‘I HATE to say this,” says Tawanda Maswanhise, “but I hate only scoring one goal in a game. I feel I haven’t done enough for the team.”
The desire to do more explains why he holds a post-match debrief with his father Jeffrey after every Motherwell game.
Footage of the 90 minutes is broken down, deconstructed and debated during a family inquest which spans the 300 miles between Lanarkshire and his childhood home in Leicester.
“If I haven’t done well I won’t beat myself up about it,” Maswanhise tells Herald Sport. “But I’ll certainly hear it from my dad.
“He watches every minute of every game on an app called Hudl. He pores over our games and always calls me to say if there is a little problem or I didn’t do something. He calls me straight away.”
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An improving Motherwell team –still a work in progress – have dropped points in each of their five league games. Had the man of moment, current top scorer, been at fault he’d have heard it from manager Jens Berthel Askou. Assuming his old man hadn’t got there first.
“It’s not that he’s trying to find something bad or negative or anything, he just has high standards and he sees the things I can do better. If I didn’t do that I might score and think, ‘that’s fine’. It’s the only way you get better.”
In hindsight his strike against Hearts should have earned three points in a thrilling 3-3 draw at Tynecastle. He claimed the opener in a 2-2 draw with Kilmarnock. Last weekend he made it three in three games against Dundee, taking his tally to seven in 12 games. Eclipsing his first season in Scottish football, a win bonus remains hard to come by.
“When I come off the park after only scoring one it’s good that I scored, but I just feel like I need to be scoring more. I go into games thinking, ‘I just need to score that second goal to kill the game.’ Or even provide some assists.”
The relentless push for a new personal best runs in the family. Jeffrey Maswanhise represented his native Zimbabwe in the Commonwealth Games of 1998 in Kuala Lumpur and Manchester in 2002. A love of Chelsea – one player in particular – developed when the 400 metres runner relocated his young family to England at the height of Robert Mugabe’s tyrannical reign as Zimbabwean president in 2005.
Surrounded by athletics from a young age – his mother, father and brother all ran – the young Maswanhise was wired slightly differently. When he had the wind at his back, he was chasing a football, bewitching opponents with his speed and dribbling.
“My dad’s last race was the year I was born. I would love to have seen him run once at that level, though I’ve been able to watch it back on YouTube.
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“There are one or two videos, not many. But, yeah, he was quick.
“I was never the type to just run, like the rest of my family. There was always athletics on TV or football. The football really came from dad supporting Chelsea, he was a big fan of Didier Drogba. So, when I ran it was always with a ball, head down…”
When the time came to make a choice between Aston Villa or Leicester his hometown team offered a safe, welcoming haven. The one thing they failed to give him was a first-team breakthrough.
Progressing through the academy Maswanhise was 18 when he first caught the eye of Brendan Rodgers. Understudy to Harvey Barnes he claimed a place on the bench for a game against Manchester United. The goalkeeper that day was one Kasper Schmeichel. Playing in attack was Kelechi Iheanacho, Celtic’s most recent signing. When Motherwell travel to the east end of Glasgow next month Parkhead will feel like a fox’s den.
“When I was 18 Brendan Rodgers was looking at me as one of the ones that could be in the squad.
“He was the one who took me in and saw some talent in me and tried to help me with my development.
“I had a few words with Kasper after we lost to Celtic and Kelechi has just come up, so I’ll talk to him next time we play as well.
“When I was training under Brendan with these guys there were weeks when I was in the squad on the bench about to come on. I was always waiting for that moment, waiting for that moment…”
That moment so nearly came when he was named as Leicester’s first reserve for the club’s FA Cup triumph of 2021 against his father’s team Chelsea. A warm-up injury away from a place on the bench, the call never came, yet he remembers the sights and sounds of Wembley with wide-eyed wonder.
“I was training all that week with the team. I was training to be in the cup final squad and, to me, I was still part of the squad that won the cup.
“I went down and celebrated on the pitch and stuff and that was so nice to be part of.
“To be fair I was young and I was just so happy to be around it. I couldn’t be upset about not making the squad, but it would have been nice… “It was special to be on the bus going to Wembley on cup final day and celebrating after the game and stuff.
“It was overwhelming actually. You see such a different side of players and team-mates when they win stuff.”
While Leicester won 1-0 thanks to a Youri Tielemans strike, there was no medal draped around his neck because he hadn’t actually played any games. There was just one appearance for Leicester’s first team before he left, Enzo Maresca handing him a substitute appearance in an FA Cup win over Millwall in January 2024 “That’s something I want to put right now,” he says quietly. “I’ve been to Wembley and this is a club where they get excited about getting to Hampden so I want to do that one now.”
Despite the failure to hold a lead in recent games, Askou’s Motherwell side have a chance to secure a place in the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup if they beat a goal-shy, vulnerable Aberdeen at Pittodrie. Jimmy Thelin’s Dons have dropped points at home to the newly promoted duo of Livingston and Falkirk, winning just five of their last 31 league games.
Beyond an appearance at Scotland’s national stadium, the other targets are more ambitious. Champions League football, a major trophy and 500 games in first-team football feature on a list. His career back on track at Motherwell, anything feels possible.
“When I first came here I said to myself, ‘this is going to be a platform where I can really showcase my talent.
“I was at Leicester a long time and moving here was a bit of a culture shock.
“It’s a different type of football, a big change in the league, the accents and the food.
“But I still scored six goals last season after I came in later and missed the early stages of the League Cup games.
“Scoring 20 goals this season could be a possibility. I’m not saying it’s one of my targets, but it’s a possibility the way I’m going right now.
“The focus at the minute is this weekend against Aberdeen, when I just need to get that brace or a hat-trick to get my figures up…”
