Motherwell v Celtic 11/10/2026

[grizzlyg]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/motherwell

AJ explaining why Willy started.  I am sure the lad is working hard in training but his confidence totally shattered now though granted he didnt show anything yesterday.  The one in 2nd half where Tierney outpaced him said it all

[well_said]

45 minutes ago, wunderwell said:

I will only ever boo once again in my entire life, it will be firmly rooted at Grizzly.
Stand up and joke for Motherwell gig - to be confirmed.
Starring Raymond Mearns, Tam Cowan and welcoming Grizzly G.

The most unfunny comedy gig ever.

[grizzlyg]

14 minutes ago, well_said said:

The most unfunny comedy gig ever.

Bit harsh on Raymond and Tam 🤣🤣

[wellfan]

1 hour ago, grizzlyg said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/motherwell

AJ explaining why Willy started.  I am sure the lad is working hard in training but his confidence totally shattered now though granted he didnt show anything yesterday.  The one in 2nd half where Tierney outpaced him said it all

So, in that aftermath of that drivel, Alfred comes out with this:

“We believe we picked the right starting XI.”

Bloody hell.

[well_said]

38 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

Bit harsh on Raymond and Tam 🤣🤣

You are funnier than those two.

[grizzlyg]

10 minutes ago, well_said said:

You are funnier than those two.

Awwww shucks

[David]

7 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:

I think its possible for fans to point out things they thought the manager got wrong without necessarily thinking they know better than the manager or could do a better job than him.

Alfred clearly has way more coaching experience and knowledge than your average fan. But when he talks about certain things pre-match and you see none of it during the game, and then he comes out post match and says he got the starting line up correct, then eye brows will be raised.

If you go down that route, I think you need to add a little flesh to the bones to back up why you think that. Otherwise, fans will quite rightly question your methods/thought process.

If the manager talks about intensity, I expect to see intensity. If he talks about movement and rotations, I expect to see movement & rotations.

He talked about lack of experience in the side, so I wasnt surprised to see SOD start especially when he talked up the senior pro's contribution in training. Whether we think it worked or not is another matter, but at least I can understand why he did that.

Putting Willy in after a 3 week break where he has had time to work with him was a surprise. But given JT's recent form and the fact he has been away on his travels, I could understand it. However, he had another poor 45 minutes and he should have protected the player at half time.

Similarly with Hodge. Playing him on the left, you intitially give him the benefit of the doubt as tactically you think he has seen something in Celtic that requires it. However, with the entire midfield being overun in the first 45, you expect to see a change for the second half.

These arent highly technical tactical observations. Just very obvious things that may have improved our fate before the game was gone.

I agree 100% that fans can criticise a manager without claiming they know better than him. Sunday was poor, and there were obvious things that didn't work.

Where I'd maybe look at things differently, though, is assuming that because the problem looked obvious, the solution was obvious too.

Take intensity, which I've heard a lot of people talking about. That isn't just about players running harder. The truth is, a press only works if the first player goes at the right moment, the next player blocks the correct passing lane, the midfield squeezes up, and the defensive line follows. One player being half a second late can make the whole thing look passive, which happens a lot at our level of the game.

Same goes with movement and rotations. They may have worked on specific patterns all week, but if Celtic changed their press, blocked the first pass or forced players to receive facing their own goal, those rotations can disappear in a hurry. That doesn't mean the initial plan was good, by the way, but "I didn't see it" doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't drilled during training sessions and worked on.

The midfield is similar. For example, if Hodge looks exposed, the problem might be Hodge. But it might also be the forwards not stopping Celtic playing through the first line, the defence dropping too deep, a full-back being pinned, or Celtic creating an overload elsewhere or something like that. What looks like an individual problem can actually be structural.

That's why I'm not really keen on saying stuff like "the midfield was being overrun, so change the midfield" as though that automatically fixes the issue.

The same applies to substitutions. Taking Vogt off at half-time might have helped, but AJ also has to consider whether the problem is actually Vogt or the structure around him, what the player replacing him changes tactically, what substitutions he may need later, and even the effect of publicly hooking a player after 45 minutes when he's trying to rebuild his confidence. Making a move like that also tells the wider squad a lot about you and the trust you have in them.

None of that means AJ got it right on the day. Managers make bad selections and bad tactical decisions all the time. There's a reason the ones who make less mistakes and bad decisions get paid an absolute fortune.

But there's a big difference between identifying a symptom and correctly diagnosing the cause, I think.

I'm far from an expert, but for me that's really what professional coaching is. Working out why something isn't functioning, deciding which part of an interconnected system to change, and anticipating what the opposition will do in response.

I'm also not particularly bothered by him saying afterwards that he thought the starting lineup was correct. Managers aren't giving us a full internal debrief in press conferences. He's still managing the dressing room and isn't likely to come out and effectively say certain players shouldn't have been selected. You start doing that and things can turn really quickly. 

If anything, he should have given the interviews he did, then went back to the dressing room and made it clear internally that some players need to live up to the faith and responsibility he's showing in them. But that needs to be done behind closed doors, not through the BBC or on YouTube.

Where I will start to be more critical is if the same problems keep happening.

If we're sitting here in December and the midfield is repeatedly overrun in the same way, the press repeatedly lacks coordination, the rotations continually fail, or players are consistently used in roles that don't suit them, then it becomes a coaching issue rather than one bad afternoon.

And that's the bit I'm personally interested in watching closely with Johansson, because adaptability was one of the legitimate criticisms of how things eventually unravelled at Rosenborg.

So, fans can absolutely question Sunday's decisions. I just don't think "we could all see what was wrong" automatically means the corrective decision was as straightforward as it looked from the stand.

Seeing the symptom is often easy. Correctly identifying the cause is the hard part.

[Spiderpig]

AJ has had to totally rebuild the team over the summer, losing players of the quality of Just, Watt and Slattery, with all their goals from midfield, Welsh and McGinn( long term injury) from defence.

Add to that Maswhanise having a once in a career (Bair / Higdon )season and the ongoing 1st pick. Players like JK and priestman still out wiith long term injury no wonder we are struggling.

It will take time to get a settled team, and all the 1st pick players back available, so why dont we cut AJ some slack.

We are no worse off than last season at this stage in this league 3 or 4 wins and its suddenly top 6 etc as we saw last year. Judging and condeming the manager after a 4 game poor run is nonsense, coyw.

[well_said]

2 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

Awwww shucks

Keep the heid , theres no much innit.

[grizzlyg]

2 minutes ago, well_said said:

Keep the heid , theres no much innit.

🤣🤣🤣👏👏👏

[Prestwickwell]

I’m absolutely amazed at people defending Vogt 

 

I tell my boys sometime you’ll play shit but effort is non negotiable 

 

people defending him should watch the game back & see how many times he let people run off him

 

I’ve previously said maswanise needs dropped, totally changed my opinion on the basis we’ve got nothing better 

attacking wise we’ve had an absolute shocker over the summer 

 

 

[joewarkfanclub]

6 hours ago, David said:

I agree 100% that fans can criticise a manager without claiming they know better than him. Sunday was poor, and there were obvious things that didn't work.

Where I'd maybe look at things differently, though, is assuming that because the problem looked obvious, the solution was obvious too.

Take intensity, which I've heard a lot of people talking about. That isn't just about players running harder. The truth is, a press only works if the first player goes at the right moment, the next player blocks the correct passing lane, the midfield squeezes up, and the defensive line follows. One player being half a second late can make the whole thing look passive, which happens a lot at our level of the game.

Same goes with movement and rotations. They may have worked on specific patterns all week, but if Celtic changed their press, blocked the first pass or forced players to receive facing their own goal, those rotations can disappear in a hurry. That doesn't mean the initial plan was good, by the way, but "I didn't see it" doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't drilled during training sessions and worked on.

The midfield is similar. For example, if Hodge looks exposed, the problem might be Hodge. But it might also be the forwards not stopping Celtic playing through the first line, the defence dropping too deep, a full-back being pinned, or Celtic creating an overload elsewhere or something like that. What looks like an individual problem can actually be structural.

That's why I'm not really keen on saying stuff like "the midfield was being overrun, so change the midfield" as though that automatically fixes the issue.

The same applies to substitutions. Taking Vogt off at half-time might have helped, but AJ also has to consider whether the problem is actually Vogt or the structure around him, what the player replacing him changes tactically, what substitutions he may need later, and even the effect of publicly hooking a player after 45 minutes when he's trying to rebuild his confidence. Making a move like that also tells the wider squad a lot about you and the trust you have in them.

None of that means AJ got it right on the day. Managers make bad selections and bad tactical decisions all the time. There's a reason the ones who make less mistakes and bad decisions get paid an absolute fortune.

But there's a big difference between identifying a symptom and correctly diagnosing the cause, I think.

I'm far from an expert, but for me that's really what professional coaching is. Working out why something isn't functioning, deciding which part of an interconnected system to change, and anticipating what the opposition will do in response.

I'm also not particularly bothered by him saying afterwards that he thought the starting lineup was correct. Managers aren't giving us a full internal debrief in press conferences. He's still managing the dressing room and isn't likely to come out and effectively say certain players shouldn't have been selected. You start doing that and things can turn really quickly. 

If anything, he should have given the interviews he did, then went back to the dressing room and made it clear internally that some players need to live up to the faith and responsibility he's showing in them. But that needs to be done behind closed doors, not through the BBC or on YouTube.

Where I will start to be more critical is if the same problems keep happening.

If we're sitting here in December and the midfield is repeatedly overrun in the same way, the press repeatedly lacks coordination, the rotations continually fail, or players are consistently used in roles that don't suit them, then it becomes a coaching issue rather than one bad afternoon.

And that's the bit I'm personally interested in watching closely with Johansson, because adaptability was one of the legitimate criticisms of how things eventually unravelled at Rosenborg.

So, fans can absolutely question Sunday's decisions. I just don't think "we could all see what was wrong" automatically means the corrective decision was as straightforward as it looked from the stand.

Seeing the symptom is often easy. Correctly identifying the cause is the hard part.

Wow! 

Really dont know where to start with all of that, so Im not going to bother with most of it.

Fair bit of misrepresentation of some of my post, but that all seems pretty incidental to the point you were trying to make.

Lets just say you lost me when you suggested that the problem with Vogt, maybe wasnt Vogt!

 

 

[David]

1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Wow! 

Really dont know where to start with all of that, so Im not going to bother with most of it.

Fair bit of misrepresentation of some of my post, but that all seems pretty incidental to the point you were trying to make.

Lets just say you lost me when you suggested that the problem with Vogt, maybe wasnt Vogt!

Oh, it wasn't a direct response to anything you said! Your initial comments sparked a few thoughts, and I just rolled with it from there 😂

[joewarkfanclub]

6 hours ago, David said:

Oh, it wasn't a direct response to anything you said! Your initial comments sparked a few thoughts, and I just rolled with it from there 😂

Interesting, you did seem to use a lot of the words and phrasology in my post, so forgive me for being mistaken!

For what its worth, I do get your general point. Managers do have to contend with a lot of stuff that we as fans just dont see and a lot of tactical stuff is beyond your average fan unless you happen to have studied for your coaching badges.

That said, I dont think thats what happened on Sunday, and I suspect that our issues are systemic rather than tactical game to game.

We all know Willy hasnt been great in the opportunities he has been given. We can all see that he hasnt grasped any of them. Some of us suspect he is the player that needed an arm thrown around him. Im 100% behind supporting the player, getting him happy and trying to see if we can coax out whatever it was that convinced us to sign him. But Celtic isnt the game to throw him in for his first start in months. It just isnt.

Its fine to suggest that a player having a stinker may not be their fault, but in this case its hard to avoid the evidence of your own eyes.

I dont like to single players out, but in this case its unavoidable.

We want to be a progressive front foot team that presses and wins the ball up high. On Sunday our press totally broke down because when SPH and Lowry went, Willy was too slow and allowed Celtic to play around us. When the ball went his side, he was too slow to engage.

He also didnt get back quickly enough to engage Celtics players down his side, leaving Sparrow in all sorts of trouble.

That led to problems all over the park. So when you say the midfield being overun maybe wasnt a midfield problem, to an extent, you are correct. 

Bottom line is, if Alfred wants to continue to play the way we want to play (and he was very clear its what the executive board want him to do) then he needs to get our best players in their best positions and stop tinkering.

If we want consistency, select consistently, then players will get a chance to build the relationships he talks of and we might see an upturn in performance.

I get that hasnt always been possible due to injuries and suspensions but that doesnt excuse what he did on Sunday with 1 decision to help one player out at the expense of the team.

[wellfan]

28 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Interesting, you did seem to use a lot of the words and phrasology in my post, so forgive me for being mistaken!

You’re not mistaken. It’s his MO on here at times. Just look at my recent ‘debate’ with him.

[Kmcalpin]

On 10/12/2026 at 10:11 AM, joewarkfanclub said:

Similarly with Hodge. Playing him on the left, you intitially give him the benefit of the doubt as tactically you think he has seen something in Celtic that requires it. However, with the entire midfield being overun in the first 45, you expect to see a change for the second half.

Yes, that was a strange choice which has largely flown under the radar. It raised a few eyebrows around us at the time and it didn't work out well. It left Longelo somewhat exposed on the left, but unlike Sparrow he is at least a full back. 

I hope we're not going to go down the Craig Brown route of shoehorning square pegs into round holes and fielding our "best" 11 players irrespective of what positions they normally play in.