Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[fatcalf]

2 minutes ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I'm torn on Jack. He's not played regular football for a long time and he's not had a pre season whilst our squad has now played 7 competitive games. We would either need to be patient whilst he builds up fitness, or chuck him in quickly and risk him breaking down. He would be a considerable upgrade on all midfielders we have, Miller aside but the risk of an injury prone player hasn't been one that's worked for us of late.

Rest easy, I have it on good authority he is only training. No signing on the horizon

[Mr Waldo]

MFC 55 gave good service.

Clean sheet, victory, better players to come in. Onwards and upwards.

[MP_MFC]

1 hour ago, Gianfranco said:

The Ox seems pretty solid so far? 
 

I know we have a lot of injuries but the squad feels really heavy numbers wise. I wonder if we’ll get some of the famous Ketts mutuals before the end of the window with one or two? 

My only issue with him is that’s a few games now he’s came for a cross and flapped at it and missed everything.

Other than that, he’s been very good. 

[casinobay]

See Theo Bair started today in Auxerres 2:1 win over Nice

Edited August 18 by casinobay

[camer0n_mcd]

2 hours ago, ropy said:

I saw some criticism earlier of Wilson, I thought he had a good game, one pass in extra time aside. I think he is contributing well. 

I've not been convinced by what I've seen of him but I do think a lot of that does come down to being chucked in the deep end in that weird role Kettlewell has him playing. He's not got the pace or creativity we need to be playing in that advanced role.

[YassinMoutaouakil]

With the best will in the world, Wilson's surely only there because he's a big strapping boy with a left foot and there's basically nobody else? He's doing admirably in a position that really doesn't seem to suit his game but I'm assuming that once everyone else is fit his role in the squad will be second choice LWB.

[Vietnam91]

6 minutes ago, camer0n_mcd said:

I've not been convinced by what I've seen of him but I do think a lot of that does come down to being chucked in the deep end in that weird role Kettlewell has him playing. He's not got the pace or creativity we need to be playing in that advanced role.

He's 19 and seven games into playing adult football. He would have been introduced slowly or farmed out on loan but circumstances have resulted in the deep end chucking you cite. He's essentially backup for Seddon and as soon as other midfielders return to the fray he'll be cover or seeing out the last 10 minutes of games.

EDIT: Yassin beat me to it

[ClaretAmberb]

12 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

With the best will in the world, Wilson's surely only there because he's a big strapping boy with a left foot and there's basically nobody else? He's doing admirably in a position that really doesn't seem to suit his game but I'm assuming that once everyone else is fit his role in the squad will be second choice LWB.

Think he needs to go back out on loan again once other players are fit. 

[ClaretAmberb]

1 hour ago, crazylegsjoe_mfc said:

I'm torn on Jack. He's not played regular football for a long time and he's not had a pre season whilst our squad has now played 7 competitive games. We would either need to be patient whilst he builds up fitness, or chuck him in quickly and risk him breaking down. He would be a considerable upgrade on all midfielders we have, Miller aside but the risk of an injury prone player hasn't been one that's worked for us of late.

I'd like to see him at Motherwell even if it were just in the short term but apparently its not happening. Fair enough 

[AnderooMFC]

By the comments on the socials, any Ugandan's that left with Mugabi have been replaced by Zimbabwean's following Maswanhise lol. Apparently on a short term deal till January, but if he keeps playing like that I hope we don't waste too much time extending it.
Watt got a reception but felt like the whole Hunter stand was on board by his defensive duties at the end. Certainly looked fit enough and ran about like someone with a point to prove. Him and Mr M coming on at the same time felt like we improved a bit, as before that we didn't look like a team with an extra man.

Robinson I think needs a goal or two to give him confidence. Once he's broken his duck then I think he'll kick on and be good. Maybe not Theo's heights but decent for us and not waiting on the fans shouting before he takes a shot. When / IF he will ever get those first ones is the question.

[JamesP_81]

Was surprised by just how negative Killie were after the sending off . I had totally convinced myself that it must have went straight to penalties without ET as why else would they be time wasting so much , surely 10 men want to get the game finished in the 90 at all costs as the last thing you would want is another 30 with a man down ? Is it a sign of how solid our defense is now as last season I'm pretty sure most teams would have fancied running right through our back line with 10,9 or even 8 men on the pitch?!

 

[Handsome_Devil]

36 minutes ago, JamesP_81 said:

Was surprised by just how negative Killie were after the sending off . I had totally convinced myself that it must have went straight to penalties without ET as why else would they be time wasting so much , surely 10 men want to get the game finished in the 90 at all costs as the last thing you would want is another 30 with a man down ? Is it a sign of how solid our defense is now as last season I'm pretty sure most teams would have fancied running right through our back line with 10,9 or even 8 men on the pitch?!

As happy as I am to see some positives yesterday, defensively and in attack, I would not be putting a great deal of value in them until we see how we do in 'normal' circumstances.

I think because people see the Old Firm or big English clubs go weekend-midweek-weekend constantly they underestimate how hard it is for small clubs who are not used to it to make that transition.

Killie would have arrived back from the arctic in the early hours of Friday morning after a massive high and by Sunday are three days from flying off to start a contest which - outside of winning a trophy - could bring the biggest success of their careers. The financial success of beating FCK will definitely be bigger than a trophy for the club (and presumably the players, if bonuses align) and the players could earn themselves a possibly once in a lifetime shop window.

Beyond that, while McInnes will never say out loud he doesn't care about the LC or play 3-3-3 so they win or lose in 90 minutes, making nine changes basically tells the players subconsciously 'guys, no one gives a crap about today but we need to play the game'. 

It's no surprise that we were more up for it...you'd be horrified if we weren't.

The same will apply to Hearts, albeit to a slightly lesser extent, next week...if they're 50-50 on making the EL group after Plzen, their season - budget wise even next season - comes down to finishing the job in the home leg. And sure they might as well throw out their reserves at FP and roll the dice as they've nothing to lose - Spittal et al may still be too good for us - but if there's a choice between interrupting their preparation for the second leg or mailing us the points, they'll (quite rightly) do the latter every time, regardless of what Naismith said after Falkirk.

Edit since I didn't know who hearts actually play in Europe!

Edited August 19 by Handsome_Devil

[eliphas]

On the plus side...

Broadly encouraged with parts of that yesterday if still blunt up front.

Killie properly rotated so the players who started should have been fresh and up for it, albeit not first picks. That said we don't exactly have our trouble to find on first picks either. 

Ox had nothing to do and I thought the defence looked pretty comfortable other than some tired self inflicted errors. 

 

Midfield and attack looked better when we changed it up but unsure if that was due to playing v 10 men.

 

However, regardless, was plain to see a wee bit of skill from Watt and Maswanhise made such a difference. Thought Sparrow, Kaleta also had some nice touches without dominating - decent enough options off the bench.

On the negative side..

- Our set pieces are brutal. We need to put serious hours into the delivery.

- The starting 11 were, by instruction or just naturally, not urgent enough and far too happy to recycle the ball

- That 'long' throw in from SOD to the box we continually do will never work, has never worked, and please....stop.

[Gaag97]

Felt like we totally dominated that game - and had we had Bair / Van Veen on the pitch would’ve scored at least 2 or 3. 
Robinson seems to be allergic to taking a shot, and the forward runs into the box from a Spittal / Slattery are sorely missing. 
If we can solve this problem with a combination of Watt / Stama and then have Moses / Zach getting into some form then we’ll be ok this season. 
Saw enough on the pitch to know that once others are back we’ll be looking competitive. 
 

Plus marks for Ox, Gordon, Maswhanise and a couple others too. 

Edited August 19 by Gaag97

[Handsome_Devil]

9 minutes ago, Gaag97 said:

If we can solve this problem with a combination of Watt / Stama and then have Moses / Zach getting into some form then we’ll be ok this season. 

Will be interesting to see if we play with width on one side from the start very often and if so how to we accommodate it... because in all likelihood that's a difference maker, it just changes the dynamic of our team completely. Watt presumably was brought back to start and Stama too obviously so the former will drift off the right and be asked to tuck in a bit? As presumably SK will never be going with three genuine up top guys and Maswhanise seems very much winger and not wing-back.

Or is Maswhanise primarily an off the bench as needed option and we'll continue to keep it solid from the start?

All very theoretical ofc, now more than ever when there's bodies all over the place.

[welldaft]

45 minutes ago, eliphas said:

However, regardless, was plain to see a wee bit of skill from Watt and Maswanhise made such a difference. Thought Sparrow, Kaleta also had some nice touches without dominating - decent enough options off the bench.

On the negative side..

- Our set pieces are brutal. We need to put serious hours into the delivery.

- The starting 11 were, by instruction or just naturally, not urgent enough and far too happy to recycle the ball

- That 'long' throw in from SOD to the box we continually do will never work, has never worked, and please....stop.

I think you also have to credit the Killie defence. Even when our crosses were good they 99% of the time got to the ball 1st. As much as we were a little toothless I grudgingly admired their defensive prowess. I mean if that was last season and those crosses came into our box then we would have conceded a couple of goals at least. 

We seemed to have gone the opposite way from last season so far. A much tighter defence and a weaker attacking threat. 4 competitive games at Fir Park (2 of which went to ET) and no goals conceded.  That is 420 minutes of football. Including the League cup I believe we only had 3 clean sheets at home ALL last season. We are only in mid August and have already improved on that .

To be fair it is unlikely we will get both right or we would be in the top 4 in the league. I actually would take us conceding less as well as scoring less. Killie and St Mirren scored 10 less goals than us last season and finished much higher up the league.  Then we can hope that in time we become more prolific when injuries clear up and others get up to speed. 

I get it was a Killie 2nd string but we were also missing half a 1st team. I was reasonably impressed by our performance yesterday even when it was 11 v 11. Thought Lennon Miller was looking like his old self and that turn in the 2nd half was just sublime. Defence was solid and Liam Gordon has been a good addition. Ox did flap at the odd cross but that would have been a tribute to Liam Kelly . As it is I feel a lot more confident at cross balls with him in goals than at any stage last season. 

Casey was decent yesterday but would still like to see Balmer get 90 minutes. Watt I thought got a positive reception and he did OK given he has played very little competitive football. Our young winger Tawanda was really good. Very impressed by his debut performance. Hopefully he can maintain those levels as the other teams and players become more aware of his style etc.

All in all a win and a decent enough home draw for the next round. Probably a 50/50 tie and I guess that as much as you can ask of a quarter final. Should be a decent crowd.

 

[Busta Nut]

1 hour ago, Handsome_Devil said:

As happy as I am to see some positives yesterday, defensively and in attack, I would not be putting a great deal of value in them until we see how we do in 'normal' circumstances.

Missed the game yesterday but this is where I am at. The tools are there to change it up. 

[Vietnam91]

The only way to tell how we are at present is if you put our second string up against what Killie put out.

While we would have a chore getting a second XI out of our hospice you’d argue four of our starters (Halliday, Wilson, Casey, SOD) would have been seen as cover or introduced subs in the plans in mid summer.

I was surprised as how indifferent for want of a better word Killie appeared to be and with so many of their fringe players involved a real chance to impress to increase their involvement.

if Louis lobs Ox from 30 yards out I’ll be devastated.

[MurrayWell]

Get where folk are coming from on the 'normal circumstances' thing, while we'd rather see a free-flowing game, I also think grinding out something like that is probably a good thing for the squad at the moment, after a frustrating couple of games. 

Was surprised with how defensive Killie were from the start to be honest, although McInnes is a bit of a master of making teams really difficult to break down. After the red, it could have gone the way of us knocking on the door, only to be sucker punched at the end. We've been terrible against 10 men for so long, it was actually great to see us dominate and be patient in our play to break them down. 

For me, there is no question that our defence has improved and I think Gordon has played a massive role in that. Casey is the one at the back I'd still have question marks over. 

Back pass aside, I thought Wilson had his best game for us, looks more comfortable in the midfield imo. One of the reasons I'd actually like to see another midfielder in is the whole Andy Halliday situation. No questioning the guy's work ethic and commitment, but he still looks a yard off it for me. We can't afford to have someone in the middle who is just on to hit a decent corner every so often. 

Thought every sub contributed yesterday, which was good to see after having so few options on the bench. Maswanhise had David Watson on toast, so bright and direct, was great to watch. Tony Watt is a very good footballer.

[capt_oats]

12 hours ago, Swello said:

I thought today was just a standard issue tight game between two evenly matched teams (both teams weakened for different reasons) and for once, it was us who didn't get the stupid red and actually took advantage. I've seen a fair bit of over the top doom about it - but it didn't feel different to similar games with "better" and more settled 'Well teams involved.

I think if we're going to build up over the next couple of months into a serviceable team, then there was a lot to like today. The defence and keeper already look way more solid than anything we had last season and with the gift of Killie going down to 10 men, we started looking like we had some actual attacking patterns of play that we can do when we're playing against 11 men.

I came away from today feeling a lot more positive than I have been. I also cheered a long throw in our own half like a goal for the first time.

PS - the wee guy that I didn't know we'd signed looks like my kind of player... 

Aye.

In a weekend where both County and Hearts were bodied out the competition by lower league teams (the latter of which is very funny) it feels pretty churlish to be nit-picking over a win against a side who are known to be solid and have had folk blowing smoke up their arse after their result on Thursday night and finishing 4th last season.

Colour me surprised that they were difficult to break down when they went a man down.

To me we were...fine? Even when it was 11 v 11 we seemed to keep Killie at arms length.

It's very much a case of you can only beat what's in front of you and if McInnes wants to rotate his starting XI then that's on him. I got a laugh at him saying it was "a good time" to play them because they're not used to playing in Europe...which definitely wasn't making excuses.

We've signed 14 new players and have 8 first team players out injured with a raft of others having had their pre-seasons stunted because of injury.

We're very much the definition of a work in progress.