star sail

Agreed.

I remember when Gannon started, he was obviously trying to implement a different style of football. I remember the first European game in Airdrie and Steven Saunders had obviously been told not to launch the ball forward. Every time he got the ball he would look up, panic and pass the ball back to the GK. I think he was playing left back that evening although I always remember him as a right sided player. I must be wrong on one of these counts unless he switched. The good news was that Saunders became a decent player under Gannon over the following 6 months. Great result last night. It would have been a brave Well fan to call that scoreline pre match. It would be fantastic if we are seeing the beginning of a cultural shift in the way the game is played at Fir Park. With Martin at Rangers and Rodgers already playing a high energy possession game at Celtic bringing Scottish football into the 21st century, let's hope we are on the right side of the revolution.

This is a discussion that comes up most years at this time. I remember after a mediocre pre season game against Gateshead a few years back this was a topic of conversation. I don't agree with your view on this. It's pre-season is not an excuse with which to whitewash over the mediocrity of the professional teams in this country. FC Twente showed what a real difference in quality is pre-season or not. The fact is that Motherwell have had the luxury of a week's summer camp in the Netherlands. They have professional players that can rest, prepare, plan for each game. They have Sports Scientists looking after their preparation. The teams that Motherwell, Dundee, St Johnstone are struggling to beat are full of journeymen, part time players, trialists trying to juggle football with other jobs. Motherwell should be beating these teams in the way FC Twente beat us, pre-season or not. What the results above tell us is that St Johnstone, Livi and Dundee are very average professional sides. We seem to find every reason possible in Scotland for accepting mediocrity and managing expectation. St Mirren showed what should be happening in these games.

If it is as successful as JG'd rebuild then we are onto a good thing.

Very much my feelings. I just could not believe what I was watching. I still find it hard to believe how comfortable it was in the end. The Ainsworth goal is a thing of beauty and Baraclough is forgiven everything in my eyes for giving us that fantastic double header result.

This is what I struggle to understand in our game. It is now heavily dominated by analysts and statisticians and yet despite this people will blindly ignore the facts in favour of opinion. I don't know how McIness has been able to forge the reputation he has. His Kilmarnock spell was far from exceptional and Kettlewell has matched him if not bettered him in terms of actual performance and yet Kettlewell is perceived as the the pound shop McIness. I don't get it.

I would love to see MVDG at Motherwell but I don't think this is a realistic possibility. He would have been my choice from the Iain Baraclough appointment onwards. I think however that was the only time he was actually ever genuinely in the frame. I remember seeing footage once of him leaving the Manchester Utd training ground in his Lamborghini super car. I don't think Motherwell would be a financially attractive prospect for him these days. The Herald (I think) actually announced him online as our new manager seconds before Wimmer was announced last time around. I think that was based purely on social media speculation on this board and Pie and Bovril etc. He would be a great choice with a wealth of coaching experience but I just don't think it is a realistic possibility.

It is a real shame to hear that Wimmer has gone. I was looking forward with some optimism to the new season for the first time in what feels like many years. It is both a surprise and not. You only have to look back six weeks ago on this thread to see us debate this very possibly. The conversation started at the time after a defeat (was it Aberdeen?) when he had that familiar thousand yard stare of Motherwell managers past as if it had finally dawned on him how limited the squad was in it's potential. My guess is that he did not really know what he was walking into with Scottish football (or at least a club with Motherwell's financial limitations) and that he started considering his exit around that time. My other wild unsubstantiated hunch ( that is what football forums are for) is that he had a half hearted attempt to promote himself for the Hearts manager just before we played them. 'Great club, great stadium, great fans' made him sound like MJC had written his script in the pre-match interview before the Hearts game. The only thing missing was to predict a Motherwell defeat so it was not an MJC prepared presser. The real reason for his departure will probably be a blend of personal and professional reasons. Like every Motherwell manager that has gone before him over the last 30 years he has contributed significantly to Motherwell's proud Premier League status. He left us in a better position than when he arrived. So thank you MW. Seemed like a really decent guy and I wish him all the best for the future.

Disappointing result yesterday and it looks increasingly like the season is going to end with a whimper. It is difficult to know if Wimmer is taking the team forward at the moment. The lack of defenders does not help. It would be interesting to compare the stats for Kettlewell and Wimmer this season. One thing I find really interesting about the perception we have of different managers is that is does not seem to be entirely results driven. Derek McIness is a good example. His Kilmarnock team has done no better than us and he is being talked up for the Hearts job. He has had a few seasons now to build a squad and you could argue that the plastic pitch has given them a significant home advantage this season. Without the points collected at home they would have been in real danger of relegation. Stevie Robinson at St Mirren has outperformed McIness in the league over the last three seasons with demographically a similar team and yet he does not seem to have the same reputation . Let's hope we can get a result against Killie in midweek to put some distance between us and them.

Fantastic. Safety guaranteed? !!!

Football is incredible. We are down 1-0 and Dundee and Killie score simultaneously. My 'we are safe' chat looks in real jeopardy and suddenly we score two goals within a few minutes. I think it is now safe to say.... We are safe!!! Was never in doubt ( takes a massive sigh of relief). Wimmer can start planning for next season. Hopefully he had a cohesive plan because we do not seem to have had one of those for years.

We always seemed more successful with recruitment when the manager himself had a list of players he wanted. Jim Gannon is possibly the most obvious example of this. Baraclough also brought with him a portfolio of players he wanted to sign that included Louis Moult. I thought MW's interview was very interesting today. He admitted that he does not have the players to play the style he wants. Does he have a list of players that he does want to sign to play his style or does he ask Dawes to find him players with a certain skill set? I wonder sometimes if the obsession with data analysis comes at the expense of a managers natural feel for the game and for a good player.

If we lose all 5 games we would deserve to be relegated as the poorest team in the bottom half. Current Form and form throughout the season does not suggest that will happen. I can understand the angst that this is a possibility but as a potential outcome it is a massive outlier. Possible yes, likely no. If this were to happen, we would be looking for a new manager in the summer. This squad of players has it's faults but given the dross we will be up against over the next few weeks 5 loses without reply would be unacceptable. It is all just chat however. It won't happen. We are staying up this year.

This is interesting. I am sure that most of us would be thinking that other teams in the bottom six had gained momentum in recent weeks whilst our form has dropped off a cliff. The reality is, we are the in form team (relatively) along with StJ going into the split. Everything points to us being fine. Form, current league position, the cut throat nature of the last 5 games. Motherwell's season imploded in Perth. Those games leave a feeling that it has been a very unsatisfactory season. This will be the chance to go some way towards fixing that. I think we will win that first game.

I agree. We will not be getting relegated this season. The psychology is interesting. There is a rather natural assumption that we are the poorest of the 6 simply because of our natural angst of a worst case scenario. Hearts are probably the best of the six and they were rotten yesterday. They could not raise themselves to a performance despite all that was at stake. After Hearts, we are in the best place. The table does not lie. Draws work nicely for us. The teams below need wins. Again our natural irrational brains would tell us that St Johnstone will never make up 5 points on Dundee yet we have the fear about Dundee making up 5 points on us. We are rotten. Of that there is no doubt. The teams around us are as bad if not worse. If they were not, they would be further up the league table. I can't help but think of the Butland goal/ no goal against Rangers. Had that been given as it should we would be as good as home and dry right now. Yes there will be a few anguish moments but we will be safe this year.