capt_oats

Possibly to the shenanigans but I think the generally accepted line is we thought we'd missed out on Marvin so signed Thomas as a fall back then ended up getting the Johnson deal done so ended up with both because...why the f**k not, the bold Les was chucking cash around. It was #StrakerDay. I suppose in hindsight it isn't too weird given our league position at the time but his actual deal was til the end of the season with the club having a year option: https://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/2015/02/03/nathan-thomas-joins-from-plymouth/

Grant's between Laing and Johnson. It's Thomas at the end behind big Tony.

Absolutely no doubt that's what's happening. What a time though....

Thee Nathan Thomas signs for Accies.

It was a weird season that folk seem to have glossed over a bit despite the top 6 finish. There was also the 7-0 at Parkhead live on national television on the last day of the season where we turned up with our suitcases and boarding passes packed and not a single f**k was given by any Motherwell player on the park. Since the last win at Parkhead it's: P 16 W 0 D 3 L13 F 9 A 47

Broadly speaking this is where I am as well. It's less an "anyone but Lamie" pile-on and more the idea that not only is O'Hara a better footballer than either the bold Ricki, Mugabi or Gallagher he's also more mobile. For all it's fair to say we haven't really been tested defensively against either County or Livi we've still looked far more balanced with that back 4 than at any point this season. There's every chance it'll be a different story against Edouard and/or Griffiths but as it stands even if Mugabi and Lamie were fit or if Carroll was available to tuck McGinley in one - O'Hara's still probably better value for us at centre back than he is in midfield compared to the other defenders we currently have in the building. Even if we went with a back 3 in certain games in the future when Carroll's fit, I'd make the argument for O'Hara slotting into the 'McTominay' role of a back 3.

Not directly Lamie related but indirectly? Sure. Mark O'Hara: Centre Back. Discuss.

94/95 we finished 2nd with a GD of 0 which is wild. 93/94 94/95

This one?

I know this is very much A Tony Watt Appreciation Thread but take a moment to enjoy that through ball from Polworth.

Pretty much. Obviously it was a done deal the moment he showed his knee wasn't made of cardboard but it also coincided with Celtic trying to ship Rogic out the door. I'd imagine one of those 3 moving will leave a space for him to step into but equally Lennon seems the type of guy who'd think someone like Turnbull will have to "earn the right" to start (to use a Robinson-ism). And fair enough, the expectations of playing with Celtic are different to balling about the place with Motherwell. It's 2 months since he moved it's a bit early for folk to be talking about him being loaned out and the like IMO.

Chucking this in here, it's interesting (to me at least) to see the player positions given that we're essentially playing a 433 without any traditional wingers. Lifted from WhoScored.com The first goal is a good example of that when you look at where Cole picks up the ball along with Watt and Lang's positions. It's a small sample size but of all the iterations of the team we've seen so far this season this definitely feels the most balanced.

Here are our (recent-ish) 2nd & 3rd place finishes: 07/08 11/12 12/13 13/14 19/20*

Strongly agree. As I said earlier in the thread if we'd had Watt, Cole and Lang available/fit/in this sort of form we'd have won against County, United and Accies. No doubt. Strongly agree also.

Full game is on Alba at 6. That's 4 wins from our last 6, the losses have been to Celtic and Rangers. 4 clean sheets too - which is nice.

Pieman starts. Lang in for Long, otherwise unchanged from last week. Matthew McDonald is the +1 Academy player. I wondered if it might have been him as he was lurking in the background of the training footage that went up with the Devante Cole socials post.

I'm not sure why there's this "told you so" thing about Lamie or the idea that he's traded up. All things being equal he'd have simply swapped Livi's bench for ours - the problem has been he's had to play far more than we'd have expected him to thanks to McGinley being out for 6 weeks after 1 game, Donnelly being out until next year after 1 game and our varying assortment of other defensive injuries. Without wanting to seem like I'm white-knighting him, in among his various clusterfuck performances he was perfectly fine in games where we kept clean sheets at Easter Road and Pittodrie. Similarly it wasn't his fault we lost against County on the opening game of the season. As I say, if everyone was fit he'd have a firmly fixed spot on the bench with us.

So there we go...it's apparently the same squad as last week plus one Academy player filling in for Crawford on the bench. Eight Academy boys: Campbell, Maguire, Hastie, Cornelius, Hussain, Johnston, Devine + 1.

Not heard Robinson's press conference yet but it seems we've "no additional bumps or bruises". AFAIK there's been no chat about Grimshaw, Lamie and Seedorf not being in the squad last week and none of them appear on the Team News page. Assuming it's the known injuries plus those 3 then it'll just be Carroll, Carson, Crawford, Donnelly, Dunne, Fox, Mugabi, Grimshaw, Lamie and Seedorf who are unavailable. Given the way things went last Saturday it'd be wild if we changed the starting XI much (especially to accomodate Ricki Lamie). O'Hara was talking to the local press about moving to centre back in a way that suggests it might be a thing.

Nicely done Hearts.

Charged with a breach of Covid-19 regulations.

He's still listed on our Out on Loan page on the OS. It was a bit weird we didn't announce Connelly was away even it it was only short term. We've announced everyone else, including Sam Muir who's away to Gretna. I'd imagine he will come back though, we only have 2 goalkeepers at the club just now and I'd imagine having a 3rd around the place would be useful. It'd drop Connelly into our first team group as well. Morrison staying with you guys makes far more sense given his age and the fact he needs games or to at least be competing for a first team spot. There are another half dozen of our Reserves group who could easily go out on loan just now. Although having said that, Johnson was on the bench at the weekend. From the general chat around the club the gist seems to be we're keen to get as many of those players out on loan as possible.

There they are.

I'd imagine we'll see Archer at some point. Reading between the lines the Pieman has been brought in as a short term cover eg: filling in on Saturday. If Carson's injury had seen him out for a month or something then we'd probably just have run with Chapman and pulled Connelly onto the bench or gone for a mystery box signing like Xenodochof. Based on his CV alone Archer seems much more a first choice sort of signing with Carson out for a while. Also, non-GK related I see O'Hara's been in the local press talking about playing centre half.