capt_oats

You'd think it would be. On the face of it it feels pretty straightforward. The majority of the squad is contracted for next season, even the current cohort of Reserves are on deals to 2023 (Johnston, Campbell etc). The OOC players are; Morrison, Lamie, O'Connor, Grimshaw, Nirennold, O'Hara, Donnelly, Amaluzor, Roberts. Shaw (loan expires) O'Connor and Amaluzor were 1 year contracts (DOC's already back in Ireland going by his IG) while Nirennold and Roberts were short-term to the end of the season. Grimshaw's already had his send off from the Bois and O'Hara's PCA has been reported (if not officially confirmed). The only real question marks there are Lamie given the clause in his PCA and Donnelly (IMO). Last year and the curtailed Covid season aside they've generally been published within a couple of days of the final game (in the case of 15/16, the next day). 20/21 - 24th May 2021 (final game was 16th May) 19/20 - 31st May 2020 (final game was 7th March in the curtailed season) 18/19 - 21st May 2019 (final game 18th May) 17/18 - 21st May 2018 (final game 19th May) 16/17 - 22nd May 2017 (final game 20th May) 15/16 - 16th May 2016 (final game 15th May)

Aye, Kelly, Mugabi, Johansen and erm, McGinley all have another 2 years. SOD, Ojala and Carroll have 1 year. I know it's been the main topic of conversation on here but the difference pre/post winter break raises obvious questions on top of having the 2nd worst goals against record as well. Pre-break we'd played 20 and conceded 27 so 1.35 gpg conceded. Post-break we've played 18 and conceded 34 so 1.88 gpg conceded. It's the same defence, what happened? This is actually out by a goal (we've conceded 61 not 60, they're missing an away GA) but it's another interesting home/away split. Our home GD is -2 vs an away of -17. There's probably a broader question in so much as whether it's down to system and shape or individuals etc. We stuck with the 433 and the way we played it put pressure on full backs, we changed bodies in the midfield 3 as well. Looking at the season we lost 6 games by a 1 goal margin, 6 by a 2 goal margin, 1 by a 3 goal margin (Dundee away) and 3 by 4+ (Rangers x1 and Celtic x2).

I don't subscribe to his Patreon so I've not actually read it but it seems Nixon has a story about Jack Ross and the Charlton job.

My main takeaway is that #Alexanderball was generally successful at home but pretty ineffective (I'm being polite) away. We conceded more goals in the first half of away games than any other half of football this season and scored only 1 (ONE) goal. If the tactic was to "keep it tight" in away games then it simply didn't work. We scored first in 11 of our 19 home games vs 3 of 19 away (albeit we won 2 of those 3). The opponent was leading at H/T in 15 of our 19 away games vs only 5 of 19 at home. All these screenshots are from this site btw: https://www.soccerstats.com/team.asp?league=scotland&stats=11-motherwell

I realise that you can pretty much put this down to shipping 6 today and 6 against Rangers (along with the 4 against Celtic at Fir Park) but that's us with the joint 2nd worst goals against column in the league. By a fucking distance too... Here's a nice graphic showing when we've scored/conceded. Actually, the home/away split of that data is an eye opener. Also, this info on home/away is quite interesting.

Unless I'm being massively whooshed Lamie is in the lineup and Donnelly's on the bench? Either way, Celtic win.

Fwiw, we've got the 4th best home record in the league. If anything it's our away form that's hamstrung us this season. The teams who've beaten us at home in the league have been: Rangers x2 (1-6 & 1-3 though ironically we're unbeaten at Ibrox) Celtic x2 (0-2 & 0-4) Hibs (2-3) County (0-1)

There's yer STs announced. Also that Hinchliffe on his way out to United anaw. By my count that's all Robinson's backroom staff away. Ross last season, Boles to Celtic (B), Lasley to St Mirren, now Hinchliffe.

Oh, by the by...

On the recruitment I think we've got more right than wrong in terms of the significant ones. I'd guess that there was always an acknowledgement that we were never going to turn over an entire squad in one window/season so there were going to be some bodies who were likely to be filler. The fact we needed players in for the LC groups at a point where our squad was hugely in flux and we hadn't got a bunch of our main targets in only added to that I guess. The main investments ie: the 3 year deals (Kelly, Slattery, Woolery, Tierney, Shields and Johansen) have all been broadly fine (IMO). All of them have shown they're capable at this level and while we might not flip them for millions equally there's no one that's looked out their depth. I'm not disagreeing that at the moment first picks are probably Mugabi and Lamie but equally I think there's probably a degree of leeway due for Johansen given his season started last May. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if stopping for the winter break just saw him hit a wall and struggle to get back. On a basic level I don't think anyone would deny that both Ojala and Johansen looked fine in the period just after they signed. I'm largely of the view that Efford is someone we've taken a punt on given it was an 18 month deal but equally it's worth factoring in that he's arrived at the club mid-season and it's a new league so there's probably some sort of period of adjustment. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's not the answer for us but he's scored more goals since he's arrived than Tony Watt has for United...so, there's that. Going back to a statement Daws made in the #content clip the club put up on YouTube about recruitment it'll be interesting to see if this approach still holds in the coming window: It's interesting that as yet we've not been linked with any PCAs given Robinson usually had about half a dozen confirmed with Tommy Wright announcing them to the press for us in a seethe. Although I suppose if we're working with Hearts towards a rule change on when PCAs can be agreed it wouldn't be a great look for us to have leaks coming out about that sort of stuff. Alexander has made a point about this being his first full season managing in Scotland and I think it's fair to say he's misjudged a fair amount specifically the League Cup group and similarly he didn't seem to handle the winter break well (bearing in mind there was no break last season when he arrived). Had he lost both the County and Hearts games along with our impending battering by Celtic I think it'd have put everyone in a pretty awkward place. As it stands though, it feels like this season has been a transitional one and I'd hope that lessons have been learned. As I've said before, my preference has always been for Alexander to give his head a wobble and fix his mistakes and given the way the season's finished there's no doubt that he gets the summer as a platform to do that.

He's still got another year to go on his contract at Hull does he not? Unless Hull have just decided to give up on him and cut their losses. Our hopes of that sweet, sweet sell on % disappearing...

Based on who's currently contracted for next season this is how it looks. I mean, there's definite scope for adjustment and movement in and/or out but there's nowhere near the sort of rebuild needed that we were seeing on an annual basis when Robinson was here.

Also, I see that's the Bathgate Maldini talking about his pre-contract situation. Clearly he's actively trying to walk back on the deal with Dundee and fair fucks the manager who signed him was sacked, they've been relegated, he's no idea who their next manager will be and he has a clause that allows him to walk away - it'd be weird to commit to them when the circumstances have changed to the extent they have. If he's got other options beyond Fir Park (and it seems he does) then tbh it kind of feels like the Ricki Lamie redemption arc here is done and fair play to him if he can get a better paying gig out of things.

Not unrelated...this pivot to the 343/523, is it a needs must thing because we've been riddled with botulism or is it potentially a thing going forward? We tried it earlier in the season and it didn't really take, in fact it was possibly part of the conundrum the manager seemed to created for himself after the break but it's probably no coincidence that we've seen two of SODs best performances in the past couple of games as opposed to him having been stuck in a back 4. There are enough bodies around the squad to make me think it could be a fit. I've mentioned it before in this thread but it felt to me like Alexander has ended up tying himself in knots trying to fix problems that possibly weren't there. Whether it's load management with players or rotating to keep everyone happy. Losing Watt in the manner we did, at the point in the season we did was a tough one to take because ultimately we're not replacing our best player/league's top scorer in a January window but even given the way it played out I'm still not sure we ever really satisfactorily resolved it. The language that both Burrows and Alexander have used recently suggest that at the very least they're aware that there are lessons to be learned. Burrows has mentioned it being a "super unusual season" and also a "bumpy old season" while Alexander's post-match had him saying "our form results wise since January hasn't been where we expected"

Shoutout to the SPFL admin (again).

Robinson's very much about getting players in early. Looking at our 19/20 season 6 of our 10 permanent signings in the summer were pre-contracts (Gallagher, Polworth, Carroll, Sloth, Hylton and Long). Burrows spoke about it last summer because we were pivoting away from the sort of approach we'd been used to under Robinson. Where he wanted the bulk of his business done by the time pre-season started we chose to aim a bit higher even if it meant having to wait a bit longer. It's a cack-handed explanation but Robinson's targets with us tended to be players he thought were "gettable" so to speak. He'd write off going for players he thought there was less chance of getting and focus on those who'd maybe be 3rd or 4th options on other teams lists. His preference was to go out and focus on getting those players early and lock them in rather than waiting on arguably "better quality players" who we'd maybe face more competition for and run the risk of losing out on all our targets as other clubs may have moved on to their alternates by then.

Some laugh that a little over a week ago this thread was red hot with the "there's a board meeting, Alexander's getting sacked" chat. B2B wins with a team held together by sellotape and that's European qualification confirmed. What a carry on eh?

Say what you like about Alexander and all that but absolutely fair fucks this is a team that's actually turned up in clutch moments. Tonight, County on Saturday, from 2-0 down at Livi, 2-0 and 1-0 down in both games at Ibrox. Other, better, Motherwell teams would 100% have bottled each and every one of them.

Still the greatest goal ever scored and video ever made. wat is life.