capt_oats

Squad update expected this week (at some point).

The thing with Donnelly is that he probably has a higher ceiling than he's shown this season - he can also ping a ball. IIRC he's NI's record cap holder for their u21s and he's been called up for the national side before and after his injuries. So to that end he's an actual international player in our squad. The goals in the 19/20 season were definitely a purple patch though. The rub is that although both Robinson and Alexander have played 433 they ask their midfields to do different things. Robinson's version with Polworth, Donnelly and Campbell was a bit more fluid with a bit more rotation between players on the park so Donnelly would find himself advanced a bit more and in and around the box, hence the goals. Alexander's midfield 3 is less so, it needs the player in that role to act more as an anchor or traditional holding mid. That run of games he had in the 3 with O'Hara and Goss didn't get results. IMO it becomes a question of where he fits in the team/squad as he'll obviously want to be playing to keep involved with the international side of things. Of all the OOC players he's probably the most 50/50. You can just as easily argue for a value of him sticking around as you can say that after 4 years at the club he could benefit from a fresh start.

It's actually a solid reminder of the job Alexander has done with him. What a time...

Given Lamie's form playing for Robinson after he signed and Robinson's quotes about players he'd signed in that window just before he resigned it'd be a surprise if he was interested IMO. I could be wrong though (obvs).

Aye, that's where it maybe gets a bit weird and kind of depends on the plan going forward. If we stick with the 343/523 it'd give us Mugabi, Johansen, Ojala as a back 3 plus Donnelly. McGinley as an option as well, Carroll had a short run as a CB this season too. Depends on Lamie as well I suppose although I get the feeling that there's a fair chance he still moves, just not to Dens. His stock feels as high as it's ever been right now. I'm not sure that keeping the same personnel really squares with Alexander talking about our defensive record being trash though. Although he did talk about looking at the system we've been playing as a consideration of that.

This will sound daft because it would be a really weird thing to consciously do during an actual season but...with Alexander who knows. I kind of felt that the run in the team Donnelly go ahead of Slattery was almost like an audition for the role given he had missed the 2nd half of the 20/21 season when GA took over and picked up another injury at the start of 21/22 which Alexander hinted that he felt partially responsible for as he'd been pushing him to get back and play in the Betfred games. Him making an appearance in the back three in the County and Hearts games (which we won) half made me wonder if that might have given both parties something to think about. I'm 50/50 on whether I think he stays or goes though. I don't particularly feel strongly either way, as @crazylegsjoe_mfc it kind of feels like a natural conclusion given he's been here since 2018 but IMO there are worse options to have around the squad. It feels notable that he's not one of the ones who went straight on to IG to say "see ya!" though.

Kind of related to the impending SQUAD UPDATE. I posted this the other week but here it is now the season's finished. The squad ordered by minutes played.

HBD

See, as far as DOC goes I'm almost certain that had this been a typical Robinson summer where we'd finished the season with like, 12 players contracted and 14 out of contract or whatever, there would be a fair chance he'd be getting extra year as an easy way to pad out the squad and we'd see if he'd develop any further (and if he didn't we'd either cut him loose or sign someone else the following January). As it stands though we've 19 players contracted and 9 outfield players heading OOC. That's naturally going to have to be trimmed so we probably have space for 5 players in (that's before any resolution on Lamie and Donnelly). The manager's also on record as saying he feels we need to look to improve the squad. As @Handsome_Devil and @Swello's posts highlight it's not an exclusive thing with this circumstance. Folk get bent out of shape on an annual basis with weird takes about relatively young players we've not seen much of getting released but to go back to a post @crazylegsjoe_mfc made the other day, if you were paying attention as to what was going on with the squad it seemed clear that O'Connor was primarily signed as a body to get us through the early stage of competitive games (and that's not a slight on him at all, I thought he was absolutely fine). He's also at a stage in his career where he needs to be playing games on a regular basis. With all that in mind it just feels weird that anyone's actually surprised that O'Connor's being let go, let alone people actually kicking off about it. Tbf, anyone who willingly self-defines as an entrepreneur is 100% OFTW in my book. I mean, I checked his TL to see if it was maybe an ironic bit he was doing but no, he just seems to be a seething mess about Alexander. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Aye, I mean don't get me wrong, 1 win in 15 raises very legitimate questions that need to be addressed if not to the wider support then certainly to the board. It's the nature of the business I'd imagine that's true of any club and any sport, not just Motherwell. I'm interested to see how/if that informs our summer. That said, there's a definite and very specific section of Lovejoys in our support. The mental gymnastics and hand-wringing over a goal keeper coach moving after 5 years at the club or a 5th choice centre back who'd made 5 appearances at the start of the season not being kept on is indicative of that. Like I say it must be fucking exhausting.

I mean, we have hills and nice views in Lanarkshire as well but that's not really the point. The interview @Pete the Jakey linked to on the previous page suggested he might be looking to move back down the road so in terms of "why would you?" you'd need to ask the bold Blair that question.

The O'Connor stuff just has the same energy as folk who were raging that we released Dan Twardzik. It's Luke Watt Syndrome. In a broader sense it feels like people moving on has become the new stick to beat Alexander with because he did actually get into the Top 6 and managed to qualify for Europe so they can't have a moan about that now. Special shout out to the brainiac who thinks that our GK coach moving to United is a sign that Alexander's going to "destroy our club". It must be fucking exhausting being this stupid. I'm shocked to find yer man also had a take on Darragh O'Connor...

But can you relocate to the Central belt?

Oh aye?

A wee shoutout for Deano btw. Quietly worked his way into the team. 17 appearances by the end of the season - 14 of them starts. Also, confirmed that Hinchliffe's away to United to be their GK coach.

Ha! Deleted mine. Also...this is my ticket.

Without wanting to come across as a GA stan, I probably fall into his corner on this. I wouldn't necessarily go overboard demanding credit but I understand why he's chippy about it. There's been a weird saltiness from various places (including the reply guys in our own fanbase) about us being in the Top 6, especially from people who had hot takes at the start of the season about where we'd be finishing (hint: it wasn't Top 6). The obvious caveat is they won a cup double last season which I imagine adds a massive gloss to things but to use St Johnstone as an example; we finished on the same points as they did at the split last season, we've won more games, scored more goals and have more points than they finished up with in 5th. I don't remember the same sort of narrative we've had about them not deserving to be in the Top 6 - the difference is the distribution of results that got the points. In that respect GA's right to point out that the league runs August to May not January to April. Ultimately, what it comes down to is that we had more points than 6 other teams at the split. We had the points on the board early, they didn't. Incidentally, it was a rare treat to hear @thisGRAEME on the Monday Terrace pod last week and his summary of the season was pretty much spot on IMO.

I know the top tweet has already been posted but it's linked in the thread...

Aye, this is exactly how I see it as well. Absolutely nothing against DOC as he seems a good lad and has something about him but at his age and stage of his career he really needs to be playing games. There's every chance he turns into a very good defender but that's not going to happen hanging around here as 4th or 5th choice. As @crazylegsjoe_mfc says it feels very much like O'Connor was signed to cover that transitional spell early last season where we had competitive games but hadn't yet secured our main targets. See also the bold Justin and Mich'el Parker. The other thing is, unlike other almost every other season recently the majority of our squad is contracted so we don't really have same slack to just dish out extensions to players like O'Connor as we probably would have when Robinson was here and turning over half the squad every summer. As it stands, including Johnston, there are 19 "first team" players contracted and 9 outfield players OOC or returning to their parent club so we probably only have space for 5 max. incoming to replace those 9 (assuming none of the contracted players move on).

That's DOC confirmed he's away as well. Also via IG. https://www.instagram.com/p/CdlzxgVqPWs/

This is apparently my 10k post (yikes). Rather than waste it on a big, long daft post here are videos of the 94/95 team, Michael Higdon, Lionel and Moult.

We usually do one of those wee end of season review type things on the socials with Burrows or the manager. Appreciate that we've learned that pretty much everything Alexander says publicly should be taken with a crate of salt but it'd be interesting to hear what the general position is. @welldaft referenced it a couple of pages ago but identifying that the the defence needs fixed and we need to improve aspects of the squad is a pretty good start IMO. On a basic level I'd agree with him that we have the nucleus of a good squad.