capt_oats

Given how Grimshaw was playing at the start of the season O'Donnell's come in and been...fine? I'd say he's improved us based on where we were without necessarily screaming 'International Footballer'. I don't think anyone's ever been under the illusion that his situation is very much of convenience; we needed a full back as the one we had went off a cliff, he lives 5 minutes away and needed minutes to keep ticking over for his international aspirations. It's not a criticism of him because, as I say, the arrangement with SOD has been pretty clear but in a way his 'one foot out the door' status has kind of been indicative of the malaise and general funk that's been around the team this season. Of our regular-ish starting XI at least half have contracts expiring in the summer (unless there are any other 'plot twist' clauses like Gallagher's).

That's such a weird deal from his POV considering he's got 1.5 years left with us. I'd have thought a loan until the end of the season to be made permanent in the summer would make more sense. Unless Uncle Roy is actually paying us money for him.

Aye. This is very much where I am at the moment.

All the butchers on a a google search seem to be Aberdeen based: https://hmsheridan.co.uk/product/lasagne-pie/ http://www.rossbakery.co.uk/hot-pies-and-savories.php http://www.scotsmeat.com/acatalog/Scottish_Pies.html It was a pal of mine from Aberdeen who introduced me to the concept and my reaction was similar to yours. The only time I've ever bought one was up in the AB area. It definitely seems to be a thing from that neck of the woods as I can't remember seeing them anywhere local. Having said that, I've improvised before and made my own with a pie casing and a portion of lasagne. Does the job. I mean, what's not to like...a boy on Reddit was posting about them:

Lasagne pies were an absolute revelation for me.

What's your position on lasagne?

Derek doing a pod with Lionel. This is relevant to my interests.

On Hastie again, if he's sticking around I'd be tempted to play him on his natural side and ditch this idea of him as an 'inverted winger'. He played on the left for Craigan's u20s, it was only when he broke into the first team that he started playing off the right which was cool while it worked but I honestly don't think continuing to flog that particular dead horse is doing him any favours.

Aye. From the pre-window squad we've seen Archer and Lang move out and Lawleff, Kelly and Smith come in, so you'd imagine the White move if in the post if Scott Burns is reporting it and Hughes isn't denying it (he's just saying there won't be anything 'concrete' until after Wednesday). The Kelly and Lawleff signings presumably removes the empty flat/staring at a blank wall situation which is why I was wondering if that was a route we might be going down where we're looking at players from up here who maybe aren't getting a game at whichever lower league English club and might fancy coming back up the road for a bit. Either way it feels like one in, one out so in as much as it's going to be tough convincing players to come to the club you're also looking at making the same argument in terms of outgoings. Agree that we won't be seeing another Baraclough style trolley dash but I'd like to think that we might be able to bring in another few even if we find ourselves looking around in the domestic market at players who wouldn't have to relocate.

Ach, that's a bit harsh IMO. He said something along the lines of he watched videos of Gareth Bale. I mean, it's pretty standard patter for a young guy in an interview whether it's football, music or whatever: "Who are your influences".

Yeah the rules changed: Agree on Hastie though, the only way I see that happening is if another club is willing to take him on loan on the same terms and are actually going to play him. There's no chance Rangers take him back just to have him sitting around.

If Robinson was still here then that would 100% be the move tbh. Alexander though? f**k knows what he's looking for in his recruitment like.

Aye. That feels like something like it has massive 'comes back to bite us' potential. Then again, if it's a loan he can't play against us. Alternatively, is Uncle Roy going to give us actual money for Jordan White?

This could obviously just be coincidence (in fact, it probably is) but given the summer window saw us signing a number of players from Scottish clubs the fact that all 3 of our signings in January have come from English based clubs seems notable (granted 2 are Scottish and have played up here). Are there any other obvious #ballers who might be looking to come back up the road in the English lower leagues? Either way I'd say we could definitely use a Polworth-alternative and another centre half for sure. If I was being particularly greedy swapping a winger out and one in would be grand, That's on the assumption that none of our "key players" move during this window.

That's genuinely quite surprising re: Donnelly (in the sense it's surprising he had the most in the league, not that it's something he did quite well). Again, it makes sense in so much as O'Hara was filling in for him and he's just not a holding mid - I think the general feeling has been that O'Hara's looked far better value as a CB than a midfielder. Ultimately I defer to @well fan for life: But here we are.

Thanks RG. I'd guess O'Hara's numbers this season are skewed a bit on account of him playing at centre back a fair bit? The passes into final third and through passes per 90 seem in line with what we've been watching. It feels like the poor form of our various wide players means he's lost a big part of his game from last season which was sliding shroo balls to wingers. Like this:

I'd be quite interested to know what the difference is in terms of Polworth's numbers are between this season and last. There must be a significant drop off? Surely? Like, I get he's not for everyone but I'd have thought that most would agree that the Campbell, Donnelly, Polworth 3 from last season was absolutely fine. In fact it was one of the more balanced areas of the team. Probably unanswerable question but I wonder if Turnbull still being at the club (albeit on crutches) was a motivation for Polworth whereas this season he's literally our only creative midfielder. IMO we could definitely use another centre half and a creative midfielder but equally I think we really need a few bodies out if only to trim the squad as from the outside looking in it feels like there's a "culture" issue at the club just now. Edit: Paneer is definitely not for me.

I mentioned this the other week when the last 'Inside Motherwell' went live; I was quite surprised at how involved Charlie Dunne seemed in the training footage given how little we've actually heard of his progress (we did a 40 min documentary on Turnbull, a full VT section on Donnelly, we've had a bit about Fox's rehab and there was a video about Tanner's recovery ages ago too). Not that I'm holding out for Charlie Taxi to swoop in and solve our defensive issues but it seemed odd that there's not really been much of an update about him. (In answer to your question though, not that I've seen).

This is kind of it for me as well. I mean, it's naive to try and argue that it's all been bad luck. There are games where we've been absolutely mince and the obvious argument is "well we should have scored more goals" but this feels like it has just been one of those seasons. Even Chapman having *that* game against Accies feels cursed in so much as he managed to keep clean sheets in his sub appearance against County and his full debut against Livi. Stick Archer in goals for that game and we probably take a point but that's very much coulda, should've, would've. After the 4-0 against County and 2-0 against Livi, I think most would have been surprised if you'd suggested we'd be 13 games and counting for our next win. Given the nature of the league fine margins do come into it and yesterday Ojo blocking a goal-bound shot with his arm not being seen lands in the pile along with Rangers offside equaliser last week (marginal or not he's still off), St Mirren's non-penalty penalty equaliser, Mugabi's inexplicably disallowed goal at 0-0 against Hibs, even Jordan fucking White having 2 goals ruled out against United and Hibs back at the start of the season sums things up pretty well. That's before you even get into chucking in an equaliser with a minute left in injury time against United. We're midway through January and the squad still feels like an absolute bin fire but the drop off from last season (especially in midfield) is mind-blowing.

Obviously depends on the clause and all that but would you not be due to give Wigan a slice of any money you receive for Hendry as well? That put a dent in the original fee the club ended up with did it not?

He's contracted until 2022 and he's largely been available. He missed a couple of squads in December but other than that he's been on our bench. In fact, he was on the bench last Sunday in the 1-1 vs Rangers and was subbed on in the 1-1 vs St Mirren.

In fairness the mess we're in has more to do with losing two internationals from our starting XI (Carson and Donnelly: in Donnelly's case he's been out since the first game of the season and we had to replace Carson with whoever was available outside the transfer window), not having an actual left back in the team until January because he was more than 2 months behind on his rehab, none of our wingers being any good and various others being nowhere near the level they were last season (*looks at Declan Gallagher, Liam Polworth and Chris Long*). If you were to look at what would have been our first choice starting XI there would probably only have been one or two changes from the side that finished 3rd* last season. As it is it's been an absolute binfire on account of long term injuries and established players being wildly out of form. Don't get me wrong signing White definitely hasn't worked out for anyone concerned but in our list of problems it's pretty far down. Robinson had always been after a cheap "lump" to chuck on in a 2nd half if we wanted to go "direct" which is where White came into the picture. He offered the height we were looking for, had scored goals at Championship level, is from the area and already knew a bunch of the players at the club. With Watt, Long, Cole and Callum Lang at the club I don't think White was ever meant to be anything other than an option off the bench. Who knows, it could have gone a different way for him at Fir Park if his goal against Hibs or his equaliser against United had stood but the more minutes he's ended up getting the more he's looked out his depth at this level.

Aye, even as someone who is a fan of Polworth I've got to say he's been miles aff it this season. I thought he'd perked up a bit against St Mirren and Rangers but that today should see his card marked. On a broader point, one that's been mentioned before on here he's literally our only creative midfielder - Campbell on his day is a smashing player but he's not going to unlock a defence, same with O'Hara, same with Donnelly, Crawford and Maguire while Cornelius only has a couple of first team games to his name. The only other player who you'd say is a creative midfielder is Semple and he's on loan at Cove (and not getting many regular starts). It's wild that we've gone into this season knowing that Turnbull was leaving and pinned the entire creative side of our team to Polworth managing to keep up his form and staying free of injury.

This is the kind of swings and roundabouts position that I've sort of settled on (almost). If we'd lost 2-0 last week and drawn 1-1 today it'd be kind of "sure, OK" (though clearly heads would still be detached on Steelmen whatever happened). The manner of the defeat is clearly annoying especially with shipping cheap goals and Polworth selling the jerseys. As multiple folk have said hopefully that's been an eyeopener for Alexander and P45s are being prepared (regardless of what he's saying in public).