GLF 69: Christoper looks ahead
Heading for a fall?
So how are things down Fir Park way as we dive headlong into this new season???Against the odds we've kept our management team in place, bucked the trend by laughing off rather than rolling over on a miserable Rangers bid for Mark Reynolds, only lost one of our first-team squad whilst keeping the rest in place, our ex-captain is available for selection following his off-the-field travails, the chairman rebutted a move to change the name of our ground, season tickets are selling like the proverbial hotcakes, we were unbeaten in our three home warm-up matches with flashes of good things to come from youngsters like Jamie Murphy, Darren Smith and Paul Slane - what more could you ask!?!
So why is there that faint undercurrent that season 2008/2009 may turn out to be yet another anti-climax in the history of Motherwell Football Club ??????
We all know that the 'Well rollercoaster rarely stays on an upward curve for long, but the almost non-existent transfer activity over June and July has many fearful as to how the current squad can possibly get close to reprising the season just past.As ever with deadlines being such, as you read this we may either have made or be well down the road of making the signing(s) by the end of August that will bolster the team and squad for a campaign that Mark McGhee challenges us to not only play a number of games in the UEFA Cup but also feature in a national Cup Final.But at the time of writing there is precious little activity either rumoured or confirmed by the usual suspects to make us believe that another Chris Porter or Stephen Hughes is to be pulled out of the hat in time.
One sign that has got people worried was the obligatory pre-season squad pictures.Nice new strip, nice new pitch but where are the rest of the players??!?Of course times change and there is no desire to return to the bad old days of Harri Kampmaan stockpiling the dregs of home and foreign shores into Claret and Amber. But with a squad line-up of only seventeen, including likely long-term absentee Brian McLean, just the one keeper and, with respect, three guys who are unlikely to be ready for too much top-team play this time around we enter a season where the manager is challenging his troops to play something like fifty matches with little in the way of option to rotate his starting XI when it requires freshening up.
Any team that performs as well as we did last campaign expect to find the going tougher second time around as teams suss out what makes them tick.Whilst the other SPL managers don't have to trouble MENSA to work out that Chris Porter is the fulcrum of our attacking movements, and if you want to stop us pouring forward then make our full-backs defend rather than leave them free to bomb forward and stopping Stephen Hughes means stopping the majority of our midfield guile, everyone and their granny know that our defence is there for the taking yet we've still not signed anyone to address this major shortcoming.
Whilst John Kennedy may have been too expensive a risk to take, big Soley may (as hard as it is to believe) have actually further weakened our centre-half area and big Gunnar Neilsen may not turn out to be another Lewis Grabban or Luke Daniels, even after only game one at Tynecastle it is sure to obvious for the board and management to ignore that we simply MUST bring in fresh blood to at least challenge the current back five otherwise it could be a long second half of 2008 as we watch goals raining in at both ends of the pitch but fear that we will consistently ship more than we'll score.Surely the facts are undeniable;Buzz will shot-stop all day long but is susceptible to any flighted ball.
Coach has had a year where he has went from club captain with the world at his feet to an ex-captain after only thirteen outings with the armband who is in the papers more for various club/holiday incidents than for his performances on the park and whose main achievemnt at Tynecastle was to bounce about like a numpty in front of their goalie at a free-kick.Stevie Hammell looked more like his old self but still has defensive failings and will not help our aerial anxieties at five foot ten.Mark Reynolds is clearly set for bigger and better things but is his next club going to benefit from how much work he'll face during his remaining time in Claret and Amber and Stephen Craigan is not getting any quicker, not improving his distribution any and his previous struggles when made captain look to have every chance of resurfacing.What pressures do these five face at present?????Brian McLean or Kenny Connolly putting their injury problems behind them??Bob Malcolm dropping into the back four??A 22-year-old goalie loaned out from the Premiership??Not exactly options that will have them losing too much sleep methinks.Plus this is on the assumption that we don't suffer injuries or suspensions so those new defensive recruits that we were surprised we didn't hire in the winter but still saw us achieve our European objective surely MUST be obtained before August ends.
Mamam was on the bench at Tynecastle but only in a spectating capacity and the manager has been quoted as saying he is unsure whether he will be signed due to the cover we have in the midfield area.Certainly the first four chosen look likely to be first picks but will they do the job week in, week out?Stephen Hughes is clearly the class act in our engine room and Keith Lasley remains more of a fans favourite than possibly the management's but will McGarry fizzle out again??Will the hoped transformation of Malcolm after a McGhee pre-season transpire??Can a more traditional 'winger' like Darren Smith or Jim O'Brien break through and hold down a starting spot??Mark Fitzpatrick continues to frustrate.Does two constants out of seven give us enough to push on both domestically and in Europe???????
The strikers got the majority of the plaudits last season and rightly so.So much so that one (and arguably amongst the home stands the least important of the three) has moved on to pastures new.Clarky and Ports have started where they left off but what happens if the former goes off the boil as he has done previously or the latter is cashed in come January??Will Jamie Murphy get his chance and/or take it??If we're reluctant to throw in this nineteen year old then what chance has Paul Slane at just sixteen??Are Smith/O'Brien/McGarry able striking deputies???Can Archdeacon or McHugh make the jump?
As ever, lots of questions with the answers to come.But whilst we are not considering bending from the 'In Mark We Trust' maxim any time soon, a couple more foot soldiers wouldn't go amiss.....
Christopher Hutton
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