fizoxy

New thread time!

Ok, here goes. As far as who we've signed, that's up for debate as to who is good and who isn't. As far as filling areas of need, it has been pretty organized and methodical, outside of signing Vale and Tavares when we needed 2 midfielders. All rough working based on the website, but coming into this season we had: GK - Ox (re-signed), Connelly WB - Wilson (kind of), SoD CB - Blaney, McGinn, Casey Mid - Slattery (re-signed, injured), Miller, Nicholson (re-signed), Davor, Halliday, Paton FW - Moses, Bair Youth (that looked like they might get games at the time)- Ferrie, Ross, Wells. None look to be worth worrying about, which is a shame, I'd prefer to have 3 of our own youth products on the bench. So we needed: - a goalie, - 2 WBs, - at least one CB. - at least one midfielder - at least 2 forwards I might be off in the order here, but pre season we signed GK - Hegyi WB - Seddon, Johnny K CB - Balmer, gordon Mid - Callachan, Sparrow FW - Stuparevic, Robinson At the time, we thought maybe one defender too many, but that balmer and Gordon were good gers, then..... Mcginn injured pre-season So logically, as expected. We filled holes in the required positions, and left with a squad of 23 outside of the younger players, so room to add 1 or 2, with bair expected to go, and mcginn injured. Consensus at the time was that callachan was a bad signing, Sparrow was bench fodder, and Robinson was a good call. July 11th - koutroumbis out for months - Down a RWB July 15th - Kaleta joins - Back even on RWB July 16th - Theo Bair sold for actual money - Down a striker July 26th - Harry paton injury (and should have been a pen) - Down a midfielder July 30th - AP signed - back even on strikers Nicholson injury mentioned on August 5th - Down 2 midfielders Callachan injury (big fucking surprise) reported on August 8th - Down 3 midfielders Blaney out 6 weeks on August 8th - Down 2 defenders, but we signed two, so covered. August 13th - Watt came in - ok 5 strikers, maybe that's enough Aug 14th - AP injured for 6 weeks - Down to 4 strikers, uh oh Aug 19th - Maswanhise joined - back to 5 forwards, yay August 29th ish - Tavares and vale joined at the end of the summer window - 7 forwards now, wtf? Aug 20th - Stuparevic sent out on loan - Just the 6 forwards now - still down 3 midfielders 3rd Dec - Robinson out for season - only 5 strikers left 20th Dec-ish - Nicholson back - Down 2 midfielders 30th Dec - mcginn back, yay 31st Dec - Miller injured for months, well baws. - Down 3 midfielders 1st Jan ish - AP out for some time, double baws. - 4 forwards, bare bones 1st Jan ish - where's Jair? - 3 forwards 6th Jan - Slattery back, wooo. - Down 2 midfielders 7th Jan - Kai andrews signed - Down 1 midfielder 11th Jan - Ox injured -Down one keeper 11th Jan - Hegyi recalled by west ham - Down 2 keepers, oh no 11th Jan - Mair signs, Connelly recalled - back to two keepers, for now phew. - 13th Jan - Mcginn injured for months again, fuck - Down a cb Jan sometime - seddon injured for months, again fuck - Down a wb 24th Jan - signed armstrong - 5 forwards, but vale suspended, Moses ill 23rd Jan signed balcombe 23rd Jan - Connelly sent back on loan - back to 2 keepers 23rd Jan - Mair injured - one keeper again 23rd Jan - Connelly temp recalled - 2 keepers again 24th Jan - signed Dom Thompson - back even on WBs So numbers wise, outside of the vale and Tavares signings, we've tended to replace what we've lost, other than midfielders. Stuparevic and Johnny K not being up to scratch hasn't helped. I'd say that if it wasn't for injuries we wouldn't have signed Mair, Balcombe, Kaleta, one of Gordon or Balmer, Andrews, Armstrong, Thompwe'reat least one of Watt/Tavares/JT/vale. If we sign Mcghee then I'd say we're covered numbers-wise. He probably covers CB too. As such, I don't think the signing policy has been chaotic or scatter gun in itself, the fact that we have needed to sign replacements for replacements has meant we really are scraping the bottom of the barrel for incomings. With AP due back, and just signing Armstrong, I wouldn't expect another striker unless someone goes. Saying that, we did have 7 at one point. Moses and Slattery were Ill at the weekend, but could see Moses moving on. Looks like Tavares and Watt will stay unless their parent clubs want to play them. They don't. So the scope for outgoings are Miller and any of those up in the summer on pcas, ie Casey. The only incoming loans we can make have to be u21 due to rules. In conclusion, outside of selling someone, I don't think we need to be online on deadline day. Unless someone else gets injured.

The board, who have WS representatives on it.

The answer to the first question is pretty easy, we've had a crazy number of injuries this season, and we need a matchday squad. If we didn't bring in replacements for the injured players, this place would be in meltdown. Thankfully we have a lot of players out of contract and a large number of loans, so the bloat will be gone soon enough. Also, piss would boil if we just brought in a couple in January. How that window is fetishized is a problem in itself. As with all clubs, our recruitment has been hit or miss. I'd love to see how we are (objectively) compared to other teams at our level when it comes to that. We tend to just see the good players the other teams sign and focus on our own shite. We got money for KVV, Bair, Sol, woolery, got a solid 2 years out of spittal, somehow got biereth for 6 months, and have generally done well innthe loan market, particularly for full backs. There's a fair amount of dross there, but I'm not sure if that's more than normal. Also, when you're signing replacements for replacements, you're naturally not getting the best. Our first choice lineup looks pretty good, and it's a shame we will never see it. Add AP, Miller, Seddon, and McGinn to this team and most of us would be pretty happy. I will say, our midfield recruitment this season was piss poor, relying on multiple players with a poor injury history, another who still had another six months out injured to go, and an 18 year old we were sure to be selling. I'm more concerned about the injuries, but even there, there has been a number of contact injuries from games, which are hard to prevent. Signing known injured players and accumulating injuries from training is more of a problem.

If we have to deal with the same number and frequency of injuries next season we have serious problems.

Out of this huge squad, how many fit players are being left out of the match day squad each week? Thankfully 8 of the squad are loans, and a few coming out of contract, so we should be able to clean things up in the summer.

We've signed non league players that have come good, and EPL players that have been dugmeat, so no guarantees either way. Hopefully he can offer something, at least until AP is back, and possibly be an option alongside him. Hopefully a midfielder is next.

It's condescending, but you probably know that, or your autocorrect does. People are going to take what they want from that interview, but there's nothing objectively controversial in what he said. The away support is going to drop because it's not a cup game, and also the second visit to the same place in a week, and you know that too.

Id love it if we followed Norways kead here. If decisions are going to still be wrong (which is inevitable), I'm good with not having to wait 5 mins for them.

He answered the question and was pretty much right. It's his job on the line. The tone and the like will bother those that already have something in for him. But by the same token, we slate managers for giving vague answers and saying the same old stuff, and applaud honesty until we disagree with it. If managers start doing what the fans tell them to we're fucked. I don't like the way we play either, but think way too much is being made of this. I don't have high hopes for Saturday, but rarely do, but can already see all the "but entertainment" posts if we manage to grind out 3 points. The period from now until the day SK leaves is going to be unbearable with everything being overanalyzed.

That isn't a good market to shop in though, and there would be an uproar if mair got injured and we brought in some random 2nd string keeper from the lower leagues, "he knew we only had one 1st team keeper during the window and did nothing." Like I said, SK has given us all plenty of ammo to slate him, bit this one seems like something we just have to do.

Do other teams do that? The idea of cup goalkeepers seems to be an English thing, whereas most clubs our size tend to stick with a first choice keeper. It's clear that Hegyi was going to be first choice but Ox beat him to it, and with him being our player, it makes more sense to stay with him rather than develop a player for someone else. Also, if Hegyi was any good for us over a run of games he would have been recalled and shipped to someone else anyway. That seems to be what EPL clubs do. SK can be criticized for many things, but not spreading the minutes between keepers shouldn't be one of them. I personally think there should be more rotation with keepers, so that in the event you have an injury the other guy is at least aclimatized. Most managers seem to disagree though.

We don't have much of a choice, we lost our main keeper for months as well as the backup. All it takes is one injury or suspension there after the window closes and we're hosed.

Yeah, he landed badly when the killie player backed into him, pretty much on his head. Then he took another head knock later in the game.

Funny that the article describes him as commanding, but St. Mirren fans are not of that opinion. We need a goalkeeper, and our options are limited, so don't have a strong opinion on tnis one.

Saturday was woeful, but Raith under Hammell was the all time worst for me. Albion Rovers under McCall and Ayr Utd under Kampmann (I think, Greg Denham was playing) definitely up there too.

Seems ton have had sporadic appearances and has asked to be transferred, presumably because he's not getting game time.

Yeah, for some reason he goes by JT even though his name is ordered TJ.

I mean, he signed Bair, Biereth, Furlong, Gent, Spencer, AP, JT, Gordon, Seddon, Kaleta, all if whom seem to be consensus good signings. He has got Miller to this stage, and improved Max and Spittal to the degree that they got good moves. Wilson has flagged lately but it wasn't that long ago we were all raving about him too. He also got a ridiculous tune out of KVV, and an equally ridiculous fee, but we prob don't want to talk about that one much. I know he's signed a fair few duds as well, but I'm genuinely interested to see his hit rate compared to other managers, and what other clubs our size have been selling folk for.

SK is approaching where managers go past their sell by date at a club like ours. We saw it with managers that we look back relatively kindly on, such as McCall and Robinson, and even mclean. You do well, but either get picked off by a bigger club (how fucking dare you), or you stay long enough to run out of luck/funds to take it any further, and you either quit or get sacked. The number of injuries and player sales/leaving under SK during his tenure seems to have him speed running towards this, In addition, at clubs where winning something or signing big names isn't likely, changing the manager is pretty much the only interesting thing that can happen. As such, that's where most folk are going to go when things aren't great. There's little interest in a manager building something over a number of years, or just maintaining a level of stability, because that's fucking boring. Despite "10th and a cup run" being the mantra of many a 'Well fan, the reality is that's just not acceptable by a large portion of our fanbase. A cup run is dismissed if we don't win it, and by its nature, 10th is flirting with relegation, and involves losing more games than you win, which is unforgivable. Now, we could finish mid table, but that has to come with entertaining football, which no one can define. FWIW, I don't believe Simo did anything to out-think SK, they just played the way they have been under him, as he is also a one trick pony, fortunately for him his trick worked against us.

Taking a risk on someone coming back from injury isn't a terrible idea in isolation. However, we signed Callachan when our main midfielder in slattery was out for a year, and we already had Nicholson and paton who have been injury prone, and halliday who cant last 90. Then add the fact that we knew Miller was on borrowed time with us, and you can see the whole midfield recruitment strategy was a shambles. Especially when we lost our best player from last year in that position. On the squad size. We had a number of injuries at the start of the season, so that has to be a factor in making more signings than planned. If Nicholson wasn't injured, would we have got maswanhise? Are the loan kids inuded in the 28? How many players are fit and not in the match day squad each week? A couple? If we had our usual squad of, say 23, we'd be royally fucked with the injuries right now. We got a good turn out of Wilson due to seddons injury, but he seems to be feeling it now, as tends to haplen with young players. Are any of the other young players real prospects? I'm not seeing much from their loan exploits to suggest so.

He seems to have played 30+ games most seasons, so not injury prone (until we get hold of him at least).

I don't think we set up particularly defensively. We have 2-3 attackers and push our wingbacks high, particularly on the right. There have also been very few games in SKs tenure where we haven't been competitive and in the game in the latter stages, and we rarely shut up shop when ahead (i wish we would sometimes). We tend to be slow and deliberate at the start of games, but we've had our fair share of games where we've scored early too. The opposition have a say in that too. It looks like the players are being asked to play through the lines from the back, but they panic and punt it instead because most teams know hown to press to prevent that. As you saw on Saturday, making mistakes when trying to play through midfield can lead to bad things. That means we either don't have the ability to play that way, or aren't being coached to stick to it regardless. My opinion is that our players are largely not that good. Good coaches will make the most of the players they have (let's park the recruitment side, because that's it's own issue), so maybe 31 points from this lot at this point of the season is a good return? How many of our team would be a regular starter for other teams in the league? Miller?

What constitutes an entertaining game is subjective. Some like watching long series of intricate passing, others prefer a more direct style, fighting for second balls in the final third. Some want to see their team press high, others want to see their team draw the opponents in and hit them with blistering counter attacks. Are we defining entertaining as slick attacking moves, goals galore (for both teams), and displays of skill? Or are we talking about intrigue, incident, and discussion points? What team in the Scottish premier is the blueprint for entertaining football? Celtic? St Johnstone? Who would we say is theost progressive and entertaining manager in the league? I personally don't enjoy watching teams like Man City, as I think their style is boring, but Brighton and Liverpool are more fun to watch. My favorite motherwell side was the McLean team just before he left, but I also loved the Robinson thunderdome era (the season when we got to 2 finals and people were complaining about our style and the fact we couldn't beat celtic to win them). When it comes to our games, when the whistle goes all I'm interested in is us winning, and based on the general vibe from the crowd, most people are the same. Celebrating wins is fun, but I can't remember ever having the buzz of a good losing performance sustain me over a weekend. I don't think I've ever pulled out the "We played better than you" schtick to a fan of a rival team that beat us. One thing I can guarantee is that not a single fan would sacrifice results and points for performances in real life. Attacking and creative players are expensive, and they don't last long at clubs like ours. They can be the difference when still playing a more cautious style. Otherwise, to play a more attacking/creative style, you're going to concede more chances. Stuart Kettlewell's preferred style seems to be using high wing backs to press teams in wide areas, as well as hitting quick counter attacks. That's entertaining when it works, as we saw with max and KVV, or Gent and Bair. We have also had some good young players, and unearthed some gems, which is also entertaining. I think that our struggle this season is that we haven't had any consistency in the WB area, although kaleta has shown in flashes that he can be dangerous. In addition, we can't keep any kind of consistent lineup on the pitch due to a ridiculous run of injuries (something that can be discussed in its own right). Those quick passing moves and free flowing attacks would be more likely if players had the chance to build partnerships. This discussion is cyclical, and will surface again when our next manager guides us to successive 3-2 losses.

We somehow had a handful of decent chances despite being so bad again. Our defense did a great job with the last ditch blocks, but killie fans must be furious about not being able to take any more than a point from that. It was fun listening to killie fans boo us using Dels shitfesting tactics, not so much them booing and slow clapping head injuries.