Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[well fan for life]

If we're yearning for Lamie, Maguire and Tierney I think we just chuck it now lads.

['WellDel]

1 hour ago, Luke92 said:

Up front, at the moment it looks like our recruitment is letting us down badly. Biereth aside, we probably have the worst striking options in the league.

There's absolutely no doubt that, Biereth aside, we have an absolutely honking selection up front which is in all probability the worst in the league.

I'm not the biggest Obika fan, but if he can come in and stay fit for more than 20mins, he is the best of a very average lot to be a foil for Mika. The rest are all multiple levels of shite below what is required.

 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I think we'd have been looking for a front two of Wilkinson and Biereth, with Obika first sub and Bair there for emergencies. Unfortunately that's not worked out that way. 

We've only signed Shaw and played Bair because of injuries to the other three. There's a relative bit of luck involved in that.

Wilkinson has no doubt not worked out so far, but he's not that dissimilar to the profile of signing that KVV was. League two, bit of a maverick, inconsistent, recently recovered from a long-term injury. He actually averages roughly a goal every three starts over his career, so I'm reluctant to criticise the recruitment of a player like him. He's definitely done precious little so far but every signing is a gamble.

We should never have renewed Obika's contract based on his injury record. I'll probably take stick for this, but in "better the devil you know" fashion, I almost wish we'd kept Mandron about instead.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Get Trevor Carson back while we're at it

[Stevie Kirk]

3 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I think we'd have been looking for a front two of Wilkinson and Biereth, with Obika first sub and Bair there for emergencies. Unfortunately that's not worked out that way. 

We've only signed Shaw and played Bair because of injuries to the other three. There's a relative bit of luck involved in that.

Wilkinson has no doubt not worked out so far, but he's not that dissimilar to the profile of signing that KVV was. League two, bit of a maverick, inconsistent, recently recovered from a long-term injury. He actually averages roughly a goal every three starts over his career, so I'm reluctant to criticise the recruitment of a player like him. He's definitely done precious little so far but every signing is a gamble.

We should never have renewed Obika's contract based on his injury record. I'll probably take stick for this, but in "better the devil you know" fashion, I almost wish we'd kept Mandron about instead.

I always thought that Madron was the more consistent of the two a kind of 6 or 7 out of ten player. Obika is capable of MOM performances and also being completely humpty . I would have plumped for Mandron myself.

[Swello]

7 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

Wilkinson has no doubt not worked out so far, but he's not that dissimilar to the profile of signing that KVV was. League two, bit of a maverick, inconsistent, recently recovered from a long-term injury. He actually averages roughly a goal every three starts over his career, so I'm reluctant to criticise the recruitment of a player like him. He's definitely done precious little so far but every signing is a gamble.

Wilkinson is interesting as he is the least confident maverick I've ever seen - he just doesn't feel like a player that has settled into our league at all. It does look like he can actually finish, which sets him apart from almost all the forwards we have, so he might need to be in the team for that alone. His general stuff has been really poor though - you could (in amongst the comedy yellow cards) see what KVV was bringing from his earliest games but Wilkinson hasn't shown many hopeful signs yet. I try and be patient with folk that move here and make a step up, so I've not given up hope completely.

 

 

[joewarkfanclub]

Mandron was absolute shite. 

Obika is the better player by a distance but has a horrible injury record.

Wouldnt have re-signed either of them but if you made me choose Id take Obika.

Edited November 13, 2023 by joewarkfanclub

[Dosser1886]

2 hours ago, Stevie Kirk said:

 I would have plumped for Mandron myself.

And so the revisionism continues.

He was shite, and not a tear on here was shed when he went.

[Swello]

I would have gone for Moult. 

[rowsdower]

At the time it seemed pretty unanimous that Moult was no, and that we were surprised that we were trying to keep mandron. If moult stays fit playing in the second teir, good for him, but there were few arguments when we didn't go for him.

The players we have have shown that they can be good, but unfortunately a few are out of form.

 

[AnderooMFC]

See if during the international break Ketts could do the exact opposite of what he did in the last one and get us back to playing the way we were before, that would be great.

Some people think a new manager would play players in their right positions and get "back to basics" and we'd start to compete and maybe win/not gift a 2 goal headstart every game before trying. You know, the exact stuff Ketts did when he took over. I'm sure there's some irony in there somewhere or is it just the cyclical nature of Scottish Premiership managers?

[Gianfranco]

I also would have went for Mandron over Obika in the summer simply because of the latter’s injury record. There’s not much between them and both are better options than Shaw or Bair.

[Ron Aldo]

14 hours ago, Dosser1886 said:

And so the revisionism continues.

He was shite, and not a tear on here was shed when he went.

Nonsense. He's world class according to St Mirren fans. 

[Allroy for Prez]

I thought Mandron looked poor last season and was happy to see him leave because I didn’t think for a second we were going to sign players of the standard of Shaw, Wilkinson and Bair!

Robinson has certainly got a tune out of him though, to the extend it’s made our summer business look even worse!  

[thisGRAEME]

See FWIW, just as we were talking about players and systems and where we thought we might be able to alter: Thelonius Bair is or was a winger before arriving in Scotland, and I believe considers himself a winger, so, y'know, just a thought, when we play Wilkinson wide ambling around.

[Pettigrew]

16 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

See FWIW, just as we were talking about players and systems and where we thought we might be able to alter: Thelonius Bair is or was a winger before arriving in Scotland, and I believe considers himself a winger, so, y'know, just a thought, when we play Wilkinson wide ambling around.

Theo grew up watching old vhs's of Derek Townsley...

[MurrayWell]

He might be doing a job for St Mirren but I'm absolutely not having that Mandron was a better option for us than Bair has been. 

I agree on Wilkinson and Shaw, but that's not because Mandron was good...

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I was against us re-signing Moult when we did, but I admittedly got sucked in by the fanfare. After how it played out, I was definitely once bitten, twice shy with it this summer.

However, my reasons for not wanting Moult to come this summer, were the same reasons I didn't want us to give Obika deal. Both appear to be more than capable when fit. 

I'm pleased for Moult that he has stayed fit and is doing well, as he is a former player who I hold in high regard. The physical demands of the Championship compared with the Premiership, the lower quality of opponents and the fact he's playing in a team scoring freely and creating a lot more chances than we do makes it very hard to judge if he would be doing well for us this season. 

 

[thisGRAEME]

1 hour ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

the fact he's playing in a team scoring freely and creating a lot more chances than we do makes it very hard to judge if he would be doing well for us this season. 

Not that it stops people.

[Swello]

It's been done to death but If we had signed Moult and he got crocked after 3 weeks as seemed highly likely, it would have been flaming torches and pitchforks at the main entrance - it was a signing that we were never going to make.

I think we've suffered simply because our normal decent:shite ratio hasn't held up with our forward signings - looked at over a long period of time, we normally do better.