MelvinBragg

Why? What did he say? I haven't seen this week's press conference yet....

I had kind of assumed that Wilson in January was the plan (similar to Johnston last season) and that was the reason that Souare was only a six month deal...

Not wishing to be negative but Souare is a 33 year old with a patchy injury record who has played around 30 games in the last 4 seasons. Might it be that this is as fit as he gets? Is his missing pre season training a red herring on that front?

Injured?

I agree. I'd be inclined to try McGinn there only as he seems to have slightly more of a football brain than the other candidates. What I would say about the defence in mitigation is that we have played five games so far this season and five different back threes. That can't help...

Watching Casey without Butcher is like watching Kipré and Dunne without Aldred or Hartley. He seems to need an organiser alongside him...

I agree but given we've just signed Souare and we have both McGinn and O'Donnell at right wing back, I'm not sure Kettlewell does...

Point away from home first day of the season is never bad. Unsurprised to hear that the wing backs were perhaps culpable at the goal. Neither have convinced against lower league sides so definitely had concerns there before the game.. As I said, given the circumstances, you take the point. Team just promoted in the first game was always going to be tricky. Some previous Motherwell sides would have lost that game having conceded an equaliser when we did...

You have just made Kettlewell's case for signing Theo Bair...

Bair is 23, still relatively young. Moult was 22 when he made his name at Wrexham. Am I convinced Bair is going to score 20 goals this season? Nope but I've been around long enough to know that footballers develop at different speeds and sometimes don't work out at certain clubs..

Anyone want a look at Scott McDonald's goals record before signing for us...

My thoughts looking at that lineup? What a cracking first eleven and what a shite bench...

So you're saying they can only play if they let us have 12 men? Can't see the other teams in the league agreeing to that..

Kettlewell confirmed that Bair and Biereth are players that have been discussed but neither deal is done post match today...

For me, we learned little today that we didn't already know. None of our current back three is a talker or organiser. This we knew. While they both have qualities, neither Wilkinson or Obika look capable of shouldering the majority of the goalscoring burden. Not news. We have some good midfielders and Miller and Spittal are our key players this season. We knew this. What did we learn, if anything? Didn't learn anything about Oxborough, one way or the other. We learned that McGinn is better at RWB than O'Donnell (bit of a problem as he's probably part of our best back three as well). Zdravkovski looks comfortable on the ball but not a stern test of him. I can understand people being underwhelmed by the early part of our performance. We took a bit to get going. But we did play some nice stuff and often were just missing that final ball or more often than not a finish. The positive is that we are creating chances. Just need to try and take more of them...

Another centre half? Surely not...

Share with the group...?

I agree with alot of what you say but here I actually think the opposite is true. There was a bit of excitement on here when we had the lad Fowler on trial. The possibility of us discovering a hidden gem is always an appealing one. I think the negativity tends to come when it's a known quantity, someone like Bair, that fans have seen and been unimpressed by already. Not that it's always justified, as you say Watt and Sutton are just two players who have underwhelmed elsewhere but did well with us. But even if not justified, it is understandable...

I normally disagree with a lot of what you post but I think you're taking unfair flak here. You're not suggesting we sign Kane or Haaland, you're suggesting players of a level we have signed before. I said to someone last night we should be looking for the striker equivalent of the Macedonian midfielder. Someone who is maybe a bit of a gamble but who has a degree of a track record... On a more general note, it seems like for some you aren't allowed to question the quality of any new signings. For me, it's fair game. But if you dare to suggest that you think someone is not good enough on the basis of your track record, you get shouted down on here. If people want to suggest they think Bair isn't good enough on what they saw at St Johnstone, they're entitled to. I remember people being really unimpressed we were signing Brian Martin. I say this as someone who believes that sometimes it just clicks for a player at a certain club and not at others (John Sutton) so am generally willing to give folk a chance. But I respect people's right to base their opinion on someone's track record without a response of "saying he's pish before he's played for us"... It's all about opinions...

Also worth pointing out Bair wouldn't be a loan as he has been released by St Johnstone.. Both pretty uninspiring names, to be honest. If you're signing Bair, you'd have been as well keeping Shields and playing him in a front two.. EDIT Also worth noting that Obika is a doubt for Saturday. Part of me already thinking that he will spend a lot of time out..

Of those 33 games, only 8 were starts.. Not that I'm saying those are great numbers but it's a clearer picture. Had a quick glance at some of his appearances. A fair few were after 70 minutes, some after 80 minutes. In a St Johnstone team that didn't create much...

I'm well aware of that. That's why I said that he had earned our trust for now. All I'm saying is that this is a different challenge to the one he inherited in February...

I tend to agree with much that you've said here. What I would add is that we have played with a 'number 10' for a lot of the games under Kettlewell. If you consider a number 10 an advanced midfielder playing behind the strikers, sometimes going beyond them, then Spittal has been playing almost as a 10. Kettlewell would have been more honest saying "Danzaki plays where Spittal does, he's not going to get a game because my replacement for Spittal will be to bring Paton on and push Slattery forward". Someone made the point to me that some managers are good at identifying players to bring in, some are good at moulding what they have into a team and others are good at both. We know that Kettlewell can take what he inherited last season and get the best out of it. We still don't know if he can sign the right players. Having seen Wilkinson and Souare, I have my concerns. His performance so far as manager means he has earned trust of the fans for now. But he has been in football long enough to know that a few defeats will see questions asked...

I always kind of thought there was a player in Tierney but we weren't sure how to use him. He also suffered from being often brought on late in games when the team was playing poorly and asked to turn it around.. Pretty obvious though that barring a managerial change, his time at Fir Park is over. Pretty early but my instinct is that Walsall sending us Wilkinson and getting Tierney, they're getting the better end of that deal... Only other thought is with Tierney away and Shields (and if rumours are to be believed Efford) to follow out the door, we have very very few attacking options. Particularly given Wilkinson and Obika's injury records. I know Kettlewell likes running with a small squad. It's starting to look skeletal..

There was another twitter rumour doing the rounds about some Nigerian striker playing in Eastern Europe. Sunday Adetunji...