capt_oats

By my count this is how the squad looks at the moment (assuming O'Hara is still injured and Lamie's a question mark due to the PCA). 26 players with one injured. Fwiw: any of the midfield could start IMO so the placement on the depth chart means f**k all. Tbh, IMO it really depends on who's available tomorrow whether we add. If someone genuinely worthwhile came up I'd say there's probably scope for a forward but otherwise I'd be inclined to agree that it's more likely we'd just run with what we have.

Fair comment.

Was that not offset by Wighton going the other way though? So they just cancelled each other out.

I'm not sure tbh. I don't think it's a bluff or a flex. I think we'll happily keep him - the ball's really in Nelms/Dundee's court. If McPake really wants him this window it's on Dundee to make us an offer that suits us. It's not like we're just going to hand him over because he's signed a PCA - that's not really how we work these days. Obviously in the Watt/United case it was done early and they've thrown daft money at the player to get him to sign the PCA and handed us a "six figure fee" to get it done. Genuinely curious, realistically is Nelms likely to chuck money at getting Lamie in now?

Had a look at this just there and we're 9 points off where we were in 19/20 after 23 games (and a league placing lower). Without wanting to be reductive you can pretty much account for a chunk of those 9 points with the Dundee and County games along with St Mirren where we chucked a 2 goal lead and Bobby Madden helped St Mirren on their way to salvaging a point.

Agree, shocker from Souttar and could easily have been a penalty for Motherwell He got away with one there.

Tbh, I think both can be true. To take the second point first, that was a new midfield yesterday with two players making their first league starts. There's an element of adjustment in that respect on top of losing someone who was a key part of how we were set up. re: Watt, with his whole PCA saga and subsequent move we've played 5 games since he last kicked a baw for us: Livi (h) 2-1 (W) County (a) 3-1 (L) Morton (h) 2-1 (W - AET) Hibs (h) 0-0 (X) Hearts (a) 2-0 (L) It's probably fair to say that of those 5 with the games we lost we didn't lose because Tony Watt wasn't playing. We lost because we made some really dumb decisions defensively.

The interesting thing with Tierney is that he gives us an alternative shape. A lot of folk (not on here, on other corners of the Motherwell Internet) have had a wheeze about Alexander sticking with 433 and that. It seems clear that with Tierney it allows us to go 442 diamond/4312 (Potato/Potato). So there's the potential of having 2 strikers on the park.

There was, aye. We'd also lost a forward who was a big part of making the system work (Cole).

Quoting myself (in the spoiler) like an absolute gimp but to update this from December 23rd on how the fixtures and points total compare from each round of fixtures: R1: 01/08 - Hibs (h) 2-3 (L) = 0 08/08 - St Johnstone (a) 1-1 (X) = 1 21/08 - Livingston (a) 1-2 (W) = 3 28/08 - Dundee (h) 1-0 (W) = 3 11/09 - Aberdeen (h) 2-0 (W) = 3 19/09 - Rangers (a) 1-1 (X) = 1 25/09 - Ross County (h) 2-1 (W) = 3 02/10 - Hearts (a) 2-0 (L) = 0 16/10 - Celtic (h) 0-2 (L) = 0 23/10 - Dundee Utd (a) 2-1 (L) = 0 27/10 - St Mirren (h) 2-2 (X) = 1 Total = 15 points - P 11 W 4 D 3 L 4 F 14 A 15 R2: 31/10 - Rangers (h) 1-6 (L) = 0 06/11 - Aberdeen (a) 0-2 (W) = 3 20/11 - Hearts (h) 2-0 (W) = 3 27/11 - Dundee (a) 3-0 (L) = 0 30/11 - Dundee Utd (h) 1-0 (W) = 3 04/12 - Hibs (a) 1-1 (X) = 1 12/12 - Celtic (a) 1-0 (L) = 0 18/12 - St Johnstone (h) 2-0 (W) = 3 26/12 - Livingston (h) 2-1 (W) = 3 18/01 - Ross County (a) 3-1 (L) = 0 Total = 16 points - P 10 W 5 D 1 L 4 F 12 A 15 R3: 26/01 - Hibs (h) 0-0 (X) = 1 29/01 - Hearts (a) 2-0 (L) = 0 Total = 1 point - P 2 W 0 D 1 L 1 F 0 A 2

Not a roll and mince as such but...

That seems to be what Dundee would like to happen.

I had thought the same, or at least it feels like it's trending that way. The Watt to United transfer still seems weird because of the optics and everything around it but in and of itself Ricki Lamie to Dundee on a PCA doesn't seem that surprising (despite what a certain section of our support on social media might think). What does seem new or at least different is the amount of PCAs that have been 'leaked' early and the leveraging a move early for a (nominal) fee. Should he f**k off this window that will mean we've seen Carson and Watt to United, Lamie to Dundee, Crawford to Thistle and Lawless cut loose entirely (and end up at Dunfermline). Five players all ending up exclusively at Scottish clubs. Strong agree with that. In fact it's feels notable that the whole Pals of Declan group has pretty much been shut down. That whole episode of Robinson trying to recreate a Livi side circa 2018/19 was quite weird eh?

Tbh, the news about Lamie means that the Jake Carroll: Centre Back project makes a lot more sense now (and also Alexander's comment that we'd maybe be looking for another defender despite Big Vic coming in). Assuming he fucks off (and we get some cash for him) that leaves McGinley, SOD, Fox and O'Hara left of Robinson's summer signings from last season. Quite a turnaround. Processing the idea that we might get some money for Ricki Lamie though...

It's in the news story this time.

FTFY.

Depends which version you get. His first 6 months he was murder but Alexander has turned him into a serviceable defender and I think most of us would have been happy to keep him around. Tbh, it's not a massive shock. He's done well for us but it's pretty clear that ideally Ojala and Solholm are our first pick CBs if everyone is fit and Lamie seems to have wanted more game time and he'd always have been a back-up. I'd guess Dundee can offer him a starting spot. The fact that his pal has fucked off to United made me think there was a fair chance he was off. Farewell to the Bathgate Maldini. Fwiw...this is peak Bad Ricki

Hey Joe...

Oh...

Can only really echo what others have said, he was absolutely fine through the Betfred games. He showed up well enough, he's a fair unit and has a pretty decent grounding having played LOI and then on to Leicester's Academy. I've said it before on this thread but it kind of feels like we signed him up to give us bodies through pre/early season as we hadn't got our main targets in the door and the competitive games had started. IIRC we only had Ricki Lamie available for centre half at that point. Once Mugabi was back, Ojala and Solholm had signed up he's kind of been bouncing around as cover so at this point he 100% needs games and I guess us having signed Big Vic on a short term deal through the week enables that. He seems a likeable big guy so hopefully he does QoS a turn.

Our away form is absolute mince at the moment. Our last away win was against Aberdeen at the start of November since then we've drawn at Easter Road and lost at Dens, Parkhead and whatever County's stadium's called. Hearts win.

Is that "word on the street" coming from afc chat?

It was the boy from Bradford. McCall confirmed after the window shut that a deal had fallen through (he was managing Bradford at the time). Shay McCartan. It was Hibs we were playing at Easter Road (lost 2-1). All the chat was on this thread here (page 225).