Motherwell slipped to their sixth successive defeat as Hearts left North Lanarkshire with a 2-0 win and all three points. It is a horror run under Alfred Johansson, and despite a promising start under the Swede, the season is in danger of going pear-shaped.
He will likely get more time from what appears to be a sensible board, although every club has their limits. Taken in isolation, any manager would be under pressure, but when your predecessor had Scottish football eating out of the palm of his hand, then it can be a blessing and a curse.
A Blessing and a Curse
On one hand, Jens Berthel Askou did so well that it was almost an impossible act to live up to, which can buy a bit more leeway. But there is a thin line to the comparison making for such dire reading that you are simply nowhere near the expectations set, and that becomes a problem.
The ghost of Askou seems to be hanging over Johansson. It is like at Manchester United; no one wants to be Wilf McGuinness, the guy who replaced Matt Busby. You want to be the guy who replaces the guy who replaced Matt Busby. The same applies to Sir Alex Ferguson, just that it is now 13 years on and even the replacements' replacements have not cut it.
Contrast With Last Season
This time last year, the Steelmen beat Livingston in stoppage time to go fifth in the table after nine games. It was only Askou's second league win in nine games, but after that, the only way was up, and in some style too.
Johansson has had a game more thanks to an early League Cup exit, while Motherwell made last season's semi-final. He has amassed just over half the points his predecessor did, and the team are ten goals worse off. A Hibs win at St Mirren on Wednesday night will see Motherwell sitting bottom of the table if they fail to beat St Johnstone.
As Johansson prepares to take his team to McDiarmid Park, Askou's Toulouse sit mid-table in Ligue 1 and head to Marseille on Sunday, quite the contrast.
Halliday Sees Stark Differences
Andy Halliday played under Askou last season before announcing his retirement in the summer, so knows only too well how things worked and what his players were expected to do. Having watched Johansson's version up close, he has seen some stark differences.
"They're miles behind that team," he told Premier Sports. "It's difficult to compare them to that team because it is a new one, a new coaching staff but they're miles apart. That's in possession and out of possession. I don't think they work anywhere near as hard as the team did last year."
"As much as they defended in compact shape last season, they also attacked very, very compact. At the point when they lost the ball, there's so many bodies around it to try and recover it quickly. Motherwell still try and play centrally, but the pitch is so big that when they lose the ball in a central area, it's just too easy for opposition teams to counter on the up the pitch."
"That difference definitely comes from the coach because they do make the pitch a lot bigger than they did last year when they were on the ball. But I do look at last year when you have Callum Slattery, Elijah Just, Elliot Watt and Lukas Fadinger - that's four players that cover 12km per game. As good as they are on the ball, they were equally as good off the ball."
"I look at the likes of (Joe) Hodge and (Dylan) Levitt and for me, they don't do anywhere near enough. They're tidy footballers on the ball, but they don't look like they're going to score or create. And off the ball? I don't see them tackle anyone. They don't get close to anyone."
