Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[capt_oats]

6 minutes ago, 18May1991 said:

Fair play. Not sure Lamie or Johansen just need finessing though…..they’re fucking terrible, the pair of them. 

Can we not just unearth another Brian Martin? That would be nice. 

Ha! To be clear, I mean the numbers need finessing not the players. 

[rowsdower]

If you had to pick one, would you take a decent defensive midfielder or a CB?

I feel that we'd get more out of the former, but not sure if that's harder to find. It doesn't necessarily have to be a hard b*****d that cements folk, but someone who can fill in the holes and break things up. 

I am also taking the controversial view that I don't like KVV anymore. The one time in about 10 games that he played the ball off to someone immediately, we score, but he seems to have an issue with releasing the ball and it results in it coming right back at us. He seems like a bit of a sulky bitch, but I'd bench him. We can't have anyone thinking they're a stick on to play, and he plays like that.

[welldaft]

21 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

If you had to pick one, would you take a decent defensive midfielder or a CB?

I feel that we'd get more out of the former, but not sure if that's harder to find. It doesn't necessarily have to be a hard b*****d that cements folk, but someone who can fill in the holes and break things up. 

I am also taking the controversial view that I don't like KVV anymore. The one time in about 10 games that he played the ball off to someone immediately, we score, but he seems to have an issue with releasing the ball and it results in it coming right back at us. He seems like a bit of a sulky bitch, but I'd bench him. We can't have anyone thinking they're a stick on to play, and he plays like that.

100% A CB this time given our current predicament. 

Hardly controversial re KVV. He is a luxury player for sure. He has 1 decent game in 3 if that and in some games he is totally off it and not at the races much like yesterday. I am hoping that Mandron can provide some real competition for a change. 

All that said he is by some distance our top goalscorer and without him (in our current squad) we would probably be foot of the table and by some distance. So I will stick to hating him one week and loving him the next. Assuming he scores in the next few weeks. If he ever stops scoring then that is a different ball game. 

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by welldaft

[well fan for life]

9 minutes ago, welldaft said:

He has 1 decent game in 3

That's very generous. 

[crazylegsjoe_mfc]

Last season we had 4 CBs. Ojala would probably have been a decent fit if his body could have done what his head wanted, but he was clearly finished physically. Sol and Mugabi both seen like great lads, but that doesn't translate to being good centre halves. Mugabi for me has always been a bit of a liability with a "moment" in him. All of this was well covered by the fact Alexander really didn't like any defender having the ball. Given Sol was in that team of the week last week based on "data", leaving everyone watching the game scratching their head, that makes me think we may have signed him on a similar premise.

That leaves Lamie - who was admittedly our best centre back in the second half of last season. I don't think he done a whole lot wrong and he did merit a place at the club, but given the other three were out of contract and this was our only opening to improve the defence, I think I'd have thanked him and waved him off to Dens. I think I'd only have kept him if somehow we'd managed to get rid of Ojala in May, not August.

What we need is a leader, someone who will ball at the defence and tell them what to do, where to go etc. Ideally someone who is experienced at a decent level. A player who fits that bill, probably isn't in our budget on interested in joining Motherwell 3 points off bottom.

Signing (another) centre back this January would likely to be in the mould of Zak Jules, Tyler Magloire or if we are lucky maybe a Gavin Gunning...

For me, I would have addressed the spine of the team and the starting eleven in the window. We undoubtedly needed a winger and a backup to KVV though and I can see if there was no CB / CM available of adequate quality, I can see why Hammell went down that route.

 

[Handsome_Devil]

1 minute ago, well fan for life said:

That's very generous. 

It is and for long spells yday he was completely disinterested. But with his one (just about) piece of good play he set up the goal. He also made Slattery's against Killie and assuming there's one or two more I've forgotten about that's 12 goals plus a handful of assists in a team where his attacking help has been Effort, Shields etc...he's perfectly entitled to say he's doing his bit, even if he's flawed.

Would it be nice to have more of a team player who's more consistent? Definitely. Is it a priority in our current car crash? Definitely not.

[Kapowzer]

1 hour ago, ropy said:

Presumably the idea of bringing in forward players is an attempt to outscore our defenders.

Here’s hoping Mbappe is intrigued by the allure of a chicken fermo then.

[well fan for life]

1 minute ago, Handsome_Devil said:

Would it be nice to have more of a team player who's more consistent? Definitely. Is it a priority in our current car crash? Definitely not.

Tbf I'm just taking the piss. In our list of issues he's not even close to the top. What with us playing with a pair of clowns at centre back KvV would need to be on about 40 goals for the season to drag us through it. 

[Kapowzer]

I need a laugh …… anyone remember who was reported interested in SOD immediately after the Euros and for how much?

[Handsome_Devil]

32 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

Signing (another) centre back this January would likely to be in the mould of Zak Jules, Tyler Magloire or if we are lucky maybe a Gavin Gunning...

Logically yes but our near 40-year top-flight stint has included some big gambles in January which have arguably made the difference between going down and staying up - Falconer and Coyle in the attacking sense, Newman is the one I always remember defensively.

There's a lot of negativity at the minute - from me included - which is a bit overdone. There's enough other rubbish in the league we're not yet guaranteed to be doomed.

But on months of evidence I think we can pretty safely say our CB/six combination is just not good enough. It's not realistic we'll get three strong players this month but if we don't find money for one - from a director, Boyle, next year's budget or tomorrow's 3.30 at Ayr, we're basically tossing a coin between 11th and 12th.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Handsome_Devil
fixing autocorrect

[welldaft]

7 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

But on months of evidence I think we can pretty safely say our CB/six combination is just not good enough. It's not realistic we'll get three strong players this month but if we dont find money for one - from a director, Boyle, next year's budget or tomorrow's 3.30 at Ayr, we're basically tossing a coin between 11th and 12th.

I think we all thought Blaney was brought in to take someone’s place. But bemusingly this is yet to happen which is a worry. Hopefully he is just getting up to speed. I mean if he is brought on as cover for Sol and Lamie. Fair play but that would be a less than inspiring signing. As I said previously hopefully he can get a game this weekend in the cup. 

As for Boyle. Saw him in the centenary yesterday after the game. Maybe the directors had the begging bowl out. That and he paid his outstanding bar bill

Edited January 15, 2023 by welldaft

[welldaft]

In other news I see we have already sold circa 1500 tickets for Arbroath cup tie. 

Not a bad effort at this time of year. Would expect that to be closer to 1800-2000 by the weekend. Nearly 50% of our home support. 

Let’s hope the team make it worth our efforts

[capt_oats]

6 minutes ago, welldaft said:

I think we all thought Blaney was brought in to take someone’s place. But bemusingly this is yet to happen which is a worry. Hopefully he is just getting up to speed. I mean if he is brought on as cover for Sol and Lamie. Fair play but that would be a less than inspiring signing. As I said previously hopefully he can get a game this weekend in the cup. 

Really?

With the fact that he's a left sided CB and Lamie is our vice captain I thought it was pretty obvious he was being brought in as cover/competition with a view to being a longer term project.

As has been said the biggest con ever pulled has been Ricki Lamie managing to convince folk at the club that he's worth building a defence around.

[Busta Nut]

I think yer all fucking mad with yer opinions on KVV.

I am not suggesting he's a superstar but I dunno what the f**k you want from a Motherwell centre forward.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Busta Nut

[welldaft]

1 minute ago, capt_oats said:

Really?

With the fact that he's a left sided CB and Lamie is our vice captain I thought it was pretty obvious he was being brought in as cover/competition with a view to being a longer term project.

As has been said the biggest con ever pulled has been Ricki Lamie managing to convince folk at the club that he's worth building a defence around.

Fair enough. At the time I probably did not delve that deep into what side CB he was. 

I mean by all means bring in Blaney as a project. But we ALL know we could do with 1 or 2 starting CB as every week unfolds and every soft goal we concede. If we go forward with the current options without at least trying to address that is a dereliction of duty imho. 

[Handsome_Devil]

3 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

I think yer all fucking mad with yer opinions ok KVV.

I am not suggesting he's a superstar but I dunno what the f**k you want from a Motherwell centre forward.

The goals of Higdon and work rate of Ojaama. Obviously.

[one m in Motherwell]

Plus, at the moment, the defensive capabilities of Lee McCulloch.

[ropy]

35 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

It is and for long spells yday he was completely disinterested. But with his one (just about) piece of good play he set up the goal. He also made Slattery's against Killie and assuming there's one or two more I've forgotten about that's 12 goals plus a handful of assists in a team where his attacking help has been Effort, Shields etc...he's perfectly entitled to say he's doing his bit, even if he's flawed.

 

He knocked the ball back into the middle for Tierney’s recent goal so perhaps the assist count is rising.

[capt_oats]

7 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

I think yer all fucking mad with yer opinions on KVV.

I am not suggesting he's a superstar but I dunno what the f**k you want from a Motherwell centre forward.

We've utterly kicked the arse out him anaw...

He's played the most minutes of any of our outfield players this season but is still averaging near enough a goal every other game and has the best goalscoring rate we've had from a centre forward since Moult the first time round...

[eliphas]

7 hours ago, Kapowzer said:

I can’t agree with you when you say our centre half pairing doesn’t work and confidence shot and not advocate and extra body there for 20 mins to make up for that deficiency with numbers in the same post. A cushion of McGinn and Goss is a plaster not emergency surgery.

There was more to Alexanderball than that. Anyway by and large this team don’t want me to gouge my eyes out just reach for Valium. When you fail to protect a lead twice against teams below you, I’d take 20 minutes of shoring up. I also feel confident under Hammy our forwards would be encouraged to counter them on the break unlike with GA.

Just need points in the bag and break the cycle of pish.

Aye, I know my posts kind of contradict each other but for me I think there is a difference  pre and mid game especially with the lack of leaders and shouters on the pitch 

In general I'd probably like to see us move to replace Lamie or Sol pronto. Or, perhaps move to a more defensive back 3.

But yesterday I thought there was more risk in changing things after the goal as we were coping fine enough by in large imo. Hammell opted to bring Maguire on which in theory firms it up as a more defensive player than Goss but....I'm not sure it did that