Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

I don’t particularly rate McGinley, but I find the comments on Twitter (which he’ll probably see) quite counter productive. What do people aim to achieve with stuff like that?

Hardly going over the top on praise but he’s not Joe Chalmers or Stephen Hendrie, so there’s definitely an element of better the devil you know with the new contract.

As @capt_oats said, it really shouldn’t have come as a shock to him getting a new deal.

If only he could bulk up and learn how to put a cross in….

[Gianfranco]

I lasted two seconds of that video until I heard his accent. McGinley is an alright back up but he shouldn’t be a starter at our club.

[Swello]

In the last few weeks alone - every single member of our defence, Ricky Lamie aside, has been solely responsible at some point for us losing absolutely shite goals - some on multiple occasions - but don't get close to the level of stick that McGinley gets. 

He isn't the best player in our squad and shouldn't be an automatic starter and I'm not trying to argue that he is something that he isn't - but he clearly isn't a confident boy and him being saddled with the scapegoat role that every motherwell team requires by law isn't helpful. If I was in charge, I would have kept Lawless on in all his unrepentant staunchness just so he could take that mantle. 

[ropy]

12 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:

I lasted two seconds of that video until I heard his accent. McGinley is an alright back up but he shouldn’t be a starter at our club.

I would get nothing from a conversation between McGinley and Grimshaw.

[ropy]

2 minutes ago, Swello said:

In the last few weeks alone - every single member of our defence, Ricky Lamie aside, has been solely responsible at some point for us losing absolutely shite goals - some on multiple occasions - but don't get close to the level of stick that McGinley gets. 

He isn't the best player in our squad and shouldn't be an automatic starter and I'm not trying to argue that he is something that he isn't - but he clearly isn't a confident boy and him being saddled with the scapegoat role that every motherwell team requires by law isn't helpful. If I was in charge, I would have kept Lawless on in all his unrepentant staunchness just so he could take that mantle. 

Maybe if Nimrod got more game time he could take the mantle.

[eliphas]

5 minutes ago, Swello said:

In the last few weeks alone - every single member of our defence, Ricky Lamie aside, has been solely responsible at some point for us losing absolutely shite goals - some on multiple occasions - but don't get close to the level of stick that McGinley gets. 

He isn't the best player in our squad and shouldn't be an automatic starter and I'm not trying to argue that he is something that he isn't - but he clearly isn't a confident boy and him being saddled with the scapegoat role that every motherwell team requires by law isn't helpful. If I was in charge, I would have kept Lawless on in all his unrepentant staunchness just so he could take that mantle. 

To be fair, SOD gets it just as tight or worse than McGinley. He's not the only scapegoat...we as a support have spread it about this season. Because we are fair like that. 

[Kapowzer]

I don’t dispute he’s a nice guy and a known quantity but for me it just reeks of a lack of ambition that we can’t find someone better in the summer.

I’d look for all players in the squad as people capable of competing for being first choice whereas sadly I see him a “well there’s nobody else” sort of squad member.

[thisGRAEME]

Absolutely fine with McGinley being here. Full agreement that people are wildly OTT on their criticism of him. I don't think it's a coincidence that basically all our full-backs have struggled at points, notably in games where our midfield has struggled. 

Symptom rather than cause, for me.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Waiting to hear McGinley's vegetarian curry preferences before commenting. Strikes me as a paneer man.

Edited February 24, 2022 by YassinMoutaouakil

[Alanos]

OK with McGinley as long as he is backup to a new left back coming in the summer.

He, along with others, is capable of high profile errors. However, it’s his lack of urgency to rectify his mistakes that rip my knitting. He just seems not to get stuck in.

Maybe just a perception. 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Alanos

[capt_oats]

On 23/02/2022 at 18:02, capt_oats said:

So that leaves the following as OOC in the summer:

GK - Morrison

DF - O'Connor, McGinley, Grimshaw, Nirennold

MF - O'Hara, Donnelly

FW - Amaluzor, Roberts

Loans expiring - Shaw

Pre-contract - Lamie (to Dundee)

To update this we're now down to:

GK - Morrison
DF - O'Connor, Grimshaw, Nirennold
MF - O'Hara, Donnelly
FW - Amaluzor, Roberts
Loans expiring - Shaw
Pre-contract - Lamie (to Dundee)

Based on appearances you'd imagine that O'Hara and Donnelly are the two obvious ones who'd be offered something.

• Morrison = 0 - n/a
• O'Connor = 5 (4 starts 1 sub) last start 24/07/21 - currently on loan at QoTS
• Grimshaw = 15 (10 starts 5 sub) last start 27/11/21
• Nirennold = 0 - n/a
• O'Hara = 13 (10 starts 3 sub) last start 19/02/22
• Donnelly = 19 (15 starts 5 sub) last start 19/02/22
• Amaluzor = 11 (3 starts 8 sub) last start 28/08/21
• Roberts = 17 (8 starts 9 sub) last start 09/02/22

[YassinMoutaouakil]

20 minutes ago, Alanos said:

OK with McGinley as long as he is backup to a new left back coming in the summer.

He, along with others, is capable of high profile errors. However, it’s his lack of urgency to rectify his mistakes that rip my knitting. He just seems not to get stuck in.

Maybe just a perception. 

Carroll's still contracted isn't he? There could obviously be moves behind the scenes to move him on but to me that suggests we're sticking with the status quo at left back for at least another season, which is a bit disappointing.

[capt_oats]

1 hour ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

Carroll's still contracted isn't he? There could obviously be moves behind the scenes to move him on but to me that suggests we're sticking with the status quo at left back for at least another season, which is a bit disappointing.

Aye, Carroll's contracted to the end of next season.

Agree that the status quo is probably the case but there's a chance (albeit small) that Carroll getting a run at centre back recently could compensate for Lamie leaving which could potentially free up a left back spot.

Unlikely perhaps but either way we'll still have to replace the Bathgate Maldini in some shape or form.

Tbh, thinking back to last summer and the whole change in approach with recruitment one of the aims was to reduce the churn and turnover of players at the club. So in that respect the 'better the devil you know' aspect @crazylegsjoe_mfc alluded to re: McGinley makes sense.

Folk were losing their shit when Alexander gave Bevis an extra year last April and that's worked out OK.

Actually, thinking about it, around the time Bevis signed his 1 year extension last season there was a lot of pearl clutching from the Lovejoy element of our support about how it definitely meant we'd be going into this season with Mugabi and Lamie as our first choice CB pair which was 100% unacceptable.

Then we went out and signed our culturally Scandinavian pair.

So with that in mind I'm kind of fine with just waiting and seeing what happens tbh.

Edited February 25, 2022 by capt_oats

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

Since he's come in, Alexander has loved a massive squad. I don't know how much of that's down to the pandemic, how much of it is down to the precarious position we were in when he joined or how much of it is down to his number one targets not being available in time for the league cup matches. 

Maybe he just loves a massive squad, but if it has been related to those factors, I'm wondering if it'll be a quiet summer all in, if we are running with a smaller squad.

We've already got 16 first team players signed and on paper, we could already field a better team in next season's league cup than we did this year's.

Don't get me wrong, there may be some in contract players who move on in the summer too. For example, if Mugabi plays right-back until the end of the season, I can't imagine SOD kicking about.

[capt_oats]

24 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

Since he's come in, Alexander has loved a massive squad. I don't know how much of that's down to the pandemic, how much of it is down to the precarious position we were in when he joined or how much of it is down to his number one targets not being available in time for the league cup matches. 

Maybe he just loves a massive squad, but if it has been related to those factors, I'm wondering if it'll be a quiet summer all in, if we are running with a smaller squad.

We've already got 16 first team players signed and on paper, we could already field a better team in next season's league cup than we did this year's.

Don't get me wrong, there may be some in contract players who move on in the summer too. For example, if Mugabi plays right-back until the end of the season, I can't imagine SOD kicking about.

I'm not actually sure that's the case.

He has definitely said in the past that his preference is to have a smaller, more "competitive" squad and admitted that the squad we had up until the end of last season was too big. 35 players or whatever? No shit it was too big (it also cost a fortune to the point it was even noted in this year's accounts).

Then again he also said at the start of the season that he wanted to carry a couple of extra bodies on account of the whole Covid situation which is fair enough.

IMO the sort of numbers we should be carrying in a normal season are 24 or 25. We've currently 27 1st team players albeit one of them is out on loan (O'Connor), we've had a couple on longer term injuries (O'Hara, Donnelly) and we have 4 who were signed on short term(ish) contracts (O'Connor, Nirennold, Amaluzor and Roberts).

As it stands we're 100% maxed out but it's nothing like last season and I'd say there's a lot less excess than we saw in the Robinson years.

What's definitely different compared to the Robinson-built squads is that there's far less of a drop off between first team and bench, which I guess is where the "competitive" angle comes in. Looking at Maguire, O'Hara, Shaw, Slattery, Cornelius, Donnelly, Tierney and Goss...all of them could legitimately start games.

Edited February 25, 2022 by capt_oats

[Swello]

48 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

Since he's come in, Alexander has loved a massive squad. I don't know how much of that's down to the pandemic, how much of it is down to the precarious position we were in when he joined or how much of it is down to his number one targets not being available in time for the league cup matches. 

Maybe he just loves a massive squad, but if it has been related to those factors, I'm wondering if it'll be a quiet summer all in, if we are running with a smaller squad.

We've already got 16 first team players signed and on paper, we could already field a better team in next season's league cup than we did this year's.

Don't get me wrong, there may be some in contract players who move on in the summer too. For example, if Mugabi plays right-back until the end of the season, I can't imagine SOD kicking about.

It was mentioned in passing at the AGM that as a result of us having a lot of players on longer term deals already that we'd probably be looking at no more than 5 players in the summer as things stand (which feels like the "right" amount for a settled squad compared to the last few years where that really wasn't the case)

[Al B]

On the opposite end of the scale from Nathan McGinley blowing away in the wind, we need to see an arm wrestle between The Ugandan Prince and Woolery. #content

[Well Well]

1 hour ago, Al B said:

On the opposite end of the scale from Nathan McGinley blowing away in the wind, we need to see an arm wrestle between The Ugandan Prince and Woolery. #content

god no...Our Ugandan Prince would pop his shoulder again

[Mr Hahn]

23 hours ago, thisGRAEME said:

Absolutely fine with McGinley being here. Full agreement that people are wildly OTT on their criticism of him. I don't think it's a coincidence that basically all our full-backs have struggled at points, notably in games where our midfield has struggled. 

Symptom rather than cause, for me.

Agree. We can argue the merits of it, but O'Donnell is an international full back and has struggled to play well in our system. So when we put in a guy whose main position is probably CB and whose distribution isn't his strong suit, should we be that surprised that he's not a world beater?

I'm totally fine with having McGinley, for us I think he's a decent versatile option to have around. And some of the absolute melts in our support responding to the story on Twitter really need to look at themselves and ask what good they're doing. Everyone's entitled to have their view but reading some of them, you'd think he was *gag* Jacob Blyth.

[welldaft]

By in large results went for us today. Could have done with County and Livi drawing to try and halt their momentum. 

But after tomorrow and assuming Hibs don’t beat Celtic we could be sitting a point off 4th having taken a massive 3 points from a possible 24. What a league. Of course I have assumed we will get NADA at Ibrox which is the most likely outcome. 

Ross C midweek is massive. They are on a high and we league wise a low. A win and I would be confident we will amass enough points from next 5 games to seal top 6. A defeat and suddenly the future looks very bleak and pressure mounts. A draw whilst not the worst result would be pretty useless. We need to start winning in the league again. 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by welldaft