Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[KirkySuperSub]

23 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

We're gonna sign a lot of strikers and play one up front with two "supporting" aren't we?

Or Kettlewell goes full Keegan, mirroring the 90's Newcastle forward line up...

Beardsley - Shearer - Ferdinand - Ginola -  Asprilla

But aye, yer probably right!

[Busta Nut]

10 minutes ago, KirkySuperSub said:

Or Kettlewell goes full Keegan, mirroring the 90's Newcastle forward line up...

Beardsley - Shearer - Ferdinand - Ginola -  Asprilla

But aye, yer probably right!

I listened to an old podcast this week with Steve Howey, I think it was "under the cosh" and he had some great stories about that lot.

[Alanos]

Doesn’t seem like we need another striker. Bit weird.

[welldaft]

26 minutes ago, Alanos said:

Doesn’t seem like we need another striker. Bit weird.

If true…we do like a project. 10 goals in 74 appearances for lower / non leagues of England . 

We have Moses who can fill that role quite adequately.

Then again Sidibeh of St Johnstone came from a non league club iirc and is faring very well and possibly sold for around £500k this window. 

[YassinMoutaouakil]

He's probably mutual-ed Watt

[capt_oats]

48 minutes ago, Alanos said:

Doesn’t seem like we need another striker. Bit weird.

Yes and no.

It really speaks to the point @Busta Nut made earlier. I'd imagine the plan is to go with what would nominally be classed a front 3 with one through the middle and two playing off or possibly two up.

Where Robinson seemed to collect "anywhere across the front three" forwards Kettlewell seems to have found himself with a pile who are either second/shadow strikers (Watt, Stuparević, possibly Stamatelopolous (inj)), whatever Maswanhise is and let's be honest Ebiye is a chaos agent - you're not chucking him on and asking him to hold the ball up or whatever, it's basically a case of telling him he's Pele.

You can make arguments either way but essentially we only have one 'traditional' #9.

Others on here will have a better idea from taking a look at WyScout but on the briefest of glances Kouassi appears closer to the sort of player we want Robinson to be or perhaps more specifically the player we had with Bair.

So as it stands Robinson's the only one we have we've got with approximately those qualities.

Tbh, I don't disagree with the shouts about squad size and whether we actually *need* another striker (although, given some of the grief Robinson's getting maybe we do) but with the chat about St Mirren being in for KVV I'll admit to idly wondering whether we might have room for another striker earlier today.

Edited August 21 by capt_oats

[CoF]

2 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said:

In general, I also don't understand why they don't tweak the size of the pitch and/or the goals, as it will no doubt make it a better product to market. There are some sports where women take on the same details as the men and it's fine. Women's tennis is neither better or worse for spectators, it's just different...I imagine basketball the same. And running is cracking regardless, no one would have watched Hassan win the marathon in Paris and say this is shit because it took 15 minutes longer. On the other hand, they throw lighter shot puts, jump lower hurdles, play shorter golf courses and no one complains. The best women golfers would still be the best in the world off men's tees but nobody wants to watch them struggling to break 80 every round.

 

I used to think the same, but heard a pretty robust response on the radio a few weeks ago from a SWPL player (canny mind who) who said that there's already enough challenges for the women's game without introducing more barriers by reducing the number of facilities they can play at. Couldn't really argue with that. 

Edited August 21 by CoF

[YassinMoutaouakil]

Blackpool sacked their manager today weirdly 

[Handsome_Devil]

6 hours ago, CoF said:

 

I used to think the same, but heard a pretty robust response on the radio a few weeks ago from a SWPL player (canny mind who) who said that there's already enough challenges for the women's game without introducing more barriers by reducing the number of facilities they can play at. Couldn't really argue with that. 

Yeah, I've heard that before as well. It's a fair point and there are no doubt pros and cons... personally I would land on the side that a more credible view of the game would be worth it regardless long -term but it's their decision.

[Handsome_Devil]

9 hours ago, Busta Nut said:

We're gonna sign a lot of strikers and play one up front with two "supporting" aren't we?

Probably but I don't really see a problem with that - very few folk would play two genuine up top strikers these days.

I also think another striker is ott but to play devil's advocate, five subs changes the dynamic massively. If we play 3-6-1/3-4-3 we can tell both wing-backs and two of the attacking three to give us their 90-minute efforts over 60-70 minutes, change them and still have a sub left for form/emergencies. The construction of a squad and potential for keeping them all involved is totally different playing 16 guys out of 20 each weekend compared to naming 13 or being able to play 14, which is still my default instinct.

[JamesP_81]

15 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said:

Yeah, I've heard that before as well. It's a fair point and there are no doubt pros and cons... personally I would land on the side that a more credible view of the game would be worth it regardless long -term but it's their decision.

There's no way that a whole load of purpose built , slightly smaller than full size pitches will ever be built. My boy has started 9s this year and it's the same problem. All the hundreds of 9s pitches that were promised didn't appear so they have real difficulty finding facilities to play on, and usually end up playing box to box on an 11s pitch with temporary goals and cones for the touch line which looks totally amateur hour.  You could argue that it's the guys that have outgrown the pitches as I'm sure when the dimensions were originally drawn up the average height and speed etc of men playing would be closer to the women's game now?!  The pitch is the same size for both teams , let them get on with it.  

Anyway , more mercurial forwards please then we can look forward to the 80th minute mass substitution of our entire midfield to play 5 up front to chase a 1-0 win! 

[Gianfranco]

We want more goals right, so would the men’s game be better if we had bigger goals? 
 

Probably not but I wouldn’t be against incentives for scoring goals like they do in rugby Union. Score 3 goals and you get a bonus point type idea. 
 

I also noticed the amount of young Scottish players getting game time was being slated yesterday in a BBC article. I prefer it when we’ve got majority Scots but it hasn’t been that way for a while. Nothings going to change when the league is so tight and managers get punted all the time. 

[one m in Motherwell]

10 hours ago, capt_oats said:

Here he is absolutely ragdolling Liverpools weans.

Sign him up...

He’s a unit.

Big fan of the hospital pass he played just before Liverpool’s second goal, he’ll fit in well here.

[RandomGuy.]

They just sacked their manager so you wonder how true that is.

[Handsome_Devil]

1 hour ago, JamesP_81 said:

There's no way that a whole load of purpose built , slightly smaller than full size pitches will ever be built. My boy has started 9s this year and it's the same problem. All the hundreds of 9s pitches that were promised didn't appear so they have real difficulty finding facilities to play on, and usually end up playing box to box on an 11s pitch with temporary goals and cones for the touch line which looks totally amateur hour.  

Goals would certainly be difficult but pitch size has more flexibility - we already play on astro with a full size pitch marked, plus 7s, plus hockey, one more shouldn't be impossible...grass trickier but you would still have flexibility. And ultimately under 9s of either gender looking a little less than perfect is hardly the end of the world, if they concluded a change in the professional product they televise would earn a premium, I'm sure they'd find a way.

Agree totally on the men outgrowing the facilities btw but it's hard to notice when it's gradual over decades... would lead me on to my other favourite pet peeve, the absurd protection of modern goalkeepers!

[capt_oats]

Fwiw, on the point about the size of the squad (which is obvs fair comment).

Taking the long term injuries out of the equation (Blaney, Koutroumbis, Nicholson, Slattery, Paton, Callachan and Stamatelopolous) and assuming the likes of Ferrie and Wells are getting loaned out, this is roughly where we are?

You can make arguments for SOD dropping in to cover the back 3 if we're taking the Georgie Gent approach with Kaleta and I guess there's the question of what suits Wilson better, getting minutes here and there off the bench with us or (ideally) regular starts further down the pyramid.

Don't get me wrong it feels like we're maxed out (or close to it) but there's probably some sort of clearance to maybe add a couple if the long term injured aren't coming back imminently (in which case they wouldn't be long term injured).

Edited August 22 by capt_oats

[Andyonestepbeyond]

12 hours ago, SteelyDosser said:

How good does that away kit look with a volvo sponsor. 

Lovely kit, do we know if these will be on sale at any point?

[Vietnam91]

If we were sniffing around, that sacking yesterday has probably put a halt on it for their new guy to reassess the squad.

If it does happen as a loan then maybe a deadline day sort of deal. However, if it’s a loan to buy with another bit of the Bair money, then maybe a different complexion.

Seems we’ve turned into the SPFL’s Chelsea. Which is fine because we’re both gallus and massive but remember last summer where he wielded the axe like Conan?

Dunno, this has been the weirdest summer I’ve ever experienced following Motherwell, count in my fingers the amount of nice sunny days, “investment”, Theo, votes x2, injuries and collecting players like a kid in a penny pick ‘n mix but given a tenner.

[MurrayWell]

Never known an injury list like it. I suppose at least we have a bit more budget to play with to plug gaps, albeit leading to quite a large squad. 

I actually don't have a problem with us bringing in another out and out striker, if the intention is to move Robinson into a wider/deeper role. I think he's looked half decent when he drops deeper and links up the play. 

Still think we could really do with a midfielder though. The chat I'd heard at the game was that Ryan Jack was joining, along with an attacking midfield option, from a pretty reliable source, but there was no mention of another striker. I suppose if we've signed about 14 players, we'll probably have about 40 irons in the fire at any time. 

[capt_oats]

For anyone who's interested here's the Blackpool thread about it: https://avftt.co.uk/index.php?threads/kouassi.55557/ there's a couple of posts that don't seem to see the manager change as much of an issue.

Setting aside the "Motherwell are in a bit of a state financially" misinformation (thanks for that Chairman Jim) there's a refreshing lack of "I'd drive him there myself" type posts.