Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[welldaft]

3 hours ago, beesher said:

The guy in the Hunter stand that shouts ‘out out out out’ in that nails on a blackboard way seemed to have a sore throat as well which was good.

I think it is more like a seal kind of way. Kinda made me glad to be back. I say Kinda .

Judging by GA defensive leanings I suspect we may hear more of it this season..

[capt_oats]

Just now, welldaft said:

I took my info from Wiki which is clearly no match v the Capt when it comes to Motherwell FC stats .

Point still stands that we have only lost 7 games in 22. When you consider the squad / players we had last season (especially) that is commendable. 

Nah, to be clear I wasn't disagreeing with your point.

I think that broadly when you look at his managerial career it shows up pretty well.

[well fan for life]

2 minutes ago, welldaft said:

I think it is more like a seal kind of way.

So is this the lad belting out ballads up the back then?

[welldaft]

10 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Nah, to be clear I wasn't disagreeing with your point.

I think that broadly when you look at his managerial career it shows up pretty well.

I know Captain. We are cool. 
Maybe my wiki page is stuck in the past. I looked up all Motherwell Managers records and that is what it told me.
Clearly not been updated

 

 

[capt_oats]

12 minutes ago, welldaft said:

I know Captain. We are cool. 
Maybe my wiki page is stuck in the past. I looked up all Motherwell Managers records and that is what it told me.
Clearly not been updated

Aye, it's as of 1st May 21 (top left). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Motherwell_F.C._managers

Edited August 29, 2021 by capt_oats

[Well Well]

Norwegian god just landed at Edinburgh Airport with the missus. 

[JamesP_81]

3 minutes ago, Well Well said:

Norwegian god just landed at Edinburgh Airport with the missus. 

What's he been up to with your missus?

[supermarv]

1 hour ago, well fan for life said:

He was wandering about at the front of the Main Stand at half time and stopped for a photo with a group of kids near the front. 

Obviously not glandular fever either then must’ve been one of they drunk chats last night

[Ron Aldo]

Norwegian god just landed at Edinburgh Airport with the missus. 

Really sorry you've been dumped mate but I don't blame her.

[capt_oats]

Greg Marshall doing his bit on Goss and Johansen.

 

[rowsdower]

2 hours ago, Well Well said:

Norwegian god just landed at Edinburgh Airport with the missus. 

Amazing how far we've come, we used to have a guy sitting outside fir park on deadline day tweeting the scoops, now we've got someone at the airport. #boxoffice 

Part of me wants the 2nd signing to be gotts, because we will then have Goss and gotts, and the power of this thread will be confirmed. However, I'd also like a signing completely out of nowhere. 

GA suggested there would be no outgoings, but surely a couple will be going out on loan.

[Guest superward]

Best league start since 13/14 by my reckoning.....any statto want to check that is right? 

[ropy]

11 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

Amazing how far we've come, we used to have a guy sitting outside fir park on deadline day tweeting the scoops, now we've got someone at the airport. #boxoffice 

Part of me wants the 2nd signing to be gotts, because we will then have Goss and gotts, and the power of this thread will be confirmed. However, I'd also like a signing completely out of nowhere. 

GA suggested there would be no outgoings, but surely a couple will be going out on loan.

I would forego Gotts for an Indian street food chef to take us to the next level in fan cuisine.

[KirkySuperSub]

12 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

Part of me wants the 2nd signing to be gotts, because we will then have Goss and Gotts, and the power of this thread will be confirmed.

G & G Footie Factory

[capt_oats]

20 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

Amazing how far we've come, we used to have a guy sitting outside fir park on deadline day tweeting the scoops, now we've got someone at the airport. #boxoffice 

Part of me wants the 2nd signing to be gotts, because we will then have Goss and gotts, and the power of this thread will be confirmed. However, I'd also like a signing completely out of nowhere. 

GA suggested there would be no outgoings, but surely a couple will be going out on loan.

He did but it seems wild to think that we're going to be sat with a squad of potentially 29 bodies after his whole pitch about his preference being having a small squad. Even accounting for him saying “We want to carry, maybe, two or three more players than we first planned because of the issues with Covid - they are not going away." it's hard to square that large a squad with the numbers we had last season.

All things considered I'd have thought a squad of 25-26 probably sounds right for what he's said previously.

The full quote from his press conference:

Quote

Outgoings? Expecting any more before Tuesday?

"Not expecting. No, not expecting but you know, the phone will possibly ring between now and then. As it always does with the sort of merry-go-round of players which happens so we will just assess any calls that come my way but I'm not looking to lose anybody. I don't want to lose anybody but you know, I know these things can happen overnight. So we'll just wait and see."

What's the script with loans to the seaside leagues btw? Can they still happen outside the window?

Edited August 29, 2021 by capt_oats

['WellDel]

5 hours ago, Well Well said:

Norwegian god just landed at Edinburgh Airport with the missus. 

Wid? (Meaning the Mrs, obviously the big man is). Pics or gtf surely,?

In all seriousness, very enthused by this signing. Ojala is far from silky and doesn't exactly spray classy passes about, but seems a good, no nonsense defender who wins the majority of his duels. If Johansen can come in and do the same on the left hand side of the two  that would be fucking magic.

Even more so, if Goss can prove the doubters wrong (myself included), and work well alongside Slattery to link back>middle>front, I think with the addition of the #norsegod we have the makings of a top of the bottom 6 team at least.

[capt_oats]

8 hours ago, 'WellDel said:

In all seriousness, very enthused by this signing. Ojala is far from silky and doesn't exactly spray classy passes about, but seems a good, no nonsense defender who wins the majority of his duels. If Johansen can come in and do the same on the left hand side of the two that would be fucking magic.

Aye, I think it's interesting that from what we've seen of the way Alexander seems to want to set up defensively that the various comments and #numbers have him as "a solid defender who defends his box well". In a broader sense, rewinding back to the start of the window the thing that people were getting worked up about was the idea that we'd be going into the season with Bevis and Lamie as our first choice CB pairing (even more so when they announced the squad numbers).

On the face of it we've addressed that particular issue plus we've added O'Connor for some cover and I'd say it also explains Mugabi's 1 year contract extension that some folk on Steelmen were getting bent out of shape over at the time. I may be wrong but I think Lamie has also done enough to show that he's fine to have around as a squad option.

Going back to the points @superward and @Antiochas III made yesterday:

16 hours ago, superward said:

It's clear as day to me that Alexander has in part used the cup and all of August as a pre season essentially. 

It's a bold strategy but it's hard to disagree that this is what's happened. Alexander was quoted last week saying "Ideally, in a beautiful world we’d have six to ten friendlies to get them up to speed before competitive action but that’s not the scenario."

The game against Dundee was our 11th of the season (including the two bounce games).

I was listening back to @thisGRAEME's Patreon season preview last night and it still feels pretty much on the money in terms of where we are.

Edited August 30, 2021 by capt_oats

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

As mentioned above, I thought on Saturday that Ojala appeared to read the game very well. His positioning was good on a number of occasions where you saw him anticipate what was going to happen and make a clever interception on an occasion where you know for most of our centre backs it would be them diving in to a tackle a few seconds later.

Was happy with the win again and like most with Alexander, despite not playing very well, after we went ahead we seemed to be relatively in control for most of it.

Beginning to get pissed off at Carroll lunging in to tackles. I think it was a red personally, but by all accounts do not give Willie Collum the chance to make a decision like that.

Midfield still concerns me a bit. I thought Slattery could've been better on Saturday and we will wait and see how Goss goes. I still don't know who is the third piece of the jigsaw there, I don't think it's Maguire, 19/20 Donnelly seems a long way off as yet and whilst I thought O'Hara had one of his better games on Saturday, I'm not 100% convinced it's him either.

I would have said that we need to try and carve out a formation which gets the best of Watt and Van Veen together, but that probably looks like only a back three could achieve that as our wide options aren't the best. Amaluzor looks to me like a non-league English winger with some raw potential who is worth seeing how a one-year deal goes. Woolery, on the other hand, should be far better given we signed him from Tranmere on a three year deal. He's been shocking every time I've seen him so far, hopefully he settles in too. I'm not particularly keen on either being first picks.

If I wasn't being swayed by the big Norwegian already, I would say winger would be my number one signing priority before the window shuts.

[dezz]

Beginning to get pissed off at Carroll lunging in to tackles. I think it was a red personally, but by all accounts do not give Willie Collum the chance to make a decision like that.

He’s a bit of a loose cannon, isn’t he?! He was very lucky to stay on the park in the first game of the season against Hibs too. Some delivery though, 3 assists already so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

On potential outgoings - surely we’ll see Devine and Cornelius leave on loan. Maybe Crawford too as he’s now well down the pecking order. The bold Mich’el can pick up Crawford’s role of emergency midfield cover. Wouldn’t be totally surprised to see Lawless leave as well if we bring in another wide player/attacker (Roberts?).

[capt_oats]

27 minutes ago, dezz said:

On potential outgoings - surely we’ll see Devine and Cornelius leave on loan. Maybe Crawford too as he’s now well down the pecking order. The bold Mich’el can pick up Crawford’s role of emergency midfield cover. Wouldn’t be totally surprised to see Lawless leave as well if we bring in another wide player/attacker (Roberts?).

You can add Morrison to that list as well. He was quoted as saying he needs to play games.

Quote

The Motherwell prospect believes the QPR keeper is a great example of what loans can achieve: “We will see in the summer what the plan is for me at Motherwell, whether that’s going out on loan again or not. Graham Alexander (Motherwell manager) hasn’t been in very long so I haven’t spoken to him too much.

“But he knows I have got another year left on my contract. He knows I need to play games. I have been really lucky. Liam Kelly has come through the same path as I have, going out on loan and getting games. It’s brilliant to see that this path works out, going out on loan and catching the eye for Premiership level. Liam is a great goalkeeper and a great guy.”

Link

Happy to be corrected but I've a feeling that the loan window for the clubs in the seaside leagues extends through to the end of September. So there's a chance some of those players might move out on loan after the window officially shuts. Cornelius has been coming back from an injury I think.

The fact that Crawford hasn't played a minute of football since Airdrie probably puts a question mark over him (along with us giving Grimshaw a run out in midfield rather than use him).

Lawleff's last start was the loss to Dundee but it feels pointed that he hasn't actually started a league game yet - he's played 25 league minutes in total (but started all but one of the LC games) and was an unused sub against Livi and bounced from the squad completely at the weekend. Maybe that means something, maybe it doesn't but as you say if we bring in another wide player or an 'across the front 3' type like Roberts then it probably raises a question.

Edited August 30, 2021 by capt_oats