crazylegsjoe_mfc

It makes you wonder why we didn't just keep Ewan Wilson about and save the staff in the office some admin.

No one can deny that it was a minor miracle finishing 2nd with that cast. However, when you look at the financials from that season, you couldn't argue that he wasn't backed. As someone who was too young to appreciate the early 90s, McCall undoubtedly gave me the best years of my Motherwell supporting life - run to a cup final (cup final itself was boggin, of course), third and two seconds, three seasons of European football including the Champion's League, Higdon winning POTY, you could go on. He was the last manager to come in on the back of the previous manager being successful and as I said, he inherited a great team. I feel like we are in a massively different space now. Something always just sticks out with him being a beaten man after the first real bad run he had as Motherwell manager. I just don't feel that energy, or trying to recreate history like this is what we need right now.

Would it? The last time he inherited Randolph, Hateley, Hammell, Craigan, Hutchinson, Reynolds (albeit for a month), Jennings, Lasley, Humphrey, Murphy and Sutton. We can only dream of that standard of player nowadays.

It's unhealthy that if we do part ways that we will be looking at our fifth permanent manager in four seasons. It also slightly concerns me that with every manager we turnover quickly, the position becomes less attractive to the type of manager that could actually break the cycle. That said, now that the bags are under his eyes the way that they were with Hammell, 12 games without a win and Wilkinson playing centre mid being the type of selection that would have made the Raith game, we've reached the point where him still being in charge has no benefit to the players, the fans or even him. Nothing personal against him, he obviously wanted it to work as much as all of us did.

I can't believe he's managed to get himself into a scenario where his reluctance to change from a back three and his constant tinkering of formations are simultaneously a problem. For me, I'd say Spittal and Mika are the players I rate most highly. Tonight we won't get the most out of Spittal as he is playing too deep and as per the previous games using this formation, we won't get the most out of Mika because Wilkinson and Bair will be in his road. If we've got to the stage where we can't freshen up the team with the left back and central midfielder that he signed, when we need a left back and a central midfielder, then that's on him. Hopefully, tonight he completely proves me wrong, but that team selection is tipping the scales in my opinion of his future. He's almost doing the polar opposite of what made him successful when he first came in.

For whatever little merit it has, Paul McGinn definitely makes my first eleven, so he will be welcomed back by me. Wilkinson is one I'm still torn on. His goals have been worth 5 points, if you think about them coming in a win and two in draws. All in big moments in games. I'm pretty sure when he signed, there were fans of teams he had played for saying he was frustrating, but there was a player in there. I reckon to truly know how good he is, we would need to see him start 5 or 6 games in a row, as a centre forward. However, on a winless run, when you've got three strikers on the bench and not much else spare, that's never going to happen - unless he sets the heather on fire on one start and keeps it going.

I think what @capt_oatssaid yesterday about the "supply teacher" vibes from Kettlewell is spot on. Last season he inherited a squad of about 30 players and was able to use about 14 of them to great effect. This summer was always going to be a big test. Having 30 odd players someone else picked is a lot different to having 18 with a fair chunk of them picked by you. 3-5-2 suited the lot that he inherited, but I expected him to perhaps be a bit wiser than to go and hang his entire recruitment plan on it this summer. If you look at how we started the season, it was with two wing backs in their 30s, who with all due respect to, aren't going to hit the byline and get crosses in, or carry the ball up the park consistently for you. If you looked at Pape Souare's age and injury record and thought he was your best option, surely you'd maybe think a back four might be better. I also think with the shape, with the volume and frequency we concede goals at, our three centre backs are very rarely in any kind of proper shape. I look at the 3rd goal yesterday and I'm instantly drawn to thinking "why isn't Spencer tucking in?" but when I take a step back, I'm more thinking "where are the three centre backs?" My one reason for sympathy for the defenders is that we seem to have to defend relentlessly. Our strikers don't hold on to the ball well enough, currently with Miller out and Goss having departed, we don't have anyone playing clever forward passes and there doesn't seem to be anyone who can carry the ball forward. This might just be my perception, but it seems to be when the ball goes forward, it very quickly comes back.

The minutes we've scored this season is astounding. 84% of our goals in the second half. 74% of our goals 74 minutes or later. 32% of our goals in the 90th minute or later. We've only scored one first half home goal (three in total). We've only scored the first goal four times. Two of which we've conceded the next goal and then failed to win. We've only scored one goal whilst winning (Biereth vs Hibs). All told, this has probably been the only point all season that we've been "comfortable". We've lost the first goal eleven times. Positively, we've equalised six times and gone on to draw five or them (Celtic at home being the exception), so at least we don't chuck it. On the other hand, for how often we concede first, we've yet to come back and win.

I think Turnbull has had a raw deal of it at Celtic, especially considering in his first season, he was more or less the only player who turned out positively for them. I understand how he his style didn't quite fit the pace under Postecoglu, but his goals and assists rate when on the pitch is incredible. Surely, there's a top team that could make a player out of that.

I don't know about the stats of any other team, but the fact we've gone 11, 11 and 12 games without winning in the last three full seasons and the lowest we have finished is a very comfortable 8th (which was actually joint 5th points wise), would tell you we must have more massive swings than others. At least now that we are ten games (and counting) without a win, we must be due a good run by those standards!

Reading that article, I can't work out why Hibs were so keen for McLeish, never mind having paid £150k for him. He took a very good team and turned them in to consistent relegation battlers. I know selling O'Donnell and losing McKinnon and Lambert to bosmans can't have helped him, but he was more than backed in the transfer market. I can only imagine how spending £350k on Shaun McSkimming or £150k plus two players on an attacking midfielder, only to play him right back would go down in the days of social media and forums.

It was definitely the Hibs game. Andy Watson took that game against Rangers and I'm pretty sure once he went Griffin got at least a game before Kampman came in.

I've always felt like I got a raw deal starting to go to the games in 96/97, with my first season ticket the following season. I missed the cup win and our two great league seasons in the 90s and only saw a good few of the players who were successful in that spell. in their twilight when we were fighting relegation. I know a few of them would be higher up my list if I'd seen them a few years earlier. There's probably some parallels with people of a certain age missing out on the good times under McCall, before watching a bunch of players who'd been great players for the club nearly get us relegated under McGhee.

You are. Lee McCulloch scored his first two. That was the only time I saw Arnott score in the flesh.

He speaks like someone trying to raise the word count in an essay.

There's nothing more Nathan McGinley than a sentence saying he's missed every game without further explanation.

The full game is on YouTube if anyone is interested in reminding themselves. I remember all the chat of us beating the holders being reminiscint of 1991 etc. I was the mascot in the following round against Stirling Albion. My favourite player in the program was Spencer and the other lad's was Coyle. Spencer gave me £5 as a result, which I was buzzing about. My appreciation of his generosity heightened by the fact I didn't understand he was on 10k a week plus a house and car when I was 8.

Another problem with our strikers is that we have too many of them, which is a problem born from putting all of our eggs in the 3-5-2 basket and everyone getting injured. There's absolutely nae danger we'd have tried that stupid Bair and Wilkinson behind Biereth formation, if we didn't have a surplus. It also means that none of them are getting a sustained run in the team as because it doesn't work one game, we change it the next.

I was against us re-signing Moult when we did, but I admittedly got sucked in by the fanfare. After how it played out, I was definitely once bitten, twice shy with it this summer. However, my reasons for not wanting Moult to come this summer, were the same reasons I didn't want us to give Obika deal. Both appear to be more than capable when fit. I'm pleased for Moult that he has stayed fit and is doing well, as he is a former player who I hold in high regard. The physical demands of the Championship compared with the Premiership, the lower quality of opponents and the fact he's playing in a team scoring freely and creating a lot more chances than we do makes it very hard to judge if he would be doing well for us this season.

I think we'd have been looking for a front two of Wilkinson and Biereth, with Obika first sub and Bair there for emergencies. Unfortunately that's not worked out that way. We've only signed Shaw and played Bair because of injuries to the other three. There's a relative bit of luck involved in that. Wilkinson has no doubt not worked out so far, but he's not that dissimilar to the profile of signing that KVV was. League two, bit of a maverick, inconsistent, recently recovered from a long-term injury. He actually averages roughly a goal every three starts over his career, so I'm reluctant to criticise the recruitment of a player like him. He's definitely done precious little so far but every signing is a gamble. We should never have renewed Obika's contract based on his injury record. I'll probably take stick for this, but in "better the devil you know" fashion, I almost wish we'd kept Mandron about instead.

I'm not a million miles away from your line of thinking, but for me I'd go back to as close as the end of last season as possible. Spencer and Gent on their correct sides where Johnston and Furlong were. The back three from last season - Blaney until McGinn is fit. Cutting Butcher some slack as this is essentially his pre season. Happy enough with Paton and Slattery, but equally their form has dipped enough that I wouldn't be against wee Davor getting a go. Spittal just ahead. Obika (until his next injury) as foil for our one striker in Biereth with a bit about them. Say, Kettlewell did get the sack (which I'm not an advocate of for the record), it would suprise me if a new manager didn't come in and do something like that. I think managers on bad runs sometimes tie themselves in so many knots that they wouldn't entertain the fact that something simple could solve it.

Being a bit of a stat geek, I looked this up last week when you were mentioning it. Since the split came about in the 2000/01 season, we've finished on 1 PPG or less on four occasions and I don't particularly fancy repeating any of those seasons. 2002/03 - 0.74 points per game - finished bottom (Butcher) 2006/07 - 1 point per game - finished 10th - marked safe from relegation on the penultimate game (Malpas) 2014/15 - 0.95 points per game - finished 11th and had to survive via playoffs (McCall / Baraclough) 2016/17 - 1 point per game - finished 9th - again marked safe from relegation on the penultimate game (McGhee / Robinson). Over those seasons, we've averaged 13.3 points from the first and third round of fixtures. We're traditionally slightly higher (14.2 points) from the second round of fixtures, but 0 from 6 isn't a great start there, so we're below par on all fronts. As @YassinMoutaouakilmentioned yesterday, in the last three seasons we've got 11, 11 and 12 games without winning at one point. Remarkably in those three seasons, the lowest we finished was 8th in 2020/21 (when we actually had the same points as 5th place). Looking at the all sugar and all shite aspect of it, our current run of 10 games has brought us 5 points. Since 2016/17, we've had a 10 game like this run 6 out of the 8 seasons (it's even been 4 twice). Prior to 2016/17, you'd have got go back to the season we finished bottom for a run that bad, but it seems almost normal in recent years to have a slump like this.

For me, Biereth, Bair and Wilkinson have all had their best impact as substitutes this season. This really isn't ideal when you Obika is a perma-crock, Shaw is Shaw and you need to start someone. Hopefully Mika is just getting sharper. I don't blame him for a second with what's going on around him, but he's never seemed to involved when he's started so far.

I think Kettlewell does have some money in the bank, because his run last season was just as good as it was. The difference between that and Hammell is probably that Hammell had never previously demonstrated the ability to put a run together. I look at the team that finished the game today (auxiliary striker Mugabi aside) and wonder if swapping Shaw out for Biereth could be just about competent. Could Obika (until he inevitably breaks again) be a better foil for Mika than any of our other strikers have been so far?

Can only echo what everyone else has said about playing players in formation. Aside from the last roll of the dice with Bevis, we finished the game with eleven players perfectly positioned, why can't we start like that? A right footed centre half on the right, a left footed one on the left, actual wing backs on their correct sides. The same balance to the midfield as last season and two strikers. Blair Spittal at left wing back is a joke. We might argue that we don't have the players to play 4-3-3 or whatever other formation, but I'm sure Spittal would much rather be left of a front three, than left of a back five. I don't think he's getting the chop now, but Dundee at home is a must win after we've been to Celtic Park.