GLF 65: Christopher reckons we might be ready for that Great Leap Forward
Already A Mark-ed Improvement
"Clarkson plays a great one-two on the edge of the box before playing a perfect square ball for McGarry to react quickest and knock home.Minutes later McGarry repays the compliment when a tremendous turn of pace sees him hurtle down the wing before firing over a pin-point cross that Clarkson powers towards goal with his head, only to see the woodwork deny him.These two are tearing St Mirren to shreds in this first half......".
Now, if I'd typed this last season, your response would have been to point me in the direction of;
A/the nearest physciatric establishment
B/ the nearest branch of Optical Express/Specsavers
or
C/ the nearest meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous
Yet the first half at Paisley saw two of our more recently lamented squad members playing with a new lease of life as Motherwell produced a little cameo of the style, passion and skill that many 'Well fans have been praying would return to their team's play.Due to deadlines I'm writing this after only one competitive game under the leadership of the new gaffer, but already there are green shoots of recovery that give us reasons to be cheerful as we head into season 2007/2008.
As Maurice Malpas persisted with his 'dead man walking' position during the early summer, the names bandied about for his potential successor all had their relative merits, yet also some worrying gaps (Coyle - unproven in the SPL?McAllister or Nijholt - another rookie in the McLeish mould?McLean - out of the game for years?).
Then suddenly we were told that the board were pleasantly surprised by the calibre of applicants who had put themselves forward for the position and then the hat of one Mark McGhee was thrown into the ring.There was again a mixed response from the fans, some uncertain of his CV from his time in England, whilst others felt that steering clear of the usual suspects could only be a welcome breath of fresh air.
Once unveiled, McGhee proved he was certainly not lacking in self-belief, stating he was surprised that a club from his homeland had not came calling for him before and that vacant posts at the likes of Pittodrie and Tynecastle had not led to his mobile ringing.For the vast majority in Claret and Amber the important part of the episode was that Malpas and Hegarty had left the building, and therefore they were happy to get behind the new man whoever he may be, and look forward rather than back on the dismal term just finished.
It didn't take long for there to be initial murmurs of uncertainty as regards the former Aberdeen striker accepting the fait accompli ofhis backroom staff.Such level-headed luminaries as Jim Mclean raged that if any manager was stipulated to in such a way he should refuse the job point blank.In my opinion, the facts that he has been out of the game for a relatively long period of time and that this is his first foray into Scottish football would make it pretty clear that he didn't have an existing group of assistants around him and in Scott Leitch and especially Chris McCart he has two men who know the Scottish scene, the SPL and the goings on at Fir Park in particular inside out.
As we headed to Austria for our pre-arranged pre-season preamble, we were joined by some Polish trialists as well as rumoured new recruits as wide-ranging as loan signings from Germany (Wolsburg and Hamburg), England (Crystal Palace and Birmingham) and Scotland (Celtic) as well as permanent purchases like Craig Dargo and Stephen Hughes.Again, I think the new man has proven himself to be focussed on the bigger picture by not simply diving into the transfer market in too much of a rush.
McGhee has set his stall out early as regards what he is looking to achieve at Fir Park; a stronger first-team squad than he inherited, consisting of around 23 players, a pacy, passing style of play in a flexible 4-3-3 formation with a group of players getting down to an accepptable level of fat count that will allow them to play with energy and pace.He hasn't been shy in stating he still wants at least three additional recruits by the end of August ( a goalie, a left-sided wide player and another striker ) whilst championing guys who many thought were on the way out (the aforementioned Clarkson and McGarry) and not making fans favourites automatic picks (Corrigan, McLean).
Many a new manager, (especially one who had been on the footballing sidelines for some time, who would not have been criticised if he had carried out a swift cullof an underperforming squad and who seems to have got the majority shareholder's agreement to plough some of the Foran/McDonald/Gretna monies back into the squad) would have been unable to resist having half-a-dozen new faces at the eve-of-season photoshoot in a bid to stamp his mark on his new team.Yet our boss has resisted that temptatation and has worked pretty much with what he has at his disposal whilst biding his time to get the type of players he wants - however long that takes.Having said that, the two in place by the start of the season certainly promise that good things are to come......
It's arguable as to whether Simon Mensing is a Scott Leitch or a Mark McGhee signing, but he certainly comes with the attributes the top man wants more of in our side - steel, determination, work-rate, desire and tough in the tackle.Chris Porter certainly fits the profile of the type of English lower league performer that McGhee would know more about than most.Again though, rather than bask in the warm glow of doing such a prudent piece of business as picking up a highly-rated striker for nowt, the manager challenged our new number nine to work on adding the pace and strength to his game that would help see him, Ross McCormack, Clarky and hopefully another new striker combine to achieve the target set of them to score 40 goals.
Anyway, by the time you are reading this we may ........ wait a minute - FORTY GOALS ?!?BETWEEN FOUR MOTHERWELL STRIKERS ?!?!?IN THE SAME SEASON ?!?!?!?SHURELY SHOME MISHTAKE !!!!!!
For a club that only scored 41 goals in their entire SPL campaign last time around that's some challenge to set, but again it shows the sort of mentality the boss is looking to instill within his charges.He seems to fully believe that Porter can live up to his billing of a 20-a-season kinda guy and like us fans he has been mightily impressed with McCormack so if these two were to hit say thirty between them how many would the new guy need to net along with Clarkson to hit that magic number - interesting times ......
So after some decent friendlies, we headed to Paisley with a mix of hope that a new broom would do the trick, tempered with memories of recent Love Street debacles.When the line-up was named, it wasn't met with universal approval ......
A possibly unfit Stephen Craigan ahead of McLean??A midfield including Phil O'Donnell, Mark Fitzpatrick and McGarry ahead of the likes of Mensing, Danny Murphy and Darren Smith ???And Clarky having to fill the yellow boots of an on-fire McCormack ??????The jury was suddenly out again.
Of course, we now know that the manager can claim to have got it right.As much as some will mutter about the merits of the club captain running out of steam in less than an hour while a new signing watched from the bench and how much influence Fitzy had on proceedings, the manager couldn't be faulted on getting us off to a flyer.Personally, a little niggle was the realisation that we were only checking who our back-up penalty taker was the day prior to the big kick-off ?!?
The final piece of visual proof that we are on a better footing was the fact that McGhee was very involved during the ninety minutes, again reminding us of the better days of Butcher's reign rather than the sit-back- and-accept-it feel of the Malpas season.Of course some managers can rant and rave with no end product, but it brought back happier memories of the Tommy McLean era to see our manager tinkering with formations, making bold substitutions and not being shy in putting his feelings across to those in a Claret and Amber jersey.
Of course, by the time we hit the streets the intial feel-good factor may have abated somewhat.Then again we might have followed up our away win with a series of point-securing Fir Park performances that has us still purring with satisfaction.What is surely certain though is that we are on the move in the right direction again.As ever, we are looking for that Great Leap Forward -it may not have happened quite yet, but under Mark McGhee we already at least look capable of achieving it.
by Christopher Hutton
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