capt_oats

I suppose the obvious point is that given we are currently 2 points and one league place ahead of Hibs whereas Dundee are very much not it means that it's not really in Hibs interests to help us out by handing over a centre forward who's scored 13 and 19 goals in his previous two season with them.

There's chat in this thread from around June 2019 along the lines of "is Forest Green Rovers' Christian Doidge someone we'd look at?" but I don't think there was ever any solid link. Actually, it turns out I mentioned him in a big daft post in January 2018 as well...when we signed Nadz.

Timely post on Twitter.

Both his bookings kind of reminded me of Ally Gorrin. A daft tackle to commit to on a booking but ultimately nothing challenges. I mean, fair enough both are bookings but I can understand the frustration in getting sent off as a consequence.

Actually agree with both positions here tbh. The plus point of Watt (aside from him being a good player) was that he could play as a #9 or fit into the channel (which was where he was more useful whether he liked it or not). If we go out and bring in someone who's exclusively a #9 then it leaves us either shoving van Veen out wide or rotating them. I'm not saying Tony Watt's the only player who can do that but the January window is probably pretty tough to get you a guy who can do both. It also feels like we need a KVV alternative though. He's been good, he's chipped in with goals and I think it's fair to think that he'll end up in double figures for us this season but it also feels like at the moment he's carrying the load in terms of expectations for goals. Like others I'd bite your hand off for Doidge if that was remotely a thing.

Aye you can see the belly rub in this clip. This is the best I can find of the 4-3. Anyway, apropos of nothing...that 0-0 last night means we've now only conceded 1 goal in our last 5 at home in the league. Which is nice.

The write up from Michael Gannon in the Record says: It's not the most reliable of sources but that 2nd video I posted yesterday suggests that he holds a work permit. It was published by whatever agency it is on 5th October 2021. I'd have thought if it was subject to a work permit being granted it'd have mentioned in the news story when he was announced yesterday.

A bit more chat from Alexander re: transfers and Big Vic.

That was my initial thought (after I'd stopped laughing at how wildly left field a signing it is, even allowing for Alexander having worked with him before and him having been in on trial).

Here's the big man when he was at Fleetwood (more recent one in the spoiler).

I was following it on my phone at a Pavement gig at the Barras. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pavement/2010/barrowland-glasgow-scotland-2bd4e0c6.html

Fwiw, here's the pre-match interview for the context of the quotes above. The transfer chat starts around 5 mins 50.

In fairness to O'Connor he picked up an injury back in November (November 30th to be exact). If we're giving others the benefit of the doubt with them coming back from injury I'd imagine it's a similar situation with him.

It definitely feels like a bigger picture discussion. Tbh, this whole season has felt like a transitional thing with Alexander bringing in some of his own bodies (successfully for the most part) and working out what he does with those he inherited. I noticed a comment he made post-match on Saturday when he was praising Donnelly that basically had him put his hands up a bit about his injuries this season: Either way, the idea that we're out there looking for players who'd go straight into the team is novel. Kind of agree with others re: full back. When you think that SOD's back-up seems to be playing Bevis out of position rather than Grimshaw and the ongoing Carroll/McGinley weirdness (especially with Carroll being preferred as an emergency CB) it's an area that needs addressing. His last point about "With the injuries we have got at the minute, we are a little bit stretched." definitely hints at an issue with either Lamie or Mugabi or both given they were missing from the squad on Saturday.

Alexander talking transfer stuff in his press conference...interesting. Hmmmm....

Aye, IIRC Australian sides don't pay fees for...reasons. At least that was the story when an A-League side (Western Sydney Wanderers) decided they wanted Scott McDonald not long after he'd signed a new contract with us. Narrator: Motherwell did not agree to rip up his contract and allow him to move as a free agent.

Speaking of beloved former players scoring goals (as we were with Campbell the other week) there's big Cedric getting his first for West Brom. Some strike...

That is a sensational spot. And very, very funny.

The fact that we've gone from pretty much publishing players medical histories to secret squirrel means it's quite difficult to get a handle on things with players being disappeared from the team/squad. That was Bevis and Grimshaw missing from the match squad yesterday. It seems clear Alexander fancies Carroll as a centre back more than McGinley (ironic given McGinley was supposedly signed as a CB) so with Ojala and O'Connor both coming back from injury and Lamie presumably still carrying whatever he picked up against Hibs last month it's not ideal but I guess it is what it is. @Yorky alludes to it at the top of the page but I had wondered if Slattery was maybe one of the group who had Covid over Christmas and is maybe being eased back. I get he was benched pre-break but there's a chance that was down to the suspension situation. As far as KVV goes he's 30+ and has a patchy injury record so I get why we'd have rotated him out yesterday given we played on Tuesday past and have games on Wednesday/Saturday. I think yesterday was a good argument for why we need a KVV alternative though. For the most part we were fine yesterday and definitely deserved to go through IMO. There was just a lack of threat, which as learning curves go shouldn't be a massive surprise when you've sold your top scorer and benched the guy who was 2nd top.

Pretty sure it's Charlie Dunne you're thinking of. He had a history of injuries when he signed but when he came back at the start of 18/19 season he looked massively bulked and picked up a groin injury almost straight away. https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2018/07/27/charles-dunne-sidelined-with-groin-injury/

Given there's been a lot of chat about what position he plays it was really interesting to see where he fitted in and that we kind of changed shape a bit to accommodate him - it became a sort of 4312 with Tierney just hanging about off two forwards and finding little pockets of space and making late runs. There were at least a couple of times where a simple square ball would have given him a tap in.

Smashing bit of #content this...

Never in doubt.