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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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19 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

To be fair to Hastie, he probably did more when he was on than most managed in two hours. 

He put Long clean through on goal, was denied a stonewall penalty, almost scored himself and did just about take the net off with his pen in the shootout. I’d give him a start on Wednesday, can’t possibly be worse than Lawless has been these last two games. 

Outside of Kelly though, who bailed us out again, there wasn’t really any other pass marks last night. It was the sort of lackadaisical, half arsed performance that’s plagued our season. 

Scoring the ‘winner’ in the 119th minute and not having the professionalism to see it through sums this shower up.

I’d agree with all of that. Lawless by his own admission isn’t quick and I don’t think he’s got enough (based on his showings so far) to play out wide in the absence of pace.

I can kind of see why Alexander may have tried to use him as a number 10 based on his supposed attributes, but he’s not really had an impact there either. 

Hastie looked up for it and hungry and whilst it was extra time against a tiring Morton team and he’s been ineffectual for most of the season, I’d be tempted to give him a go against Accies, like you say. He must surely know he needs to buck up his ideas for any sort of career now too.

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Imagine this team winning the Cup and us having to hero worship a group of charlatans for the next 30 years or so? f**k that. 

Get this season so far to f**k. 

Graham Alexander has a monumental task ahead of him in the summer. I've basically reserved any judgement of him so far as this lot aren't his players. But it'll be the biggest summer we'll have had in a long time. 

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To be fair to Hastie, he probably did more when he was on than most managed in two hours. 
He put Long clean through on goal, was denied a stonewall penalty, almost scored himself and did just about take the net off with his pen in the shootout. I’d give him a start on Wednesday, can’t possibly be worse than Lawless has been these last two games. 
Outside of Kelly though, who bailed us out again, there wasn’t really any other pass marks last night. It was the sort of lackadaisical, half arsed performance that’s plagued our season. 
Scoring the ‘winner’ in the 119th minute and not having the professionalism to see it through sums this shower up.
That last paragraph sums us up perfectly. There's been games this season where we've clearly just thought we need to turn up (hiya Accies) and had our arses handed to us every time. Last night, despite toiling for 2 hours, we've obviously assumed "job done" after scoring so late on. I'd like to think that Alexander will keep treading carefully until we're mathematically safe but have visions of him giving some players a few home truths once that's confirmed and he's (hopefully) showing them the door.

Theres probably not much between this team and Robinson's 17/18 team in terms of ability but the difference in mentality is night and day. Hopefully a massive clear out takes place in the summer and Alexander can turn us into a right bunch of horrible b*****ds next year.
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I just don't understand Alexander's comments about looking to Hastie to kick the door down and show what he can do etc to kick start his career and then not starting him against a lower league side in a cup game in his preferred position instead deciding to start a slow shite player on one wing and a centre forward on the other.

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18 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

That last paragraph sums us up perfectly. There's been games this season where we've clearly just thought we need to turn up (hiya Accies) and had our arses handed to us every time. Last night, despite toiling for 2 hours, we've obviously assumed "job done" after scoring so late on. I'd like to think that Alexander will keep treading carefully until we're mathematically safe but have visions of him giving some players a few home truths once that's confirmed and he's (hopefully) showing them the door.

Theres probably not much between this team and Robinson's 17/18 team in terms of ability but the difference in mentality is night and day. Hopefully a massive clear out takes place in the summer and Alexander can turn us into a right bunch of horrible b*****ds next year.

^^^ Absolutely this.

Alexander highlighting the mentality thing (again), as did Robinson, as did Lasley. You can track it through the season Coleraine, all the Accies games, Killie at FP and the 4-1 at Rugby Park - games where they've clearly thought all they have to do is turn up.

Quote

"I thought for the first 30, 35 minutes we were nowhere near the level we had to be and we've spoke quite regularly for the last three months that when our mental approach isn't exactly spot on then we're not good enough to win games of football and that proved to be the case tonight."

He's clearly tempering things a bit because, well...we went through but he seems increasingly scunnered at the same issues with complacency and mentality.

 

Edited by capt_oats
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I would have no problems with Gallagher leaving either. Good first season but he has reverted and last night was, as he has been in many games this season a shadow of his former self. Don't know if he is buying into his own hype being in the Scotland squad but he never gets out of first gear anymore. 

Edited by Well Well
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1 minute ago, Well Well said:

I would have no problems with Gallagher leaving either. Good first season but he has reverted and last night was, as he has been in many games this season a shadow of his former self. Don't know if he is buying into his own hype being in the Scotland squad but he never gets out of first gear anymore. 

I didn’t have that many problems with his performance last night, but his role as captain? Where was that? Where was the inspiration? Certainly wasn’t driving the team on.

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Apart from winning through to the next round there were so few positives.  Kelly AGAIN...and I also thought Hastie made a decent contribution when he came on.  Should have had a penalty for sure.

Assuming it is Hibs we are up against it if we put in anywhere near a similar performance to that sh1tshow last night we will be beaten quite comfortably.  We must not go 4-3-3 or I will implode !  4-4-2 or even 4-5-1.  I would also have O'Hara back in the starting line up based on nothing more than the fact he is not Crawford or Maguire.  Our centre midfield consists of the same type of players.  Battlers and those who try hard but are simply lacking in quality.  Campbell is somewhat excused from that but his performances have also been on the wane recently. 

Well done on the penalties though.  2 shoot outs and 10 scored 👍

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2 hours ago, Desp said:

Imagine this team winning the Cup and us having to hero worship a group of charlatans for the next 30 years or so? f**k that. 

Get this season so far to f**k. 

Graham Alexander has a monumental task ahead of him in the summer. I've basically reserved any judgement of him so far as this lot aren't his players. But it'll be the biggest summer we'll have had in a long time. 

Aye, given the circumstances it's pretty tough to judge Alexander. He's working with Robinson's squad and was parachuted in a week into a January window that was an absolute shitshow. As much as we'd have liked to see it happen there was no realistic chance of cleaning house completely and working with what he had and trying to improve them seems like the smart move.

What you can judge him on is that with 21 points from 14 league games he's averaging 1.5 ppg - over the course of a season that would have us Top 6 by the split most of the time.

In comparison Robinson was 17 points from 19 games so an average of 0.89 ppg.

That's probably enough to suggest that he's a capable manager (if still something of an unknown quantity) and it's hard to put issues that that dogged the side all season at his door. How he fixes that IDK as this definitely feels more like a 'culture' issue than an ability thing.

Edited by capt_oats
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Agreed on Hastie. A good cameo.

Thought McGinley was sound last night as well.

Our passing last night was absolutely abysmal. Every key passing position was lashed either into the stand or about 5 yards behind a player. 

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The mix of a few quality players and a lot of fucking shitebags does feel a lot like the tail end of the 2016-17 season that Robinson walked into, with the difference being an earlier change of manager and canning Chapman quicker than Samson means we've managed to secure safety a weeks ahead of schedule.

A long winded way of saying BRING BACK THE FUCKING THUNDERDOME.

Edited by YassinMoutaouakil
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Just imagine if we do win the cup. We would be celebrating players like David Cooper and Phil O'Donnell with the likes of Rickie Lamie and Chris Long.....

Maybe it will be a good reason to get knocked out in the next round.

Edited by Phillips455
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Brutal showing again last night. Where we would be without Liam Kelly doesn't bear thinking. The absolute saviour of our shitshow season. 

Can someone PLEASE get the message through to Chris Long that you don't have to try and give the ball brain damage every time you shoot. Last night's effort off the post was yet another example of him insisting on putting his laces through it, rather than taking a second and trying to place a shot. How many times have we seen him rattle the post or fizz one past when a more composed approach is needed? Every. Fucking. Time. 

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2 hours ago, welldaft said:

Campbell is somewhat excused from that but his performances have also been on the wane recently. 

Nobody cares, stats are shite, etc., but been using REAL STATS like passes etc., to try and define roles/performances...

Spoiler

 

Campbell, between seasons, is a pretty stark change. Top bars are "how" he played, if all 6 hit the dashed line, then theyre perfectly balanced between all six. Bottom ones are "how well" he played them in comparison to other CMs, solid line is the "average" CM score, then 30th/70th percentiles marked by dashed lines.

496164121_download(1).thumb.png.07327e8bcb987e75a83f719f18337c0c.png

Hes less of a "ball carrier/box to box" player this season, and more of a ball winner. 

Sort of boring I guess, but I've always felt some players have to play distinct roles/have players playing certain roles around them, to thrive, so I wonder if Campbell is similar?

FWIW, Polworth seems to have been asked/played as more of a "ball carrier" type this season than last, possibly because Campbell was moved away from that style? which seems to have affected the amount of times he got around the box.

FWIW2, Crawford seems a poor imitation of Donnelly. Although Donnelly is skewed by the penalties he takes/took. 

897301417_download(2).thumb.png.8d9c68bc9cfb1fb1af7532ceb065e952.png

Crawford has underperformed Donnelly at every single role this season.

You wonder how your season, and perhaps even Polworths, would've went if Donnelly had played every game.

Apologies for the drawn out shite posting about things you already know.

 

 

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12 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Nobody cares, stats are shite, etc., but been using REAL STATS like passes etc., to try and define roles/performances...

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Campbell, between seasons, is a pretty stark change. Top bars are "how" he played, if all 6 hit the dashed line, then theyre perfectly balanced between all six. Bottom ones are "how well" he played them in comparison to other CMs, solid line is the "average" CM score, then 30th/70th percentiles marked by dashed lines.

496164121_download(1).thumb.png.07327e8bcb987e75a83f719f18337c0c.png

Hes less of a "ball carrier/box to box" player this season, and more of a ball winner. 

Sort of boring I guess, but I've always felt some players have to play distinct roles/have players playing certain roles around them, to thrive, so I wonder if Campbell is similar?

FWIW, Polworth seems to have been asked/played as more of a "ball carrier" type this season than last, possibly because Campbell was moved away from that style? which seems to have affected the amount of times he got around the box.

FWIW2, Crawford seems a poor imitation of Donnelly. Although Donnelly is skewed by the penalties he takes/took. 

897301417_download(2).thumb.png.8d9c68bc9cfb1fb1af7532ceb065e952.png

Crawford has underperformed Donnelly at every single role this season.

You wonder how your season, and perhaps even Polworths, would've went if Donnelly had played every game.

Apologies for the drawn out shite posting about things you already know.

 

 

Some of this ties in with what I think a lot of us suspected, that Donnelly was a key element to what gave our midfield 3 balance last season. Ultimately Crawford is what he is, given circumstances we weren't going to replace Donnelly like for like as he's someone who was playing international football for NI.

Crawford said himself that the role he's being asked to play is kind of new to him - so it's not a huge surprise to see his numbers don't stack up as well. I'd be interested to know how he compares with O'Hara in the same holding mid role though as it felt like that trying to make O'Hara a DM was a horse that was being flogged to death.

Quote

“I’ve never really played as a deep-lying midfielder but I’m enjoying it,” said Crawford on being utilised as a single pivot.

“When I was at Ayr, I played a bit further forward but as a ‘6’ you get more of the ball than you would when playing higher.

“I’m sitting in front of the back four and protecting the defence. Most teams play with a number 10 or a deep striker so I’m just trying to deal with them which allows Allan and Barry to squeeze up and press.

“It’s different but it seems to suit me because I’ve played well across the last few games.”

Link

Polworth...I mean, f**k knows. Even taking Donnelly missing the season into account it seems clear that there's been something going on in the background for a while and his performances this season have gone off a cliff.

Either way our midfield of Campbell, Donnelly and Polworth worked well last season. Take that one player out and it's probably fair to say we've been nowehere near as effective.

As for Campbell I think it's probably fair to say that he's not really carved out a 'role' he's been bounced about the midfield a lot. Our u20s used him as an anchor, he's played as a box to box, Scotland u21 have even had him playing as an advanced midfielder playing off Hornby.

I don't think there's ever been any pretence that he's a creative player or a playmaker but he seems to be far more effective when he's used to press in the opponents half.

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Just now, capt_oats said:

Crawford said himself that the role he's being asked to play is kind of new to him - so it's not a huge surprise to see his numbers don't stack up as well. I'd be interested to know how he compares with O'Hara in the same holding mid role though as it felt like that trying to make O'Hara a DM was a horse that was being flogged to death.

Obvious flaw with this system I use is that it can't filter by position, so O'Hara being played as a CB will affect his results. But heres the two of them this season...

1542949258_download(4).thumb.png.14e1b05330e636e7852c841b8919d1ab.png

I honestly don't know how often O'Hara has played DM, or other positions, but it would likely increase his ball winner, and playmaker, stats if he played as a CB often, as weird as that might sound.

On paper he looks a closer fit to Donnelly? Maybe why it was attempted. Possibly one of these where the practice didn't work out as the theory predicted.

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40 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

 

On paper he looks a closer fit to Donnelly? Maybe why it was attempted. Possibly one of these where the practice didn't work out as the theory predicted.

Can't really compare to Donnelly unless you have a stat for halfing opponents at the slightest chance of a break away.

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