Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I'd probably put in shouts for Tom Aldred and Andy Rose too (when he was fit)

[Swami]

I had a soft spot for Carl McHugh, but sometimes he gave the ball away more in one half than Campbell does in a season. 

Edited November 30, 2020 by Swami

[ropy]

3 minutes ago, Swami said:

I had soft spot for Carl McHugh, but sometime he gave the ball away more in one half than Campbell does in a season. 

Seemed to have a blind spot for people creeping up behind him and nicking the ball away.

Deaf to the crowd shouting the universally understood exclamation, ‘man on’.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I think Carl McHugh should have accepted the fact that he was a defender, he was far better there than in midfield.

I think the undoing of him was probably the fact that while he was strong but not technical and Bigi was technical but not strong, in came Alex Rodriguez-Gorrin who was both.

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, Ron Aldo said:

Looking back through that squad, my thoughts would be -

- Kipre (speaks for itself)
- Carl Mchugh (more willing to get stuck in than most of our current midfielders and arguably no worse on the ball)
- Curtis Main (the player we had for 6 months rather than the player that became a Conor Sammon tribute act)

 

1 hour ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I'd probably put in shouts for Tom Aldred and Andy Rose too (when he was fit)

Aldred, Hartley, Tait and McHugh were the ones that came to mind for me.

Hartley stretching out his own cramp, Tait squaring up to Boyata or chasing down Sinclair to block at 0-0 when we've been playing with 10 men, McHugh's head exploding...all seem like examples of the sort of qualities Robinson was getting at.

Tam Aldred appreciation post though.

Edited November 30, 2020 by capt_oats

[well fan for life]

I know we made a successful transition to Sexy Motherwell when we got Gboly and Turnbull into the side and Hastie wasn't dugshite. And it was great to watch. 

But god damn I miss when we were a big, hammer-throwing set of b*****ds.

[Ron Aldo]

I know we made a successful transition to Sexy Motherwell when we got Gboly and Turnbull into the side and Hastie wasn't dugshite. And it was great to watch. 
But god damn I miss when we were a big, hammer-throwing set of b*****ds.

Therein lies the issue. Our teams under Robinson have always had an identity but where we're at just now lies somewhere in between. We don't have a bad squad of players but they certainly aren't hammer throwers. Equally, we don't seem to play particularly attractive football either.

Our squad just now looks like we've tried to combine the 2 styles and ended up with neither.

[capt_oats]

58 minutes ago, Ron Aldo said:

Therein lies the issue. Our teams under Robinson have always had an identity but where we're at just now lies somewhere in between. We don't have a bad squad of players but they certainly aren't hammer throwers. Equally, we don't seem to play particularly attractive football either.

Our squad just now looks like we've tried to combine the 2 styles and ended up with neither.

This is probably really reductive but looking at the season so far we've played 433 (which didn't work with Hastie tripping over his own feet against County and Mugabi looking terrified on the left of a centre back pair against Hibs), the 352 got us out our funk and had Bev looking useful at the centre of the back 3 but was essentially a shithousing means to an end and then we've went back to the 433 which worked reasonably well against County and Livi - specifically with O'Hara as CB and the Lang, Watt, Cole front 3.

Unsurprisingly it's fallen over a bit dropping Mugabi in to a back 4 where he just doesn't seem comfortable and replacing Campbell with O'Hara because of the Covid because we fall to bits without Campbell generally.

Fully agree though, I don't think any iteration this season has felt as defined as either the Thunderdome or Sexy Motherwell sides.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

To be honest we're probably due a season under Robinson where we just potter along putting in 6/10s most weeks and winning about as much as we lose. It feels like most of his reign so far has been characterised by long periods where we look incredible followed by equally long periods where we can't buy a win. 

I haven't looked at the fixture list properly but I'd be surprised if we go on any six game winning/losing streaks this season for example.

Edited November 30, 2020 by YassinMoutaouakil

[Gianfranco]

Were St Mirren not expecting their COVID court case results to be in by the end of November?

[ropy]

7 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:

Were St Mirren not expecting their COVID court case results to be in by the end of November?

Hours to go 

[Gianfranco]

14 minutes ago, ropy said:

Hours to go 

The results are in. St Mirren are a shite club confirmed.

[welldaft]

29 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:

Were St Mirren not expecting their COVID court case results to be in by the end of November?

Aye. But they never said which year ! 

SPFL make it up as they go along. They come across as shambolic and this is another example of that. 

Unless they were going to award a 3-0 win to us which will never happen what is taking them so long. 

You just know whatever the outcome is we will end up being punished / disadvantaged for something that was not of our doing. 

Edited November 30, 2020 by welldaft

[capt_oats]

I hadn't really thought about this until I read @YassinMoutaouakil's post talking about Robinson being one of the few with a significant sample size in that dumb Rate The Managers thread but Robinson is currently the 2nd longest serving manager in the Premiership behind McInnes (and 6th in the SPFL).

Link

He'll be 4 years in the job come February and by my count we're on his 4th rebuild of the squad: Thunderdome, Sexy Motherwell v1.0 & v2.0 and whatever era we've got just now.

McCall used to get a lot of credit for keeping us competitive on the grounds that he "lost his best players" every season. I could be wrong but it feels like the turnover is greater just now as we're actively platforming players and part of our sales pitch is that we want them to move on - also our budget for recruitment is presumably reduced compared to the McCall/Dempster era.

Fwiw, this isn't meant as an 'In Praise of Stephen Robinson' type post but more an idea of the sort of stress that the model puts on the squad when we're having to replace anywhere between 2-5 of our best players on an annual basis.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

I hadn't really thought about this until I read @YassinMoutaouakil's post talking about Robinson being one of the few with a significant sample size in that dumb Rate The Managers thread but Robinson is currently the 2nd longest serving manager in the Premiership behind McInnes (and 6th in the SPFL).

Link

He'll be 4 years in the job come February and by my count we're on his 4th rebuild of the squad: Thunderdome, Sexy Motherwell v1.0 & v2.0 and whatever era we've got just now.

McCall used to get a lot of credit for keeping us competitive on the grounds that he "lost his best players" every season. I could be wrong but it feels like the turnover is greater just now as we're actively platforming players and part of our sales pitch is that we want them to move on - also our budget for recruitment is presumably reduced compared to the McCall/Dempster era.

Fwiw, this isn't meant as an 'In Praise of Stephen Robinson' type post but more an idea of the sort of stress that the model puts on the squad when we're having to replace anywhere between 2-5 of our best players on an annual basis.

Robinson brings it on himself in some respects.

There was no need to get rid of mainstays like Peter Hartley and Richard Tait.

Instead the club is handing 2 year deals to Mugabi, MacIver and a whole lot of utter shite that meant we had to give up on re-signing experienced players. there is going to be more pressure next summer when Jordan White, Ricki Lamie and Liam Grimshaw are sitting on another year.

[thisGRAEME]

6 minutes ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

Robinson brings it on himself in some respects.

There was no need to get rid of mainstays like Peter Hartley and Richard Tait.

Instead the club is handing 2 year deals to Mugabi, MacIver and a whole lot of utter shite that meant we had to give up on re-signing experienced players. there is going to be more pressure next summer when Jordan White, Ricki Lamie and Liam Grimshaw are sitting on another year.

Hartley was finished like. I was amazed he kicked a ball for us after his first half against St. Mirren in the cup. He's also a guy who played what, 50 league games over 3 years? 

Tait...it's a funny one. Honestly, last season, he looked like he'd lost his legs and I'm not entirely sure I wanted him to kick around. That he's kicked on at St. Mirren is a surprise to me, and fair play to him.

White and Lamie will be emptied, undoubtedly. 

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

5 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Hartley was finished like. I was amazed he kicked a ball for us after his first half against St. Mirren in the cup. He's also a guy who played what, 50 league games over 3 years? 

Tait...it's a funny one. Honestly, last season, he looked like he'd lost his legs and I'm not entirely sure I wanted him to kick around. That he's kicked on at St. Mirren is a surprise to me, and fair play to him.

White and Lamie will be emptied, undoubtedly. 

Emptied as in put on loan to Morton and still paying 75%+ of their wages.

[thisGRAEME]

2 minutes ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

Emptied as in put on loan to Morton and still paying 75%+ of their wages.

If we can get rid of Alex Fisher and make money off Ryan Bowman, we can do anything!

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I've no idea how they're getting on wherever they are but either Aarons or Ariyibi coming back in January seems very on brand.

[Ron Aldo]

I've no idea how they're getting on wherever they are but either Aarons or Ariyibi coming back in January seems very on brand.

I Googled both out of interest. Aarons is (surprisingly) still at Newcastle. I thought he'd have been out on loan again as he's presumably nowhere near the first team. Gboly is still kicking about Greece with his team sitting second bottom of the league.

Going back a few posts and comparing Mccall/Robinson and having to rebuild their teams every season, that is true but Mccall was making signings Robinson could probably only dream of. In the 13/14 season we signed Vigurs and Paul Lawson off the back of them having an excellent season at County. We beat Hibs (if I remember correctly) to sign Stephen Mcmanus and we also signed big handsome John Sutton. You could also add Anier to that list of very decent signings, all of who would no doubt be on a good wage.