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.
It was my fault. I can only apologise. At half time at Dens Park on Saturday, I turned to my son and said that the opening 45 minutes were probably even better than what we had witnessed in the first half at Tynecastle. Only this time, with the greatest of respect to Dundee, there was surely no way back for the opponents.
Three minutes later, the ball was in the Motherwell pokey. One day, I’ll learn to keep my trap shut.
As much as I am revelling in the football being served up by Jens Berthel Askou and his men, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a few niggling concerns as we approach the massive League Cup quarter final tie up in Aberdeen on Saturday.
Not that I’m in full blown panic mode. It’s more frustration. Five points from the opening five league fixtures that Motherwell have had is a more than reasonable return, and had they not come in five draws that could all arguably have fallen as wins for The Steelmen, I may be even more sanguine about the whole thing.
It is a sign I suppose of the sort of football that Motherwell have produced and the dominance they have enjoyed that the five points they have bagged seems a meagre reward for their efforts. But just as individual errors cost the team previously, a collective slip in concentration handed a Dundee side that had been completely outplayed to that point the simplest of equalisers.
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Cutting out sloppy errors and maintaining focus are equally critical elements of the game as ball domination and pretty passing patterns, so it was good to see the manager looking just as cheesed off as the rest of the travelling support by the manner in which another win had slipped through his team’s grasp.
I don’t know Jens personally, but I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the dressing room at Dens Park in the immediate aftermath of that second half, given he was still puce in the puss when he got in front of the cameras to give his post-match interview. Hopefully that message has landed with the players.
I don't wish to come across as a happy clapper, or even worse, a stats geek, but a colleague of a slightly nerdier disposition than myself offered me some hope earlier this week when he sent me the graph below of each team in the Premiership’s xG (expected goals).
I know that referencing such stats can sometimes provoke eye rolls so extreme that an optometrist is required to put things right, but just look at where Motherwell sit.
Only Hibs are currently creating more than The Steelmen, while Saturday’s opponents, as you may have noticed, have an output below the league average, a stat that probably should worry Jimmy Thelin as much as their actual, lowly, league position.
This might not mean a jot come Saturday evening, but what it shows is that the underlying numbers back up the theory that this team are close to not only winning games, but have the style and the substance to maintain such positive form over the course of a season.
Or as the manager put it at today’s presser, ‘under the hood’, things look good. Keep the faith, and hopefully we’ll all be seeing each other at Hampden in the not-too distant future.
AND ANOTHER THING…
It isn’t actually the propensity for throwing away leads from commanding positions that is my chief concern before heading to Pittodrie. Rather, it is the wearyingly familiar sight of players dropping like flies and landing on the treatment table.
One of the real highlights for me from the Dens Park display was the debut of Stephen Welsh, so there was a sharp intake of breath when he pulled up after stretching to make a clearance and then had to be replaced. Particularly as Apostolos Stamatelopoulos had also been taken off with an injured shoulder after colliding with the post.
Thankfully, it seems both will be fine for the weekend. The same, sadly, cannot be said for the likes of Paul McGinn, who is set to just miss out, while Callum Slattery, Callum Hendry and Tom Sparrow likely won’t be seen this side of the international break.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Berthel Askou provided some more depressing detail about the latest setback in Jordan McGhee’s Motherwell career, with a fresh injury meaning that he had to undergo surgery and won’t be seen in his new colours until next year.
It’s hard not to feel sorry for McGhee and lament the absence of his experience and nous from the team. I’m not sure if he’s even a decent hairdresser, like Ross Callachan, to at least contribute something in his absence.
Hopefully he can put these early troubles behind him and go on to have the sort of career at the club we all hoped he would when he arrived.
