Motherwell fail to take advantage of their luck

[Footymad]

Motherwell suffered a deserved 3-1 defeat at Rugby Park despite Curtis Main opening the scoring. We were outgunned for most of the match and were fortunate not to lose by a bigger margin. - External Link

[LawSteelman]

Our start to the season has been dismal and anyone who doesn't think we are in a relegation battle is kidding themselves on. Stevie Robinson build up a great deal of goodwill last season, for using summer 2017 wisely and making good transfer decisions, both in and out. We weren't great to watch on the park but we did have a battling quality about us combined with just enough pace and balance to get by in the league and take us to two cup finals.

Summer 2018 in contrast to the previous year was very badly handled in the transfer market. For some bizarre reason we seemed intent to strengthen our bench rather than addressing our shortcomings in the first team and we have recruited poorly. Losing a key player in Kipre on the eve of the league season was a big blow too, as was the loss of Dunne, Bowman and the continued loss of Tanner to injury, but our poor signings cannot be ignored. We have been dismal since the League Cup group stages and only scraped through them and our league form has been dreadful, even worse than it was toward the end of last season.

To be sitting on four points at the end of September is not good enough and the number of errors we are making to cost us goals each week is highly worrying, as is our lack of goals. With no Cup runs to mask our poor league form, Robinson's position will be called into question more and more unless we drastically change our play and our form soon. Sadly I can't see how/where it will change and the only way for us is downward.

[Handsome_Devil]

There's no doubt Tanner and Dunne are big blows but if we're relying on them digging us out of this...

We need to repeat January of this year in a couple of months with three-four decisive signings which lifts everyone. The fact Robinson was so highly praised for this last time (rightly) shows how hard it is. We are in serious bother and unless the next four games produce marked improvement, I'm not convinced it will be Robbo doing the rebuilding.

[texaco cup]

Robinson’s biggest problems IMO are he doesn’t know his strongest starting eleven, his best formation wether 3-5-2, 4-4-2 or whatever,also playing too many players out of position. Next four games will determine our season and where we are likely to finish up in the league. A minimum of 8 points required two wins, two draws and get som momentum going as no doubt Dundee will get a huge lift from their result today. Also think our players are not as fit as they should be

[LawSteelman]

Unless things improve dramatically then I'd expect Robinson to be long gone by January. I like him, he has a rapport with the club and the support that few Motherwell managers have had before him and the two Cup runs of last season obviously bought him a lot of credit and rightly so. He also did a great deal in terms of bringing a feelgoos factor back to the club that had been absent for years. However there is no room for sentiment in football and if things continue as they are then we are going down this season and so therefore we will need to think about a change.

Next Saturday against Livingston at home is absolutely massive for us and SR. Anything less than a win and serious questions have to be asked of where we are going and the managers position.

I'm still behind Stephen Robinson, but things have to change for the better and soon.

[Wellup4it]

Unless things improve dramatically then I'd expect Robinson to be long gone by January. I like him, he has a rapport with the club and the support that few Motherwell managers have had before him and the two Cup runs of last season obviously bought him a lot of credit and rightly so. He also did a great deal in terms of bringing a feelgoos factor back to the club that had been absent for years. However there is no room for sentiment in football and if things continue as they are then we are going down this season and so therefore we will need to think about a change.

Next Saturday against Livingston at home is absolutely massive for us and SR. Anything less than a win and serious questions have to be asked of where we are going and the managers position.

Good post. If Robinson can't turn things around by the end of the first round of fixtures then he'll be gone. His summer transfer dealings are turning out to be very poor indeed. Concentrating entirely on increasing the squad depth as opposed to strengthening or indeed maintaining the first 11 was a big mistake.

[LawSteelman]

Good post. If Robinson can't turn things around by the end of the first round of fixtures then he'll be gone. His summer transfer dealings are turning out to be very poor indeed. Concentrating entirely on increasing the squad depth as opposed to strengthening or indeed maintaining the first 11 was a big mistake.

I just cannot get my head around why he focussed on the "12-18" instead of the "1-11". Just WHY would you do that??? Last season for all we had some terrific results, two cup runs and easily avoided the drop it was abundantly clear that we needed to address the lack of midfield creativity out wide and our forward line to bring in someone to play alongside Main or Bowman. What we got was a journeyman carthorse striker, more central midfielders and a forward that Robinson doesn't seem to want to start, plus a defender that looks about the level of Greg Denham(Donnelly) and ATS who is no better than Hendrie. When you consider the money we've squandered paying their wages and bringing them in then you really have to ask just how much of our Cup money have we utterly squandered?

[Handsome_Devil]

I just cannot get my head around why he focussed on the "12-18" instead of the "1-11". Just WHY would you do that??? Last season for all we had some terrific results, two cup runs and easily avoided the drop it was abundantly clear that we needed to address the lack of midfield creativity out wide and our forward line to bring in someone to play alongside Main or Bowman. What we got was a journeyman carthorse striker, more central midfielders and a forward that Robinson doesn't seem to want to start, plus a defender that looks about the level of Greg Denham(Donnelly) and ATS who is no better than Hendrie. When you consider the money we've squandered paying their wages and bringing them in then you really have to ask just how much of our Cup money have we utterly squandered?

Towards the end of last season, he was quoted as saying we missed the top six because we lacked depth during the post League Cup injury/form crisis. I don't pay too much attention to what managers say because they rarely offer anything beyond platitudes...and the strengthening the depth thing seemed, as a platitude, fair - it excused 'only' finishing seventh and also seemed to throw a bone to the current squad by saying they were to be backed up rather than replaced.

The fact is he meant it and when you look at the scale of it - seven first team squad players, not including those obviously just to fill out the new reserve side - it is insane. ATS hasn't turned out well sure but he at least was intended as first-choice on the left. And we'll excuse Gillespie as Carson looked likely to leave. But that's us signing five players who the manager fundamentally did not believe to be better than what we had. It's unheard of.

Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me but in our all our very good spells, even going back to McLean, it has been based on a core of no more than 15-16 first choice players and the rest being kids or real journeymen filling in spaces. It has to be that way because true depth for us is impossible - we can't afford to pay money that would get 70% of a second first team to provide cover and even if we could, players at that level wouldn't be willing to sit on the bench at FP.

Like LSM, I recognise what he has done Feb 17-May 18, his attitude and link to the club and fans have been second to none. But his style has also been 'the end justifies the means' and if there's no end then the means we're watching every week just isn't good enough. I really don't want to call for him to go (not that it'll make much difference ofc!) but he's got four games to save his job imho.

[dazlhigh]

Towards the end of last season, he was quoted as saying we missed the top six because we lacked depth during the post League Cup injury/form crisis. I don't pay too much attention to what managers say because they rarely offer anything beyond platitudes...and the strengthening the depth thing seemed, as a platitude, fair - it excused 'only' finishing seventh and also seemed to throw a bone to the current squad by saying they were to be backed up rather than replaced.

The fact is he meant it and when you look at the scale of it - seven first team squad players, not including those obviously just to fill out the new reserve side - it is insane. ATS hasn't turned out well sure but he at least was intended as first-choice on the left. And we'll excuse Gillespie as Carson looked likely to leave. But that's us signing five players who the manager fundamentally did not believe to be better than what we had. It's unheard of.

Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me but in our all our very good spells, even going back to McLean, it has been based on a core of no more than 15-16 first choice players and the rest being kids or real journeymen filling in spaces. It has to be that way because true depth for us is impossible - we can't afford to pay money that would get 70% of a second first team to provide cover and even if we could, players at that level wouldn't be willing to sit on the bench at FP.

Like LSM, I recognise what he has done Feb 17-May 18, his attitude and link to the club and fans have been second to none. But his style has also been 'the end justifies the means' and if there's no end then the means we're watching every week just isn't good enough. I really don't want to call for him to go (not that it'll make much difference ofc!) but he's got four games to save his job imho.

It's getting worrying. 'We lack creativity' may be an over - used phrase, but it's true; our last really well - worked goal was against QoS months ago. We haven't missed a barrowload of chances, and that tells its own tale. I still think that Main, Bowman and Johnson could get us enough goals, but not living off scraps; at the same time, we're donating opportunities to other teams. When you look through our team we have enough guys who, on regular good form, should see us OK; but we're not a coherent unit at the moment. Like another poster, I'm not sure that SR knows his best team; I'd like him to work it out out soon.

[sieb1886]

I'm sure he knows his best team. But ... if not, we've no need for a dilly-dallyer have we? 6 points from the next 2 games will hold of the wolves for a bit.