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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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2 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

100%. 

I was fortunate enough not to have paid in to the Dundee game thanks to @Desp having spare comps. Cheers for that btw.

The reason I mentioned those signings was largely down to the fact that it was the same Head of Recruitment we've got now.  There's been a massive improvement in performance levels from guys like Tait who just seems to be crossfitting his way through life but looking back it feels like for whatever reason McGhee just couldn't be fucked that season. Giving Samson the #1 jersey simply because he was still hanging around absolutely typified that.

I really don't get up in arms about day-to-day running of the club as some do, but that absolutely got a reaction out of me. Total laziness from McGhee to not look for a number 1 as Samson was a complete liability.

McGhee just seemed to sack the majority of training on to McFadden to take care of. I'd have no issues with this if we had an experienced assistant who'd been doing it for years but, realistically, McFadden was still learning how to manage. 

Christ what a fucking car crash couple of months that was.

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10 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

McGhee just seemed to sack the majority of training on to McFadden to take care of. I'd have no issues with this if we had an experienced assistant who'd been doing it for years but, realistically, McFadden was still learning how to manage. 

I’ve often wondered since if that’s why it worked during his first season back, because when he went back down South or away with Scotland it was Robinson who was left in charge. An experienced coach who could follow McGhee’s instructions and keep things ticking over nicely till he came back.

I’ve not got the stats to hand but I’d imagine if you compared McGhee’s league record from when Robinson was his assistant to when Faddy took over it’d make for fairly interesting reading. 

Appointing Faddy as assistant in itself seemed like another lazy decision, by all accounts he still wanted to be a player instead but realistically we all knew he was finished at this level. The player/assistant manager gig seemed like the very definition of jobs for the boys.  

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5 hours ago, Casagolda said:

I’ve often wondered since if that’s why it worked during his first season back, because when he went back down South or away with Scotland it was Robinson who was left in charge. An experienced coach who could follow McGhee’s instructions and keep things ticking over nicely till he came back.

I’ve not got the stats to hand but I’d imagine if you compared McGhee’s league record from when Robinson was his assistant to when Faddy took over it’d make for fairly interesting reading. 

Appointing Faddy as assistant in itself seemed like another lazy decision, by all accounts he still wanted to be a player instead but realistically we all knew he was finished at this level. The player/assistant manager gig seemed like the very definition of jobs for the boys.  

I've thought the same.

It clicked for me when Robinson did his interview with @AndyRoss for the MFC Podcast just before the cup final last season.

His quote talking about McGhee was was: "Mark made a brave decision because most people bring their own staff with them. Mark was confident enough, he'd spoken to a lot of people about me and was confident enough to keep me. I had a really good relationship. The things that I learned from him in terms of man management in 6-7 months were fantastic and I still use a lot of it now and I watched what he'd done. And he did give me free reign coaching wise in what I was allowed to do."

It kind of confirmed the idea for me that one of the key differences between the two seasons was that Robinson wasn't there doing the coaching.

Stats-wise McGhee was appointed on 13th October '15 and kept Robinson on:

15/16:
5ba26aa98cb1f_ScreenShot2018-09-19at16_25_48.png.c1afbdc6ff7f8883519579b36239b812.png

He was binned 28th February '17. Robinson was away to Oldham before the season started. McFadden was confirmed assistant on 26th July '16:

16/17:
5ba26af62049b_ScreenShot2018-09-19at16_27_26.png.1e069687cb6e6ff98625598069a5c70d.png

Edit to add: in terms of the GD in 15/16 I'd imagine it's probably skewed a fair bit by the 6-0 at Tynecastle and the 7-0 at Parkhead.

Additional edit as an afterthought: Here's Robinson's 12 games in charge at the end of the 16/17 season. With the same squad McGhee had (minus Tait and McManus through injury).

5ba2b763d9120_ScreenShot2018-09-19at21_51_40.png.d483af258aa720ea75ddb299186fcc3a.png

Edited by capt_oats
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I've thought the same.
It clicked for me when Robinson did his interview with [mention=12133]AndyRoss[/mention] for the MFC Podcast just before the cup final last season.
His quote talking about McGhee was was: "Mark made a brave decision because most people bring their own staff with them. Mark was confident enough, he'd spoken to a lot of people about me and was confident enough to keep me. I had a really good relationship. The things that I learned from him in terms of man management in 6-7 months were fantastic and I still use a lot of it now and I watched what he'd done. And he did give me free reign coaching wise in what I was allowed to do."
It kind of confirmed the idea for me that one of the key differences between the two seasons was that Robinson wasn't there doing the coaching.
Stats-wise McGhee was appointed on 13th October '15 and kept Robinson on:
15/16:
5ba26aa98cb1f_ScreenShot2018-09-19at16_25_48.png.c1afbdc6ff7f8883519579b36239b812.png
He was binned 28th February '17. Robinson was away to Oldham before the season started. McFadden was confirmed assistant on 26th July '16:
16/17:
5ba26af62049b_ScreenShot2018-09-19at16_27_26.png.1e069687cb6e6ff98625598069a5c70d.png
Edit to add: in terms of the GD in 15/16 I'd imagine it's probably skewed a fair bit by the 6-0 at Tynecastle and the 7-0 at Parkhead.

What website did you use to get those league tables with the custom dates?
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Transfer speculation in The Sun today. We're being linked (along with St. Mirren) with a January swoop for 20 year old NEC Nijmegan right winger Morad El Haddouti.

The club (and the Bois) have pretty good ties with Nijmegan eh?

OK...cards on the table, this vague bit of news was just a set up to let me post this...

 

Edited by capt_oats
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56 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Transfer speculation in The Sun today. We're being linked (along with St. Mirren) with a January swoop for 20 year old NEC Nijmegan right winger Morad El Haddouti.

The club (and the Bois) have pretty good ties with Nijmegan eh?

OK...cards on the table, this vague bit of news was just a set up to let me post this...

 

Love the Higgy.

I'm sure there was someone on here, or on Steelmen, that went all in with the slagging in his early stages with us (Fat! Shite!) but unlike pretty much everyone else, could never admit that he was wrong, even when the evidence was hilariously overwhelming as Higgy passed the 25 goal mark and won POTY :lol:

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35 minutes ago, Swello said:

Love the Higgy.

I'm sure there was someone on here, or on Steelmen, that went all in with the slagging in his early stages with us (Fat! Shite!) but unlike pretty much everyone else, could never admit that he was wrong, even when the evidence was hilariously overwhelming as Higgy passed the 25 goal mark and won POTY :lol:

The bold Steelboy, wasn't it?

Higdon is just about my favourite ever player. A ridiculous high-point in a period of great moments and games.

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Massive blow for us and him.

I still can’t believe Robinson didn’t address this in the summer. I mean it’s painfully obvious we lack a spark in the final third, he’s even pointing out himself in his post match interviews. We had all summer to sign someone, anyone who could offer some creativity in the final third. Instead we signed Sammon and another central midfielder. 

It seems like we were genuinely pinning all our hopes on getting Tanner back fit which was always going to be a risky strategy when someone’s coming back from such an injury. Even more so that we build Tanner up into something he’s not during the time he’s been out.

Even if/when he does come back, you only have to look at Hartley to see it’ll still be another month or two until he’s back near anything like full fitness. 

Edited by Casagolda
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1 hour ago, Casagolda said:

Massive blow for us and him.

I still can’t believe Robinson didn’t address this in the summer. I mean it’s painfully obvious we lack a spark in the final third, he’s even pointing out himself in his post match interviews. We had all summer to sign someone, anyone who could offer some creativity in the final third. Instead we signed Sammon and another central midfielder. 

It seems like we were genuinely pinning all our hopes on getting Tanner back fit which was always going to be a risky strategy when someone’s coming back from such an injury. Even more so that we build Tanner up into something he’s not during the time he’s been out.

Even if/when he does come back, you only have to look at Hartley to see it’ll still be another month or two until he’s back near anything like full fitness. 

Can't really argue with that.

Even if we'd signed a "Tanner-a-like" on loan until January or something it'd have meant we weren't wholly relying on him coming straight back and being immediately effective. Which was never going to happen anyway after his knee has pretty much fallen to bits and he's been out for the best part of a year.

The point is, as most of us on here have highlighted, we don't have another player like Tanner in the squad. We've got a handful of technical players but none really do what Tanner does. Bigi's not someone who plays in that area, neither is Turnbull nor Frear. From the way we were lining up in the opening games of the season it feels (to me at least) like we were hoping that Cadden could play the "attacking midfielder" role until Tanner came back.

Which...seems like a misjudgement.

It's unlikely given the relative size of our squad but I wonder if the Tanner news might see us look at free agents.

Edited by capt_oats
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