Chris Hutton suggests we need that we have to stop losing goals!
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Undoubtedly if there was a straw poll among the 'Well fans as to what area of the team Eric Black has to strengthen as a priority, it would be a very high majority who would vote for strikers. Looking at the squad recently we only really had Stuarty and Faddy to play up front after our parting of the ways with Kelly, as alternatives came in the form of Derek Adams, Stevie Nicholas, John Fallon or calling Peterhead to claim back on-loan Martin Wood. So clearly all our problems are in the striking department - so why did Eric and Terry instead got out and buy Eric Delomeaux, Yann Soloy and Francois DuBourdeau - a defender, wing-back and goalie respectively - as their first three signings (as well as swapping about their first-choice 'keeper)????
The two tables from the Sunday Herald the day after our most recent 1-3 capitulation at East End Park, could well go some way to showing why the new management team felt they had to build from the back to get us back on the rails.
To take our defensive shortcomings first, the fact that we have committed the most fouls in the division would seem to ring true as we have lost a few goals from needless dead-balls conceded (e.g. Sara's penalty at Fir Park). It will be of no surprise therefore that we have accumulated the most cautions of all the teams, but at a whopping sixty-two in only twenty-five games we are fully SIXTEEN yellows ahead of Dundee!?!?!!? This coupled with the fact that we have three players in the 'Top' Fourteen of poorest disciplined players means that we are giving the opposition too many easy chances to put pressure on us and that as a result not only are we gonna lose both goals and games, we will also losing vital players through suspensions with less-than-adequate replacements available in our thread-bare squad.
After a couple of season where it was our away form that compensated for our abysmal home performances, this season seems to have turned full circle as a record of fifteen goals conceded in twelve games at Fir Park isn't too bad at all. But a massive THIRTY-THREE in our own net in only thirteen away days is disgraceful, especially as the next worst have conceded fully nine less - and you've got to take into account that that team is St Johnstone?!!??!?!?! It doesn't take an anorak to work out that a team who are shipping an average of two and a half goals on their travels aren't going to put too many points on the board, no matter how good their forward play is. And it's not as if our opposition have been made to work for their goals either - the comic cuts at Livi and Killie spring to mind as to the lengths we have went to to assist our opponents in getting the upper hand. So what about our alleged lack on goalscoring power in our own ranks then??????
We have, in fact, managed a total of thirty-two in our twenty-fives games to date - as many as Aberdeen, seven more than Kilmarnock and DOUBLE that of St Johnstone! Of them, nineteen have came at home, which is eight more than Killie, nine ahead of Dundee and even four more than this season's "cuddly" team Livi.
Even through our appalling away days, we've still managed a goal a game, four more than St Johnstone and Hibs, two more than Hearts and even ahead of Aberdeen. But if we continue to leak at the rate of nearly THREE a game we ain't gonna be turning our away days into pleasure trips any time soon. So despite our decent goals for record we still sit with a goal difference of minus sixteen - the third worst record in the SPL with even the Hibs team who sit below us sporting a difference of minus nine. Call me crazy, but I reckon the problem we need to address is at the other end of the park.
Of course I'm writing this after we've managed to string two clean sheets in a row at Fir Park together, but the league game at East End Park sandwiched between still leaves the alarm bells ringing. I think I share the views of the majority in feeling that Stevie Woods will again be, as his entire Motherwell career has been, nothing more that a short-term option as our number one. I can understand Mark Brown being 'rested' after a couple of disappointing performnces but still think he will come good given time. If we can push on and make our leagus status safe for another season as soon as possible, it wouldn't surprise me if we see DuBourdeau give his chance which, given Eric's success with his other two French signings, will hopefully spawn another success. Obviously in Demouleaux we have unearthed a gem who will no doubt move on to greater things to come in (hopefully the distant) future whilst Soloy seems to be more than competent in our home performances but possibly not good enough to be a wing-back on our travels. With only Martin Corrigan as cover for that position I think we could possibly do with another option to strengthen the squad. Stephen Hammell seems to be coming back to form ( and even adding a goal to his repertoire ) but a constant source of goals against us seems to come from our opponents getting so much time to pick out a team-mate from a cross. We simply don't seem to want to press players when they get the ball wide, instead seeming happy to back off in an attempt to deal with the imminent cross rather than actually trying to stop it coming. Along with the fact that neither of our goalies are the most dominant at coming to claim the ball, it's no wonder we are conceding at such a rate.
After a muddling start to his time here, it's good to see Karl Ready starting to show the form that made him a Welsh international. Sure, he's an extermely straight-forward sort of defender ( eg putting either the forward, ball or both straight into Fir Park Street over the Main Stand, straight into the cemetery next to East End Park etc, etc. ) but you need this sort of player to complement the more comfortable on the ball players like Eric - and he's good for a few goals as well! Nobody would have the gall to go out in front of thousands of people with hair like that if he didn't have something in his locker!!!!!! Greg Strong seems to be getting picked out by some recently as the 'weak link' in our defence, but I don't think that's justifiable. Again, like Ready, he doesn't have too many airs or graces about his game but he is reliable and seems a comparable option to Eddie Forrest at present.
So the defence doesn't seem too bad when you look at them individually, so what exactly is the problem? One thought could be to look at the cover the midfield is gives. I'm a fan of Scott Leitch, but at times he doesn't use his experience sufficiently and can allow the opposition to swarm into the last third of the park without too much difficulty. The fact that he seems to be constantly carrying that knee injury as well as keeping his young midfield partners together is a lot to ask so while he is the best option we've got at the club, an alternative may be high on Eric Black's wish-list for the near future. As I've said, guys like Keith Lasley and Stephen Pearson can struggle ( especially away from home ) to deal with their tracking back duties and whilst this will come it can see the middle of the park surrendered all too often.
It's doesn't stop there, as whilst there was quite a furore about Stuart Elliott being demoted to the bench recently, there are times when you can question his work-rate if things aren't going our way. It'd be great if we could afford him to be one of those players who "does nothing but score goals", but at the moment we're not so we need more than just the occasional dash across the line to close defenders down.
So the short answer is? Probably that we need a dependable goalie ( hopefully from the three we have on the books ) and possibly a right-back, an experienced midfielder and some cover at centre-half and centre-forward. Where do we get the money for this and who do we go for? Well that's blindingly obvious, all we need to do is...... damn, I've ran out of room, so I'll need to leave that with Boyle, Black & Butcher!!!!!
by Christopher Hutton
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