GLF 66: Christopher debates the merits of big defenders.
Does Size Really Matter?
It's a pleasant position to be in when thirteen matches into the campaign we have few grumbles so far.However ..........
Why oh why oh why oh why can we not defend a set-piece ?????The simple answers seems to be that our centre-halves are too wee - case closed.Hmmm ........
I think most fans have enjoyed the frank, concise and unerringly honest comments from Mark McGhee during his early days at the helm of the Good Ship 'Well.But one thing that hasn't sat so easily with me is his seemingly constant focus on our defensive achilles heel being due to a lack of height in our defence, the need for our centre-halves to sleep in growbags etc etc.Is it as simple as that though?First of all I had a look at our own partnerships vital statistics against the four teams who have a better goals against record than ourselves at the time of writing;
Celtic - 11 goals Kennedy/McManus 12ft 3in
Rangers - 11 goalsCuellar/Weir 12ft 5in
Dundee Utd - 12 goals Wilkie/Dods 12ft 5in
Hibs 13 goals Hogg/Jones 12ft 7in
Seven of our opponents have a worse record than ourselves;
Kilmarnock - 18 goals Wright/Ford 11ft 11in
Aberdeen - 19 goals Diamond/Mair 12ft 1in
St Mirren - 19 goals Millen/Haining 11ft 10in
Hearts - 23 goalsBerra/Tall12ft 1in
Falkirk - 25 goals Barr/Milne 12ft 0 in
Inverness - 28 goals McCaffrey/Munro 11ft 11in
Gretna - 31 goals Innes/Grainger 12ft 0in
Whilst our pairing measure in at;
Motherwell - 15 goals Craigan/Reynolds 11ft 9in
So what (if anything) does all thattell us ??????Well, it's true that we do have the smallest pairing in the entire SPL.It's also factual that the four clubs who are doing better than us at keeping their back door shut more often all dwarf Stephen and Mark by a combined difference of at leasthalf a foot ?!?!?Fair enoughthen, we're too vertically-challenged and that's the end of the matter - or could there possibly be more to it ??????
I thought I would list a few recent peers of the Claret and Amber to see if giving away a height advantage has been a regular Fir Park trait;
Greg Strong 6ft 2in
Brian McLean 6ft 2in
Karl Ready 6ft 1in
David Partridge 6ft 1in
Shaun Teale 6ft 0in
Jamie McGowan 6ft 0in
Willie Kinniburgh 6ft 0in
Eric Deloumeaux 5ft 10in
Martyn Corrigan 5ft 9in
What do you reckon?? Would a partnership of Strong & McLean be infinitely better than that ofDelomeaux & Corrigan due to the extra nine inches they have (come on, you've done very well not to snigger so far so keep it up......)??? Surely if it was as simple as the bigger they are, the more likely they are to score Kevin James would have a far more glittering career behind him and our very own Crawford Baptie would be a legitimate rather than cult hero?!?So if ithe case for the defence states that you don't have to be big to be clever, what other reasons can there be for a trepidation for facing set pieces getting so bad that the Fir Park DJ should play the 'Charge' music when we concede a corner instead of winning one !?!?!??
One plausible reason is our full-on starts to games which, by our gaffer's own admission, means we really need to be a couple of goals to the good to give us a chance of finishing the ninety minutes victorious.All very worthy (not to mention pretty damn exciting to witness) but as super-fit as your McGarry's, Clarky's et al might now be, if you were one of our defenders how would you feel as your six colleagues in front of you start to breath out of their collective bahookies with fifteen/twenty minutes still to play??????
A telling stat is a league table in the Sunday Post (don't judge me - it's the only paper at my parents after matchday......) which shows an SPL table if games finished at half-time.We are sitting second with ten goals for and only five against before the orange segments are dished out, yet it's completely the opposite in the second half with us only scoring five yet shipping ten as the legs tire.The old adage of 'a game of two halves' is borne out plenty of times every season as it is, but is our style of play ultimately lending us to commit hari-kari on a regular basis ?How realistic is it for us to aim to be two or three goals ahead of our oppo after only three quarters of an hour ??Surely McGhee's admittance to a degree of burnout in his starting eleven come the latter stages of our games makes his perceived reluctance to make tactical subs all the more baffling.
You could have a foot in either camp as regards our gaffer's in-game tactical changes as in the thirteen SPL matches played at the time of writing we have sent thirty of our thirty-nine alloted replacements into the action.However, of those nearly fifty per cent (14) have been given a run-out of less than ten minutes - raising questions as to how much of an impact they are being allowed to make.There are two games that spring to mind for me on this matter - the comfortable if unspectacular win at Pittodrie where all three options were excercised with fully a quarter of the ninety minutes left to elapse.Whilst one was forced upon us with Uncle Phil having to leave the field injured before the interval, McGhee swapped Clarky for Lewis Grabban (sure you've heard of him - young laddie, up on loan from Crystal Palace, pace to burn, North of the Border to gain first-team experience......) whilst we held a two goal advantage with half-an hour still to play, and then in the face of our lead being halved he sacrificed Roscoe to allow Keith Lasley to shore up our midfield and safeguard our advantage.Makes perfect sense and showed a mix of attacking endeavour and sensible formation tinkering -so why didn't we do it in other games...
...like our draw against Rangers at Fir Park.Having expended so much energy in sweeping away Hibs in our classic CIS Cup conquering at Easter Road it was hardly rocket science that the flesh would be weak in the latter stages of a second big challenge in the space of three days.Going into the break on the back of a great first 45 and a goal to the good many 'Well fans would have expected at least one change with a view to freshening up the eleven.Whilst the temptation is understandable not to change a winning team (especially in light of the two first-half performances we had just recorded against Hibs and Rangers) with the options of Kinniburgh, Mensing Danny Murphy, Fitzpatrick, Grabban and Darren Smith at his disposal surely their was enough strength in depth there to throw a couple on to help us safeguard our advantage.As it transpired Fitzpatrick and Murphy joined the action with seven and one minute of gameplay to contribute in respectively - a good quarter of an hour after the visitors' pressure had earned the penalty they equalised from.
With tough away trips over the next two months to Tynecastle, Ibrox, Easter Road and Paisley we will need to be ready to withstand plenty of advances from our opponents if we are to continue to enjoy life in the right half of the SPL.Of course for our latter two roadtrips we may/surely will have new defensive-minded recruits signed up to the Claret and Amber cause as McGhee begins to add a stronger dose of revolution to his squad's evolution.This will be a major acid test as to whether or not our gaffer is to enjoy a happy marriage with us rather than purely a thrilling honeymoon period.
As I said at the beginning of this piece, overall how few areas there are to feel negative about at out Club just now only confirms what a fillip Mark McGhee has provided for us over the last few months- but of course there are always things we as fans want to see improve.The reversal of fortunes from the Malpas year have been so stark that now instead of being happy to finish ahead of a couple of clubs again this time around, many are already going to feel deflated if we fail to finish in the fabled Top Six whilst some of the super-optimistic are still bandying the word Europe about with gay abondon!The report so far clearly reads that we have displayed a massive improvement and if our inability to outjump one of their players at a set-piece is the biggest moan emanating from the notoriously fickle Fir Park stands, I'd be telling Mark McGhee that he's definitely on the right track as 2007 ebbs away.
by Christopher Hutton
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