Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[MJC]

1 hour ago, Desp said:

I hope the injury picked up by Newell doesn't rule him out for too long*

 

 

 

 

* I didn't see the game, or read any reports from it, but it's a strong probability, isn't it?

The boy is made of glass it seems.

[Casagolda]

Was Newell not meant to be going out on loan? I thought we had that lined up not so long ago, surely the best thing for him at this stage.

We have 4 senior strikers on the books, 3 promising young strikers in the 17/18 bracket in the 20’s and George Newell just floating about in between. 

Boy seems to be caught in footballing purgatory- too old to be a promising youngster but not good enough to be playing for the first team. Just making up the numbers in the reserves and sitting on the bench when we have a few injuries.

Edited August 22, 2018 by Casagolda

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Casagolda said:

Was Newell not meant to be going out on loan? I thought we had that lined up not so long ago, surely the best thing for him at this stage.

We have 4 senior strikers on the books, 3 promising young strikers in the 17/18 bracket in the 20’s and George Newell just floating about in between. 

Boy seems to be caught in footballing purgatory- too old to be a promising youngster but not good enough to be playing for the first team. Just making up the numbers in the reserves and sitting on the bench when we have a few injuries.

There was paper talk that Dumbarton (I think) wanted him on loan. Then he picked up (another) injury.

The window's still open so something like that could still happen I suppose. Then again, if we've got genuine hopes for Scott there's every chance we might get him out on loan for the experience and keep Newell kicking around the reserves as cover.

As you say we've got 4 first team strikers, plus Hastie who's 19 and seems to have been doing alright on loan at Alloa,  McLaughlin is also 19 and on loan at Stirling, he had a great rep for Thistle's Dev side (and scored yesterday) then there's Scott, Agyeman and Semple in the 17/18 group. Newell just seems to be in this grey area between reserves and first team.

I noticed Craigan was fulsome in his praise of Turnbull yesterday. I'm paraphrasing but it was along the lines of "he was the best midfielder on the park", which given he was playing against Djoum and Edwards is something I guess.

 

Edited August 22, 2018 by capt_oats

[AndyRoss]

Harry Cochrane was playing too, I know he’s younger, but has a good bit more first-team experience.

The other player who surely expects to be loaned out is Rohan Ferguson, he played against East Stirling in the Irn Bru Cup, but PJ Morrison was back in goal for yesterday’s match. Looking at Soccerbase he played 64 games with Airdrie, even at 20 he must sense that there’s little benefit being third or maybe fourth choice keeper at Motherwell?

[capt_oats]

As a wee aside from our current centre half and captain causing heads to explode all over Govan I notice Kipré's been starting regularly for Wigan including their 3-0 win over Stoke last night. Wigan fans chucking about superlatives like "colossus", "excellent" and "superb"...

Also...Robinson's press conference today I notice Robinson's saying Bowman's fit for this weekend but also he was quite evasive when asked about whether he might be looking at bringing erm...Kenny Miller in.

 

Edited August 23, 2018 by capt_oats

[Swello]

16 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Wigan fans chucking about superlatives like "colossus", "excellent" and "superb"...

We just need EPL scouts to be saying the same and we'll be shitting money

[capt_oats]

MFC VPN SC is go...

Same provider that do Celtic, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen...

Quote

Fans living outside of the UK and Ireland will be able to enjoy live streaming of Motherwell’s Ladbrokes Premiership matches in season 2018/19.

All of the club’s home league fixtures will be available using the subscription service, as well as the majority of away matches, via tv.motherwellfc.co.uk.

Priced at £12 a month, a guaranteed 26 of our remaining 31 top flight matches before the split will be available via the service. Away games with Hamilton, Livingston, Rangers and St Mirren are currently not available.

Linking up with SportsMediaGB, Motherwell’s commentary team will now take up the microphones on the TV service, which will broadcast games from multiple HD camera angles.

Our first game via our new service comes at Fir Park as we host Rangers in the Ladbrokes Premiership on 26 August.

Supporters in the UK and Ireland will also be able to access a cheaper service which will carry live audio commentary and full match replays only. Broadcast rights do not allow us to show live games in those territories.

All of our existing video content, such as interviews, goal clips, highlights and more, will continue to free-to-air via our website and social media channels.

Edit to add: there's a cheaper UK option available that gives you full match replays for £5.99 a month or £59.99 annual. I suppose it depends how bothered you are about watching live games.

Edited August 24, 2018 by capt_oats

[Swello]

I'm quite interested in the cheap option as being able to watch full match replays is something that interests me (as long as I don't need to wait until Monday or whatever to do it). Watching live streams isn't interesting to me for the simple reason that I go to most games, so I'll not be firing up the VPN for this...

[capt_oats]

53 minutes ago, Swello said:

I'm quite interested in the cheap option as being able to watch full match replays is something that interests me (as long as I don't need to wait until Monday or whatever to do it). Watching live streams isn't interesting to me for the simple reason that I go to most games, so I'll not be firing up the VPN for this...

As a general point £5.99 a month (or £4.99 if you go for the annual subscription) seems fairly decent value for full game replays with HD, multi-camera coverage. Especially with the fairly scant coverage given by the likes of Sportscene.

I take it, going forward, our free-to-air highlights packages will just be edited together from the broadcast feed. 

Looking at the way the Hibs service is set up they've got a full archive of matches from previous seasons so it doesn't seem to be something where covered matches will expire. Similarly Hibs seem to have full match coverage of their Reserves, if Motherwell were to do the same then that'd definitely be of interest to a sad sack like me.

[Swello]

Apart from all the hilarity and enjoyment - today I think was a pretty useful game for a couple of reasons. I reckon it will end any doubt (if it still remained) in Robinson's mind that Johnson/Main is the first choice partnership, so it's likely the end of the Main/Sammon experience.

I also reckon that Bigi will get a real run as a first choice midfielder as he showed today that he could be relied on in a highly competitive game - so also hopefully an end to the "zero creativity" midfield fixation.

Today also kind of re-enforced a suspicion of mine that this type of game suits the team better than the type that we saw against Accies where we need to break teams down that are happy to sit in. Interesting to see how it works against McCann's famous possession game next week...

[AndyRoss]

New Podcast - https://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2018-19-episode-7/

Sparra and Jay look back on the pulsating 3-3 draw with Rangers, discuss Peter Hartley’s controversial comments pre-match, look ahead to the meeting with Dundee, discuss the introduction of live streaming of Motherwell games for fans overseas and Motherwell Ladies securing the SWPL2 title.

[Casagolda]

14 hours ago, Swello said:

Apart from all the hilarity and enjoyment - today I think was a pretty useful game for a couple of reasons. I reckon it will end any doubt (if it still remained) in Robinson's mind that Johnson/Main is the first choice partnership, so it's likely the end of the Main/Sammon experience.

I also reckon that Bigi will get a real run as a first choice midfielder as he showed today that he could be relied on in a highly competitive game - so also hopefully an end to the "zero creativity" midfield fixation.

Today also kind of re-enforced a suspicion of mine that this type of game suits the team better than the type that we saw against Accies where we need to break teams down that are happy to sit in. Interesting to see how it works against McCann's famous possession game next week...

Would agree with that.

Would also add that I thought Carl McHugh was excellent again at the back, probably been our most consistent performer so far this season. Will be interesting to see how Robinson handles Dunne’s return, we miss his pace the back and it’ll be interesting to see who makes way.

Was it just me or did Cadden and Tait look far better in the last 20 mins when they reverted to rwb and centre midfield? Cadden was far more involved in an attacking sense and Tait looked more comfortable out on the right. Also credit to Frear who had a positive impact when he came on, helped stretch the game and put in a couple of cracking crosses.

Also credit to Hartley, rather than be deterred by this weeks events he faced things head on and him running straight towards the Rangers fans to celebrate was a level of shitehousery I can only appreciate and admire. 

Edited August 27, 2018 by Casagolda

[Desp]

14 hours ago, Swello said:

Apart from all the hilarity and enjoyment - today I think was a pretty useful game for a couple of reasons. I reckon it will end any doubt (if it still remained) in Robinson's mind that Johnson/Main is the first choice partnership, so it's likely the end of the Main/Sammon experience.

I also reckon that Bigi will get a real run as a first choice midfielder as he showed today that he could be relied on in a highly competitive game - so also hopefully an end to the "zero creativity" midfield fixation.

Today also kind of re-enforced a suspicion of mine that this type of game suits the team better than the type that we saw against Accies where we need to break teams down that are happy to sit in. Interesting to see how it works against McCann's famous possession game next week...

Yeah, agree with that.  I thought Bigi & Johnson were fantastic yesterday.  Bigi's deliveries into the box were first class (I think,  maybe I'm just comparing them to Cadden's...)

With Dunne out for the foreseeable, I think yesterday's starting XI will be our first choice XI is everyone is fit and available. 

[Swello]

30 minutes ago, Casagolda said:

Also credit to Frear who had a positive impact when he came on, helped stretch the game and put in a couple of cracking crosses

I meant to mention that - he was the right sub at the right time and did really well.

It probably goes to show why being a manager is a nightmare - against Accies, Robinson made a bunch of subs designed to throw everything at them that actually made us worse, whereas yesterday it worked perfectly. Both Johnson and Campbell were utterly burst and had to go but the change of shape made us better and genuinely had Rangers on the back foot.  Robinson has taken a ton of stick so far this season for his selections, so it's only fair that he gets a bit of credit back in the "How's Robinson Doing" bank...

As Desp rightly says - unless there are knocks, surely the same starting 11 next week (and over the next few weeks) to try and get us up and running properly. I think it was probably this stage last season against Ross County that we discovered that a team with Campbell and Bowman in it gave us the right mix and that was the settled 11 after that - hopefully yesterday has the same effect.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Stuart McCall appointed Scunthorpe manager. I've still no idea if he's actually a good manager or not tbh.

[mjw]

Charles Dunne out talking to cows again.

[MJC]

9 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Stuart McCall appointed Scunthorpe manager. I've still no idea if he's actually a good manager or not tbh.

I was just wondering where Simon Ramsen and the Law brothers were these days, no doubt they'll have popped up at Scunthorpe in some capacity by January at the latest.

The bold Kenny's went there as his assistant too I see...if the local Nandos down there didn't do a roaring trade they certainly will now.

I've certainly got an idea. Stuart McCall is and always has been one poor, poor manager who pissed away our best chance of winning silverware again when he had the best squad out with Celtic at his disposal.

[steelmen]

He’s so poor we got ‘best of the rest’ 3 years running???

You might not like him but on the park we played pleasing on the eye football and for a club like ours we were relatively successful. Sure I would have loved to have gone further in the cups but winning league games and one of our players winning player of the year is about as successful as it gets.. we also got to play in the champions league (qualifiers) under his stewardship.

What more could he really have done?

[MJC]

39 minutes ago, steelmen said:

He’s so poor we got ‘best of the rest’ 3 years running???

You might not like him but on the park we played pleasing on the eye football and for a club like ours we were relatively successful. Sure I would have loved to have gone further in the cups but winning league games and one of our players winning player of the year is about as successful as it gets.. we also got to play in the champions league (qualifiers) under his stewardship.

What more could he really have done?

I've answered this the last time he was brought up, but I'll do it again here.

We got "best of the rest" three years running because for two of those three years we had the best squad outwith Celtic and Rangers(when they were there in 11/12). In the third season we carried an unbelievable amount of luck and McCall owed a lot to John Sutton for us to scrape to many an underserved win and of course for rattling Jamie Langfield in the last minute at Pittodrie. The football we played in 2013/14 was awful to watch and we only really had one sustained spell under McCall where we regularly played football that could have realistically be described as "pleasing on the eye" and that was in the second half of 2012/13 when we did admittedly play some lovely stuff.

Stuart McCall benefitted greatly during his time with us from not only having a good squad of players but also being there at a time when Rangers went out the game, Hearts had their own financial troubles and they along with Aberdeen and Hibs were mid table to bottom six sides. However our cup records during this time was awful and while Kilmarnock, St.Mirren and St.Johnstone were lifting trophies despite not being anywhere near us in the league at this time, we were getting dumped out in the  first  rounds by newly formed Rangers, Albion Rovers, twice by pre-McInnes Aberdeen and then 10 man for 77 minutes Aberdeen. In all of those ties there was not one match you could point to and say we were unfortunate on the day, we were deservedly beaten in every single one and McCall's tactics and preparation was woeful and it cost us. His build up to the debacle at Ibrox in 2012 where despite us going into that game unbeaten and top of the league he talked down our chances because "they're still Rangers, their fans are their 12th man, bla, bla, bla" summed him up.

Our efforts in Europe under McCall were equally awful and all they did was undo all of our good work to get there. We never looked like we believed we could even lay a glove on PAO, Levante and Kuban and indeed we didn't. Decent sides I grant you, but McCall yet again gave the impression that we were only there to make up the numbers. And then of course there was Stjarnan in 2014. Finally, a kinder draw but it ended up being the biggest shambles of the lot.

Stuart McCall was a decent man to have around the club at that time but he was a poor manager. He inherited a spine of Randolph, Craigan, Hutchinson, Lasley, Jennings, Sutton and Murphy and although he gave us Higdon, Nicky Law and Ojamaa, he also gave us Omar Daley, Josh Law, Gunnar Nielsen, Iain Vigurs, Paul Lawson and tried to turn an unfit James McFadden into a right winger. He failed time and time again to step up to the plate in big games and tactically he was woeful, as was his use of substitutions.

So, what more could he have done? Given the resources he had available to him he absolutely could and perhaps should have won us a cup but he failed miserably at a time that was surely our best chance since 1991.

I'll give you two words to describe Stuart McCall's tenure as Motherwell manager.....Missed Opportunity.

Edited August 27, 2018 by MJC

[WellView]

Jesus sufferin' 

Shut up with the 1000 word drivel answers. 

The only thing you need to know about the McCall years is that they left us on the edge of bankruptcy. 

How ya'll cheered the last minute win v Aberdeen,

if it wasn't for Les, we'd be Dundee United at BEST.