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Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons


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12 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said:

Our two biggest rivals just lost to lower league sides, one of them tanked and their manager basically said they're shite and he regrets taking the job.

 

While the other weren't just beaten by a lower league side, they were comfortably outplayed and outfought, with their manager out thought too by an opponent who doesnt deviate from their main plan. We could easily have lost by 2 or 3 to Airdrie yesterday and we're now in consecutive games where Levein has obviously picked the wrong midfield, we've played shite, hes made it worse with his subs, then hes blamed the players. A hateful loop to return to so quickly.

As for Nouble/Bair, Nouble is about 5 times the player. If you could sell it Bair to Exeter and bring in Nouble, then play him on the left of a front 3, youd understand how big an upgrade youre getting.

Judging Nouble off the past 12/18 months, when hes had his manager telling him to f**k off so they can get some money every few weeks, is missing the whole picture. 

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I actually thought Alloa popped the ball around better than we did for large spells. In the end we overran them due to fitness levels which you’d expect but they seemed to have patterns of play which is something I just don’t see in this Motherwell team.

I’ve genuinely no idea what we work on in training - I don’t see the overall strategy or game plan on the park at all. We don’t really like to go wide (O’Waddel at wing back isn’t capable of that role) we don’t break particularly quickly. We don’t play it long and feed off second balls as the forwards are too far apart. 
 

Kettlewell already said he wanted two additional players at the start of the window. Wilkinson, Souare, Shaw (maybe*) all leaving should’ve meant 5 coming in. Biereth and Spencer being recalled is frustrating but on the logic of the above, we should be looking at 5 more on top of what we have.
How many weeks of KVV’s salary could’ve been covered by the fee paid out for the video; 4/5/6?

Once again, we’re scrambling and lurching from pillar to post - it’s the same on and off the pitch at the moment and a really concerning state of affairs.

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I thought yesterday was very clear what we planned to do. 

- Move it down the left and overlap to get a ball into the penalty spot for Bair or an attacking midfielder 

- Move it through the middle with Gent and Spittal as the aggregators 

Wether we did it all well enough is a different argument but that was the tactic. The right hand side was last resort.

 

 

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6 minutes ago, eliphas said:

I thought yesterday was very clear what we planned to do. 

- Move it down the left and overlap to get a ball into the penalty spot for Bair or an attacking midfielder 

- Move it through the middle with Gent and Spittal as the aggregators 

Wether we did it all well enough is a different argument but that was the tactic. The right hand side was last resort.

 

 

You could be right - maybe someone just forgot to tell Bair?

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56 minutes ago, EK2DK said:

You could be right - maybe someone just forgot to tell Bair?

I think he knew what he was meant to be doing but just couldn't do it. 

I'm far from a Kettlewell fan but I think he got the set up and instructions right yesterday for what he had on offer. 

It unfortunately meant though that certain areas didn't really work because the players we had to play basically aren't good enough - Bair as a one man forward line,  and SOD as a wing back the main two issues. But I don't think we could play many other set ups or personnel.

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Tbh, all things considered I thought we were broadly fine.

Given the circumstances - we're coming off a couple of weeks break, we've just lost our top scorer (and best player) without having the chance to replace him, we've a raft of injuries, we had 1 (ONE) fit striker and a bench full of schoolchildren - there were actually positives.

Montgomery looks like he'll absolutely do, Gent may find it more difficult in that role against 'better' teams but he's absolutely got something to offer there, Dovor was tidy, put himself about and gave the midfield a bit of balance, we scored 3 good goals and Lennon Miller got a run out which eases the concern about Slattery a bit.

As I say, fine.

If folk are of the mind to focus on the negatives (and Christ knows that accounts for a large section of our support) then you don't really have far to look. Kettlewell said himself that there were plenty of aspects he wasn't happy with but as @MurrayWell said a few pages back we just seem to be in this place of self-flagellation regardless of outcome or performance and Bair and Kettlewell are just going to get it whatever happens. I mean, fine if that's your kink but after navigating a potential banana skin like yesterday (in the context of some of the other results) it's pretty fucking old.

As @eliphas says Kettlewell was pissing with the cock he has. He played a shape we're familiar with (whether folk like it or not) rather than some 4D chess situation and in the end we're comfortably through.

Had the penalty gone in then chances are it may have been more so but in terms of performance yesterday was absolutely nothing like the sort of thing it had the potential to be - see the SC fixture against County (managed by Kettlewell) where we car-crashed our way out the competition with Charlie Dunne clown car-ring it at LB in a flat back 4 and Ross McCormack making his 2nd debut.

We're clearly in the market for players, we had a RB on trial through the week (and there was another RB name flying around Twitter as well) so it suggests that we realise that position is an issue and that finding ourselves having to stick Blair Spittal in there won't really do.

Absolutely none of that means we're going to be safe or anything but clutching pearls over stuff we seem to be actively trying to fix is a bit *sigh*.

Edited by capt_oats
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1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

While the other weren't just beaten by a lower league side, they were comfortably outplayed and outfought, with their manager out thought too by an opponent who doesnt deviate from their main plan. We could easily have lost by 2 or 3 to Airdrie yesterday and we're now in consecutive games where Levein has obviously picked the wrong midfield, we've played shite, hes made it worse with his subs, then hes blamed the players. A hateful loop to return to so quickly.

As for Nouble/Bair, Nouble is about 5 times the player. If you could sell it Bair to Exeter and bring in Nouble, then play him on the left of a front 3, youd understand how big an upgrade youre getting.

Judging Nouble off the past 12/18 months, when hes had his manager telling him to f**k off so they can get some money every few weeks, is missing the whole picture. 

Pleasing to hear 🙂

As for nouble, there's no doubt he's a massive upgrade based on that good spell but he's 28 and has essentially impressed for one year. It's not unfair to ask how likely it is you'll get that or the usual if you go for him. And I agree totally he's been poorly managed but I think he also needs to take some responsibility - both for his poor form in terms of what he's shown he can do and failure to develop into something that someone was actually willing to buy.

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46 minutes ago, one m in Motherwell said:

Missed that, who was it?

lt could easily have been a wind up or a bit but I noticed this in a 'Motherwell' search amongst the abstract-expressionism and grim Township news.

Also...what's this all about then? I take it it'll be the weans and also he meant players from the club not just c***s with an ML1  postcode?

Edited by capt_oats
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19 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

i noticed suhin about Zak Rudden leaving Dundee and I have the fear

I'd have been tempted to gamble on him when he left Thistle given his record but must admit was delighted to be proved wrong.

Was Kerr not one of the infinite PCA's we were getting from Dundee?

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I would absolutely take Nouble as I think with a change of scenery we could get a tune out of him as a wide forward. He’s the sort of player (is unloved and abused by the fans at his current club)  that we have had a fair amount of success with over the years.

Its a yes from me with the caveat that we are also bringing in another striker be that KVV or a Mika type from down south. 
 

in saying that Sturm Graz are probably monitoring this thread so I fully expect him to be photographed at their training ground on Monday looking like he’s a POW signing his own death warrant .

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Tbh, I'm another in the "I think Nouble needs a change of scenery" club and there's a reasonable chance he could do us a turn in the right circumstances.

Either way, I know Livi are skint and have these court cases coming up so it's very much a beggars can't be choosers situation but I'd imagine that their preference would be not to sell him to a club in the same league (ie: us) if they have offers from EFL1 - which it seems they do and judging by their forum Exeter are increasingly desperate.

Anyway, see if Livi are taking 'nominal' offers for their players can we not chuck them some change for Stephen Kelly seeing as Hearts have taken Fraser off the table?

Edited by capt_oats
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