Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[thisGRAEME]

39 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

I don't disagree re: Casey but to me yesterday really amplified how important Butcher is in making the defence work.

Needs must and everything with Butcher on crutches and Lamie having had surgery but we were asking Bevis to do stuff he's just not comfortable with. Ironic, given Kettlewell's whole blueprint recently has been getting players to focus on what they're actually good at..

It showed - he looked fucking terrified every time he got the ball and the indecision had a knock on across the back line.

Bevis is a weird one. I've always felt he needs a run of games to get himself up to speed, so weirdly being a back-up is actually the opposite of what he needs, or we need, by being the opposite of dependable.

[Ceiling Granny]

6 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Bevis is a weird one. I've always felt he needs a run of games to get himself up to speed, so weirdly being a back-up is actually the opposite of what he needs, or we need, by being the opposite of dependable.

This is where I am with Mugabi. You could have built the team around his favoured position yesterday and he’d still have made errors. He’s just never going to be the guy you can bring on as a sub or drop into a settled team for the odd game. 

[Busta Nut]

On 27/05/2023 at 20:39, DukDukGoose said:

Would your lot have a bonus payment for promotion like we had for McKenna?

someone mentioned there was one but it has expired.

9 hours ago, AnderooMFC said:

so Thommo has to be around somewhere. Whether he still needs a translator fitness coach idk, but I assume you have to have at least two Japanese nationals around the place or they get lonely and depressed.

I thought the chat was we punted him? We're making things uncomfortable, The club assuming he could speak English was an awful error.

[Al B]

I thought SK did very well in his pre-match presser the other day to avoid actually saying "Riku is absolute horseshit", but it was pretty obvious that's what he was getting at.

[capt_oats]

3 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

I thought the chat was we punted him? We're making things uncomfortable, The club assuming he could speak English was an awful error.

I thought that was someone being a bit snide tbh.

Put it this way it looks like he was in a motor with Bevis and the bold Riku at the start of the month (unless that was an old photo of course).

https://twitter.com/chan2yan/status/1653694695720251393?s=20

Don't disagree on the point about making an assumption that Danzaki was fluent but it does raise the question about what precisely was going on with those Zoom meetings Hammell was saying he'd been having with him.

Quote

Hammell said: “There’s been a lot of paperwork, a lot of late night even early morning phone calls with the time difference.

“The logistics of two other teams being involved makes it difficult. I was doing Zoom calls, Whats App calls with him and agents .. it’s been a long process!

“But the one thing that made it worthwhile was that Riku wanted to come here. That means a lot to me. If you’re bringing a player in and thinking he doesn’t really want to be here it’s going to be a struggle.

“But he’s been on a plane for a full day and has come in and right away said ‘I’ll do whatever you want me to do’. That shows the character and how much he wants to be here."

Link

[one m in Motherwell]

Is he not on a three year deal or something daft?

[capt_oats]

1 minute ago, one m in Motherwell said:

Is he not on a three year deal or something daft?

2025 apparently.

[Archie McSquackle]

49 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Bevis is a weird one. I've always felt he needs a run of games to get himself up to speed, so weirdly being a back-up is actually the opposite of what he needs, or we need, by being the opposite of dependable.

Any time Mugabi has been on form, he's taken a few games to be up to speed. Losing soft goals and conceding clumsy penalties. It just seems to take him a bit of time to get rid of rustiness. As you say, the opposite of what you want in a back-up player.

[one m in Motherwell]

Looking forward to him tearing up the League Cup group stages in a few weeks time before disappearing.

Is he the new Casper Sloth?

[Allroy for Prez]

59 minutes ago, one m in Motherwell said:

He said last night he needed an op on it but would hopefully be back early into the season.

Missing the start of the season then?! 

I’m hesitant to exaggerate and say this is a disaster, but…..

[Swello]

16 minutes ago, Al B said:

I thought SK did very well in his pre-match presser the other day to avoid actually saying "Riku is absolute horseshit", but it was pretty obvious that's what he was getting at.

I don't think he was even saying that he is shit so much as just that he is utterly surplus to requirements. The change in system for us was a season saver - but it basically rendered almost every attacking player in our squad redundant at a stroke. If we are playing the same system next year (which I really hope we do BTW) - Danzaki and Tierney are as well to find new clubs, ditto anyone that sees themselves as a winger of any description. 

[Al B]

10 minutes ago, Swello said:

I don't think he was even saying that he is shit so much as just that he is utterly surplus to requirements. The change in system for us was a season saver - but it basically rendered almost every attacking player in our squad redundant at a stroke. If we are playing the same system next year (which I really hope we do BTW) - Danzaki and Tierney are as well to find new clubs, ditto anyone that sees themselves as a winger of any description. 

Yeah that was my first thought, but it was the way he went on to very carefully say that even if he was to play with a 10, there are a few players ahead of him who show more in training and have a bit more about them etc.

Obviously in internet messageboard-land that translates as shit

[underboyleheating]

I wish him the very best wherever he goes...
 

[Casagolda]

1 hour ago, Swello said:

If we are playing the same system next year (which I really hope we do BTW) - Danzaki and Tierney are as well to find new clubs, ditto anyone that sees themselves as a winger of any description. 

While I don’t necessarily disagree, I suppose the system worked because it suited the players Kettlewell inherited. 

Like I was saying earlier though- Johnston, Furlong, Casey, Goss and Van Veen are all likely away. All of them have been excellent since Kettlewell took over and key to making it work. So does he want to recruit to try and replace or does he want to go a different route and build something different?

I mean winning 9 out of 14 games is obviously unbelievable stuff but it’s also not sustainable. If Kettlewell bins all our wingers and 10’s he then basically locks himself into the one system. Which rarely works well over a full season when you’re playing the same teams 3 or even 4 times. 

Honestly, I genuinely don’t even know where he goes with it. He’s losing a lot of key players and he’s also got at least 4 or 5 guys under contract that I’m sure he’d ideally like to get rid of. How he balances it all out and builds his own squad will be interesting. 

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by Casagolda

[well fan for life]

Aye yesterday was a horrible throwback to a lot of our issues in the first half of the season. Having to rely on any of Lamie/Mugabi/Johansen for the entire season and we'd have been relegated months ago. Mugabi seems to create panic in everyone around him, and I think Blaney could be a decent option but he's looked way more composed when he's got Butcher organising everything. 
 

 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

The 3-5-2 was an incredibly good fit for the team that Ketts inherited but I'm not sure how well it functions if you take out even one of KVV, Johnston, Goss or Casey, never mind possibly all four. 

 

As it stands, goalkeeper will probably be the only position we're 100% certain about for next season? Butcher, McGinn and Spittal will all likely be starters but could be used in a few different roles, Slattery and SOD are somewhere between first picks and rotation options. Everybody else feels pretty up in the air. If Ketts evaluates his options and settles on a 3-5-2 again then fair enough, but he's definitely got a bit of a blank slate.

[capt_oats]

Got there in the end...

Edited June 19, 2023 by capt_oats

[Doctor Manhattan]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

Got there in the end...

In an almost Inception-like twist, Slattery would have been miles clear at the top of the individual chart if he didn't keep getting suspended.

[ropy]

16 minutes ago, Doctor Manhattan said:

In an almost Inception-like twist, Slattery would have been miles clear at the top of the individual chart if he didn't keep getting suspended.

He won the yellow card league 

[capt_oats]