under Baraclough and looked completely lost. Bullied off the ball, lacking a physical presence. H just looked out his depth. The other debut striker that day impressed more. Was it Wesley Fletcher ? Remember how the two of them turned out?