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Aberdeen v Motherwell 14/02/2024


SteelmaninOZ
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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. 

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3 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

If Casey fit enough then I would start him ahead of Butcher who just isn't the same player. Miovski will run rings round him.

I would also be tempted to start Devine and Jili in wing back roles.  Get Halliday back in at expense of Paton.

COYW

Good call Grizzly. You can add Vale to that list too as he's looked good in his 2 cameos. As always  Aberdeen will prove a hard physical test  

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On 2/10/2024 at 9:44 AM, grizzlyg said:

If Casey fit enough then I would start him ahead of Butcher who just isn't the same player. Miovski will run rings round him.

I would also be tempted to start Devine and Jili in wing back roles.  Get Halliday back in at expense of Paton.

COYW

Casey or Butcher is a toss up between poor or piss poor. 

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On 2/10/2024 at 9:49 AM, Kmcalpin said:

Good call Grizzly. You can add Vale to that list too as he's looked good in his 2 cameos. As always  Aberdeen will prove a hard physical test  

Aberdeen won't even need to try , if they remain patient we will as near as put the ball in the net for them. It's been our Achilles heel for long enough , the standard of goal we generally concede is frankly a joke.

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Was hoping for a draw in the stJohnstone game today but if any team gets beat I’d rather the team below us gets beat and keep them below us. Hopefully we can get a point or three in this game. Just depends if we gift wrap a goal or two for them or if the good Motherwell team turn up. COYW !!

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Hopefully see a reaction to Friday night and a few changes to freshen things up and give Aberdeen something different to think about.

We have a decent record at Puttodrie so could see us getting a draw which would keep them below us.

3 points would be tasty.

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My team would be this but no way will it happen as SK not brave enough to drop certain players he has been too loyal to.   I would start Vale but he will go 1 up top.

               Oxborough

        McGinn.    Casey.      Blaney

Devine.                                          Gent

            Davor.    Halliday.    Miller

                             Spittal

                             Bair

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1 hour ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Hopefully see a reaction to Friday night and a few changes to freshen things up and give Aberdeen something different to think about.

We have a decent record at Puttodrie so could see us getting a draw which would keep them below us.

3 points would be tasty.

Aberdeen are just as bad as us, make sure Mijovski is denied any time on the ball and they have nothing to offer, as you say our record up there is decent this game is very winnable.

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1 hour ago, grizzlyg said:

My team would be this but no way will it happen as SK not brave enough to drop certain players he has been too loyal to.   I would start Vale but he will go 1 up top.

               Oxborough

        McGinn.    Casey.      Blaney

Devine.                                          Gent

            Davor.    Halliday.    Miller

                             Spittal

                             Bair

I think Kettlewell is a genuinely nice guy and to be honest as much as Kelly is not my favourite player I'm actually really sorry he's having this crisis of confidence. He's not a bad keeper in my view but maybe a rest for a couple of games will do him good. Maybe Kettlewell has had faith in players who haven't been performing for the best reasons. But we need to stay up so maybe changes have to be made 

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3 minutes ago, wellgirl said:

I think Kettlewell is a genuinely nice guy and to be honest as much as Kelly is not my favourite player I'm actually really sorry he's having this crisis of confidence. He's not a bad keeper in my view but maybe a rest for a couple of games will do him good. Maybe Kettlewell has had faith in players who haven't been performing for the best reasons. But we need to stay up so maybe changes have to be made 

I hate seeing Kelly making mistakes but his confidence must be rock bottom. I have no idea how good Oxborough will be but can't be any worse

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3 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

I hate seeing Kelly making mistakes but his confidence must be rock bottom. I have no idea how good Oxborough will be but can't be any worse

I actually personally thought that the entire teams confidence went in the bin after the Celtic defeat last September but that Kelly had picked up after that. I'm sad to see it because I don't think he's a bad keeper. 

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1 hour ago, grizzlyg said:

My team would be this but no way will it happen as SK not brave enough to drop certain players he has been too loyal to.   I would start Vale but he will go 1 up top.

               Oxborough

        McGinn.    Casey.      Blaney

Devine.                                          Gent

            Davor.    Halliday.    Miller

                             Spittal

                             Bair

We need to be careful and not make too many changes. Yes, Friday was a nightmare but yet the Tuesday was sublime. In our 8 games since the County nightmare only rangers have beat us. Won2, drew5 and lost that one game. We have had 2 shut outs and only rangers and hibs scored 2 against us. We are not that far away that we need to be making wholesale changes. I think that’s where we went wrong initially. We went on a bad run of results but playing well. We made a bunch of changes and our performances dropped off a cliff. We are inconsistent and we need to “tweak” rather than totally change things. With respect to Kelly he hasn’t really cost us enough the last 8 league games to warrant being dropped for an untested keeper. 

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Liam Kelly is an average keeper at this level. We've had a lot better, we've had worse. Due to his stature, he'll never be good at crosses or in the air. He is what he is. Certainly his confidence is shot at the moment and he's making a few blunders.  

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2 minutes ago, texanwellfan said:

We need to be careful and not make too many changes. 

Point taken, however Aberdeen's spies will have been interested observers at Greenock. Central defence needs changed and, if possible, we should move away from one up top,if that is possible. I'd love to see Vale get more gametime  even if he's only fit for 45 mins. 

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3 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Liam Kelly is an average keeper at this level. We've had a lot better, we've had worse. Due to his stature, he'll never be good at crosses or in the air. He is what he is. Certainly his confidence is shot at the moment and he's making a few blunders.  

I personally think on his day he's better than average. No doubt that he's having a confidence crisis at the moment though. 

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3 minutes ago, wellgirl said:

I personally think on his day he's better than average. No doubt that he's having a confidence crisis at the moment though. 

He'll never command his box, that's just not his style. We can live with that so long as we have a big solid central defence and wing backs who can stop crosses, to compensate for that, but unfortunately we don't. 

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11 minutes ago, grizzlyg said:

I hate seeing Kelly making mistakes but his confidence must be rock bottom. I have no idea how good Oxborough will be but can't be any worse

It is quite a conundrum. Kelly is making too many mistakes and his confidence looks shot. So a rest might be the answer. He is a far better goalkeeper than he is currently showing. It certainly would happen if he were an outfielder. 

On the other hand, Oxborough did not inspire confidence with his League Cup outings, especially against Queen of the South. Then again he has had no opportunity to demonstrate whether he has improved since those two appearances. SK and the coaches see them both in training.

If Oxborough plays I don't think his performance will decide the game. If Kelly plays, his performance may well decide the game.....one way or another. If we could only sort out our central defence and unearth wing backs that could defend the goalkeeper situation would not be so critical.

It really is a tough one. 

 

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Just now, dennyc said:

It is quite a conundrum. Kelly is making too many mistakes and his confidence looks shot. So a rest might be the answer. He is a far better goalkeeper than he is currently showing. It certainly would happen if he were an outfielder. 

On the other hand, Oxborough did not inspire confidence with his League Cup outings, especially against Queen of the South. Then again he has had no opportunity to demonstrate whether he has improved since those two appearances. SK and the coaches see them both in training.

If Oxborough plays I don't think his performance will decide the game. If Kelly plays, his performance may well decide the game.....one way or another. If we could only sort out our central defence and unearth wing backs that could defend the goalkeeper situation would not be so critical.

It really is a tough one. 

 

It is. Dont think it's just as simple as dropping Kelly. Not an easy decision for Kettlewell. 

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7 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

He'll never command his box, that's just not his style. We can live with that so long as we have a big solid central defence and wing backs who can stop crosses, to compensate for that, but unfortunately we don't. 

Exactly,we find ourselves with a goalkeeper who can't command his box and who's confident must be about rock bottom as well as central defenders that are all over the place anytime the ball comes in from the wide area,it's a recipe for disaster and that will be targeted by every opposition between now and the end of the season.we seemed to have tried every combination at centre back but yet we still concede amateur level goals on a weekly basis.kelly can't be installing any confidence in the guys in front of him and vice versa,the defence are just as bad,it's time he was taking out the team and we gave oxborough a go but i think as long as we're struggling and relegation is still a possibility I think kelly will be in the team same as someone like o'donnell,I think kettlewell will stick to what he knows than risk going with more untried players.

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15 minutes ago, mfc said:

Exactly,we find ourselves with a goalkeeper who can't command his box and who's confident must be about rock bottom as well as central defenders that are all over the place anytime the ball comes in from the wide area,it's a recipe for disaster and that will be targeted by every opposition between now and the end of the season.we seemed to have tried every combination at centre back but yet we still concede amateur level goals on a weekly basis.kelly can't be installing any confidence in the guys in front of him and vice versa,the defence are just as bad,it's time he was taking out the team and we gave oxborough a go but i think as long as we're struggling and relegation is still a possibility I think kelly will be in the team same as someone like o'donnell,I think kettlewell will stick to what he knows than risk going with more untried players.

Personally I think SOD gets far too much stick and that he's a very easy target. 

I think Mugabe is very hit and miss. SOD seems to get far more stick though in my view 

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