Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Neil86]

Is Liam Brown injured, doesn't seem to have been in reserve squads?

[capt_oats]

5 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Having a dozen Liam Polworth goal gifs ready to post at the drop of a hat after we've been linked with him for a few hours might be the most on brand capt_oats post ever.

4 hours ago, Neil86 said:

Is Liam Brown injured, doesn't seem to have been in reserve squads?

When Robinson was talking about having pulled a loan deal for Brown at the end of the January window because he wanted to try and get him in the first team he mentioned he'd been carrying an injury. The last time he started was the Ross County game on March 11th, I don't think he's been involved since. 

Edit: That's the Reserves top of the league with a game to go. Given Craigan stepped down in December Mo Ross seems to be doing alright. By my count he's only lost 2 games and won 7 of 11.

Interesting to see we were playing Broque Watson as a centre forward and Rehman wide right. Any time I'd seen Rehman before he's been centre mid and Watson's always been a winger.

Some ball from McAlear for the opener btw. Tidy finish from the Leeds-bound McKinstry too.

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by capt_oats

[crazylegsjoe]

BBC gossip column today says that Hamilton are interested in Polworth, but are likely to lose to Motherwell for him. I don't know how much weight you can put behind the 'likely' word. Again, Scott Burns in the express was the source.

It also suggests that Rangers are set to re-open talks with Hastie, whilst mentioning a good few other teams including Derby, Hull etc. I guess most will be in this line of thinking, but I think there's close to zero chance of Hastie signing a new deal. He seems to be a big hit for himself.

I wonder if the signings of Gallacher and now the potential talk of Polworth mean that we might be going more down the route of domestic recruits than we have done in the past.

 

[Casagolda]

Despite his words to the contrary a few months back, Hastie clearly has no intention of being at Fir Park next season. That’s pretty much where my interest in the matter ended.

Talented boy who it’ll be a shame to lose but based on his performances for the last month or so, you’d question whether his head/heart was really in it anymore anyway. Take the compensation money and move on. 

As for Polworth, it looks like we’re heading towards a big turnover of players this summer and presumably will have quite a young squad again next season. Perhaps signing a couple of experienced guys, with decent track records in Scottish football is part of our plan to make the transition a bit smoother.

[AndyRoss]

Strikes me that Jake Hastie is Jake Hastie's biggest fan.

[RiG]

Polworth is a smashing player. The fact that a lot of his assists come from corners and free kicks shouldn’t detract from the fact that he is arguably one of the best players in the Championship with a keen eye for a pass and frequently picks holes through a defence to set up chances for his team mates. He grabbed another assist last night as well I think. 

Most of his time for us under Robbo has been spent playing behind the striker with occasional moves further back or out onto the right wing. This is where he got a lot of game time under Hughes and Foran and it clearly wasn’t his best position. At that time however he had a lot of competition to bag a spot in the centre so this was a way to get him in the team somehow. Since he started playing in the centre more frequently we have definitely seen the best of him. Maybe it’s in part due to the drop down to the Championship but the guy is clearly a talented player and deserves to be playing at a higher level.

Some of our fans don’t like him because he gets exasperated when something goes wrong and that he has an attitude problem. Whilst it is true that he can look quite disappointed if he misplaces a pass or a team mate does something wrong I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say he has an attitude problem. He works hard for the team and it’s only natural that he tires given that he is up and down the pitch for most of the game. But for whatever reason he became a target for the boo boys and earlier this season he had a shedload of abuse directed at him during a game referencing his sister which, as you can imagine, didn’t go down too well.

I am fully expecting him to leave in the summer and I will be really disappointed when he does. Despite the fact that I think he could easily play for an Aberdeen or Hearts a move to somewhere like a Motherwell or a Saint Johnstone would probably be best for him at this stage simply because there might be less pressure on him from the get go.

[AndyRoss]

On the topic of discussing players from other Scottish teams, I'm sorry @capt_oats but I'm going to step on your toes for one post only...

Recent signings from Scottish sides

Conor Sammon (18-19) - Posed for a funny picture, not very good at fitba.  

Alex Fisher (17-18) - Keen eye for goal.

Nadir Ciftci (17-18) - Bundles of potential, we only saw glimpses of that.

Dean Brill (16-17) - Sure he was a good lad, no idea how he was as a keeper.

Joe Chalmers (15-16) - Badly exposed on occasions, seems to have flourished at Inverness which is a surprise.

Morgaro Gomis (15-16) - Brutal

David Clarkson (15-16) - Wasn't a glorious return.

Dan Twardzik (14-15) - I thought he did ok at times, but it's not ideal having a goalkeeper who seems to be scraping five foot tall. 

Edited April 17, 2019 by AndyRoss

[TheScarf]

Polworth has years of SPL/Prem experience.  As RIG says, I think he would enhance any team outwith the OF.

When we were finishing top 6, he had the cigars out for a lot of games.

[TheScarf]

On the subject of ICT/Motherwell players, you can throw Tom Aldred (utter fucking shite for us) and Michael Fraser (decent enough for us) in there too.

[Neil86]

45 minutes ago, AndyRoss said:

On the topic of discussing players from other Scottish teams, I'm sorry @capt_oats but I'm going to step on your toes for one post only...

Recent signings from Scottish sides

Conor Sammon (18-19) - Posed for a funny picture, not very good at fitba.  

Alex Fisher (17-18) - Keen eye for goal.

Nadir Ciftci (17-18) - Bundles of potential, we only saw glimpses of that.

Dean Brill (16-17) - Sure he was a good lad, no idea how he was as a keeper.

Joe Chalmers (15-16) - Badly exposed on occasions, seems to have flourished at Inverness which is a surprise.

Morgaro Gomis (15-16) - Brutal

David Clarkson (15-16) - Wasn't a glorious return.

Dan Twardzik (14-15) - I thought he did ok at times, but it's not ideal having a goalkeeper who seems to be scraping five foot tall. 

In fairness to that list the only signing we made that i thought would deliver a spark was ciftci, and he delivered occasionally, Hamilton last day of the season for example he was unplayable. The rest I was very meh about from the get go. Twarzdik done okay, Fisher missed a good few chances pre season and one against rangers and was as good as done after that, seems to have kicked on at yeovil right enough, as for the rest they were only ever going to be squad players, nothing more.

[capt_oats]

@AndyRoss no toes stepped on there. You can probably go back to McCall's time and raise the question re: Vigurs, Lawson and Based Craig Reid. I'm probably missing someone really obvious but Sutton and Higdon are probably the last stand out successes from other Scottish clubs?

As @Casagolda says, it looks like we're heading for a pretty substantial turnover of players. In itself I'm not actually sure that's a bad thing, we barely touched the first team last summer and suffered for it. Also, our requirements are slightly different now than when we were signing the likes of Frear and McHugh under McGhee so there's a natural shelf-life/cycle there.

The fact we seem to be turning to players based up here who are relatively speaking, quite well known is a bit of a shift.

Given the anticipated turnover there's bound to be an element of squad building here. It's interesting to see @RiG talking about Polworth in a creative sense in terms of picking holes in a defence as that fits quite neatly into what Robinson (and most of us on here) have been talking about in terms of our final third. In that respect it feels like we've identified an issue and are looking to add a player who might give us something we don't really have much of.

It's also an indication that we may not be abandoning #SexyMotherwell if we're looking at creative players. By extension, if we're in for Polworth and his best position is as a '10' then if we stick him in there or a bit wider cutting in either way we'll be looking to add a forward who can play as a lone striker.

Also, thinking back to his point after the Accies game about needing players who are physically capable of playing week in week out I notice Polworth's only missed one league game this season and one league game last season. According to his Transfermarkt Gallagher's played 100% of league minutes this season as well.

Given Polworth's age it suggests we've got a clear profile we're looking at.

Edited April 17, 2019 by capt_oats

[RiG]

He's also good at bamming up your rivals supporters.

[Archie McSquackle]

I've been impressed whenever I've seen him and would be happy enough if we manage to sign him. As for a trend of signing players from other Scottish clubs, I'd be a bit wary if that means bringing in a few Championship players. I've always thought if you bring in a stack of Championship players then that's where you end up.

[well fan for life]

46 minutes ago, RiG said:

He's also good at bamming up your rivals supporters.

Class. Hope he does sign. Between him and Gallagher the evolution to our final form of shithouse football is underway.

[Busta Nut]

2 hours ago, RiG said:

He's also good at bamming up your rivals supporters.

This woman is secretly delighted

[RiG]

11 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

This woman is secretly delighted

Pollys Granny.

[dezz]

This woman is secretly delighted

Purveyor of Polworth patter.

[Swello]

3 hours ago, AndyRoss said:

On the topic of discussing players from other Scottish teams, I'm sorry @capt_oats but I'm going to step on your toes for one post only...

Recent signings from Scottish sides

Conor Sammon (18-19) - Posed for a funny picture, not very good at fitba.  

Alex Fisher (17-18) - Keen eye for goal.

Nadir Ciftci (17-18) - Bundles of potential, we only saw glimpses of that.

Dean Brill (16-17) - Sure he was a good lad, no idea how he was as a keeper.

Joe Chalmers (15-16) - Badly exposed on occasions, seems to have flourished at Inverness which is a surprise.

Morgaro Gomis (15-16) - Brutal

David Clarkson (15-16) - Wasn't a glorious return.

Dan Twardzik (14-15) - I thought he did ok at times, but it's not ideal having a goalkeeper who seems to be scraping five foot tall. 

I think that list just tells us that if you're going to sign guys already playing in Scotland, sign actual good ones. I thought the signings of Ciftci, Fisher, Vigurs and Lawson all made a lot of sense at the time, although none of them was wholly successful. The less said about the rest, the better.

I think there are good players in Scotland that are within our reach and I'm quite happy that we try to take a bit of risk out of rebuilds by mixing known quantities with some of our usual bargain basement specials from the nether regions of English football..

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Swello said:

I think that list just tells us that if you're going to sign guys already playing in Scotland, sign actual good ones. I thought the signings of Ciftci, Fisher, Vigurs and Lawson all made a lot of sense at the time, although none of them was wholly successful. The less said about the rest, the better.

I think there are good players in Scotland that are within our reach and I'm quite happy that we try to take a bit of risk out of rebuilds by mixing known quantities with some of our usual bargain basement specials from the nether regions of English football.

Robinson was saying to the press the other week that they've been down scouting the English lower leagues in their midweek fixtures so I'd imagine the out of contract and fringe guys in League 1 & 2 will be getting the once over.

What I do wonder is whether or not we're at a point where there's less value in the English lower leagues now. I've no idea what sort of money someone like Polworth will be on at ICT or Gallagher at Livi but I don't think it'd be too much of a stretch to guess that it'd be less than we're currently paying say, Frear or Tanner in the case of Polworth and less than we're chipping in for Aldred in the case of Gallagher.

In that respect getting someone in who's a bit more of a known quantity mitigates the risk.

Similarly there's every chance someone like Fané (if he signs) would be offered less than we're paying McHugh (given he'd been made captain when he signed his extension) and more on a level of what we're offering Ally Gorrin (who would be mental to kb a top 6 Championship side if they're genuinely interested).

On paper we're getting guys in whose numbers look good for (potentially) less than we're currently paying. Incidentally I was having a look at Fané's link in bio video on his IG and he's an absolute riot of arms and legs. A full highlight reel of tackles and blocks.

Either way, going out and signing players who are actually good and more importantly fit in with what we're trying to do is an approach that I'm fully on board with.

Edited April 17, 2019 by capt_oats

[Armand 2]

3 hours ago, RiG said:

He's also good at bamming up your rivals supporters.

This laddie was obviously off school the day they taught everyone to give the vickys.

Edited April 17, 2019 by Armand 2