crazylegsjoe_mfc

I had never come across this youtube channel before, many thanks! There's another one "Gobstopper68" which has plenty of good 'Well content too.

He's clung on to it by saying "automatic" relegation. There was supposed to be a playoff between Aberdeen (in 10th) and Falkirk (in 3rd) which didn't take place due to Brockville not being up to scratch. Edit: In the season the league was being extended to 12 and the split was introduced for clarity.

Not yet, Maguire is actually older than Campbell. I hope this doesn't mean the injury he picked up on Saturday has him out for Friday, but I suppose there's a good chance the club have said to the SFA that he is "carrying" an injury, coupled with quoting the figure of km he has ran in recent weeks in order to get him a rest.

I've always thought that he's not the type of player who would make us a lot of money, but he will still be 22 when his contact expires next summer so if he were to leave on a bosman, at least we would still get compensation (provided he didn't join Columbus Crew via a loan at Oxford). By all accounts, he's first in and last out every day at Fir Park, is super fit and a dedicated pro. Right back to when he was in the team as a teenager, it always impressed me how he wasn't at all fazed by going toe-to-toe with the likes of Scott Brown. I think his game is centre far more on attitude and physical condition, than it is on technique. I said this last week before the game to my mates (right before he scored twice and got a MOTM performance of course) that I thought being a really good Motherwell player was his level and that if he does go next summer, he's the type of player I could see going down to League One and if he doesn't become an eventual templated returning Motherwell player, I could see him ending up back up the road at a team like Hibs or Aberdeen. This might seem harsh, I do love him and he's exactly the type of player fans like to see, would run through a brick wall for the team etc, but my gut instinct is that he maybe just lacks a little finesse to play at a much higher level than this.

It's his in laws' cafe.

I'd agree with pretty much all of that. When you think on the face of it, Hylton got an "assist" of sorts for the first two goals last night. Last night was the first time I've seen Aarons in a winning team, but probably his worst individual performance. Either way, he strikes me as the type of player who has is that raw way where he'll be a threat even on days when he's having a stinker. It's good to have options in the midfield three again. Donnelly is still banned on Saturday. Ultimately, a fully fit Turnbull probably steps in for Polworth in my opinion, as harsh as that may be. O'Hara was one I was unsure of, but he's really coming onto a game now. I think he's earned the right to keep Donnelly out (and I'm a Donnelly fan) for the timebeing. I'd actually consider putting Donnelly back in beside Gallagher if Hartley has any more hiccups. Hartley was reasonable enough last night.

I thought Hylton had a decent 80 minutes tonight, the amount of mistakes he made in the last 10 minutes, playing for a team 3-1 up was quite something though. Robinson got it right with his team selection last night, as much as I was going for a front three of Aarons, Watt and Long. Was saying to a few mates last night that our "forwards" have tiers: Long/Watt/Aarons Hylton MacIver Seedorf/Ilic/Manzinga Edit: Forgot Ndjoli, but I don't know where I'd place him.

It's a shame, because I really liked him as a player when fit and he comes across as a good guy, but unfortunately I don't think we can afford to carry such an injury prone player, as well as Mugabi, as 2 of our 4 centre backs next season.

2 goals in 24 games is a very lazy way of looking at it. If you're talking to specifically league statistics, he scored twice in 544 minutes, which essentially equates to 2 goals in 6 full games. A "one in three" ratio is hard enough to achieve when you are starting every week, but even harder when it's ten minutes here, twenty minutes there. I don't think this guy will be our saviour, but perhaps a bit premature writing him off.

I hope this game sees Grimshaw in for the suspended Donnelly and a return to a back four, as it would seem the only way to continue with a back three would be to bring Mugabi in or play Tait as a centre-half. I'd also bring Long in for Hylton and give Aarons, Watt and Long a bash as what I think could be our best front three.

I couldn't say for certain - but I reckon part of the reason we've not seen many young players on the bench or in the team this season is the sheer volume of players we signed - Which I think is probably a by-product of us losing out on first-choice targets and instead signing more players on less money, particularly in forward areas.

Yeah, his ability on the ball is another thing to consider. He did start the season as Gallagher's partner but if I remember correctly, Hartley had already kinda taken his place - Dunne played LB against Accies and was then on the bench against Hibs before he went for his op. I guess it's not impossible that we might end up seeing a total refresh of our centre-back options in the summer. Can see us trying to cash in on Gallagher with a year left on his deal, letting Dunne and Hartley's contracts expire and realising giving Mugabi a contract extension was a brainfart and somehow trying to punt him. Dunne and Tait do both strike me as "better the devil you know" in terms of knowing they can both do a job and fearing what the alternative may be given some of the dross we signed this season.

Can only imagine how delighted he looks when the ball hits the back of the net! The talk of Lamie seems a bit more underwhelming when you find out he's a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none and down the pecking order at Livi. Don't get me wrong, there's every chance he'd improve a backline with Hartley and Mugabi in it. It would be a no brainier to offer a fit Dunne a new deal for me, but you can't ignore the amount of games he's missed and the recurring nature of his injuries. Surprised to hear that Lithgow seems down the pecking order from what the Livi fans on the thread have said. Every time I seen them last season, that back three seemed the constant of the team and I thought after losing Gallagher and Halkett, they'd have been relieved to keep one. Fair play though, they seem to have kicked on again.

That's more it for me. We've used Scott, Long, Cole, Ilic, Seedorf, Hylton, Manzinga, MacIver and Aarons wide at different points this season, without even really seeing Ndjoli yet. Last year when we made it work for us, Ariyibi and Hastie were pretty much constants in the formation. This season's recruitment was always going to be a tall order for Robinson in trying to replace those two, as well as having to try and find a striker to contribute some of the goals that came from midfield in Turnbull last season in the loan/free/nominal fee market. Looks like we have a decent player in Aarons, finally, albeit very temporarily. However, I feel like we might end up wasting him with defensive duties in this lop-sized wing back formation we've seen in the past few games. It seems with the rest of them this season he's gone a bit left-field, i.e. players who are unproven who may come good and they haven't. I'd place Hylton a level above Seedorf and Ilic, but not being Seedorf or Ilic at times seems his best attribute. I think MacIver has potential, but I don't see him having the promoted to the first team impact that for example, Scott or Hastie have had. Then don't get me started on a 25 year-old "project" from the Belgian lower leagues. At the end of last season, I had no qualms at losing Cadden or Frear, but now we've got to February, I'm looking around and thinking both are far preferable to a lot of the options we do have. For me, the way forward until the end of the season is Grimshaw and Tait as full backs, Gallagher with hopefully Dunne in the middle, 3 of Donnelly, O'Hara Polworth, Turnbull and Campbell in the middle with Aarons, Watt and Long forming the "two forwards and a winger" formation we seen in the early parts of the season.

I clicked on the location on Instagram when I saw it and laughed when I saw a picture of Jacob Blyth pouting in operation gown from his days "playing" with us.

Reserves 2-1 down to Aberdeen currently. Trialist (presumably Robinson's son) has scored our goal from 25 yards. Maguire, Ndjoli and Manzinga involved from the first team, but no Dunne. I doubt that's because he's in the squad tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure the court case is on Thursday this week. I'm sure February 27th was mentioned. For some reason, not being privvy to any of the particulars surrounding it, I get the impression the most he'll end up guilty of is breach of the peace.

Don't get me wrong, Carroll has had a decent, if perhaps unspectacular, season and it has been good that we finally seem to have exercised the ghosts of not being able to find a left-footed player to replace Stevie Hammell, but I am totally fine with Richard Tait playing left-back until the end of the season. It's one of my least favourite moronic Motherwell fan shouts when people say "I like Richard Tait but he can't play on the left" when he's played most of his Motherwell career on the left. It'll be interesting to see if Robbo puts his money where his mouth is regarding Hartley and Mugabi with his team selection.

From twitter - Carroll confirmed as out for the season, but Long, Gallagher, Hartley and Mugabi all fit for tomorrow. Turnbull is also in full training again and just waiting from the ok from his specialist to play again.

I thought Donnelly was great at the back on Tuesday night and I'm a big fan of his, but I do get the impression his skillset is best served behind two others, be that in defence or midfield. Happy to give him a go beside Gallagher until Dunne gets fit to prove or disprove that theory right enough - as it seems a universal agreement that Hartley nor Mugabi will do.

Hartley is still a far better option than Mugabi for me, but I'd be happy to get both off our books and I would be especially reluctant to offer Hartley, as much as he's my preffered of the two, any kind of deal whilst there's no guarantee we can move Mugabi on. Don't get me wrong, Robinson has been good at shipping under-contract players not cutting it before like Johnson, Fisher, Taylor-Sinclair, Bigi etc, but none of them have been signed in September after being released by a team in League Two. I don't know how many times I've said it on this thread, but I think it was absolute madness extending his deal until the end of next season on the back of three or four reasonably competent games when we had an injury crisis. I've always liked Dunne as a player (and of course as a social media contributor) but his injury history concerns me to extend his deal. Looking at it on transfermarkt, it seems his first season with us where he was virtually injury-free was the anomaly. Months out with pelvic problems at Oldham in 16/17 and then two serious groin injuries with us in the past two seasons is a concern. Mind you, this season has been listed as "groin surgery" and last year "groin injury", maybe the hope is that the surgery will fix him.

Yeah, I know he's considered a "midfielder" these days, but having played centre half, I thought he might have been considered a viable option on the bench given it would be highly unlikely that we'd use Manzinga, Ilic, Seedorf and Hylton and surely one of them could have been sacrificed for him

The above was something that crossed my mind after last night. I wasn't sure whether Aarons looked comfortable as a wing-back last night due to the nature of the game. If he could play there and enable us to avoid a lopsided front three, or enabled us not to play an underwhelming winger on the other side. Similarly, I thought Donnelly was very assured in the middle of a back three, but was appreciative of the fact that chasing a Scottish Cup tie in a the second half would be very different to a bog standard league game. However, the role he played in there as a "sweeper" if you like didn't seem that different to what he does when he plays well in midfield, just that he's sitting behind the defence rather than in front of it. Have a feeling it'll be another busy transfer window. Really hope we manage to get Mugabi and Seedorf off the books, as well as being able to let a few others go. Interestingly, I thought with there being no centre-half on the bench yesterday Barry Maguire might have been quoted. However, I guess the fact that there were three wingers on the bench (two of whom didn't get on) before him tells us that's a project Robbo has given up on.

Robinson's comments post match were almost contradictory. He said he was going to stop showing loyalty to players who had done a job for him in the first half of the season, but at the same time said we were down to the bare bones. This season's recruitment begs so many questions, from Mugabi's charitable 18 month extension to paying a fee for Seedorf. Hopefully we can get Chili D fit beside Gallagher and the need to use Mugabi/Hartley reduces and we can work a front three around Aarons, Watt and Long. There's no doubt there's a lot of dross in the squad, although I do have a degree of sympathy for Robinson with the amount of players he has to recruit.

No Long for Motherwell tomorrow and Ndjoli is going for a scan on a knee problem. I think the personnel in the squad pretty much picks itself now. Gillespie Grimshaw Gallagher Hartley Carroll Polworth Donnelly Campbell Aarons Watt Hylton Subs: Carson, Tait, Mugabi, O'Hara, Ilic, Seedorf, MacIver.