Motherwell v Celtic 11/10/2026

[AllyMax]

5 minutes ago, stv said:

Willy looked lost as if he was a laddie playing with the big boys. No vision to run forward for a pass whatso ever. Just filling a jersey. But what is worse is the manager selecting him and keeping him on so long.

And insisting in interview that his starting line up was correct !!

[stv]

Just now, AllyMax said:

And insisting in interview that his starting line up was correct !!

He would say that tho, wouldn't he.

[wellfan]

1 minute ago, AllyMax said:

And insisting in interview that his starting line up was correct !!

Stubborn to the point of failure. I called it. 

[0Neils40yarder]

2 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

After the Dundee Utd match, which we won comfortable, all I heard on the way out of the stadium was fans moaning about certain individual players.

After the Aberdeen match there was a ridiculous amount booing like we were in relegation battle.

The negativity from a certain element of our support seems like it's the reason they go to the games.

We are in a 4 game run with two matches against the Old Firm.

People need to get some perspective. 

There's far too many people in the support that are more interested in heaping pressure on players and managers so that they feeling like they are affecting decisions at the club, rather than actually supporting the team.   

I generally agree with you, however that today was an utter riot from start to finish and it is 100% on the manager 

[FirParkCornerExile]

2 hours ago, Big Stall said:

That was possibly the worst performance we have turned out since Kettlewell. What is baffling is that we have the same coaching staff as last year but we are churning out abject shite. This wasnt a hard luck story today, we were pounded & a 2-0 defeat flattered us.

Tried to play our game at the back but then long ball after long ball in their half. Completly forgetting we have the tools to cut them open.

Not using longello more - mental

Starting vogt when youv got Said, Tawanda & kanga on the bench

Midfield totally bypassed today. Never really noticed much from levit. Really need priestman back. Always busy & can break the play up & provide a solid base

Very few runs to the byline & crossing back to the big striker

Pretty much everyone scared to take a shot on

Starting the second half with the same 11

Despite getting horsed, not changing the shape and personel until we were 2 down through an hour

Both the goals were mistakes we made, but celtic should have been out of sight.

😢

 

Tawanda and Kanga should have started on the bench, Tawanda has been pish for months and deserves a place on the bench Kanga just isn't up to speed yet.  

I have no issue with the manager trying something different, including giving Vogts a start. My issue was it was very clear in the first half Vogts wasn't going to cut it today and the midfield was totally ineffective. So why did the manager wait to change it. It should have been changed at half time.... AT THE LATEST

The manager watched Sparrow being shagged the entire 1st half and did nothing to protect or help him. Sparrow ain't a right back but if you ask him to do that job he should get support / help 

100% the managers fault.

[joewarkfanclub]

Not gonna lie. Starting to get a bit concerned.

I raised an eyebrow at the starting line up when I saw Vogt in it. However, I did feel more comfortable seeing Levitt's name on the teamsheet with what I felt sure looked like a box 4 midfield.

What transpired though just looked weird. No idea why we set up the way we did with Hodge of the left. Lowry seemed to be playing in advance of Fadinger and Levitt with Vogt wide. It all appeared very lopsided.

Ive heard Alfred talk throughout the break about wanting more intensity in and out of possession and about having more movement off the ball, but I didnt see any of that today.

We let Celtic have the ball, didnt get in their faces, didnt track runners, didnt engage opponents in the tackle. It was so passive it was ridiculous.

We were lucky to go in at the break only 1 down and the changes should have been made there and then. 

I really want Vogt to be a success, and he started brightly enough today, but he faded quickly again and by half time he needed hooked.

Levitt was also having a very poor game, so I would have changed those 2 for Said and Kanga and moved Hodge back to the middle.

The fact that Alfred waited until we were 2 down before making those changes is a real concern. As poor as we had been we were still in the game at that point and could have rescued something from the game.

His comments afterwards are not filling me with confidence that he is seeing what we are seeing, or that he knows how to fix it.

We now go to Kilmarnock next week where a heavy defeat could leave us at the bottom of the league.

I do hope Im wrong about all of this as it IS too early to be calling for tge managers head. But its hard to ignore the alarm bells right now.

 

[El Grew]

3 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Well that's exactly what I'd expect from you.

It's not a transitional period?  We've lost a manager, more or less a whole team and we've just come through a 4 game cycle again three city clubs, two of whom have 15 times our budget and historically we usually lose against.

 

There’s no denying we are in a transitional phase but I’d expect to see some sign of incremental improvement - in performances if not results.

We know our season won’t be decided by results against Celtic or Rangers but by what we do against others but at present there’s not much comfort to be had. We were 2-0 up at St Mirren and lucky to get a 3-3 draw. We beat Dundee Utd 2-0 at FP but they had to play the bulk of the game with 10 men. We looked clueless and toothless against Falkirk in a 0-0 at FP We lost to Stenhousemuir in the League Cup and we got utterly flossed 4-0 at home by a piss poor Aberdeen side.

We’ll see if you’re singing the same song after our next game at Kilmarnock!

[El Grew]

How the manager and coaching staff could let Olly Whyte go out on loan and retain Vogt is a complete mystery to me. Whoever made that call should get their arse booted and hard.

Olly Whyte looked a really good prospect in the games I watched him play and we should cut short his loan spell and give him a slot in our midfield because I think he has the bite that we lack in there.

[joewarkfanclub]

3 minutes ago, El Grew said:

How the manager and coaching staff could let Olly Whyte go out on loan and retain Vogt is a complete mystery to me. Whoever made that call should get their arse booted and hard.

Olly Whyte looked a really good prospect in the games I watched him play and we should cut short his loan spell and give him a slot in our midfield because I think he has the bite that we lack in there.

He certainly had a bit of physicality about him, which was sorely missing today.

[wellfan]

11 minutes ago, El Grew said:

Whoever made that call should get their arse booted and hard.

The manager. 

[wellsince75]

24 minutes ago, El Grew said:

How the manager and coaching staff could let Olly Whyte go out on loan and retain Vogt is a complete mystery to me. Whoever made that call should get their arse booted and hard.

Olly Whyte looked a really good prospect in the games I watched him play and we should cut short his loan spell and give him a slot in our midfield because I think he has the bite that we lack in there.

Spot on - whilst perhaps not the perfect player he offered a lot more than ive seen from others and like are have said is physical - given how weak we’ve been in midfield it was an odd decision . Particularly given priestmans known injury 

[Kmcalpin]

I received a jolt and not a pleasant one when I read the team sheet. Sparrow at RB again, no Knight-Lebel, Vogt starting and a defensive looking midfield, including an out of position Hodge as it turned out. In the round, we shot ourselves in the foot pre match with that line up.

As for the game it quickly became apparent, for obvious reasons, that Celtic were targeting our right side.  The defence was an unorganised shambles; a throwback to the Hammell/Kettlewell/Alexander eras. Pack the defence, withdraw the 2 full backs into the penalty box and hope for the best. Despite that approach, Celtic found plenty of time and space in our box.  The midfield was pretty anonymous and sat far too deep as we played a passive game. No leadership or physicality. Palmer Houlden, and latterly Thor,  were left isolated all too often with little support from an overly cautious timid midfield. Throughout the game, we relied far too heavily on aimless high punts up the field. Off the ball work, both in and especially out of possession, was non existent. Transitions were chaotic. 

I'm still not convinced by Paulsen. A very showy shotstopper, he did, in fairness, produce some fine saves today to keep the scoreline respectable.  However he looked culpable for the first goal, and also spilled a fairly innocuous shot. His distribution was poor throughout and that put pressure on a suspect defence.

In fairness, no one player was to blame for the defeat, but Longelo and a poor Sparrow weren't helped by lack of cover in front of them.  Our subs were far too late and by that time we were 2-0 down. The one bright spark was Said, who really tried to make things happen when he came on. My MOTM. 

In truth, Celtic could have won by 5 or 6 goals comfortably. I wasn't looking for a win but was hoping to see some kind of improvement in performance; some progression if you will, but all we seemed to show was regression.   

[Great Balls of Shire]

3 hours ago, stv said:

He would say that tho, wouldn't he.

Ok vogts is very poor, but the caveat to that was he said based on training , he selected vogts...sending him out gor 2nd half is strange but cut aj some slack...we ain't a million miles off where we were last year at this time. I doubt very much we will finish 4th again though.

Im sure there were conversations on here last year re Jens and how he has one match away from sack...some of those posters are after aj..

They may be right, it might not work but give him the chance

[Kmcalpin]

3 minutes ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

we ain't a million miles off where we were last year at this time. I doubt very much we will finish 4th again though.

With respect, I think we are. Results wise you're right, although we are conceding more goals.  Performance wise though, we could see progression and what JBA was trying to do. There's none of that this season. For the life of me, I can't see any emerging or established style of play. Where are we heading style wise? 

[wellsince75]

To be fair we’re a million miles of where we started this season never mind comparing to last .

that I think is the more concerning factor - the further we go with the so mentioned ‘transition period’ the worse we become . 
 

I don’t believe there’s an exe to grind about who the manager is - he was very warmly received - what many of us don’t like is the loss of identifiable game plan . 
 

we need to see significantly better performances 

[stv]

6 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

With respect, I think we are. Results wise you're right, although we are conceding more goals.  Performance wise though, we could see progression and what JBA was trying to do. There's none of that this season. For the life of me, I can't see any emerging or established style of play. Where are we heading style wise? 

The style seems to be trying to continue last season philosophy, possession based . But in practice we are not moving ball forward fast enough more across the way. Also in first half more than once we had 4 players out on the wing at 18 yard box and barely one in the box. How can we score like that,need more bodies in the box quicker.

Preistman returning may push us forward faster.

[Lobey_Dosser]

2 hours ago, El Grew said:

How the manager and coaching staff could let Olly Whyte go out on loan and retain Vogt is a complete mystery to me. Whoever made that call should get their arse booted and hard.

Olly Whyte looked a really good prospect in the games I watched him play and we should cut short his loan spell and give him a slot in our midfield because I think he has the bite that we lack in there.

Haven’t you heard? Olly isn’t good enough for Motherwell just now, according to Alfred. 

[grizzlyg]

We could win next 2 games , lose next and folk would want AJ punted.  He is hardly going to do interview and say he got line up wrong. Hopefully a wake up call for him and line up next week will be big marker.

 

[Prestwickwell]

14 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

We could win next 2 games , lose next and folk would want AJ punted.  He is hardly going to do interview and say he got line up wrong. Hopefully a wake up call for him and line up next week will be big marker.

 

Ur making it sound like people have an agenda against him 😂

the reality is people are concerned about what their watching & don’t see any sort of signs that it’ll turn soon 

 

if he goes out & puts 5 past Kilmarnock maybe there’s a “sign” there’s a plan….

 

if we scrape a win, don’t have any real identity, team selections wild or we drop points then the heat will rise 

 

nobodies on here hoping a manager gets sacked but it’s a forum where people will say what they think ( people will rightly disagree)

am not hearing a lot from people providing evidence of positives….just that people that are concerned are wrong

 

said this earlier but suggest some positives that people can get behind 

[grizzlyg]

2 minutes ago, Prestwickwell said:

Ur making it sound like people have an agenda against him 😂

the reality is people are concerned about what their watching & don’t see any sort of signs that it’ll turn soon 

 

if he goes out & puts 5 past Kilmarnock maybe there’s a “sign” there’s a plan….

 

if we scrape a win, don’t have any real identity, team selections wild or we drop points then the heat will rise 

 

nobodies on here hoping a manager gets sacked but it’s a forum where people will say what they think ( people will rightly disagree)

am not hearing a lot from people providing evidence of positives….just that people that are concerned are wrong

 

said this earlier but suggest some positives that people can get behind 

All about opinions pal and I do try to be glass half full kinda guy.  I defo think a section already decided Alfred must go which I think is crazy.

However.....I aint papering over cracks and team selection and formation today definitely was so wrong

[ppower]

6 hours ago, Ya Bezzer! said:

Well that's exactly what I'd expect from you.

It's not a transitional period?  We've lost a manager, more or less a whole team and we've just come through a 4 game cycle again three city clubs, two of whom have 15 times our budget and historically we usually lose against.

 

That is the most inept performance from any Motherwell team. A second rate Celtic team dismantles us. Its not that we lost, normally we do to Celtic,  its how clueless we were. The manager had 3 weeks to get his mind sorted and tactics for this game. It was 11 individuals who looked lost about what was expected. His interviews are cringeworthy. How anybody can out a positive spin on that debacle beats me. Players will soon, if they haven't already that this guy is out of his depth. The whole fiasco surrounding Vogts playing should tell you that. It took me two matches to get a handle on Vogts. Yes, two, the first time I couldn't actually believe anyone could be so bad. The second viewing confirmed it. Here is another for you. Kanga is heading in the same direction.