Motherwell v Morton - Match Thread

[EanieMeany]

What difference would Dave Wylie have made?

Would probably have stopped a couple of the goals.

 

The bigger problem with last night is that we didn't really appear to have any kind of game plan. While they won't be as good, we have 8 games to play against the two Dundee sides and hopefully a few Cup ones against bigger team, so we're not going to be strangers to to playing teams who are, in theory, a lot better than us. It'd have been nice to have seen some evidence that we've got some kind of plan for them, whether it's early in the season or not.

[SpoonTon]

We went out and appointed a supposedly quite highly rated goalkeeping coach from down south who won't necessarily be all that cheap.

 

Most thought, like having Alexander at Livi, Hopkin would have went and got a similar experience goalkeeper as a solid foundation at the back who could do double duty as coach.

 

Gambling on 2 inexperienced non-entities is a huge risk.

His role is a combination of goalkeeper coaching and scouting/recruitment, which makes the performances of Ramsbottom all the more worrying.

[Jamie_M]

His role is a combination of goalkeeper coaching and scouting/recruitment, which makes the performances of Ramsbottom all the more worrying.

Hopkin said Ramsbottom is a student of the game.

 

He must have skipped the chapters on handling, kicking and coming off your line.

[vikingTON]

Your only point I would strongly disagree with is point i):

I stated previously the goalkeeping position was my main concern, because an incompetent keeper causes the defenders in front of him to lose confidence, which a decent team would punish clinically. I’m sure I read that Hopkin was not involved in this signing and didnt know who the player was, which is also very alarming. 

 

I've read nothing of the sort and would like to see evidence for that claim.

 

For these reasons I feel this our priority position to strengthen, therefore where we should prioritise our budget, whether purchase or loan goalkeeper.

 

 

We've already used our budget to contract two goalkeepers to the club until May 2020 and in case you didn't notice, our 34 year old centre back went off injured in the game last night and we have no cover at all for that position. That is our clear and obvious priority in signing more players; adding yet another goalkeeper would be a waste of those resources. 

 

Letting Dave Wylie go hasn’t helped either, as he would’ve surely had a say on this signing.

 

What qualifies David Wylie to pick our goalkeeper signings? Last time I checked, he wasn't a scout and has no track record at all of identifying talent. Your main issue here seems to be the lack of ex-player 'legends' who got to sign off on the deal, as if a seal of approval from either 'Hoppy' or 'Dave' would magically protect the club from signing a total haddy. 

[vikingTON]

Would probably have stopped a couple of the goals.

 

The bigger problem with last night is that we didn't really appear to have any kind of game plan. While they won't be as good, we have 8 games to play against the two Dundee sides and hopefully a few Cup ones against bigger team, so we're not going to be strangers to to playing teams who are, in theory, a lot better than us. It'd have been nice to have seen some evidence that we've got some kind of plan for them, whether it's early in the season or not.

 

I think the game plan was clear enough: direct balls up to Sutton, players building play from his knock downs, the team pressing the opposition a lot to win the ball back or at least disrupt their build-up play. This allowed us to carve out a few decent chances towards the end of the first half and kept us within touching distance until the second goal and a clear lack of match fitness finished the game as a contest. 

 

The main tactical concern from last night was just how suicidally high our back line was playing against a team with far more pace than any of our defenders. A high defensive line helps the team to press effectively, but the balance did not look right last night. The organisation of the defence was piss-poor but that's to be expected when we didn't bother signing any central defenders to work on that shape since the start of pre-season. If Muirhead is supposed to be the Plan B option then that's not going to be effective either, as he has done nothing even against that rabble on Tuesday night. 

[TheGoon]

We won’t really get a proper barometer of where we are until the QOTS game. Motherwell are obviously a cut above what we’ll be facing this season, but it still highlighted a few things needing addressed.

 

When Gaston left (along with Wylie) my assumption was we’d be recruiting an experienced goalkeeper who’d act as a coach as well, like Alexander. I’m aware that’s not exactly an easy thing to obtain, but that made the most sense. Going with not one, but two, untested youngsters (including one with a torrid injury record) was always going to be a massive risk. A solid keeper is absolutely vital to any defence and (whilst it’s still early days) I really can’t see Ramsbottom doing that for us.

 

The defence itself will get better over time, have no worries about Hopkin improving it, but we badly need a couple of other bodies in there and that has to be our priority.

 

I worry we’re a bit one dimensional as well - when Hopkin-ball isn’t working, I’m not sure where we turn. Hopefully that’s something that can be addressed with a forward in the loan market or something.

[ayrstorm]

post game interview on BT Sport when asked about positives from the game Hopkin mentioned the players fitness and the overall performance and shape. So sounds like the spell of chasing shadows and being over run was just cause we are so far away from the standard of a team like Motherwell - which then makes his success is staying in the league comment in the interview understandable.

[LargsTON]

The fact Hopkin didn't go out and get an experienced safe pair of hands for the goalkeeping position is still baffling.

All down to the budget. Hard to get quality anywhere.

[Jamie_M]

All down to the budget. Hard to get quality anywhere.

Already discussed above with the coach + player wages vs experienced player/coach wage.

[LargsTON]

Already discussed above with the coach + player wages vs experienced player/coach wage.

Oh aye. Not really read much of the last couple of pages.

[EanieMeany]

post game interview on BT Sport when asked about positives from the game Hopkin mentioned the players fitness and the overall performance and shape. So sounds like the spell of chasing shadows and being over run was just cause we are so far away from the standard of a team like Motherwell - which then makes his success is staying in the league comment in the interview understandable.

 

If Hopkin thinks either the shape or performance were positives then this is going to be a really horrific season. Getting beat is fine, but getting beat in a way that was so inept is another altogether. I know it's early in the season and all the rest, but that wasn't a "good shape", it was a disjointed mess which we just need to hope is rectified over the next few weeks.

[DreamOakTree]

I've read nothing of the sort and would like to see evidence for that claim.

 

 

We've already used our budget to contract two goalkeepers to the club until May 2020 and in case you didn't notice, our 34 year old centre back went off injured in the game last night and we have no cover at all for that position. That is our clear and obvious priority in signing more players; adding yet another goalkeeper would be a waste of those resources.

 

 

What qualifies David Wylie to pick our goalkeeper signings? Last time I checked, he wasn't a scout and has no track record at all of identifying talent. Your main issue here seems to be the lack of ex-player 'legends' who got to sign off on the deal, as if a seal of approval from either 'Hoppy' or 'Dave' would magically protect the club from signing a total haddy.

On your first point above you’ll find some evidence on GMFC news. The rest I’ve taken from posts on this forum and my own interpretation.

 

On your second point, I don’t mean using our resources on “yet another goalkeeper”. I’m talking about signing a first choice goalkeeper and relegating Ramsbottom to the bench, reserves or out the door.

 

On your third point, I don’t have evidence, I just think Wylie’s input over the years has given us a steady stream of decent performances in the goalkeeping position. It’s an assumption of mine that he’d be involved in recommending our next goalkeeper. I’ve no need for ex legends to endorse any signings or club policies in general, I just feel that solid well grounded principles should apply to the modern era.

[Cappiecat 1.2]

 

On your second point, I don’t mean using our resources on “yet another goalkeeper”. I’m talking about signing a first choice goalkeeper and relegating Ramsbottom to the bench, reserves or out the door.

 

So we sign a new 1st choice keeper without using any resources.

That's genius! Why stop at a keeper?

Let's have a 40 man squad of 1st choice players all signed as volunteers.

[vikingTON]

On your first point above you’ll find some evidence on GMFC news. The rest I’ve taken from posts on this forum and my own interpretation.

 

 

No, I'd actually like you to provide the evidence for this claim, so that we can separate the facts from your 'interpretation'; the latter of which we can safely file in the bin where it belongs given your track record. 

 

On your second point, I don’t mean using our resources on “yet another goalkeeper”. I’m talking about signing a first choice goalkeeper and relegating Ramsbottom to the bench, reserves or out the door.

 

 

We already have a first choice goalkeeper: he's injured. So what you want to do is sign another first choice goalkeeper because your knickers are thoroughly drenched after last night's poor display from a backup, so that in September we'll have one first choice keeper on the park, another first choice keeper pointlessly warming the bench every week and then Ramsbottom being paid to clean the main stand on a weekly basis. All while our central defence continues to leak goals like a sieve because the resources needed to both improve our options there and provide cover for the players we already have were squandered on this nonsense demand of yours. 

 

On your third point, I don’t have evidence, I just think Wylie’s input over the years has given us a steady stream of decent performances in the goalkeeping position. It’s an assumption of mine that he’d be involved in recommending our next goalkeeper. I’ve no need for ex legends to endorse any signings or club policies in general, I just feel that solid well grounded principles should apply to the modern era.

 

 

In the decade since Wylie joined the coaching staff GMFC has gone through a stack of goalkeepers from the likes of Colin Stewart and Kevin Cuthbert to Nicolas Caraux and Jamie McGowan. If you seriously think that 'steady stream of decent performances' better describes that decade of Morton goalkeeping rather than 'hopeless flapping messes, shipped out the door every six months' then you're a lost cause. 

 

There has been very little evidence that Wylie made a substantial difference to the quality of goalkeeping and he is not a credible scout either. So no, there is no place for his seal of approval when adding a new player - in the same way that we're not going to call Andy Ritchie every time we want to add a forward. 

[DreamOakTree]

So we sign a new 1st choice keeper without using any resources.

That's genius! Why stop at a keeper?

Let's have a 40 man squad of 1st choice players all signed as volunteers.

No, read my post! I’m saying use our resources to sign a no.1 keeper, which could make the difference between up or down play-offs.

[Jamie_M]

On your first point above you’ll find some evidence on GMFC news. The rest I’ve taken from posts on this forum and my own interpretation.

"Hopkin was not involved in this signing"

 

You will find nothing that backs that statement up.

[Jamie_M]

We already have a first choice goalkeeper: he's injured.

Always assumed Ramsbottom was earmarked to be first choice.

[mcintyre_gmfc]

Always assumed Ramsbottom was earmarked to be first choice.

He is. Brought in as our number 1.

[El gofer]

No, I'd actually like you to provide the evidence for this claim, so that we can separate the facts from your 'interpretation'; the latter of which we can safely file in the bin where it belongs given your track record.

 

 

 

We already have a first choice goalkeeper: he's injured. So what you want to do is sign another first choice goalkeeper because your knickers are thoroughly drenched after last night's poor display from a backup, so that in September we'll have one first choice keeper on the park, another first choice keeper pointlessly warming the bench every week and then Ramsbottom being paid to clean the main stand on a weekly basis. All while our central defence continues to leak goals like a sieve because the resources needed to both improve our options there and provide cover for the players we already have were squandered on this nonsense demand of yours.

 

 

 

In the decade since Wylie joined the coaching staff GMFC has gone through a stack of goalkeepers from the likes of Colin Stewart and Kevin Cuthbert to Nicolas Caraux and Jamie McGowan. If you seriously think that 'steady stream of decent performances' better describes that decade of Morton goalkeeping rather than 'hopeless flapping messes, shipped out the door every six months' then you're a lost cause.

 

There has been very little evidence that Wylie made a substantial difference to the quality of goalkeeping and he is not a credible scout either. So no, there is no place for his seal of approval when adding a new player - in the same way that we're not going to call Andy Ritchie every time we want to add a forward.

Was Stewart not POTY in his first season?

Cuthbert was a decent enough keeper for us from what I remember.

McGowan was a back up who played one game.

 

Also, what evidence is there that Hopkin earmarked Pearson as first choice? Given that he was signed by the previous management/recruitment team and is someone Hopkin inherited with an 18 month contract.

Iredale was signed, given a couple of games before being farmed out on loan for a few months. Came back a much stronger prospect. It could be a solution to put one of them out on loan til Xmas and bring in a stronger more experienced keeper in short term.

[TheGoon]

We are putting an awful lot of eggs in the Pearson basket.