Jim McLean's Ghost Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 We definitely need another wide attacker. Whether that is just bringing Hastie into the first team squad or looking to sign someone else. It is clear that Elliot Frear is not in Robbo's plans and has been quite ineffective in his limited apearances. Even with Rose leaving we have enough midfield cover with Grimmy, Cadden, Rodriguez all capable in that role. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 On 12/15/2018 at 21:30, Jim McLean's Ghost said: We definitely need another wide attacker. Whether that is just bringing Hastie into the first team squad or looking to sign someone else. It is clear that Elliot Frear is not in Robbo's plans and has been quite ineffective in his limited apearances. Even with Rose leaving we have enough midfield cover with Grimmy, Cadden, Rodriguez all capable in that role. Aye, with Cadden out for the foreseeable, Frear not only limited in terms of impact but seemingly miles out of favour and Hastie still out on loan by my reckoning the only other wide option we've got at the club just now is Broque Watson. I think the key thing is that we need someone who's adaptable. Aside from him having generally struggled one of the main issues with Frear is that he's an out and out winger. He's been game in terms of having a go at wing back but...he's really not a wing back, nor is he particularly suited to playing through the middle. Having someone who's exclusively a winger is a bit limiting in our squad. Thinking back to summer and our quite regular links with O'Halloran in the press, it kind of makes sense if there was something in that in hindsight. Given we don't play with wingers as standard someone who offers that sort of flexibility and option to switch things about would be quite useful. Even more so given Robinson's been a bit more open to playing with a back 4 this season. He's clearly miles from the finished article but Hastie has that adaptability. He's got a bit of physicality and pace, can play wide and he can pay through the middle. It'd be good if we could add someone in a similar sort of mould for the right hand side of the park. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gianfranco Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 Is it me or have we conceded a lot of goals from corners this season? I noticed it was Dunne who lost his man but I’m hoping he’s just rusty and he’ll get back to last season’s form soon. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 (edited) 25 minutes ago, Gianfranco said: Is it me or have we conceded a lot of goals from corners this season? I noticed it was Dunne who lost his man but I’m hoping he’s just rusty and he’ll get back to last season’s form soon. By my count it's 6 from corners in the league. 01/09/18 - Dundee: 1 20/10/18 - St Johnstone: 1 11/11/18 - Rangers: 2 01/12/18 - Livingston: 1 15/12/18 - St Johnstone: 1 We've conceded 27 league goals so that's 22.22% It'd probably be a different story if it was broadened out to "set pieces" in general. Edited December 16, 2018 by capt_oats 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welldaft Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 56 minutes ago, capt_oats said: By my count it's 6 from corners in the league. 01/09/18 - Dundee: 1 20/10/18 - St Johnstone: 1 11/11/18 - Rangers: 2 01/12/18 - Livingston: 1 15/12/18 - St Johnstone: 1 We've conceded 27 league goals so that's 22.22% It'd probably be a different story if it was broadened out to "set pieces" in general. Would like to see the stat for headed goals conceded. Must be higher than what would be considered normal. Even the last handful of games all goals have been headers - 1 for St Johnstone, 2 for Livi and 1 from Hearts. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 (edited) 8 hours ago, welldaft said: Would like to see the stat for headed goals conceded. Must be higher than what would be considered normal. Even the last handful of games all goals have been headers - 1 for St Johnstone, 2 for Livi and 1 from Hearts. Depends what's considered normal I suppose. By my count we've conceded 8 headed goals in the league...29.62%. Edit: Only 1 of Livi's have been headed goals. So it's Lafferty, Kallman, Kerr x2, Morelos, Grezda, Halkett, and Haring. Spoiler (L) 05/08/18 - Hibs 3-0: Mallan 30' (direct free kick), Shaw 45' (shot from close range), Boyle 51' (shot from outside the box) (L) 11/08/18 - 0-1 Hamilton: Boyd 67' (shot from outside the box following blocked free kick) (X) 26/08/18 - 3-3 Rangers: Lafferty 15' (deflected shot from outside the box), 38' (header from cross), Ejaria 43' (shot from outside the box) (W) 01/09/18 - Dundee 1-3: Kallman 71' (header from corner) (L) 15/09/18 - 0-1 Hearts: Naismith 28' (shot from edge of the box) (L) 22/09/18 - Aberdeen 1-0: Wilson 6' (shot from inside the box) (L) 29/09/18 - Kilmarnock 3-1: Burke 39' (shot from close range), Stewart 43' (shot from edge of the box), Brophy 59' (penalty) (X) 06/10/18 - Livingston 1-1: Jacobs 64' (direct free kick) (L) 20/10/18 - 0-1 St Johnstone: Kerr 90+2' (header from corner) (W) 31/10/18 - St Mirren 0-2: n/a (W) 03/11/18 - 1-0 Dundee: n/a (L) 11/11/18 - Rangers 7-1: Arfield 7' (shot from inside the box), Tavernier 35' (penalty), Morelos 38' (header from a corner), Middleton 59' (shot from inside the box), Arfield 60' (shot from inside the box), Grezda 68' (shot from inside the box), 75' (header from short corner) (W) 24/11/18 - 3-0 Aberdeen: n/a (L) 01/12/18 - Livingston 2-0: Lawless 22' (shot from inside the box from a long throw), Halkett 83' (header from corner) (X) 05/12/18 - 1-1 Celtic: Christie 13' (shot from inside the box) (L) 08/12/18 - Hearts 1-0: Haring 14' (header from cross) (W) 15/12/18 - St Johnstone 1-2: Kerr 83' (header from short corner) Edited December 17, 2018 by capt_oats 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busta Nut Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 https://www.mfc1886.com/mfc-podcast-2018-19-episode-22/ Sparra is joined by Busta and Jay to reflect on a big win over St Johnstone and look ahead to another busy week in which Motherwell will take on Celtic and St Mirren. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 (edited) With a nod to the 'Robinson... HoW DO We ThINk He'S DoInG?" thread (started a year ago this month). Here's the comparison between this season and last after the same number of games. 5 points worse off 6 goals fewer scored 2 goals more conceded 2 games fewer won 1 game more drawn 1 game more lost Danny Johnson has 2 fewer league goals than Moult had at this point. (6 vs 8.) Johnson's had less minutes on the park though (886 vs 1172) so the goals per minute rate isn't actually that different (148 vs 146.5). You can probably acknowledge that we has a dire December last season but broadly speaking, even factoring in the League Cup bounce the first half of the season (up until December) was generally viewed positively. (That thread on Steelmen was started after a run of 7 without a win, 8 if you include the cup final and 4 more games than we've played to date). There's no avoiding the fact that some of our performances this season have been brutal but in real terms it's not difficult to see the difference fine margins make. Spoiler Edited December 17, 2018 by capt_oats 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 It shows what a cup run (or 2) can do to make a season more enjoyable and there is no denying that a team with Moult and Kipre in it was simply a bit more fun to watch. It feels this season where we have been limping along since the pre-season LC games and at no point have we looked like actually stringing some decent results together, as opposed to the occasional decent performance followed by some horror shows. Last season, we had a good run of form until we hit the buffers completely after the LC cup final and so it's not inconceivable that we could end the year on a similar total to last time if we pick up a couple more wins - which would be pretty weird... Also - it's pretty clear that the league has more teams in it this year who are competitive - whereas none of the bottom 6 were having any sort of decent season at this point last year (with the obvious exception of Kilmarnock who were starting their recovery after a few weeks of Steve Clarke, even if they still had a mediocre points tally at that point).. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsr Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Looking at those tables, this season there are 8 points separating the 8 teams above us, while this time last season there were 17 points separating the 5 teams above us. So in terms of points we haven't done that much worse but more teams have done better than us than did last year, in particular Livi and Killie. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casagolda Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 (edited) I think because this summer we had the much sought after ‘solid foundation’ to build on and thus there was no need for a massive rebuild as per every other summer, there was almost an expectation that we’d kick on this season. The fact we haven’t really- starting with a fairly underwhelming summer, having no cup run to distract us, have played some awful football and had some awful results as well along the way has has meant this season has been seen as something of a damp squib. Despite all of that we could well be 12 points clear of the bottom 2 by this time next week, have brought through another youngster into the first team(Turnbull) and sold another player(Kipre) which would pretty much mean Robinson is hitting most of the targets set out for him before a ball was kicked this season. Even looking at his much maligned summer business- 2 of his signings scored on Saturday with another saving a penalty. Chuck in Mbulu and that’s a third of Saturday’s team that was brought in during the summer. I mean we won in Perth and we done it without Carson, Cadden, Rose, Hartley, Tanner, Bigi etc even kicking a ball. Edited December 17, 2018 by Casagolda 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 It's the Young Team out for the Reserves today... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Almost tricked myself into getting tickets for Wednesday, wise up Graeme. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ONeils4Oyarder Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 (edited) I wonder if Turnbulls agent is winning the 'sign or not to sign a new contract', argument Edited December 17, 2018 by ONeils4Oyarder 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 45 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said: Almost tricked myself into getting tickets for Wednesday, wise up Graeme. I can walk to it in about 15 minutes but £28 to sit in that corner behind a lampost a week before Christmas? It's a hard no from me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 16 minutes ago, ONeils4Oyarder said: I wonder if Turnbulls agent is winning the 'sign or not to sign a new contract', argument The thing is, regardless of how good a player he is (and I rate him based on what I've seen and really hope he signs on), if he doesn't sign and goes at the end of the season - it will be similar to Ben Hall in that he'll be something of a footnote for us - he won't have been around long enough to really establish himself.. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 11 minutes ago, Swello said: The thing is, regardless of how good a player he is (and I rate him based on what I've seen and really hope he signs on), if he doesn't sign and goes at the end of the season - it will be similar to Ben Hall in that he'll be something of a footnote for us - he won't have been around long enough to really establish himself.. I'm still not sure how good Ben Hall was. He seemed to be good alongside McManus telling him what he should be doing but in that youth cup final he was one of the worst players on the park. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 2 hours ago, capt_oats said: It's the Young Team out for the Reserves today... I've heard there's a bit of interest in the lad McKinstry. Leeds Utd, for one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 2 minutes ago, well fan for life said: I'm still not sure how good Ben Hall was. He seemed to be good alongside McManus telling him what he should be doing but in that youth cup final he was one of the worst players on the park. Agreed - and that is partly the point - in Motherwell terms, Hall was unproven as he left very early after I guess 20 or so first team games. I think Turnball is considerably "better" than Hall quite honestly but if he leaves in May, the end result is the same* *unless he pings a 30 yarder in the last minute of the cup final on his way out the door... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 29 minutes ago, well fan for life said: I can walk to it in about 15 minutes but £28 to sit in that corner behind a lampost a week before Christmas? It's a hard no from me. Yeah. This is exactly where I'm at. It's one bus for me, but I'm still not doing it. Solidarity brother. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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