Casagolda Posted September 2 Author Share Posted September 2 3 minutes ago, Desp said: Hiya Stephen Robinson! Hiya pal! I was going to say Derek McInnes but aye, the pair of them pretty much have Scottish football sussed following that exact blueprint. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2426255 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Good to see Kettlewell get a new contract, good to see patience from the board. Anyone still wanting Kettlewell out? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 19 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said: It probably isn't our ceiling but having potential and hitting it are different things. I certainly wouldn't be writing us out the relegation issue yet either. We've scored seven in the last five which is great but four have been set pieces and two poor defensive mistakes. If that's sustained, it's a path to contentment, if not glory, but it's not being massively negative to caution it probably won't continue at this rate...and then if the attack doesn't make the jump hoped/needed, it's suddenly a long haul again. Essentially folk were way too quick to predict doom after Thistle/County and similarly shouldn't be predicting safety off a couple of post-european wins and edging St Johnstone. See, I agree with all of that which is why I qualified the idea that there's a chance we never actually 'click' in the final third. I also wouldn't be writing us either in, or out, of the relegation conversation and that post shouldn't be read as me either doing cartwheels or otherwise after only 4 league games and an ET cup win against Killie. My point was, I guess, kind of a thought prompted by the couple of times I've seen @RandomGuy. mention (both on here and on WAP) that he felt that St Johnstone were a level below us on Saturday which if that is the case is probably quite problematic given the obvious state of flux we find ourselves in. In a more general sense, I've found the snideness that's actually been quite prevalent towards us through the pre-season quite curious. It feels like there's been a lot of assumptions made that we'll struggle without, IMO, a lot of context to back it up. I think it was @Swello who posted the other week saying along the lines of we're a team (not just this iteration) that seem to often be regularly misread by many from the outside looking in and tbh, that kind of tracks. The idea that because we've lost Bair and Spittal it will translate to us being "in trouble" kind of overlooks the fact that we regularly lose those types of players whether it's KVV, Moult, Campbell, Turnbull...whoever. I mean, there's a chance we may well be one of the teams scrambling around at the bottom of the table but in a sense if there's a club that's actually reasonably well equipped to deal with losing key players it's probably us precisely because it's a process that we've gone through as often. I suppose what I'm getting at is that although it's clearly still early days the idea that there's some sort of insurmountable gap between us and the meat of the league below Celtic is...probably a bit off? People seem to have jumped on the idea that there's a gulf between ourselves, County and St Johnstone compared with the likes of Killie, Dundee, United etc and I'm not really sure that there is or at the very least it there is, it's nowhere near as pronounced as they'd like to think it is. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post thisGRAEME Posted September 2 Popular Post Share Posted September 2 I don't disagree with @capt_oats at all, but what I would say is that it's without a doubt my favourite position to be in as a Motherwell fans, where people think we're shite and we beat them, because it makes them quite upset. 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Handsome_Devil Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 (edited) 23 minutes ago, capt_oats said: My point was, I guess, kind of a thought prompted by the couple of times I've seen @RandomGuy. mention (both on here and on WAP) that he felt that St Johnstone were a level below us on Saturday which if that is the case is probably quite problematic given the obvious state of flux we find ourselves in. ... I suppose what I'm getting at is that although it's clearly still early days the idea that there's some sort of insurmountable gap between us and the meat of the league below Celtic is...probably a bit off? We maybe just about deserved to win but to say St J were a level below us seems a stretch to me. Or maybe I'd just define levels differently The second part is definitely true but it nearly always is over 90 minutes. If you'd watched all three games of us v Killie last season, you'd never have said one side was comfortably fourth and the other ninth. The early indications are definitely positive but drawing conclusions now (in general, not saying you are) is a fool's errand. It could also be pointed out that we're actually three points worse off than at this stage last season when we went into a four game spell in September (Hearts, St Mirren, Old Firm) when we said we could play well four times and end up with nothing. Ok, we took three points but that and Miller's red card at Livingston sparked a collapse. The next four are Aberdeen away, United and St Mirren at home, Hibs away. Not quite as bad sure, but it's certainly possible we could play pretty well for four games, yet find a lot of our good start undone and the pressure is on again. Edited September 2 by Handsome_Devil 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoF Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 2 hours ago, glenrothes 1884 saint said: Would Charles Dunne do us a turn Keep him away from us 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 One thing I'm somewhat confident about is that we're a bit better equipped to change things up in the event of injuries (lol) or tactics coming unstuck than we were last season, as we at least have a bit more variety in midfield/attacking options now. That gives me a bit of hope that we're less likely to go on one of those 3 month winless runs again. On the flip side though there's not any obvious candidates to put up the sort of numbers that Bair, Spittal, and Mika did so it wouldn't really surprise me if we end up 8th or 9th again if our defenders stop scoring every single week. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMFC Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 15 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said: One thing I'm somewhat confident about is that we're a bit better equipped to change things up in the event of injuries (lol) or tactics coming unstuck than we were last season, as we at least have a bit more variety in midfield/attacking options now. That gives me a bit of hope that we're less likely to go on one of those 3 month winless runs again. On the flip side though there's not any obvious candidates to put up the sort of numbers that Bair, Spittal, and Mika did so it wouldn't really surprise me if we end up 8th or 9th again if our defenders stop scoring every single week. I don't think Bair or Spittal were obvious candidates to start putting up the numbers they did last season but we were pleasantly surprised. Hopefully someone surprises us again this season. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Handsome_Devil Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 7 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said: One thing I'm somewhat confident about is that we're a bit better equipped to change things up in the event of injuries (lol) or tactics coming unstuck than we were last season, as we at least have a bit more variety in midfield/attacking options now. That gives me a bit of hope that we're less likely to go on one of those 3 month winless runs again. On the flip side though there's not any obvious candidates to put up the sort of numbers that Bair, Spittal, and Mika did so it wouldn't really surprise me if we end up 8th or 9th again if our defenders stop scoring every single week. That's fair but when people say 'we can't score goals' it's rarely literally true - very few teams have runs like us in early 96 (iirc), St J late 2021 etc when they go weeks and weeks without goals. There's always scrambles, deflections, set pieces and comical gifts from the opposition. In contrast, if folk say they can't defend, that's often literally true. We couldn't defend last season and killed us despite being the third or fourth top scorers. You need remarkably few goals over a season to finish pretty high up if you can actually defend. It's too early to tell but if a magical football genie offered us over summer that we'd sort the defence in exchange for struggling to score a bit, you'd have taken it every time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ropy Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 24 minutes ago, Handsome_Devil said: That's fair but when people say 'we can't score goals' it's rarely literally true - very few teams have runs like us in early 96 (iirc), St J late 2021 etc when they go weeks and weeks without goals. There's always scrambles, deflections, set pieces and comical gifts from the opposition. In contrast, if folk say they can't defend, that's often literally true. We couldn't defend last season and killed us despite being the third or fourth top scorers. You need remarkably few goals over a season to finish pretty high up if you can actually defend. It's too early to tell but if a magical football genie offered us over summer that we'd sort the defence in exchange for struggling to score a bit, you'd have taken it every time. 13 x 1-0 wins would see you safe. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vietnam91 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 4 minutes ago, ropy said: 13 x 1-0 wins would see you safe. The Graham Alexander doctrine 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Aldo Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 2 hours ago, 2426255 said: Good to see Kettlewell get a new contract, good to see patience from the board. Anyone still wanting Kettlewell out? Not this week. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 1 hour ago, Handsome_Devil said: You need remarkably few goals over a season to finish pretty high up if you can actually defend. In 2010/11 we scored 23 goals and finished 8th 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 29 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said: In 2010/11 we scored 23 goals and finished 8th Had you not scored once in about 3 months or something in the lead up to the semi-final that year? I remember being convinced that meant you'd turn us over, naturally. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 1 minute ago, YassinMoutaouakil said: Had you not scored once in about 3 months or something in the lead up to the semi-final that year? I remember being convinced that meant you'd turn us over, naturally. Aye we played you on the 16th April. We hadn't won in the league since the 1st of February, and had only scored 1 goal in that time too. In that time we'd drawn 2-2 with Brechin in the cup, then beat them 1-0 in a replay. Relatively sure the cup meeting led to us signing Alan Mannus that Summer though, Enckleman had a shocker. Mannus was signed then replaced him after his next horror show. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YassinMoutaouakil Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Was everyone else aware that it's Luke Irons commentating now and not Lewis? Is it a Nicky/Josh Law situation? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 1 minute ago, YassinMoutaouakil said: Was everyone else aware that it's Luke Irons commentating now and not Lewis? Is it a Nicky/Josh Law situation? I was aware after it was pointed out on the thread yesterday. On 01/09/2024 at 13:35, weemac said: Not to be that pedantic guy but our commentator is Luke Irons who I'm sure is the younger brother of Lewis. I also was laughing on my couch (which was definitely in the Boston area for the first half then may have travelled the Atlantic at some point in the 2nd half) when the signal wasn't at its best Nice to hear microphone-gate made it on to The Football Ramble today. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim McLean's Ghost Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 11 minutes ago, YassinMoutaouakil said: Was everyone else aware that it's Luke Irons commentating now and not Lewis? Is it a Nicky/Josh Law situation? The Irons media dynasty continues. I assume this is a 3rd sibling after Lewis and Amy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Sir, a second L. Irons has hit the MFC TV commentary booth. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedrics Mighty Well Army Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 If Lewis has given way to Luke does that mean we can't play commentary bingo any more? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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