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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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For a routine defeat, I'm over it by the time I step out the car at home - yesterday wasn't a routine defeat (it was a massive fucking minter that everyone involved should be ashamed about) and I'll stew on it for a few days before We Go Again - these wee slogans drive me mental at times (and I know it isn't the media team's fault).
I had calmed down a bit by the time I got home and sat down for a bit of late lunch. I still had 15 minutes or so to watch of The View From The Terrace from the previous week so decided to watch that. I'd hardly started when on came a feature about Albion Rovers beating us in the Scottish Cup - my pot noodle was very nearly flung at the telly.
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1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

Aye, I'd been wondering about Donnelly as well. Not necessarily because I think he's the "answer" to anything but generally speaking we're not usually in a position to just spuriously bin off a midfielder who gets international call ups for Northern Ireland.

I don't think the Donnelly chat is a huge amount of Luke Watt Syndrome because he is a good football player at this level. Not that I think he's the second coming of Xavi Hernández or that but somebody that's willing to put themselves about & pick a pass would be nice alongside Slattery. Grimshaw works like a dog but isn't a good football player, Goss is absolutely hopeless at everything and O'Hara's a footballing enigma.

 

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1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

I get the impression that Alexander isn't always entirely straight when he's talking about injuries/squad health to the press though.

100%.

He likes to keep things close to his chest unless he really needs to tell. Removal of the injury section from the website at his request. 

As much as I'd like to know about players fitness I totally get why he goes about things that way. 

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35 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

I don't think the Donnelly chat is a huge amount of Luke Watt Syndrome because he is a good football player at this level. Not that I think he's the second coming of Xavi Hernández or that but somebody that's willing to put themselves about & pick a pass would be nice alongside Slattery. Grimshaw works like a dog but isn't a good football player, Goss is absolutely hopeless at everything and O'Hara's a footballing enigma.

I agree.

With Donnelly you at least have a body of work to reference. I know there's a certain scepticism towards him because of his first season with us and the whole "he's not a natural midfielder, he's a defender who wants to play in midfield" angle but as I say, as recently as September he was called back up to the international squad...as a midfielder.

I think the point I was getting at was specifically that I'm not necessarily thinking of Donnelly as a "fix" to the midfield it's more that he's conspicuous by his absence given his 19/20 season and the fact that he was featuring earlier in the season.

It'd be tough to imagine us Lawless-ing a NI international.

He pops up in the 2nd slide of the IG post on October 21st before the United game. So that's something I guess...

IMG_4387.thumb.jpg.f23c27d3ed2b169e595661f14e0529cf.jpg

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Just seen the Scotland squad announcement. O'Donnell is in yest Watt And Kelly aren't?

Clarke really doesn't care about the performances that O'Donnell has been putting in has he? He might as well join Clarke right now since he won't be part of the Qberdeen game on Saturday.

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10 minutes ago, Phillips455 said:

Just seen the Scotland squad announcement. O'Donnell is in yest Watt And Kelly aren't?

Clarke really doesn't care about the performances that O'Donnell has been putting in has he? He might as well join Clarke right now since he won't be part of the Qberdeen game on Saturday.

I certainly wouldn't have been overly surprised if he'd been left out, but O'Donnell does play a bit of a different role in the Scotland team. Whereas a keeper is basically either on form or he isn't (plus a little bit of what your relationship is like with your defenders), and Kelly has certainly had a rough couple of games recently by his standards.

Edited by Gallus Numpty
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30 minutes ago, Phillips455 said:

Just seen the Scotland squad announcement. O'Donnell is in yest Watt And Kelly aren't?

Clarke really doesn't care about the performances that O'Donnell has been putting in has he? He might as well join Clarke right now since he won't be part of the Aberdeen game on Saturday.

It's not a massive surprise to see Kelly drop out, whatever way you slice it being the goalkeeper of a team who have conceded 6 at the weekend and 14 in the past 5 games is a tough beat that isn't going to get you many call ups.

3rd choice goalkeeper isn't a role I imagine Clarke is going to spend hours agonising over who to pick either.

Maybe everyone involved can go and sit in a corner and think about what they've done.

I think it's clear that SOD is Clarke's absolute boy and fair enough he trusts him implicitly so it'd have been more of a surprise if he hadn't been in there. Whether his form justifies him being there is a different question.

Edited by capt_oats
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Other than his late double save to earn a point against St Mirren, I’ve not been overly impressed with Kelly in the last couple of weeks so not surprised to see him left out the national team.

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7 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

FWIW I would bet if SOD plays for Scotland he'll be fine. Our tactics hang our fullbacks out to dry, which is compounding their lack of form. 

Tbh, while I don't disagree, finding out we've only won 1 of 9 league games with SOD starting but won 3 of 3 with Bevis at RB sent me for a walk.

Edited by capt_oats
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Of the three 'Well players who were in with a shout of a call up (Watt, SOD & Kelly) it seems mad on current form that SOD is the pick, but also not a surprise at all. Clarke clearly trusts him and in general seems to value squad continuity over club form (which has been getting results tbf). 

I expect he'll be warming the bench but hopefully some time with the Scotand squad will clear his head, because he's seemed a bit off mentally in the last few weeks - nervous, concentration lapses, poor positioning, rash decision making in general.

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2 hours ago, Swello said:

I would ask who - but past history is probably a guide...

I went directly to Liam Kelly's twitter account based on the cryptic nature of this and Busta's post. But surprisingly no joy.

Feel a wee bit for Kelly, shipping 6 goals is never easy but surely Clarke can distinguish the 44 crosses is going to result in getting your arse handed to you. Bitter pill to swallow as surely Clarke only gets to see McLaughlin in a high vis if he pops into Murray Park during the week.

Watt must be shrugging his shoulders, what does he have to do, papped for a new cap brought up in West Yorkshire unless it's to rule him out of any other countries snapping him up.

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