capt_oats

I noticed someone on Steelmen suggesting that they felt Lawless "didn't get much of a chance" under Alexander. That seems a pretty weird take IMO given the way Alexander treated the LC. It's a fair point to say that he was limited by injury last season but in terms of this season he started 4 of our 5 league cup games (including the Airdrie and Dundee debacles). It felt (to me at least) that those games were precisely "a chance" being given. Looking at his record this season it seems like the Dundee LC game was the point at which Alexander decided the bold Steven wasn't for him.

As an aside, I think most of us half-expected (hoped) Lawless would maybe be away during the last window but either way this kind of leans into the point Alexander seemed to be making back in January when he was talking about not wanting to carry a large squad or have players around the squad who either weren't going to be playing or didn't really want to be at the club (I forget exactly which interview it was). The fact that we've eventually got around to mutual-ing him feels like a good decision and one that was somewhat inevitable regardless of his patter on Twitter. Disappearing from the squad for a month and a half says something if you're not injured. That leaves us with 6 forwards for 3 positions and given Grimmy seems to have been re-purposed as a midfielder we've now got 8 defenders for 4 positions. Midfield still seems a bit messy and the obvious question marks there are Parker (whose deal is up in January) and Crawford. I've stuck KVV left because that's where he's been playing (personally I say stick him through the middle) and Bevis back-up RB as Grimshaw seems to be used more as a midfielder and also I just wanted the symmetry of 2 players for each position across the back 4. As it stands we've a first team squad of 26...the line through the summer was that we were looking at running with a few extra bodies to cover potential Covid issues. IMO a normal size squad would be around 24 so that sounds about right.

Aye, it comes across very much as "unapologetic ***" being his default setting. Tbf, his signing really seemed to be a result of convenience rather than him desperately wanting to re-sign for Motherwell. Which is fine. He wanted back up the road, we wanted a winger who wasn't Jake Hastie or Sherwin Seedorf but in hindsight it's definitely up for debate whether he was even an Alexander signing given Grezza was only in the door about a week before Lawless pitched up. I saw a couple of Livi fans on Twitter talking about him after his "cigars out" Tweet and tbh the whole "He's a Rangers fan, always has been"...so it's OK just doesn't wash. I know he was quite a marmite figure at Thistle as well, I've said this before in this thread but there's a way to carry yourself as a Motherwell player and Lawless just isn't it. He's seemed absolutely miles out the picture for the past month and tbh, he's looked like an awkward fit since the day he came back in. That's really only been amplified when you look at the players Alexander has signed over the summer and the buy in he's got from players like Watt. Lawless has just seemed like the complete opposite of that in every possible sense. Fuckity bye Steven.

I don't see us paying Crawford off. At least he's been around the squad...he's made the bench the past 3 games. It wouldn't be a massive surprise to see him move in January but given the numbers in midfield and potential injury prone-ness of Donnelly and Goss I'd imagine Crawford is here until then. Lawleff was like, 7th choice forward. He had Woolery, Roberts, Shields and Amaluzor all ahead of him for his position.

He's just been being him. I don't think he actually gives a f**k. Caught on camera at Ibrox for their game against Malmö. Got really chippy when Motherwell fans (rightly) called him out for it and he's been skulking around his Twitter account making pass agg references to it ever since. His latest was piping up with this after Celtic drew with United (although maybe he was talking about the Arsenal 3-1 Spurs game that was on at the same time he Tweeted. IDK). Oh...and he's been roundly shite since he signed. As I said in the post earlier his last involvement was as an unused sub on August 21st. He's not been near the squad since. It's been pretty clear Alexander didn't trust him as he didn't start a league game for us this season, he was only used in the League Cup. It's interesting that we didn't mutual him in time to allow him to find a new club though as it's been clear since the Dundee LC game that he wasn't getting in our team.

It's why you always see a flurry of players getting their contracts mutually cancelled on deadline day. You can't move outside the window if you're still registered with a club once the window's closed. So unless we mutual-ed him but have waited a month and a half to announce it, aye he'll be getting full use of his season ticket until January. As @ropy says he could sign for another club operating under a different schedule where a window is open or whatever but he can't sign for another club in the UK. His last appearance was as an unused sub against Livi on 21st August. He's not been in a squad since.

Nope. He can't kick a baw until January. He was still a registered Motherwell player at the close of the last window.

Presumably still O'Hara. No?

That was one of the most remarkable 45 mins I've seen from Scotland. Gilmour is a genuine international level player. Patterson was utter trash.

Slanted for me. Actually, Slanted is more my favourite Pavement album. "Best" I'm a bit more open minded about.

Aye. It just feels like a proper curate's egg of a season. Which is probably why I fell down this particular rabbit-hole. We weren't actually "good" enough for it to be memorable...knocked out both cup competitions early, extremely mid-table but we also went unbeaten through December (unusual for us) and went 5 wins on the bounce in a run of only 2 losses in 9 (the 1-2 against Celtic at Fir Park was down to a Ripley mistake anaw). The team itself had modern icons...Hammell, Lasley, McDonald and Pearson to an extent with McFadden around the fringes plus Moult. A goalkeeper who was actually alright but has been eclipsed by Randolph before him and Carson, Gillespie and Kelly since then you also had #YoungMotherwell winning the Youth Cup. We were also bad enough to see Baraclough emptied and lose 6-0 at Tynecastle (Hammell at right back) and 7-0 at Parkhead but also not bad enough to end up in any relegation bother. By the time the final fixture rolled around we couldn't finish any higher or lower than 5th, which may have accounted for the players pitching up at Parkhead with their flip-flops on and suitcases in hand. There's also total "that guy" elements to the squad...Morgaro Gomis made 11 appearances for us as did Theo Robinson. It's never going to be anyone's favourite season because I suppose not much actually happened. Ultimately if you talk about Motherwell teams of the 10s then it's McCall and Robinson's versions people will remember and as @Ron Aldo says McGhee went full McGhee the season after so this is October - May of him actually doing a very good job before completely blowing it up by being Mark McGhee. It's probably a season that Pitchfork would retrospectively upgrade years later but it's still Incesticide rather than Nevermind or In Utero, Tweez rather than Spiderland, Westing (By Musket and Sextant) rather than Slanted and Enchanted or Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, The Whitey Album rather than Daydream Nation or Goo....I'll stop there. You get my drift. A weird curio that people have kind of overlooked on account of stuff that happened before and after.

I know international breaks are when everyone normally reminisces about the play-off and has a right good laugh at scudding Rangers 6 (SIX) - 1 on aggregate but I've found myself falling down a 15/16 season rabbit-hole on YouTube. That was a weird season eh? Bara's emptied after 8 league games and having been pumped out the LC at Cappielow, McGhee comes in we go on two absolutely wild runs of form and end up Top 6. Moult & McDonald, peak Marvin Johnson but with added Louis Laing, Wes Fletcher, Kieran Kennedy and Theo Robinson. Not to mention a 6-0 at Tynecastle and a 7-0 live on national TV at Parkhead...which is the point at which this excellent thread starts. It kind of feels like this season's kind of been forgotten about given how it ended then the shitshow that followed in 16/17 and the general animosity towards McGhee. Anyway we beat Celtic at Parkhead...that's a laugh. We also published really long highlights... Also, why not? Might as well...

10 year contract asap plz.

Aye, I mean that seems fairly obvious but going with a line that's as easily disprovable ie: based on your recorded home attendances to date there's been f**k all drop-off, it's a weird approach to take. Actually, I see they've extrapolated on this per @craigkillie's Tweet popping up on my TL it seems Aberdeen are claiming they announce "tickets issued" rather than actual attendance.

Am I missing something here? Have all your home games in the league this season not been 10k+ (save the opening day where restrictions were still in place)? Seems weird that both fixtures are Saturday 3pm kick offs yet: It's a pretty significant drop off from say 13k vs St Johnstone to sub 10k against Hibs and Hearts.

That sounds entirely feasible. Where it's interesting in our case is that we're one of the teams with lower shots numbers which suggests that we're more focused on creating higher quality chances rather than, as you say, just having digs at goal from wherever.

Ha! I just read your Tweet reply to Jay not long after I posted that. Nah, what interested me was the fact that we're way closer to the "Higher Quality chances created" side of things along with somewhere in the middle of higher/lower quality chances faced. I wouldn't 100% hang my hat on it but it kind of speaks to what we're doing in terms of creating chances and also defensively (despite us seeming to give up a lot of shots on goal).

I know xG isn't for everyone, I normally give it a swerve as well but our placement on this plot graph is...interesting?

Aye, there was also that TransferRoom patter that Hibs, Rangers and ourselves were involved in: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-hibs-motherwells-transferroom-ticket-24305484 Like I say, no shade on Dundee there's absolutely nothing that says they have to set up a recruitment department or anything. This isn't a look at what Motherwell do type post. Even then it's probably as much about getting the right people involved and having a strong idea of what you're looking to achieve for it to be successful (given his track record with managers would anyone have faith in Nelms to hire a HoR?). From the outside looking in it feels like Nelms doesn't really have a clear vision for what the "football" element of the club looks like certainly compared to someone like Burrows (for example). I clearly don't know the guy but it definitely feels like it's the case that the "football department" is entirely handed over to the manager, which is...fine? Whether Strachan's involvement is part of that IDK but the impression I get from reading what Dees have been saying about WGS, his involvement seems more about shaping the Academy rather than a top down "football department" thing. I could be miles off base there though. If there are questions about "value" etc then as I said in that big daft post in reply to @DeeTillEhDeh the other day it's probably worth looking at the issues McCann highlighted (this was July 2017) and whether they've actually been addressed, especially given that a "name" signing like Griffiths has a strong personal connection to McPake. Again, from looking at other clubs it's something that seems to come from board-level. If the club is comfortable with just leaving it to McPake to phone up his pals then fair fucks to them, and I say that with zero snark. It's just interesting that a fair number of the other clubs in the league are actively investing in their recruitment operations.

If he keeps doing that and adds more of this then his 3 year deal is some bit of business.

I see Max Johnston has started a few games for Queens, how's he been getting on?

On Bevis, it's quite easy to forget that he was quite young when he signed (24) and he's probably not helped by the circumstances around him signing ie: he was a short term deal to cover Charlie Dunne's injury then given an 18 month deal after like 3 games or something. He always seemed like a bit of an awkward fit after that. It was only when I was doing some research on Slattery that it even clicked that Mugabi had come through Southampton's academy and there was some footage of him playing right back in a u23s game. It's fair to say his extension last season wasn't met with unanimous enthusiasm. Although I guess a lot of that was off the back of people jumping the gun and assuming that it meant that it was a Bevis/Lamie partnership we were going to be starting with this season, which clearly hasn't been the case. Tbh, I think the improvement of both Bevis and Lamie is a bit of a win for Alexander and the approach to the squad building where we've got actual options to play rather than a starting XI + the 12-18. +1 on @crazylegsjoe_mfc's point about O'Connor. I mean, he seems a good laugh and he's showed up well enough when he's played so absolutely fair fucks for him being in the squad as cover but I'm certain we signed him because he seemed fine during his trial and we needed a body for the LC groups. See also Parker, Mich'el.

That's us partnered up with another recruitment/data platform.