couttsy

Suspect the team picks itself tomorrow with Slattery out. Kelly Casey Mugabi Blaney SOD Paton Butcher Spittal Spencer Biereth Obika Suppose the only concern would be is if Obika is fit enough to start.

No doubt the bar was low yesterday, has to be Spittal for me, did well in an unusual position in the 1st half, ran himself into the ground trying to create in the 2nd half, and then took a very good penalty for our goal.

Yeh, agree, the team selection was horrible and completely ruined the first half for us. No surprise that we improved after the break with Spittal further forward and Spencer at full back. Kettlewell has to get back to doing the obvious/sensible things. For the first 6/7 months of his tenure I thought he was great, finally we had a manager that didn’t try to over think and played players in position and in a system that worked for them. We have to get back to that. The Dundee game at FP is now huge, I’m assuming (even if we play well) we’ll lose at Parkhead, that’ll be 2 points from 30, lose to Dundee and the pressure on the club/manager for change maybe too much to resist. 3-5-2 Kelly, Casey, Butcher, Blaney Spencer, Slattery, Paton, Spittal, Gent (might not be great but gives us balance) Obika, Bierth I think we’ve all now seen enough of Bair and Wilkinson for the time being, and O’Donnell looks finished at this level I’m afraid. Could make a case for Mugabi at CH and Butcher in the holding midfielder role instead of Paton, but I fear the time playing at the back and his recent injury would render him too slow. Oh, and I think Sibbicks yellow card was for time wasting, not even sure the ref noticed the stolen yards!

3 forwards and no left back. Hmmm…. Spittal left wing back? Blaney left back in a back 4? Who knows but I can’t say I’m a fan.

I’m hopeful we’ll see a starting line up of Kelly, Spencer, Casey, Butcher, Blaney, Gent, Paton, Spittal, Slattery, Bair & Biereth. Think a 3-5-2 suits us best at the moment and to have left footed players on the left (Blaney, Gent) gives us much better balance. Would have dropped Slattery as he’s been poor of late, but not sure we have any better options, and he played very well against Hearts at Tynecastle earlier in the season, so fingers crossed he can replicate that.

Zero chance of a Motherwell manager being sacked with a record of 31 played, 15 won, 7 drawn and 9 lost (presuming those stats are correct), and nor should he be in my opinion. He’s earned the right to the time to turn it around. No doubt we’re going through a tough spell, however unless we’re marooned at the bottom of the table Kettlewell will be with us until at least the end of year.

Yeh, I agree wellsince75, we know that we have a core that are good enough for this league Kelly, Butcher, Casey, McGinn, Spencer, Spittal, Slattery, Paton, Biereth, and whilst some of them have been playing poorly recently, I think we have to persevere with them. Just need to work out who the other 2 should be. I’d go Gent and Bair. Gent as he’ll give us better balance and allow us to get Spencer on the right where I think he’ll be more effective, and Bair as he’s probably the best foil for Biereth. If McGinn and/or Butcher are missing then Blaney followed by Mugabi to come in.

Think we might need to agree to disagree there! Whilst Kelly is not in the Randolph/Ruddy class, maybe not even Gillespie, but he’s a million miles from the duds in my original list.

Haha remember him well unfortunately! Although in my opinion Stevie Woods is the all time worst in my lifetime! Hadnt thought about it before but it seems like we’ve either had really good or really bad goalkeepers over the last 30/40 years, not much in between! Good = Goram, Ruddy, Randolph, Gillespie, Carson and Kelly. Bad = Woods, Gardner, Howie, Dubourdeau, Marshall and the others I mentioned earlier.

Completely agree with the watch what you wish for comment. Kelly is going through a poor patch of form, although arguably from my perspective only the 4th goal on Wed night should sit at his door in terms of a bad mistake. Those of us who’ve sat through the Samson’s, Hollis’s, Twardzik’s and Nielsen’s of the world know only too well that it’s not always easy to find a decent keeper! Kelly is far from our biggest issue right now.

I agree, but with our collection of poor strikers picking 2 instead of 1 doesn’t seem sensible to me. Think the main aim tomorrow will be to keep it tight, be solid and hopefully take one of the couple of opportunities that are bound to come our way. its far from ideal but I’d have Spittal a lot closer to the loan striker, sit Slattery on the bench and have Spencer on the right with more license to get forward.

Yip, a definite possibility, although on that pitch it might not be the worst idea in the world as long as we get some support to him. Shaw and Wilkinson have been so poor, and Biereth won’t be allowed to start, so I see it as the best of a bad bunch of options.

Very tough decisions to be made on Saturday. I think I’d go with a 3-5-1-1. McGinn, Butcher, Casey Spencer, Davor, Miller, Paton, Odonnell Spittal Bair (we’d all have Biereth but that’s not happening, particularly on that pitch) Spencer on the right, O’Donnell reluctantly on the left (don’t think we have anyone else). Deffo do not want to see Slattery or Wilkinson starting. Reluctantly going for Bair up front as he’s at least got a presence and works hard, not sure we’d get that from Wilkinson or Shaw. Biereth to come on last 20 mins and get the winner!

For the first time since getting the job Kettlewell has a lot to think about in terms of formation, tactics and personnel for Saturday, as that was completed unacceptable tonight. We’ve lost 7 goals in the last 2 home games, so clearly something’s wrong at the back. Then despite scoring 5 goals, remarkably all of them have come with Biereth on the pitch even though he only played 60 mins across the 2 games! Starting Biereth and Butcher would go a long way to helping these issues, however I assume Biereth still won’t be allowed to start, particularly on the plastic, I also wonder if we’d be concerned about starting Butcher on the plastic as well. Sadly I can only see another defeat 😞

Thank god Slattery’s off. Don’t think I could have taken another 45 mins of watching his efforts to win fouls (ignoring the ball)

Exactly the team I expected SK to pick! Let’s hope we see Spencer on the right, although I very much doubt it!

Can’t see Spittal being dropped, and despite being poor on a Sat I don’t think he should be to be honest. Also, I think we have to see Spencer at RWB, I think he could be a real threat going forward on the right. I’d go Kelly, Spencer (RWB) McGinn, Butcher (Mugabi if he’s not fit enough to start), Casey, Odonnell (LWB), Miller, Paton, Slattery, Spittal and Wilkinson. Not ideal having Odonnell at LWB, but I don’t think Gent looks ready yet. We would all want Mika starting but judging by what Kettlewell said I’d say Arsenal have a big say in how many minutes he’s allowed to play!

Suspect we’ll only see 1 change, Wilkinson coming in for Miller, with Paton or Slattery dropping deeper. Would be great to see Butcher and Biereth get some mins. Fancy us to win today. 2-1

Terrible performance, and one of our worst this season. Thought the midfield was very poor, Paton and Spittal in particular. Although in fairness it was likely heading towards a no or low scoring draw until the red card. Very surprised to hear Faddy say he thought it was a red, I’m still struggling to see enough contact for that to be deemed a foul, in fact every bit as much contact, if not more, on Wilkinson when he gets booked for diving (and I’m not saying that was a pen). Need a rethinking for Perth, would like to see Spencer on the right and a genuinely left footed left back come in. Also think we need to go 2 up top to be a threat, which 2 I’m not sure! Still think we’ll finish mid table.

I agree, a tough day for him where he was pretty isolated the whole game. Then when we went 2 up top towards the end he was (rightly) taken off. He was far from being our worst player on the day, but he seems to be the fall guy at the moment.

Gutted with that today, and will take a bit of getting over, like us all I thought we had rescued deserved point at the death, only to go to sleep 2 mins later. Thought Kelly was deffo at fault for the first, not so sure about the 2nd to be honest, looked like we lost a runner into the box, disappointing given how well we had defended for 86 mins. But as others have said, an encouraging performance versus a team with 20/30 times our budget. 3 or 4 winnable games coming up, let’s hope we can stay organised and find some goals from somewhere!

Kelly and Spittal both fit to start, great news!

Wilkinson out, presume injured as not on the bench. My god we’re thin on the ground for strikers.

Honourable mentions for McGinn, Mugabi and Souare, however it has to be Mika!

Great news seeing Boyle not in the starting line up for Hibs.