capt_oats

Absolutely zero shade on McGinley as he gets a fairly shite time of it but assuming Penney being here is a result of Hammell telling the recruitment staff what he wanted to replace Carroll then it's genuinely hard to see the bold Toby being a fit for what Hammell appears to want from a full back. In the event Ipswich recall Penney I'd imagine that we'd be after a player who has a similar skillset and fits a similar profile.

Yeah, having a look at it these are the teams from the games up to (and including) ICT: 31/07/22 - St Mirren (a) (0-1): Kelly; McGinn, Johansen, Lamie, Carroll; Maguire; Morris, Spittal, Goss, Shields; Van Veen 06/08/22 - St Johnstone (h) (1-2): Kelly; McGinn, Mugabi, Johansen, O'Donnell; Spittal, Maguire, Goss, Morris; Van Veen, Shields 13/08/22 - Aberdeen (a) (2-3): Kelly; McGinn, Mugabi, Johansen, O'Donnell; Slattery, Goss, Cornelius, Spittal; Van Veen, Shields 20/08/22 - Livingston (h) (1-0): Kelly; McGinn, Johansen, Lamie, O'Donnell; Slattery, Goss, Cornelius; Shields, Van Veen, Spittal 27/08/22 - Kilmarnock (a) (2-1): Kelly; McGinn, Johansen, Lamie, O'Donnell; Slattery, Goss, Cornelius; Van Veen, Shields, Spittal 31/08/22 - ICT (h) (4-0): Kelly; McGinn, Johansen, Lamie, Penney; Slattery, Goss, Tierney; Spittal, Van Veen, Efford So for the majority of the games up to ICT we had that 'extra' midfielder in there whether it was Maguire or Cornelius.

This is something that I had thought as well but I hadn't really made any sort of correlation. See when we had our initial run of good results under Hammell, was it not more of a 4141 and a 433 we were playing?

Dunno like. I mean, he was an Alexander signing rather than a Hammell one. He always felt like a low-ish risk back-up option given the injuries Fox had along with him having only played 2 games for Morton in the 2 years he was at the club. I've only seen Oxborough play once for the Reserves and he didn't really have much to do. It just feels like it'd be a *gamble* to go from a run of Carson > Gillespie > Carson > Kelly to a 'keeper with 22 games at Barnet to his name.

His deal is up in 2024. https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/player/liam-kelly/ Kelly to the ****, Gillespie back on loan please.

Something that had occurred to me, and it's by no means an original thought, is that you can probably put us having changed system in the way that we have on us looking as messy, ragged...call it what you want. We've gone from playing the Alexanderball 433 into a 4231 mid-season with an inexperienced manager and assistant. That's not a criticism of either Hammell or Kerr but it feels like it actually accounts for a lot of what we're seeing in terms of organisation (or lack of) on the park. Prior to Hammell, when was the last time we had a 4231 as our default shape? The McCall era?

Nothing explicit here but Hammell vaguely mentions the break in his post match. He also makes a point about McDiarmid Park being a difficult place to go. Basically saying he's been there with good Motherwell teams and lost - which is something I've always thought relevant when folk are chucking their toys out the pram about *performance*. Like, when was the last time we actually went to Perth and played well? As opposed to simply winning the battle and getting a result.

Apologies for quoting myself but to update this: 31/07 - St Mirren (W) - 3 pts 06/08 - St Johnstone (L) - 0 pts 13/08 - Aberdeen (W) - 3 pts 20/08 - Livingston (W) - 3 pts 27/08 - Kilmarnock (L) - 0 pts 03/09 - Dundee Utd (X) - 1 pt 01/10 - Celtic (L) - 0 pts 04/10 - Ross County (W) - 3 pts 08/10 - Hibs (L) - 0 pts 16/10 - Rangers (L) - 0 pts Total - 13 points 22/10 - Aberdeen (L) - 0 pts (-3) 29/10 - Dundee United (W) - 3 pts (+2) 06/11 - Hearts (L) - 0 pts (NC) 09/11 - Celtic (X) - 0 pts (NC) 12/11 - St Johnstone (X) - 1 pt (+1) Total - 4 points That puts us on the same points from the same fixtures from the first round of games.

This was our last win up there...

Depends who you ask really. I think most of us understood that we weren't getting the same player and that he'd have to be managed on account of having barely played any fitba since he left us in the 17/18 season. From that POV the fact that he's been able to come off the bench as quickly after another apparent injury is actually a pleasant surprise. There's still a constant fear around him given his injury record though. Then again there's the more unhinged elements of the Moult Fandom who genuinely don't understand why he's not starting every week. Tbh, we're one club where for the most part we've had a bit of joy with players coming back. We'd probably have been relegated had it not been for McDonald and Pearson returning in the Play-Off season. That's before you consider folk like Lasley, Hammell, McFadden (the first time), Sutton who all did us a turn. In the case of Hammell he ended up our record post-war appearance holder in his 2nd spell. As it stands Moult's not quite a Ross McCormack style bust but equally he's not had the impact that some of the more delusional in our fanbase probably expected.

I've mentioned this before on your thread but he did an interview with a Bournemouth podcast while he was between jobs after resigning from us and he pretty much admitted what you've said. Basically his point was that he had applied for the Bournemouth job while he was with us having thought that his 3rd place finish and 2 cup finals would get him a bit of credit and he was nowhere near getting the job. That was despite being a popular ex-player and being on good terms with their head of football at the time. Without wanting to come across as salty this is very much par for the course with Robinson. He's savvy enough to know that it's a good look for him to be linked with jobs when he's doing well so his Mr 20% isn't shy in putting his name about. On top of the Bournemouth application (which I don't think was ever reported on up here), off the top of my head he was linked variously with Luton, Huddersfield and Hearts amongst others while he was with us before genuinely interviewing for Northern Ireland. As I say, that's not a dig at him. It's clear that part of the deal at Motherwell is that we offer a platform for players and staff to progress their careers.

St Johnstone win. 2-1 probably as that seems to have been the way things have been going for us this season and we've a fairly shite record in Perth generally. Tbh, it'll be the same line up we've been playing for weeks. It seems we've been asking players to play through injury and that was another few went off the other night. It's very much a case of us just wanting this game done and everyone can take a beat. We've a first team squad of 20 outfield players and 4 have long term injuries, we can only get 30 mins at best out of Moult - it was known that we'd be having to manage his minutes when we signed him (and he apparently had an operation on his ankle a couple of weeks ago). That's before you even get to the various players who are probably 75% fit or whatever. Plus Connor Shields... That's not an excuse as such - every team gets injuries but we've basically been having to run with the same 16 players through our toughest run of fixtures of the season. We've played well in fits and starts this season and everything 'clicked' against County in Dingwall but right now we just look absolutely knackered. I think when the fixture list was announced most of us looked at the October - November period as...tough. The way things shook out we had most of the fixtures we'd hope/expect to get something from front loaded so the feeling was that when Stevie May prodded that winner at Fir Park and we contrived to lose having been 1 up at Killie, it'd come back to bite us on the arse. And it has.

Not to rake over old coals or that but looking at the VAR image for KVV's disallowed Goal Of The Season on Sunday - is it just me or have they drawn the line where Moult is rather than KVV? To be clear, I'm not arguing for or against the decision being right or wrong. There's a chance Van Veen is marginally off anyway. I'm just curious as to whether the line they've used has been drawn based on the position of a player who had zero involvement in the goal.

Tbh, it feels like as a stat it can really say whatever you want it to depending on your disposition. There's no real context to 'shot on target', Aberdeen's 10 shots could have been 10x daisy cutters for all I know. Either way, to your suggestion that we're "by far" the worst in the league on this metric, take Hibs for example - 08/11 - Ross County 3 (2) 04/11 - Aberdeen 6 (4) 29/10 - St Mirren 3 (0) 21/10 - St Johnstone 5 (2) 15/10 - Celtic 9 (6) 11/10 - United 1 (1) 08/10 - Motherwell 1 (0) 01/10 - County 2 (0) 17/09 - Aberdeen 1 (1) 03/09 - Kilmarnock 1 (0) 27/08 - St Mirren 2 (1) 20/08 - Rangers 2 (2) 13/08 - Livi 6 (2) 07/08 - Hearts 6 (1) 30/07 - St Johnstone 1 (0) Total - 49 (22) They've faced fewer shots on target than us (9) but conceded more goals.

Well we've got the 5th best goals against record in the league so that's something. I'm sure WyScout have an exact figure for the shots on target against for the entire league but I don't have a subscription so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We average 12.3 shots per game against and we've conceded 21 in 15 games so an average of 1.4 conceded per game. For context United average 15.7 shots against per game and have conceded 30 goals in 15 games so an average of 2 per game. Killie average 12.5 shots per game against and have conceded 27 goals in 15 games an average of 1.8. For the sake of being correct here's a list of our shots on target against (and goals conceded): 09/11 - Celtic 3 (2) 06/11 - Hearts 7 (3) 29/10 - United 3 (0) 22/10 - Aberdeen 3 (2) 16/10 - Rangers 4 (2) 08/10 - Hibs 5 (1) 04/10 - County 1 (0) 01/10 - Celtic 6 (2) 18/09 - Hearts 6 (3) 03/09 - United 3 (0) 27/08 - Killie 4 (2) 20/08 - Livi 1 (0) 13/08 - Aberdeen 3 (2) 06/08 - St Johnstone 3 (2) 31/07 - St Mirren 6 (0) Total - 58 (21)

Aye. Reading back to the exit statement from May 21 it says that "Martin and the club had decided to mutually part ways several months ago" so I wonder how far back "several months" actually was and whether he'd already chucked it when Robinson resigned. I think Lawleff pretty much confirmed that Robinson/Foyle had already done the groundwork on his signing rather than Alexander pitching up saying "get me Steven Lawless in the door. Now". As 'one last job' goes though...fucking hell.

Fwiw, Foyle's exit was officially announced 21st May 2021. He was announced at Northampton the same day.

Oh, absolutely. No doubt about that. IIRC he actually took over as manager of Scunthorpe for a bit after Alexander had been emptied. He'd been assistant manager at AFC Wimbledon before pivoting to a HoR role with them. Although, I suppose Foyle bailing as quickly after Robinson begs the question as to whether he'd have fared any better than Daws. A quick recap of Foyle's last window: Liam Kelly (loan) Steven Lawless Harry Smith (loan) Sam Foley Jordan Roberts (loan) Eddie Nolan (loan) Robbie Crawford (loan made permanent) Tyler Magloire (loan)

Cards on the table those were the first couple of links from a Google search that seemed to vaguely answer the question. I think your take is probably reasonably close though. I'd imagine they're more housed in the Sports Science/S&C department rather than doing tactical sessions or the like.

Assuming that's not a rhetorical question... https://informedinsport.com/new-blog/2016/1/22/defining-performance-therapy https://altis.world/articles/performance-therapy-what-is-it-and-how-is-it-applied/

Aye, I got your point and fully agree that there seemed to be a pivot away from the set up we had and allowed Alexander a bit more latitude to bring in staff. Arguably those were roles that were created rather it being a case of replacing the core staff who were already here. I suppose I'm just looking at it from the POV that there's still a fair number of the backroom staff there who pre-dated Alexander (and in some cases Robinson, McGhee, Baraclough and McCall). Boles left for Celtic back in January so he needed replaced anyway. Hinchliffe moved to United. I'm not sure that's inherently different to say, McManus moving to Celtic. In a coaching sense though our backroom team while Alexander was here amounted to GA, Lucketti, Lasley and Hinchliffe - Hammell has filled 2 of those 3 positions. As I've said though, without any actual knowledge of the ins and outs it still feels to me that we might be a bit light on the coaching side. By the by, I notice that the Head of Medicine and Performance has dropped off the official site.

Aye, Alexander was emptied on 29th July, Dibble left 10th August. If you look at the backroom staff he appointed Kerr to replace Lucketti who left along with GA. He's since appointed N. Alexander to replace Dibble. In terms of the staff he's inherited I don't think he's really had his hands tied in that respect. Davie Henderson has been here for fucking years same with Ross Clarkson and even more so Aldo. Andy Boles' replacement was a hire from Ross County and had no prior connection to Alexander AFAIK. Even the two performance analysis boys who'd been at Salford only had a fairly tenuous Alexander link. As you say, I'm not sure they make any difference when it comes to Hammell's staff. The one thing I'd say is that prior to his being emptied Alexander had spoken a couple of times about wanting to add another body to the coaching staff. The 2nd quote below says that he'd spoken to a couple of people: I'll not lie, without pretending I know what's going on day to day on the training park, I'd feel a lot better about the whole situation if we had an experienced coach supporting Hammell and Kerr. Ideally someone who can drill a defence to within an inch of its life please.

Unrelated to McKinstry but also...

I mean, fair enough you're not a fan but his shot conversion this season is roughly the same as Giakoumakis and his shot accuracy is better than Colak. So...¯\_(ツ)_/¯