Your Expectations For The Coming Season

[Pettywulliegrew-2]

Some people on this site moaning like feck about the most trivial things/doom and gloom and negativity about MFC

 

 

 

Me being a happy clappy type.......Top six finish,Champions league group stages, League and Scottish cup double, Higgy wins golden boot, Las capped for Scotland,Humph has 50% cross rate finding another well player in penalty box...

 

More kick-off's moved forward by 30 minutes at short notice (5 days) !!!!

[Guest]

Humph has 50% cross rate finding another well player in penalty box...

 

Dreamland. Ridiculous.

[verv]

I expect the spanish inquisition..... oh wait Nobody expects the spanish inquisition

[DC'd]

Expectations?

 

 

 

Well, we currently have two shots at making the Group Stages of the Europa League; either by being successful in our inaugural CL Qualifier, or failing that winning our Play-Off tie in the Europa – as such my expectations would be to at least come close to qualifying in one of the games. Granted that expectation is draw dependant – as we could face the distinct possibility of a Fenerbahce/Internazionale combination and then that expectation is blown out the window, however it could conceivably be a simpler task of Copenhagen/Sparta Prague and then that expectation becomes semi-realistic. Not asking or expecting to actually qualify for the Group Stages, but to give it a right good bash and not just surrender in the way we did against Nancy. Basically expectation is not to be humiliated in both games, just give us that glimour of hope in the same way Hateley’s last minute free-kick in Denmark, gave us that hope for a week that we could just do it..

 

 

 

As for the SPL, we do have an obvious threadbare squad – however how many times did you sit at Fir Park or an Away Stadia last season and witness the opposition make a second half sub and think “who the fuck is that!?”. Countless occasions that has happened where the opposition has brought on an absolute nobody, all this does is highlight the bare-bones of every other club in the SPL. We are not alone, and the nucleus of our first XI is still better than nearly every team in the SPL. As such I will be astounded if we finish below 5^th this season. Many a person in this thread has stated is Jennings/Clancy really going to lose us a 20-30 point margin on some of the “bigger” teams that finished below us last season, no chance in hell.

 

 

 

We still possess arguably the best goalkeeper in the league, especially now that McGregor has departed the Scottish game. Is Forster any better than Randolph? I haven’t seen anything to suggest he is! Kello perhaps would have been a good comparison, however he was frozen out and also departed. That leaves us with Langfield, Brown, Samson, Esson, Tuffey – none are in the same ballpark as Randy.

 

 

 

We still possess one of the best upcoming CB’s in the league in Hutch, and how many games did he actually miss last season through injury? Very few, and granted he has picked up a niggle through pre-season, but this isn’t something to suggest that his injury nightmares of the past are back. He seems to have overcame his problems of the past, and thus we have currently at our disposal one of the best CBs in the league. Only real competition from our direct rivals would be ironically Gunning and perhaps the duo of Zaliukas and Webster – again without obvious bias – I’d take Hutch over all three.

 

 

 

We still possess one of the most consistent and solid performers at LB, especially now that Dixon has departed Dundee United, is there anyone in the SPL that is capable of performing better in a 38 game season at LB that Hammell? Danny Grainger or Callum Davidson? No chance in hell, we have seen on countless occasions what Humphrey could do to DG, highlighting all his inadequacies at LB – how many players have tortured Hammell in the same way (OF Players excluded)?

 

 

 

We still possess one of the most creative and consistent RB’s in the country, well assuming that he gets it through his skull that he is indeed a RB and not CM, in Tom Hateley. He received mass amounts of plaudits for his consistency and delivery from RB last season. Can only recall one exceptionally bad game he played at Tynecastle around Xmas time, and that I believe was because Omar was played in front of him, thus giving him no defensive cover (IIRC). Bar that he would walk into every team in the SPL (other than Celtic). Again only real competition from fellow SPL clubs comes from Dave Mackay – and granted he was once a target for us and seems relatively versatile – but Tom or Dave? No brainer..

 

 

 

We still possess one of the Top Goalscorers in the league last season, granted he has his flaws, granted he isn’t particularly easy on the eye most of the time. But bar Jon Daly (and OF players) he outscored all his peers in domestic games last season. Granted most of us would probably have Daly slightly ahead of Higdon, but both are similar sort of players, and do a similar sort of job for the team. Granted Hasselbaink and Heffernan etc may be more pleasing on the eye, but for end product and contribution in a defensive sense – Higdon is far more valuable that most of the SPL strikers, and is on at least par with his direct rivals in Vernon and Daly.

 

 

 

We still possess one of the most hated midfielders in the league in Keef, from opposition fans. I only highlight that point, as if you are hated then you must be doing something right. That is the role that Keef (and Jenno for that matter) do for Motherwell. In the same regard that we hated Ian Black/Jim Goodwin etc – Keef is the same for us – loved by us, hated by everyone else. He does his job as good as anyone else in the SPL, and his rival was Black (as demonstrated by their clashes on the field last season as well) and now that Black has gone (and Hearts have been obviously weakened) then we still possess one of the best ball winning midfielders in the SPL.

 

 

 

We still possess one of the fastest wingers in the SPL, and despite his obvious dents in confidence and his overall poor delivery, he still creates far more than most wingers in the SPL. Only really Templeton, Driver and Mackay-Steven are arguably better in that regard than Humphrey. And the first two mentioned are on a treatment table, more than they are on grass – and the latter if reports are correct won’t be at United come the Autumn.

 

 

 

And that is not even including players like Law, Saunders, Murphy etc that would walk into most SPL teams.

 

 

 

Looking around the fellow SPL teams and if you could hand pick any player (Football Manager style) and replace them with one of our current first XI, there is genuinely not many that I’d choose – perhaps Paul McGowan ahead of Carswell/Hateley in a CM role (to partner Keith), and perhaps Russell ahead of Murphy (despite Murphy’s superior performance at Scotland U21 level). Bar that we have a stronger first XI than most of the SPL and we have several players that our rivals would love to have at their disposal, thus my expectations will be top 5 or better.

 

 

 

Cups are a lottery and anything could happen – so no expectations for them – however over a 38 league game season the best XI will more often than not finish in the right position – and I fully believe our nucleus is good enough to achieve that.

 

 

Expectations:

 

SPL – Top 5

 

 

Cups/Europe – Anything is a Bonus

 

 

I also expect McCall not to see out the season with us, not because of an anticipated poor season, think he will depart and be poached by someone else. His results on paper for us have been excellent, his resume is far more appealing than when he first arrived here, he is closer to the end of his current contract than he is to the start of it, and with McInnes last season poached by Bristol City, then surely McCall is the next SPL manager in line to be picked up by a Championship club, once their Board start to panic around Xmas time. The financial restrictions, the turmoil of Scottish football, and the distinct possibility of a MASSIVE turnover of players next summer could be pivotal on him wanting to take up the reigns and challenge himself at that level – he would have guided us to our biggest points tally, our joint highest league position in nearly two decades, reached a Final of our biggest domestic trophy, guided us in Europe and guided us through a tough and challenging time – he would probably think there is little more he could achieve by staying. Only thing missing would be a win against Rangers, but the last half dozen managers failed at that task as well. Fully anticipate him to last either half a season, or for this to be his last season in charge.

 

 

Predictions:

 

 

SPL – 3^rd (think it’ll be close for yet another season between us and Utd, but think we may fluke the Group Stages by receiving a winnable tie in the Play-Off round and Utd will depart at the first hurdle and that will catch up on us come the end of the season, with Utd coasting away from us when the Split comes)

 

CL – First Hurdle – a resounding loss to Fenerbahce

 

EL – Win the Play-Off against a mediocre seeded team in the mould of Sparta Prague / Club Brugges and then get horsed in every Group Stage game and finish with 0 points, but a £1m in the bank – saving us from the dreaded “administration” word.

 

LC – Win our first match by being the seeded team, comfortably beating some 1^st Division opposition and then losing out in the next round to Aberdeen/Hibs away.

 

SC – Draw Rangers (assuming they take part next season) and knock them out and then lose the following round to St Mirren or ICT or the like..

 

 

[Martin]

I can't believe the lack of enthusiasm for Ojamaa. He has by far the best scoring rate at the club and pretty much saved our season when he came in!

[fat_tony]

Expectations?

 

Great post DC'd, not a lot I could argue with there. I think the biggest challenge will be keeping everyone fit and suspension-free. Get through without any major occurrences of either, and I think we do have one of the best first XI's in the league. The lack of depth is concerning, but we all know that there's nothing that can be done about it, and every other club is in the same boat.

 

Really looking forward to the start of the season!

[MFCL84]

I'm usually not very optimistic about our chances at the start of each season. This one isn't going to be any different. So, here goes for my expectations;

 

INS & OUTS

I don't expect we're going to bring anyone in before January.

That means that we cannot afford to lose any more before January.

 

1st 11

 

If playing 4-4-2

Randolph

Hateley, Saunders, Hutchison, Hammell

Humphrey, Lasley, Law, Murphy

Higdon, Ojamaa

 

If playing 4-5-1

Randolph

Hateley, Saunders, Hutchison, Hammell

Humphrey, Lasley, Carswell, Law, Murphy

Higdon

 

Europe

If the team can get enough football under their belts before the season starts for real, I reckon we might just make the Europa Group Stages after an early exit from Champions League.

 

SPL

Mid-table, hopefully top 6 - the squad is too small to achieve any better.

 

Cups

A lottery, we're as good as most, but depends on form, injuries and suspensions for the games. So, semi's in both.

[liquid_football]

I think we might struggle to make top 6 this season. Seventh or Eighth would be my prediction, though I'd love to be proven wrong. Having said that, the whole newco situation has got me thinking about the long term for the club, about how we can build towards future success while working under financial constraints.

 

As a result, I would condsider this season a success if we can bring through the young lads who have been on the fringes of the squad for a while and give them the game time they need to develop. The last time we had to rely on youngsters due to shaky finances, Faddy, Pearson, Hammell, Clarkson, Quinn et al rose to the occasion, and provided important transfer revunue for the club when they moved on. Things very unpredictable at the moment, but I think that may be a blessing in disguise for us, though things will undoubtably be a bit rough in the short term. We've done well with a very strong starting 11 for the past few seasons, but we really need through some new talent and give Page, McHugh and the like their chance to stake a claim if we want to build on our success IMO. If that means we have a mediocre league campaign (by recent standards), I'll not be too fussed.

 

Given we're in the Champions league, can expect a decent cup run and won't have to put up with 'ra peepul' this season, I think they're will be plenty of reasons to be cheerful even if we end up in the lower half at the end of the season.

 

[Wellfan1984]

Looking around the squads I think we will be battling it out with the usual suspects for between 2nd and 7th. The two Saints, County, Dundee and Caley will be in a league of their own fighting to stay up

[StipeIsGod]

McHugh needs to make some sort of an impact this season.

[Kmcalpin]

McHugh needs to make some sort of an impact this season.

 

Yes he does. Probably his last chance. The forgotten man of the pre season preparation - presumably due to injury?

[StipeIsGod]

Aye, I'm sure I read that he was injured. I don't know if it's another injury, a recurrence, or a long term injury.

[superwell87]

A top 6 finish and two decent domestic cup runs (quarter finals at least) will do me fine. None the less, whatever happens i will always support Motherwell and be proud to call myself a Motherwell fan.

[David]

With the hysteria picking up a bit after us dropping two late goals at Pittodrie, and the fact that it'll likely reach breaking point if (and I personally don't think we will) we lose to Rangers this week and Celtic at the weekend, it's maybe worth keeping things in perspective.

 

The aim at the start of the season is surely a decent cup run if possible, and a top six finish? Anything above and beyond that is a bonus, no?

 

We're clearly well on track to succeed in that respect as things look at present.

[DunnyMFC]

 

....The aim at the start of the season is surely a decent cup run if possible, and a top six finish? Anything above and beyond that is a bonus, no?....

 

 

 

I would agree with that