Hibs loanee Jair Tavares is now starting to enjoy some more game time at Motherwell in an unfamilair position.
The Portuguese star was deemed surplus to requirements this season by Hibs boss David Gray and moved to Fir Park on a season-long loan.
Life at Motherwell did not get off to a great start for Tavares having made only two substitute appearances in the opening nine Premiership games.
But he’s played a part in four of the last six for the Steelmen and in the last two games, Tavares was handed starts.
Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell deployed Tavares as a right-wing back against both Dundee and St Mirren despite naturally being a left winger.
Now, Motherwell assistant manager Stephen Frail has explained the decision-making process behind the positional adjustment for Hibs man Tavares.
Stephen Frail talks Jair Tavares position change
Frail told the press: “You’ve got all those players in that position. Jair’s come in. We looked at that and we thought, just with his attacking ability, that he could cause Dundee problems when we put him in there.
“We probably starved him of the ball in the second half. But he’s come in and acquitted himself really well.
“You’ve got Marvin, Stephen O’Donnell and Johnny Koutroumbis. So it’s a position we’re really strong in. Sometimes our set up and our shape, you might not have fitted him into it.
“The manager identified that he wanted to put him in as a wing-back against Dundee. Because of their wing-back situation as well. We thought, why don’t we try it? We thought he equipped himself really well.
“Tough game on Saturday against St Mirren. A game with windy conditions, a lot of restarts in the game. And again, we thought he did really well.
“So he’ll be one that will be still in contention for Saturday against Dundee United.”
Hard work in training paid off for Tavares
Ahead of Motherwell’s recent defeat to Hibs – which Tavares was ineligible for – Kettlewell explained why Tavares hadn’t been given much game time.
He said: “His opportunity has been limited for one reason or another. It might be that players ahead of him that have had that opportunity have done well.
“An illness which took him out for a period of time as well. It has been a wee bit stop-start.”
But he reported that Tavares was training “really, really well” and hinted that opportunities for him would come soon.
That proved to be the case over the last two fixtures and Tavares will be keen to start again as Motherwell host Dundee United on Saturday.