capt_oats

Oh aye?

Aye. Sort of. He's played a fair bit but midfield's been an issue for us this season. Arguably the Hearts game on Saturday was the first time it's looked vaguely functional and I don't think there would be any argument that it was one of our best performances of the season. That was with Slattery, Maguire and Goss as the midfield 3. O'Hara wasn't in the squad (not that the two things are linked we've won our fair share with him starting and playing the 90). I'm not sure whether that performance and the boy we're signing from Bohemians will have a knock on in terms of how much O'Hara plays. If that makes sense? He started the season with an injury so missed most of pre-season but pretty much went straight into the team when he was fit.

You don't need to worry too much about a slow start. We've not scored a first half league goal away from home all season.

Pretty much. I think the nagging doubt with me is that we're complacent or do something daft. The game at Dens feels like a different scenario as rightly or wrongly it increasingly looks like we were using the League Cup as pre-season or an opportunity to give the "squad" a run out. It was the last time Lawless kicked a baw for us which says a lot about that line up. On your point about our scoring record. In the league we've failed to score in 2 of our 14 games (Hearts at Tynecastle and Celtic at FP) and it's a trend that's borne out over Alexander's tenure so far. In his 40 games we've scored in 33 of them (82.5%). Even the recent bad run feels like a part of it was a quirk of how the fixtures have fallen. Like, of the 5 without a win 4 were against the current top 4 and we were 2-1 up against St Mirren until Madden decided to get involved. So, of the 5 league games we've lost 4 have been against the current top 4 and the other was against Hibs on the opening day (3 at home Hibs, Celtic and Rangers, 2 away Hearts and United). That's not to dive into this thread like we're all that but it's more that we seems to have had blocks of games that's led to us looking inconsistent. As I said in our thread, I don't actually think there was that much difference between the United, St Mirren and Aberdeen games other than the results. Battering Hearts in the way we did on Saturday though, that was definitely an entirely different performance. Having said all that I wouldn't be surprised if Dundee won here. Nagging doubt indeed.

The Bathgate Maldini lads...

Interview with Tierney on the LOI Central podcast. Speaks very well considering some of the subjects they cover. Considering I know f**k all about him or the LOI it's a good listen if you've got the inclination. Incidentally, literally they first thing they mention is his moving to Motherwell.

This was the 2nd one in 2008. There was obviously a shift from Beastie Boys, Primal Scream, Bjork as headliners with The Go! Team, Modest Mouse and Idlewild on the 2nd stage to Kasabian, Bloc Party and Franz on the main stage and Mercury Rev, Gossip and Duffy on the 2nd but I'll be interested to see what the equivalent of either version of the festival would be in 2022. It feels like there's been a gap for this sort of thing for ages as invariably when they booked more "interesting" bands at T in the Park no one went to see them and TRNSMT kind of is what it is.

I see they're bringing back Connect. Interested to see how it compares.

Aye, I realise I've been posting a fair bit about him, less about hyping him and more I find him an interesting signing relative to the make up of our squad at the moment. To be clear, I've barely seen him kick a baw. As I said highlights of him specifically are pretty difficult to come by on YouTube or whatever. What's piqued my interest is his "profile" in so much as he's pretty much the opposite of a 6ft+ lump like O'Hara and he also looks like he operates in a similar area of the park to Gotts who we were linked with before the window shut. It kind of suggests we've been looking for someone to play a specific role - and it's a type of player that we don't actually have when you look thought our midfield options at the moment. 100% agree btw, I'd imagine he'll be coming off the bench rather than being brought in as a starter.

I'd imagine we'll be paying some sort of development fee rather than getting him for nothing like. I could be wrong though but given we've not been shy in paying some fees over the summer I'd be surprised if we didn't do the right thing. He's just a wee guy, going by his Wiki he's only 5' 9" and from the sound of things he seems more like someone who plays between the lines than being an all out Turnbull-style baller. Annoyingly there's not much by way of video highlight reels on YouTube and while you caveat the difference in leagues it's still worth noting his Transfermarkt has him contributing 15 assists for Bohemians this season. So that's something. I don't know if the bold @RandomGuy. is still churning out his graphs but it'd be interesting to know how Tierney compares with Robbie Gotts in terms of his role or just generally a frame of reference for players in the Premiership in a: "If you like Ross Tierney you may also like...." sort of way. Oh, it seems like Tierney's up for the PFAI Young Player of The Year as well. Link

Nah, he's definitely a midfielder. There's probably an argument for him being an "attacking midfielder" or a #10 but from what I can see calling him a forward would be a stretch. This is where he fits in for Bohemians.

Bohemians last game is the FAI Cup final on Sunday coming, their final league game was a 1-1 with Sligo on Friday just there. Tierney started. Either way I'd imagine we'll hold off on any announcement until after their season is officially done. I've no idea when LOI contracts expire mind, whether it's the end of November or end of December. Transfermarkt has his contract expiring on December 31st (and also has him joining us as his 'upcoming transfer') I know it was pretty much been an open secret that the deal's done even before Alexander spoke about him but it still feels a bit weird he went on record when he did and also the very weird way he sort of confirmed it.

I think it's probably worth considering just how much of a culture change this is compared with the 12-18 "strategy" and just generally how we've operated/built squads pre-Alexander. We won (comfortably) yesterday whilst still missing 2 international defenders and a centre forward who'd scored both our goals in our previous fixture before the international break. That's new. This probably speaks to the point that @YassinMoutaouakil is making about being raging about the LC game at Dens but, to me at least, we still feel like a work in progress and rightly or wrongly the LC was used to give the squad a run out. We pretty much played the reserves in that game at Dens (in fact it was enough for Lawless never to kick a baw for us again). The whole close/pre/early-season feels like it's been about work-in-progress and relative to the defence and forwards the midfield seems like it's the one area we haven't really touched save bringing Slattery and Goss in. I had a daft long post drafted earlier in reply to @Casagolda's post that I ended up deleting as it was pretty fucking boring but presented without comment the long and the short is for all the criticism Alexander's taken about style yesterday was Alexander's 40th game in charge and he's currently sitting on a 45% win rate. This season in our 14 league games we've scored at least 2 goals in 50% of them and failed to score in only 2 (Hearts at Tynecastle and Celtic at FP). Over the 40 games so far we've scored 2 or more in 17 (42.5%) and we've failed to score in only 7 (17.5%).

He looked like he got his feelings hurt by Tony Watt.

Most overperforming team in the league is it? Downturn in results pending? No, really. Tell me more about your amazing Expected Points wheeze Mr. Wolff.

By the by I noticed St Johnstone's actual HoR and one of the Celtic Analytic Twitter types talking about our incoming Irish Baller. It's a bit of a weird thread.

I think one of the vaguely interesting aspects is that there have been points under Alexander when we've tried to play "Good Football" in so much as playing out from the back etc. Having the centre backs dropping in at bye kicks was one of the tactical decisions that bent folk out of shape as much as the short corners (incidentally, we had 2 corners against Aberdeen...both went straight into the box). The Hibs game on the opening day, I genuinely thought we went at it on the front foot and it was an enjoyable game/performance. The obvious caveat is that we lost. Even last season the shambles of the 3-0 against St Johnstone when we had the injuries and Polworth phoned it in before being patched to play with the weans for the rest of the season - we were trying (and failing) to play from the back, we only had like 2 touches in the St Johnstone box in 90 mins. Even this season up in Perth you had Donnelly getting caught on the ball 20 yard from goal and Stevie May had that chance to put Saints 1-0 up. It feels like when we've reverted to Murderball we've at least managed to get some Ws.

I think the extent of the dip depends on how you choose to look at it and whether or getting over not necessarily "enjoying" the football. No doubt the results went off a cliff but of the 5 games we played 4 were against the current top 4 and the other one we failed to win was almost entirely on account of Bobby Madden. Despite St Mirren fans banging on about how great they were we were still 2-0 up and they relied on the kindness of Madden to claim their point. (Sure, had he let Kelly's penalty save stand, or just not given what was a wholly dubious penalty in the first place we may have gone on to concede but as it panned out the result was decided by that fucking woeful call). Against United we may not have been the best version of the team that Alexander was talking up post-match but did we have enough chances/did Siegrist make enough saves to say we could have got something out the match? Yeah, probably. Even the Hearts game came down to a penalty and a direct free kick while we had "chances" specifically Watt and Woolery. Could we argue with losing the game? Absolutely fucking not but taking it in the context of our season, it's one were margins played their part. To that point, I'm not sure how much of a dip we actually saw between say the United, St Mirren and Aberdeen games.

His missus is on Twitter dot com and had a photo of them both cutting about Kelvingrove the other week so...aye it seems like the family is up. Well, at least his wife is...dunno about the weans. The fact that he says he's about a mile up the road and walked down to the interview in the gelato shop (on Byres Road) makes me think he's in the Hyndland area. Good for him - plenty of nice "flats" in that area. Tbh, I've enjoyed listening to Alexander any time he's spoken. He came across well in his bit at the AGM not long after he got the job. Same with his interview on Sportsound and for all Si Ferry and Slane are very much not for me, his Open Goal was a good listen. The one thing that I've picked up on (and it's not a criticism, just an observation) is that I still don't really know much about his thoughts on football. He mentioned when they were fishing for something controversial about Neville that GN has strong opinions on football and he (GA) also has strong opinions on how the game should be played (or words to that effect). In that respect I'm still none the wiser as to what Alexander's thoughts actually are. Although, I get the impression that as an absolute and fundamental principle he puts winning ahead of any "philosophy". Which I'm fine with tbqh. For a while post-Thunderdome Robinson was (and still is) desperate to let anyone who asks know how he wants his teams to play. Pace, 433 is his preferred formation etc and he's gone out of his way to distance himself from the style that he presumably felt he was getting stereotyped by. In contrast Alexander doesn't seem to give much away. Which is fine.

Spotify version is here: Apple version is here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/graham-alexander-on-motherwell-salford-class-of-92/id1248742174?i=1000542011703

Tbf, I'm not sure I'd say the salary on offer is derisory, to me it's probably in line with what I'd expect a fan owned club with a core supporter base of 4000-5000 to be offering as a package. Is it enough to make me want to reconsider my similar-ish actual day job and apply? No. Can I imagine someone who's invested enough in Motherwell FC getting excited about the possibilities of the role and being happy to trade off some salary for job satisfaction? Sure. Equally I think the key thing to remember is that it's not Motherwell FC who are the employers here, it's The Well Society. As I say, if the report I linked to earlier in the thread is correct and the WS subscriptions come in at £15k+ per month = £180k pa then I can only imagine the heads-gone from the more interesting elements of our support (that @Desp alluded to) if it turned out that we were offering say, £40k-£50k pa salary to someone to run the society. Even the £30k on offer could cause some aneurysms tbh. I get the argument would be that if you offer a better salary you potentially get better candidates which should equal better results/growth but still... You're right though, reading that job description then on the face of it it's essentially rolling 3 or 4 jobs into one role which feels like a lot (I don't know what the actual workload would be like as it feels like I'm conflating club stuff with the WS). You've got social media management, media & comms, fundraising management and project management & business admin.

Alexander's name often pops up with fans down South who seem to like the idea of him (the fact that one of his clubs went into free fall after he left and another haven't kicked on helps). The fact that broadly he has a decent-good win % with Fleetwood, Scunthorpe and Salford puts him in a good place and Gary Neville recently trying to walk back his sacking puts an extra bit of gloss on things. Still feels a bit early for him to jump though. The win against Aberdeen feels massive now as there were strong "will Motherwell ever win a game again" vibes happening. Especially after Bobby Madden's interventions when we were 2-1 up with 12 mins to go against St Mirren. As it goes, it was a reminder that Murderball can still work and sitting on 18 points we're probably only about 7 wins from safety with 20 games to play til the split. Our form over the past 8 games (including the 5 without a win) was an average of 1 ppg. Even that sort of average between now and the end of the season would see us safe (probably with a bit to spare). With all that in mind along with the fact we've brought Alexander's guy in as HoR and the guy who was at Salford with him at Head of Medicine and Performance it seems unlikely that we'd sack Alexander (he's got a contract to 2023 as does his assistant). We've invested pretty heavily in him when it's come to playing staff as well. We were dishing out 3 year deals like sweeties in the summer.