Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[capt_oats]

Incidentally just noticed this , more from #Grezza's post-match press conference:

Quote

"I hate that saying – nothing to play for," Alexander added. "We’re in a brilliant job, representing a brilliant club, you’ve got your pride, three points, your club, your family, your team-mates – you’ve got everything to play for every single game."

"You need a really strong mindset in your squad from start to finish. This team didn’t pick up enough points during the first half of the season and they were in big trouble when we came in.

"We did really well to get out of that but this was a reality check for us.

"I already have quite clear ideas about what to do but there were a couple of players who were on the fence and I’ll just have to see tomorrow where we go with that.”

Link

Edited May 17, 2021 by capt_oats

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

1 hour ago, Busta Nut said:

I want to see where Long ends up. I think he's got talent but he misses so many sitters and something seems to get in his head most of the time too. 

I think pace and being a nuisance are his main attributes, rather than finishing. It's mad the amount of his goals for Motherwell that have come from goalkeeping errors. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I'd love to see us sign Kelly again for next season, but I honestly think QPR would be able to either command a fee, or loan him to a club who can afford a higher % of his wages than we can.

[capt_oats]

11 minutes ago, Swello said:

It's got direct quotes so that's something and it would be great if it happened - but it also makes me wonder what the script is with Carson. The mood music all along has been that the club wants Kelly and that he's want to come back but I assume that we wouldn't be able to go back to the heady days of Carson/Gillespie in having two 1st choice 'keepers at the club.

Aye, it was the line that implied that it was agreed in principle between him and Motherwell but it just needed QPR to sign off that caught my attention. That seems far more advanced than I'd have imagined. 

Fwiw, I agree with @thisGRAEME (no surprise there) that given his/QPR's situation a season loan at this stage (while he still has a couple of seasons on his deal) wouldn't be the worst business for them.

How that leans into Carson's plans is a fair question. I mean, in an ideal world I'd be way happier going into the season with Kelly Carson as our GK options than Carson +1 random.

[well fan for life]

I don't think it's being unfair to see Carson moved down the pecking order. He was tremendous when he came in. Some of his saves were outrageous (the 1v1 vs Tierney particularly). The DVT was a shiter and maybe unforeseen to some degree but this season it's been like his knees were made out of Weetabix. I'd rather we tried to get Kelly in early than wind up in another situation where we're scrambling for anyone who could be available come October. 

Either way. GET THE RELEASED LIST ANNOUNCED. 

[Swello]

Long is a player that I've really wanted to work out. I've latterly come to quite like his miserable bastart persona, I think his effort levels are a lot better than they were and now and again, he does really skilful stuff that puts him at a higher level than most of our players.

The problem is that if our goal next season (and I hope it is) to have a reliable, productive team - then he's probably not going to cut it as the actual end product in the cold light of day isn't good enough and it's never felt like he's here on anything other than a last resort basis. 

When it comes down to it - a more consistent player that might not have all of Long's talent is probably more valuable to us than if he re-signs on the last day of pre-season because he can't get a gig at the level he feels he belongs at.

[Ron Aldo]

Long is a player that I've really wanted to work out. I've latterly come to quite like his miserable bastart persona, I think his effort levels are a lot better than they were and now and again, he does really skilful stuff that puts him at a higher level than most of our players.
The problem is that if our goal next season (and I hope it is) to have a reliable, productive team - then he's probably not going to cut it as the actual end product in the cold light of day isn't good enough and it's never felt like he's here on anything other than a last resort basis. 
When it comes down to it - a more consistent player that might not have all of Long's talent is probably more valuable to us than if he re-signs on the last day of pre-season because he can't get a gig at the level he feels he belongs at.

I was one of Long's biggest critics earlier in the season. His moody b*****d persona and apparent lack of effort were infuriating. He's one of a few players that have stepped up since Alexander came in and I wouldn't be against keeping him.

If he does stay on it has to be on our terms, so to speak. We can't have another situation where he (or any player) waits months to see what their options are before coming back in the huff when they realise we're the best option available. I'm genuinely not sure who's out of contract but if there's anyone on there worth keeping I'd be giving them a deadline to sign before the start of pre-season otherwise the any offers are off the table.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I genuinely feel for Carson between the Celtic move collapsing, the DVT, Gillespie's form and now the knee injuries. However, when you take sentiment out of it, it would be naive to think that a player who had played more than twelve league games once in four seasons would manage close to 38 next year. I know we had an embarassment of riches when he was Gillespie's understudy, but some of Chapman's showings this year have highlighted how important it is to have some kind of depth there.

As for Long, I think for him to properly thrive, he needs his ego massaged. He needs to have number 9 on his back, to be played as a central striker every week and to generally feel like he's the main man. I don't think being played on the left wing or being a sub that gets subbed is an environment where you'll see a moody lad like him thrive. In essence, he's been a dear substitute this season. 

Edited May 17, 2021 by crazylegsjoe_mfc

[thisGRAEME]

48 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I think pace and being a nuisance are his main attributes, rather than finishing. It's mad the amount of his goals for Motherwell that have come from goalkeeping errors. 

See if you shoot every time you get the ball, I guess that'll happen.

[Swello]

2 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

See if you shoot every time you get the ball, I guess that'll happen.

I did find this an interesting table from @Div's mega-dump on twitter this morning

If I'm interpreting it right - it means that for every 2 shots that he actually manages to get on target, one goes in. 

I would guess his actual shots to goals ratio might be a bit less stellar

[well fan for life]

12 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

See if you shoot every time you get the ball, I guess that'll happen.

And if Jack Hamilton's in goals then you've won a watch. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

11 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

See if you shoot every time you get the ball, I guess that'll happen.

Having for years complained about how little our players shoot, I guess I shouldn't complain.

I think Robinson's forward problems this season can probably be attributed to the fact he had far too much selection, far too many similar players and seemed to make at least one change to forward line most weeks.

Under Alexander, it's been a lot more settled.

[Neil86]

A lot of chat on SO about Lawless, for me, he is lacking match fitness, I thought it was a pretty solid signing and I reckon we will see that next season, he hadn't kicked a ball since august I don't think, came here, and got injured again, it has just been a shite year for him football wise. Good pre season under his belt, get up to speed and we see the player Livi had.

that's my hot take for the day, all is not lost.

 

[santheman]

29 minutes ago, Swello said:

I did find this an interesting table from @Div's mega-dump on twitter this morning

If I'm interpreting it right - it means that for every 2 shots that he actually manages to get on target, one goes in. 

I would guess his actual shots to goals ratio might be a bit less stellar

And if he had a decent midfield behind him creating openings his ratio would probably be higher. It's hard to score with balls coming at you head height and 50 miles per hour.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

1 hour ago, santheman said:

And if he had a decent midfield behind him creating openings his ratio would probably be higher. It's hard to score with balls coming at you head height and 50 miles per hour.

As much as binning Polworth was the right thing to do and appears to have been beneficial, it has led to us having a very uncreative midfield.

Crawford, Campbell, O'Hara and Maguire all have one assist each this season. Crawford's from winning a penalty, Campbell and O'Hara taking shots which we scored the rebounds from and Maguire knocking a blocked free-kick in Cole's direction. None of them have ever played a decisive pass in open play that we've scored from it would seem and despite what Jock Brown may have you believe, despite O'Hara and Maguire being dead ball specialists, we haven't scored from a free kick or a corner which either have hit.

Fortunately, Watt, Cole, Long and Roberts contributed a decent amount of assists between them. 

[capt_oats]

I'm kind of low key pleased that we've seen a bit of a Chrissy Long redemption arc given where he was in the first half of the season and the fact that most would have happily seen him trebuchet-ed back in the general direction of Merseyside in January.

He's chipped in with some important goals under Alexander and shown that there's a pler there but it feels like if Alexander's wanting to put any sort of his own stamp on the team then this is probably a good point to draw a line under it with Long. That's not to say I'm against offering him something like (I wouldn't be surprised if we have tbh)

By my count we already have 14 contracted for next season and know we're keen on Kelly and have offered Cole something that takes us up to 16 (if accepted). Assuming we're aiming for a first team squad of around 22-24 that leaves us looking at between 6-8 new faces (fewer the more we've offered new deals to obvs). Unless we're going to try and offload a few who are contracted (good luck with that).

Even if we're not going full scorched earth with the sort of numbers we have contracted means that even if all we want is to freshen it up a bit there are probably a few we'll need to make a decision on based on more than just the past couple of months.

Edited May 17, 2021 by capt_oats

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Anyone else think Liam Kelly comes across as incredibly daft, but in quite an endearing way? Maybe it's actually 4D chess to engineer a move away but it's quite refreshing to hear a player talk as honestly and cliche free as that.

[well fan for life]

1 minute ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Anyone else think Liam Kelly comes across as incredibly daft, but in quite an endearing way? Maybe it's actually 4D chess to engineer a move away but it's quite refreshing to hear a player talk as honestly and cliche free as that.

Personally I was immediately on board when I saw that he talks to his dug like a human. A great guy. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

3 hours ago, well fan for life said:

I don't think it's being unfair to see Carson moved down the pecking order. He was tremendous when he came in. Some of his saves were outrageous (the 1v1 vs Tierney particularly). The DVT was a shiter and maybe unforeseen to some degree but this season it's been like his knees were made out of Weetabix. 

Whenever I read this I always get momentarily confused about Carson's run in with Dieter van Tornhout

[capt_oats]

50 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Anyone else think Liam Kelly comes across as incredibly daft, but in quite an endearing way? Maybe it's actually 4D chess to engineer a move away but it's quite refreshing to hear a player talk as honestly and cliche free as that.

Having had a quick swatch at Kelly's Twitter when he signed "incredibly daft" sounds about right. He was right in there RT'ing the bold Donald (and I don't think it was ironically).

That said, any time I've heard him talk he seems sound. Maybe I shouldn't judge folk on their Twitter TLs as much.

Edited May 17, 2021 by capt_oats