capt_oats

It was apparently a thing. ('Jokingly' of course)

This is how the league looked at (very roughly) the same stage last year. It's obviously a bit fucked because of the Covid call-offs so I've added 19/20 below as well. Tbh, it's not massively different. County are still currently bottom on 11 same as both Accies and St Mirren the two years previous. Aberdeen are 7th on 18 compared with St Johnstone and County on 17. Currently there are 7 points between 12th and 7th. Compared with 6 points in 19/20 and 20/21. Having said that, it feels like a massive January coming up for a couple of teams.

Kelly, Lamie and Sean Goss all in the WhoScored team of the month. More players in it than any other team - what a carry on.

Shree and a half year deal tho.

I thought that was a weird thing to say in the context of his spiel. I took at it as a clumsy phrasing and he was meaning he'd be disappointed if any players went off on their own tangent and were playing for themselves rather than for the team. "Go somewhere else" essentially being go off message and do their own thing on the park to the detriment of the team. Like, don't get me wrong I'm sure there a couple who either aren't especially happy or are unsettled but in context I'm not sure that's actually what he meant.

Aye, I get that Alexander is probably not for everyone and for some his face just doesn't fit for whatever reason but when you consider the rebuild over the summer and what actually needed done it was a lot. To that point it was always going to be a work in progress or transitional season - and barring the midfield (which tbf feels almost incomplete by choice unlike the defence and forward areas) the way things have gone I'd say has probably been better than expected. He currently has a win % of 47.6% over his Motherwell career (43.7% in the league this season) and at the moment after 16 games we're averaging 1.5 ppg. Even allowing for that run of 5 without a win over the course of the season to the split that sort of average puts us on 49.5 points - which in most seasons is a Top 6 sort of number. You can use Airdrie, Rangers and Dundee x2 as sticks to beat with but broadly at the start of the season if you'd said that on December 1st we'd be clear in 5th, double digits above the play-off spot and 8 points clear of 7th with Tony Watt top scorer in the league most would have taken it (and Joel Sked would have had an aneurysm on The Terrace preview pod). Alexander made a comment in his post-match last night that piqued my interest (around 3 min 17s): In our last 2 home games we've had 20 shots on goal in each of them (against the teams directly above us in the league in 3rd and 4th). I don't know if that's a result of the change he's talking about but given the criticism that was coming his way about sitting back and trying to contain teams that feels like a positive change of sorts.

Big Darragh out injured.

I think he's won enough games since he's been in the job for me to be comfortable that he's a competent enough manager. So that's nice. I think broadly his signings have been fine as well. Especially compared to Robinson's lucky dip approach. The Alexander signings that we've not seen much of are the ones that I think we all realised were punts from the moment they were announced. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the players who have been an issue form-wise have been the ones that Alexander inherited (while there are also clearly players who were already here that he's got far more of a tune from than Robinson ever did). Generally I like the cut of his jib but, I think I've mentioned this before, I find his lack of identifiable style a bit weird. Like, I think it was @Swello pointed out that his style is "just-fucking-win" but for a manager who's 400+ games deep in his career to not really be able to get an idea of how he wants the game to be played is unusual. As I said, Robinson hit a point where he was desperate to tell everyone how he thought the game should be played and what he wanted his team to look like. For all everyone's banging on about the 433, I took a quick look at his last full season at Salford and while Transfermarkt isn't exactly reliable on this sort of stuff I'd imagine at least some of it is accurate. Basically there are a pile of different formations - back 5s, back 3s, 442s along with one or two 433s. Go figure. The full page is here if you want a look.

I hadn't thought about it til you mentioned it. He was 49 when he got the job which doesn't feel particularly old in management terms (nor does 50 tbh).

Agree with @YassinMoutaouakil

In fairness to Alexander, while a lot of his tactical stuff has been pretty marmite, in terms of Saturday his absolute seethe post-match seems to be in part that he pretty much asked the players to set up and play in exactly the same way as they did against Hearts and they just didn't do it. It's broadly corroborated by Kelly that the instructions they were given weren't any different to the previous week:

One of the weirder things with Carroll is that he's made 3 sub appearances since the Dundee sending off. 2 of them have seen him come on and play on the left of the back 3. St Mirren's the one where he played wing back and McGinley tucked inside. Ross County - on for KVV St Mirren - on for Slattery Aberdeen - on for Watt

As @well fan for life says, prior to Saturday our league record with Bevis at right back was played 5 won 5 drawn 0, lost 0 and we'd conceded 1 goal (the games were Livi (a) 2-1, Dundee (h) 1-0, Aberdeen (h) 2-0, Aberdeen (a) 2-0, Hearts (h) 2-0) vs SOD's record of P 9 W 1 D 3 L 5 and up to the point he was sent off against Rangers we'd conceded 17 in those 9 and hadn't managed a clean sheet in any of them. Ultimately there's always been a feeling that it's been a case of a centre back being played out of position but when you look at the numbers it's kind of hard to argue. Equally on the point about KVV, as others have said, given the performance of the front 3 against Hearts and the big point that was made through the week about Shields (and others) having chapped the manager's door asking about getting more minutes it'd have felt a kick in the baws if he'd been dropped after scoring his first goal for the club against Hearts. I'd guess that's why Alexander was especially seething post-match in so much as the team had set a benchmark against Hearts, players have been chapping him up asking him why they're not getting minutes and they turn in a completely passive display against a team who (no disrespect) are 2nd bottom of the league and hadn't beaten us in the league since 2017.

He was subbed off in the 2nd half with an injury.

Sadsack that I am I just watched the FAI Cup Final (St Pats won on pens). Tierney played the full game but didn't take a pen. He had a couple of good chances, one he took an extra touch when he didn't need to and the other the keeper made a smashing save from a header. It's worth pointing out that as a gauge of "standard" Billy King and Liam Burt were both on the park as was Chris Forrester (formerly of Aberdeen) so that's probably worth taking into account but there's definitely potential there. As you say though it'll take a bit of time for him to bed in and hyping him into anything just feels daft. From what I could see he was pretty much playing as a 10 off the target man but he'd track back a fair bit defensively so his role is slightly weird in that respect as he'd go beyond the striker as well - he covered a lot of ground. His game seemed to be about drifting into space and making late runs rather than getting "on the ball". Edit: Having thought about it a wee bit, there were actually shades of Campbell in what Tierney was doing. Not in a "will tackle his Gran" way but that more advanced role that Campbell kind of developed into his game (and started chipping in with goals). The point about Goss' goal involvement is why I've been curious about Carroll not getting a game. Like, I understand why if it's the case that Alexander feels he can't trust him given his tendency to be...rash but given he offers a certain quality of delivery then it feels weird that we're happily patching that especially in games where Goss isn't available. Either way going by Alexander's chat in his pre-match press conference it sounds like we've been speaking to quite a few players so it'll be interesting to see how that shakes out in January (specifically how many of them are midfielders) and what sort of knock on that has for folk already in the building.

Cards on the table, I was working yesterday so didn't see any of the game and on reflection other than having a swatch at the goals I doubt I ever will. Anyway, given that it feels like it's a point that was more than just about yesterday it was interesting that Alexander's post match hits every point you've made here. Even down to the pull quote in the club's Tweet: "Everything we did last week, we didn't do today." It's interesting that he pretty much says that "it's not the first time" that we've fucked it against a team who have been struggling. The big thing he makes about "mentality" is something that's been a broad issue for us even going back to previous managers. I think more than a few of us saw yesterday as exactly the sort of game we'd f**k up. In broad strokes, and not to single out individual players (you can guess who I have in mind), it feels like we have a collection of players who can surprise and get a few good (even very good) performances from but for various reasons when it comes down to it you can't trust them enough to get consistently good performances at a certain level. Either way, he's explicit in saying he plans to "fix" it (and the Aberdeen and Hearts results have given him a bit of credit in the bank) so I'm interested to see how he sets about doing that.

Fair play to Dundee. As for our lot? A few of us had mentioned having nagging doubts going into this game but fucking hell. Who knew Sean fucking Goss was actually holding the team together. Again, fucking hell. Fwiw, I can't argue with anything from Alexander in the post-match @Ludo*1 posted. Hopefully he didn't miss our collection of shitebags after the game. It's something that needs fixed.

The look on Alexander's face when the boy asks him whether 3rd is a "realistic finish this season" btw. Incidentally this is unrelated to the Alexander interview but another smashing interview with Tierney.

Ha! Same. I kind of found it weird that Alexander was talking about him in the way he was a while back but in the same press conference turns round and says: Then again I also noticed he's actually locked in as signing for us on January 1st in FM22. Which is pretty much as official as it gets.

Bit of recruitment chat in Alexander's press conference today it seems.

To circle back to this, that's a mailshot from the WS landed in my inbox. Also confirms they've appointed the new Society development manager so well done everyone on getting that sorted.

Seems like LOI is where a lot of Scottish clubs are looking to now. St Mirren have obviously had success with McGrath etc. St Johnstone are supposedly after a centre back from Dundalk. We've already signed a boy from Bohemians on a pre-contract (he's playing in the Irish Cup final on Sunday coincidentally) and it was reported yesterday we're looking at a forward from Drogheda Utd. I don't know if this is what McPake meant but the contracts for LOI players expire at the end of December given their season runs through the summer. So when he's talking about pre-contracts he could mean to sign in January rather than pre-contracts for the summer window. Further to that it seems like Georgie Kelly is someone you're looking at.

Ross McCormack 2nd time around. No doubt.

Aye, I clocked that his Transfermarkt has him as a right footed left winger. 13 goals in 36 games. Seemed interesting given that that's where either Watt and Van Veen have nominally landed. Also Roberts' loan is until January and the bold Justin is on a year deal.