Have any of you guys read what the Stockport fan said a few pages back. It is like dejavu for him. Jim Gannon is building a squad out of young players here at Fir Park. When Gannon came, yes he had an idea of Scottish fooball and could pick out a player, but he had no experience of dealing with any of the players in the Motherwell FC Youth System. Now he is here, 6 months on we are in a major development process at Fir Park. What Jim Gannon appears (and I hope he is) doing is seeing what player can play where, what the strengths and weaknesses are and what formations work and what formations do not work against the teams.
As a young team, there is bound to be, and there is many an inconsistancy with each player. That is expected from a young team and I am sure every one of you can see that. On Saturday I saw a 442 formation for the starting lineup, which worked against St. Johnstone. We were ahead at half time and obviously Gannon thought he could improve by switching the tactics, which he did. It didn't work. It hasn't worked against other teams so far, but that is also down to inconsistancies from younger players, players running out of steam, players picking up niggles and so on.
Jim Gannon's squabbles with the media, SFA, referres, well we were warned about it all so I can't see what any of you guys are actually complaining about. He is deflecting us, and the media from slaughtering some sub-standard performances so that he can assess strengths and weaknesses throughout the whole game from the perspective of a competitive match. The training field is a place to assess a player physically and see what works, but then again, are they playing against other teams in a competitive match. No.
Rebuilding a team is a long process in which Gannon has started from scratch with a new desire and I personally am confident he will see it through to the end. Right now I would reckon that his recent comments to the media slating the players could be some sort of reverse psycological tactic from the man to attempt to get them to want to win a game. Desire from the players is another matter and one which admittedly he will need to try harder to make them achieve, but with a dip in form, and increased tiredness from the young guys playing so many games could be another reason. Yes they are professional footballers, but as it has been stated, how many games did they play before this season with the pace and strength of the SPL. Very little.
Jim Gannon, will be here to the end of the season, and us as fans of Motherwell will reap the rewards. So, lets just ride the rollercoaster.