This is an excerpt from this week's McGarry on Motherwell, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.
Well, that was a bit of a damp squib, wasn’t it? Watching what had been billed as a winner takes all battle fizzle out into a goalless draw between two teams who didn’t really seem to want – or know how to – win the game on Saturday was perhaps the biggest anti-climax at Fir Park since Riku Danzaki.
I was working at Celtic Park for the lunchtime kick-off, so rushed back excitedly to ML1 for the last half hour, hoping to take in an enthralling battle for the last remaining place in the top half of the table. As it transpired, St Mirren’s late winner meant that a win for Motherwell would have been immaterial in that regard for the Steelmen, but the players didn’t know that.
I have rather caned the Hearts team elsewhere this week for their own lack of urgency, when they knew for certain that a win would have taken them into the top half regardless of what happened in Paisley.
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If those post-match comments from Wimmer that he was satisfied with the point and happy with the display of his team raised some eyebrows, his subsequent stressing of the need to strengthen in attacking areas in the summer as a priority was reassuring.
There are plenty of attacking options within the cast of thousands in the Fir Park dressing room at the moment, but through poor form or bad luck with injuries, there has never been any real sense of potency.
Of those under contract for next season, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos looks like a player, but has spent a huge chunk of the season out injured. Still, his five goals in 18 appearances (and just 14 starts) have him as the club’s joint-top scorer alongside Tawanda Maswanhise.
Maswanhise himself looks a little out of sorts at present, but has shown himself to be a gifted player and a real threat when he is on his game, so he too would get pass marks. Sam Nicholson too, while undoubtedly talented, has been plagued by injury issues.
As for the rest? Well, Zach Robinson had been underwhelming before the unfortunate injury that ended his season, scoring just twice in all competitions.
Moses Ebiye has found the net on four occasions, and in his defence, he has been used almost exclusively from the bench. He is out of contract in the summer, though, and having had limited look-ins of late, looks unlikely to be offered a new one. See also, Harry Paton.
Which brings us to the many, many loan players. Tony Watt brings something to the team with his clever hold up play and nous, but he has just the one goal to his name this season, and doesn’t really seem suited to play the high-pressing style that Wimmer has stated he wants to implement.
Jack Vale, unfortunately, was injured before he could contribute. Jair Tavares, well, his contribution thus far can probably be summed up by the fact that the biggest red flag surrounding Wimmer is that he sees the Hibs winger as a viable option.
Luke Armstrong has shown a good work ethic and has sniffed out goals against both sides of the Old Firm, but curiously, hasn’t scored against anyone else. Luke Plange and Will Dickson have shown next to nothing in the short time they have been afforded on the field.
There can be excuses made for many of them such as bad fortune with injuries, but even still, that is a heck of a lot of appearances from attacking players with very little to show for it by way of goals or even, in most cases, assists. Maswanhise and Paton have laid on the most goals of that lot, with three assists apiece.
So, maybe it isn’t so surprising that with the players Wimmer has to work with in his attacking areas, Motherwell have been blunter than the back of a knife over these last few weeks.
It is good then to hear that the manager will be looking to revamp that area of his team in the close season, but it does rather raise some concerns for the five bottom six fixtures that remain.
Motherwell aren’t yet out of the woods, and beyond the creativity of Lennon Miller and Callum Slattery in the midfield, and Maswanhise if he can rediscover his spark, it is difficult to see where goals are coming from.
Let’s hope a win over St Johnstone in the first post-split fixture at Fir Park can ease any lingering nerves over being sucked into the battle for the relegation play-off spot, and then Wimmer can set about the job of bringing in players who can put his preferred style of play into practice.
Sadly it seems that after a promising start, there are just too many of them currently in the building who aren’t up to it.
