Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Gianfranco]

I think I’d have a winger at the top of my list as the second player we’re hoping to get before the deadline. Assuming the other one Chairman Flao was talking about is the Norwegian prince.

[well fan for life]

Slattery is a complete p***k in midfield and I love him.

[thisGRAEME]

On one of the tell him he's Pele podcasts, I'm going to say Mark McGuigan? Explained the struggles he had going PT to FT and that after a bit your body just can't take the shift, so you need to rest and come back. I know Woolery wasn't PT before but I wondered if the intensity has played a part. Certainly felt that with Hylton in his first season, he started well and faded fast, but came back a little later, and Woolery feels similar.

[DeadStar]

Dundee Football Club.

Edited August 28, 2021 by DeadStar

[Casagolda]

25 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

Slattery is a complete p***k in midfield and I love him.

Very much this.  

He must have committed about 4 or 5 fouls and somehow avoided getting booked. A cracking footballer as well, getting him on a 3 year deal looks a great bit of business. 

Despite my earlier reservations, Goss did look like he might bring something a bit different in his cameo. One lovely pass down the line to Watt in particular and a couple of decent set piece deliveries. 

Also felt big Ojala had his best game so far as well. Not a silky footballer but he reads the game well, rarely looks flustered and just calmly dealt with most things that came his way. 

Edited August 28, 2021 by Casagolda

[Ill Ray]

Loads of respect for Jake Carroll this season. The lads trying his best to top the leaderboards, one for most assists and one for red cards. Some man. Loves an early bath, defo has some bath bombs down that tunnel and some scented candles. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Disappointed we didn't get an equaliser today.

[Gianfranco]

Ojala gives me heavy early Craigan vibes on the ball.

[Swello]

2 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:

Ojala gives me heavy early Craigan vibes on the ball.

I thought after a rocky 10 mins at the start - he defended really effectively today and was much more what I was expecting. But he is not a silky passer of the ball to put it mildly.

[thisGRAEME]

4 minutes ago, Swello said:

I thought after a rocky 10 mins at the start - he defended really effectively today and was much more what I was expecting. But he is not a silky passer of the ball to put it mildly.

He was definitely better today, and is a very good defender, it looks like. By f**k get a midfielder close to him to give it to though.

[Kapowzer]

Few observations as this was the first time seeing them in the flesh and O'Donnell and VanVeen aside possibly our current strongest starting line up. Never nice to be at home against a lower league runner up who recently shipped 6 and be gasping for a respite. That first 15 mins was like a snuff movie.

6's maybe a 7 for Watt, Lamie and Kelly for me, the rest were collectively rotten and despite the man love for a bit of his shithousery, I wasn't overly impressed with Slattery, outfought, battled and enough stray passes for me to remember to cite them on here.

You tend not to notice pace from Bevis when he plays centre half, at wing back today I was alarmed at how slow he was, just would have swore he'd be much faster before.

Lamie is OK if tasked with mopping up and not much more, when he tries to play football he's in danger of a gaff. Ojala didn't give me any indication he is an international level skipper, opposite of Pete or Aldred who came in and just started marshalling.

Kelly with his shithousery got an eye roll. Never understand time wasting bullshit or holding onto the ball when a striker wants to get it for a fast restart.

Can only feel as I've said before the midfield are perhaps hampered by instructions from the bench. However that doesn't affect basic passing to another fella in the same colour of shirt.

I'm sure I saw GA go mental at Woolery for ambing back, it is hard to tell, he seems to be in permanent rage mode on the touchline. Woolery has pace and that for me is it so far. His failure to trap a ball when in acres of space and concede a shy was woeful.

VanVeen arguing with the linesman in a nothing part of the park over a nothing decision (that turned out right), go get the easy wins son.

Long and short if Adam lasted the 90 this thread would be nuclear. 3 points is papering up a plethora of cracks.

Alexanderball is awful to watch. It took Louis till mid October to hit his stride and I hope many will still be prepared to give a few of that team time based on that. While we may have changed the transfer policy that no doubt has Robinson reeling, I thought we'd learned the lesson of a bloated squad of mediocrity. I'd rather have a squad of 23 over 28 if ten players were punted and those salaries were combined to attract a better standard.

[KirkySuperSub]

Agree that "Alexanderball" certainly doesn't appear to be the most exciting I've seen in my time watching 'Well, but going back to where we were when he came in, we were on a one way ticket to the Championship, for God knows how long.

He steered us in the right direction away from that, and so far, he has, by hook or by crook, utterly shit-fested 7 points from 12.

Is he the long-term, frankly I doubt it, but so far, we're in a better place than we were this time last year.

Christ knows the position we would be in had Robbo still been here...but I'm confident we wouldn't even be debating the merits of a wanky three points gained against Dundee, given we would've passed them by on the way down / up.

Edited August 28, 2021 by KirkySuperSub
Shit spelling!

[For Your Pies Only]

Agree with others who have speculated about Alexander playing the percentages with his approach - whether it's data driven or not, I'd say he's definitely more tactically pragmatic (some might say conservative) than most managers in the top flight this season. He doesn't seem like the sort of manager who gives much of a f**k about our footballing identity/philosophy, unless that philosophy is 'don't fucking lose'.

It would be nice to see a bit more flair and excitement on the pitch BUT... it does seem to be working. The shift in approach kept us up last season without question and we're now sitting with 7 points from 4 games. Sticking 9-11 players behind the ball to defend a lead gives me the fear, but it has worked every time so far, and it's seems that Alexander and the coaching staff have done some work on this on the training ground - the switch didn't seem to faze the defence at Livi or against Dundee today and they kept their positional discipline well. And despite a largely defensive approach, we've also scored in every league game so far. I doubt he's going to win over every supporter (which is fine, because it's not that great to watch) but it's hard to criticise the results.

[capt_oats]

28 minutes ago, For Your Pies Only said:

Agree with others who have speculated about Alexander playing the percentages with his approach - whether it's data driven or not, I'd say he's definitely more tactically pragmatic (some might say conservative) than most managers in the top flight this season. He doesn't seem like the sort of manager who gives much of a f**k about our footballing identity/philosophy, unless that philosophy is 'don't fucking lose'.

It would be nice to see a bit more flair and excitement on the pitch BUT... it does seem to be working. The shift in approach kept us up last season without question and we're now sitting with 7 points from 4 games. Sticking 9-11 players behind the ball to defend a lead gives me the fear, but it has worked every time so far, and it's seems that Alexander and the coaching staff have done some work on this on the training ground - the switch didn't seem to faze the defence at Livi or against Dundee today and they kept their positional discipline well. And despite a largely defensive approach, we've also scored in every league game so far. I doubt he's going to win over every supporter (which is fine, because it's not that great to watch) but it's hard to criticise the results.

To the point of him being pragmatic. Given it was such a point of contention (along with the short corners) it's not gone unnoticed (by me anyway) that we've pretty much sacked off the playing out from the back patter. I mean possibly it went out the window as a "bad idea" when Liam Donnelly was caught on the edge of his box by Ali McCann and gave Stevie May a free run at goal but either way, since we parked it we've won two games.

Small sample size and everything granted but after 4 games last season we were racking up dem possession stats but were sat on 2 points.

So aye, it's very much a case of it is what it is for me. It's clearly a massive work in progress and being polite most of the players who maybe weren't great "on the ball" today were players who we absolutely know "aren't great on the ball".

Also...10 year contract for Tony Watt please.

Edited August 28, 2021 by capt_oats

[Allroy for Prez]

I don’t expect to see sexy free flowing football, like, ever from Motherwell but the standard of passing from many of our players today was genuinely laughable. I’m actually fine with a “win at all costs” mentality but we won win many games if many of those players continue to be picked. Hopefully Alexander is noticing this too.

We can obviously have a bit of a laugh about it as we won but as @Kapowzer above says, the place would be on fire if Adam hadn’t got injured and Dundee had turned their dominance into goals. 
 

It’s maybe unfair to single one player out when I’ve skirted round about not naming names above but Woolery, at this point in time, on a 3 year deal looks an absolutely wild punt.  

[well fan for life]

I mean we play football that's so bad to watch your eyes might start bleeding at any moment but if we beat everybody 1-0 I'll be sound with it. 

To pick a couple of people out:

Mugabi - Big Bevis looks so unbearably uncomfortable when he needs to carry the ball forward but needs must I guess. Would quite like SOD to be fit again soon.

Ojala - Played his best game so far. If anything is within about 30 yards of him in the air he'll win it and he looked a bit better with the ball on the deck. 

Carroll - From where I was sitting in the Cooper it looked like he fair leapt into the challenge and was completely off the ground. I don't think there was any malice involved and I'll be interested to watch it back. He's incredibly fucking brainless at times for this sort of thing though. 

Slattery - The best player on the park today for me. Gets his foot on the ball, picks a pass, wins some amount of free kicks and does so while being a complete arsehole. I love him. 

Woolery - No idea what he was up to today. A collection of awful decisions. 

Watt - Turned into a goal machine after being dropped for a couple of weeks so whatever Alexander's move was there has worked a charm. 

 

[For Your Pies Only]

7 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

To the point of him being pragmatic. Given it was such a point of contention (along with the short corners) it's not gone unnoticed (by me anyway) that we've pretty much sacked off the playing out from the back patter. I mean possibly it went out the window as a "bad idea" when Liam Donnelly was caught on the edge of his box by Ali McCann and gave Stevie May a free run at goal but either way, since we parked it we've won two games.

Aye, definitely. We also seem to be focusing more on set pieces since after the Hibs game, which is paying dividends and makes sense with the players available right now - lots of big lads and defenders who aren't technically that great but will win headers in the opposition box, and Watt is turning into quite the poacher. Interesting to consider that Goss might have been brought in partially with that in mind, given he has a reputation for being good in dead ball situations.

8 minutes ago, Allroy for Prez said:

I don’t expect to see sexy free flowing football, like, ever from Motherwell but the standard of passing from many of our players today was genuinely laughable. I’m actually fine with a “win at all costs” mentality but we won win many games if many of those players continue to be picked. Hopefully Alexander is noticing this too.

We can obviously have a bit of a laugh about it as we won but as @Kapowzer above says, the place would be on fire if Adam hadn’t got injured and Dundee had turned their dominance into goals. 
 

You're not wrong but I guess you could argue that Dundee didn't turn their dominance into goals because we seem to be quite good at stifling teams, regardless of possesion stats, and Alexander seems ok with that. FIne margins and that but if it's likely to get us points against the weaker teams in the league, I think we'll be sticking with it for the foreseeable. Doesn't mean I necessarily agree with it, but I don't expect it to change unless we start dropping a lot of points.

On the passing front, I think Alexander did say in his post match comments that he didn't think it was a great performance, so I do think he will pick up on it. And it wasn't our most technically gifted starting 11 today, it has to be said.

[Kapowzer]

5 minutes ago, For Your Pies Only said:

Interesting to consider that Goss might have been brought in partially with that in mind, given he has a reputation for being good in dead ball situations.

That and our current go to will be on a new two game ban every time he returns to the fray.

[fat_tony]

Can't be disappointed at the 3 points despite a lacklustre performance.

Lamie's lack of passing ability is well documented by this point but f**k me Ojala makes him look like Xavi. In saying that, the two of them (plus Mugabi) do a lot of the basic defensive stuff well, they just need someone to take the ball off them before they make an arse of it.

Slattery looks a right find. Composed, great touch and awareness, and a streak of a right shithouse about him. Lovely.

I'm not convinced by either Woolery or Amaluzor yet. I think if you combined the two there'd be a good player there. I thought we had a good balance up front in the Hibs game with Watt, Van Veen, and Woolery, so I'd maybe like to see some mix of Watt & VV + 1 next time out.

Somebody give Tony Watt the keys to the town already. I keep waiting for him to down tools like he's seemed to do everywhere else but I'm constantly impressed by not just his ability but also how hard he works for the team. Maybe it's just a good fit?

[well fan for life]

Having rewatched Sportscene I would like to change my comments on Carroll to be that he's utterly fucking brainless and that's another completely fucking stupid red card from him. 

No chance is that getting overturned. It's a shocker.