Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Al B]

Just now, joewarkfanclub said:

I think you are probably right.

But thats a mental reason to set up a football team in a way that weakens your team.

Possibly, but a cup semi-final and a start to the season that's done a lot of the initial spadework for safety would maybe suggest it's been the right call, if it also goes on to change the first number of his eventual fee.

Based on not very much, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the bids we received for him in the summer gave us a bit of a surprise at how far away they were from our valuation of him, and there's been a conscious decision to make addressing that our second priority behind league survival.

[joewarkfanclub]

9 minutes ago, Al B said:

Possibly, but a cup semi-final and a start to the season that's done a lot of the initial spadework for safety would maybe suggest it's been the right call, if it also goes on to change the first number of his eventual fee.

Based on not very much, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the bids we received for him in the summer gave us a bit of a surprise at how far away they were from our valuation of him, and there's been a conscious decision to make addressing that our second priority behind league survival.

I dont disagree.

And Im not saying we shouldnt be trying to push Lennons value up as high as we can.

But our business is winning football matches and everyone who has watched us this season can see that we are a better team with him in a deeper role dictating play.

Of course the other subs we make later in games also add to that as we then have willing runners with the ability to hold the ball up and connect the play.

So whilst I agree we have made a good start to the season, Im not sure its our starting line up / positions that have got us there.

[Al B]

26 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

I dont disagree.

And Im not saying we shouldnt be trying to push Lennons value up as high as we can.

But our business is winning football matches and everyone who has watched us this season can see that we are a better team with him in a deeper role dictating play.

Of course the other subs we make later in games also add to that as we then have willing runners with the ability to hold the ball up and connect the play.

So whilst I agree we have made a good start to the season, Im not sure its our starting line up / positions that have got us there.

Yup, absolutely...but I think what you're saying there is exactly the plan. Not at all saying it would be my approach (I'm much more a fan of smashing into teams from the start and just not letting them get a foothold in the early stages - the old Mike Tyson approach of "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face"), just that I think that's what's happening. For what it's worth though, Saturday aside I think we've been pretty good overall this season and I'm quite enjoying the football, I do think there's been a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to just how much of a shit-show Saturday was.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Al B

[CoF]

I missed the game and I’ve been a bit disconnected the last few days - why was Stama actually taken off? 

[Al B]

5 minutes ago, CoF said:

I missed the game and I’ve been a bit disconnected the last few days - why was Stama actually taken off? 

No one really knows, he ran off the pitch and straight down the tunnel with a few minutes of the first half still to go, pointing to his stomach. Looked like a massive case of the shits. Or a case of the massive shits. Either/Or.

[StAndrew7]

1 minute ago, Al B said:

No one really knows, he ran off the pitch and straight down the tunnel with a few minutes of the first half still to go, pointing to his stomach. Looked like a massive case of the shits. Or a case of the massive shits. Either/Or.

Aye, I think I saw somewhere he had a stomach bug. Definitely been doing the rounds; I was out of it from Thursday evening with one, including missing the match. Quite glad I did having read on here. 

[Feet in the Wishing Well]

Funnily enough I think the worst game I've ever been to was a 1-0 loss to Dundee (the one when Clarkson scored for them). I thankfully missed Saturday as well but it seems to be reminiscent of that game.

[tonicg]

Hammell game against St Johnstone is the worst for me. It was the longest Danzaki was on the pitch for us and he was never seen again. 

[Vietnam91]

1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

But our business is winning football matches and everyone who has watched us this season can see that we are a better team with him in a deeper role dictating play.

The very pragmatic approach is we need to win games in future seasons too while trying to avoid a repeat of Randolph leaving for nothing and being a head scratcher. Lennon's off, so as @Al B says it's all about maximising value.

We can get into the weeds if playing him deeper means we perform better and get a) more league prize money for a higher finish and b) European football including the UEFA kickback. The hard bit to quantify is what we realise in his final sale value by having him so far up the park and away from his natural position.

If he was played deeper, he would still be taking the majority of dead balls with an attacking threat so his numbers there wouldn't suffer. However, his advanced role is being utilised to take advantage and contribute more to open play goals and assists. We're not really getting a good return this season from that, having much more success from set pieces. That's not on him, that's the whole squad.

While so much is in the numbers and algorithms these days, however teams that have been touted as having an interest in him have substantial budgets to actually watch him. If he was played deeper they would actually see his value there too.

But he is 18, you can assume he can still be coached into a new role and Ketts does have a demonstrable track record of maximising potential, he has put a reported £2.1m + bonus' into our bank after all. A lot of the hand wringing is due to us almost being in November and 13 competitive games we've yet to see things click all over the park except perhaps the defence .... ish. 

When he goes the fee we all hope for (which will be substantial) not only has to replace his contribution, which is among the best in the league and therefore costly to backfill.

There's an element of succession planning already in place, with a fair portion used to raise the base standard of the rest of the 2025/26 squad. It will be nice to be in a place where in future we don't even table signing a 31 year old permacrock central midfielder already planning his salon layout.

[camer0n_mcd]

42 minutes ago, tonicg said:

Hammell game against St Johnstone is the worst for me. It was the longest Danzaki was on the pitch for us and he was never seen again. 

That wasn't even the worst Motherwell performance I saw that week, the game up at Pittodrie a few days later when they had just lost 5-0 to Hearts, 1-0 to Darvel and 6-0 to Hibs just to ease past us a week or so later was even worse.