Have opposition managers actually 'figured out' Motherwell?

There may not be many Motherwell fans who would agree with the following sentiment, I am fully aware, but Aiden McGeady is actually a nice fella.

I interviewed the former Celtic and Republic of Ireland winger a couple of years back, and he was pleasant, thoughtful and insightful. And certainly opinionated, which is handy when you are hoping to produce an engaging piece for the Saturday paper.

That attribute also comes in handy for an analyst, and so it has been no surprise to me to see McGeady pick up punditry work on TV and radio on a regular basis. Nor was I shocked when he espoused a rather strong opinion about Jens Berthel Askou’s Motherwell side on Sky Sports a couple of weeks ago following the goalless draw against Hibernian.

On the back of the defeats at Dens Park and Celtic Park, McGeady’s hypothesis was that teams had figured Motherwell out. It may have taken them until March to do so, if that was indeed the case, but that was his opinion.

Is there any basis for the assertion? Well, if you are just looking at results alone, you couldn’t really blame anyone for thinking it may be so.

(Image: Robert Perry / Shutterstock)

There is another way to look at it, though. Yes, Hibs, as teams have been doing since the autumn at the very least, came to Fir Park with a gameplan to stifle Motherwell and almost looked to be playing for the 0-0. Incidentally, given they trail the Steelmen by six points in the table, it was an approach that puzzled me, particularly when Jordan Obita started timewasting on the 46th minute, but that’s by the by.

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And yes, they did manage to limit Motherwell to very few chances on a day where it all just felt a little bit flat, the first time we’ve been able to say that about a game at Fir Park for quite some time.

But it wasn’t as though Motherwell didn’t dominate the game. They had 60 percent of the ball and completed 85 percent of their passes, which is roughly in line with their averages over the course of the season.

Had Tawanda Maswanhise been clinical with the big chance that fell his way, then would that have meant Hibs hadn’t figured Motherwell out, even if the rest of the game had played out the same way?

It was good to hear the manager acknowledging at his press conference that the rest over the international break may have reinvigorated Maswanhise, who had just lost a little bit of the sharpness in recent weeks that he has displayed over the course of the season.

He has been a real difference maker in many of those matches across the season where teams have tried to frustrate Motherwell, so hopefully he will be back to the levels he had so consistently produced until now when Falkirk come calling on Saturday.

In my book, the results over the last few weeks have indeed had more to do with how Motherwell have executed their game plan, rather than indicating that opposition managers have now stumbled across any great masterplan to defeat them.

At Dens Park, again, some careless finishing and some loose defending was their undoing, while at Celtic Park, Motherwell had arguably dominated proceedings before Emmanuel Longelo’s lapse in concentration led to his dismissal.

That teams are ripping up their usual gameplans and trying first to combat what Motherwell are doing is a compliment to what Berthel Askou has done this season, and just because some of them may eke out a point or a win here or there, it doesn’t point to the code being cracked.

(Image: Robert Perry / Shutterstock)

It will be interesting to see then how Falkirk manager John McGlynn approaches the game at Fir Park on Saturday, with his team regularly and deservedly cited alongside Motherwell as a breath of fresh air in the Premiership this season.

They have won points and plaudits by largely playing an expansive, attacking style, and in fact, if anyone can claim to have ‘figured Motherwell out’ then it is McGlynn, given that the Bairns are one of just three sides - along with top two Hearts and Rangers - that Motherwell have yet to defeat this season.

He would likely concede though that they were fortunate to win at Fir Park back in October, which was the last time that any away side claimed the points at the venue. The only thing that was figured out that day, if it hadn’t been long before, was that the use of VAR in the Premiership is an absolute shambles.

For me, if Motherwell can rediscover their clinical edge up top, they will be absolutely fine. Hopefully the break will allow Maswanhise et al to do just that.

Opposition managers have certainly figured out one thing – that Motherwell are a very good side, and they have had to adjust accordingly.

But with the greatest of respect to McGeady and those opposition fans who appear so desperate to find a chink in Berthel Askou’s armour, the Motherwell manager is the one who appears to have Scottish football figured out.