Motherwell vs Kilmarnock 17/2/18

[Squirrelhumper]

52 minutes ago, Desp said:

Will be interesting to see how we line up with Kipré being suspended.  With Hartley also out, you would think the only way to continue with a back three would be to drop McHugh back.

How do Killie usually line-up?  4-4-2/4-3-3?

There's the potential for us to bring back the 4-4-2 diamond formation we've used against Aberdeen & Celtic with Tait & Hendrie as full backs alongside Aldred & Dunne at the back.  Midfield diamond of McHugh, Campbell, Rose & Cadden.  Usual two up top.

You allowed out for a pint?

[Desp]

17 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

You allowed out for a pint?

I'm actually working on Saturday mate, so i'll only just be finished in time to make kick-off.

I shall be in Club 100 post match though for a couple of pints of victory!

[Squirrelhumper]

9 minutes ago, Desp said:

I'm actually working on Saturday mate, so i'll only just be finished in time to make kick-off.

I shall be in Club 100 post match though for a couple of pints of victory!

I'll give you a shout after the game.

Got a gig at night so need to see what the plans are.

[WellView]

Kipre out is a big loss considering his recent form.  Are we sure Campbell will be back? Losing him too would be a sore one.  Robinson will earn his corn if he gets a result with those two out.  This game is more crucial to us than Killie.   A Kilie win would see them having a realistic chance of catching Hearts, who are not as clear in the race for top six as some seem to be predicting. 

The Killie team that showed up earlier in the season were an embarrassment to their club. I'm pretty sure it was after that game one of their supporters went on an epic Facebook rant, and every fan of every provincial team in Scotland could feel that pain.  We'll do well to win against this version of Killie.  Without Campbell, I fear a draw is the best we can hope. 

I'd take a defeat in this one as long as we beat Dundee away next time round.  

[paul wright scores]

34 minutes ago, WellView said:

Kipre out is a big loss considering his recent form. 

Has he improved lately as prior to Christmas I thought he was poor and an accident waiting to happen?

[Coooombe]

How do Killie usually line-up?  4-4-2/4-3-3?

With our strongest team out its sort of a 4-4-2/4-3-3 hybrid with Jones having licence to get forward/roam on the left and power/McKenzie tucking in on the right. Jones is back this weekend but Brophy looks like he may drop out after his injury tonight. I'd expect to see something along the lines of:

Mcdonald

SOD Broadfoot Boyd Taylor

McKenzie Mulumbu (if fit) Tshibola Jones

Boyd Erwin/Brophy

With Greer, Mulumbu, Brophy, Power, Kiltie and Dicker all either having niggling injuries or suspended this is probably a great time to play us tbh. Saying that we'd 5 players out and 10 men for the game last night and we still won the game so what do I know.

[Al B]

19 minutes ago, paul wright scores said:

Has he improved lately as prior to Christmas I thought he was poor and an accident waiting to happen?

Every single player in our squad (aside from Carson) was an accident waiting to happen for pretty much all of December.

I think you've seen him in isolated examples. He was brilliant up until the cup final, then had a dip in form at the same time as the rest of the team did, and has come out of it even better than he was at the start of the season.

He's only just turned 21 a few weeks ago so he'll have the inconsistencies that come from that, but when he's on form he's absolutely miles above this level already.

[Swello]

20 minutes ago, Al B said:

He's only just turned 21 a few weeks ago so he'll have the inconsistencies that come from that, but when he's on form he's absolutely miles above this level already.

I think we'll be extremely lucky to have him come the end of the next transfer window - and if Ben Heneghan at £400k was a benchmark.......

[paul wright scores]

24 minutes ago, Al B said:

Every single player in our squad (aside from Carson) was an accident waiting to happen for pretty much all of December.

I think you've seen him in isolated examples. He was brilliant up until the cup final, then had a dip in form at the same time as the rest of the team did, and has come out of it even better than he was at the start of the season.

He's only just turned 21 a few weeks ago so he'll have the inconsistencies that come from that, but when he's on form he's absolutely miles above this level already.

Fair enough, you see him more than I do.  One of my mates is a season ticket holder at Motherwell and he wasn't convinced either.

 

[thisGRAEME]

2 minutes ago, paul wright scores said:

Fair enough, you see him more than I do.  One of my mates is a season ticket holder at Motherwell and he wasn't convinced either.

Tell your mate he's no longer welcome.

[Al B]

If he posts on S.O. I could probably narrow who he is down to about 3 or 4....

[Desp]

It could be worse.  He could have suggested we try and put Kipré in midfield.

What the f**k was all that about?

[Swello]

5 minutes ago, Desp said:

It could be worse.  He could have suggested we try and put Kipré in midfield.

What the f**k was all that about?

That had me as close to breaking my self-imposed ban on posting on SO as anything I've read there for a while  

[WellView]

7 minutes ago, Al B said:

If he posts on S.O. I could probably narrow who he is down to about 3 or 4....

I thought Kipre was unfairly maligned, even in the semi-final when he got caught out by the swirling wind a couple of times.  I hold my hands up, while not guilty of aligning him, I had serious doubts about Dunne.  His passing earlier in the season was embarrassing, atrocious.  I thought he had improved defensively by November, passing, not so.  I do have an abiding memory of Robinson talking to him on the pitch after a match, looking like he was consoling/coaching him.  

I'm pretty sure we have a good man-manager in Robinson, unlike that other narcissistic Muppet.

[thisGRAEME]

8 minutes ago, WellView said:

I thought Kipre was unfairly maligned, even in the semi-final when he got caught out by the swirling wind a couple of times.  I hold my hands up, while not guilty of aligning him, I had serious doubts about Dunne.  His passing earlier in the season was embarrassing, atrocious.  I thought he had improved defensively by November, passing, not so.  I do have an abiding memory of Robinson talking to him on the pitch after a match, looking like he was consoling/coaching him.  

I'm pretty sure we have a good man-manager in Robinson, unlike that other narcissistic Muppet.

Pretty much. From the moment he hit that shot that Jack blocked on the line, Kipre was fine. I'm sure in an interview afterwards he said himself he was a bit over-awed at the whole thing.

Entirely agree on Dunne. I didn't think he had much about him, but as someone highlighted on SO, you can't coach big and fast, which he has in spades, so the other part of teaching him how to play fitba is the easy bit...

[Desp]

5 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

Entirely agree on Dunne. I didn't think he had much about him, but as someone highlighted on SO, you can't coach big and fast, which he has in spades, so the other part of teaching him how to play fitba is the easy bit...

I think most of the 'Well fans overlook the fact he spent a number of months out injured last season.  He may have missed the majority of the season with a knee issue?

When a player is out for a long time, it does take a while to get back onto your game.  To be fair to Dunne, he's been really good since we came back from the break.  I can't see him ever eradicating the occasional brainfart though (see the lead-up to the first at Easter Road for example)

[Al B]

30 minutes ago, Desp said:

It could be worse.  He could have suggested we try and put Kipré in midfield.

What the f**k was all that about?

I stand by that, I think he'd be a brilliant midfielder. I will qualify what I said slightly however, I didn't quite mean WE should play him in midfield.

At our level he's obviously of more use to us as a centre half due to his size and athletic ability.  It would be ridiculous to ignore that. In a better league though where 90% of players have his size and physique and you dont NEED him at the back just because he has those attributes, I think he's got the ability on the ball to play in the middle of the park. He's probably the best passer of a ball in our squad and is so composed. There's been more than a handful of examples of him driving forward, and from the middle of the park he's played a through ball that's made me think...how is a centre-half even spotting that, let alone having the confidence to drive forward and play it, and the ability to do it. There was one in particular (I think it was one of the goals in the cup win up at Dingwall, although I could be wrong), where we don't even have a midfielder who could have spotted and played that ball.

On the above, completely agree about Dunne. Says so much about our coaching team, and also the player himself that he's willing to listen, learn and apply it.

[Dindeleux]

Really looking forward to this - Killie obviously on good form and clear favourites to be in the top half come the split - but we aren't giving much away at the moment and so I don't expect there to be too much in it. If Kipre is suspended for us, that's a pain as the back 3 has been excellent since the break and we don't really want to see that changed. Really hope wee Campbell is back as the difference he makes to us is impressive given his age and experience...Also expect Ciftci to benefit from a week with no game as it's been back to back games since he signed.
On Killie,  it's funny how our league works - Motherwell had a great spell for a few years, then St Johnstone took over and now as St Johnstone naturally decline, Killie look like they're stepping up (although they still need to actually get there and sustain it beyond one season obviously). I saw a comment on the Killie-Dees match thread along the lines of "TV Pundit vs Sir Steve" and it does bring home how important a good managerial appointment is - it's more important than anything I guess.
The thing that's annoyed me most recently has been Clarke being touted for the Scotland job by everyone going - it basically sums up the shite part of supporting a club the size of Killie or 'Well - as soon as we are perceived to have someone good,  there's a casual acceptance that they should be offski at the first time of asking and f**k the consequences. As someone who doesn't give a f**k about the national side relative to club football, I'd be pissed-off if the SFA were to weaken and demoralise one of their clubs when they had other options available. If Clarke were to leave soon, it wouldn't just knock the stuffing out of Killie now, it would leave Clarke as an unattainable benchmark for any Killie manager that came after because he would be away before his honeymoon period is over.
On the game - I think most would assume that Killie will roll us over given the run that they're on - I'm not so sure #bullish
 

Great post. It’s becoming clear to me that #TB4 don’t only have the best clubs, we’ve got the best fans and best posters on this site too.

[Desp]

10 minutes ago, Al B said:

I stand by that, I think he'd be a brilliant midfielder. I will qualify what I said slightly however, I didn't quite mean WE should play him in midfield.

I didn't realise it was you who posted it, Al.  In my head it was Oneils40yarder.  I've got to say we'll agree to disagree.

For me, he does have the ability to drive forward and pick out a pass, but I think it's because he can see the whole game in front of him.  He's got excellent reading of the game but I think he needs the full picture ahead of him.

Could you really imagine Kipré in the middle of the park receiving the ball to feet, facing his own goal?

Leave him where he is.  Having a ball player at the back isn't a bad thing.  He has all the attributes and potential to become a top drawer centre-half.

[capt_oats]

As far as Dunne goes it's surely no coincidence that his form has improved since he got shot of that man-bun. Looks (literally) like a different player.

As others have said he's got the raw attributes in his size and pace the problem has always seemed to be his distribution. Even in the first friendly up at Stirling he seemed to have this weird thing where he'd completely ignore Frear out on the left wing and try a more ambitious ball cut inside to the forward's feet and keep trying the same ball instead of just playing the straightforward pass.

There's a lot to be said for him finding fitness, getting regular games and playing with a bit of confidence having bedded in to a system that makes the most of the positive attributes he has. In a way he's a really good example of the strategy working. When you read the comments from Blackpool and Oldham fans when he signed with us it's like a different player. The skill in terms of recruitment seems to be stripping away the noise around a player. Guys like Main, Aldred, Hartley, Dunne and even Ciftci have all been frozen out or on the fringes of their respective sides yet each seem to have the attributes that fit our style of play.

This from the Saints game really is a cracking first time ball from Dunne: