Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[ropy]

A quarter final ticks a box, it means we have done fine.  If we don’t get there it is a disappointing cup run, if we get to the semi it lives long in the memory. ‘Meets expectations’ in the report card.

[capt_oats]

16 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I just can't take to Lawless. I'll give him a chance but he's looking likely to become my #hate figure next season.

Aye, I've a degree of sympathy for Lawless in so much as he arrived back at the club having not started much for Burton since November, was injured after 20 mins as a sub and has been dropped into this team having not really played that much football and without it really being clear where he fits - he's not a like for like for either Watt or Roberts for example and playing him as a midfielder was an experiment that only really worked against Formartine.

On paper he made complete sense given we were looking for a wide player that wasn't/isn't Seedorf or Hastie and he knows the club, knows the league and was very good for both Livi and Thistle.

Clearly I've no idea if it's the case or not but the shout that he was a done deal before Alexander got the job would explain a lot.

Edited April 25, 2021 by capt_oats

[Ill Ray]

The amount of wingers we’ve got this season that aren’t really better than what we had already at the club is ridiculous. Apart from Roberts, he was coming on to a game there before his injury. 

Edited April 25, 2021 by Ill Ray

[welldaft]

I will wait to reserve judgement on Lawless until we start next season. 

He was very good for Livi and unlike Lamie and Crawford was a regular starter and recognised strength for them. 

Watt showed again what he is worth to the team in his brief appearance yesterday. We miss his ability to hold up play and all round football intelligence. 

I would like us to be a bit more gung ho in the final 3 games. Let the shackles off. Not sure GA will do that, but we are safe and it would be nice to start on the front foot and keep it up for the majority of the remaining matches. 

 

[Ron Aldo]

See, to me...don't get me wrong, it'd have been nice to win the Cup but with the best will in the world it's kind of hard to imagine this group of players actually doing it. So it's difficult to get bent out of shape about it.
I mean it'll be annoying if St Johnstone body Rangers out tomorrow and the field is left pretty open with winnable opposition but right now going out (on pens) at the QF stage to Hibs having come back from 2-0 down feels like a fairly respectable way to go out the tournament.
We've not been humiliated by a Highland League side, we've not been 1-0 up against St Johnstone then gifted them 2 goals for them to win.
This season is done. Feet up, Soleros out.

Sums it for me. A semi final or final would have been nice but each game feels like another chance for this team to make a c**t of themselves.

My disinterest in this season is summed up by there being players in our team yesterday that I've genuinely never seen play for us. I usually think of myself as being fairly clued up on our players but Magloire, for instance, could have been the second coming of Paulo Maldini or the next Zak Jules for all I knew. Likewise, I've probably seen McGinley play a handful of times for us and honestly couldn't tell you if he's a left back or a centre back.

It really feels like we're getting back to normal now. Hopefully we can be back in Fir Park for August and witness first hand Alexander's new generation of hammer throwers. Despite his goal yesterday, Ricki Lamie has a lot of making up to do for me so if he's not plastering someone's nose across their face in the first match of next season I'll be sorely disappointed.

[ATLIS]

7 hours ago, MP_MFC said:

16 hours ago, ATLIS said:

wtf have you lot done to Lawless?! We'll take him back gladly  He was our designated penalty taker for a bit and I'm not sure he missed one at all

More like what did you lot do to him? He was rotten for us got punted and he was rotten at thistle.

He was one of Thistle's best players I'm sure?

Lawless' biggest strength for us obviously wasn't his pace, but he was amazing at getting the ball deep down the wing, cutting in on his left and putting a great delivery in, or pinging in the odd worldy like so: 

(1) Livingston 1-0 Hamilton | Flawless Lawless Volley! | Ladbrokes Premiership - YouTube

We used him as an inverted winger on the right and he must've had about 6 or 7 goals and 10+ assists

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I keep thinking about Cole's turn and spin away from the defender and resultant shot that Macey tipped past the post. It's maybe because I was a few beers deep at the time and haven't seen it back since but one of the best individual bits of skill from any of our players this season IMO, very unlucky not to score from it.

[Ill Ray]

4 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I keep thinking about Cole's turn and spin away from the defender and resultant shot that Macey tipped past the post. It's maybe because I was a few beers deep at the time and haven't seen it back since but one of the best individual bits of skill from any of our players this season IMO, very unlucky not to score from it.

Cole’s been much improved under Alexander and there was a few times against Hibs he was decent with the ball at his feet and skipped by a player or two. He’s one of the forwards I would want to keep for next season.  Only improvement I’d say was needed from him is just putting away the chances he gets/makes as I feel he could’ve upped his goal tally for this season. 

[ropy]

1 hour ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I keep thinking about Cole's turn and spin away from the defender and resultant shot that Macey tipped past the post. It's maybe because I was a few beers deep at the time and haven't seen it back since but one of the best individual bits of skill from any of our players this season IMO, very unlucky not to score from it.

Not enough of this from him.  I think we could get so much more from him.

[ropy]

4 hours ago, welldaft said:

I will wait to reserve judgement on Lawless until we start next season. 

He was very good for Livi and unlike Lamie and Crawford was a regular starter and recognised strength for them. 

Watt showed again what he is worth to the team in his brief appearance yesterday. We miss his ability to hold up play and all round football intelligence. 

I would like us to be a bit more gung ho in the final 3 games. Let the shackles off. Not sure GA will do that, but we are safe and it would be nice to start on the front foot and keep it up for the majority of the remaining matches. 

 

Watt had a massive impact on yesterday and has generally been good most of the season.

But, I don’t know why he is good.  I could look at David Turnbull and see what he was doing and know why he was good.  But Tony doesn’t seem to do much, but it works.  In the words of Jim White, why is Tony so good?

[Swello]

When does that press release come out with the leaving at end of contract/offered new terms table - is it before the end of the season? In any case, it'll be as long as an Ann Budge statement as this will probably be the biggest exodus in the history of the club...

The season is basically over - I'm relieved as I can now forget about it and look forward to August (and I'm *really* looking forward to being back at Fir Park) and seeing what Alexander is all about when he doesn't have to pick from an 80-man squad that someone else "built". Tony Watt, Devante Cole, SOD and Liam Kelly (Campbell would obviously be in that list but he's offski) are the only players that I'm bothered about keeping - anyone else can go and progress their career as far as I'm concerned.

[rowsdower]

Watt does a lot of simple things very well, and has excellent work rate to add to it. He changed the game yesterday because he makes the ball stick and allows us to build an attack, and is unselfish. I like Cole, and Long to an extent, but both have a tendency to lose possession too often, with Coles poor first touch and trying to run through everyone, and Long shooting from anywhere. 

I think the front 3 of Cole, Watt and Roberts worked well because two of those 3 can hold the ball, allowing Cole to get the ball in more dangerous positions. 

It is feasible that we could end up going into next season with the same 4, assuming hearts let Roberts go, or it could be Watt and 3 or 4  unknowns. Personally, I'm ready for the uproar if Long is our next signing for 21/22. 

In an unrelated note, Lamie has been decent. 

Oh, and I'll most likely be at games in person from the start of the season as I'll no longer be an exile from the shire, which is nice. 

Edited April 25, 2021 by rowsdower

[capt_oats]

12 minutes ago, Swello said:

When does that press release come out with the leaving at end of contract/offered new terms table - is it before the end of the season? In any case, it'll be as long as an Ann Budge statement as this will probably be the biggest exodus in the history of the club...

The season is basically over - I'm relieved as I can now forget about it and look forward to August (and I'm *really* looking forward to being back at Fir Park) and seeing what Alexander is all about when he doesn't have to pick from an 80-man squad that someone else "built". Tony Watt, Devante Cole, SOD and Liam Kelly (Campbell would obviously be in that list but he's offski) are the only players that I'm bothered about keeping - anyone else can go and progress their career as far as I'm concerned.

The last squad update in a "normal" season was published 21st May 2019. So basically at the season end (the final league game of the season was 18th May).

Edited April 25, 2021 by capt_oats

[YassinMoutaouakil]

In contrast to last spring/summer- where I'd probably watched every second of Motherwell FC footage on YouTube by the end of lockdown- I cannot fucking wait for a few months off from caring about this shambles. Once we're out the Euros I fully plan on not thinking about football again until at least Betfred Group Stages, maybe even the start of the league season.

[ropy]

13 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

In contrast to last spring/summer- where I'd probably watched every second of Motherwell FC footage on YouTube by the end of lockdown- I cannot fucking wait for a few months off from caring about this shambles. Once we're out the Euros I fully plan on not thinking about football again until at least Betfred Group Stages, maybe even the start of the league season.

That is about a fortnight 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

It’s unreal the impact Watt has on this team. He’s just a very intelligent player, good at winning fouls, a good carrier of the ball and has a great eye for a pass. His game could definitely have more goals to it, but generally I think he’s not actually a striker. He’s been invaluable this season.

By contrast, where the amount of work Watt puts in determines how valuable he is, I think at times less is more with Cole. When we played Watt centre forward, when things weren’t going well, Watt wanted to drop deep and wide and get involved, whereas Cole just always seems to occupy the space between the centre backs. It means they’re always occupied and when a ball comes into the box, he’s there. 

Also, credit where credit is due, I think Lamie has turned a corner recently. He won’t ever be a top class centre half, but he’s started to put a really reliable shift in for us.

[steelmen]

Maybe we should put Lambie upfront. His finish yesterday was something special. Strikers generally put their foot through it but he just guided it in

Or it just his his foot and could have went anywhere

[Busta Nut]

Can I just say I really hate the "missed opportunity" chat that comes along with someone else beating Rangers and Celtic. We're out cos we didn't beat Hibs. I almost smacks of an attitude of divine right to winning the cup.
If it was the semis and Forfar had just beat one of them to reach the final and we lost to a Hibs/Dundee utd/Livi I could ALMOST understand it being a missed opportunity.

[Archie McSquackle]

I thought Gallacher was a bit more like his old self yesterday and O'Donnell played well also. And yes, Lamie was pretty solid apart from his mix up with McGinley.

[ropy]

50 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

I thought Gallacher was a bit more like his old self yesterday and O'Donnell played well also. And yes, Lamie was pretty solid apart from his mix up with McGinley.

O’Donnell was further up the park, throwing crosses in when we played 4 at the back, counterintuitive.