Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[welldaft]

When I saw the line up I knew immediately it was wrong. 
 

Hearts have a better team and squad than we do. Simple. They may have been struggling of late but to decide to put an extra forward player on at the expense of a defender was bold but very very wrong. 

Especially when Bair and Wilkinson hardly add up to one striker. Not that Mika has been that much better. 
 

He should have played Spencer and Gent in their correct positions. 
Dropped SODs and Wilkinson. And or put Mugabi on for Blaney.

We are far too narrow. Spiral is having to defend the whole left back area. A small midfielder.

We may yet come back into it although we are lucky to be only 1 down. But Ketts has fecked up imho.

[Handsome_Devil]

3 minutes ago, welldaft said:

We may yet come back into it although we are lucky to be only 1 down. But Ketts has fecked up imho.

There are so many things wrong with our selection and approach it's hard to know where to start.

And while losing today wouldn't usually merit a sacking, even with the bad run, the board must take a serious look at this and ask if it's evidence there's still a viable chance of recovery.

[well fan for life]

We really are stinking. Looked like we've been playing with 10 men all day.

[Ron Aldo]

This team club man. 

So much wrong with us in almost every department. Really difficult to get behind this mob at the moment. 

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Ron Aldo

[Phillips455]

After all of this, I don't even believe a new manager will be able to salvage anything. We are falling apart in every way.

 

1 point in November (5 games or 15 points). And our goal keeper is getting called up for the scotland squad.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Phillips455

[Handsome_Devil]

1-2 gives a completely false impression of that game and our performance.

I've pleaded for calm and patience because sacking a manager every four months isn't viable but that display suggests we're at the stage of having to roll the dice.

[Allroy for Prez]

No wins in 9 and 2 points from 27 and with Celtic next that’ll be no wins in 10 and 2 points from 30. No manager in any league should expect to keep his job after a run like that. embarrassing stuff. 

After that we have Dundee, Ross county, St Johnstone and St Mirren. I’m torn between wanting Kettlewell binned now or giving him the opportunity to win 2 of those 4.

Only problem is the new guy still has to work with the shite Kettlewell has signed.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Allroy for Prez

[Handsome_Devil]

3 minutes ago, Phillips455 said:

After all of this, I don't even believe a new manager will be able to salvage anything. We are falling apart in every way.

 

1 point in November (5 games or 15 points). And our goal keeper is getting called up for the scotland squad.

A new manager might play a left back at left back, a holding midfielder as a holding midfielder, restore some basic pressing etc.

Maybe it won't be good enough but there's enough absolute basic improvements a guy off the street could make there's every chance a new manager will keep us up.

[Handsome_Devil]

1 minute ago, Allroy for Prez said:

No wins in 9 and 2 points from 27 and with Celtic next that’ll be no wins in 10 and 2 points from 30. No manager in any league should expect to keep his job after scrum like that. embarrassing stuff. 

After that we have Dundee, Ross county, St Johnstone and St Mirren. I’m torn between wanting Kettlewell binned after Parkhead  or giving him the opportunity to win 2 of those 4.

Only problem is the new guy still has to work with the shite Kettlewell has signed.

I'd bin him now... Celtic is a write off regardless, effectively we have a three-week window to make the appointment if we act promptly.

[MurrayWell]

Mentality Monsters 

This squad is dung. 

[Handsome_Devil]

Just now, MurrayWell said:

Mentality Monsters 

This squad is dung. 

It's obviously not brilliant but it's nowhere as bad as we've made it look recently.

Unless we totally screw the appointment I reckon we've still got enough about us to stay up.

[MurrayWell]

On 11/11/2023 at 17:04, Handsome_Devil said:

It's obviously not brilliant but it's nowhere as bad as we've made it look recently.

Unless we totally screw the appointment I reckon we've still got enough about us to stay up.

Not saying we won't have enough to stay up, but I think it's fair to say we've assembled a pretty poor squad. 

No real plan B, no width. Shoehorning people into positions. 

Edited November 17, 2023 by MurrayWell

[Desp]

The recruitment has been woeful. I have no idea what the tactics are meant to be, other than punt it forward and hope for the best. That's under 10s tactics. 

Playing Spittal at left-back is a decision that should see a manager shown the door. 

The team, the squad, and the club as a whole is an almighty mess right now. 

[Handsome_Devil]

1 minute ago, Desp said:

The recruitment has been woeful. I have no idea what the tactics are meant to be, other than punt it forward and hope for the best. That's under 10s tactics. 

Playing Spittal at left-back is a decision that should see a manager shown the door. 

The team, the squad, and the club as a whole is an almighty mess right now. 

Agree on the Spittal point.

Re long ball, I always say I have no qualms with it so long as it works. It worked earlier this season when we pressed - going long, giving the ball away and winning it back in the final third is fine. What we're doing now is not only brutal but ineffective.

Of all the questionable things we've done recently, stopping the press is by miles the most difficult to understand for me. It has completely screwed us.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

+3 GD gained on St Mirren

[craigkillie]

5 hours ago, Archie McSquackle said:

The argument that has been made is that the approach to aerial challenges needs to change. If a player kicks the ball clear and follows through and makes contact with an opponent's challenging foot then you generally see a foul and often a booking. When the same thing happens with heads, which are obviously more dangerous to players, it's just seen as one of those things (as it was here).

That would be an argument for McGinn committing a foul in this case though (which he obviously didn't), since he was the one who attacked the ball and won it in the air before making contact with an opponent. The momentum in the challenge predominantly came from McGinn, but he did exactly what you'd want your player to do, commit to an aerial challenge and win the ball ahead of Mayo. A 50-50 aerial challenge by definition requires someone to win the ball, and often the player who wins the ball will be the one who has the momentum behind their challenge.

Kettlewell's point has a kernel of truth in it, in that players who make a reckless attempt to win a ball which is never theirs should be penalised (which is already what the laws say should happen). He was talking absolute bollocks in relation to that specific challenge though, given that it was a ball which both players clearly had an opportunity to win, and McGinn simply outjumped him. Players get injured in accidental collisions, aerial or otherwise, all the time, and there's not always a party at fault. The challenges which require punishment are ones where a guy sprints halfway across the pitch to try to win a header and clatters into an opponent in doing so.

Edited November 11, 2023 by craigkillie

[wellboy1991]

39 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

A new manager might play a left back at left back, a holding midfielder as a holding midfielder, restore some basic pressing etc.

Maybe it won't be good enough but there's enough absolute basic improvements a guy off the street could make there's every chance a new manager will keep us up.

That’s how I feel tbh.

I’m not one for sacking the manager at the moment however finding it harder and harder to defend him. That today was all on him, his tactics completely and utterly wrong and the fact he changed it at half time he will know. However leaving it until the 77 mins to bring on a left back is criminal. 
 

There is no balance to the team. The midfield players are too similar, the strikers not good enough apart from Mika but seemingly he is the target man. 
 

The defence however are an absolute shambles. So soft and since his return Butcher has been abysmal. No coincidence we are conceding more with him in the side. He looks slow, weak and like an old man. 

[Ron Aldo]

Can only echo what has been said about team selection today. Kettlewell must know he's on a shoogly peg so surely the first thing you do is pick a team with players in their best positions? 

Nah, let's stick Spittal (an attacking midfielder) at left back despite Gent (an actual left back) being available and having actually made a worthy contribution in his last game. 

 

[thisGRAEME]

An absolute pigs ear of a team.

Lost all thread of what we're even attempting to do.

[Ron Aldo]

6 minutes ago, wellboy1991 said:

That’s how I feel tbh.

I’m not one for sacking the manager at the moment however finding it harder and harder to defend him. That today was all on him, his tactics completely and utterly wrong and the fact he changed it at half time he will know. However leaving it until the 77 mins to bring on a left back is criminal. 
 

There is no balance to the team. The midfield players are too similar, the strikers not good enough apart from Mika but seemingly he is the target man. 
 

The defence however are an absolute shambles. So soft and since his return Butcher has been abysmal. No coincidence we are conceding more with him in the side. He looks slow, weak and like an old man. 

Butcher's return reminds me of Peter Hartley a few years ago. Went from being the key man in defence, getting injured and then looking like a liability after coming back.

At least then we had Tom Aldred. None of our current defenders look capable of stepping up.