Motherwell v Livi

Ok no time to dwell on the weekend's disappointment, it's onto our next match against Motherwell on Wed night, two struggling teams desperate to get their first points on the board.

Not much to say other than going over everything again from our opening two games, just hoping Holt makes some changes and doesn't stick with the same line up and formation.

Would jump with joy if I see the team line up

….                        McCrorie

McMillan.     -  Guthrie  -  Brown  -  ATS

……            Bartley  -  Crawford

….         Forrest  -  Pittman  -  Souda

………..                 Dykes

Would also be open to trying Poplatnik instead of Pittman in the centre of that attacking mid 3, and Ambrose instead of Brown, so long as we play just 2 CB's and Guthrie is one of them. Could also try Stryjek in goals with McCrorie going to be out on Sunday against Sevco, his parent club, just so he gets a bit of game time before facing one of the best 2 teams in the league. McCrorie hasn't done anything special to keep his place after conceding 4 goals either.

Liviforever wrote:Ok no time to dwell on the weekend's disappointment, it's onto our next match against Motherwell on Wed night, two struggling teams desperate to get their first points on the board.

Not much to say other than going over everything again from our opening two games, just hoping Holt makes some changes and doesn't stick with the same line up and formation.

Would jump with joy if I see the team line up

….                        McCrorie

McMillan.     -  Guthrie  -  Brown  -  McMillan

……            Bartley  -  Crawford

….         Forrest  -  Pittman  -  Souda

………..                 Dykes

Would also be open to trying Poplatnik instead of Pittman in the centre of that attacking mid 3, and Ambrose instead of Brown, so long as we play just 2 CB's and Guthrie is one of them. Could also try Stryjek in goals with McCrorie going to be out on Sunday against Sevco, his parent club, just so he gets a bit of game time before facing one of the best 2 teams in the league. McCrorie hasn't done anything special to keep his place after conceding 4 goals either.

Hey - if I were to base it purely on Saturday's performance I may even suggest Malley would have been better - certainly hw would have come out for the second goal - taking out about three players in the process.

I am however particularly worried by your formation of having McMillan playing both LB AND RB. Do you think that's a reasonable expectation for the young man?

Also I'd be tempted to have Jacobs (if available) instead of Crawford; possibly moving him into Pittman's position. As for Souda; I'd be tempted to try Kouider Aissa on from the start to see what he could do against Gallagher.

Lol, meant ATS, copied and pasted it and meant to switch McMillan to RB and change his LB position for ATS.

Yeah, McMillan isn’t bad & can play both positions... but asking him to do both at the same time is a wee bit beyond him I think

Our record at Fir Park aint great and coupled with the prospect of coming up against Gallagher,Lamie and White it looks like a tough night ahead for the Lions.The inclusion of Holt will hopefully give the lads a wee lift.If fully fit hes a good aquisition to the team.Well havent set the heather on Fire thus far like ourselves,but they are a good team.Id bite your hand off for a point here although would take your whole arm for 3.Anyway good luck to the Lions. Weve got to get back to what we do best, sometime.

Aye Jason Holt looks like a good signing, if we play him beside Marv in a 4-2-3-1, and don't stick Efe in midfield. Or get Crawford in there, dunno if Keags is injured, haven't seen him in the squad.

If this was last season i'd be fairly confident of a win, Motherwell were in a slump from December onwards and hadn't looked like being able to hold onto their European place, same with Aberdeen, their current form should not really be a surprise.

Us on the other hand, have completely dropped off after a great season, we all think it has to do with playing too many CB's in the team, some out of position, and the wrong formation, so lets hope Holt sorts that out and we can get our first win, then kick on and have another good season.

Expecting a few changes anyway, as Holt wasn't a happy chappy in his post match interview, saying some players weren't doing enough to stay in the team, think we'd all agree with him there.

Piss poor defending from us again but much better in midfield and attack. Would've taken a point pre match, and considering we were behind twice i'd say a point was decent, gets us one on the board anyway.

Better set up tonight too, going with a back 4, but not convinced we need 3 CB's in a back 4, would rather have McMillan at RB opposite ATS, Fitzwater looks dodgy, but he's a new signing that hasn't played in Scotland before so not writing him off. Thought Efe's deliveries were poor, and his throw ins just kept coming back to him, which tbf gave him a 2nd chance of putting them in with his foot.

Sibbs, Forrest and Dykes were excellent, again i'd like to see more running forward anticipating Dykes flick ons, he wins just about every header and we aren't getting enough runs onto them. Pitts was better, as was Bartley, and wee Robbo buzzed about all over the pitch, helping out defensively too, with runs back to force mistakes from Motherwell players.

First half was disappointing to be going in 2-1 behind, we were much the better team going forward, but our defending let us down, giving them 2 clear shots at our goal, get bodies thrown in front of those shots Livi.

2nd half was a bit more even but still thought we pressed more and were making good attacking plays, and got a just reward with the equaliser. If we can sort out our defending then we'd be a decent looking team.

Feel a lot more positive after that, but have to temper it with the fact Motherwell are having a tough time too, so will wait to see how we do against other teams before completely being relieved. Sevco on Sunday is a free hit for improvement too, they'll beat us but if we put in a good showing and keep it to 1 or 2 goals i'll be pleased.

Forrest scored doing what I’ve been crying out for for years, he followed in & knocked it in when Carson cut out a cross (lovely play between Pitts & Sibbs to get the cross in) - if Forrest doesn’t follow in then Carson gets away with his decent cut out which looks like an error because we scored

Agree with the comments. Hard to believe that our defence which was always our strength has become our weakness. Some decent play elsewhere though. Good to get that first point and the first goal from open play.
Can't believe we've got a penalty in consecutive games. Must be connected to the lack of a crowd.
No pressure on Sunday. I'll be happy if we can keep the score down.

It was a nice gift from Lamie for the pen

Having just watched the highlights back,im convinced we could have sneaked the 3 points albeit against a poor Well team.Comical defending for their goals again,weve got to get this sorted out and quick.Thought wee Forrest took his goal well after a good build up to get us back in the game.What Lamie was doing for the pen is anybodies guess,Cheers Rickie.All in all a thoughrally deserved point for the lads which id have taken pre match,though at time i felt Well were there for the takin. Yes an improvement on recent times, just got to get the defence sorted.As someone said earlier Sunday is a free hit for us against Sevco, more on that one to come. But well done Livi,We're on the board and we move on.

I'm strangely happy with the result; Sure, I would have liked 3 points to put us into the mid table but to have been down twice and fight our way back shows the kind of character we've been used to.

For the second half it was pretty much all Livi but for one real occasion when Guthrie cleared the ball as it bounced towards an empty net. In reality we could have easily added to our tally.

The long throws were pretty much cancelled out but remember they have Gallagher and Lamie in the team so have a wealth of experience on how to deal with them. Another thing that occurs to me is when Lithgow put a throw in; he got the okay distance but the ball travelled through the air quickly - maybe I'm imagining it but Ambrose has greater distance but the ball seems to travel slower (if that's possible); with the greater height it seems to "hover" giving defenders more time to arrange the defence.

With regard to our defence; we were undoubtedly better than previous games but there still quite a degree of insecurity there. For their first goal I was totally mystified why Fitzwater was tracking the guy on the wing but then suddenly decided to run back to the centre; leaving the Motherwell man with all the time in the world to put the cross in. Also whether McCrorie could have stopped them or not his reactions seemed slow and positioning seemed awkward. Maybe he'll settle in and improve; after all I wasn't Kelly's greatest fan first time around but he certainly improved. Least-ways on Sunday we'll get the chance to see what Stryjek can do against the rangers?

Also it was good to see our mjdfield almost back to their old selves - keep it up guys.

Yeah the big improvement in our performance has made the Livi fans, and management team a lot happier with the result than Motherwell, think that shows the improved performance was just as important as getting the point. However it would have put a dampener on it if we'd come away with nothing and still been sitting on zero points, feels like a bit of pressure gets lifted when you get your first point on the board.

Also seeing us revert back to our successful formation from last season gave my heart a lift, even if it could be tweaked a bit with the starting line up just having 2 CB's in it, and 2 proper FB's, we've Devlin and McMillan as RB's, Devlin had a poor game against Hibs but there was no need to choose Fitzwater over McMillan, why experiment with a CB when McMillan has been used as a FB for years, and done well playing as one.