This is an excerpt from this week's Claret and Amber Alert, a free Motherwell newsletter written by Graeme McGarry that goes out every Thursday at 6pm. To sign up, click here.
First, let’s get some caveats out of the way. Yes, Motherwell spending money on a player doesn’t always work out for the best.
With the greatest of respect, and apologies for sending shivers up your spine, we all remember the huge fee laid out for Shaun McSkimming, for instance, and arguably the worst deal in the club’s history, the cash plus Stevie Kirk and Paul McGrillen package that brought Eddie May to Fir Park. Shudder.
And ok, the club’s recent history of signing exciting players from the A-League hasn’t exactly panned out as we had all hoped, with the much-hyped arrival of Riku Danzaki falling flatter than the launch of this season’s rather Dundee United-esque warm-up kit.
Still, it is hard not be at least a wee bit excited about the impending arrival of striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos after his 17 goals in 25 league matches for the Newcastle Jets last season.
Just a note for kitman Alan MacDonald before I go any further. If you can ensure it is his nickname of ‘Stama’ that goes on the back of his shirt instead of his full surname, just in case he is a smash hit and my kids want their strips printed, that would be grand. Good man, Aldo. Didn’t have this trouble with Theo Bair.
Anyway, now that ‘Stama’ looks to be the man to be stepping into Bair’s shoes, what can Motherwell supporters expect from the frontman?
Well, judging by the entirely non-scientific viewing of his YouTube highlights reel, it seems the forward has an array of finishes at his disposal. By digging into the numbers a little deeper though using Wyscout, we can get a gauge on what type of player Motherwell are getting.
I get that things like xG (expected goals) aren’t for everyone, so I’ll try not to get too nerdy here, but they can point to underlying trends, and in the case of Stamatelopoulos, these look encouraging.
He scored 0.65 goals per 90 minutes, which is impressive, but perhaps what is even more encouraging is that he is outperformed his xG. With the chances he had in front of goal last season, he might have been reasonably expected to score 15 goals, but his total of 17 suggests not only that he is an accomplished finisher, but a consistent one too, and that he doesn’t tend to waste too many chances.
His ability in the air looks to be an asset too, winning 5.82 aerial duels per 90 minutes, and if you have seen his YouTube reel, you will see him attacking crosses aggressively. With the wing-back system that Stuart Kettlewell deploys, that will be a handy asset.
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I can’t have been the only one tearing what is left of my hair out over some of the matches this pre-season as crosses have flashed across goal from Stephen O’Donnell and Ewan Wilson with nobody there to tap them home, and while Moses Ebiye managed to convert one such opportunity against Clyde, hopefully Stamatelopoulos (yes, I am copying and pasting his name now) will be able to make hay from these balls across goal more consistently.
Many goalscoring strikers don’t tend to get too involved in general play, but Stamatelopoulos not only averages almost four touches per game in the opposition box and almost three shots per game, but he also averages 18 passes per 90 too, suggesting there are more strings to his bow than sticking the ball into the onion bag.
All of this might count for nothing when you factor in the intangibles of course – how he adapts to Scottish football, the culture, the weather, etc – but without the chance yet to see him in the flesh, there are at least plenty of reasons for encouragement ahead of his arrival on these shores.
You can certainly see why the Motherwell scouting team have been attracted to him, and why the club have decided to quickly reinvest some of the Bair transfer fee in bringing him over to Scotland. Hopefully, the theory that looked so solid behind the Danzaki transfer bears out a little more fruitfully in reality this time around.
What this means for the make-up of the attack remains to be seen. I was impressed by Zach Robinson in the win over Clyde despite him failing to find the net, while ironically Ebiye perhaps did his own chances of starting the season up top more harm by squandering a series of gilt-edged opportunities, despite scoring the opener.
It looks as though Stuart Kettlewell will be going with two up top, and given the club have paid a fee for Stamatelopoulos, it would appear to be him plus one.
Hopefully, both Robinson and Ebiye are suitably fired up against Partick Thistle on Sunday to stake their claim for that position come the opening league game against Ross County next week.
