capt_oats

I understand the Gogic shouts but was he not essentially bombed out the Hibs team by Ross for not being particularly good on the ball? I'm not sure dropping him (or a player like him) into the Hammell version of this team fixes our problems. Well, it might solve some of them but chances are it creates others. Having a swatch at the St Mirren thread there's definitely a vibe that they've chucked money at their squad this year - and absolutely fair enough. We got a nice new pitch, they got Trevor Carson and Mark O'Hara along with the likes of Baccus and Gogic. There was chat that the bold MO'H was one of our higher earners so looking at their recruitment and Gogic seemed to be one that they didn't think they were going to get. Basically I'm not 100% certain that he'd have been value for us especially given he's another of those who seems to be between two stools in terms of what his position actually is. I echo @thisGRAEME's post in terms of the scouting pool. Given Hammell seems to be very much a *project* it'd be interesting to know what that actually looks like in recruitment terms beyond panic signing a handful of former players (who may or may not be wildly injury prone).

Breaking the games we've played this season into the rounds of fixtures it looks like 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) Total - 3 points So as it stands we're -1 point down from the same fixtures in the first round.

Aye, this is the thing - I can't help but feel that both Sol and Lamie would benefit massively from having a more "experienced" (read: better) defender alongside them. They both have their positive qualities but as a pair it feels like they're less than the sum of their parts. That said, as @Casagolda points out they're also on a bit of a hiding to nothing given the amount of defending they're having to do. As you say though, stick a peak Hartley or prime Aldred beside one or the other and I think you'd see improvement. Similarly stick Ally Gorrin in front of them and it'd go some way to solving a lot of our issues. I also like Hammell and all things considered he's actually got us in a decent enough position in that we're into November 3 points off 6th and 4 points off 4th but I'm increasingly perplexed by his coming out after games, identifying issues then putting the same team out the next week and coming out after that game and identifying the same issues if we lose.

I think 3 is the most probable based on what we know as well. When Hammell got the job we had 4 centre backs in Lamie, Johansen, Mugabi and Ojala whereas our options up front were KVV, Shields, Efford and Morris. Hammell all but said at the time that his priority was the forward options. We clearly mutualled Ojala but didn't bring anyone in to replace him - I guess we'll never know if we tried or not. Either way being objective the feeling seemed to be that in a numbers sense we'd have enough serviceable CBs to get through to January compared with the apparent dearth of goals in the team (despite what Alexander was claiming pre-season). To that point, up until yesterday we had conceded the (joint) 3rd fewest goals in the league (we're 5th now - behind Celtic, Rangers and having conceded a goal more than both Livi and St Johnstone). Also, of Hammell's now 16 games in charge we've kept clean sheets in 6 which isn't the best but also isn't the worst. Fwiw, we're also 5th in goals scored. The obvious problem is the games we're not keeping clean sheets in. Of those 10 games we've only lost 1-0 in in one of them (and won one 3-2 tbf). I've now officially lost count of the number of games Hammell's come out and spoken about being "disappointed" and us having lost "poor" goals. IMO we're definitely salvageable but the concern is that I don't think we have what's needed to fix us in the building at the moment.

Posted this before but there's a good long read about McKinstry by Phil Hay on The Athletic. There's no paywall on mobile as far as I can see (I just had a read on my phone).

Aye. Carroll 100% has the look of a FM regen. Looking at that squad photo and mindful of the fact that PCA szn is soon to be upon us here's our contracts situation: 2023: Connelly, O'Donnell, Carroll, McGinn, Johnston, Devine, Cornelius, Goss, Efford, Speirs 2024: Kelly, Oxborough, Lamie, Mugabi, Johansen, McGinley, Maguire, Spittal, Slattery, Van Veen, Morris, Shields 2025: Tierney, Miller Loan expires at parent clubs: 2023: Penney (Ipswich), McKinstry (Leeds), Moult (Burton Albion)

Interesting that Miller and Speirs appear in both Development and First Team photos...

Is that one guy massive, or is everyone else wee? Or is it both? According to his profile on the official he's 6ft 5 so.... https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/player/logan-dunachie/

#YoungMotherwell

Hearts win. It feels like we've a fairly shite record at Tynecastle and despite a welcome win against United our issues aren't really any closer to being solved. We're an ongoing work in progress really and it's not really a quick fix. As much as Hearts have their injury problems we're running a smaller squad this season and it's paper thin. We've just confirmed Aarons' loan has been terminated because he's broken, Joey Efford's out until the new year, Moult is being held together by sellotape so our forward options to start are pretty much what we had on the park last week. For all his graft a forward line including Connor Shields shouldn't be a concern for any opposition at the moment. As @crazylegsjoe_mfc says we had Moult on the bench last week with next to no intention of using him given Hammell had been in the press the previous day saying we weren't expecting him to be back involved for another 10 days. It seems like it's just a case of us muddling along until January trying to keep our heads above water before we try and bring a couple in.

You're correct with all of that stuff in terms of what we do as a club but Lasley was our assistant manager (whilst also studying for his Sports Directorship degree). He didn't have the same role he's taken with St Mirren. I think you're conflating things a bit. A lot of the things you've mentioned are absolutely initiatives that became pillars of the club while Lasley was here but if you're looking at the main driver behind them then it'd be Alan Burrows first and foremost. Don't get me wrong, Lasley may well have been a sounding board and I'm sure he's learned a fair bit while he was here but in terms of the person in charge of the direction of the club that was/is Burrows.

Don't get me wrong, I love Las but I'm genuinely curious what you think Lasley "was starting to achieve at Motherwell"?

He's not POTM but here's a video of him anyway lads...¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Fair play to the actual POTM... He gets his own wee video anaw.

I think it all comes back to the weird stand off that seems to have happened over the summer which basically saw us only announce 3 players before Alexander got his jotters; McGinn, Spittal and Morris (with Oxborough having signed but kept on the QT while the dust settled on the Sligo/GA fall out). Who knows, maybe Hammell wanted a few bodies in that he felt he knew what they were about. Curiously Penney has been our best post GA signing by an absolute mile and he feels 100% like a recruitment team pick-up. I could be wrong on that but since the other 3 we've signed since Hammell's been in the job have all been former players it doesn't seem like a massive leap to take in suggesting that a guy on the fringes of Ipswich's starting XI may have been a scouting job rather than asking for a favour. The other thing I guess is that Hammell's needs and wants in terms of player profile are presumably have been very different from Alexander's so there's a chance we may have had to rip up at least part of any list we might have had. That's not to say I disagree with your broader point like.

Interesting that we had a clause in place in case this happened. It's obviously shite news for Aarons given how much football he's missed through injury the past couple of season. Leaves our first team squad as: GK: Kelly, Oxborough, Connelly DF: O'Donnell, Lamie, Mugabi, Johansen, McGinn, Penney MF: Maguire, Spittal, Slattery, Cornelius, Tierney, Goss FW: Van Veen, McKinstry, Moult, Morris, Shields Injured: Carroll, McGinley, Efford Available = 20

55 mins 32s https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001d2wg/a-view-from-the-terrace-series-5-episode-3

Sadness in his eyes. It's worth remembering they lost that game as well.

There's a meme for that.

Chris Porter is still kicking a baw. Although it seems he may be injured. So, not literally kicking a baw.

Hard pass on Griffiths. Obvs. It's not even the baggage but in that wee puff piece on the BBC you've got him saying "I'm never going to be Scott Brown or Callum McGregor. I'm never going to be as fit as them. I never have been and never will be." I mean, if he's not fit and apparently has no actual motivation to get fit i don't see that he improves our situation any even on a short term deal. I didn't follow his 5 minute jaunt to Australia but going by Transfermarkt he became a free agent on October 13th so would he even be eligible to sign outside the window? Are Mandurah City even playing at a level that has transfer windows? Either way, I'd imagine they would be on a different calendar but still...nah. Anyway, here's Hammell talking about January signings. Make of this what you will.

@Swello mentioned it on the match thread but the definitive angle posted on the P&B TL seems to have been ours.

Honestly, I thought that Aberdeen fan having a breakdown over KVV last season was good. This is next level.

Aye, f**k that. I just enjoyed the tears over VAR getting a decision right then went about my day. To borrow from @Swello there's a lot to be said for drive-by schadenfreude That said, did I listen to a 4 hour lower league episode of The Terrace with Shaughan and Telfer?

Following the clip of the Watt challenge @Div posted on the P&B TL I'm positively drowning in schadenfreude listening to this. Lads, from 12m 09s...it's fucking beautiful. "It's a stitch-up!"