Season 8 gets underway later today and I’m all set for a hopefully more successful season for the Motherwell Eagles. Last season we were hoping to manage 7th place, but ended in 9th a whopping 16 points adrift of 7th. I never really felt comfortable with the tactics and we had an awful run in the second half of the season.

This year, testing has gone a lot better heading into the season and I feel I have a tactic that should be more successful than last season at least! There’s also a few new faces in the door, including 3 new starters to continue improving the squad for a promotion push in the future.

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Squad and Tactics

For this season I’m moving away from our trusty 4-1-2-1-2 to a counter attacking 4-2-3-1 as the primary tactic. It means a bit of change in the squad make-up to have a third CDM available for rotation. I will also keep a 3rd forward in the squad to allow us to swap to a 4-2-2-2 or a 4-1-2-1-2 if needed during the season. With the way we crumbled in the second half of season 7 having the ability to change approaches is a must this year.

There’s no change in the goalkeepers this season. Ettore Bonetti returns as the starter and will be backed-up by Mariano Ochoa. Bonetti has been in tier-jail since the middle of last season, hopefully he can make the jump to an uncommon early on this year!

In defence the full backs remain the same as last season, van Vliet starts on the right, Rubiano on the left with Gusmao being the rotation option for both. Our star defender Karlheinz Stangl returns in the centre of defence, but he’ll have different partners this season. I wanted to get younger than last seasons pair of 29 year-old starters as well as adding some more pace.

I’ve brought in two 24 year-olds. Paul Holmes will be the primary starter alongside Stangl, he has solid pace at 66 and has shown decent progression (+5 over 5 seasons). To be the rotation option, I’ve brought Stephane Mbida who is pretty rapid at 73 pace and he looks primed to show progression over the next couple of seasons.

In the midfield there’s an addition defensive midfielder to allow us to play the 4-2-3-1 consistently. Brian Rees is another younger player with a history of progression, +4 over 3 seasons including a tier break and will start alongside Edgardo Alameda. Alex Waite and Rodrigo Llanes remain the starters on either flank and another two I’m hoping to see improve.

Timmy Cooper should get a fair bit of time as a rotation option for the CAM and LM slots. Domingos, Almeida and Ogbu have all shown little improvement over the last few seasons and I’m not too worried about how much game time they get over the season.

Finally, the forwards. Our star forward Martin Beck returns again, but he will be moving back into the CAM role for this season. He’s a really solid all rounder and 62 rated at the position making him the best in the squad at the position.

He’s moving position to make room for Marc Wouters who I got from a Limited player pack. He’s a really exciting prospect at 22 years old and has the pace, physicality and shooting to be a really good player. I needed a long-term replacement for 31 year-old Beck and, apart from his lower dribbling, Wouters very much fits the bill.

Backing him up is another new signing in Heiner Keifer. He’s a bit more of an all-rounder than Wouters but his 63 speed is pretty reasonable. He’s 24 now, but has been in the game since he was 17 and has progressed +5 in that time. He had some stat increases last season as well, so there is more to come although his game time probably won’t be ideal this season.

The League

There’s been a lot of talk in the community of power creep over the last few weeks. That’s true for the top end of the Spark 90 league, but in the mid-table is looking bit weaker than last season with one day to go until the season starts. I’ve improved the Eagles a bit over the off-season, but we would have only been good enough for 8th in the projections rather than 6th this season.

The gap to 5th is pretty big, I’d essentially need a team of uncommons rather than the single uncommon I have at the moment to make the jump into competing for a promotion play-off spot. As it is we will hopefully be in a fight for a top half of finish. Achieving that would be the highest finish we’ve ever achieved!

Goals for the Season

• 6th Place in the League – We should be right in the fight for 6th and in testing my tactics have been pretty promising. We’ll see how it goes when the competitive games start, but 6th has to be aim for the season.
• Make it out of the group in the Cup – As ever getting out of the group stages is the aim in the cup. Depending on how the fixtures fall, hopefully I’ll be able to prioritise the group games at least.
• Progression for Key Players – Some of the players in the squad are likely reaching their limit in progression. But I am expecting to see progression for the key youngsters in the squad such as, Rubiano, Llanes, Wouters and Mbida to put us close to a promotion push next season.

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.