Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[eliphas]

As ever, there's multiple things at play, which have been talked about, but for me underpinning everything is the squad Kettlewell has assembled. 

He was asked to absolutely knive it and save money. He did very well on that front and gets the plaudits.

But his recruitment following that has been very poor and forced himself and us into corners this season due to having a severe lack of flexibility.. He's compounded that by some mad selection choices (e.g. Spittal at left back) recently.

As @crazylegsjoe has said above, he's essentially stuck all his eggs in the 5-3-2 basket and doesn't play the right type of players to make it effective. 

In January I really think we need to get a different option in an attacking sense. Mika has some pace but Wilko/Bair/Obika/Shaw are all very similar. So an attacker who is a different type of player would be nice. Means we need to at least try and cut ties with Shaw to make space if we can.

We also need a mobile defensive midfielder.  Slattery/Spittal/Paton are all better better further forward in my view. Miller is great at moving the ball but isn't a hard man. Davor is...who knows. In this system to play two up we need to have someone who can sit and defend and protect the defence. Saturday proved unfortunately that Butcher isn't mobile enough to do that in a 3 man midfield. Part of box 4 maybe he can. 

Defence I actually think we are fine. They've all regressed since last season and are often trying to hard, rushing out to fill gaps etc which is all on the coaching and setup and instruction for me more than individually bad players.

A couple of players like that would open up options on how we set up, how we can change a game. Hopefully settle some players down too.

[Dosser1886]

12 hours ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

My one reason for sympathy for the defenders is that we seem to have to defend relentlessly. Our strikers don't hold on to the ball well enough, currently with Miller out and Goss having departed, we don't have anyone playing clever forward passes and there doesn't seem to be anyone who can carry the ball forward. This might just be my perception, but it seems to be when the ball goes forward, it very quickly comes back.

We also have zero confidence. When we do try and keep the ball on the deck I lost count of the number of times a bad pass gave the ball straight to an oposing player and this put us on the back foot. Also other teams press us much better than we seem to be able to press them and we then inevitably cough the ball up and we are defending..again.

As a  result of all this we resort to route one long balls that our forwards usually lose and guess what, we are defending again. Even from our own throw ins we lose the ball and are having to defend again. A lot to try and sort out. Lack of confidence in themselves and those around them is a major factor imo.

[Handsome_Devil]

30 minutes ago, Dosser1886 said:

As a  result of all this we resort to route one long balls that our forwards usually lose and guess what, we are defending again. 

The thing is, long balls themselves aren't inherently bad depending on what you do next. Safety first and only worrying about the Barcelona pish in their third is totally fine - but after hoofing it up there you need to chase after it. Pressing up there means we either win it back directly to feet or through a shy, or they safety first return it back to us - which our defence can usually handle. Booting it long to concede possession and only trying to win it back in our own half is brutal. That's not only weakens the attack but puts pressure on our defence which, at the moment anyway, it clearly can't handle.

Kettlewell's interview on Saturday was interesting as I assumed we no longer pressed like before because of his instructions but it certainly didn't sound like that... though given pressing requires mobile folk who get up and down, quite how he thought Butcher would manage that is beyond me.

[ropy]

I’ve pushed for Gent to start and I also think we need to see more of Davor, to rule him in or out.  I don’t think they should both start tomorrow.  Feed them in one at a time.

[Handsome_Devil]

I appreciate there's context, yada yada, but Wilkinson in the Herald says a lot about us atm:

Thing is, I came on as a central midfielder, a position I’ve never played in my life, so to be honest I didn’t really know what I was doing. 

[wellboy1991]

7 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

I appreciate there's context, yada yada, but Wilkinson in the Herald says a lot about us atm:

Thing is, I came on as a central midfielder, a position I’ve never played in my life, so to be honest I didn’t really know what I was doing. 

As others have said, shows you much he rates wee Davor. Shove a big striker in there instead. Fair enough he scored so he is vindicated to an extent. 

[well fan for life]

Wilkinson annoys f**k out me because you can see there's a player in there. He doesn't show it nearly enough though. 

[ropy]

‘Callum Slattery returns having been suspended for the Dundee match.

Harry Paton will serve the first of his two match suspension for his red card against Dundee.’
 

I’m still confused about the suspension situation, do they kick in after 7 days now? No mention of Dan Casey reaching the threshold.

[RandomGuy.]

15 minutes ago, ropy said:

‘Callum Slattery returns having been suspended for the Dundee match.

Harry Paton will serve the first of his two match suspension for his red card against Dundee.’
 

I’m still confused about the suspension situation, do they kick in after 7 days now? No mention of Dan Casey reaching the threshold.

[Handsome_Devil]

1 hour ago, wellboy1991 said:

As others have said, shows you much he rates wee Davor. Shove a big striker in there instead. Fair enough he scored so he is vindicated to an extent. 

Tbf he came on 10 seconds before the red card...but that just lessens the humour.

[ropy]

36 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Thanks, I couldn’t find this information

[ropy]

35 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

Tbf he came on 10 seconds before the red card...but that just lessens the humour.

We seemed to go through a few iterations of midfield, Blaney seemed to step forward for a while then Gent ventured into left midfield, then the back 5 was reinstated and Bair and Wilkinson flanked Spittal in a forward looking middle three. 

[Dosser1886]

Most of the game, like Kettlewell, I had no feckin idea who was meant to be where and doing what.

[Swello]

1 hour ago, well fan for life said:

Wilkinson annoys f**k out me because you can see there's a player in there. He doesn't show it nearly enough though. 

If Wilkinson was in a role where he was just expected to get on the end of chances in the box, I think he'd be more than decent as he is calm in front of goals and clearly a good finisher - but we've seen before (hi Danny Johnson) that in a system where you're expected to do more, it could be a struggle.

I think the initial plan was to play Biereth and Wilkinson as the first choice pairing - and I'd still be absolutely fine with that. 

I do find it kind of ironic that we've spent the season fretting about our forwards when our "For" column looks very respectable while our defence (which we all thought was broadly fine at the start of the season) has been a massive fucking bombscare. 

 

[Gianfranco]

Don’t worry Paul McGinn is nearly back. The defence will be saved.

[Swello]

31 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:

Don’t worry Paul McGinn is nearly back. The defence will be saved.

That would actually be great - as Butcher has singularly failed to make anything better and looks like he should be using the Winter Break as a pre-season before being a first choice again.

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

For whatever little merit it has, Paul McGinn definitely makes my first eleven, so he will be welcomed back by me.

Wilkinson is one I'm still torn on. His goals have been worth 5 points, if you think about them coming in a win and two in draws. All in big moments in games. I'm pretty sure when he signed, there were fans of teams he had played for saying he was frustrating, but there was a player in there.

I reckon to truly know how good he is, we would need to see him start 5 or 6 games in a row, as a centre forward. However, on a winless run, when you've got three strikers on the bench and not much else spare, that's never going to happen - unless he sets the heather on fire on one start and keeps it going.

[CoF]

7 hours ago, ropy said:

We seemed to go through a few iterations of midfield, Blaney seemed to step forward for a while then Gent ventured into left midfield, then the back 5 was reinstated and Bair and Wilkinson flanked Spittal in a forward looking middle three. 

It's the footballing equivalent of one of Kettlewell's press conferences. All over the place. 

Just sat down to listen to the County pre-match stuff and for the first time, I just couldn't sit through the whole thing. 

[ropy]

42 minutes ago, CoF said:

It's the footballing equivalent of one of Kettlewell's press conferences. All over the place. 

Just sat down to listen to the County pre-match stuff and for the first time, I just couldn't sit through the whole thing. 

I haven’t listened to the last few, it’s mostly about not making the time but if they were a must listen I guess I would.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

I think he would enjoy having a podcast of his own