capt_oats Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 2 hours ago, Casagolda said: I like Bowman, he has his uses and he’s certainly played his part this season particularly during our good start. However, if we’re being brutally honest he lacks that bit of quality required to be first choice at this level- I know goals aren’t everything but 9 goals in nearly 2 years isn’t exactly a great return for a striker we actually paid a fee for. At best he’s going to be a rotation option and I’m not sure that’s the role he or the club had in mind when we bought him last summer. Given we’ve already been linked to strikers who would/could fulfill a similar role to Bowman, it wouldn’t surprise me if Bowman was away this summer and Robinson was looking to freshen things up. Looking at our team just now I’d say a partner for Main and an actual left wing back(assuming we persist with the 352) would be my priority positions this summer. A midfielder with a bit of quality on the ball would be nice as well, cause I’m not sure it’s ever really going to work out for Bigi here either. Although you could argue in Turnbull and Livingstone you have two guys already at the club that could potentially step into two of those roles, however it remains to be seen if Robinson will actually put his faith in either of them. Aye, I noticed on Steelmen there were quite wild shouts for us to go 442. Why, I'm not entirely sure since we've had a relatively successful season playing 352/3412 for the most part but there you go. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet we'll be sticking with a similar shape next season as we have thus far. Clearly our business model dictates that this is unlikely to happen but let's say we don't actually sell anyone on this summer and the only players leaving are those out of contract and loans (so Ciftci, Hendrie, Aldred, Bowman, Rose, Grimshaw, Petravicius, Newell, Plummer and Griffiths). You'd think 10 players out would make a reasonable dent in the budget especially if we were only looking to bring in 5 or 6. Based on no contracted players leaving (assuming Dunne's option has kicked in) you'd be looking at a team of: Carson Kipré Hartley Dunne Tait Cadden Campbell McHugh Frear Main XXXX Subs (take your pick from): Tanner, Ferguson, MacLean, Bigirimana, Turnbull, Maguire, Livingstone, Hastie For me you'd be looking at bringing in x3 forwards for Ciftci, Bowman + Petravicius/Newell, x1 centre mid for Rose, 1x CB for Aldred/Plummer, and a LWB. I can't remember who it was who said it a while back but it was pointed out that we've never really managed to replace Nicky Law in the midfield and in honesty it seems fair comment. On that point, while I totally acknowledge it doesn't seem Robinson's style to recruit former players I notice that actual Nicky Law is out of contract at Bradford this summer while Giles Coke's injured but on a short term deal at Chesterfield who are about to get relegated from League 2 by the look of things. Both are outside the sort of age range we've gone for recently but Robinson seems to love a player with Championship/League 1/League 2 experience. Either way given the number of times we've heard Robinson talk post-match about needing to look after the ball better I'd say a CM with a pretty specific skill-set should be top of our shopping list. If we wanted to explore former players further (which I doubt we will) then Ojamaa's plying his trade in the 2nd tier in Croatia (he's scored 4 in 12 for HNK Gorica). For all he was mince 2nd time round with us and had a shitemare spell at Dundee I could see Ojamaa actually doing quite well in a Robinson side. Thinking back to Burrows' interview at the end of last season where he was saying that we had to wait until the Killie game was done and we'd confirmed our safety before we could press on with recruitment I'd hope that our position of relative safety this season means we've been able to crack on with all that stuff a bit earlier. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 When it comes to this summer's dealings, I think the main positive is that we have the mythical solid base to build from - whereas it's felt for years that we've been ripping it up and starting again every summer. Taking a team that is fit, solid defensively and has it's core tied down for a couple of years is a pretty good place to be and it's got to be easier trying to add a bit of creativity and guile onto that than trying to sort out the sort of directionless shambles that Robinson inherited from McGhee. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phillips455 Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Just looked at the Motherwell Twitter and seen them retweet this from the scottish cup account: Too right. Shame that Carl McHughs goal never featured. It was probably the best goal of the round. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyRoss Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Alternatively I seem to recall the MFC Podcast guys saying they were planning on speaking to him soon for one of their episodes, so maybe wait for that. There's a lot of good stuff in the CU interview tbf. Grant will be on before the end of the month. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 (edited) 1 minute ago, AndyRoss said: Grant will be on before the end of the month. Good lads, I've just been listening to the one with Las there. Excellent stuff as always. Edited April 9, 2018 by capt_oats 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyRoss Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Good lads, I've just been listening to the one with Las there. Excellent stuff as always. Cheers mate. Can’t be understated how good Las is with us, always more than happy to give up his time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 23 minutes ago, AndyRoss said: Grant will be on before the end of the month. Good - I tried to listen to the one he did on the Celtic podcast before he was with us that @capt_oats linked to- and although Grant sounded like a really interesting guy, I just couldn't listen to the inane wittering of the guy doing the podcast and so I ditched it about half-way through. Interested to hear a more Motherwell-centric chat.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 1 minute ago, Swello said: Good - I tried to listen to the one he did on the Celtic podcast before he was with us that @capt_oats linked to- and although Grant sounded like a really interesting guy, I just couldn't listen to the inane wittering of the guy doing the podcast and so I ditched it about half-way through. Interested to hear a more Motherwell-centric chat.. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 This is the good stuff btw. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Bredric [emoji2] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Bredric [emoji23]Someone make that Kipre “Outstanding” bit either a gif or a meme! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellboy1991 Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 Our lads are top top class. Love our team. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 (edited) #youngmotherwell #prideoflanarkshire Edited April 9, 2018 by capt_oats 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted April 9, 2018 Share Posted April 9, 2018 A front two of Main + A.N with Reilly or Bowman as 3rd choice would be pretty tasty. Throw Ciftci in there too for banter purposes. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 (edited) 16 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said: A front two of Main + A.N with Reilly or Bowman as 3rd choice would be pretty tasty. Throw Ciftci in there too for banter purposes. FWIW: going by the way this season has gone post-window I'd say we're looking at filling 4 or 5 forward positions. Main A.N Other A.N Other Bowman-a-like u20s spot - Hastie/Scott/Agyeman Clearly I'd happily have Ciftci on board but we're really need to be looking at bringing in a 2nd striker who can take the weight off Main and based on recent form even I'm not daft enough to suggest Ciftci's that guy. I'm not sure we have the budget to accommodate 2 goal scoring strikers plus one mercurial talent though. Given we seem to have a habit of going back in for previous targets I wouldn't be surprised if one of those spaces was someone we've been in for before. Edited April 10, 2018 by capt_oats 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 I like the idea that's been mentioned on here as looking for an out-an-out no.9 who'll be the main goalscorer, allowing Main to play off him which I think will suit him down to the ground. Granted, finding a striker who'll get you 15+ goals a season, for free, is easier said than done. We need a left-back, or left wing-back and a creative midfielder. Those, plus a striker, are the priorities this summer I'd say. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 54 minutes ago, Desp said: I like the idea that's been mentioned on here as looking for an out-an-out no.9 who'll be the main goalscorer, allowing Main to play off him which I think will suit him down to the ground. Granted, finding a striker who'll get you 15+ goals a season, for free, is easier said than done. We need a left-back, or left wing-back and a creative midfielder. Those, plus a striker, are the priorities this summer I'd say. We've paid small fees (and I guess agreed decent sell-ons) for some key players over the past couple of years and I would think that if we are in a decent financial position, the No9 is the very place where you would make that investment. As far as I can see, even paying a 50k type of fee puts you in a better position than a host of competitor clubs who won't/can't pay any sort of fee at all and so are confined to out of contract players vs guys going into the last year of their deals. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 (edited) Aye. Listening to Robinson speak about the squad recently he's been talking about balance and depth. For all we've been relatively comfortable in terms of league position this season we've largely been relying on one striker to carry us through ie: Moult and subsequently Main. Despite being fairly shite in recent seasons (including the top 6 under McGhee) we had Moult and McDonald which seemed a much better balanced pairing. It's just unfortunate we had Craig Samson in goals chucking them in last season. This season feels, to me at least, like there's been much more of a drop off in "quality" up front. Which is where I'd argue we really need to sort the balance out. Take Moult out and you were perming a front pair from Bowman, Fisher, Newell and Petravicius (5 league goals between them all season). Personally I think Main and Ciftci is a much better balance in terms of quality but a return of 1 goal in 11 games from the bold Nadz is still putting a lot of pressure on Main to score goals. Basically, looking at the season as a whole it says quite a lot that our "top scorer" award has ended up with an attacking midfielder. Going by last summer it feels like our recruitment profile has shifted a bit. It seems we've moved from the non-league market eg: your Moult, Johnson, Heneghan etc and are more focusing on players with decent Championship/League 1 experience who, for whatever reason, have become marginalised at their club (Main) or are available through a relegation (Rose, Bigirmana, Carson etc). thisGRAEME made an excellent point on The Terrace the other week when he was talking about how it feels like Main is starting from a much higher base than Moult did. I totally agree. Where Moult arrived at the club with his background predominately being non-league, Main's arrived with almost 50 games at Championship level and 70+ games at League 1 (granted he's also a couple of years older than Moult was when he signed). A lot was made about Main's lack of goals at his previous clubs (I raised an eyebrow myself) but I think that kind of distracted from the fact that he actually spent 3 seasons playing at Championship level with Boro, that's a pretty high level to be getting your grounding. Rather than gambling that players can make the step up from non-league to Scottish Premiership (which in hindsight is high risk) the focus seems to have shifted to offering players with Championship/League 1 experience who are now on the fringes of their current teams a platform with far greater exposure than they'll get in the lower leagues in England (as Carson's been highlighting). Edited April 10, 2018 by capt_oats 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC Posted April 10, 2018 Share Posted April 10, 2018 I have been very impressed with Main and I say that as someone who was sceptical when he signed given his lack of goals at previous clubs..."aw no no another striker who doesn't score goals" was my general thinking. He has though been a very good addition to the squad and as well as chipping in with some crucial goals he has proved himself a very industrious, hard working and physical forward player who also possesses a nice touch and skill. He's not an out and out goalscorer but I'd like to see him paired with someone who is, though that won't happen this season of course. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casagolda Posted April 11, 2018 Author Share Posted April 11, 2018 On the subject of strikers I noticed big Alex Fisher scored again for Yeovil last night, that’s 5 in 7 league starts for him there now. Shame it didn’t work out for him here, always felt he was a goal away from finding his feet and getting some confidence. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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