Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Ron Aldo]

1 hour ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

For reasons unbeknownst even to me I've spent the wee hours of Saturday morning making 3 different team of the decades based on nationality.

Scotland (strong defense and midfield, lacks a proper number 9 and are lumbered with Lee Hollis by default) 

GK: Hollis
RB: Tait
CB: Gallagher
CB: McManus 
LB: Hammell  
CM: Lasley 
CM:Campbell
CM: Pearson 
CAM: Turnbull
ST:Murphy 
ST: Erwin

UK and Ireland (fullbacks are the only weakness, more than balanced out by attacking firepower)

GK:Randolph
RB: Grimshaw 
CB: Aldred 
CB:Hutchinson 
LB: Dunne
RM:Ainsworth
CM:Law
CM:Jennings 
LM:Johnson
ST:Moult
ST: Higdon

Rest of the world(a surprisingly decent team imo, it physically pained me to exclude Casagolda, Straker and Ciftci)

GK- Nielsen
RB- Hateley
CB- Kipre
CB- Mugabi
LB- Angol
RM- Humphrey
CM- Gorrin
CM - Bigirimana
LM- Ojamaa
ST- Mcdonald
ST- Anier

UK and Ireland team looks the strongest for me. Grimshaw and Dunne are still very decent at full back. Moult and Higdon would score a hat trick every game with Ainsworth and Johnson setting up chances all over the shop.

Rest of the world team isn't great. Nielsen is poor (though better than Hollis), i'm still to be convinced by Mugabi, always thought Angol was mince, Bigi flatters to deceive and Anier is average at best. The only hope for them would be that McDonald does enough moaning to drag an extra 5% out of everyone.

[Doctor Manhattan]

2 hours ago, Ron Aldo said:

Rest of the world team isn't great. Nielsen is poor (though better than Hollis), i'm still to be convinced by Mugabi, always thought Angol was mince, Bigi flatters to deceive and Anier is average at best. The only hope for them would be that McDonald does enough moaning to drag an extra 5% out of everyone.

When you look at a team and think, "Petravicius could come off the bench and do a job", you know in your heart of hearts that it's not the greatest.

[Casagolda]

On 13/01/2020 at 22:28, Casagolda said:

Still over two weeks left in the window mind, I’m hoping we’ll see an actual striker come in before it closes.

Link

Oh well, looks like nobody else coming in according to Robinson. 

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Casagolda said:

Link

Oh well, looks like nobody else coming in according to Robinson. 

I'm kind of alright with that tbh. I know there's a school of thought along the lines of "we should push the boat out for 3rd" etc but there was a line from someone on Steelmen I noticed a while back that rings true for me:

Quote

"Just putting this out there, but what if Robinson has done some scouting about and the players he wants don’t want to come to Motherwell and the ones who do are not good enough?"

Link

Given the time between Cole leaving (the fact we still haven't "officially" communicated he's away is weird IMO) and Ndjoli coming in (taking Cole's squad number) it definitely feels like we've maybe had other targets that have fallen down.

I'd definitely be up for us keeping an eye out for a #9 or whatever but at the risk of repeating myself it's a really shallow pool of players who fit the profile of having the quality to be markedly better than we have and are also attainable.

With the likes of Semple (who was a 'forward' before we set about trying to turn him into an #8) and MacIver around the fringes of the squad then assuming the 'quality' options aren't available/prepared to slum it I'd rather give them a run in the side than chucking budget at some absolute randoms for the sake of it - even more so in the context of us having been talking to Turnbull about an extension (which we all knew about based on what was said at the AGM last month but it's public now).

The video of the wee guy we were "linked" with the other week gave me the absolute fear tbh.

Edited January 18, 2020 by capt_oats

[Desp]

I'd just like to applaud @YassinMoutaouakil for both spending time thinking of those XI's (excellent sides one and all) and the sensational creative licence to stick Tom Hateley in the Rest of the World XI.  It took me a while to click on. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

27 minutes ago, Desp said:

I'd just like to applaud @YassinMoutaouakil for both spending time thinking of those XI's (excellent sides one and all) and the sensational creative licence to stick Tom Hateley in the Rest of the World XI.  It took me a while to click on. 

Tough competition but for me, the greatest footballer Monte Carlo has ever produced.

[Big John Handsome]

Anyone know which pub in the Dee people are gonna be?

[well fan for life]

I've got to be honest, lads. I'm reckoning Seedorf might be a bust. 

[The_Craig]

I've got to be honest, lads. I'm reckoning Seedorf might be a bust. 

See if he played like a winger and knocked the ball by the defender and left them for dead using his pace, he would be a great player.

 

But he seems to be a vacuum where all the speed and pace of the attack is just sucked out of it when he gets the ball at his feet.

 

But we're through to the last 16.

 

Ya dancer!

 

[Mr Hahn]

34 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

I've got to be honest, lads. I'm reckoning Seedorf might be a bust. 

Judging by tonight's showing, he's a shite Chris Humphrey. Obviously has pace to burn but what's the point if you either: 1. Don't take on the man and use that pace or 2. Fall over before you get the chance.

Ndjoli, for what little touches he had, also looked a bit naf I must admit. 

 

[Archie McSquackle]

Likes a wee fancy though.

[Casagolda]

11 hours ago, well fan for life said:

I've got to be honest, lads. I'm reckoning Seedorf might be a bust. 

 

10 hours ago, Mr Hahn said:

Ndjoli, for what little touches he had, also looked a bit naf I must admit. 

This I why I don’t get the Ndjoli signing- no harm to him btw.

We already have numerous players that fall into the category of - inexperienced, raw, pacey forward that play anywhere across the front three. See also Seedorf, Manzinga and even Scott. 

So why add another? Especially on loan. Even if we couldn’t get who or what we really wanted, adding something we already have an abundance of just seems unnecessary. 

As @capt_oats said, the drop off from Hylton going off last night was stark. Him and Long have pretty much nailed their places down but if anything happens to either of them long term, we’ll struggle.

[Mr. Brightside]

I think Allan Campbell is my favourite Motherwell player of all time.

[MJC]

12 hours ago, well fan for life said:

I've got to be honest, lads. I'm reckoning Seedorf might be a bust. 

I've said that since day one of the League season, I'm amazed it's still coming as a surprise to some of our support. Mind you saying that, our support has always been easily fooled by pacy players who show a nice touch or flick in their first game then offer next to nothing else for the remainder of their time with us. If they've also got an interesting name then that hits the jackpot. Think Eliphas Shivute, Yassin Moutaouakil(sp) etc.

In the case of Seedorf, he is rank rotten and would struggle in the lower leagues never mind the level we need him to perform at. 

[Gianfranco]

I still have hope for Seedorf.

[Ron Aldo]

I made a tongue in cheek comment about playing Ilic the other day but surely he has to be a better option than Seedorf.

I get that Seedorf is young and this is his first season of "proper" football so, for that, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and he could well improve. However, last night the ball spent most of the time bouncing off him and then when he did control it he would fall over 5 seconds later. Ilic probably doesn't have some of the raw attributes that Seedorf has but he looks strong enough to be able to stay on his feet and he's almost certainly a more intelligent player than Seedorf.

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Casagolda said:

As @capt_oats said, the drop off from Hylton going off last night was stark. Him and Long have pretty much nailed their places down but if anything happens to either of them long term, we’ll struggle.

The thing with Seedorf is that there seems to have been a regression. Whether that's down to the full backs he's facing getting more up to speed or not IDK but the lack of impact he's having is noticeable. He's getting brushed off the ball in the same way #DT23 used to.

On the flip of that Hylton seems to be far more in tune with what he's being asked to do and his role in the side. It means that Scott is no longer our sole out ball.

@Ron Aldo mentions Ilic in the post above but if he's not going to get minutes ahead of Polworth then there's surely potential for looking at what we've done with Scott on the right and giving Semple a run there - maybe not necessarily against Aberdeen like but as an 'option'. I've mentioned before but I didn't realise he was 6ft and while it's maybe not where we'd see him playing long term he's been used in that sort of area before for the Reserves/u20s (see his 1st below - where he's coming off the left of a front 3).

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by capt_oats

[Busta Nut]

Our midfield last night was quite a worry. O'Hara was fucking rotten and Polworth was almost non existent for the time he was on the park. Campbell is a machine though.

[fat_tony]

Donnelly is definitely my preferred option on there alongside Campbell, and once Turnbull is back it'll make the midfield mix pretty interesting.

Natural feeling would be to replace Polworth with Turnbull, but it may be that we rotate more depending on the opposition. Polworth, Turnbull, and Campbell would be a tasty looking attacking mix but I'd worry defensively.

[Marinello]

Admittedly in straw clutching territory but for all that Seedorf was soooooo bad last night ( and at Killie) I remember him having a positive effect in Dingwall. 

This suggests that if he can draw on his Dingwall performance he could have a future at FP. His problem sadly is that these performances are becoming so rare that he could quickly become surplus to requirements.