Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[ropy]

I don’t feel as bad today as I did after the Hamilton and St Johnstone debacles.  Maybe I have become inured to defeat.  They have finally beaten me into submission, the hope of Hibs and Livi has killed me.

I spent yesterday watching rugby games, a sport I don’t understand, and praying for a combination of results that would allow St Mirren to still be a target.

We go again.

[supermarv]

Seems to be a common denominator this season with many players (and their mrs) can’t take some criticism on social media. If they can’t take it don’t be on it or don’t reply simple as. Obviously not being at the games this season has hampered the relationship between players and fans but you can really see the disconnect just from social media. If they went out and gave it their all 110% then 99% of Motherwell fans wouldn’t complain but it’s the can’t be bothered attitude and folk clearly knowing they won’t be here much longer. Some of these guys need to have a look at themselves and realise they wouldn’t have a place at our club this season if it wasn’t for the paying fans, it’s even worse this season when people are paying every week sometimes twice a week to watch a terrible stream. The worst professional of them all this season has been the club captain. 

The best has probably been Tony Watt a guy who’s had attitude problems before and been about clubs really does have his head screwed on and gets on with his life even on social media. 

[capt_oats]

23 hours ago, ropy said:

I don’t feel as bad today as I did after the Hamilton and St Johnstone debacles.  Maybe I have become inured to defeat.  They have finally beaten me into submission, the hope of Hibs and Livi has killed me.

I spent yesterday watching rugby games, a sport I don’t understand, and praying for a combination of results that would allow St Mirren to still be a target.

We go again.

Ironically yesterday was probably a worse result than either the Accies or St Johnstone games as there was nothing to mitigate it.

No early sending off, no makeshift team with a back 4 who had never played together. It was an unchanged starting XI that had managed to get decent results against both Hibs and Livi.

The flip of that is that it probably doesn't quite feel as bad (for me anyway) as we've kind of shown a certain bouncebackability under Alexander - after the Hamilton and St Johnstone games it was kind of an unknown and there was every chance we could have spun out into the sort of death spiral that finished Robinson.

It's also not quite as nip and tuck as it was a month ago (we were 4 points off the 11th and 12th on Feb 22nd, now we're 7 and 8 points clear respectively).

23 hours ago, supermarv said:

Seems to be a common denominator this season with many players (and their mrs) can’t take some criticism on social media. If they can’t take it don’t be on it or don’t reply simple as. Obviously not being at the games this season has hampered the relationship between players and fans but you can really see the disconnect just from social media. If they went out and gave it their all 110% then 99% of Motherwell fans wouldn’t complain but it’s the can’t be bothered attitude and folk clearly knowing they won’t be here much longer. Some of these guys need to have a look at themselves and realise they wouldn’t have a place at our club this season if it wasn’t for the paying fans, it’s even worse this season when people are paying every week sometimes twice a week to watch a terrible stream. The worst professional of them all this season has been the club captain. 

The best has probably been Tony Watt a guy who’s had attitude problems before and been about clubs really does have his head screwed on and gets on with his life even on social media. 

I don't really follow many of the players on socials these days as I really only use Twitter to keep an eye on work stuff. IG's my main platform and the habit a lot of them have for just posting photos/stories of their weans pushes things into "aye, I don't know the guy so this is definitely a bit weird" territory but for someone who seemed a really obvious choice for the role Gallagher has been a fucking abysmal captain.

Being captain didn't sit particularly well with McHugh but at least it was only his personal performances that seemed to be affected rather than the team as a whole. 

For me, Gallagher has been indicative of everything that's been wrong at the club this season. His performances have gone off a cliff, on the face of it he's provided zero leadership qualities on the park, you had his miles-oot "mental health" comments about Robinson's decision to resign, his agent has been publicly working his ticket since January and then you've had his "injury" situation.

Tony Watt has carried himself well and his "I was a Motherwell fan back in the day" rebrand was well intentioned if nothing else. He also genuinely seems to give a f**k. Which is nice.

Edited March 22, 2021 by capt_oats

[welldaft]

I wonder if we will ever get to the bottom of how Gallagher has behaved these past few months. I tend to think it is not as bad as has been portrayed in some quarters, but the honest truth is I have no idea.  I don’t blame him for trying to secure his future and that of his family. It is how he has gone about that is for debate and conjecture. 

We still are not sure whether he had any contract extension trigger and whether that was renegotiated or not.

I certainly wonder if the fact Gallacher has not started last 2 games whilst supposedly fit means the gaffer is aware of something and that has had a bearing ? 

I do agree that as Captain material he has been found wanting. Has it affected his performances. Possibly but I cannot recall too many times he has been shouting and encouraging the players to up their game / performance. Maybe that is harsh and he has done so but again I have seen little evidence in the games I have watched. 

I should be furious at yesterday but I was not too bothered. Not sure whether it is because of St Mirren last minute drop into bottom 6 cheered me up or because I feel we are capable of getting the 3 to 4 points we probably need post split to keep us in the league. 

It will be interesting to see the post split fixtures. Might be best to get either St Mirren or United at home in one of the 1st two games as arguably they have less to play for. If we get Killie and Accies up first that could get ugly. 

I agree with all that say get this season done and consigned to the bin as well as 80-90% of the current squad

[Swello]

My test of manager patter is if it - generally - resembles what I've watched on the pitch. I get that they can't go overboard slating people, so I think that Alexander has been decent in that so far. His central message is spot on in my opinion; the minute we drop our levels - even a wee bit - we're shite.

If you look at the way our midfield hounded Hibs (a team comfortably sitting in 3rd) off the park a couple of weeks back and you compare it to the meek pish we saw in midfield yesterday, it's clear that Alexander is right. If you see the way that the defence has been getting in the way of everything recently and then you see them standing about passively as Killie helped themselves to a few yesterday, it's clear that he's right. 

It feels like - with the exception of Tony Watt - no-one really sets the tone in games, it tends to take things going well for us before you see a good level of performance. I still think top of our shopping list in the summer should be a couple of 33 year old b*****ds and go from there.

[Ron Aldo]

38 minutes ago, Swello said:

My test of manager patter is if it - generally - resembles what I've watched on the pitch. I get that they can't go overboard slating people, so I think that Alexander has been decent in that so far. His central message is spot on in my opinion; the minute we drop our levels - even a wee bit - we're shite.

If you look at the way our midfield hounded Hibs (a team comfortably sitting in 3rd) off the park a couple of weeks back and you compare it to the meek pish we saw in midfield yesterday, it's clear that Alexander is right. If you see the way that the defence has been getting in the way of everything recently and then you see them standing about passively as Killie helped themselves to a few yesterday, it's clear that he's right. 

It feels like - with the exception of Tony Watt - no-one really sets the tone in games, it tends to take things going well for us before you see a good level of performance. I still think top of our shopping list in the summer should be a couple of 33 year old b*****ds and go from there.

There's a guy who plays for Crewe - Eddie Nolan I think his name is - who could come in and fill this position for us. 

[Swello]

3 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

There's a guy who plays for Crewe - Eddie Nolan I think his name is - who could come in and fill this position for us. 

It's wild that we have no evidence (unless @capt_oats has a long lens spy shot ) that he's ever been seen in ML1

[capt_oats]

5 hours ago, Swello said:

It's wild that we have no evidence (unless @capt_oats has a long lens spy shot ) that he's ever been seen in ML1

There's a bit of an update on that. 

For all I was saying earlier that I don't creep on players socials. for ages Nolan wasn't being followed on IG by any other squad member than big Hazza Smith which was just a bit weird as even on a social level you generally tend to see a wee run of new players being added by team mates.

It looks Roberts, McGinley and Carroll have all recently started following him. So who knows maybe he's finally arrived in the 'shire. Still no mention of Motherwell in his bio like but baby steps I suppose.

Edited March 21, 2021 by capt_oats

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I've always found it funny when footballers do that. I suppose there's much more emphasis on camaraderie etc than "normal" jobs but I've certainly never went up to a new guy in my work on his first day to ask "WHAT'S YOUR INSTAGRAM THEN PAL?"

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I think the reason that I was pleased with us signing Nolan was that I thought, on paper, it finally looked like we had a leader.

Both with the “gun to the head” story in the press and that argument on Facebook last night, Gallagher has far from conducted himself the way a captain should off the pitch and on it, he’s put in a lot of poor performances and sunk to the level of those struggling around him, rather than dragging them up. That said, I would still have played him instead of Magloire yesterday, as bottom line I still believe he’s the best we have.

What annoys me, possibly more than Gallagher’s poor leadership, is that there aren’t any obvious candidates to take over from him. For all Hartley was limited as a player, he came across as a good leader, as did Richard Tait and going back if either of them had been missing I’d have had no qualms with Tom Aldred being the captain.

Any time we’re half decent, we’ve either got good players to compensate a lack of leadership, or committed leaders to compensate for a lack of technical ability. But there’s just a lot of players in this squad who are neither nor. 

[ropy]

The bright spot for me is that we won’t be the team that Aberdeen score against.

[THE FAT MAN]

Who was your No 40 yesterday 

Only saw highlights obviously but he looked awful. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

32 minutes ago, THE FAT MAN said:

Who was your No 40 yesterday 

Only saw highlights obviously but he looked awful. 

Tyler Magloire, on loan from Blackburn. He’s basically in the team on the back of playing half decent in three games unbeaten after coming in during an injury crisis. I’d imagine his part in yesterday’s defeat will probably mean he falls back behind the fit again Gallagher and Mugabi in the pecking order.

[THE FAT MAN]

7 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

Tyler Magloire, on loan from Blackburn. He’s basically in the team on the back of playing half decent in three games unbeaten after coming in during an injury crisis. I’d imagine his part in yesterday’s defeat will probably mean he falls back behind the fit again Gallagher and Mugabi in the pecking order.

Thanks. 

Terrible player 

I'm faster and I'm 62 Ha Ha 

[Archie McSquackle]

I've not seen the goals but that sounds odd as he's supposed to be super fast. Slow to react or slow on the turn or just slow?

[thisGRAEME]

Cannot fucking abide this team, tbh. 

Glad that Alexander seems to be saying the right things in terms of highlighting a mentality problem above all else, because most of them aren't bad players (Some are simply not good enough, but what can you do), but at a hint of trouble they're nowhere to be seen. All I want from a Motherwell team is a bit of graft and effort. Good players or shite players, get a fucking shift in and you'll get a pass. Dropping men, watching folk run past you, get to f**k.

Just get three points fucking anywhere and I can stop watching this collection of absolute Tupap Shakurs and pretend it never happened. One benefit is that not a hint of anything memorable happened around games because of the whole match day experience, so at least the whole thing can be be forgotten. 

[capt_oats]

12 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

I've not seen the goals but that sounds odd as he's supposed to be super fast. Slow to react or slow on the turn or just slow?

Aye, you could be critical of aspects of his game (especially after yesterday) but he's not slow.

Also: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11676/11703275/meet-tyler-magloire-blackburn-rovers-defender-faster-than-kylian-mbappe

Edited March 21, 2021 by capt_oats

[Busta Nut]

what actually happened with Gallagher. I never saw it.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I'm genuinely very interested to see how we do in the cup.This squad are absolutely capable of losing to Annan or Formartine in a one off game but equally I think we could probably knock out anybody in the top flight other than Hamilton. Semi Final and 11th place, anyone?

[MP_MFC]

what actually happened with Gallagher. I never saw it.

Someone went off on one on the official Facebook in a reply about why Gallagher isn't playing saying its cause he's refusing to play enough games to trigger his extension and he replied to him saying what's he on about he's played 26 games with him coming off the bench and saying that it's unreal that he gets the blame for things when he's not even playing.