Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[capt_oats]

Gboly having a nice time.

[Desp]

Never seen a player scud the Cooper Stand roof with shots as much since Simo Valakari left us. 

Some player though. Loved watching Gboly. 

[Neil86]

For those who are on twitter, probably already noticed, but there was a Luton fan raving about Campbell and Kal Naismith and that they should have been in the Scotland squad. Anyway APPARENTLY he has it on good authority that man utd are sniffing about Campbell, it's a slow news day so might as well have something to discuss.

[Alanos]

23 minutes ago, Neil86 said:

For those who are on twitter, probably already noticed, but there was a Luton fan raving about Campbell and Kal Naismith and that they should have been in the Scotland squad. Anyway APPARENTLY he has it on good authority that man utd are sniffing about Campbell, it's a slow news day so might as well have something to discuss.

Would love it, but can’t see it this early in his Luton career.

like you say, who knows. Man U are shite atm.

[Desp]

1 hour ago, Neil86 said:

For those who are on twitter, probably already noticed, but there was a Luton fan raving about Campbell and Kal Naismith and that they should have been in the Scotland squad. Anyway APPARENTLY he has it on good authority that man utd are sniffing about Campbell, it's a slow news day so might as well have something to discuss.

You mean the guy who seems to spend his days on Twitter firing through the auld Wullie Thorne clips?  

That guy?  I think we can take his transfer speculation with a pinch of salt.  Which, ironically, the ladies in the clips he watches appear to be doing also.

[Neil86]

1 minute ago, Desp said:

You mean the guy who seems to spend his days on Twitter firing through the auld Wullie Thorne clips?  

That guy?  I think we can take his transfer speculation with a pinch of salt.  Which, ironically, the ladies in the clips he watches appear to be doing also.

hahaha, I must have missed that particular part of the thread. In that case, yes, a huge pinch of salt.

[Casagolda]

Looks like Lamie is staying then. 

[thisGRAEME]

Haha, Dundee.

[RossBFaeDundee]

21 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Haha, Dundee.

We're pretty happy tbh.

[Doctor Manhattan]

33 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Haha, Dundee.

10 minutes ago, RossBFaeDundee said:

We're pretty happy tbh.

Yeah, let's see how this actually pans out in practice. Fingers crossed...

 

[Ludo*1]

2 minutes ago, Doctor Manhattan said:

Yeah, let's see how this actually pans out in practice. Fingers crossed...

 

For what? Even as a Motherwell fan who possibly thinks Lamie is an excellent CH, you can't suggest that Lamie would be a difference maker for any club?

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

For me, Lamie was our best centre-back last season in a god awful defence. 

He's probably the centre back I would want to keep most - but if keeping him means we are going to have the same centre-back options as last season, then I don't see our goals against column drastically improving.

Best case scenario, we somehow manage to cut ties with Ojala and bring in someone good to play beside him.

Worst case scenario, I at least hope we start the season with a chosen centre-back pairing and allow them time to build a partnership, without chopping and changing.

[Handsome_Devil]

I'd imagine Dundee are hugely relieved. Even if you think Lamie is a decent top-flight defender, you certainly wouldn't say he's good enough to merit his previous weekly wage plus 700 quid a week more (supposedly) to play in the Championship.

[mwellhighland]

27 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

you can't suggest that Lamie would be a difference maker for any club?

He scored the goal to get us top six

He scored the goal to get us European football

[capt_oats]

I mean, it's funny in the way that a PCA getting pied is a laugh and also the circumstances around the situation in January where Dundee presumably thought we'd just roll over and let him walk because he'd signed the PCA and they saw it as a heavy lean. As it turns out we "didn't need another bag of balls" when they put their in offers which led to them scrambling to sign the boy Killie had on loan, eventually having to appeal because he signed after the deadline to then only make 4 appearances.

All of that is objectively funny, even more so because it's Ricki Lamie and as @mwellhighland points out he scored the goals to get us top 6 and European football.

As others have said though I can't see them being overly bothered given by all accounts they were overpaying and the manager who signed him was binned months ago (and they were relegated). Given the changes in circumstances it was a smart move by Lamie to have that clause included.

From our POV as @crazylegsjoe_mfc says, it's kind of hard to square Alexander identifying our goals against column as being a massive issue with going into next season with the same 4 CBs under contract and our defensive options.

Edited May 24, 2022 by capt_oats

[Dunning1874]

1 hour ago, Ludo*1 said:

For what? Even as a Motherwell fan who possibly thinks Lamie is an excellent CH, you can't suggest that Lamie would be a difference maker for any club?

While you can debate how much a good centre back is ever truly a difference maker to a club, he'd have been the best centre back in the Championship if he'd dropped down, based on current squads.

[Ludo*1]

2 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

While you can debate how much a good centre back is ever truly a difference maker to a club, he'd have been the best centre back in the Championship if he'd dropped down, based on current squads.

That's more of an indictment of the level than the ability of Lamie. We have an absolute monster brute type CH in Ryan Sweeney and we need a more mobile, ball playing CH to pair off with him in any case.

[Swello]

39 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

From our POV as @crazylegsjoe_mfc says, it's kind of hard to square Alexander identifying our goals against column as being a massive issue with going into next season with the same 4 CBs under contract and our defensive options.

I think there are probably two parts to it - we will hopefully not have injury problems in defence as bad as this season -it was genuinely unprecedented. Also - both Ojala and Sol will undoubtedly benefit from and need a close season break - although it remains to be seen if Ojala is a perma-crock which was looking to be the case sadly. 

Secondly - I would imagine that a fair proportion of the goals we conceded came from opposition players waltzing through our midfield or having *fucking acres* of space to put in crosses from wide during that "don't bother stopping crosses" phase that we seemingly went through - so it is probably too simplistic to blame our central defence alone for that horrendous goals against column. I think defensive mid and getting a tune out of our fullbacks is a bigger priority. 

[capt_oats]

10 minutes ago, Swello said:

I think there are probably two parts to it - we will hopefully not have injury problems in defence as bad as this season -it was genuinely unprecedented. Also - both Ojala and Sol will undoubtedly benefit from and need a close season break - although it remains to be seen if Ojala is a perma-crock which was looking to be the case sadly. 

Secondly - I would imagine that a fair proportion of the goals we conceded came from opposition players waltzing through our midfield or having *fucking acres* of space to put in crosses from wide during that "don't bother stopping crosses" phase that we seemingly went through - so it is probably too simplistic to blame our central defence alone for that horrendous goals against column. I think defensive mid and getting a tune out of our fullbacks is a bigger priority. 

Aye, it stood out that he specifically referenced the "structure" when he commented on the goals against.

Quote

"Our defensive record is not good enough,” he said. “Plain and simple.

"We have scored a lot of goals this season but we have to look at the structure, how we set up, a lot of things, but the goals against, if you look over the course of the season, have hurt us a little but so we have to look at that." 

Link

Finishing Top 6 in 21/22 vs Bottom 6 in 20/21 probably skews things a bit but here are the goals against averages since Alexander has been here:

20/21 - P 18 GA 23 (1.27 GAPG)
21/22 - P 38 GA 61 (1.60 GAPG) (Pre-break = P 20 GA 27 (1.35 GAPG) / Post-break = P 18 GA 34 (1.88 GAPG))

[Mr. Brightside]

"I'm pleased Lamie isn't signing for us"