Casagolda
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Posts posted by Casagolda
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2 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:
Hammell isn't the answer but I think it's too late in the game to do anything other than back him in this window and part ways respectfully at the end of the season.
I’m not sure if he’s the answer long term but if we get rid now, you’re basically just repeating the same mistakes of the summer.
They picked Hammell, now they have to back him. Give him what he needs to do the job. By the time we sack him and fanny about getting in a replacement, we’ll have wasted the window(again).
And more to the point, to appoint who exactly? An ‘experienced’ manager that’ll make us difficult to beat- so back to the low risk, percentage hoofball everyone complained about all last season. I mean we’re in a relegation battle with Killie and Ross County, they both have experienced managers who had a full summer to plan for this season and they’re every bit as shit as we are(if not worse).
Mind a lot of folk wanted Tommy Wright this time a few years ago anaw? Like he was some sort of get out of relegation free card. That worked out well for Killie.
Things aren’t great but it’s time for cool heads and not rash decisions. The recruitment drive will be well underway, give Hammell what he wants and let him get on with the job he was deemed the best person to do in the summer but this time, give him the tools to do it properly.
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Would it be wrong of me to point out we had Richard Tait, Tom Aldred and Peter Hartley all at the club during the first half of the 18/19 season under Robinson and were still utter gash?
We had 18 points from 18 games that season, the exact same number we have now. Only difference was back then Dundee and St Mirren were both rank rotten and cut adrift so it gave us a bit of a cushion from relegation.
However it actually took for Robinson to rip things up in January and try something different to turn our season round. Changing formation, style of play etc.
Call me cynical but I just don’t buy that bringing in a lower league English journeyman or two to do a bit of shouting and pointing is going to suddenly fix our problems.
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33 minutes ago, MP_MFC said:
The board have a lot to answer for with how they handled the summer
For me, it all comes back to this and our utter shambles of a summer.
Said it before you either back Alexander, or sack Alexander. They did neither, they simply buried their head in the sand until the decision was eventually made for them. It was weak and it’s cost us.
Regardless of what you think of Alexander, does anyone really think he said in the pre-season planning meetings that after 3 wins in 5 months, he felt we only really needed 4 ‘key’ additions for this season. A 30 something right back on a 1 year deal, a journeyman midfielder, another back up goalkeeper oh and Josh Morris- that one’s a deal breaker!
Or knowing they might have to get rid of him if we got off to a poor start, did they limit his spending and leave him ill- prepared to do the job at hand. Which has subsequently fucked Hammell as well, taking over a squad unfit for purpose a day before the season started.
Which is why with only weeks of August left, he was scraping about in the ‘desperate punts’ section. Which is how we ended up wasting money on Aarons and Moult and why we’re now left relying on Connor Shields to play 90 mins.
It’s a mess but for me not one of the managers making. Could Hammell be doing more? Possibly. However he’s a rookie manager in his first job, they knew the risk going in and he was always going to make his mistakes along the way.
He had just 6 outfield subs last night including a couple of 16 year olds, Josh Morris and Barry Maguire. Anyone who genuinely thinks 1 or 2 new additions will cut it is obviously the same person that was in charge of our summer recruitment drive.
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The proper football is back.
Fair to say the break came at a good time for us. With just 2 wins in our last 12 league games(including 8 defeats) and only 1 league win at Fir Park all season, it’s been a tough start for Hammell.
Sadly, we look no better off in terms of numbers. In fact with Moult seemingly away we’re actually another body down. You can only hope some of those that were playing through injuries and being run into the ground before the shutdown come back refreshed after a wee break.
Other than that it’ll pretty much be as we were. Shields or Tierney in for Moult the only change we’ll be making from our last game in Perth.
As for St Mirren, fair to say Robbo has turned things round since we last met?
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To be fair he scored scored 25 plus goals at League One level last season.
I mean if we’d signed him in the summer, everyone would have been delighted and it would have looked like a bit of coup. However when you look at his track record outside the last couple of seasons at Morecambe, it does screams purple patch for huddy journeyman.
No wonder he was desperate to move in the summer. It looks like a Declan Gallagher type scenario where a player in his late 20’s was keen to cash in on the season of his life but has been forced to see out his contract instead. In the meantime his form has dropped off a cliff and his list of potential suitors has narrowed significantly.
Guys agent was probably touting him for a move to Championship in the summer, 6 months later he’s choosing between Motherwell and Forest Green Rovers.
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Well someone had to step in and replace Marv.
So a left sided centre back, you’d imagine he’d be competition/cover for Lamie? It would seem like a lot to ask a guy from the LOI to step in straight away but then again given he turns 24 in January, he’s hardly one for the future either I suppose.
We definitely needed another centre back, however I imagine he’s of not the profile most would have been hoping for. Although personally, I’m still of the opinion that a decent holding midfielder in front of them would improve our defence as much as replacing any of the individuals in the back 4 would.
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Just to chuck out another transfer rumour whilst it’s quiet , anyone else heard we’re meant to be after the big centre back from Sligo?
The boy that melted the free kick in from 30 yards in the 2nd game. Was some chat at the game the other day, apparently he was meant to be coming over in January.
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18 hours ago, Swami said:
This defence is terrifying just now.
What chance do they have?
This is St Johnstone’s goal. One ball clipped forward and they’re outnumbered 5 on 4. Look at that gap, Wotherspoon actually plays the initial pass out wide and then practically walks from the centre circle into our box completely unopposed.
Like I said last week, Sol and Lamie are being asked to do a lot of heavy lifting. For the most part yesterday, I thought they both played well and done a good job of keeping Clark/May quiet. Sods has been decent since he came back in and Penney has generally been pretty good.
However with little to no protection in front of them as well as Kelly who looks indecisive and flappy as f**k behind them, it’s no wonder they struggle at times.
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I like Hammell but going to Tynecastle with a midfield 3 of Goss, Spittal and Slattery was… bold. Chuck in Penney who’s good going forward but isn’t a great defender and it wasn’t a surprise we were so open and shipped 3 goals- could and should have been a few more as well.
Lamie and Sol get slaughtered but I have some sympathy with them. They might not be great but the lack of protection they get every week and the sheer amount of defending they’re bring asked to do is bound to lead to mistakes.
Take Lamie’s booking yesterday, he was dragged out to the touch line and was forced to take one for the team because Ginnelly had got in behind Penney for the 3rd or 4th time. Yes Sol gives away the pen for the winner but Cochrane walks through 3 or 4 Motherwell players without anyone putting a challenge in just like Tillman did a few weeks ago.
Now it’s one thing adopting an open, attacking approach when you’ve got plenty of goals and quality in the final third. Quite another to do it when Connor Shields is part of your front three.
On a positive note, Moult made a difference when he came off the bench and showed IF(a very big if) we can keep him reasonably fit he could contribute. Van Veen and McKinstry both improved as well with his introduction and there were positive signs of some nice link up play between them.
But aye, while not going full Alexander at some point Hammell is going to have to recognise he doesn’t have the players to play the way he wants to and needs be a bit more pragmatic with his approach- at least in the short term.
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10 minutes ago, Empty It said:
Moult knocks the ball and is heading away from goal therefore not an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
But surely the only reason Moult does that is because Gordon comes flying out at him no?
Like I’ve not seen it back but if Gordon doesn’t come charging out, isn’t Moult getting a clear strike at goal? So I don’t see how Gordon’s actions can’t be seen as denying a goal scoring opportunity.
As for the game, we shat it. Against 10 men for over an hour and we didn’t start playing till we were 2-0 down. Then we stopped playing once we’d equalised only to have another wee flurry once we went behind again.
Entertaining game of football but an utterly predictable outcome.
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All that outrage for nothing. Catches Goss high with his studs then rakes it down his leg for good measure.
A snide one from Tony and he’s got caught.
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Joe out till the new year, Moult hopefully back in the next week or so and Aarons is away back down south.
So it looks like we’re going largely with what we’ve got till January.
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For me it all goes back to the decision in the summer by the board to neither back or sack Alexander.
We had a torrid 2nd half of last season and we only actually invested in 4 permanent signings this summer. Which included a couple of journeyman in their 30’s and a back up goalkeeper. Which left us scrambling about taking punts on crocks at the end of the window.
We stumbled along in some sort of weird purgatory for far too long seemingly just waiting on the inevitable. Which eventually happened when Alexander got punted just a day before the season started.
So Hammell undoubtedly walked into a mess not of his own making but to be fair so did Alexander when he took over from Robinson. And Robinson from McGhee. McGhee from Baraclough and so on. That’s the job I suppose and you’d have to go back over a decade to McCall for the last time a Motherwell manager wasn’t coming in to clear up someone else’s mess.
We are where we are and we can’t change how we got here. We have a squad lacking in depth as well as quality(particularly in the forward areas) on a dreadful run with a rookie manager trying to stem the tide. I must admit, I didn't envy Hammell looking at his options on the bench yesterday as it was pretty fucking grim.
I said at the start of the season that for me survival was the aim and that hasn’t changed. If anything from what I’ve seen so far, I actually think it’ll be more of an achievement now than I did back then.
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Who’d have thought a guy that’d only played 17 games in the last 3 years might be a bit injury prone?
To be fair to Hammell, I don’t really blame him. The club and Alexander seemed to waste the entire summer in some bizarre stand off and Hammell was left to pick up the pieces when things inevitably came to a head.
Any players we were talking to or deals that were in the pipeline would have went tits up when we got papped out by Sligo and Alexander left. We were left scrambling about towards the end of the window and it’s probably not a surprise that Hammell took a punt on a few players he knows.
As feared though, the signings of Aarons and Moult have backfired spectacularly with both crocked already and neither contributing a thing of note so far.
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On 02/10/2022 at 12:27, Casagolda said:
Problem is, you just can’t see where the goals are going to come from.
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16 hours ago, joewarkfanclub said:
Football fans in general are all sugar or shite. I dont know whether ours are any better or worse, but some of the reactions to our recent results are somewhat depressing.
Has there really been much of a negative reaction?
Admittedly I generally try to avoid Motherwell fans on social media, especially after a defeat but from what I have seen I haven’t really thought that to be the case. The team were even applauded off after a 0-3 defeat at Fir Park the other week and that doesn’t happen very often.
I’d say almost everyone I’ve seen or spoken to is firmly behind Hammell and haven’t seen many if any dissenting voices so far.
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Problem is, you just can’t see where the goals are going to come from.
We’ve played 11 games so far this season, only in 1 of them(Pittodrie) has anyone other than Van Veen actually scored. Yesterday was the 3rd own goal we’ve ‘scored’ this season, that’s more goals than the rest of the squad outside KVV has contributed combined.
It’s mental Alexander actually said he was happy with the ‘firepower’ he had at the start of the season- he was surely fucking at it. The likes of Morris, Shields and Efford just won’t do. Unfortunately despite Hammell’s attempts to bring in more quality, his signings haven’t really improved things so far either.
It does seem a bit early to be hitting out with the big game patter however with Celtic twice, Hibs and Hearts away as well as Rangers to come in the next month or so, things could get quite grim pretty quickly if we don’t pick up a win from somewhere.
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I mean Hammell really can’t legislate for Lamie’s decision making at the first or McGinn missing an open goal from 6 yards out.
Two massive blunders from experienced pro’s that change the course of the game. Especially with Hearts going up the park and scoring the 2nd minutes after the McGinn miss.
Van Veen missed his customary sitter first half. We hit both posts including the aforementioned open goal miss at the start of second. Gordon made two cracking saves from Van Veen and Penney. Penney also hits the bar.
I mean it’s not as if it’s possession for possessions sake. We are creating plenty of chances but we’re simply not taking them. I’m not an XG nerd by any means but we must be setting records these last two games for chances created and somehow failing to score any of them.
I’m conflicted, part of me is happy with how we’re playing and optimistically saying it’s surely only a matter of time until we absolutely batter somebody. However when I look at our upcoming fixtures, I also fear we are in for potentially a tough month and will be ruing all these missed opportunities to put points on the board.
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14 minutes ago, Neil86 said:
Will certainly add to the feel good factor, how useful he will be is anyone's guess, I suppose if he can chip in with 5-7 goals over the season it would be a success, Considering Lamie was the only that got near Watt and Van Veen last season.
I think this is it for me.
Like others I was worried last summer when we were linked that we’d chuck a 2/3 year deal at him and end up saddled with him in a Stevie May type scenario. A loan deal till the end of the season seems a bit more sensible.
He might not be the Moult of old but we probably don’t need him to be? In reality we’re really just looking for someone to add some cover/competition for Van Veen. If he can stay relatively fit and chip in with 7 or 8 goals then happy days. If not, we send him packing next summer.
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Van Veen has his flaws obviously but we’d fucked if anything happens to him and we’re relying on the others. Even yesterday he wasn’t particularly great but he still scored our only goal and created our best other chance for Tierney.
We were poor 2nd half (compared to the first half hour) but Efford’s failed cut back at 1-0 and Tierney’s miss at 1-1 were two huge moments in the game where a real lack of quality/composure in the final third cost us. We take either chance and we probably leave with 3 points. Fine margins and all that.
Shields has good physical attributes and tries hard but just isn’t good enough technically or tactically to be a starter at this level. Ditto Efford. Morris has shown next to nothing so far. Tierney meanwhile shows flashes of promise but has been here nearly 9 months now and looks no closer to nailing down a place in the team.
It’s clear Hammell isn’t happy with his options in the final third and it’s something he’s looking to address despite having already brought in McKinstry. Whether or not he can find the required quality this late in the window, we’ll have to wait and see.
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As I said on the match thread, I thought Saturday was promising mostly due to the way Hammell had set the the team up.
It wasn’t some ten men behind the ball, ride your luck and try to nick a goal from a set piece type of display. He had clearly identified weakness to in the Aberdeen back line and came up with a game plan to exploit them in a positive, on the front foot fashion. Even at 2-3 we were still going in search for the 4th instead of simply sitting back and handing the initiative to Aberdeen.
We won’t play that well every week and our defence still looks a bit suspect but to me it was a sign that Hammell perhaps isn’t the naive youth coach some are painting him as. You could even see after a weeks training against St Johnstone what we he was at least trying to implement.
Like any young coach, he’ll get it wrong and I imagine we’ll probably take a few dull ones this season but I can’t accept that if we see a similar approach to Saturday. I think most Motherwell fans would.
I have no grand ambitions for this season, considering Hammell’s starting position and the money being chucked about by the City clubs. If Hammell can stay clear of the relegation fight, bring a bit more entertainment back to Fir Park as well as bringing a couple of the young boys through I’d count that as a successful first season.
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CLOSE CALL: A-LEAGUE COACH JUST MISSES OUT ON JUMP TO SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP
Not that it matters much now but it looks like Nick Montgomery was the third one interviewed for the job.
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1 hour ago, kingjoey said:
Get your money on a Livi win next Saturday.
Wouldn’t surprise me.
There’s f**k all between most teams in the league. Livi are more than capable of coming to Fir Park next week and turning us over.
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34 minutes ago, tarapoa said:
Motherwell were very good.
Last season they beat us by generally being more robust and better at $hitehousing and the dark arts. That was still there - but so was some really bonnie counter-attacking football, and tactics that exposed the weaknesses that have been evident in the early few games for AFC. Maybe Hammell really is a manager in the making.Agree with this.
This wasn’t a smash and grab like last season at Pittodrie. We were the better team and could/should have won by more. Hammell for all the shouts of cheap and lazy appointment during the week, showed himself astute enough to pinpoint Aberdeen’s weaknesses and come up with a game plan to hit them at every opportunity.
I’ve been underwhelmed by Spittal in the middle but he looked much better in a more advanced role. The diagonal runs from out to in for the 1st and 3rd goals were excellent and looked like something that had been worked on.
We also seemed to target the space in behind the full backs for Shields to run onto as well (then Efford 2nd half), which suited his strengths and the first goal came directly from this. Even the corner Slattery scored from sounds like something that’d been spoken about pre-match.
Early days and all that but I’ve been impressed with everything I’ve seen and heard from Hammell so far. Even in defeat last week you could see the things he was was trying to implement.
Club still need to back him in the next few weeks mind but yesterday gave hope that we might not be in for the dreadful season we were all expecting this time last week.
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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted
Given he’s out of contract at the end of this month with his parent club, I take this is essentially a pre-contract?
Given he’s on loan to Brisbane Roar till the end of January and played in their match yesterday, I wonder if we have to wait till February to bring him in. Or if Brisbane Roar let him go a few weeks early.