Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[capt_oats]

[Stevie Kirk]

3 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

Jesus wept is that Joe McLeod at no 9 in that video? If so that explains the “ Motherwell 0” 

 

Theo Bair is like Batistuta in comparison.
 

 

[MurrayWell]

Just following on from Saturday, some absolutely wild takes on Bair kicking about IMO (mostly on twitter). I'm sure most would agree that he should be taking that chance in the first half and needs to do better in general with his finishing, but some of his link up play was brilliant against St Mirren and previously against Hearts too. The folk suggesting he's bringing nothing must be watching a different team. 

We're playing a system at the moment where the majority of our chances will fall to Slattery, Spittal or Paton because we're down to our 4th and 5th choice strikers, who are (and this really shouldn't be a surprise to folk) not the finished article. Some of the expectations within the support are incredible at times, but we can hardly be surprised when it's the same brain donors who deemed KvV 'lazy' or 'not good enough' last season. 

Edited September 19, 2023 by MurrayWell

[Neil86]

100% agree, my expectations were relatively low, but I have been quite happy with his contribution. Finishing definitely needs working on, but his link up play is good, he's pretty decent with the ball at this feet too.

['WellDel]

36 minutes ago, Neil86 said:

100% agree, my expectations were relatively low, but I have been quite happy with his contribution. Finishing definitely needs working on, but his link up play is good, he's pretty decent with the ball at this feet too.

He's actually shown good feet and some nice touches in the last couple of games for being a big unit of a lad and he certainly keeps defenders busy. Ultimately strikers will be judged on putting the ball in the net, but if someone can put in an extra couple of hrs with him up Dalziel Park during the week, although he'll find himself benched when a couple of others are back fit, he's a more than useful option to have around.

[JamesP_81]

I've been pleasantly surprised with how Bair has settled in now ,especially after my first couple of viewings of him where I was convinced his feet were just holograms . I was giving him dogs abuse for missing his one on one on Saturday but looking back his shot was from a tighter angle than it looked from my seat and I guess we can probably all agree that sticking the ball in between the white sticks isn't really his strong point, but his link up play and holding players off is actually pretty decent . 

['WellDel]

35 minutes ago, JamesP_81 said:

I've been pleasantly surprised with how Bair has settled in now ,especially after my first couple of viewings of him where I was convinced his feet were just holograms . I was giving him dogs abuse for missing his one on one on Saturday but looking back his shot was from a tighter angle than it looked from my seat and I guess we can probably all agree that sticking the ball in between the white sticks isn't really his strong point, but his link up play and holding players off is actually pretty decent . 

I'm on hols and watched the game on a stream, the keeper got his angles spot on and never gave him much to aim at,  shooting across him. It was unlucky he was just that wee bit wide taking the shot on.

Edited September 19, 2023 by 'WellDel

[Handsome_Devil]

20 minutes ago, 'WellDel said:

I'm on hols and watched the game on a stream, the keeper got his angles spot on and never gave him much to aim at,  shooting across him. It was unlucky he was just that wee bit wide taking the shot on.

Aye, Bair is a rotten finisher but I actually thought the one from the angle was a decent effort. He had virtually nothing to aim at and missed it by inches.

You could argue from that angle he's better putting laces through and hoping for a goalie error but if he smacks it into the gk's chest, everyone has a go for him not at least trying for the corner.

[capt_oats]

Wilko and Souaré move on to the "Doubtful" tier.

[dezz]

I see Wilkinson and Soare have been upgraded to Doubtful for the Rangers game. Don't expect we'll risk them in a game we're unlikely to get anything from but it'd be good to at least have a couple of senior players on the bench.

Edit : Beaten to it by The Captain, who has helpfully included our fancy wee graphic. 

Edited September 19, 2023 by dezz

[ropy]

2 hours ago, 'WellDel said:

I'm on hols and watched the game on a stream, the keeper got his angles spot on and never gave him much to aim at,  shooting across him. It was unlucky he was just that wee bit wide taking the shot on.

The keeper got his angles right all day, either that or Spittal just loves to hit the keeper in the chest.

[ropy]

3 hours ago, JamesP_81 said:

I've been pleasantly surprised with how Bair has settled in now ,especially after my first couple of viewings of him where I was convinced his feet were just holograms . I was giving him dogs abuse for missing his one on one on Saturday but looking back his shot was from a tighter angle than it looked from my seat and I guess we can probably all agree that sticking the ball in between the white sticks isn't really his strong point, but his link up play and holding players off is actually pretty decent . 

I hope we see us varying the 4 man midfield with the original plan of two up front.  I keep thinking of how isolated Van Veen was when he was up there on his own and how things changed for him and us when he got a partner.  Both systems can work and there will be time for both, it’s Kettlewell’s job to decide when.  Maybe we need another fit striker to make it manageable.

[wellboy1991]

1 hour ago, ropy said:

I hope we see us varying the 4 man midfield with the original plan of two up front.  I keep thinking of how isolated Van Veen was when he was up there on his own and how things changed for him and us when he got a partner.  Both systems can work and there will be time for both, it’s Kettlewell’s job to decide when.  Maybe we need another fit striker to make it manageable.

There is a big difference in the formations, KVV was isolated even tho he played as part of a 3 man forward line. Shields and McKinstry hugged the bye line and our midfield three were super deep and struggled to get from our 18 yard line to theirs to follow a punt.

This formation has allowed the midfield to get higher up the pitch and Spittal/Slatts closer to Bair. Imagine the link up play with those two that far forward in this formation but with big Kev. Would be sublime I think. Would have suited KVV down to the ground.

Edited September 19, 2023 by wellboy1991

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I feel like a lot of people are either being purposely obtuse about Bair or had decided he was shite as soon as we signed him and are viewing all his subsequent performances through that prism.

IMO if you remove all the noise around him being St Johnstone's worst ever player or whatever and just judge him on his 6 games for us, he's looked like a decent facilitator that's lacking in front of goal, even though the Dundee goal was a good finish and I thought he was pretty unlucky on Saturday.

Is he presently good enough to play as a lone striker for us? Clearly not, but I wouldn't want Ryan Bowman or Curtis Main to have led the line by themselves either, and they were perfectly serviceable players for us when played to their strengths. It's also massively fucking obvious that Bair was signed as a 4th choice project striker for a 5-3-2, rather than as the focal point of a 3-2-2-2-1 that we've ended up playing out of necessity. 

 

[camer0n_mcd]

Actually thought Bair had a good game on Saturday. Link up play was very nice, probably should have scored in the first half but it's not nearly as bad a miss as people are making it out to be. Shaw's miss on the other hand.

[Swami]

26 minutes ago, camer0n_mcd said:

Actually thought Bair had a good game on Saturday. Link up play was very nice, probably should have scored in the first half but it's not nearly as bad a miss as people are making it out to be. Shaw's miss on the other hand.

Shaw’s miss was the exact moment you knew we were getting hee haw out of Saturday. 
 

I can definitely see both sides of the Bair argument. He has played alright, and has definitely contributed to our decent style of play the past few games but, well, he’s also supposed to be a striker and he couldn’t hit a cow on the arse with a shovel. I think that even Obika would have finished both of those chances the other day. 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Swami

[ropy]

I don’t have an issue with Bair’s attempt in the first half, he latched on to the ball and put it inches past.  The one in the second half should have been buried but he didn’t get his feet right.

Shaw was offside, he was on the 18 yard line when the ball was played and everyone else was outside the box.  He may have known this but he should have finished the move off.  But he was there to take the chance and he got on the end of a cross, potentially promising in what has been about 20 minutes of action in total.

Edited September 19, 2023 by ropy

[welldaft]

Like many others I have said how I think he had been a better player than I thought we were getting judging by the St Johnstone fans comments. That and also as alluded too he would probably be coming off the bench if we had all other strikers available. 

I would like to see more of him attacking crosses when they come into the box. He is physically imposing and clearly quite a strong fellow. So you would think he would be quite a handful. But we had umpteen crosses into St Mirren box and I cannot remember too many he was close to getting on the end of. It may not be his forte as such but seems a waste of talent of that is the case. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

He's scoring on Sunday 

[Handsome_Devil]

11 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

He's scoring on Sunday 

I have a feeling we won't lose both the next two which is odd enough but even I'm not believing this madness.