Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[well fan for life]

1 minute ago, 18May1991 said:

Might be worth having a punt on Jobby Justin. 

Can't be any worse than Jobby White. 

[capt_oats]

5 hours ago, well fan for life said:

What's more infuriating is that Jordan White clearly wasn't a Covid signing. I'm pretty certain it was about this time last year Declan Gallagher was posting things on Instagram suggesting he was as good as signed. I understand that White hasn't played very much, but in order to play you've got to do something when you get that odd 15 minute appearance. 

As for Hastie, if it's taken him until now to get fit I would suggest Jake & I spent lockdown in a similar way. Which is disappointing because you'd hope as a professional athlete he'd have a bit more reason to keep fit than someone who sits at a desk all day. If he's fit now he might be worth keeping around. I would reckon it won't cost the earth to keep him on. 

It gets better than that with White. I had a feeling we'd been linked with him while he was at Stirling Albion and also while he was at Livi. There was mention of this on Steelmen so maybe that's where I got it from.

He was at Stirling Albion 12-14 and Livi 14-16 so if there's anything in that it pre-dates Robinson being  manager.

Edited December 20, 2020 by capt_oats

[ropy]

 

54 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

It gets better than that with White. I had a feeling we'd been linked with him while he was at Stirling Albion and also while he was at Livi. There was mention of this on Steelmen so maybe that's where I got it from.

He was at Stirling Albion 12-14 and Livi 14-16 so if there's anything in that it pre-dates Robinson being  manager.

I watched him at Stirling, he would have been a good project if we had got him at that point, full of energy and a strong runner.

[ATLIS]

30 minutes ago, ropy said:

 

I watched him at Stirling, he would have been a good project if we had got him at that point, full of energy and a strong runner.

He was absolute marmite at us. Was pish in the air, zero energy and could barely run. He'd stand in the box and hope the ball would fall to him, one of the main reasons we were constantly scrapping to stay in the Championship. He scored goals, mainly because he was our only striker but produced very little else.

Folk either really rated him or thought he was pish, I was among the latter but no one had him as just okay. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by ATLIS

[well fan for life]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

It gets better than that with White. I had a feeling we'd been linked with him while he was at Stirling Albion and also while he was at Livi. There was mention of this on Steelmen so maybe that's where I got it from.

He was at Stirling Albion 12-14 and Livi 14-16 so if there's anything in that it pre-dates Robinson being  manager.

Now this is the kind of deep dive I am here for.

Like I don't doubt that he's probably a serviceable striker to someone. But it's not us. We clearly don't play whatever football it is that suits him.

I would very much like to see him out the door to free up a wage. Even if we can dig out a loan deal for someone who could get anything approaching 10 goals between January and the end of the season would be great.

[Desp]

I was always under the impression that McGinley was brought in as a centre-half, but if he can't get into the side ahead of Mugabi or Lamie, he really must be dug shit. 

Quite clearly, none of the wide players at the club are either in form, or good enough. Based on that, I'd stick with 3-5-2 going forward. If we can get either Cole or Lang to play more centrally, alongside Watt, I think we'll get more out of the forwards. 

I'd still like another striker in (note the word striker and not some c**t to play along the front three). A centre half to play alongside Gallagher is essential. 

I mean, it's getting fairly tight in the league but amazingly, we're still 5th. The league this season is utterly shite so even a small improvement from us in the second half of the season will see us absolutely fine. 

The return of Carson, Carroll & Donnelly, along with a decent centre half and a no.9 and we'll be absolutely grand. 

Lamie, Crawford, White, Hastie, Mugabi & Long can get shown the door in January. Please. 

[well fan for life]

18 minutes ago, Desp said:

I'd still like another striker in (note the word striker and not some c**t to play along the front three). 

If we sign another "attacking option" I'll fucking scream.

[ropy]

3 games to the turn of the year, an opportunity for Hastie to save his career (if it doesn’t work in the first game chuck it though)

[ATLIS]

6 hours ago, well fan for life said:

Now this is the kind of deep dive I am here for.

Like I don't doubt that he's probably a serviceable striker to someone. But it's not us. We clearly don't play whatever football it is that suits him.

I would very much like to see him out the door to free up a wage. Even if we can dig out a loan deal for someone who could get anything approaching 10 goals between January and the end of the season would be great.

Isn’t that what nearly every team in the league is looking for? Someone that can score about 10 goals in 4 months?

[well fan for life]

5 hours ago, ATLIS said:

Isn’t that what nearly every team in the league is looking for? Someone that can score about 10 goals in 4 months?

Tbh, as we've said, just a striker. A proper striker. Some c**t who will stand in the box. Not another c**t who can give us another attacking option and play anywhere across the front 3.

[Luke92]

I'm all for getting other boys through the door in January but it feels like we are constantly changing things. I appreciate there is always going to be a high turnover of players due to the contracts we offer but I think we miss a bit of continuity. It also doesn't say a lot for our much acclaimed recruitment.

Basically all our key players are out of contract in the next 6 months and a lot of them look unlikely to sign. Perhaps the current economic situation might reduce the number of suitors but I can still see the likes of Campbell and Gallagher taking off.

Not trying to mimick the many h*ns on social media regarding Saturday's game but I really do think the 5-5-0 set up was a sad indictment of where we are just now. I am 100% for being pragmatic but honestly i found the defence v attack training exercise rather embarassing. Aye, it worked for 70 odd minutes but we've all seen that movie before and they were eventually going to score. By all means be defensive but when you have the ball, actually have the intention of keeping it and put someone up front to hold it up. We were willfully giving them it back, that is something I'd expect a lower league team do at Ibrox.

I am by no means in the Robbo out camp after a defeat to Rangers but the next three games are really important. Make no bones about it, our form is absolutely shocking and if it wasn't for two gifted victories we would be close to a relegation battle.

Let's be honest, we have been in this cycle before and Robinson is more than capable of changing things in January but at the moment it feels like we have a bloated squad with a lot of guys who either aren't of the quality required or don't want to be here. On top of that, I don't think Robbo is getting the most out of the guys who are good enough.

To me, one of the biggest issues is we seem to have all of these forward options but the majority of them aren't getting played in their preferred role. I would like to see Watt playing with Cole or Lang in a two consistently rather than strikers getting played out wide. As much as I'm not a fan or torn faced Chrissy Long, I think you would have got a tune out of him in a consistent role like that. If we get the right combination up front, get our injured players back and bring in a quality centre back I think we will see things vastly improve.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Luke92

[Nadroj]

How has SOD played for you guys? 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I guess most years we've been fortunate that we've either had a goalscorer, or a good few players in the squad contributing. We've just not got neither this season, although at least Lang's goal on Saturday can stop me bleating on about our top scorer being on 3 goals with 2 pens.

I think the market for a "number 9" has changed quite a fair bit in recent years. It's madness to think that we signed Higdon and Sutton (the 2nd time) on bosmans from clubs in the same division. I think Higdon scored 15 league goals for St. Mirren in his last season there. There's almost no chance now that a 15-goal striker in our league (regardless of build/reputation etc) would end up at Motherwell the following season.

We've not signed an out-and-out goalscorer since Moult left and to be honest, I'm not flush with examples of strikers with a proven track record that I think we should have signed, so for that I sympathise with Robinson. He probably feels that there's no one option to hang his hat on, so he's tried to get several in with potential, in hope that among them one or two will come good.

I think by this point last season, Cole and Long were on four goals apiece, which was decent enough, given that Donnelly had five and Scott and Campbell were contributing regularly enough too. Perhaps those two were our best shot at regular goals this season, but both's seasons seem somewhat dented by the fact they've never got match fit, due to think the grass was greener.

Edited December 21, 2020 by crazylegsjoe_mfc

[Marinello]

5 minutes ago, Nadroj said:

How has SOD played for you guys? 

As with you.

Steady and reliable but tbh pretty unremarkable.

[Nadroj]

Just now, Marinello said:

As with you.

Steady and reliable but tbh pretty unremarkable.

Fair. 
 

Under Clarke he was absolutely unbelievable but he did tail off quite a bit. 
 

He always seemed quite a confidence player and seemed to struggle when a crowd got on his back so I thought he would have done quite well with you given there’s no crowds. 
 

You think he will extend for the rest of the season?

[Casagolda]

10 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

We've not signed an out-and-out goalscorer since Moult left and to be honest, I'm not flush with examples of strikers with a proven track record that I think we should have signed, so for that I sympathise with Robinson. He probably feels that there's no one option to hang his hat on, so he's tried to get several in with potential, in hope that among them one or two will come good.

I think by this point last season, Cole and Long were on four goals apiece, which was decent enough, given that Donnelly had five and Scott and Campbell were contributing regularly enough too. Perhaps those two were our best shot at regular goals this season, but both's seasons seem somewhat dented by the fact they've never got match fit, due to think the grass was greener.

Our striking situation has always been fairly suspect under Robinson. 

Danny Johnson is probably the only thing we’ve had close to resembling a natural goal scorer since Moult left in 2018. And he was pretty much useless at all other aspects of the game outside of putting the ball in the net. Which is why he was marginalised when we switched to a 433.

Outside of that, we’ve had guys like Main, Watt etc who are good at leading the line but average about 6 goals a season. Which is fine when you have goals from elsewhere, like Turnbull/Hastie banging 18 league goals between them in the 2nd half of the 18/19 season. 

Last season, our regular forwards - Cole, Long, Scott and Hylton had 14 league goals between them by the end of December. Even the likes of Seedorf, Campbell and Donnelly had chipped in with double figures between them as well.

Take away the 6 goals we were ‘awarded’ and we’ve only got 16 league goals as a team so far season with 3 games left of 2020.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Casagolda

[Ron Aldo]

Fair. 
 
Under Clarke he was absolutely unbelievable but he did tail off quite a bit. 
 
He always seemed quite a confidence player and seemed to struggle when a crowd got on his back so I thought he would have done quite well with you given there’s no crowds. 
 
You think he will extend for the rest of the season?

I can see O'Donnell signing on as it's difficult to see who would take him that would be considered a step up.

If I recall, the rumours were that he was looking for a move to the English Championship which never materialised. I think he'd struggle to get that to be honest - he strikes me as being nothing more than a decent Scottish Premiership player who had a good spell under Clarke but the likes of ourselves, Killie etc. are probably about his level.

[Nadroj]

Just now, Ron Aldo said:

I can see O'Donnell signing on as it's difficult to see who would take him that would be considered a step up.

If I recall, the rumours were that he was looking for a move to the English Championship which never materialised. I think he'd struggle to get that to be honest - he strikes me as being nothing more than a decent Scottish Premiership player who had a good spell under Clarke but the likes of ourselves, Killie etc. are probably about his level.

Aye I one hundred percent agree. He was clearly holding out for a move to the Championship when he left us and tbh I can’t grudge him that but I never really thought it was a realistic target for him after the average season he had last year. 
 

All the best to him, I still love the big man even if a lot of killie fans have slightly soured opinions of him. 

[Busta Nut]

Agree on the SOD chat. I thought I was maybe just missing something but he has been as I expected if not maybe a bit worse defensively.

[Casagolda]

On January movement, noticed there seemed to be some suggestion that Lang will be away back to Wigan when the window opens. 

Thought we’d announced it as a season long loan?