Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[well fan for life]

Why is Chris Long scalping a PS5 on Instagram?

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

Is writing off Summer signings in January not an annual thing for Motherwell?

Genuinely interested to see how your transfers look now you've linked up with a stats agency.

Not really. There have been a handful that clearly haven't worked but when you have the sort of turnover of players we have you expect a certain amount of wastage

Last season we signed 12 players in the summer window and wrote off Sloth after 6 months, Robinson's first season we signed 14 players and moved Alex Fisher on in January. Those are the only two that we've moved on in the January window after they've signed while Robinson's been here.

I think the stats agency partnership is being slightly overplayed as being a thing (not by Motherwell but rather excitable Scottish Fitba stats nerds). From my, admittedly limited, reading it sounds like a WyScout alternative. I doubt we'll be going full Billy Beane and change the way we approach recruitment - it'll simply be another tool we use.

Fwiw, going by the spiel in the announcement of the partnership it seems we've been speaking with them for a couple of years:

Quote

Martin Foyle, Head of Recruitment at Motherwell FC commented: “We are confident that, by enabling us to incorporate analytics into the scouting process, TransferLab will help us make more informed decisions when we are scouting for talent and will be a key tool to help boost our club’s performance.”

“It’s great to get Motherwell on board and using TransferLab.” said Jeremy Steele, Analytics FC’s founder and Managing Director. “The club have a keen awareness of the space and have really forward-thinking staff. We actually started speaking back in 2018 so it’s a tremendous vote of confidence in TransferLab V2 that we have now started a formal partnership.”

Bart Huby, Partner at LCP, added: “Data analytics is revolutionising many areas of business and football is no exception. In a competitive and global marketplace, TransferLab gives recruitment personnel at our clients unparalleled access to detailed performance metrics on up to 90,000 players across 80 different leagues worldwide.  This gives them the ability at their fingertips to search for players based on their own user-defined parameters, compare and contrast, rate against other players and make projections about future performance potential.”

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by capt_oats

[Desp]

There's a lot of shite in our squad, and unfortunately a lot of them are currently needed to play in the first team. Not great. 

I was very much in agreement that it was time for Hartley & Tait to move on, so the fact they are no longer here isn't an issue. The problem is what we've replaced them with - Lamie & Mugabi - are much, much worse. Declan Gallagher must be shaking his head at going from playing with Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool players at the back to those two..

In midfield, we go to absolute shit without Allan Campbell, which the manager now appears to acknowledge as well. With O'Hara, I remember asking two friends of mine (one a Killie fan, another of Dundee) and the reviews I got were basically "a headless chicken". They aren't wrong. Seems to be something of the Tom Hateley in him where he tries to convince everyone he's a midfielder without having any of the attributes to play there. 

Up front, Tony Watt is our best option but is never going to be a 15-20 goal a season man. When there's hardly any goals coming from wide men or midfield, it means we'll lose a lot more of the tight games than we'll lose. 

I don't think we'll be in any bother this season (anything from 5th to 10th seems likely) and I don't think Robinson should be under any pressure whatsoever. He's proven he can a fix a mess (self-made, tbf!) so I hope he can do similar in January. Lamie & White need to be first out the door. They are League 1 players at best. 

[ropy]

If we had gone far in this competition we wouldn’t have met Celtic.  Another missed opportunity.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I'm maybe a lot more positive than most people on this thread. Our extended squad is a shambles aye, but if we manage to get something close to this lineup on the park more often than not as soon as possible then we'll finish 7th at worst imo.

Carson

O'Donnell Gallagher Mugabi Carroll

Campbell O'Hara Polworth

Lang Watt Cole

[capt_oats]

38 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I'm maybe a lot more positive than most people on this thread. Our extended squad is a shambles aye, but if we manage to get something close to this lineup on the park more often than not as soon as possible then we'll finish 7th at worst imo.

Carson

O'Donnell Gallagher Mugabi Carroll

Campbell O'Hara Polworth

Lang Watt Cole

For me, of those at the club just now:

Carson
O'Donnell O'Hara Gallagher Carroll
Campbell Maguire Polworth
Lang Watt Cole

or

Carson
O'Donnell Gallagher McGinley Carroll
Campbell O'Hara Polworth
Lang Watt Cole

I suppose one of the more troubling concerns (aside from the raft of dross once you get past the starting XI) is this idea that we're "soft" (to use Robinson's choice of words). I don't think anyone's going to sit and argue that it wasn't the right time for Tait and Hartley to move on but replacing that "mentality" is the sort of intangible quality that's presumably difficult to do.

Looking at the starting XI from a couple of our better results recently:
4-0 vs Ross County: Carson; O'Donnell, O'Hara, Gallagher, McGinley; Campbell, Maguire, Polworth; Cole, Watt, Long
0-2 vs Livi: Chapman; O'Donnell, O'Hara, Gallagher, McGinley; Campbell, Maguire, Polworth; Lang, Watt, Cole

It feels like it's clear it's the extended squad where there's a problem; White, Lamie, Mugabi, Hastie, Grimshaw, Seedorf etc. It's a massive drop-off from those in our first pick starting XI to those who are around the squad as back up.

Edited November 29, 2020 by capt_oats

[Casagolda]

Have you both just forgotten about Donnelly?

I mean I wasn’t always his biggest fan but I’d have him sitting in front of the back four ahead of O’Hara and Maguire everyday of the week. 

[tree house tam]

2 hours ago, ropy said:

If we had gone far in this competition we wouldn’t have met Celtic.  Another missed opportunity.

If?

[capt_oats]

6 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

Have you both just forgotten about Donnelly?

I mean I wasn’t always his biggest fan but I’d have him sitting in front of the back four ahead of O’Hara and Maguire everyday of the week. 

I haven't forgotten about him but I was guessing he wouldn't be back any time soon whereas Carroll's apparently back in training and they're talking about Carson being back in January.

Donnelly would be in that position all day, every day if he was available.

[ropy]

32 minutes ago, tree house tam said:

If?

I said If, I was playing out an alternative scenario to reality.  We didn’t win.  I am not even complaining about it.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

59 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

Have you both just forgotten about Donnelly?

I mean I wasn’t always his biggest fan but I’d have him sitting in front of the back four ahead of O’Hara and Maguire everyday of the week. 

Yeah much the same as Oatsy I assumed Donnelly was a bit further away from fitness than the other two. But aye Donnelly coming back would me massive, not least for the fact we could then put O'Hara at centre back and punt Bevis from the line up entirely.

[Casagolda]

I thought he was due back around the same time as Carson in January(ish)?

That’s what confused me anyway- shite if he’s out longer. Do think we miss someone like him with a bit of aggression and snideness in the middle of the park, as Robinson alluded to yesterday. Not to mention, he had a pretty decent range of passing as well. 

Between him, Carroll and Carson all being out for extended spells, we really have had some shite luck with injuries this year. 

Edited November 29, 2020 by Casagolda

[Desp]

Carson

Gallagher Mugabi McGinley

O'Donnell Campbell Donnelly Polworth Carroll

Cole Watt

I'd pick that side if everyone was fit and available.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

48 minutes ago, Desp said:

Carson

Gallagher Mugabi McGinley

O'Donnell Campbell Donnelly Polworth Carroll

Cole Watt

I'd pick that side if everyone was fit and available.

The only change that I would make to that would be Dec in the middle and O’Hara right centre half.

[capt_oats]

46 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

I thought he was due back around the same time as Carson in January(ish)?

That’s what confused me anyway- shite if he’s out longer. Do think we miss someone like him with a bit of aggression and snideness in the middle of the park, as Robinson alluded to yesterday. Not to mention, he had a pretty decent range of passing as well. 

Between him, Carroll and Carson all being out for extended spells, we really have had some shite luck with injuries this year. 

The OS has him down for being back in February but if we've no Reserve fitba' I'd have thought that might extend his rehab a bit.

Then again, the man himself was saying he was over halfway through his rehab in the bit of #content the club put out the other week. So who knows? (I'd hope the physio and specialist know).

 

[Gianfranco]

In the meantime I’d go.

Archer

SOD O’Hara Dec McGinley 

Campbell Maguire Polworth 

Lang Cole Watt

 

Donnelly, Carson and Carroll to step in as soon as they’re fit.

[Ron Aldo]

What's this about Chris Long punting raffle tickets to win a PS5 at £70 a pop [emoji23]?

[Gianfranco]

Scousers gotta scouse?

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I think it was Graeme on a recent Terrace episode that reminded me of this, but tonight I've been reminiscing about the time a beloved Scouse Motherwell legend- one of the best strikers we've had in decades- scored a famous goal at Tynecastle to send us into a European Competition.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I'm actually fairly pleased with our midfield. Been happy enough with Maguire and Crawford coming into cover when they have. It's defence and in forward areas I have my concerns.

Hopefully, when Carroll is fit we can manage to get Lamie and Mugabi on the bench. No harm to the guys as they're clearly trying their hardest, but they're just not cutting it.

Neither of our wingers (Hastie or Seedorf) are particularly cutting it and it seems that with the exception of White, all of our strikers fit the bill of a "second striker" which isn't great when you play a 4-3-3 and it doesn't look like White is good enough to partner any of the other options. 

The team the way it is just now wouldn't have any threat of relegation for me, but I'd be trying to get as many points as possible on the board this side of Christmas incase we do see Gallagher, Campbell and SOD depart in January.