Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[ropy]

3 hours ago, rowsdower said:

2 broken noses and a fractured cheekbone? I watched the game at Hooters, it was shite.

Butcher will be one nose , McGinn the cheek? Not sure about the other, might make team selection easier

Edited November 4, 2023 by ropy

[well fan for life]

Kelly's been quite shite recently but that today is new levels of it. Absolutely fucking hopeless.

[ropy]

4 minutes ago, well fan for life said:

Kelly's been quite shite recently but that today is new levels of it. Absolutely fucking hopeless.

Just saw Ross Laidlaw making some saves on the telly, would he see us as a step up?

[boozyBJ]

Kelly was found out during Hammell’s reign as manager as, at the time our defence was shite. The defence got better when Kettlewell came in, so he had less to do. Now our defence is shite again, he’s getting found out again.

[beesher]

Just seen the goal. Kelly has put in some stinking performances recently and needs a spell on the bench, to send a message if nothing else. If the ‘backup’ goalie isn’t capable of doing a job then what is he doing at the club?
 

We seem to have completely abandoned everything that got us the results earlier in Kettlewell’s tenure. I  can’t speak for today but against Ross County and Aberdeen we had midfielders in total panic mode launching the ball up the park without so much as a look up to see if we have anyone standing within 30 yards of where they are punting it. 
 

Three of the 4 strikers are just not good enough for this level. Add in several seasoned ‘pros’ who have chucked it for 3  different managers now and things really start to look grim. 

['WellDel]

Backshift today so thankfully missed what appears to have been yet another woeful showing.

Will need to see the goal, but if its as bad as folk are saying from Kelly then, captain or not, he really should not be beyond dropping. His performances have been poor for a while now.

There were a few changes to the lineup today without improving things any and it will be interesting to see how Kettlewell goes about things against St Johnstone. Changing things too much again could lead him into the 'tombola death spiral'. We really need to get back to basics and for the senior pro's in the squad to find some form and spine to drag us out of this slump. At the minute that's looking a massive ask.

[Lex]

Another relegation battle? 

['WellDel]

32 minutes ago, Lex said:

Another relegation battle? 

Nah, no matter what in Scottish football, some things are always guaranteed.  Among them are the fact that Motherwell will always (eventually) ease their way to safety, just as surely as St Mirren will shit the nest in their quest for a European place. See you around mid-table in May.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Can we not sign a winger now rather than January? I'm not expecting the world, just somebody most recently at Solihull Moors who can reach the byline. 

[Ludo*1]

Kettlewell always looked destined to fail as a manager. He was a complete thug as a player and one of the only players I've witnessed actively go out to seriously hurt another professional on the pitch.

He's had an amazing wee run with you lads but this is looking much more like expected. Think you've got enough about you to avoid the drop but you could be doing so much better with a more experienced manager IMO.

[Quatermass]

Just had a look at Kettlewell’s stats. He has had 30 games in charge (two more than Hammell) and has a win percentage of 50%. That is still very high. The problem is all his defeats are coming at once. I wonder if that could buy him a bit more time beyond the next four games. By that I mean he has the next 8-10 to sort it. That seems the likely scenario. There are ten games left before the window opens. Although trying to get a new gaffer and a decent loan or two at the same time isn’t the best.

Just hope the disastrous run from Halloween to Feb last season just has us fearing the worst again and we end up nipping this is the bud fairly quickly.

[Savage Henry]

6 hours ago, Ludo*1 said:

Kettlewell always looked destined to fail as a manager. He was a complete thug as a player and one of the only players I've witnessed actively go out to seriously hurt another professional on the pitch.

He's had an amazing wee run with you lads but this is looking much more like expected. Think you've got enough about you to avoid the drop but you could be doing so much better with a more experienced manager IMO.

Ross Tokely was a complete thug.  Jim Goodwin was a thug.  Kettlewell was nowhere near that.  His days at Motherwell are clearly numbered, but let’s not let revisionism be a stick to beat him with.  

[Gianfranco]

15 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said:

I think today's 5-2-3 can safely be considered a plan B. Whether the system or the goalie alone gets the blame for the loss is a philosophical question but the attempt to change it was there.

There's no doubt the defence was better. So plus mark there. My big concern was just how he thought the three forwards would go...the midfield has been our strength all season, getting that back in track rather than sacrificing it completely should be top priority.

Can we say the defence was better? Maybe just the defence themselves were better organised but as a team we conceded 20 shots to Kilmarnock. 
 

But the midfield had a huge part to play in that. So I agree with getting that back on track. 
 

I’m also getting closer to boarding the Kelly needs dropped train. However, I can’t remember if the Ox looked any good in his league cup games? Was he playing when we lost 3 goals to a shite Queen of the South team?

[Handsome_Devil]

7 minutes ago, Gianfranco said:

Can we say the defence was better? Maybe just the defence themselves were better organised but as a team we conceded 20 shots to Kilmarnock. 

In the first half I don't think we conceded a single chance from open play, then the header from the corner right at the end. Compared to the Wednesday's clown show the improvement was notable.

As we pushed it obviously became more hairy but putting Butcher back in definitely helped.

Kelly is certainly wobbling, he's had these patches before and emerged ok again. His place is, or should be, hanging by a thread.

[welldaft]

We were on such a good run from when Kettlewell came in up until a few weeks ago. 

Being Motherwell FC that run would not or could not continue. This run of losses was inevitable as it is with any non old firm team. 

One wonders whether the narrow losses to St Mirren, Rangers and ultimately Celtic knocked the stuffing out of the players / manager. I mean drawing level in 95 mins v Celtic only to still lose the game is and was a sickener. Would we be in this situation if we had got a 1-1 draw that day ? 

Our squad is not great. Never will be with the budget we have to play with. Probably only higher than a few teams in this league. So to be in the bottom 4 should not come as a big surprise. 

Levein being appointed St Johnstone Manager before Tuesday will not doubt give them a boost. So will make the game even harder. 

Don’t know what the answer is. Hopefully the Manager and players do. He can talk for Great Britain Ketts but on the face of it he has done a good job and I really want to avoid us needing to sack him before he has even had a year in the job. You could argue his big mistake has been recruitment especially in the forward areas.

However it is becoming very costly to sack Managers every season. So hopefully we do not need to this season

[Casagolda]

For me it’s not just no wins in 7 that’s worrying, it’s the fact it’s now just 1 point from those 7 games and the performances in the last 4.

If Jack Baldwin hadn’t inexplicably skelped the ball of his own team mates arse with two mins to go last Saturday, we’d have almost certainly lost that one as well and be staring at 7 defeats on the spin. How many managers would honestly survive that sort of run?? 

More worryingly, the scarcely deserved equaliser hasn’t ‘stopped the rot’. We haven’t got any sort of lift from it. We were 4-0 down after 70 odd mins 3 days later and meekly lost again yesterday.

I’m also not having that performance as any sort of ‘improvement’. To me it was no different to Hammell’s last league game in charge at Pittodrie. We had no intention to go there and do anything other than sit back it, hoof it forward and try to shitfest our way to a point. Hammell rightly got slaughtered for it then and Kettlewell should now. 

Those tactics and that performance worried me greatly. That’s not a manager who believes in himself and the team, as he so often says. That’s a manager running out of ideas, desperately trying to stave off the inevitable. 

Lose on Tuesday, he’s a dead man walking. 

[MP_MFC]

It feels wrong to keep binning managers.

We’re not getting anywhere by doing that we’re just spinning wheels in trying to stave off relegation and nothing more. 

We are simply, top to bottom, a poorly run club at the moment. There doesn’t seem to be any leadership at a boardroom level and no strategy to anything we do. 

[ropy]

Back to basics on Tuesday, a robust back 3, wingbacks with a mandate to get forward, 3 mobile midfielders, 2 attackers operating as a pair.

Is that too simple?

[Gianfranco]

11 minutes ago, ropy said:

Back to basics on Tuesday, a robust back 3, wingbacks with a mandate to get forward, 3 mobile midfielders, 2 attackers operating as a pair.

Is that too simple?

I’d agree with that Ropy.

There’s a decision to be made about who plays in goal.

I’d go back to the back three that worked last season with McGinn, Butcher and Casey. However, I’m assuming it’s McGinn with the broken cheekbone so Blaney over Mugabi for me if he’s out. 
 

Wing back is the biggest headache. I think Spencer needs dropped for his own confidence. I’d probably go Gent and Sods. 
 

If they are fit the midfield three is Miller, Spittal and Slattery. 
 

Mika and ? I’d probably go Bair but Wilkinson has looked decent in a front two in short bursts. He’s never a winger or lone striker. 

[ropy]

If fit I would leave it at Blaney, Butcher, Casey - don’t risk a broken cheek (if Butcher’s nose is an issue it is Mugabi).

Surely the recruitment saw Spencer on the right Gent on the left, let us see it.

Miller on crutches will see Spittal, Slaterry and Paton with Davor off the bench.

The aim must have been Biereth and Wilkinson but maybe start with Bair and give Wilko a chance near the end.

If none of this works bring young Ross off the bench to run into gaps.

 

I think Blaney is due a run in the team to show us and the manager what he can do.  Not sure how many consecutive games he has played, can’t be more than 3.

Edited November 5, 2023 by ropy