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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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It’s difficult to argue with anything that Alexander is doing at the moment, he knows who to move on and is bringing in players of a higher level than we’ve done in the past, Shaw for Crawford another example. Midfield now looks pretty competitive with the arrival of Shaw and the young Irish guy and we’re pretty strong at the back. It’s obvious that with Watt looking to be away it’s the striking department next. I don’t think we will see Roberts again so one or two through the door next I think. Nothing wrong with Cornelius getting game time somewhere else and sadly time for Grimmy to move on. 

Edited by Yorky
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GA has brought in Slattery and Goss for midfield and may be looking to confirm what he needs for that third position.  If Shaw is different to what we have then he gets an opportunity to see if it works and to determine what he is looking for in the summer.  It may all be looking to the future.

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One thing I'm realising abnout GA being the manager, is that I sort of....trust him...more than I have previous managers?

When I think back through previous guys at the club, even when we were spending a bit of money or if we were having good seasons, there always seemed to be an air of "Let's see who we can get, see how good they are, and hopefully we can do something with them".

With GA it doesn't feel like that, he seems to be the kinda guy that has a shopping list for a reason as opposed to someone having a wander round the shops and seeing what they can find. Personally I wouldn't have thought there was a need for Shaw, and under previous managers I'd probably have questioned it but my initial reaction when this was announced was more along the lines of "Well he'll know", and I'm happy to accept that there must be a reason for it and a point. That's a pretty new feeling for me when it comes to Motherwell managers.

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Apart from anything else - Alexander's whole career and knowledge is rooted in English football, he'll know the player (and know people who know the player well). This one is probably a case of GA influencing the signing more than the data driven stuff that supposedly identified Ojala and Sol...

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My hopes for Robinson was for him to be with us for 10 years, build 3 or 4 teams and ride out the rough and the smooth and top it with a cup.  A 21st century Tommy McLean.  My allegiances have switched to Alexander.

Lets not chuck him after 6 poor results.

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One thing I'm realising abnout GA being the manager, is that I sort of....trust him...more than I have previous managers?
When I think back through previous guys at the club, even when we were spending a bit of money or if we were having good seasons, there always seemed to be an air of "Let's see who we can get, see how good they are, and hopefully we can do something with them".
With GA it doesn't feel like that, he seems to be the kinda guy that has a shopping list for a reason as opposed to someone having a wander round the shops and seeing what they can find. Personally I wouldn't have thought there was a need for Shaw, and under previous managers I'd probably have questioned it but my initial reaction when this was announced was more along the lines of "Well he'll know", and I'm happy to accept that there must be a reason for it and a point. That's a pretty new feeling for me when it comes to Motherwell managers.
Completely agree. Pretty much every signing Alexander has made has been brought in for a reason.

Compare that to Robinson where the approach seemed to be to sign as many as possible in the hope one of them turned out to be good. Or Mcghee who was just given a list of names and picked whichever one he thought sounded the best.

The last manager we had who I'd say was as calculated in the transfer market was Jim Gannon. Thankfully Alexander isn't quite as mental.
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Even if the midfield has came onto a game of late, I think it's worth remembering how much it was underperforming, relative to the defence and attack, basically from August to November.

If Alexander thinks Shaw is an upgrade purely for an upgrade's sake, it's probably worth doing, even before considering the positive/adverse effects on Cornelius's development etc.

Edited by YassinMoutaouakil
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2 minutes ago, Al B said:

Hopefully Liam Shaw is quite literally Liam Grimshaw without the grim bits.

I suppose there is the possibility of Shaw also being cover at right back and we never have to see Grimmy again.

With our centre backs looking a little ropy Alexander probably thinks it is less than ideal to have Mugabi  as the only back up he can trust.

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6 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Would you rather Cornelius played 20 games between now and May as a regular, or sat on your bench most weeks and just rotated in when necessary?

Young players need regular game time at senior level. Chucking them in every 3 weeks with the odd 20 mins dotted around doesn't help them a huge amount.

I'd rather Dean did that in C&A and before Shaw arrived I would have said he looked like he was on the cusp of that here. I also said we have no idea if the Shaw deal involves an option to buy but I think he may be priced beyond our resources unless a case can be made using Slattery as an example. Also because Shaw arrives with a bit of a fanfare from the East End doesn't mean he's better, it probably does but pedigree is no guarantee.

The time to send Dean out was over the past 18 months when others left to do it all over Scotland but he was kept. It's almost he's not benefited as he was in a "could do a job" bracket for the first team and was kept in Lanarkshire.

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Hastie, Erwin qnd Maguire all benefitted from getting minutes. Turnbull and Campbell were a bit different because they were good enough as they were. 

Wee Deano getting 6 months of weekly football is a solid strategy to me. If someone at the top end of the Championship is happy to have him (Killie, for example could probably do with a bit more energy in the middle of the park) then we should be rolling him out there. 

At the moment, he isn't better than Donnelly or Slattery (or potentially Shaw I guess) in that role, and he isn't going to be improving playing 1 in 4 games for us.

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Watched the Stirling Albion v Kelty Hearts match, the talents of Leitch, Mackin and Higgenbotham were on show, no sign of Cummins.  No regrets over the decision to release these players.  I didn’t realise till I was home that the Kelty sub up front was Freddy Agyeman, he looks a stronger player than the one that ran around the U20 team.

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Some interesting takes. A loan being solid strategy? Not sure the decision makers at the club agree when it’s been decided his development is best served around the first team environment for now.

Lots of variables in a loan move also.

I’m not sure why he’s being used in comparison to Donnelly? Very different types of players…

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20 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

Is that Morton hitting form right on time for playing us or are Dunfermline just absolutely honking?

Dunfermline have Coll Donaldson and try to play out from the back.

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