Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[thisGRAEME]

An absolute pigs ear of a team.

Lost all thread of what we're even attempting to do.

[Ron Aldo]

6 minutes ago, wellboy1991 said:

That’s how I feel tbh.

I’m not one for sacking the manager at the moment however finding it harder and harder to defend him. That today was all on him, his tactics completely and utterly wrong and the fact he changed it at half time he will know. However leaving it until the 77 mins to bring on a left back is criminal. 
 

There is no balance to the team. The midfield players are too similar, the strikers not good enough apart from Mika but seemingly he is the target man. 
 

The defence however are an absolute shambles. So soft and since his return Butcher has been abysmal. No coincidence we are conceding more with him in the side. He looks slow, weak and like an old man. 

Butcher's return reminds me of Peter Hartley a few years ago. Went from being the key man in defence, getting injured and then looking like a liability after coming back.

At least then we had Tom Aldred. None of our current defenders look capable of stepping up. 

[CoF]

I think squad is fine. We’ve had managers piece together far worst teams than this and do okay. The problem is that there isn’t a single player performing to their best just now. When there’s this level of individual and collective failure that’s on the manager. 

[Ceiling Granny]

I think the biggest worry for me is bringing on Mugabi at the end as a total hit and hope, cause a bit of chaos type sub. Screams “out of ideas”. 

[well fan for life]

See when your only idea is to bring Bevis on as a striker, you are surely in the end of days. 

Another free header in the box conceded and the second is just waltzing through midfield without being impeded at all. 

[Desp]

2 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

See when your only idea is to bring Bevis on as a striker, you are surely in the end of days. 

Five forwards on the park over the 90 minutes, and the above is how we finished the game. 

Out of ideas. 

[thisGRAEME]

If I were manager, I'd simply ask the players to stop going two goals down before starting to try.

[MurrayWell]

On and off the park it looks like we haven't a clue right now. We're absolutely rudderless. I make it about 10 months now since Alan Burrows announced he was stepping down, where is the new CEO? Aware that Derek Weir has been doing the role and fair play, but absolute radio silence on if we're even still looking for a permanent replacement or if we're changing structure. 

Recruitment has been an absolute mess for years now, regardless of whether it's Kettlewell or someone else it looks like we're heading into another "mini rebuild" in January, scrambling and hoping gambles keep us in the league because of continued failings. Signing dozens of folk every transfer window really shouldn't be the norm, but we have no core squad to build on. 

On the park, we've decided we're playing one way and that's it. Must be the easiest team in the league to set up to play against. Livi may be in free fall too, but they still had enough to beat us. Have defended Kettlewell a fair amount during this run, but 2 points from 27 is absolutely atrocious and we're making the same mistakes every week. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I've been working. Sorry, have I just seen somebody say we played Blair Spittal at LWB?

[MP_MFC]

Worst bit of it for me is why we’ve decided to move away from playing football and passing the ball which was getting results into just aimlessly shelling balls toward Biereth and hoping he can beat 3 men. He’s good but he’s not that good and he’s got absolutely nothing up top with him. 

Whoever signed off on Wilkinson should be punted and made drive him to some lower league hovel in January. 

[MP_MFC]

Just now, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I've been working. Sorry, have I just seen somebody say we played Blair Spittal at LWB?

Oh yeah. He actually did….fine. Made a coupla good tackles but aye. Clueless. 

[AdamMFC]

42 minutes ago, Ceiling Granny said:

I think the biggest worry for me is bringing on Mugabi at the end as a total hit and hope, cause a bit of chaos type sub. Screams “out of ideas”. 

This is it for me as well.

Me and the guys around me couldn't help but laugh at how when he did get a header in the box he headered away from goal, as if he forgot what end of the pitch he was at.

[Rod]

Can't wait for Mark McGhee 3: Return of the King

[fat_tony]

44 minutes ago, MP_MFC said:

Oh yeah. He actually did….fine. Made a coupla good tackles but aye. Clueless. 

The biggest issue with playing Spittal there was it nullified any threat he could have offered playing higher up. It was telling that our best spell of the game was at the start of the second half when we sacrificed a striker, pushed Spittal into midfield, and brought on an actual full/wing back at LB (albeit it was Spencer playing wrong side again).

[Busta Nut]

Team was announced.
I thought it was a back 4 with Blaney at left back. ( I can't believe there were folk who seen that and thought similar and moaned about that).
I then remembered some shit during the week where SK said "trust the system" and I immediately realised that Spittal was at WB.

This is a fuckin abomination of a team selection. It's whether or not it was a 5-2-3 (Wing backs are defenders) or a variation of the 5-4-1 that we seemed settled with when we had 4 CMs in the team.

EIther way it isn't gonna work, taking the midfield down to two men or having two strikers drop deep into an unfamiliar role is fucking madness. The fact there isn't a plan B is the death of SK.

There is no game plan. There are no changes made that would change the game.

I am not one for the whole "sack the manager" stuff but I don't see him surviving much longer if he is so naive that nothing changes.

[ropy]

54 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I've been working. Sorry, have I just seen somebody say we played Blair Spittal at LWB?

He practised this in Perth on Tuesday for 20 minutes in the second half before Gent came on.

[ropy]

I said a couple of weeks ago that it would be good if I (or any of us) could sit down with Kettlewell and point out what works and what doesn’t.  I want that conversation.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Off the top of my head I don't think there's ever been a point during this run where we've played what you'd call a conventional 3-5-2 with Spencer on the right, Gent on the left and Biereth up top with Bair? 

I'm not saying any of them are world beaters- except Mika, maybe- or that it would solve the problems at CB or in midfield but it's mental to me that it never seems to have crossed his mind to try and replicate the "dynamic fullbacks, good striker next to a big lump" approach that got him the job last season. It seems like it would be less hassle than playing three strikers and Spittal at wingback.

 

 

[Dosser1886]

When your defenders are struggling and need a bit of help, a big keeper who commands his box is a help. Rather than a 5ft midget they never comes off his line.

As others have said. The obvious thing they SK did when he came in was to play players in their best positions. Now trying all sort of desperate random shit that the players and fans have no fucking idea as to what they are meant to be doing.

Back to hoofball pish that is easy to play against. Continually hand the ball back to the opposing team.

['WellDel]

7 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

Team was announced.
I thought it was a back 4 with Blaney at left back. ( I can't believe there were folk who seen that and thought similar and moaned about that).
I then remembered some shit during the week where SK said "trust the system" and I immediately realised that Spittal was at WB.

This is a fuckin abomination of a team selection. It's whether or not it was a 5-2-3 (Wing backs are defenders) or a variation of the 5-4-1 that we seemed settled with when we had 4 CMs in the team.

EIther way it isn't gonna work, taking the midfield down to two men or having two strikers drop deep into an unfamiliar role is fucking madness. The fact there isn't a plan B is the death of SK.

There is no game plan. There are no changes made that would change the game.

I am not one for the whole "sack the manager" stuff but I don't see him surviving much longer if he is so naive that nothing changes.

Had a conversation with my auld man after the game which was along the lines of all the points you've made here. The crux of the matter is that there is no plan B and Kettlewell seems incapable of fixing it. 2 points from 27 is sacking material in anyone's book. 

We're currently fucked financially for sacking yet another manager, but will we be even further in the mire and a league lower if we don't? There's a big decision to be made in the next couple of weeks if we don't start picking up points. The thing is that, with off field organisation looking as bad as on it, I'm not sure those in power will act quickly enough to save the situation before it's too late. The club just has a general feel of malaise from top to bottom right now which makes me feel really uneasy.