Celtic might be in the midst of a frustrating season – but that doesn’t mean Motherwell won’t be challenged at Parkhead on Saturday according to manager Graham Alexander.
The Well have enjoyed a fine start to life under their new boss, picking up points in four of Alexander’s first five matches. Now another big test awaits, a trip to Celtic Park, but Neil Lennon’s side have come under fire this season as a 10th title in a row slips away.
Alexander isn’t listening to the outside noise and instead he’ll focus on what Motherwell can do to hurt the current champions: “I know there’s a lot of talk about Celtic’s season, but there are a lot of clubs underneath who wouldn’t mind Celtic’s season so far, so that’s the reality.
“They’re still a fantastic team with a really experienced manager and who have quality throughout. But I want to concentrate on what we can bring to the game, and that’s what our message will be for the next 24 hours going into it.”
Motherwell have plenty of new bodies in contention for starting positions at Celtic Park, no fewer than seven fresh faces arriving at Fir Park during the winter window. With all the current Covid-19 guidelines in place, Alexander says it’s been harder to gel them in.
He explained: “Everyone has had to adapt their lives over the last 12 months and football is no different. We want to get the signings into the group as quick as we can, trying to keep everyone socially distant, but where they are together.
“We make a changing room in the canteen on matchday. Getting everyone together as a squad, regardless of who plays, that’s really important. The sport is a team game, players have always been in a team and feel more comfortable there. But we do everything within the rules, we don’t ignore the protocols.”
It was only a few weeks ago that Motherwell drew 1-1 with league leaders Rangers in Alexander’s first home match as Well boss. While the size of club and squad is apparent again on Saturday, the Well boss wants his players to compete.
He said: “Any team has a fighting chance going into a game and if you don’t believe that, then I don’t think you are a professional sportsperson in the first place. You’re a professional and you’ve had these battles since you were a kid, to succeed.
“To get to professional level you have to overcome challenges and opposition for contracts and everything, so you’re used to competing. If that ever goes away, when you feel that you can’t compete, then you’re in the wrong game.
“I think we just go in expecting us to be at our best, and concentrate on us being at our best possible self, try to affect the opposition in ways with us on the ball and without the ball. It’s going to be a tough game, we know that, but our approach to it will be similar to what we had against Rangers, not tactically, but in our mind-set – and I think we have players that can hurt any opposition in Scotland.
“Celtic and Rangers are obviously the top dogs in Scotland and what we tried to do building up to the Rangers game was to pinpoint where we could try and win the game. Everyone could see that in our performance, that we tried to win the game, and tomorrow will be no different.
“Our approach to the games in my mind-set will always be the same, to try and win the game, but obviously the level of opposition changes from week to week and makes your job more difficult. I’m not one for looking at teams’ previous forms; Dundee United’s previous form going up to Wednesday wasn’t great either, but what a tough game we had, so for me it’s what we can bring to the game.
“I always look at the opposition’s best qualities and what they’re going to do, regardless of their form. You’re aware of individuals’ talents, but I always like to stress to our team that we can compete and play our game as much as we can and make sure we give the opposition problems, so we’ll try to do that to the best of our ability.”
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