Season 6 is in the books and it’s been another fun one. It’s the second season for the Motherwell Eagles with a very similar squad to our first season. Once again, it’s a year where we’re hoping for a decent cup run and some solid progression to build on over the next couple of years. Let’s take a look at how the season went on the pitch and how the squad is looking after another year of progression.

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The League

It was a season of two halves in the league. Before the mid-season break the Motherwell Eagles picked up 16 points from 11 games and we looked to have a chance at a top half finish. However, after the break our form plummeted, picking up just 7 points from 11 games and finishing the campaign in 9th place.

That’s just below the pre-season target of 8th and one place lower than we finished in last season. Heibon-sa MFC (previously VSG Sapporo) were the team I was aiming to finish ahead of that outperformed us. We were pretty evenly matched going into the season, so not too surprising a result.

Going forward, we scored the same amount of goals as last season, but defensively we have struggled a bit more. After conceding 55 goals in season 5, we conceded 61 this season and match last seasons two clean sheets. It’s perhaps unsurprising given I downgraded the back-up GK pretty significantly. Sidnei Mariano conceded 21 goals in the 5 league games he played.

The Cup

I went into the cup aiming to make it into the knock-out rounds this season. After two games it was looking unlikely as we’d picked up just 1 point. But we bounced back with three straight wins to confirm qualification with a game to spare. We lost the final game of the group stage to confirm a 2nd place finish.

The Eagles faced Lukavenpool FC in the Round of 16. We looked to be headed into the quarter finals leading 3-2 before we conceded in the 93rd minute. It was nervy period of extra time that looked set for penalties, however Otto Hinrichs unfortunately put the ball into our own net in 119th minute to leave us out of the cup. The game was pretty even, but given the way we conceded late twice it’s certainly a frustrating way to end our cup campaign.

Progression

It’s been the season of the defenders progression-wise. All 4 of our starters have gained multiple overall increases. Our rotation left back also gained a point of overall as well so it’s been a really nice season for that position group. The highlight has been Karlheinz Stangl continuing his fantastic progression and making the jump up to an uncommon card. That makes it +9 for Stangl in three seasons and hopefully he’ll continue to improve a bit more next season.

Overall, it’s been a really good progression season, the team didn’t reach the highs of last seasons combined +19 overall but it is a smaller squad than last year. The +16 overall was spread across 10 players in a squad with 5 less players getting game time. There were attribute increases for another 5 players, only the two goalkeepers and ST Henrik Ohman haven’t shown any progression this season.

I was really happy to see progression for both new Limited’s in the squad. Rodrigo Llanes and Gustavo Rubiano were both fresh from packs this season and are 22 and 21 respectively. I wasn’t necessarily expecting a lot of progression early on for the pair, but hopefully this is a sign they have a fair bit of potential in them!

Thoughts on Season 7

The squad is still a long way from a promotion push still. It would need new starters at 5 position at a bare minimum, likely more. Progression isn’t going to be quick enough to get us there I don’t think, especially with some of the better players heading towards retirement. At some point, I do want to push on for promotion, but I think I’m a year or two away at least.

This year I’m targeting a new CDM for sure, Domingos and Lombardo are both 55 rated and aren’t showing signs of significant progression any time soon. Having a third option would open up using a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-2-2 as a primary tactic. I also want to improve at left midfield where Monday Ogbu will be turning 31 next week and is 55 rated – adding a stronger and younger option is a definite need!

As well as improving the starters I also want to raise the floor of the team. When we have had to rotate this season it’s felt like giving up a lot of games. Obviously the goalkeeper rotation has been the biggest offender, but even when keeping Ochoa in goal, rotating at other positions has been a massive compromise.

Firstly, I want to improve on Schumacher as the rotation option for both fullback positions. He’s the worst outfield player in the squad at 49 overall and an easy spot to improve on hopefully. I could also do with improving on the 3rd choice CB, I was hoping Herve Jacques would show some quick progression but he might be better off playing for Tabasco for the next season or two at least.

I will also be targeting a faster option for our third striker. Henrik Ohman is relatively slow at 53 pace and he performs significantly worse than Garcia (68 pace) despite being pretty close in overall.

If you fancy giving MFL a go sign up using this link and we’ll both earn a free common card when you spend $25 in the pack Store.