Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[well fan for life]

30 minutes ago, Mpire said:

Looking forward to the game at the weekend! Will be interesting to see how Motherwell stack-up to the mighty Livi!!

I expect a game of football that will be a horrendous watch as two teams attempt to kick a football to death.

Regrettably I'm missing this on Saturday and instead am taking in Barcelona - Deportivo Alaves. I feel there will be less hammers being thrown and, honestly, I am sad about that.

[Swello]

Missing it for more mundane reasons - but also not expecting a classic. For the sake of some our supporters' mental health, I'm hoping that we can scrape a win of any description..

[Mpire]

1 hour ago, Desp said:

I think it'll be a very difficult game for us.  Livingston are a side which will have been used to winning more often than not over the last couple of seasons, so that kind of momentum could see them get off to a good start.

Motherwell will be under big pressure after two really poor performances in the league.  A big game for Stephen Robinson. 

I was actually chatting to Ross Stewart a couple of weeks and he was saying there's a lot of confidence within the club and he's loving training.  Hopefully he'll get a chance in the team this season. 

We are missing both our main strikers (De Vita and Hardie) so been struggling for goals - K Miller not up to much. Hopefully a close game. Be interesting to see what you make of our new artificial pitch... 

[well fan for life]

1 minute ago, Mpire said:

We are missing both our main strikers (De Vita and Hardie) so been struggling for goals - K Miller not up to much. Hopefully a close game. Be interesting to see what you make of our new artificial pitch... 

Going by Saturday the ball will be at about 36,000 feet so the pitch should be more or less irrelevant.

[Mpire]

1 minute ago, well fan for life said:

Going by Saturday the ball will be at about 36,000 feet so the pitch should be more or less irrelevant.

We played pretty well v Kili at weekend - not much in the way of long balls. 

[Desp]

Kenny Miller will be 64 years old, looking like that auld wummin from the Benidorm telly show after too many sunbeds, and the c**t will STILL find a way to score against Motherwell.

[Al B]

2 hours ago, Mpire said:

We played pretty well v Kili at weekend - not much in the way of long balls. 

Don't worry, he means us.

[MJC]

I can't see us getting much joy on Saturday, everything points to an utter shitfest on the plastic with us yet again struggling to score. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 0-0 then we lose on penalties again.

[WellView]

4 hours ago, Londonwell said:

Don't know what you find amusing about that  - players are going on loan to buy all over the place in England - and just wait till the panic station starts in the last week of the loan to buy window. 

Though, to be fair, I don't think anyone will come in with the kind of money this window that we would accept for Campbell.  With the length of his contract, and importance to the team, etc - IMO, a million wouldn't encourage Burrows to shift him this window.  I reckon it would need to be close to a record transfer for Motherwell to let him go, and I still don't think Burrows would be happy about losing him.

With luck, someone will come in for Cadden.   

[Londonwell]

1 hour ago, WellView said:

Don't know what you find amusing about that  - players are going on loan to buy all over the place in England - and just wait till the panic station starts in the last week of the loan to buy window. 

Though, to be fair, I don't think anyone will come in with the kind of money this window that we would accept for Campbell.  With the length of his contract, and importance to the team, etc - IMO, a million wouldn't encourage Burrows to shift him this window.  I reckon it would need to be close to a record transfer for Motherwell to let him go, and I still don't think Burrows would be happy about losing him.

With luck, someone will come in for Cadden.   

I am willing to bet you £10 we do not loan out Alan Campbell. 

Edited August 15, 2018 by Londonwell

[welldaft]

3 hours ago, Mpire said:

We are missing both our main strikers (De Vita and Hardie) so been struggling for goals - K Miller not up to much. Hopefully a close game. Be interesting to see what you make of our new artificial pitch... 

I will be going along. Hopefully I can get away without suffering from black pellet poisoning ! 

I am strangely confident. We are a cup team and I expect us to maybe catch a break that we have not really had this season so far. 

[WellView]

1 hour ago, Londonwell said:

I am willing to bet you £10 we do not loan out Alan Campbell. 

Are you familiar with loan to buy? 

 

[well fan for life]

Oh my fucking goodness give it a rest. 

[Mr. Brightside]

Tbf, we will really struggle when Campbell goes out on loan to Newcastle before his £5 million move.

[ONeils4Oyarder]

20 hours ago, Londonwell said:

I am willing to bet you £10 we do not loan out Alan Campbell. 

I am also willing to bet £10 that if a club offered a million quid for him...Burrows would be away forging the wee mans signature.

[WellView]

7 hours ago, ONeils4Oyarder said:

I am also willing to bet £10 that if a club offered a million quid for him...Burrows would be away forging the wee mans signature.

Really? Ask him. 

Not a chance he would be allowed to leave us that cheap. No chance. 

You're looking at the new MFC record transfer.  

Problem is (  as always ) guys that need to tap their maw to make it to payday are suddenly financial experts.  

 

[Londonwell]

2 hours ago, WellView said:

Really? Ask him. 

Not a chance he would be allowed to leave us that cheap. No chance. 

You're looking at the new MFC record transfer.  

Problem is (  as always ) guys that need to tap their maw to make it to payday are suddenly financial experts.  

 

I hope his maw atleast gave him the option of a loan to buy agreement.

[capt_oats]

Quite an interesting interview with Bigi on the BBC pages...

Quote

Gael Bigirimana admits he thought Scottish football would be "easy", and suffered a rude awakening when he joined Motherwell last summer.

The midfielder, 24, moved to Fir Park from Coventry City after the club had been relegated from English League One.

He made 33 appearances last term, but 18 of those came from the bench.

"I came with the wrong mindset that I would just get into the team. It's been a big lesson for me," the Burundi international said.

"Wherever you go, you can never take your foot off the gas because there is always someone who will overtake you."

But he has started both of the club's Premiership fixtures so far - defeats by Hibernian and Hamilton Academical - and says his relationship with Robinson remains positive.

"When a player is not playing, tension gets difficult," Bigirimana said. "But he brought me here knowing what I can do.

"Last season, the team was doing well and I couldn't get to the level or intensity of how they want to play. I take full responsibility that I wasn't as fit as I feel I am now."

Motherwell travel to top-flight rivals Livingston in the last 16 of the Scottish League Cup on Saturday.

Robinson says winger Chris Cadden is "very doubtful" for the fixture due to a dead leg, while Liam Grimshaw, Craig Tanner and Charles Dunne are all sidelined.

The Fir Park side reached the finals of both national cups last season, where they were beaten by Celtic.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45218801

and here's the man himself...

 

Edited August 17, 2018 by capt_oats

[welldaft]

Did not know Liam Donnolly also injured. Not necessarily a huge impact but had never seen it mentioned before. 

Cadden looks like he may well miss this game and the chance to play his brother. Would be a shame. That said a week on the bench may not be the worst thing for him through injury or otherwise.

But the biggest revelation is that Bigi himself admits he was neither fit enough or even in the right mindset to play last season. In some ways that backs up the theory or indeed fact that we as fans know very little about what is going on behind the scenes. There has been such a clamour to play Bigi and now it looks as if he will make starting 11 form provided as he is hopefully staying now. 

From the gaffers interview I take he may persevere with Main and Sammon upfront. Hope I have read wrongly into that. I would like to see Johnson start. I would also like to see Turnbull get some game time. 

 

[capt_oats]

Thunderdome is back in business lads...

The thing with Bigi doesn't really seem that much of a revelation tbh. He touches on it himself in the video interview on the club channel. The team was doing reasonably well without him in it then when he was getting his chance to start, we weren't winning games. If a different starting line up is getting results then that's the one the manager is going to stick with regardless of how an individual is performing.

We signed something like 17 players last summer. Some fitted in better than others. It's interesting to hear him talk about the mindset and fitness aspect though. There was an interview he did after the 0-0 against St Johnstone just before the split where he directly referenced the fact that he hoped that getting 90 mins he could kick on and show he could do what the manager was asking of him. 

It felt to me like once we bedded in an XI that was picking up results our style kind of evolved and was dictated by what was working (relatively speaking). People are quick to jump on our relatively poor win record in league over the 2nd half of last season but we only lost 5 league games from 17 in 2018 (we averaged 1.41 points per game between 24/01 and 12/05. Over the course of a full season that sort of average PPG would have us on 53 points). 

Even after wins last season Robinson was still saying in his post-match interviews that we needed to look after the ball better. In that respect, along with the fact that Bigi was one of his first signings I think Robinson's always wanted a player like Bigi in his midfield but he doesn't really know how to fit him in. I mentioned it the other day but Tanner is another one who we struggled to integrate into the side for a while as well.

Similarly if, as Bigi seems to have alluded to, he was just playing at his own pace and wasn't up to matching the intensity then it's also a question of whether the player can adapt or is willing to adapt.

Edited August 17, 2018 by capt_oats