The Premiership 21/22 Sack Race

[dezz]

Martindale for me. Livi struggled massively after that mental winning run came to an end last season, although if the Courts experiment at Utd goes wrong early doors then it could be him.
I’d prefer it was racist Malky that got binned first though.

[Mark Connolly]

The risk if Malky gets binned first is that he is then available for any subsequent vacancy.

[RandomGuy.]

Jim Goodwin to storm out in October after realising that "signing players from successful team" + "copy style from successful team" doesn't = "same success as successful team"

[Ric]

 

19 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

The risk if Malky gets binned first is that he is then available for any subsequent vacancy.

The hope would be that he becomes 'persona non grata' because he did such a shit job. A bit like Alan Stubbs.

[Ranaldo Bairn]

Courts for me, although Martindale is at risk of going first if Shankland gets enough goals early on to buy TC some time. 

[mizfit]

Can we lump Steve Clarke in here too?

[LIVIFOREVER]

1 hour ago, mizfit said:

Can we lump Steve Clarke in here too?

Why, are you wanting Davidson to GTF already?

[Savage Henry]

3 hours ago, Mark Connolly said:

The risk if Malky gets binned first is that he is then available for any subsequent vacancy.

It's a risk I'm prepared to take.  Make it so, Uncle Roy.

[Theyellowbox]

Martindale, but not for anything to do with on the pitch.... 

On the pitch, will be Alexander. Wasnt great last season and hasn't recruited early enough or well enough.

To me, seems out of his depth. 

[mizfit]

Why, are you wanting Davidson to GTF already?

I think he’ll be gone in December after we fail to qualify for Qatar, Celtic will then appoint him as caretaker after Anges sacking

[capt_oats]

7 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

Martindale, but not for anything to do with on the pitch.... 

On the pitch, will be Alexander. Wasnt great last season and hasn't recruited early enough or well enough.

To me, seems out of his depth. 

The same Alexander who has a 48% win rate and had the 3rd best points/form behind Rangers and Celtic from the point he took over?

That Alexander? 

Edited July 26, 2021 by capt_oats

[Gianfranco]

Martindale or Tam Courts would be my guess.

[Theyellowbox]

9 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

The same Alexander who has a 48% win rate and had the 3rd best points/form behind Rangers and Celtic from the point he took over?

That Alexander? 

The very one. Didnt appreciate that stat to be fair, but from what I saw of Motherwell and him in general, gave me the impression if a man out of his depth. Big challenge will be this season with mainly his players.

Always thought Robinson recruited well, if not a bit slowly, so Alexander had one if he better squads in the league to work with. Maybe slightly too many players?

Anyway, just a gut feel he will go first. Fells very Sandy Clark esque kind if character to me. 

[LIVIFOREVER]

20 minutes ago, mizfit said:

 

I think he’ll be gone in December after we fail to qualify for Qatar, Celtic will then appoint him as caretaker after Anges sacking

 

Has to be winning the treble this season or do the right thing and resign. Then replace Clarke as the Scotland boss.

Edited July 26, 2021 by LIVIFOREVER

[capt_oats]

8 minutes ago, Theyellowbox said:

The very one. Didnt appreciate that stat to be fair, but from what I saw of Motherwell and him in general, gave me the impression if a man out of his depth. Big challenge will be this season with mainly his players.

Always thought Robinson recruited well, if not a bit slowly, so Alexander had one if he better squads in the league to work with. Maybe slightly too many players?

Anyway, just a gut feel he will go first. Fells very Sandy Clark esque kind if character to me. 

 Alexander took over a massive squad filled with Robinson recruited dross and riddled with injuries (at one point he had 17 players unavailable) that was sitting at the bottom of the league and finished on the same points as St Mirren and ahead of United.

That, to me at least, doesn't scream a manager who's out his depth.

Also, are you talking about a different Robinson to the Stephen Robinson who managed us? His method was to get as many players in as quickly as possible so I'm not sure where you'd get the idea that he recruited slowly comes from.

I'm no Graham Alexander stan but you're absolutely miles off with those takes.

Edited July 26, 2021 by capt_oats

[mizfit]

Motherwell have had a poor start in the league cup, if that transfers to the league they’ll get rid of him. I don’t think it will and Alexander will be in charge for a season at least.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I've picked McKay more out of hope than expectation.

I'm sure I boldly predicted Calum Davidson to be the first to go in last year's thread, so much like Malky McKay, my track record isn't the best

[capt_oats]

26 minutes ago, mizfit said:

Motherwell have had a poor start in the league cup, if that transfers to the league they’ll get rid of him. I don’t think it will and Alexander will be in charge for a season at least.

There's no doubt that getting scudded by Airdrie was an absolute minter but there's a bit of context around the (admittedly poor) League Cup games.

Basically (as @Theyellowbox points out) we've changed up our recruitment. We've seemingly been holding out on bringing players in with a view to ideally getting better "quality" through the door than we did with Robinson whose approach was very much "get as many players in as early as possible and worry about how good they are further down the line".

Liam Kelly's a good example of that. That was a deal apparently in discussion for months, Callum Slattery from Southampton was apparently the same and it only got done on Friday night.

Where that's come back to bite us is that we've had players either injured or unavailable (Mark O'Hara was injured in a bounce game against Dumbarton, Liam Grimshaw's still recovering from glandular fever, Bevis Mugabi's rehabbing from shoulder surgery) which has meant we've been very thin on bodies and also, moreso than under Robinson, we've very obviously been treating these games as pre-season so it looks like we've been telling players to manage themselves.

I don't think there's been a League Cup game or a bounce game yet where we've started with our "best XI" it's been a mix and match to try and get players minutes. Van Veen for example hadn't played more than 60 mins in 13 months prior to the QoTS game, Liam Donnelly had been out for almost a year so got a 10 mins, then 60, then his first 90 on Saturday.

In that respect it's difficult to tell exactly where we are as we've got players who are at wildly different stages of fitness and being used or managed in different ways.

It's definitely something that has almost come back to bite us on the arse but it seems like we're adding a few more to the squad this week as well. So that's nice.

Edited July 26, 2021 by capt_oats

[Dundee Hibernian]

Voted for Ange Postecoglou, but feel it's more likely to be Tam Courts. Hoping he's a success (that would be 9th in the league if he lasts) but presently his squad contains the same flaws as have been apparent for many seasons, and he may carry the can for that.

[AJF]

8 hours ago, capt_oats said:

The same Alexander who has a 48% win rate and had the 3rd best points/form behind Rangers and Celtic from the point he took over?

That Alexander? 

I voted for Alexander for similar reasons to be fair. Those stats also don’t take into account that he joined part way through the season and effectively missed a round of fixtures against the top 6 sides and then by virtue of Motherwell finishing bottom 6 missed another round of potential fixtures against top 6 sides.

The vast majority of his games have came against bottom 6 clubs which would naturally increase anyone’s win percentage. It would most definitely not be that high if he’d been in charge the full season.