Lobey_Dosser

I’d disagree. We have a bench of 9. Despite the known injuries, none of Blaney, Koutroumbis, Dickson, Moses or Tavares made the squad of 20 on Saturday.

I understand the sense of optimism attached to a completely fresh approach that a foreign management team suggests. However, the level of risk taken with this appointment in our current predicament surprises me. Personally, I’d have been more comfortable appointing someone of Wimmer’s profile in the summer or had we 4-6 more points on the board. As it stands though, we’re in relegation form with one of the most bloated squads around which will bring many challenges to someone that has limited experience of man-management, whilst being new to Scottish/British dressing room culture. I sense we’ll quickly work out whether the risks taken by our new Chairman and Board were well measured. My heart will sink a little if he quickly tells us we don’t have the players to play his high intensity pressing style (the style that all managers promise….). That aside, good luck to Wimmer. Hopefully my gut instinct is a mile out and we are genuinely going to have fun. Finally, fair play to Frail. He’s handled things in a very dignified manner.

We can look forward to the new manager regularly bemoaning the need for cost cutting to address the unintended overspend under the previous regime…

When I seen the interview pop up, I thought Caldwell was taking the opportunity to redress the balance and draw a line under things. How naive was I? Empathy is one thing but the grief being displayed is over the top. The suggestion that all the players are gutted isn’t going to be believed by anyone watching us recently. I also struggle to fathom how we’ve got from the Aberdeen game on 5th Jan to Monday morning there and the sole reason for leaving is levels of in-person abuse that weren’t discussed previously. From the moment Kettlewell resigned, Caldwell’s full focus should have been on finding a replacement. Yet, he didn’t seem particularly enthused by the task. I wouldn’t be overly surprised if he chucks it too.

I’ve got mixed emotions about today’s surprise announcement. This may not be a common opinion but I found Kettlewell to be one of our most likeable managers and he undoubtedly worked his socks off for the club. I’ll always hold him in high regard for inheriting a shambles from our most incompetent manager in my 35+ years going to Fir Park and turning our fortunes around overnight. From there we got to see really good talents like Max, Furlong, KVV, Gent, Spittal, Bair and Miller flourish and earn us a good few quid in return. Moreover, despite the poor runs and cup exits, there have been some excellent performances and we ran Rangers and Celtic close with a refreshing regularity. The win at Ibrox is one we all craved. I try and not read too much into press conferences but it’s been evident since mid-late November that his demeanour has been changing and his patience thinning. First he was having a go at the referees, then the players, then finally the fans. Who knows what goes on in the background but I suspect that some relationships with players and/or staff have been deteriorating and indeed recent comments would suggest he’s felt let down by a few. On day one of the job, Kettlewell was clear that he didn’t want any passengers in the building. Ultimately though, we’ve ended up with a bloated squad of 31 and I don’t think Kettlewell will have been comfortable with that. I’ll reserve comment on the abuse, I just hope it was mostly down to the goons online and that he and his family weren’t exposed to anything severe in person. Good luck to him going forward. Whilst he’s had a parting shot at the fans he does appear to have stepped away at the right time rather than let this current slide continue for another month or so. I don’t envy the remit of the next incumbent.

A midweek game on a plastic pitch in January is rarely going to be enthralling so happy to gain a solid point and a clean sheet tonight that puts us in touching distance of 3rd. I remain uneasy with the two-man midfield and hope we have the personnel available to return to a three. Otherwise, it’s going to be difficult to get a foothold in any game, particularly away from home. We desperately need Seddon back as well to provide some quality in possession.

Whilst it was an ugly game, the keeper and the three centre halves impressed. Casey gets the nod for me.

Has to be Tawanda but another good performance from Halliday.

No failures today but Stama and Maswanhise had the two centre halves on toast in the first half. The latter did enough to get my motm. Paton and Halliday contributed well again. It’s just annoying watching the game knowing that they’ll run out of steam early in the 2nd half.

We look to have completely lost our way. There are multiple reasons for this but the easiest one to resolve imo is the back 3. If SK is to persist with the back 3 in McGinn (& O’Donnell’s) absence then it needs to have someone that is comfortable pushing forward with the ball. Seddon was integral to our win over St Johnstone so I’m baffled why he hasn’t started in that role since when the likes of Balmer has been far from impressive, One issue a little more difficult to resolve is the front line. The manager doesn’t appear to have great belief in any of his summer signings and it’s looking increasingly likely that one or two will move on in January. Personally, I thought Stama started brightly enough today and would like to have seem him getting 15 mins alongside both Watt and Maswanhise. Finally, we need to be careful how we handle Lennon. He’s carrying too much on his shoulders at the moment as captain of a dysfunctional team and our sole creative force.

Plenty to choose from today but Kaleta’s class just edges out Sparrow’s endeavour for me. In the absence of McGinn, I really liked Seddon in the back three. Hopefully he can cement a place there as the quality in his left foot is telling,

Vale is a bit of a forgotten man but he would have a key player in linking us middle to front. The injuries to Nicholson and Callaghan though were entirely predictable and we seemingly haven’t done our due diligence on Watt. Long way to go in the season but at the moment recruitment isn’t looking great. My main frustration yesterday was the substitution of the front two but we really chucked the game by replacing Kaleta with Blaney. That signalled we had little intent on attacking. There were multiple better options to have made in that moment.

Can’t fault the effort but that was a really poor performance today. Whilst we are more defensively robust this season, we have a fraction of the quality we had going forward last season. The countless long balls played into Rangers hands and the long throw tactic needs to stop. The substitution of the front two was bizarre and killed any belief I had. Stama and JT fed off scraps but they both carried a threat and it would surely have been worthwhile moving Miller forward at 1-1 to see if he could create anything for them. Instead, we are left with the most ineffective front two I’ve seen since the dark days of Main and Sammon. Presumably Watt remains miles off it but for Moses not to get a minute to stretch his legs on such a big pitch baffles me. Credit to Ox and Kaleta, our two standouts.

As much as today was an off day for everyone, including the manager, I thought our performance confirmed how much of a miss McGinn is going to be. There isn’t much that can be done to replace his composure or reading of the game. However, we surely need to tweak the back 3 and select SoDs or Seddon to be the one that brings the ball into midfield. Put Balmer’s party trick back in its box until Hampden.

As someone that has been a big supporter of Kettlewell, my patience is starting to wear a little thin over our summer recruitment. With the repeated narrative that we have the 10/11th lowest budget and that there is no room to carry passengers, it baffles me that we have signed two injury prone players, Nicholson and Callachan, in an area of the park that we needed reliable reinforcements. Not only that, we appear to have signed a number of players from outwith Scotland that despite being here for most of pre-season are still not to the level required to contribute. Of course, some of these players may come good in time, like Gent last year, but having lost Kelly, Gent, Spittal and Bair surely we had to be signing one or two more that had the profile and credentials of a Liam Gordon to hit the ground running. All parties deserve great credit for the Bair project but we are now going to have to needlessly spend a fair proportion of that income to get us back on an even keel.

Kettlewell was determined to get the squad together early this summer, however there are no benefits to be witnessed yet. Sure, we’ve been hit with injuries and a few will take a while to get up to speed but I get the impression Kettlewell isn’t overly enamoured by one or two of the recent additions.

I bought into the home design but I can’t see me warming to the away effort. A subtle tartan trim can work lovely on a kit (previous Scotland top springs to mind) but our official tartan is far too garish imo. An issue that is compounded by the width of the sleeve trim. Carrying the tartan pattern through the grey is poorly thought out too, far too messy in the end.

I didn’t think we were particularly bad last night, certainly for this time of year and better from what I can recall from the trip to QoS last season. Interesting few weeks ahead. If the box midfield is going to remain plan A, then I’d like to think that we are holding out for attack minded players of a certain standard to replace Spittal’s quality and bring a bit of dynamism to the final third. Similarly, athletic wingbacks with good delivery are key to the success of this system. We did very well finding Spencer and Gent last summer but both arrived in the last week of the window. Hopefully there is a Gent replacement around the corner, ideally Georgie himself.

It’s been a while since I’ve bought a home top but I’m tempted by this one. I’d rather the white trim was finer but overall I like the C&A split. Decent effort.

Has he got a Scottish Granny?

I came away from Cappielow in the huff the other week thinking the only we can make up for this is with a win over Rangers. Job done. Delighted for anyone that headed through to Ibrox today. Makes the countess disappointments coming away from there, including a good few near misses and probably a few more humpings, all the more worthwhile. And credit to every single one of the players. We should have won there in September and to go back and do it today, particularly when their tails are up, is testament to the mentality and quality of our squad. Today is hopefully the first of many special victories that young Lennon will experience in his career.

I’m delighted that Kettlewell is the one that gets the biggest of monkey’s off our backs and secures his place in Motherwell history. In some respects, today didn’t come as a huge surprise to me as Kettlewell has shown time and time again that he can set up a team to compete with Rangers and Celtic and today he got his just rewards. The fact we’ve done it against an ‘in-form’ and slightly cocky Rangers makes it all the sweeter. He’s not had his challenges to seek this season and having battled his way through the budget constraints, the injuries, the loan-recalls and the off-field uncertainty, I get the impression that he could go on to do well at a higher level. Whilst he came in for understandable criticism between Oct-Dec, the players never looked like chucking it. I think that speaks volumes for his credentials and I think that run itself will stand him in good stead for the future. In the meantime, he and his players have delivered the result I’ve wanted more than any other over the last 20 years.

We’ve not won away since our last trip to Tynecastle have we? That was a bodies on the line kinda job that day. If fit, get Casey in for Butcher and play Mugabi in the middle. Should we stick with Devine, he’d have the experience of McGinn alongside him. Miller obviously didn’t play well at Cappielow but I fully expected him to come on tonight to try and settle the game down. If fit, I’d have him alongside Paton. Wee Davor is toiling at the moment.

Really not sure what to make of that tonight. Credit for storming into a lead, albeit against a bonkers Warnock lineup, and credit for regaining a foothold in the last half hour. The nature of our collapse on the half hour mark though sets off alarm bells, particularly after a panic stricken performance at Cappielow. Our in-game management, both from the players and the sidelines, to respond to adversity, has been dreadful.

I’m glad we’ve got a game hot on the heels of last night. Would anticipate 2-3 changes. Halliday presumably wasn’t fit enough to start last night and his experience was missed in midfield. Devine has done more than enough to earn a start and that back three needs shaken up so Casey may get the nod, probably at the expense of Mugabi although Butcher was given the runaround by Oakley. Should Miller start, I’ll be hoping he can rekindle his early season form. As a young lad returning from injury he can be somewhat excused for being terrible in Greenock. Given how exceptional we think his talent is though with composure and maturity two of his greatest attributes, that was a concerning contribution against Robbie Crawford & co. Hopefully no more than rustiness. Getting one over Warnock would lessen the blow of yet another early tame cup exit.