Onward Motherwell

By: j | September 13th, 2008

There is no debating it has been a tough start to the SPL season for The Well but next week they will show their grit and tenacity against Ligue One’s, AS Nancy in the UEFA Cup.

Late last year, Nancy was looking to be a in-line for the Champions League bid but costly draws to Le Mans and Valenciennes and as well as losses to Olympique Lyonnais and Stade Rennais in the final weeks of the season allowed Olympique Marseille an opportunity to climb into the final position. Their weakness was simple; at the expense of fortifying defensive positions they are unable to muster a sufficient attack. Incredibly in the final twenty matches of the season, they were held off the score-sheet six times, scored twice only five times and three times once. The deadly collapse of their scoring ability collapse was a complete reversal of the start of the year where they nearly averaged twice the scoring output in the first ten matches of the season. This trend has continued, if not worsened, this year with four goals in five matches, two off newly promoted Le Havre. Simply put, the “book is out” on Nancy and once you keep them on their back heels their attacking force of Landry N’Guémo, Jonathan Brison, Monsef Zerka and Marc-Antoine Fortuné have yet to show the countering ability to put the ball in the back of the net.

Tactically Mark McGhee must not only understand the opponents weaknesses, as well as Motherwell’s own significant deficiencies and consider the importance of the home and away match-up. With the first match in beautiful Nancy, they need to approach this intelligently, tighten up the mid-field but equally spread the pitch wide, which is a particular problem for Pablo Correa’s club and stay on the attack. Keep Nancy on their back-heels and you’ll go a long way towards guaranteeing them staying off the score-sheet and Motherwell advancing in the UEFA Cup.

Throughout this week, along with the other members of the faithful blogging Scotland team of the Offside, we are putting away our club support temporarily and rallying around Motherwell as they take on Nancy at the UEFA Cup. Join us in support of Motherwell in our own brand of the Tartan Army.