MOTHERWELL have been quietly shaking off their image – warranted or not – as hoofball merchants since the turn of the year, as a change in personnel, philosophy and formation has not only led to the Fir Park side winning seven of their last nine Ladbrokes Premiership games, but achieving the feat in some style.
Manager Stephen Robinson though isn’t about to admit that he was wrong to stand by a more direct style that had begun to falter in the first half of the season, and a visit to listen to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola organised through the League Managers Association last week has vindicated his notion that he should always play to the strengths of the hand he is dealt.
“I had the privilege of going to see Pep Guardiola last week and it was refreshing to hear a top manager say that you play to your strengths of your players,” Robinson said. “We played a certain way last season because it suited us, and we were very successful with it, and we’ve now changed that to suit the players I’ve been able to recruit in January and the ones brought through the youth system.
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“We won a lot last year and have won a lot with our new system and style that suits the players we have available just now.
“His thought process on youngsters is that if they’re good enough then you play them. It was really refreshing and he’s so humble. As a manager you have to be brave and he’s a brave manager who sticks to his beliefs and the big thing that came out of it was that you play to the strengths of your footballers.
“We’re now playing to the strengths of the boys I have available right now. We didn’t have all those players available previously and the youngsters weren’t developed enough physically or mentally to play first-team football.
“But we’ve got that now with the likes of Jake Hastie, David Turnbull, James Scott, Allan Campbell . . . all of them are another six months down the line in their development.”
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