Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Busta Nut]

Just now, Gianfranco said:

I just listened to it via apple’s podcasts.

Jamming cheers

[capt_oats]

Spotify version is here: 

Apple version is here: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/graham-alexander-on-motherwell-salford-class-of-92/id1248742174?i=1000542011703

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I think Open Goal is very dependent on a good guest and Alexander was imo, as unforthcoming as he is in press conferences he can definitely be a very good speaker when we wants to be 

[well fan for life]

1 hour ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I think Open Goal is very dependent on a good guest and Alexander was imo, as unforthcoming as he is in press conferences he can definitely be a very good speaker when we wants to be 

Comes across like a class guy. If he made us good at football he'd be perfect.

[ropy]

I’ve listened to the first two minutes, a flat in the west end, has the family moved up?

[ZX1886]

Just noticed on that video Motherwell put up about the game against Aberdeen a few years ago, that Chris Cadden provided the cross for the second goal, can’t sleep now.

[Mr. Brightside]

13 hours ago, well fan for life said:

Comes across like a class guy. If he made us good at football he'd be perfect.

I wonder if he signs off texts with COYW, then he would really get it.

[Neil86]

10 hours ago, ropy said:

I’ve listened to the first two minutes, a flat in the west end, has the family moved up?

I'm sure at the time he mentioned going all in and was moving the whole family up to Scotland.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I really enjoyed listening to it. I've listened to a few longer podcasts now where he has been a guest and he does come across very well and tells a good story. I might be weird but I'd rather listen to someone like him talk about his experiences of Preston and Burnley than listen to an interview with Messi or Ronaldo. The fact he supports Coventry, loves his copa mundials and seems like he's into good music makes me think he'd be a sound guy.

[capt_oats]

12 hours ago, ropy said:

I’ve listened to the first two minutes, a flat in the west end, has the family moved up?

1 hour ago, Neil86 said:

I'm sure at the time he mentioned going all in and was moving the whole family up to Scotland.

His missus is on Twitter dot com and had a photo of them both cutting about Kelvingrove the other week so...aye it seems like the family is up.

Well, at least his wife is...dunno about the weans.

The fact that he says he's about a mile up the road and walked down to the interview in the gelato shop (on Byres Road) makes me think he's in the Hyndland area. Good for him - plenty of nice "flats" in that area.

40 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I really enjoyed listening to it. I've listened to a few longer podcasts now where he has been a guest and he does come across very well and tells a good story. I might be weird but I'd rather listen to someone like him talk about his experiences of Preston and Burnley than listen to an interview with Messi or Ronaldo. The fact he supports Coventry, loves his copa mundials and seems like he's into good music makes me think he'd be a sound guy.

Tbh, I've enjoyed listening to Alexander any time he's spoken. He came across well in his bit at the AGM not long after he got the job. Same with his interview on Sportsound and for all Si Ferry and Slane are very much not for me, his Open Goal was a good listen.

The one thing that I've picked up on (and it's not a criticism, just an observation) is that I still don't really know much about his thoughts on football. He mentioned when they were fishing for something controversial about Neville that GN has strong opinions on football and he (GA) also has strong opinions on how the game should be played (or words to that effect).

In that respect I'm still none the wiser as to what Alexander's thoughts actually are. Although, I get the impression that as an absolute and fundamental principle he puts winning ahead of any "philosophy". Which I'm fine with tbqh.

For a while post-Thunderdome Robinson was (and still is) desperate to let anyone who asks know how he wants his teams to play. Pace, 433 is his preferred formation etc and he's gone out of his way to distance himself from the style that he presumably felt he was getting stereotyped by.

In contrast Alexander doesn't seem to give much away. Which is fine.

Edited November 19, 2021 by capt_oats

[Swello]

16 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

In that respect I'm still none the wiser as to what Alexander's thoughts actually are. Although, I get the impression that as an absolute and fundamental principle he puts winning ahead of any "philosophy". Which I'm fine with tbqh.

I think his style is "Just Fucking Win" - which I can live with because that's mostly what I care about - but when you're not winning, it's massively open to criticism as we've seen recently.

In the time I've watched us, we've had very few teams that played great football and were actually successful with it on our terms - and those are the ones that we all bang on about relentlessly - but the majority of the time has been the opposite. Probably not the popular view but I'm quite happy with a decent win ratio even if the style of play is a bit eye-bleeding.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

His 4-3-3 is like nothing I've seen before.

Before Alexander, I wouldn't have believed you could have played that formation ultra-defensively with four centre backs out of possesion, be more effective at scoring goals than keeping them out and somehow just about work. I know until Aberdeen we were on something of a massive dip, but I'm sure we'd all have taken fifth (sixth at worst if Hibs had played their games in hand).

[well fan for life]

At one point he said being in a changing room was like a mosh pit. So I'm hopeful to bump into Grezza next time Idles come to town. 

In other news we seem to have an update on Liam Donnelly - Knee:

 

 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

That's a blow that Van Veen is suspended, but on the other hand I can't believe his first match banned is in November.

[Gianfranco]

Tbh, I've enjoyed listening to Alexander any time he's spoken. He came across well in his bit at the AGM not long after he got the job. Same with his interview on Sportsound and for all Si Ferry and Slane are very much not for me, his Open Goal was a good listen.
The one thing that I've picked up on (and it's not a criticism, just an observation) is that I still don't really know much about his thoughts on football. He mentioned when they were fishing for something controversial about Neville that GN has strong opinions on football and he (GA) also has strong opinions on how the game should be played (or words to that effect).
In that respect I'm still none the wiser as to what Alexander's thoughts actually are. Although, I get the impression that as an absolute and fundamental principle he puts winning ahead of any "philosophy". Which I'm fine with tbqh.
For a while post-Thunderdome Robinson was (and still is) desperate to let anyone who asks know how he wants his teams to play. Pace, 433 is his preferred formation etc and he's gone out of his way to distance himself from the style that he presumably felt he was getting stereotyped by.
In contrast Alexander doesn't seem to give much away. Which is fine.

His son plays for one of the local Strathaven teams. A bit over weight but technically gifted is what my pals that play for that team says.

[capt_oats]

3 hours ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

His 4-3-3 is like nothing I've seen before.

Before Alexander, I wouldn't have believed you could have played that formation ultra-defensively with four centre backs out of possesion, be more effective at scoring goals than keeping them out and somehow just about work. I know until Aberdeen we were on something of a massive dip, but I'm sure we'd all have taken fifth (sixth at worst if Hibs had played their games in hand).

I think the extent of the dip depends on how you choose to look at it and whether or getting over not necessarily "enjoying" the football.

No doubt the results went off a cliff but of the 5 games we played 4 were against the current top 4 and the other one we failed to win was almost entirely on account of Bobby Madden. Despite St Mirren fans banging on about how great they were we were still 2-0 up and they relied on the kindness of Madden to claim their point. (Sure, had he let Kelly's penalty save stand, or just not given what was a wholly dubious penalty in the first place we may have gone on to concede but as it panned out the result was decided by that fucking woeful call).

Against United we may not have been the best version of the team that Alexander was talking up post-match but did we have enough chances/did Siegrist make enough saves to say we could have got something out the match? Yeah, probably.

Even the Hearts game came down to a penalty and a direct free kick while we had "chances" specifically Watt and Woolery. Could we argue with losing the game? Absolutely fucking not but taking it in the context of our season, it's one were margins played their part. 

To that point, I'm not sure how much of a dip we actually saw between say the United, St Mirren and Aberdeen games.

Edited November 19, 2021 by capt_oats

[RandomGuy.]

3 hours ago, Swello said:

Probably not the popular view but I'm quite happy with a decent win ratio even if the style of play is a bit eye-bleeding.

We had that with Tommy Wright, and while it's always better to win than lose, it does eventually grind you down to the point that actually attending games becomes a chore. We seem to have the same with Davidson now, with even less goals, and honestly it's so hard to get excited about games every week, unless something changes I'd expect our season ticket sales to plummet regardless of where we end up.

So aye. Slogging out points is good short term but long term there needs to be more.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

25 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

We had that with Tommy Wright, and while it's always better to win than lose, it does eventually grind you down to the point that actually attending games becomes a chore. We seem to have the same with Davidson now, with even less goals, and honestly it's so hard to get excited about games every week, unless something changes I'd expect our season ticket sales to plummet regardless of where we end up.

So aye. Slogging out points is good short term but long term there needs to be more.

I'd absolutely hate it if we grinded our way to a cup double.

[RandomGuy.]

9 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I'd absolutely hate it if we grinded our way to a cup double.

Yeah I was expecting that tbh. Its hard to explain without coming across as a w****r, but I've not enjoyed going to home games for years now. We broke a league record for fewest home league goals last season and are doing even worse this time around. That's on top of season(s?) under TW where we were scoring under 38 goals across the entire league season.

It's hard going and I'd suspect if you have this under Alexander for 3/4 years you'll feel similarly. I'd suggest if Alexander wants to be fondly remembered in Motherwell he shouldn't stay longer than 2/3 years.

[capt_oats]

4 hours ago, Swello said:

I think his style is "Just Fucking Win" - which I can live with because that's mostly what I care about - but when you're not winning, it's massively open to criticism as we've seen recently.

In the time I've watched us, we've had very few teams that played great football and were actually successful with it on our terms - and those are the ones that we all bang on about relentlessly - but the majority of the time has been the opposite. Probably not the popular view but I'm quite happy with a decent win ratio even if the style of play is a bit eye-bleeding.

 

42 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

We had that with Tommy Wright, and while it's always better to win than lose, it does eventually grind you down to the point that actually attending games becomes a chore. We seem to have the same with Davidson now, with even less goals, and honestly it's so hard to get excited about games every week, unless something changes I'd expect our season ticket sales to plummet regardless of where we end up.

So aye. Slogging out points is good short term but long term there needs to be more.

I think one of the vaguely interesting aspects is that there have been points under Alexander when we've tried to play "Good Football" in so much as playing out from the back etc. Having the centre backs dropping in at bye kicks was one of the tactical decisions that bent folk out of shape as much as the short corners (incidentally, we had 2 corners against Aberdeen...both went straight into the box).

The Hibs game on the opening day, I genuinely thought we went at it on the front foot and it was an enjoyable game/performance. The obvious caveat is that we lost.

Even last season the shambles of the 3-0 against St Johnstone when we had the injuries and Polworth phoned it in before being patched to play with the weans for the rest of the season - we were trying (and failing) to play from the back, we only had like 2 touches in the St Johnstone box in 90 mins.

Even this season up in Perth you had Donnelly getting caught on the ball 20 yard from goal and Stevie May had that chance to put Saints 1-0 up.

It feels like when we've reverted to Murderball we've at least managed to get some Ws.