Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[ropy]

1 minute ago, Phillips455 said:

He nearly got a yellow today in the first half. Lost the ball just a out a quarter of the way into our half and was on the ground. He then tried to grab the ball to stop the break.

 

Thankfully it failed and he didn't get a booking.

Yes the foul was awarded 10 yards further up the park, if it had been pulled back it was a probable yellow.

[JamesP_81]

Kinda expected an announcement like that after his celebration today.  Certainly not a time in your life to be uprooting your family to China , America or Aberdeen.  3 year deal with generous Pat leave clause and chuck in a free nursery place.  Looking forward to the cup final pictures next year now with his wee one in a Motherwell babygrow sitting in the cup.  

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Livi don't look like putting up much of a fight for 7th. We may yet see the Tierney-Danzaki axis this year.

[Archie McSquackle]

1 hour ago, JamesP_81 said:

Kinda expected an announcement like that after his celebration today.  Certainly not a time in your life to be uprooting your family to China , America or Aberdeen.  3 year deal with generous Pat leave clause and chuck in a free nursery place.  Looking forward to the cup final pictures next year now with his wee one in a Motherwell babygrow sitting in the cup.  

I'll give up my job and look after his wean if it means he'll stay.

Has he gone down the Roberto Martinez and found a young local girl or did his girlfriend come with him?

[Mark Connolly]

2 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I honestly think 30 might be happening. A hat-trick against United seems very attainable.

It's hilarious that you think he will score 3 against us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

If Jordan White can score 3, Van Veen will get 10

 

[ropy]

Dan Casey is quite the angry man.

Probably good to have someone in the ref’s ear the full match.

[Swello]

Just now, ropy said:

Dan Casey is quite the angry man.

Probably good to have someone in the ref’s ear the full match.

Both Butcher and Casey do it and have done since day 1 - if it's only them that's doing it - I think it's a good thing.

[Gianfranco]

I think that’s us beaten all of the other 9 clubs in the league now after beating St Johnstone today. 

[Archie McSquackle]

1 hour ago, ropy said:

Dan Casey is quite the angry man.

Probably good to have someone in the ref’s ear the full match.

No word yet but I'd be delighted if we can sign him up on a longer deal. 

[AnderooMFC]

7 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Get KVV Jr a pre-contract immediately. 

 

He just can't stop scoring, apparently...

[eliphas]

8 hours ago, Archie McSquackle said:

No word yet but I'd be delighted if we can sign him up on a longer deal. 

I'd think that now we are guaranteed safety we may start to see some announcements. 

[JamesP_81]

Quite astonishing to think that in the 1st half of the season you were pretty certain that any time the ball came into our half , even if it was a pass back from our midfield or the wind blew the ball in , that we were conceding a goal.  Now it's a joy watching Casey and Butcher body folk left right and centre. 

[capt_oats]

Vaguely related to the point about Butcher - the irony isn't lost on me that he was supposedly brought in to fix our midfield (and I suppose in an indirect way...he has).

Quote

manager Steven Hammell said.

“It adds some depth to the middle of the park but more importantly, he’s a different type of midfielder to what we have at the minute.

“He’s tough, determined to make a difference and has plenty knowledge on the league and the team."

Link

This probably falls into the "probably unanswerable question" category and it's clearly moot now but I'm curious to know what Hammell's actual plan was given prior to his emptying he had spoken about wanting to get 2 strikers on the park yet in his final game had KVV playing wide left.

Post-January window he managed 3 games, one of them (Aberdeen away) he tried a back 3 then immediately binned it to go back to the 433/4231.

These were the starting XIs:

01/02/23 - St Johnstone (h) 0 - 2 (L): Kelly; McGinn, Blaney, Lamie, O'Donnell; Danzaki, Slattery, Goss; Aitchison, Van Veen, Crankshaw
04/02/23 - Aberdeen (a) 3-1 (L): Kelly; O'Donnell, Lamie, McGinn; Johnston, Cornelius, Spittal, Goss, Furlong; Obika, Aitchison
11/02/23 - Raith Rovers (a) 3-1 (L): Kelly; O'Donnell, Butcher, Casey, McGinn; Spittal, Slattery, Tierney; Danzaki, Obika, Van Veen

[Lurkst]

Thought there'd be some comments on here about Stephen Craigan blatantly hawking Van Veen to Rangers on Sportsound yesterday. 

 

[Swello]

18 minutes ago, Lurkst said:

Thought there'd be some comments on here about Stephen Craigan blatantly hawking Van Veen to Rangers on Sportsound yesterday. 

 

Somebody at Fir Park probably asked him to do it - we're actively advertising the player, not trying to keep him as far as I can see.

[Swello]

2 hours ago, JamesP_81 said:

Quite astonishing to think that in the 1st half of the season you were pretty certain that any time the ball came into our half , even if it was a pass back from our midfield or the wind blew the ball in , that we were conceding a goal.  Now it's a joy watching Casey and Butcher body folk left right and centre. 

The two of them have built a very decent partnership in a couple of months - Butcher bailed Casey out a couple of times yesterday as Casey unwisely tried to take a touch on that ropy pitch. What I like about them both is that at the moment, they have found a nice middle ground between "just clear it anywhere" and "pass it about at the back" - they aren't taking many risks but they are at least trying to do something with the ball when they win it.

Because I'm fully reconciled to KVV leaving - Casey leaving would be a bigger kick in the baws at this point.

[CoF]

3 hours ago, JamesP_81 said:

Quite astonishing to think that in the 1st half of the season you were pretty certain that any time the ball came into our half , even if it was a pass back from our midfield or the wind blew the ball in , that we were conceding a goal.  Now it's a joy watching Casey and Butcher body folk left right and centre. 

Aye, that partnership is probably as important as Van Veens mad scoring form. We've conceded 9 in 11 which is decent, but when you consider 4 came against Rangers that reduces it to 5 in the 10 other matches. Furlong and McGinn have also benefitted and played huge parts in that. We just look organised and solid. 

[JamesP_81]

2 hours ago, CoF said:

Aye, that partnership is probably as important as Van Veens mad scoring form. We've conceded 9 in 11 which is decent, but when you consider 4 came against Rangers that reduces it to 5 in the 10 other matches. Furlong and McGinn have also benefitted and played huge parts in that. We just look organised and solid. 

I know it's mad to suggest that we could just go out and replace a 30+ () goal a season striker but I reckon it will be easier to fill the void left by KVV than if we were to lose that Butcher Casey partnership. Get a half decent misunderstood 'mercurial' league 2 jobber looking for a return to form and with the base we've got at the back I reckon we would still be banging them in up top (Shields 20+ next season anyone ?) . Go back to a back line with the likes of Sol/Ojala/Lamie and it wouldn't matter if we had Mbappe up front, we'd be getting humped every week! 

[Handsome_Devil]

23 minutes ago, JamesP_81 said:

I know it's mad to suggest that we could just go out and replace a 30+ () goal a season striker but I reckon it will be easier to fill the void left by KVV than if we were to lose that Butcher Casey partnership. Get a half decent misunderstood 'mercurial' league 2 jobber looking for a return to form and with the base we've got at the back I reckon we would still be banging them in up top (Shields 20+ next season anyone ?) . Go back to a back line with the likes of Sol/Ojala/Lamie and it wouldn't matter if we had Mbappe up front, we'd be getting humped every week! 

I think that's absolutely true. Obviously we need some vague competence in attack but I don't think there's the need to panic about replacing KVV some outsiders will claim.

I've stolen the tennis analogy before but a coach once said 5% of the time you're brilliant or your opponent is awful and you can't lose, 5% of the time you're awful or your opponent is brilliant and you can't win. Ignore that 10% because you can't change it and focus on the 90% in the middle that'll define your career.

In our case the 90% that defines our season are the 50-50 games against our peers that are possibly decided by a moment of magic but much more often are decided by a mistake.

Without KVV we'd certainly be lacking magic but if we go into next season with the same back three, another couple of speedy wing-backs secured from somewhere and the same-ish midfield while playing the same safety-first approach there will be enough games we win because our opponent loses them (St Johnstone yesterday, Dingwall recently etc) that we'll be fine.

[ropy]

What if we keep Van Veen?

We would need a robust partner to play up with him, I would have chosen Obika of the two we have but if he is permanently broken then we need to think again, if Mandron is cheap then his cheeky smile would let him away with most things.  I wonder if Jordan White could have done a job, he was largely rotten for us but was very unfortunate with the start he had then our sporadic use of him didn’t  seem to suit his game.  I think a White/Van Veen partnership would have worked.