capt_oats

I didn't see his punditing but a heavy bit of pedantry from me; is he actually part of our coaching staff? Like, I know he's Lead Development Coach but does he have anything to do with the first team? He doesn't appear on the coaching staff tab on the official although there's every chance that's just not been updated. I don't seem to remember seeing him in any of the #content from the training ground either. I know the coaches we've had in that position previously have had involvement with the first team eg: Craigan, Ross but looking at the news story that accompanied him getting the job it says he's specifically working with the Youth teams. The 'specifically' seems erm, specific:

The nuanced answer is probably: all of the above. Hammell has got some things right, we’ve scored more goals than teams currently higher in the league, St Mirren for example, but we’re constantly shooting ourselves in the foot with shambolic defending that the coaching staff seem completely unable to address. We’ve only lost 3 domestic games this season by more than 1 goal (Hearts at Fir Park, Celtic in the LC and the **** at Ibrox) it’s been fine margins in terms of results. As I mentioned in a post above we’ve been letting ourselves down recently in games against our peer group. Failing to win when up against Killie and today has cost us 4 points which would have seen us bounced up the table a bit but we drew instead. The board aren’t blameless here either in that there was speculation over summer that they were holding back support for Alexander because the jury was out (understandably given his record Jan 22 - May 22) the result was they neither backed him or sacked him and it left us scrambling about once he finally got his jotters. The feeling was that we had consciously decided we wanted to trim the squad down after years of having fairly bloated numbers on Robinson’s watch and we wanted to focus on creating more of a ‘pathway’ we’ve seen a bunch of injuries and for most of the season we’ve been asking the same 14 players to play week in, week out regardless of form or health. Blair Spittal was playing with cracked ribs at one point. That’s before you get into 2 of Hammell’s 4 key signings barely making it on to the park due to injury. Ultimately though @Desp calls it - Ricki Lamie he’s Jedi mind tricked folk at the club into thinking he’s a player to build a defence around and we made him our vice captain. He’s absolutely everything that’s wrong with us on the park at the minute.

In fairness, there was the World Cup break so we've only played 8 games since our last win. Of those we've lost 4 (Hearts at Tynecastle, Celtic at FP, **** at Ibrox and Hibs at FP) none of those are exactly surprises although the circumstances of at least 2 were a boot in the baws. We've drawn against St Johnstone, Killie, Livi and County having been up in 2 of those. To @Al B's point the other games we've lost in that run of 17 have been: Killie (a), Hearts (a), Celtic (a), Hibs (a), **** (h), Aberdeen (h). Again, without being overly happy-clappy only Killie (a) stands out there as a surprise. The two results against Hibs are really fucking annoying given how shite they are but given our general record against them it's hardly a shock. I think most of us looked at that run of fixtures October - November as being particularly shite but when it's come to this run of games against our peer group we've shot ourselves in the foot by not winning the games we've been up in albeit equally we've not lost. I've said it a lot on here but we're definitely fixable it's whether Hammell has the tools and the inclination to sort it that's the question for me.

Just having a check at our league results so far. We've kept 5 clean sheets in 21 games but haven't kept one since October (our last win). We've failed to score in only 4 games - United at FP, Hearts at FP, Hibs at Easter Road and the **** at Ibrox but we've conceded in 16 of our games and in our last 8 we've conceded 16 so averaging 2 GPG against over that stretch. It's a real head scratcher where our issue is lads...

To that point, no SOD in the squad and no Morris (again). Penney is presumably on his way back to Ipswich. There are possibilities for some movement I'd have thought. His line in the presser yesterday didn't suggest that there were restrictions on us bringing more in tbf. We'd maybe have to subsidise the wage a bit but I'm sure a Championship side would take Shields like.

Like, I get why we're still playing Sol and Lamie. It's because Bevis is injured and Blaney's just in the door. OK...fine, whatever. However after 6 months of Hammell coming out after games saying exactly the same things about us not doing the basics defensively surely that comes back on him and Kerr and whether or not they're actually capable of coaching a team defensively. Evidence to date suggests that they are absolutely not. I wrote about it at length last week but if they're not capable of coaching a defence (they're clearly not) then get some help from someone who can. If our centre backs are making mistakes week in week out, the window is open. Do something about it. If he and his staff are looking at that and thinking "Yeah, this is fine. Just needs some more tweaks on the training ground..." then it's on them as much as the players IMO. Standing in front of the cameras every week with a script that's basically saying "Well, what can you do?" is fucking wild.

Made him our vice captain anaw...

I mean, we didn't lose and we moved up a place so *quiet voice* "Yay!" but Jesus fucking Christ man...

Scott Burns suggesting to one of his reply guys that we’re looking at the defence anaw. we’re going to need a bigger tractor.

Aye. I was sure I’d seen it before. It’s Aster Vranckx playing for KV Mechelen - link On first glance the colours are similar to Bradford but nah it’s not Mandron.

h/t @gregthewellfan combined with @RandomGuy.'s post on the other page this is interesting (that miss @dezz posted is fucking hilarious though)

Having a browse through the big man's IG comments for his announcement (what a smile btw). Seems like he played with Jordan Roberts at Gillingham, Chris Porter and Chrissy Long at Crewe. No mention on the IG but going through his playing history he played with Jake Carroll, Trevor Carson and erm, Nathan Thomas at Hartlepool. Seems he was at Sunderland at the same time as Faddy as well. Also, I see he played for Alexander at Fleetwood in the 13/14 season.

Pleased to see the recruitment team are paying attention to @Busta Nut's advice here btw. #influencer

Here's the squad post-January excluding injuries: Carroll, McGinley, Mugabi, Efford and I'm assuming Morris is injured given he hasn't been around the match-day since the Killie game in December.

Interesting chat from Hammell in his presser, specifically the point at which he's asked about Danzaki at 2:26 mins. He's far more open about bringing players in than he has been previously. Which is nice. Nice line when asked whether Burrows leaving would affect transfers "No. Hopefully it means we can do a little bit more."

Mikael Mandron absolutely sounds exactly like the sort of guy you'd expect to have multiple highlights videos with eurodance soundtracks up on YouTube but from a cursory glance there's nothing. Disappointing. Tbh, I've mentioned this before but the #9 issue we have is that we have a clear and established first pick in KVV (and justifiably so given his goal return). From that POV, assuming we're sticking with Hammell's 4231 it means we're looking for cover but also someone who is at least good enough to provide a bit of competition. It's a really fucking tough ask to get a guy in who's going to be fine with a pitch of "would you like to be a back-up striker at Motherwell?". That's precisely why the punt on Moult made complete sense because he was in the position where he was looking to get game time after his various injuries. He wasn't expecting to start every week and we weren't expecting him to start every week. The fact that he could barely get on the park at all was where the plan fell over a bit. I'm definitely not going overboard (given I've barely seen him kick a baw) but Mandron's a decent age (28), has good experience having bounced around the lower leagues with a flirtation with playing at a higher level (Wigan). In a January window, for the squad role we're looking to fill then it's a punt that's worth taking. Also, without wanting to jinx him he's also played over 2000 mins of football this season compared with Moult's 312'.

apologies. I genuinely had it in my head you were a Thistle fan (obvs).

Was Mandron not a running bit with Thistle fans @jagfox @Miguel Sanchez?

I see Simo has left his club.

Basically this. My mind is blown that anyone is looking at our squad and thinking we don't need forwards. Like, we're so fucking reliant on KVV it's untrue. Beyond that we've got folk losing their minds about Connor Shields/Josh Morris/Blair Spittal (despite the latter's numbers being quite good) but simultaneously giving it "wHy aRe wE sIGnInG fOrWaRDs?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!". Equally, if we're exclusively looking at forwards and the coaching staff are looking at the rest of the squad and thinking "yeah, that's fine" then aye...that's a massive problem but as I said the other day in terms of numbers the forward area is the one we need most bodies in (IMO). Especially is we've got half an eye on trying to loan someone like Morris out (as @eliphas hinted at the other day).

News from the future... Link

Here's who's currently contracted after the January window *slams* shut. Excluding injuries: Carroll, McGinley, Mugabi, Efford Remembered Josh Morris this time...

Fwiw: it seems the bold Olly is a victim of the shape Stockport play. He's a winger, they (apparently) don't play with wingers.

Or the same guys who've been in Burrows' mentions constantly asking why we've not signed anyone. Some laugh.

I mean, fair fucks he's not Connor Shields and (hopefully) doesn't have a broken foot. So that's a start. Absolutely out of nowhere as a name though given we've had these all mentioned recently: Jonathan Leko - https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/sources-motherwell-consider-move-for-birmingham-city-attacker/ Riku Danzaki - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cy6gvv10l6eo Dilan Markanday - https://www.footballscotland.co.uk/spfl/scottish-premiership/motherwell-transfer-talks-over-blackburn-25959456 Enjoying all the reply guys getting bent out of shape about us signing a guy from the English lower leagues again though. It's been a minute.