Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

12 minutes ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

It's amazing any time I dip in here it's either Alexander is on top of the ppg stats outside the Old Firm or yous are stuck in a rut and the guys making baffling decisions. Not having a go or trying to start a shit wind up attempt, its genuinely baffling. 

We've discussed it before, with his brand of football if you are scraping a 1-0 win 2 out of every 3 weeks and sitting pretty in 4th life is good, when you start losing and the football is horrific it doesn't take long to get fed up. He doesn't seem the most endearing either. Like when we were in a rut Goodwin could flutter his gorgeous eye lashes at us and sweet talk us round, I don't get that from Alexander.

When was it he signed his new deal? January time?

The problem is we are conceding first all the time and they are really sloppy goals. We are not built to chase games.

Alexander's best games are when we take the lead and then shut down the opposition by denying them easy passes into midfield and pushing them back.

We have had a few come from behind points this year. Today, Aberdeen, St Mirren but we haven't got a lead this year in the league.

[ZX1886]

24 minutes ago, sergie said:

It's amazing any time I dip in here it's either Alexander is on top of the ppg stats outside the Old Firm or yous are stuck in a rut and the guys making baffling decisions. Not having a go or trying to start a shit wind up attempt, its genuinely baffling. 
We've discussed it before, with his brand of football if you are scraping a 1-0 win 2 out of every 3 weeks and sitting pretty in 4th life is good, when you start losing and the football is horrific it doesn't take long to get fed up. He doesn't seem the most endearing either. Like when we were in a rut Goodwin could flutter his gorgeous eye lashes at us and sweet talk us round, I don't get that from Alexander.
When was it he signed his new deal? January time?

The football is some of the worst I’ve ever seen us play. Last season he came in and steadied things before having an entire summer to assemble his own team. His tactics are boring at the best of times and literally unbearable at others.

Last year, he was still heavily criticised but considering results overall were pretty good, any shouts for his head were OTT. Airdrie away and the 6-1 Rangers game being two particular games last year where there was a lot of unrest around him.

This year however, 0 wins in 10, negative route one tactics, no consistent lineup, substitutions that make no sense and are far too late in the game... I’d be genuinely surprised if there are any Motherwell fans who aren’t seriously questioning him right now.

His new contract came shortly after the praise for our overall record (best outside the OF) in 2021. It seems very premature now.

Regardless of how bad it gets or how long he’s here, I’m still going to renew my ST along with many others, but our attendances will surely drop, as will my enthusiasm to part with money for away games.

Edited March 5, 2022 by ZX1886

[Allroy for Prez]

As I’ve maintained many times, O’Donnell couldn’t lace Richard Tait’s boots, and every time I see O’Donnell play for us it only strengthens that opinion. He is one worst full backs we’ve ever had. 

O’Donnell isn’t average, he’s terrible. Josh Law was average and he’d be a massive upgrade. 

 

[AdamMFC]

It's a shame we can't recall Max Johnston from Queen of the South because I'd definitely be starting him ahead of SOD. It couldn't get worse than it already is.

[kingjoey]

2 hours ago, well fan for life said:

I think @thisGRAEME isn't far off it when he says we're a better side than we look at the minute. But whatever Alexander's been telling them to do Monday-Friday is clearly absolutely daft.

Another toothless performance, another completely avoidable goal given away and another anonymous midfield. The endless hoofball approach out of defence that offers absolute zero threat is abysmal to watch. The fact we played 70+ minutes of football without a change today was disgraceful.

Goss isn't worth having in the team for 1 good set piece every 6 games, Donnelly is so far off the pace he's a waste of a shirt. Get Shaw and Slattery in, with Cornelius to come on and give us a bit of energy.

I fucking hate this Motherwell side and the way they play football. So I hope I wake up tomorrow morning and we've emptied this useless big p***k back to Salford.

I  put a post up after Motherwell put us out of the cup three weeks ago when Alexander was being lauded by the Motherwell fans on here, saying that about six weeks on, these same fans would be demanding his head. Didn’t realise it would only take three weeks.

[Handsome_Devil]

Lauded is higher praise than I think GA has ever had from Motherwell fans, even at his best moments o don't think he's moved beyond grudging acceptance.

[welldaft]

38 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

I  put a post up after Motherwell put us out of the cup three weeks ago when Alexander was being lauded by the Motherwell fans on here, saying that about six weeks on, these same fans would be demanding his head. Didn’t realise it would only take three weeks.

How is your new Manager getting on .

[kingjoey]

6 minutes ago, welldaft said:

How is your new Manager getting on .

What has that got to do with my post? Is that what is known as “whataboutary”?

[welldaft]

I am a fan of Graeme Alexander. Or I should say I was. He came in and helped us avoid relegation which would have been catastrophic. He has won 3 Manager of the Month awards in a calendar year. As you will be well aware no other Manager had achieved that outside the Old Firm. 

But something has changed since the New Year. Is it solely down to Tony Watt leaving ? We had poor performances last year but today was on a whole new level. I still maintain County were fucking lucky to beat us midweek. Whatever anyone says 50% of referees would have given a free kick and not a penalty and they did not look like scoring apart from that. 

But today was GRIM. Carroll and Shields were imho rightly dropped. But so should Goss and SODs and possibly even Donnelly. I am bemused as we all are by the constant changes. Even after a decent result he will change 3 or 4 players. 

But after today I am prepare to admit I am worried. We may beat Hibs next week. we may finish top 6 and then it would be deemed a good season. But the way we are playing is eye bleedingly awful. Pay me £150k+ a year to tell players to lump it up to no one at all. Even when the missiles are accurate Van Veen and Woolery head on to no one. Not their fault I might add. 

Only consolation is that Aberdeen, Hibs, St Mirren and DDee Utd seem to be unable to win games too. 

[welldaft]

2 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

What has that got to do with my post? Is that what is known as “whataboutary”?

No. It is known as us beating your team 3 times this season with one draw.

All smarmy about you knowing we would be shite when the surprise (to no one) is that getting rid of McInnes was going to come back and kick you in the haw maws. You are no better. In fact you are worse. And what makes it impressive is you have achieved this with a much bigger budget  

[kingjoey]

11 minutes ago, welldaft said:

No. It is known as us beating your team 3 times this season with one draw.

All smarmy about you knowing we would be shite when the surprise (to no one) is that getting rid of McInnes was going to come back and kick you in the haw maws. You are no better. In fact you are worse. And what makes it impressive is you have achieved this with a much bigger budget  

This is whataboutery (whataboutary?) at Rangers/Celtic levels. 

[well fan for life]

1 hour ago, kingjoey said:

I  put a post up after Motherwell put us out of the cup three weeks ago when Alexander was being lauded by the Motherwell fans on here, saying that about six weeks on, these same fans would be demanding his head. Didn’t realise it would only take three weeks.

Tbf it was mainly just a great big laugh playing against Glass' extra soft Aberdeen team this season.

[kingjoey]

2 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

Tbf it was mainly just a great big laugh playing against Glass' extra soft Aberdeen team this season.

It must have been.

[welldaft]

5 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

This is whataboutery (whataboutary?) at Rangers/Celtic levels. 

Not really. From the outsider or non Dons fan this is what it very much looks like. 

[kingjoey]

2 minutes ago, welldaft said:

Not really. From the outsider or non Dons fan this is what it very much looks like. 

In your head maybe. Anyway, my point stands that Motherwell fans on here have gone from lauding Alexander to wanting rid of him within three weeks. Is this a record? (Fill in your own smart arse answer)  

[well fan for life]

FWIW I think we all, collectively, wrote off the latter half of last season because it was a shite squad and all about securing safety. Achieved that, fine.

The eye-bleeding football has now become our only set up. Which was fine earlier in the season when 20% possession and 2 shots would get us 3 points. But for months now it's been some of the worst football I've watched at Fir Park with hee haw to show for it. 

Seen chat that Donnelly was giving stick to the East Stand at full time. A bold move for a guy so far off the game he might as well have been running about the Duchie Park.
 

 

[RandomGuy.]

My faith in the Universe has been restored reading people call Goss a shitebag.

[ropy]

We get a free kick on the half way line, 3 passes later we are under pressure and making a hospital pass to Kelly.  None of these passes went forward.  Is that a training ground move?

[Kapowzer]

44 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

In your head maybe. Anyway, my point stands that Motherwell fans on here have gone from lauding Alexander to wanting rid of him within three weeks. Is this a record? (Fill in your own smart arse answer)  

Away back to the threads then and find a few examples of this because there hasn't been any positive posts made of his tactical acumen or style of play this side of Christmas. I did call his extension one of the best bits of business we did in the window but that was based on a remarkable points tally in 2021 but extremely far from anything enjoyable to witness on the pitch.

However following on from some of the other posts about replacing him, away and look at the poll threads for Aberdeen, St. Mirren and Dundee to see the names mentioned and calibre of who's currently cutting about looking for a job. Add Las, Mitchel VD Gaag and 2 other random former players into those lists. 

Then temper it knowing there is a distinct possibility that a 2-0 win on the final weekend could propel anyone outside the OF and Hearts 3 league places and 200k extra prize money (7th place ceiling aside).

The club have backed him financially (he's had a fair bit of the Turnbull money to do so), organisationally (changing rooms and general layout of the stadium), strategically (3 year deals to stop turnover and increase continuity), personnel (Martin Foyle being punted for his own scouting guy) plus extended his deal no more than 6 weeks ago.

While I'd like to see a number of players who started today dropped for Hibs, I also appreciate that a few are dropping a few extra brownie points every time they play because of the way they're instructed to play.

Playing the way we did was mental, waiting so long to make changes today was absurd not taking 3 points was criminal. When we did make two attempts to play football we looked alright.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Whatever has been going on with O'Donnell has been a thing for about 18 months now. I haven't been at the Ross County or Dundee games so I'm reluctant to comment on GA but just watching the highlights I think it's in nobody's best interest for SOD to continue playing for us.