Motherwell struggle but reach the next round

[Footymad]

Motherwell played poorly but progressed to the fifth round after winning a penalty shootout against unlucky Morton. - External Link

[Handsome_Devil]

That was, it is fair to say, absolutely awful. We probably did enough to win it in the 120, if not regulation, as Long's was an absolute sitter and Hastie - who did not bad overall - should also have scored. Kelly proved his value again mind - we will be working overtime to make the finance work on his future.

But to chuck away a 120th minute winner by conceding a goal like that is comic cuts. Again, if it were needed, a reminder the 'released' list in summer should be gigantic - and is arguably already shorter than it should be given recent decisions.

For all that however, we're through. Astonishingly the pure numbers come May could well suggest this season in terms of achievement in our four competitions has been acceptable - a fact which will be vehemently disputed by anyone who has watched us.

[Gowboy]

Agree with your summary HD. A truly dreadful performance. Morton pressed us when we had possession and our main answer was to knock it around at the back and then boot it long which was easily dealt with by their large defenders. Our passing was awful for 120 minutes. And just to cap it all Allan Campbell gets what could be a bad injury. Play like that on Wednesday and Accies will cruise to another win.

[dazlhigh]

Agree with your summary HD. A truly dreadful performance. Morton pressed us when we had possession and our main answer was to knock it around at the back and then boot it long which was easily dealt with by their large defenders. Our passing was awful for 120 minutes. And just to cap it all Allan Campbell gets what could be a bad injury. Play like that on Wednesday and Accies will cruise to another win.

All night, when the Morton defence headed the ball out it fell to a Morton player; when our defence headed the ball out it fell to a Morton player........... Something wrong there.

[sieb1886]

Let me assist you ... our defence is 5hit !

[sieb1886]

And, another thing ... if GA can't get this mob to do what's needed at home against a low division outfit with the promise of a big money QF, the jury must be out on his appointment? I'm not seeing any progressive / sustained improvement from the days of SR. He's got the summer transfer dealings to come; that'll go a long way to determine my decision on him being the right man.

[Handsome_Devil]

Given the universal opinion of the squad when he took over, GA's sole job was to keep us up (and avoid a banana skin exit in the cup too if you're pushing it). He's achieved both those things and basically starts afresh in summer for me. He was clearly raging in his post-match chat with MFCTV but felt the need to stay vaguely polite and professional about folk he has no choice but to work with a little longer.

There is definitely 'something rotten' in the old state of FP and it's not just the O'Donnell stand floorboards.

[LawSteelman]

The jury is out on Graham Alexander but he deserves the summer transfer window to be able to get shot of a lot of the garbage he inherited and bring in his own players. It’s been said before, but the attitudes of a number of our first team is disgraceful and they are simply going through the motions and that’s never good to see. Perhaps that’s angering GA and that would be perfectly understandable.

[Wellup4it]

Some serious questions need to be asked after last night's performance. But then again, we already knew that. Irrespective of how poorly the players performed, questions do need to asked about the 4-3-3 set up. We just don't have the players to play that way. Not just that, but the substitutions, such as they were, were a bit late to say the least

[Handsome_Devil]

I've seen it mentioned before we don't have the players to play 4-3-3 but I'm not convinced we have a natural fit for anything else either.

I think we stumbled across a functioning system of 4-3-3 (or 4-4-2 diamond, 4-3-1-2, call it what you want) when Watt played deep behind Roberts and Cole. Now Watt is gone that doesn't work as well and we're left searching for something else.

What's clear is we're never, ever going to play only two in the centre of midfield - so it's either 4-3-3, 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2 diamond - the last of which would mean with our full backs being who they are we're going to have next to nothing out wide.

The whole squad needs reworked regardless of what system or approach we want to take in the future. GA has done fine making the most of what he's got but with who we have there's no ideal solution, there's fundamental problems whatever we pick.