Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Vietnam91]

2 hours ago, Handsome_Devil said:

Not only have we not had any of them, you can probably count on your fingers - maybe two hands rather than one tbf - the number of times we've not been competitive under SK. Definitely shite on occasion as you say but, as weird a compliment as it is, the simple refusal to go away when beaten means we take points others would have given up on. The draws, from absolutely nowhere, against County, Dundee, St Johnstone etc kept him in a job last season - even when the fans had given up, the board were convinced the players hadn't and that meant gambling wasn't worth it.

He'd earned his chance this season and from that point throwing the towel in due to a stodgy LC group and slow start with injuries would have been madness. The early indications are he's making a go of it and if he continues in this form we can be delighted.

The overriding word to describe Kettlewell's tenure is resilient. I posted the following in the Hibs game thread to a suggestion we had a tendency to crumble:

Last season was marked by sluggish starts (which aren't as marked but still a thing), losing the inevitable goal then getting a fire in our belly from 75' on and coming back to get numerous draws. After Xmas we got some of those draws upgraded to wins.

This season we're not conceding anything like the same frequency of set pieces and we're scoring plenty of our own which is a massive improvement on both fronts.

There were three outlier performances Ross County being the worst, but Aberdeen at FP 2-4 and ironically the 3-0 at Easter Road in May which were the only crumbles. Maybe count Aberdeen 0-3 up to 3-3 too.

Our shitey defence has benefitted from one regular addition in signing Gordon, a guy needing new pastures plus a keeper who offers more than just shot stopping, therefore breeding confidence. We also score first in most of our games this season which makes a huge difference to any points haul.

The best-worst stat to have is points from a losing position and nobody got anywhere near us and demonstrates exactly how resilient we were. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/scottish-premiership/punktenachrueckstand/wettbewerb/SC1/plus/?saison_id=2023&spiele=alle

#	Club		deficits	Wins	Draws	Losses	Points
1		Motherwell FC	25	3	10	12	19
2		Kilmarnock FC	16	2	6	8	12
3		Rangers FC	11	3	2	6	11
4		Heart of Midlothian FC	14	3	2	9	11
5		Celtic FC	7	3	1	3	10
6		Aberdeen FC	19	2	3	14	9
7		St. Mirren FC	20	1	5	14	8
8		Dundee FC	18	1	5	12	8
9		Hibernian FC	17	0	5	12	5
10		Ross County FC	20	1	2	17	5
11		St. Johnstone FC	19	0	3	16	3
12		Livingston FC	24	0	3	21	3

Even this season us and not surprisingly Killie are up the top of the table:

#	Club		deficits	Wins	Draws	Losses	Points
1		Kilmarnock FC	7	1	3	3	6
2		Celtic FC	1	1	0	0	3
3		Aberdeen FC	1	1	0	0	3
4		Motherwell FC	3	1	0	2	3
5		Dundee FC	6	0	3	3	3
6		Ross County FC	5	0	2	3	2
7		Dundee United FC	2	0	1	1	1
8		Hibernian FC	5	0	1	4	1
9		St. Johnstone FC	7	0	1	6	1
10		Heart of Midlothian FC	7	0	1	6	1
11		Rangers FC	1	0	0	1	0
12		St. Mirren FC	4	0	0	4	0