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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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38 minutes ago, 'WellDel said:

Unfortunately, the fact that he's been used in a lot of the socials/kit unveilings etc, and some of the soundbites recently, I think the club seem to be trying to build Lamie a bit of a profile/bond with the support, and he will start as the preferred option to partner the new guy.

I'm holding out some hope that media guy in charge of the photos was late to the meeting for the away kit, walked in just as someone said "shite Livi cast-off", and picked them up wrong.

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I'm not saying Ash Taylor is the second coming of Cannavaro or anything but the fact we were in for him reassures me a bit as it surely means we're still in the market for a first choice centre back. I'm more concerned about us not being linked to any central midfielders apart from the boy McCormick as far as I can remember.

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1 hour ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

It's absolutely nuts that I don't particularly rate Mark O'Hara - but at the moment I think he's simultaneously our best centre half and centre mid.

 

Been pilloried elsewhere for similar comment. He’s neither our best central midfielder or centre half.

Competent display on right side of a back 3 before reverting to type last season.

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I think Lamie played fine, pretty much between Alexander coming in and the end of the season and I thought he was decent enough against QOTS on Saturday. However, the two games I've not seen seems to be getting him terrible reviews.

I think you could perhaps get away with him alongside a leading, experienced, better centre-half, but he's really not the type to partner a guy playing his first professional games. 

1 minute ago, Onthefringes said:

Been pilloried elsewhere for similar comment. He’s neither our best central midfielder or centre half.

Competent display on right side of a back 3 before reverting to type last season.

I thought his best performances last season came when he was playing in a back four beside Gallagher (wins against County, Livi in that run) but then when Maguire and Campbell had to isolate he ended up back in midfield and didn't play in defence in a four again.

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I'd take 4 defeats in August if we bring in some quality at half eleven on the night the window 'slams shut'.

What we can't do is either rush our recruitment and bring in the same level of shite that we have done for about 3 seasons now or do nothing and not bring in any quality at all.

If we don't get the recruitment right it's going to be a long hard season.  We simply cannot afford to continue the downwards arc we have been on since the last days of McCall.  

Our squad is replete with genuine dross. 

If you take away the brief footballing renaissance of the David Turnbull era and the even briefer ascent of James Scott watching Motherwell in recent times has been inferior in entertainment to watching an abandoned quarry through binoculars. 

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Realistically are we going to get 4/5 players In for hibs? 
Probably not so this is the squad we’re working with for the next 2 games (Annan/Hibs) with maybe 1 or 2 additions thrown in. 
 

If Crawford starts vs Hibs with the same front three then we are beat before the first whistle. 
 

Up top needs to be:

Woolery - Van Veen - Lawless 

ideally, we could sign an actual winger instead of playing Lawless there but just like last season I’m sure we’ll persist with playing players out of position.

6 hours ago, steelman1991 said:

Can’t work out why Watt is exempt from much of the criticism here. He showed absolutely no desire tonight and was dug shite. Showing the petulance and bad attitude that’s seen him punted from all his previous clubs.

He was poor last night, very poor, at times in the second half it felt like having 10 men because he either 1) didn’t reach balls played to him or 2) got the ball and had it taken off him/fell over.   
 

McGinley much the same, had no ideas going forward and backed out of more than one tackle.

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My take remains that Alexander is only up here for a couple of years to build his stock for another tilt at English League 1 / Championship management.

A relative level of success with us, working with the budget constraints etc. that managing a club like Motherwell involves, could possibly catch the eye of an ambitious League One chairman, or even one of the lower ranking Championship strugglers. 

He'll achieve nothing more than the sack with his current charges though, so will know he needs to get his recruitment spot on in the key areas soon, to avoid the start of the league campaign from being as big a car crash as last nights performance. If he doesn't, his managerial career could be a busted flush before its really begun.

The late arrivals really need to be worth the wait. 

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14 minutes ago, ZX1886 said:

He was poor last night, very poor, at times in the second half it felt like having 10 men because he either 1) didn’t reach balls played to him or 2) got the ball and had it taken off him/fell over.   

Since he was one of the only ones who actually gave a f**k between January and May I'm willing to give him one night off.

It's very easy to give it tight to the forwards when they are standing around twiddling their thumbs because there is no link and support from the midfield behind them. As has been pointed out already, midfield has been an issue with our team for the best part of 3/4 years with the emergence of Campbell essentially papering over the cracks. One decent midfielder picking up MotM awards is all well and good if he has quality beside him and by and large we haven't. Repeated poor recruitment has hobbled any chance of building on what foundations we had and improving.

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22 minutes ago, 'WellDel said:

My take remains that Alexander is only up here for a couple of years to build his stock for another tilt at English League 1 / Championship management.

Nothing I've seen so far would suggest he's likely to achieve that goal.

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16 minutes ago, steelman1991 said:

Nothing I've seen so far would suggest he's likely to achieve that goal.

Maybe you overlooked the league table from when he took over till the end of the season where we secured the 4th highest points tally, it would have been best of the rest if we got a result against Ross County on the final day. So to say that is neither fair nor accurate.

Granted I think I was only entertained with Hibs away, the rest of it was painful on my peepers to watch and we smashed and grabbed a couple like Killie away.

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Graham Alexander done what needed to be done when he came into the door.  Made us difficult to beat, got us scraping wins which got us to safety.  For me, it meant I wasn't going to be judging the manager until this summer.  That's now started.  Not replacing Gallagher, Campbell and even Polworth, with one week to go before the start of the season is leaving big question marks over the management team.  He'd maybe have gotten away with it with four wins in our League Cup group, but losing to f*cking Airdrie of all teams, after two very poor performances preceding it, leaves him on dodgy ground already. 

I hope we're not heading for another Baraclough farce. 

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Alexander’s record since joining the club is there for all to see, he’s out performed just about every other manager, I wanted TW and look how that panned out at Killy. Anyone talking of him being sacked  are plain crazy.

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7 minutes ago, Desp said:

Graham Alexander done what needed to be done when he came into the door.  Made us difficult to beat, got us scraping wins which got us to safety.  For me, it meant I wasn't going to be judging the manager until this summer.  That's now started.  Not replacing Gallagher, Campbell and even Polworth, with one week to go before the start of the season is leaving big question marks over the management team.  He'd maybe have gotten away with it with four wins in our League Cup group, but losing to f*cking Airdrie of all teams, after two very poor performances preceding it, leaves him on dodgy ground already. 

I hope we're not heading for another Baraclough farce. 

I think Alexander/ has basically gambled that we can get through the very early part of the season with a view to getting the "right" players in. If we go out of the league cup on Saturday as a result of a void where a midfield should be, the gamble has been an abject failure, no if's, no but's - and that isn't going to reflect well on Alexander, who I've been impressed with so far.

 

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Just looking at the other groups there and if Airdrie manage to win vs QOS then we could be looking at an exit if we don’t put a fair few past Annan.

Of the teams who can finish on 9pts in 2nd place, this is the goal difference:
Dunfermline +5 (H vs Stenhousemuir)
Kelty Hearts +4 (A vs Arbroath)
Forfar* +4 (A vs Dundee)
Arbroath +2 (H vs Kelty Hearts)
Hamilton +1 (H vs Albion Rovers)
Cowdenbeath +1 (H vs Livingston)
Partick Thistle +1 (A vs St Mirren)
Motherwell +0 (H vs Annan)

(Only 3 progress) 
*Forfar are on 8pts so a point would be enough for them finish 2nd on 9pts with a +4 goal difference.

Of course this relies on Airdrie winning away to QOS but I wouldn’t rule it out. You have Kelty Hearts/Arbroath and Dunfermline/Partick Thistle who can’t both finish in 2nd on 9pts but looking at current form/opponents, I’d expect Dunfermline and one of Kelty Hearts/Arbroath to finish with a higher goal difference than us, Cowdenbeath unlikely to get a result over Livingston so it comes down to what Hamilton do against Albion Rovers and whether or not we improve in front of goal.

I’m disappointed in Alexander’s signing’s and start to the campaign but result wise it is undeniable that he improved us last season so he has to be given a chance. Being knocked out of the league cup at the first hurdle though, especially considering our group, then I can see opinions start to change quite fast.

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If we are going to replace Gallagher, Campbell and Polworth, I'm really unsure what the hold up is. We've known it's on the agenda for all three, pretty much since Polworth got sent off at Pittodrie in January.

Are we waiting on EPL / Championship sides deciding which players they are willing to loan out before going for them?

Are we hoping some targets get left out the first few league games for their current club and then want to leave?

It seems like a lot of big risks are being taken here.

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2 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

If we are going to replace Gallagher, Campbell and Polworth, I'm really unsure what the hold up is. We've known it's on the agenda for all three, pretty much since Polworth got sent off at Pittodrie in January.

Are we waiting on EPL / Championship sides deciding which players they are willing to loan out before going for them?

Are we hoping some targets get left out the first few league games for their current club and then want to leave?

It seems like a lot of big risks are being taken here.

Although I'm still pinning my hopes on a couple of arrivals being imminent, maybe even a little something for the weekend announcement tomorrow would be nice, at what point does waiting for the right people become waiting too long and missing the boat?

Starting the season with what we have and hoping our targets are still available, and haven't signed elsewhere at the last minute would be a tad risky and lead to a choice between the remaining unattached deck, or hoping for some real luck in the loans market. 

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3 minutes ago, 'WellDel said:

at what point does waiting for the right people become waiting too long and missing the boat?

I'm not a panic merchant - but I think that if you get off to a bad start in our league, you are really up against it (and the opposite is true). Not every team that starts badly ends up in the bottom 2 or 3 places come May but I think it's very common. 

This really might not be the intention - but to me, waiting until very deep into the summer transfer window to sign players that you expect to form the spine of your team is extremely risky given how long it seems to take to get players up to speed.

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