Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Busta Nut]

first home game, Indian villa then windmill tav

[Ludo*1]

Interested to see the perspective of fans who've got a new manager. If Alexander takes you down be it through finishing 12th or the play-offs, is his position untenable or still too early to punt? Wonder if there'll be a difference of opinion between Killie, County and Motherwell fans.

[Al B]

If he takes us down? He's the reason we're not adrift at the bottom.

We're already safe imho

[Gallus Numpty]

I'm not a fan of punting managers after one season, let alone half a season, so I'd certainly want to see what he could do in the Championship. What actually happened may depend on whether there's anything in his contract about relegation of course.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Gallus Numpty

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

Just now, Ludo*1 said:

Interested to see the perspective of fans who've got a new manager. If Alexander takes you down be it through finishing 12th or the play-offs, is his position untenable or still too early to punt? Wonder if there'll be a difference of opinion between Killie, County and Motherwell fans.

He has made definite improvements since he came in as manager. 

In his 11 games in charge we have won 15 points. In the 11 games before he was in charge we picked up 6 points.

There is rationale for every defeat he has had as Motherwell manager. Whilst I didn't expect the games against Hamilton and St. Johnstone to be quite as bad, I don't think anyone could have said they looked at the teamsheet those days and were that confident of getting a result with all the players we had missing. The other two have been against Aberdeen, where we had 10 men for almost the entire second half (as a result of which Polworth has only been seen once when absolutely necessary since) and a narrow defeat at Celtic Park.

Question marks remain over some of his recruitment, but willing to cut him a lot of slack based on the circumstances. Especially now Roberts is looking half decent and as poor as he was  against St. Johnstone, Magloire has now had two clean sheets in a row in defence.

All of that, for me, says he is doing a good job and showing signs of being a good manager. However, the obvious caveat to that is that were we to go down, our form would have to be pretty poor (which isn't outwith the realms of possibility) for the rest of the season.

I still think either way he has merited being here next season.

[Ron Aldo]

We won't go down. That result at the weekend was massive and I reckon it leaves us needing to pick up 6 points from 7 games.

Bar the absolute shitshows against Accies and St. Johnstone, we've generally competed well under Alexander and (I think) picked up points in more games than not.

[Ludo*1]

5 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

He has made definite improvements since he came in as manager. 

In his 11 games in charge we have won 15 points. In the 11 games before he was in charge we picked up 6 points.

There is rationale for every defeat he has had as Motherwell manager. Whilst I didn't expect the games against Hamilton and St. Johnstone to be quite as bad, I don't think anyone could have said they looked at the teamsheet those days and were that confident of getting a result with all the players we had missing. The other two have been against Aberdeen, where we had 10 men for almost the entire second half (as a result of which Polworth has only been seen once when absolutely necessary since) and a narrow defeat at Celtic Park.

Question marks remain over some of his recruitment, but willing to cut him a lot of slack based on the circumstances. Especially now Roberts is looking half decent and as poor as he was  against St. Johnstone, Magloire has now had two clean sheets in a row in defence.

All of that, for me, says he is doing a good job and showing signs of being a good manager. However, the obvious caveat to that is that were we to go down, our form would have to be pretty poor (which isn't outwith the realms of possibility) for the rest of the season.

I still think either way he has merited being here next season.

What was it that went so wrong for Robinson that Alexander has been able to improve upon so quickly?

As you can imagine, whether it's a realistic shout or not, there's been real talk of Robinson being the 'fan chosen' candidate should McPake get the bullet. What's to say that even if we did get him (I know that might be a stretch considering his stated reasons for leaving Motherwell) that he'd be able to do a good job when it looked like he was dragging you under this season?

Thanks for the response by the way!

[thisGRAEME]

18 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Interested to see the perspective of fans who've got a new manager. If Alexander takes you down be it through finishing 12th or the play-offs, is his position untenable or still too early to punt? Wonder if there'll be a difference of opinion between Killie, County and Motherwell fans.

Mildly concerned about us now as relegation experts Dundee have weighed in.

Back to that Hearts game, the sample rooms was the busiest pub on the earth, with folk breathing in each others faces, I was already a bit canned and cuddling everyone cause I'd been taken out before my wean was born, then continued to do so in that fuckin Wetherspoon's in town. I think even shared chips in KFC. 

I can only presume I'm already covid immune.

[capt_oats]

53 minutes ago, Al B said:

If he takes us down? He's the reason we're not adrift at the bottom.

We're already safe imho

Funny you say that. I was having a nose about some of the numbers earlier.

We were 11th when he took over joint bottom on 17 points with County. We're now 9th on 32, 7 and 8 points clear of 11th & 12th respectively (albeit Accies have 2 games in hand). He's taken 15 points in 11 games. Robinson had taken 17 points in 19 games. 1.36 ppg vs 0.89 ppg

Our last flirtation with a "relegation battle" was 16/17 when we were in freefall under McGhee and Robinson was parachuted in.

After 31 games we were on 29 points but only 4 off the bottom and 1 off the play-off.

In the end we finished 9th on 38 points 4 points off the bottom and 3 off the play-off.

Edited March 1, 2021 by capt_oats

[Ludo*1]

3 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Mildly concerned about us now as relegation experts Dundee have weighed in.

Back to that Hearts game, the sample rooms was the busiest pub on the earth, with folk breathing in each others faces, I was already a bit canned and cuddling everyone cause I'd been taken out before my wean was born, then continued to do so in that fuckin Wetherspoon's in town. I think even shared chips in KFC. 

I can only presume I'm already covid immune.

That's a harsh boot in the pie.

[Gallus Numpty]

26 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

What was it that went so wrong for Robinson that Alexander has been able to improve upon so quickly?

Nothing major I would say, Alexander just seems to have got certain players to focus on the basics a bit more, and has been playing more folk in their natural positions. Alexander has also had the distinct advantage of having Liam Kelly in goal, who's a considerable step up on Aaron Chapman.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Gallus Numpty

[Busta Nut]

I won't tempt fate and guarantee we are safe but the last few points have been massive but as fickle as fans (myself included) are we might be shitting ourselves in 2 weeks

 

[capt_oats]

3 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

I won't tempt fate and guarantee we are safe but the last few points have been massive but as fickle as fans (myself included) are we might be shitting ourselves in 2 weeks

Aye, I don't think we're anywhere near safe yet but we're probably around 2 wins from it. Being closer to 7th than 10th feels massive (and weird given the shitshow of a season we've had).

Edited March 1, 2021 by capt_oats

[Neil86]

14 hours ago, ropy said:

I had it as Humphrey but it turns out it was the last match I was at.

what an enjoyable day, should have had a penalty as well from memory and Zlamal pulled off an absolute worldie at the end. Cracking day in Edinburgh, not sure if I remember so fondly cause it was as you say, the last game any of us were at.

[ropy]

1 hour ago, Ludo*1 said:

Interested to see the perspective of fans who've got a new manager. If Alexander takes you down be it through finishing 12th or the play-offs, is his position untenable or still too early to punt? Wonder if there'll be a difference of opinion between Killie, County and Motherwell fans.

If the calamity of relegation happened then Alexander would be given the opportunity to recover the situation, his performance would be reviewed through that season like any other manager and I would suggest that no play off would mean no job.

[ropy]

46 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

What was it that went so wrong for Robinson that Alexander has been able to improve upon so quickly?

As you can imagine, whether it's a realistic shout or not, there's been real talk of Robinson being the 'fan chosen' candidate should McPake get the bullet. What's to say that even if we did get him (I know that might be a stretch considering his stated reasons for leaving Motherwell) that he'd be able to do a good job when it looked like he was dragging you under this season?

Thanks for the response by the way!

Part of the issue seems to have been shelf life.  A manger at our level seems to run out of steam around the 3 year mark.

I would expect Robinson to bring something fresh and a bit of vim and vigor to any new job that he takes on.

[Jacksgranda]

I was just coming on to suggest that Motherwell must be (fairly) safe from relegation now, only to see it's been well covered by the previous few posts.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

3 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

What was it that went so wrong for Robinson that Alexander has been able to improve upon so quickly?

As you can imagine, whether it's a realistic shout or not, there's been real talk of Robinson being the 'fan chosen' candidate should McPake get the bullet. What's to say that even if we did get him (I know that might be a stretch considering his stated reasons for leaving Motherwell) that he'd be able to do a good job when it looked like he was dragging you under this season?

Thanks for the response by the way!

From last season's third place, Long (top goalscorer) and Polworth (most creative player) have been in the huff. The usually reliable Campbell went months without putting in a performance. Trevor Carson (and his understudy Scott Fox) got serious injuries which left him playing last resort signing Aaron Chapman, who the less said about the better. Grimshaw's form fell off a cliff, Donnelly who was great for us last season got injured in the season opener and hasn't kicked a ball since. Gallagher didn't look quite as good as he did beside Hartley last season with a multitude of partners this season. Jake Carroll only came back from a pre-Covid achilles injury the night that Robinson ended up chucking it - so in fairness to him, he didn't have his troubles to seek this season.

Since Alexander has come in, we've had Liam Kelly in goals who's been immense. He's got rid of Polworth out the team and brought in Barry Maguire in midfield, who whilst he has been more decent than outstanding, has offered more than Polworth did. He's got us defending narrower, which seems to be making a big difference.

The biggest difference for me is that Robinson was playing Watt through the middle and Cole in wide areas. Simply switching them over has saw Cole score five times as a centre-forward and Watt now has five assists in the same period. 

Edited March 1, 2021 by crazylegsjoe_mfc

[capt_oats]

17 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

The biggest difference for me is that Robinson was playing Watt through the middle and Cole in wide areas. Simply switching them over has saw Cole score five times as a centre-forward and Watt now has five assists in the same period. 

This is kind of it for me as well. Now the dust has settled I think you're beginning to see Alexander highlight areas where Robinson had definite blind spots.

I don't think it's unfair to say that Robinson struggled to get a goal return out his strikers.

Whether that was by design or not I don't know, he seemed to want them running channels and acting as facilitators rather than being bothered about them scoring 15 goals a season or whatever. I don't think it's any coincidence that the previous two seasons our top scorers were midfielders (Donnelly last season and Turnbull the season previous, albeit Long was tied with Donnelly with 7 league and 11 overall) even Campbell had a career best last season with 6 at the point the league was called.

Ultimately that's all fine until the midfielders stop chipping in with goals as well. Then you're just left with a team that doesn't score goals.

I mean, our front 3 are still rotating but there's no doubt that Alexander is getting more of a tune out of Cole and Watt than Robinson was.

Edited March 1, 2021 by capt_oats

[ATLIS]

How's big weird Harry been for you guys? Was looking through free agents for Livi and he was one of the names that ended up popping up as a recommendation