Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Swami]

11 hours ago, Swami said:

I think we might play Wilkinson up front on his own tonight with Miller coming straight back in. Kettlewell may have signed Bair and Shaw, but he’s got eyes like the rest of us. 

Wish he hadn’t done this. 

[Jonnylosqualo]

We only have any sort of threat when we've chucked all the strikers on and the game plan is out the window.

['WellDel]

We have no depth to the squad whatsoever. If the first 11 aren't fit and on it we're fucked, as that shitshow tonight just proved. Slattery was miles off it and Wilkinson managed to be less effective than Bair. Being 6'3" and barely winning a header all night is criminal.

The early season optimism is gone. It's gonna be another eye-bleeding slog lads. 

[SteelyDosser]

15 minutes ago, Molotov said:

I am sure many Well fans said Kettlewell was a far better manager than Robinson not so long ago. 

Are you still of that opinion?

You seem obsessed mate

[MP_MFC]

Connor Wilkinson can take the next train to whatever lower league English hellhole he came from. An absolute waste of a wage. 
 

Who signed off on him and what attributes did they see? Slow, can’t jump, can’t control the ball, can’t pass and at this point I’m not sure if he can tie his own shoes. A joke of a player. 
 

Shaw is just as bad, him falling over when a cross was coming in at head height for him sums him up. Useless. 
 

For all Theo gets criticised he at least puts in effort, holds the ball up well and is a nuisance for defenders. The above mentioned are anything but. 
 

That was absolutely abject tonight, the system has been found out and we don’t have the players to rejig it and I’m not sure how we resolve that in January if we’re still skint. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Tbh I'm less concerned about the results and performances recently than I am about the lack of wiggle room Kettlewell seems to have left himself tactically. 

The 5-4-1 has been found out by this point which I think we all expected to happen- it generally does whenever a team like us has a decent 3 or 4 game spell before everyone else cottons on. I don't think the last few games are indicative of a team that is massively subpar on an individual or collective level- pretty much every Motherwell team I can remember has had a period where they looked rank fucking rotten.

Usually though, what gets us out of one of these ruts is a formation or personnel change which I'm not really sure we have the ability to do right now.  This squad of players is pretty much entirely set up to play either a conventional 5-3-2, a 5-4-1 (with a midfield diamond) or maybe at a push a 4-4-2 (with a midfield diamond.) 

I got massively sick of Robinson and Alexander's anywhere across the front 3 types but it was probably preferable to having 5 forwards on the books who can all only play as out and out strikers. Tierney, McKinstry and Efford are all very flawed players but even one of them would probably give us the option to play with either or a #10. Kettlewell can probably point to the budgetary constraints due to Hammell's sprending spree but he's exacerbated that by building a squad where Paul McGinn is probably the only player who can play more than one position.

[Muzz1886]

30 minutes ago, Molotov said:

I am sure many Well fans said Kettlewell was a far better manager than Robinson not so long ago. 

Are you still of that opinion?

Yes, absolutely.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Am I losing my mind or was Kelly really good with the ball at his feet when he first came to us. Could spray passes out the back and get the game moving. His distribution is shocking now. Slow, cumbersome and his long kicking is wildly inaccurate.

[ropy]

I am repeating myself but if Kettlewell sees Biereth and Wilkinson as a front 2, why did Wilkinson start when Biereth wasn’t coming on til the second half (I assume he came on earlier than planned).  Wilkinson did perk up at the start of the second half but his race was run shortly thereafter.

Bair would have kept the defence busy in the first half allowing the ‘dream team’ to come on fresh later on.

Perhaps Wilkinson isn’t the answer at all.

[Stevie Kirk]

5 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Tbh I'm less concerned about the results and performances recently than I am about the lack of wiggle room Kettlewell seems to have left himself tactically. 

The 5-4-1 has been found out by this point which I think we all expected to happen- it generally does whenever a team like us has a decent 3 or 4 game spell before everyone else cottons on. I don't think the last few games are indicative of a team that is massively subpar on an individual or collective level- pretty much every Motherwell team I can remember has had a period where they looked rank fucking rotten.

Usually though, what gets us out of one of these ruts is a formation or personnel change which I'm not really sure we have the ability to do right now.  This squad of players is pretty much entirely set up to play either a conventional 5-3-2, a 5-4-1 (with a midfield diamond) or maybe at a push a 4-4-2 (with a midfield diamond.) 

I got massively sick of Robinson and Alexander's anywhere across the front 3 types but it was probably preferable to having 5 forwards on the books who can all only play as out and out strikers. Tierney, McKinstry and Efford are all very flawed players but even one of them would probably give us the option to play with either or a #10. Kettlewell can probably point to the budgetary constraints due to Hammell's sprending spree but he's exacerbated that by building a squad where Paul McGinn is probably the only player who can play more than one position.

I agree with all of this. 
 

The key ingredient we haven’t replaced this season is the dynamism and balance which we got from Furlong and Johnston. When we broke forward we broke at speed , we were in control of the ball and looked dangerous.

It is such a drop off now with Spencer ( on his wrong side) and O Donnell taking so long on the ball and we no longer have that natural width .Everything is going through Spittal and Slattery who are often receiving the ball with their back to play and miles from goal.

Im just hoping this Gent guy comes good but early signs aren’t great.

 

TBH even if fit I don’t think Souare would have given us what we had from Furlong . But it would have allowed Spencer to play on his natural side 

 

 

[Busta Nut]

Wilkinson is utter shite. So bad.
Shaw is also utter shite.
Obika has been injured so long I can't mind how bad he was. He certainly wasn't worth a new deal I remember.

 

Mika and Bair is my thoughts for top 2

[eliphas]

There's nothing new to add really that we didn't know. Kettle well must learn from his mistakes...not his first chance either to do that.

-4 midfielders as a box behind 1 hapless striker was found out ages ago and still doesn't work 

-The full backs don't work most of the time because teams know to close them down and they are other too slow or always turning in

- The defence is leaky and pulled all over the place and should have had Butcher in last week let alone not starting this week

- Most of the strikers are rubbish in the system we play

- We don't have any attacking width

Add in a sprinkling of some cowardly individual performances and a mad ref and that's what he get.

[well fan for life]

Some laugh that. Promising start to the season, now we've got a back 5 that are on the glue.

 

[ropy]

Big Bevis was cutting out everything in the box, where was he at the first goal?  Casey missed a header that Kelly and McGinn expected him to get, I can’t think where Bevis was. The big man did look suspect against his attacker outside the box.  Taking him off at half time makes it look like he was the scape goat but it was important to get Butcher on and this worked up to a point,

I didn’t see the third goal as I thought play had stopped.  And it looks like a wee guy out jumped our defence for the fourth.

All poor goals.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

Awful performances all in tonight. The two hooked at half time, plus Wilkinson, Kelly and Casey worth mentions. I think Casey has been shaky for a few games now, to the point I wonder if Blaney has earned a chance.

As much as Bair lacks quality, he's never posted missing the way we are seeing from Shaw and Wilkinson. He deserves up the pecking order for that alone. 

I thought the second half was the perfect time to give Gent a full 45 and see what he was about.

I'm getting quite concerned that the personnel in our squad is so stuck to this system that other than change personnel, there's not much we can do to freshen up. I'm not sure I fancy a 4-3-3 with ineffectual strikers used as wingers.

[MurrayWell]

Kelly being good with the ball at his feet has always been a bit of a myth for me, he has also been pretty shite with his hands lately too. 

Where to start with that tonight... absolutely atrocious performance. The goals we're shipping at the moment are laughable, defence are all over the shop. 

Got the basics so wrong tonight, can't mind our midfield doing anything for the first 45 minutes, other than playing floated hooked balls up towards a disinterested Wilkinson, who is beyond honking BTW. His performance was summed up in the second half when he was easily getting onto a ball, slowed down for some reason and then fell on his arse trying to keep it in play. 

Aberdeen were coming down with pressure on Robson, and we gift wrapped that for them. 

Also, while not to blame for the result, special mention to Colin Steven for one of the most bizarre refereeing displays I can remember. Incredible that he is a top flight referee.

[ropy]

I hadn’t seen that ref for a while, was he relegated to the lower ranks and this was him getting a wee chance back at the big time.  He was awful and even allowing for claret and amber specs how can you give a free kick for two Aberdeen players kicking each other?

[Allroy for Prez]

Whilst the/my focus has been on how we’ve managed to assemble the worst strikers at the club in living memory, there are too many of the other players simply not good enough for what is required of them. Furlong and Johnston haven’t adequately been replaced for one. 
I got the PPV tonight and I’m kinda glad I did otherwise I wouldn’t have believed just how bad Wilkinson was. I’m at a loss to even suggest how to fix the forward area now. 
 

At the risk of irritating people I will never not continue to be infuriated that we potentially could’ve had Fletcher and Biereth with Moult off the bench instead of the imposters we ended up with. 
 

If we don’t win one of the next 3 games I’d say Kettlewell is in serious bother. No team should go 10 games without a win in a league filled with so many teams of a similar standard. 

[Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo]

2-0 to The Stoolmen when Thelonius was on the pitch.

[Doonhame Buddie]

I reckon you need a striker like Mandron. Strong, quick and a composed finisher.