Latest news with #Maswanhise
The National
09-05-2025
- Sport
- The National
Can Michael Wimmer bring the best out of Tawanda Maswanhise?
The celebration from Tawanda Maswanhise after he had risen like a salmon to bullet home his late header at Dens Park on Saturday was perhaps only surpassed by that of the McGarry family, as me and my boys were a pictured in various sports pages making a right old spectacle of ourselves. Ach, I suppose it wasn't my most embarrassing contribution ever to Scottish football journalism. Anyway, the cathartic roars from the Zimbabwean told a story deeper than the simple value of the goal in securing the three points for the 10 men of Motherwell, a strike that ensured Premiership football will be played at Fir Park for the 41st consecutive season. Maswanhise's situation at the club since the arrival of Michael Wimmer has been an intriguing one, and has angered seemingly thousands of his countrymen, who are about ready to launch the German over the Victoria Falls if the social media replies to his recent starting XIs are anything to go by. (Image: Craig Foy - SNS Group) It could just be though that Wimmer's management of the 22-year-old will get the best out of him in the long run. It was interesting that from early on in the game at Dundee, Wimmer was in deep conversation with Maswanhise at the side of the pitch, pointing out areas of the park where he presumably had identified there was space for him to come on and exploit. Having switched to a back four during the game to great effect the previous week against St Johnstone, it was something of a surprise to see Wimmer revert to the three from the start at Dens Park. Read more: But he clearly didn't like what he was seeing from his men in the first half, and his in-depth chats with Maswanhise were a sign that he was ready to shake things up at the interval once again. What also fascinated me as a I tried in vain to hold together a rapidly disintegrating macaroni pie was that after a minute or two of the half time whistle, Wimmer and assistant manager Ahmet Koc appeared back in the dugout, having presumably said their piece and left the players to sort it out amongst themselves. It worked, with Motherwell putting on a vastly improved performance and being thoroughly deserving of their win, even after going down to 10 men and benefitting from VAR, erm, correctly ruling an earlier Dundee goal out for offside. Incidentally, had it not been against Motherwell, then of course I don't like to see the technology butting in and ruling out spectacular strikes like the second one from Antonio Portales. But Clark Robertson was offside, and motioned towards the ball. The refereeing team would have been savaged by their superiors had they not followed the rules, which aren't rendered null and void just because someone has subsequently rattled in a thunderb******. Anyway, I digress. The point I want to make here is that not only did the team look fitter and stronger than they have in some time, perhaps down to the more intensive training that Wimmer has spoken of implementing, but Maswanhise as an individual looked hungrier and more motivated than he has of late too. There is no doubting his talent. I spoke to him for this newsletter back in January, not long after he had scored a brilliant goal against Rangers in the 2-2 draw at Fir Park, and he also seems to be a lovely lad. But his goal against Dundee was just his second since that strike against Rangers in late December. He netted against Aberdeen the following week, then failed to find the net in 12 appearances. What's more, since Wimmer's arrival, he has started just two matches. Granted, there was a bit of disruption as he travelled to represent his country during that spell, and he has had the odd niggle, but he was seemingly dropping down the pecking order under Wimmer, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that the manager may have been making a point to his player. Wimmer would never explicitly name individuals, but when I met him for a one-to-one a few weeks back, he had spoken in a general sense about the need for his players to work hard every day if they wanted to play in his side. When I gently pushed him on who he may be referring to, he said simply 'look at the teamsheet'. When Wimmer spoke about Maswanhise after the win at the weekend, he said: 'In the last couple of weeks he has worked much better in training. 'I think of how important JT could be for the team, and how much quality he has, as he showed today. (Image: Craig Foy - SNS Group) 'Hopefully the penny has dropped, and this is now our JT, and we will have a lot of fun with him.' One can only hope. Given the lack of attacking creativity that has been evident within the side for spells this season, and the imminent departure of Lennon Miller, Maswanhise could be a key player going into next term. If he wants to get that move back to the top level that he spoke about in this newsletter previously, then he is going to have to work for it. As Wimmer has now made clear to him, to even get into his Motherwell team, talent alone will not be enough. Hopefully, both the player and the team can reap the benefits of the way that his manager has handled him from this point on. And the presence of my daft mug will be restricted to my byline photo.
The Herald Scotland
09-05-2025
- Sport
- The Herald Scotland
Can Michael Wimmer bring the best out of Tawanda Maswanhise?
The celebration from Tawanda Maswanhise after he had risen like a salmon to bullet home his late header at Dens Park on Saturday was perhaps only surpassed by that of the McGarry family, as me and my boys were a pictured in various sports pages making a right old spectacle of ourselves. Ach, I suppose it wasn't my most embarrassing contribution ever to Scottish football journalism. Anyway, the cathartic roars from the Zimbabwean told a story deeper than the simple value of the goal in securing the three points for the 10 men of Motherwell, a strike that ensured Premiership football will be played at Fir Park for the 41st consecutive season. Maswanhise's situation at the club since the arrival of Michael Wimmer has been an intriguing one, and has angered seemingly thousands of his countrymen, who are about ready to launch the German over the Victoria Falls if the social media replies to his recent starting XIs are anything to go by. (Image: Craig Foy - SNS Group) It could just be though that Wimmer's management of the 22-year-old will get the best out of him in the long run. It was interesting that from early on in the game at Dundee, Wimmer was in deep conversation with Maswanhise at the side of the pitch, pointing out areas of the park where he presumably had identified there was space for him to come on and exploit. Having switched to a back four during the game to great effect the previous week against St Johnstone, it was something of a surprise to see Wimmer revert to the three from the start at Dens Park. Read more: But he clearly didn't like what he was seeing from his men in the first half, and his in-depth chats with Maswanhise were a sign that he was ready to shake things up at the interval once again. What also fascinated me as a I tried in vain to hold together a rapidly disintegrating macaroni pie was that after a minute or two of the half time whistle, Wimmer and assistant manager Ahmet Koc appeared back in the dugout, having presumably said their piece and left the players to sort it out amongst themselves. It worked, with Motherwell putting on a vastly improved performance and being thoroughly deserving of their win, even after going down to 10 men and benefitting from VAR, erm, correctly ruling an earlier Dundee goal out for offside. Incidentally, had it not been against Motherwell, then of course I don't like to see the technology butting in and ruling out spectacular strikes like the second one from Antonio Portales. But Clark Robertson was offside, and motioned towards the ball. The refereeing team would have been savaged by their superiors had they not followed the rules, which aren't rendered null and void just because someone has subsequently rattled in a thunderb******. Anyway, I digress. The point I want to make here is that not only did the team look fitter and stronger than they have in some time, perhaps down to the more intensive training that Wimmer has spoken of implementing, but Maswanhise as an individual looked hungrier and more motivated than he has of late too. There is no doubting his talent. I spoke to him for this newsletter back in January, not long after he had scored a brilliant goal against Rangers in the 2-2 draw at Fir Park, and he also seems to be a lovely lad. But his goal against Dundee was just his second since that strike against Rangers in late December. He netted against Aberdeen the following week, then failed to find the net in 12 appearances. What's more, since Wimmer's arrival, he has started just two matches. Granted, there was a bit of disruption as he travelled to represent his country during that spell, and he has had the odd niggle, but he was seemingly dropping down the pecking order under Wimmer, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that the manager may have been making a point to his player. Wimmer would never explicitly name individuals, but when I met him for a one-to-one a few weeks back, he had spoken in a general sense about the need for his players to work hard every day if they wanted to play in his side. When I gently pushed him on who he may be referring to, he said simply 'look at the teamsheet'. When Wimmer spoke about Maswanhise after the win at the weekend, he said: 'In the last couple of weeks he has worked much better in training. 'I think of how important JT could be for the team, and how much quality he has, as he showed today. (Image: Craig Foy - SNS Group) 'Hopefully the penny has dropped, and this is now our JT, and we will have a lot of fun with him.' One can only hope. Given the lack of attacking creativity that has been evident within the side for spells this season, and the imminent departure of Lennon Miller, Maswanhise could be a key player going into next term. If he wants to get that move back to the top level that he spoke about in this newsletter previously, then he is going to have to work for it. As Wimmer has now made clear to him, to even get into his Motherwell team, talent alone will not be enough. Hopefully, both the player and the team can reap the benefits of the way that his manager has handled him from this point on. And the presence of my daft mug will be restricted to my byline photo.
The Courier
04-05-2025
- Sport
- The Courier
Dundee 1-2 Motherwell: Mexican magic and VAR fury
This Dundee side do not settle for draws. Tony Docherty is unapologetic about his attacking philosophy as Dark Blues manager. He's willing to take risks to try to win games. Taking risks, though, can backfire as the final 10 minutes against Motherwell demonstrated. At the business end of a relegation battle points are precious. Maswanhise's goal in the 92nd minute saw the Dark Blues throw away one of those precious points. Having led 1-0, too, you can round that up to the whole three points after seeing yet another lead given away. Courier Sport was at Dens Park to pick out key talking points from a damaging Dundee defeat. Let's start with the positive part of the game. The first half was good from Dundee and they deserved the lead at the break. Antonio Portales kept his place in defensive midfield after doing well at Hearts the week before. He stepped it up in this one with a fabulous opening goal. A long throw popped up right in front of the Mexican and he smashed a brilliant volley into the top corner, leaving goalkeeper Aston Oxborough rooted. His first Premiership goal of the season was well worth waiting for. And it looked for all the world that he had a second just a few minutes later only for VAR to intervene and deny the Mexican another absolute beauty. Tony Docherty was furious at this decision. The emotion and disappointment completely understandable. Clark Robertson was in an offside position from the first contact following another Ryan Astley long throw. He went for the ball but didn't make contact with it or the defender. That small movement towards the ball was enough for the VAR Calum Scott to call offside. In the pre-VAR world (the good old days) the goal would certainly have stood and Dundee would have gone in at the break 2-0 up and feeling pretty good. With VAR in operation, more often than not that is going to be ruled out because of Robertson's attempt to touch the ball. Docherty's argument against the technology has merit. Do we really want to see goals ruled out for minor infractions? But this isn't the time of the season to be pouring over the impact of VAR on our game. More important is figuring out what the hell happened in that second half. Dundee deserved their lead at the break but the game completely turned in the second period. Motherwell improved markedly while, for some reason, the Dark Blues shrunk. Docherty pointed to the disallowed goal as reason for the shift. There needs to be more resilience in his team than that, though. This was Dundee's chance to finally win back-to-back Premiership matches for the first time this season. Instead there's an inquest going on. Clark Robertson unfortunately ended up in the midst of the three big moments that went against Dundee – the disallowed goal, his tackle on Lennon Miller went straight to Tom Sparrow for the equaliser and then he got his bearings all wrong in allowing Maswanhise to outjump him. But there was far more to the second half than a bit of misfortune and a mistake. Just look at the stats. The first half saw Dundee ahead on the shot count five to four with four on target for the home side and none for the Steelmen. The second was completely different. The Dark Blues had five again but just one on target while Motherwell racked up 12 shots on goal with four on target and one off the bar. After they went down to 10 men on 79 minutes the visitors had seven shots on goal while Dundee managed just three. That's where the match was lost. You want to win ideally but a point at this stage of the season while your rivals are losing is like gold dust. A 1-1 draw would have seen Dundee move three points ahead of Ross County in 11th with a better goal difference. That would have left the Staggies needing to earn two results to overhaul the Dee. Now Dundee could be back in the relegation play-off spot by the time the Staggies come to Dens next Wednesday. The next fixtures leave a tough trip to Kilmarnock for Dundee while County travel to bottom side St Johnstone. At 1-1 against 10 men, Docherty took the big risk. He swapped defender Ryan Astley for attacker Charlie Reilly and went 4-4-2 with Josh Mulligan as an attacking right-back. It backfired. In going gung-ho they left themselves open at the back and Motherwell, to their credit, did not retreat and park the bus. After the substitution, Dundee had just two efforts on goal – Robertson headed over and Lyall Cameron turned a shot wide. Motherwell brought a fine save from Trevor Carson, saw a Dan Casey effort blocked before the same man headed onto the bar and Tony Watt hit the rebound wide. Then came the winning goal followed by a breakaway where Carson denied Maswanhise and then Casey somehow missed an open goal. Motherwell had almost as many efforts on goal with 10 men as they did from the previous 79 minutes of action. With the benefit of hindsight, ensuring you don't lose would have been the smart, pragmatic move in this scenario. Had Docherty's risky move paid off, though, he would have been hailed for his bravery. Instead it didn't work and his team lost. That's the managerial tightrope at this level. The loss now leaves Dundee with a massive three games to save their Premiership status.
BBC News
04-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Motherwell 'had belief' winner was coming
Tawanda Maswanhise insisted Motherwell "had the belief" they would find a winner against Dundee, before he nodded home the goal that secured their Premiership Wimmer's side went behind thanks to an Antonio Portales screamer, and they were nearly 2-0 down before another was ruled out."The boys showed a lot of fight and that's what I really love about this team, this squad actually," Maswanhise said. "I'm really happy for the three points and the safety."I feel like we still had the belief because we had the ball with most of the game. I'm thinking, listen, if we still have the ball, we're going to create something. Luckily we did."The Zimbabwe international came off the bench to make his mark, rising at the back post to power a header into the top corner."[The manager told me] make sure you're running behind, push them back and go and get yourself a goal, young man."I want to get back into that playing feeling, playing week in, week out. Even though we're safe, I do want to play for this football club and I'm really happy for the goal I scored securing their survival, Maswanhise insisted there will be no room for complacency."There's always going to be pressure in games and that's what you need if you want to be at your best," the striker said. "But obviously, most of the pressure has been taken off after today and I'm really happy for the boys and myself."I feel like it's always been the same, even though we finished in the bottom six. The main focus is always to get three points every game."
Daily Record
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Record
Motherwell boss hails character of 10 men in Dundee and says Maswanhise can be important part of his tenure
The Steelmen grabbed a vital victory in Dundee that secured their top-flight safety for the 40th conescutive season Motherwell manager Michael Wimmer belives goal hero Tawanda Maswanhise could be an important player under his stewardship after the striker bagged a dramatic late winner to secure the Steelmen's top flight safety for the 40th consecutive season. The Zimbabwean popped up in the 91st minute to head home Dom Thompson's cross at the back post and land ten-man Steelmen a 2-1 victory, which came after John Koutroumbis saw red in the 80th minute after a VAR check upgraded his challenge on Ziyad Larkeche from a booking. Motherwell had to come back from Antonio Portales' first-half opener to level through Tom Sparrow on the hour mark. And while Wimmer hailed the character of his team to rally for the victory, he had special praise for the matchwinner and reckons Maswanhise could be a key man in next season's Premiership. The German gaffer, who side are now 10 points clear of the relegation zone in seventh spot with three games to go, said: 'I am really happy that we are safe. "I know people said before the game we were seven points ahead and it was no problem and we stay in the league, but it is always better when you are mathematically safe. 'I'm very proud of the guys and it was not the first time that we changed the result, it was I think the fifth or the fourth time we've changed the result. 'It's a brilliant team, brilliant character and they deserved it to stay so early in the league.' "[With Maswanhise] We has a lot of discussions about his position, also about what I expect from a striker, also in working or positioning. Then he was injured and now the last couple of weeks he worked much better in the training and he deserved to stay on the pitch. 'I think how important Maswanhise could be for the team and how much quality he has, he showed today. Hopefully the penny has dropped.' Motherwell now travel to the capital next weekend to play Hearts and then host Kilmarnock in their final home game of the campaign on May 14, followed by a trip to Ross County on May 18.
