Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[ropy]

Just done the survey sent out by Motherwell, says its anonymous, then asks if I am a season ticket holder, my age, what stand I sit in and my post code (FK7), I did not disclose my Mother’s maiden name but they could find me.

[Kapowzer]

It was so transparent in its questioning of the argument/agenda they will promote.

Standy by for:

• "local business' lose out on £x every time we play at home without fans"
• "x% walk to the game, y% travel in private cars, with only z% mingling on public transport"
• and finally "x% of our fans will mix with other households in confined settings as an alternative to visiting FP"

It's evidently being done to argue for an increase the limit above 500 if the restrictions go beyond the initial 3 weeks. Since peaks happen a month after restrictions are imposed the chances of back to normal in mid Jan are slim to zero.

With the season ticket offer I guess the numbers worked if we got our 3 (ideally 4) home games with the OF and their bigoted £'s. This is being done primarily with the 2nd of February in mind.

[AmericanFan]

10 hours ago, ropy said:

Just done the survey sent out by Motherwell, says its anonymous, then asks if I am a season ticket holder, my age, what stand I sit in and my post code (FK7), I did not disclose my Mother’s maiden name but they could find me.

What about your NI number?

[capt_oats]

Big ups to the SPFL Twitter admin for acknowledging we picked up more points this calendar year than anyone outside Rangers and Celtic.

What a club lads.

['WellDel]

10 hours ago, ropy said:

Just done the survey sent out by Motherwell, says its anonymous, then asks if I am a season ticket holder, my age, what stand I sit in and my post code (FK7), I did not disclose my Mother’s maiden name but they could find me.

Aye, as far as anonymity goes, for anyone living outwith the most central ML postcodes, I'm fairly sure they can narrow you down to a pretty small pool (of probably one) with the amount of info gleaned.

[dezz]

It’s been some calendar year for the club, and fair play to Alexander for that. It’s easy to forget what a state we were in when he took over from Robinson, we looked utterly doomed at the turn of the year so for him to get us comfortably safe last season, and now sitting pretty in the top half is some going.
I haven’t been on SO for months but surely there can’t be too many dissenting voices left?
If we can ever get a run of 5-6 games with a settled defence and midfield I’ll be excited to see what we can do.

[joewarkfanclub]

5 minutes ago, dezz said:

It’s been some calendar year for the club, and fair play to Alexander for that. It’s easy to forget what a state we were in when he took over from Robinson, we looked utterly doomed at the turn of the year so for him to get us comfortably safe last season, and now sitting pretty in the top half is some going.
I haven’t been on SO for months but surely there can’t be too many dissenting voices left?
If we can ever get a run of 5-6 games with a settled defence and midfield I’ll be excited to see what we can do.

Ever the optomist!

They just go quiet until the next crisis arrives! 

[Gianfranco]

This window will be interesting. Until a few months ago I’d have said the midfield was where we need to improve the most but I’m not so sure now. We’ve got the young Irish guy coming in.

Replacing Watt and possibly Roberts will most likely be our incomings I’d guess.

Is there anyone else who we want to punt? Maybe O’Hara as he seems way down the pecking order. Maybe Grimmy will fancy a loan move to get more minutes?

[Neil86]

10 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:

This window will be interesting. Until a few months ago I’d have said the midfield was where we need to improve the most but I’m not so sure now. We’ve got the young Irish guy coming in.

Replacing Watt and possibly Roberts will most likely be our incomings I’d guess.

Is there anyone else who we want to punt? Maybe O’Hara as he seems way down the pecking order. Maybe Grimmy will fancy a loan move to get more minutes?

I'm not sure o'hara was down the pecking order, his injury though maybe has found him there. I would be wary of letting a couple of midfielders go, give how light you can suddenly find yourself, looking at the centre backs here. 

On January incomings, or lack of. I think I'd be quite happy with keeping Amaluzor as back up to Woolery. 

[Swello]

It will be interesting to see how they replace Watt. With Watt, KVV and Shields, we essentially have 3 centre forwards going for one slot, which means that one is out of position and one is on the bench - so it might make sense to go for someone for a wide left role rather than a like for like.

The only issue is that KVV seems like he's a bit fragile - I wonder if we can rely on him to play Saturday-Wednesday until the end of the season....

[Gianfranco]

It will be interesting to see how they replace Watt. With Watt, KVV and Shields, we essentially have 3 centre forwards going for one slot, which means that one is out of position and one is on the bench - so it might make sense to go for someone for a wide left role rather than a like for like.
The only issue is that KVV seems like he's a bit fragile - I wonder if we can rely on him to play Saturday-Wednesday until the end of the season....

Both Watt and KVV has been effective outballs out left and can hold the ball up well and link it. Although I wouldn’t turn down a tricky winger than can dribble I’d wager we’ll go more like for like.

[capt_oats]

5 hours ago, dezz said:

It’s been some calendar year for the club, and fair play to Alexander for that. It’s easy to forget what a state we were in when he took over from Robinson, we looked utterly doomed at the turn of the year so for him to get us comfortably safe last season, and now sitting pretty in the top half is some going.
I haven’t been on SO for months but surely there can’t be too many dissenting voices left?
If we can ever get a run of 5-6 games with a settled defence and midfield I’ll be excited to see what we can do.

In the wider scheme of things I think it's kind of went under the radar a bit just how good a job he's done.

We were bottom of the league, had a huge squad riddled with players who either didn't want to be here or had largely chucked it. We ended up safe by a reasonable distance. He's turned both Devante Cole and Tony Watt into 1 in 2 goal strikers, overseen an overhaul of both squad and back room with a decent success rate in recruitment, we're sitting 4th at the break and have the 3rd best points return outside of Rangers and Celtic for the calendar year.

That's some turnaround and before you even get into the improvement in players like Lamie and Mugabi, even Maguire is finding his feet in this squad with Cornelius having been dropped in a couple of times and not looked out of place as well - so he's beginning to tick the 'development' KPI box as well.

I mean, through the summer there were "fans of other clubs" who were giving it "he's out his depth". How'd you like them apples now lads?

I've generally given SO a massive swerve as (like most single club forums) it's never the place to go if you're looking for nuanced views with a bit of perspective but having dipped in and out recently aside from a couple who are either obvious WUMs or wildly thick things generally seem pretty sanguine.

Folk seem to be taking the Tony Watt stuff in their stride as well. It's really just Twitter where you have the ultimate 'bald men fighting over a comb' discussion with United dweebs about that particular situation.

4 hours ago, Swello said:

It will be interesting to see how they replace Watt. With Watt, KVV and Shields, we essentially have 3 centre forwards going for one slot, which means that one is out of position and one is on the bench - so it might make sense to go for someone for a wide left role rather than a like for like.

The only issue is that KVV seems like he's a bit fragile - I wonder if we can rely on him to play Saturday-Wednesday until the end of the season....

There's probably an argument that when Watt goes it maybe leaves a space free for Roberts in the starting line up (based on the squad at the moment). Given Roberts can only play for either us or Hearts in the 2nd half of the season (unless he can get a move to a club on a different calendar) it wouldn't be a massive surprise to see his loan extended.

In that respect I'd say that some sort of cover/rotation option for KVV would make sense. Albeit as @Gianfranco says a like for like who can do both doesn't seem the wildest shout.

It's a question of who's available and what we actually need though. It feels more like nip and tuck rather than actual surgery that's needed.

Generally our transfer business over the summer seemed to be fully focused on the longer term, the number of 3 year deals we were chucking about speaks to that. I'm not really sure that January is the window where the same applies so it'll be interesting to see how we approach things in that respect - Tierney on a 3.5 contract follows the trend of the summer I guess.

I still feel a midfield alternative to Goss would be quite nice as to me we're heavy reliant on him to do that job and while I don't think Tierney is the same type of player, even if he was it'd be unfair to put that on his shoulders while he settles in.

Edited December 28, 2021 by capt_oats

[Phillips455]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[Archie McSquackle]

From your comment, I thought it was going to be a rumoured signing of someone really unpopular. A modern-day Dougie Imrie if you like. I couldn't actually think of a suitable candidate, maybe resigning Dec - fire away with suggestions.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

10 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

From your comment, I thought it was going to be a rumoured signing of someone really unpopular. A modern-day Dougie Imrie if you like. I couldn't actually think of a suitable candidate, maybe resigning Dec - fire away with suggestions.

I'm convinced we're going to re-sign Cadden eventually and I'm already wound up about it.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

13 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I'm convinced we're going to re-sign Cadden eventually and I'm already wound up about it.

Seems to be a pretty perfect fit for Shaunball so we're stuck with him I'm afraid 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

However will we replace a talented, inconsistent maverick with Celtic connections and a rack of past clubs?...

[capt_oats]

59 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

From your comment, I thought it was going to be a rumoured signing of someone really unpopular. A modern-day Dougie Imrie if you like. I couldn't actually think of a suitable candidate, maybe resigning Dec - fire away with suggestions.

In terms of the position/role I think we could use a bit of cover but would be hugely upopular with everyone (except @YassinMoutaouakil)?

Step forward Vigz it's your time to shine.

Edited December 28, 2021 by capt_oats

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I'm trying not to indulge in revisionism - as I was undoubtedly a massive fan of Watt's work with us this season, but Van Veen has a better minutes-per-goal rate, even when you consider two of Watt's goals were penalties. Maybe he will step up when he is the main man and Watt is away. There will hopefully no chance of him being posted wide-left now. Although I doubt it's where he wants to play long-term, Shields was good there against Livi, I thought.

The main difference between Watt and KVV for me is that you tend to get a similar game out of Tony Watt each time, whereas KVV either tends to be majestic or anonymous. 

I definitely think we need one forward option. Woolery, although vastly improved of late, still hasn't been involved in enough goals for me and although I've seen bursts from Roberts and Amaluzor and I'm happy to have them in the squad, I wouldn't want to rely on either for a prolonged period of time.

I'm actually fine with our midfield - especially now Donnelly is back fitter. Alexander finally seems to be getting a tune out of them. I don't think it's been mentioned on here, or by Alexander, but someone mentioned on a group chat I'm in a while back that O'Hara's thigh injury was going to keep him out for 10 weeks.

[well fan for life]

I think it's fair to say we're not being revisionist. Ultimately Watt's been a superb player for us over the piece and given us much more than we probably expected. Would I be happy if he stayed? Obviously. But I don't think we should be offering anything nonsense as a contract as this is the only time in his career he has scored regularly. If United want to risk pissing another fortune into a black hole they can go right ahead. 

Would think there will be discussions around a transfer fee to let him leave in January. If not I expect Watt will be lucky to make the bench for us between now and June.