crazylegsjoe_mfc

I did think to myself last night that it might be worth taking Miller out of the firing line for a few games and giving Davor a wee run. No harm to Miller, he's literally just turned 17 and playing him through this run of form might do no one any good.

Last season under Hammell he persisted with his 4-2-3-1 despite the fact he wasn't getting much from his wingers, we had three right backs, one of whom had played a lot on the right of a back three. On the side, Penney looked better going forward than he did defensively. Van Veen was scoring a decent amount despite sometimes looking wasted as a lone striker. Several people called it on this forum that 3-5-2 would be perfect for the squad that we had so it certainly wasn't a surprise when Kettlewell played that way - at least there was a theory of a way out. With this season's squad, it seems that we are playing people in their best positions, but they're just not good enough. I don't see how we could change the shape of this team. We don't any wingers so 4-3-3, 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 are out. We've got enough midfielders to play a diamond, but there would be question marks about the defenders getting up and down. With a back four, who do we put where? Probably from our current system, Butcher and McGinn are first on the team sheet, but would you play a back four with those two in the middle who are, by trade, a holding midfielder and a full-back?

It was the case for much of last season and is probably the case now that as much as we are struggling, there are fortunately several other poor sides in the league. We've now gone one full round of fixtures (notwithstanding games in hand) and only four points separate Europe from the play-offs. You could almost say that it's so tight that the first round of fixtures have been "free" in a way that if from 4th down to 11th, no one is doing that well, no one is doing that badly compared to anyone else. That said, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen points totals probably reflect their European endeavours. You could probably expect at least Hibs and Hearts to have marched up the table after the second round of fixtures. I'm not sure if fans of other teams are in their threads talking about how their recruitment was bad and how they have no plan B, or if they all done that at the start where we picked up 10 points in 4 games. Momentum is obviously massive in football and it's alright talking about where St. Johnstone are, but over the past five we are the league's worst side. Kettlewell obviously has done more than enough to deserve the chance to correct our form, but a win to halt this run really does need to come soon. I think back to last season and think of us winning three of the first four games (like this season) and having a home game where we created lots of chances but got beat in the middle of September (Hearts last season, St. Mirren this season) which sparked a barren spell. I just hope it's not happening again.

The ref loved the sound of his own whistle and was very irritable, but he had no beating on how badly we played or on the result. I didn't see how blatant Butcher's handball was from where I was, but I guess he could have been sent off for his challenge later on. I don't think I've ever seen us have four players booked in eight minutes before. I think his booking of Roos for "timewasting" showed an acknowledgment that he'd been dishing out cards too freely and it was some attempt to start evening things out.

Kettlewell going head first into those comments about Robson was certainly unwise, can't blame Aberdeen fans (or St. Mirren as per usual it seems) for taking the piss.

Awful performances all in tonight. The two hooked at half time, plus Wilkinson, Kelly and Casey worth mentions. I think Casey has been shaky for a few games now, to the point I wonder if Blaney has earned a chance. As much as Bair lacks quality, he's never posted missing the way we are seeing from Shaw and Wilkinson. He deserves up the pecking order for that alone. I thought the second half was the perfect time to give Gent a full 45 and see what he was about. I'm getting quite concerned that the personnel in our squad is so stuck to this system that other than change personnel, there's not much we can do to freshen up. I'm not sure I fancy a 4-3-3 with ineffectual strikers used as wingers.

He is, but at the moment we are starting with eleven right-footed players. When McGinn missed a game through suspension earlier in the season, Casey moved from LCB to RCB and Blaney came in.

I think that Kettlewell sees the middle of the back three and each side to be different positions and Blaney has been unlucky as a result of that. I certainly think if Casey or McGinn were out and Blaney and Mugabi were on the bench, Blaney would get the nod. I wonder if we were planning to sign another centre back until Casey extended his deal at the 11th hour. Maybe the plan was for him to play. 10 months down the line, I still don't think he's played enough for us to know how good he is.

We were a bit all over the place, because we were obviously chasing goals and as much as the personnel suggested 4-3-3, when lined up in a formation at kick off, it simply looked like a back three with Spittal as a wing-back.

You don't have to go too far back to add Juhani Ojala or Eddie Nolan to that list as well. Extending Obika's deal was mind boggling - especially as we saw his injury problems in action. But Souare, I just can't understand how someone looked at him and thought he was going to be a worthwhile signing. Obviously, he was an EPL regular before his car crash in 2016 and it looks like that's pretty much killed his career, which is sad for him. I looked at his transfermarkt page and he's only started 29 league games (only 18 of which he completed) in the seven years between then and him signing for us. I don't know who looked at that and thought he could be a regular in a physical team.

Biereth is on 2 goals and 2 assists in 50 minutes of league football, which is an unbelievable rate of involvement. Has to be Butcher back in defence for me. We need his leadership and his positional sense, as much as Mugabi has exceeded expectations when he has been out. I'd also bring Miller and Wilkinson in from the start. Our best performances this season have been with the 3-4-2-1 and neither Shaw nor Bair have done enough to justify sticking with two up top. There was absolutely nothing in Robson's comments. It's a bit embarassing how Kettlewell has taken the bait when there wasn't really any. I'd always rather our managers refrained from any mind games in the press.

Your team won 4-0 to go joint second yesterday, yet here you are on a Motherwell thread talking about a tackle that happened in August. Complete sad act.

Momentum and confidence are massive in football and regardless of the manner they arrive in, four defeats on the bounce does start to concern you. The hard lucky story must be draining for the players. I know we were honkin today but there is the whole "had we not had a player sent off right on half time" line, to go with the three preceding games where we played well and had nothing to show for it. In a perverse way, part of me thinks if we'd taken a doing off one of the old firm and came back fired up. Unfortunately, the markets we are shopping in dictate the quality of player we have. We've massively cut our cloth this season and we have 21 first team players for a 20 man squad - one of whom has just turned 17 and another who very publicly was only signed due to injuries to others. I would say that my biggest criticism so far of Kettlewell's dealings is signing Obika and Souaré. I think anyone who had a quick browse at transfermarkt could have foreseen these 33 year olds who can't string five games together spending time on the sidelines. Especially when for me, both fall into the decent category - not worth the gamble of two slots in a in already small squad. We know Mugabi has a moment like today in him - sadly with Butcher out we've had to play him more than we'd have liked to. I have almost made peace with the fact he's as good a backup centre back as we're entitled with our current budget. The striking situation hasn't been ideal. Biereth was class for half an hour against Hibs, but I'm worried about him getting better with each game he misses. So far, Shaw seems an expert in fluffing his lines, wondering how many chances he'll need to put one away. Wilkinson has yet to convince me, but I'm still rather pissed off about him being 6'2" and taking a corner last week and hitting the first man. The only way you take corners at that height is if you're class at them. Bair hasn't been as bad as St. Johnstone fans had billed him to be, and Spittal and Slattery have played nice stuff off him but you get the impression he would do better with someone up beside him. Given our small squad is made up of centre backs, wing backs, centre mids and strikers, I hope we've not put all of our eggs in the one basket. I'm not in any way worried about us going down at the end of the season or anything, but I certainly do think with or circumstances, been up around 3rd was a false economy.

By contrast, a Blackburn fan I work with hadn't even heard of Georgie Gent

I imagine we are sending Ferrie out for our benefit and Wilson out for his. If we've signed Gent and Souare, used two right footers in McGinn and Spencer on the left and preferred McGinley from the bench, then the writing was probably on the wall from that. I also think we could get a tune out of McKinstry in the current formation - last season he probably wasn't a fit in the 3-5-2 system as playing as a 10 would have made him too much of a midfielder, whereas the current system would see him more of an attacker. I think that ship has sailed though and if Kettlewell did rate him / want him, he'd have got more minutes off the bench last season - particularly post split.

Brandon is getting to the ball last night and Seema isn't, so he uses his arm to shove him out the road. I don't know in what world you wouldn't consider that a foul. Whether Brandon is "too soft" or not is a different matter - I think he could be more robust or physical, but that doesn't change whether it's a foul or not.

I did mean league penalties - I had assumed there must have been some in Europe because the officials aren't as pathetic as Collum & co.

A mate of mine summed it up by saying it's more likely to be pressure / panic / fear than it is corruption (which I agree with) but there's absolutely no denying the hand up they get from officials. The incident at the Motherwell game and today's so closely together certainly highlight that. Not related to tonight, but the fact that Rangers haven't conceded a penalty at Ibrox since 2019 is quite astounding. Every other club in the league had a penalty against them at home last season, for context.

Rangers brought on a centre half for a forward, then a defensive midfielder for a forward and timewasted to beat us 1-0 at home. I reckon we'll be fine with a bit better decision making in the final third. St Mirren fans showing themselves up to be sad acts, on this thread willing on Rangers.

I said on the match thread yesterday that looking at the goal - our positioning when the cross came in was out of sorts. Blaney and Casey were both spare and Mugabi had found himself dragged out right by whoever he was marking. Seems to me that better organisation would see every man effectively marked. Look again here at the still from that Dundee goal - Casey is spare again, O'Donnell finds himself dragged inside and McGinn is running out from right centre back to two players at the back post. I think we'll be better organised once Butcher is back. That said, it's hardly like it's a massive problem.

Live at the game, I thought SOD may have been at fault for the goal, but looking at it on the clip above, almost the full defence is out of shape. Mugabi (playing in the centre) has been dragged across away from his position. O'Donnell appears to have two men, whilst Casey and Blaney appear to be marking no one. Whilst none of them may be blameless in it and the goal may still go in, if you had a vocal leader in Butcher in the middle there, we'd maybe have made a better job of the man marking anyway.

I heard at one point, can't remember where, that October was mooted. I think if that's realistic, we'd already have seen a "back on the grass " post from the club.

I remember Daws raving about how well we had done expanding our scouting network into new markets. It brought us Efford, Ojala and Solholm. We needn't have bothered.

You can't argue with the job that Kettlewell has done in streamlining our squad since he came in. You can probably just about pair these departures with incomings. Jake Carroll - Georgie Gent Barry Maguire - Harry Paton Kevin Van Veen - Connor Wilkinson Jack Aitchison - Oli Shaw Dean Cornelius - Davor Zdrawkowski Mikael Mandron - Theo Bair Max Johnston - Brodie Spencer James Furlong - Pape Souare Connor Shields - Mika Biereth This means that on top of them, we have got rid of Lamie, Efford, Crankshaw, Danzaki, McKinstry, Morris, Tierney and Goss without effectively really replacing them. On top of that, you could probably argue that in an ideal world Shaw and Gent wouldn't be here and have been a necessity through injuries. Spencer and Gent are still at the unproven stage and may prove to be as effective as Johnston and Furlong were, but apart from that, in this streamlining exercise, you would say that the only real drop off in quality has been Van Veen - which was always going to be the case. Even if he'd stayed, 2023/24 Van Veen would likely have been a drop-off in quality from 2022/23 Van Veen. Signing two perma-crocks in Obika and Souare for them to both get lengthy injuries is probably the only slight in his dealings for me so far. But even within that, the fact they are here for a year and six months respectively, those seem like deals that would have been 2 year deals in the past.

As well as the comments about Efford himself, I also enjoyed the comments of people demanding a bigger statement because they are part owners of the club. To add to that, there was even someone saying we shouldn't have let Danzaki go either. Strange place