wellfan

I haven’t dismissed it though. I said our league position is excellent. All I’ve done is provided some context to that position.

It’s not a narrative, it’s reality. Friday night was utter garbage, and many of our performances this season have been garbage, yet we’re somehow fourth, which is excellent. That’s both a reflection on our ability to amass points whilst being quite shite and the rest of our direct opponents being very shite. The standard on display in this league is mince.

Our current league position speaks for itself, so fair enough, but it’s also a reflection of how poor a lot of teams around us are this season. Notwithstanding, we were utter garbage last night and a draw was a fair result. It was the wrong starting 11 and subs were made too late to be effective. We badly need a striker that fits Kettlewell’s preferred system and a midfielder to solidify the heart of the team.

Bloc protest. The weasels go on strike. Foreign refs come in. Scrap VAR and use the money saved to fund those refs. Problem solved.

When clubs are content to employ negative donkeys such as Kettlewell, at the same time as incompetent officials being allowed to ruin the game, the clubs and the SFA will have nobody to blame but themselves once ticket sales naturally drop off over time. The tipping point has been reached in terms of value for money.

This game is exactly why the pint of Bailey’s was invented.

We require a strong and mobile centre forward and a commanding central midfielder in the January window. And we could also do with shedding some of the deadweight, once/if some of our more capable injured players return during that window.

Dreadful game, although the draw was probably a fair result, and yet again even more dreadful officiating. It's been said before, but people will stop spending their good money only to have their entertainment ruined by over-promoted amateurs and arrogant incompetents. Apologies from Collum won't cut it any longer. Chris Graham should never be allowed to referee another top level game in Scotland. Only action such as that will demonstrate to the clubs and fans that the SFA is actually trying to improve officiating standards.

The VAR technology was never going to be the problem. It was always going to be a mess - and always will be - for as long as the incompetent SFA referees are tasked with its operation.

His verbose interviews could all be summarised as follows: ’I’m not going to toot my own horn, but toot toot toot’.

Maswanhise was absolutely raging when he got hooked yesterday. That hunger from him, and Watt putting himself in the shop window, will see them in healthy competition to be the main foil for Stama. Both are different and have their uses depending on the opposition and/or how a game is panning out. Robinson being injured and Moses being the wildcard has probably forced Kettlewell to simplify his attack options and abandon the one up top crap, thankfully. We’re so much better when we try to play football in the final third. Nicholson and Vale (next year) returning throw further positive attacking dimensions into the mix. I can imagine the pair of them feeding Stama countless chances. We don’t really play with attacking out-and-out wingers, so who knows what’ll happen with Tavares, particularly with SOD coming back and Koutroumbis getting closer to match fitness, meaning he’ll no longer be required as the crazy RWB option. Likely back to Hibs unless they pay us to keep him. Robinson’s injury aside, which is awful, these attacking problems/options are all good to have. It’s all feeling a bit more positive now.

That was a thoroughly entertaining game. My main takeaway was that I really enjoyed a game of football for the first time in a while and I left the stadium smiling. The tactic of continuing to surrender possession to then feed off second balls and scraps was pretty annoying to watch, however, but it worked today as we scored one more goal than we conceded. It’s a basic tactic that won’t work against other better teams and managers, but fair play to Frail and Kettlewell for getting more right than wrong. It was an approach that ultimately led to end-to-end entertainment for both sides, with seven goals scored. An obvious positive was seeing Stama played in his best position and with the team setup accordingly to provide him with appropriate service, finally. A worrying negative was seeing Wilson brought on as a left-sided midfielder and looking completely lost in a role that he really hasn’t been developed for. He needs to be managed better and deployed as a LB/LWB. He’s no Georgie Gent, unfortunately, who could also play as an inside left forward and rip through teams. A home win on Friday night against Killie will see us on a minimum of 3 wins from 6 games for December, which is about what I expect from a Motherwell team.

https://x.com/motherwellfc/status/1867928780771299731?s=46&t=wehikD-exiutCByWu64YEQ

At least Kettlewell won’t physically be in the dugout today.

He’s a left winger. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/tawanda-maswanhise/profil/spieler/670987

My only prediction is that we will see the formation and starting eleven tombola drum being rolled out for this one. And with that, I’ve no idea what to expect in terms of result and performance.

1. Koutroumbis, Callachan, Blaney, Davor, Tavares, and Robinson (although now injured so we can’t try to move him on yet). It’s the managers job to wheel and deal both ins and outs when things need to be improved. Not my job. 2. The club has obviously been trying yet often failing to appropriately recruit, which will have resulted in an overspend and bloated squad as the club has had to hurriedly replace the crocks and duds it continues to accumulate. The policy of signing quantity on the cheap and/or projects vs quality in the first instance has proven to be a false economy. 3. Yes, but not because of favouritism or laziness as you put it, but because it’s easier/safer (and stupider) for Kettlewell to extend the likes of Halliday than it is for him to engage his brain and come up with a better system as well as the players required to operate that system. Therefore, I fully expect the likes of Blaney and Halliday and Davor and Robinson etc to be offered new deals when the time comes. Furthermore, perhaps it’s worth considering that our recruitment strategy might just be a bit shit and in need of a new approach. That being the reality would explain a lot of the above.

Before we begin, I’m not fishing, I’m merely trying to understand, other than the obvious points I’m about to make below, what people see in Kettlewell. Other than maintaining our Premiership status, which is the primary goal of his job, I’m intrigued to see if anyone can outline any tangible improvements he’s made to both (a) himself as a manager and (b) the overall team? A couple of obvious points to make to start with would be that his perseverance with Bair led to excellent financial and goal returns, and that he’s not afraid to give youngsters (e.g. Miller & Wilson) a lot of game time. For me, the latter highlights that he’s a decent individual coach, but his in-game management and pre-game decisions indicate to me that’s he’s not a good overall team manager. His decision-making is often baffling and to his and the team’s detriment. It demonstrates a complete inability to learn, be it through stubbornness and/or inexperience and/or plain stupidity. Whilst the former is a positive factor, these are young players that he inherited, and his over reliance on them suggests that he doesn’t trust his own signings and/or is incapable of signing the right type of experienced players to fit whatever his system actually is. There’s a real risk of overloading teenager’s at this level, both physically and mentally, so careful management of them is key. Now that I’ve addressed those obvious points, let’s return to my question above. (a) Improvements to himself as a manager? No. He’s almost two years into the job and continues to make strange decisions, opting to plug square pegs into round holes and often makes panicked wholesale substitutions when it’s too late. He generally struggles to adapt his system when an opposition manager makes in-game changes to counter his tactics. It’s his team now and he’s shown me zero signs of having the ability to develop and improve. It’s the same issues on repeat, and he doesn’t have a Bair to negate his shite this season. We’ll likely have the same Kettlewell next season and the same questions will be asked of him and his decision-making and approach to games. Ad nauseam. (b) Improvements to the overall team? No. We still lurch from crisis to crisis. Failed transfer windows, some predictable injuries, with the odd success, but on the whole poor, leading to more panic buying and a bloated squad. Then repeat. This cycle challenges the limited budget argument excuse and creates a dead weight issue every window. The biggest weakening of the team this season has proven to be his failure to adequately replace Spittal and Bair. His system doesn’t work without those types. A good manager would’ve address these positions as a matter of urgency, but Kettlewell didn’t, and here we are, struggling to score from open play. The big question is: is the team making progress under Kettlewell or are we stagnating? Maintaining the status quo would be fine if it wasn’t so awful to watch and didn’t put us at continual risk of capitulation. Putting the aspiration for regular victories aside, which will never be a weekly occurrence for us, people will begin to take their monies elsewhere if they’re continually gaslit into having to accept awful predictable crap as a substitute for some weekly entertainment and excitement. Kettlewell produces a team which, on the whole, is neither entertaining nor exciting. It’s a team not in transition, but a team that could be relegated very easily should the winds change. In summary, I thought Alexander, for example, was an arrogant twat and was delighted to see him binned, but I never lost interest in following the team. With Kettlewell, however, he’s the first manager in recent memory who’s led me to the position of questioning whether to renew my season ticket and maintain my two WS memberships or not. My view is that we’re merely treading water until he sees to it that the squad and football is reduced on quality year-on-year at the same time as decimating the budget to achieve that, which will lead to an exodus of paying fans. Are we happy with that outlook under Kettlewell? I’m not. It’s crap. Or do others see future prosperity for both Kettlewell and the team? If so, what are you drinking?!

He’s looking for a new contract, so we should be seeing a lot more of the motivated Tony Watt in the coming weeks and months.

When the stars align for Tony, he’s easily one of our best and most important footballers. He brings something to the team that nobody else in our squad can. He drags the team up the park with his wily approach to the game. He brings so much more than the occasional goal. A relatively meek and talentless squad like ours needs a player like Tony to make things happen. I’m glad that he not only got the goal, but that he also got 90 minutes under his belt. He should be the difference for us, again, this season.

We do need to move a lot of the dead weight on to free up space to bring in 2-3 players with some quality. I also think there will be a few unjust and surprising contract extensions gifted as well.

Well done Tony Watt.

It’s looking like Koutroumbis is Callan Elliot mk2. Another pointless signing.

https://x.com/motherwellfc/status/1865392065758035970?s=46&t=wehikD-exiutCByWu64YEQ Blaney for Balmer makes sense, but Tavares at RWB again is square peg in round hole stuff. He’s an out and out winger and the result will likely be Casey being exposed on that side today. An entirely uninspiring and predictable midfield 3 again too.

Which position?