Motherwell

Cal Gilkison
BBC Sport Scotland

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Alfred Johansson has been speaking to the media before Motherwell host Hearts in the Premiership on Sunday (14:00 GMT).

Here are the key points:

• Johansson will "stick to my principles" following a run of five successive defeats. He says: "There are some big positives we need to continue with and reinforce and then there are some issues we need to fix."

• The Swede is drawing on experiences from his spell at Rosenborg to help him get through this difficult period: "We were just above the relegation zone and newspapers all over were like, 'Rosenberg is going to go down, this is the biggest crisis ever' - and we ended fourth that season. All of a sudden things that we had been working on clicked. We just stuck to what we had been working on and got the hang of it with a young squad. I don't believe in changing things completely."

• Johansson credited Motherwell's players for staying "professional" throughout the tough run of form, adding: "You see it every day in training. They have a fantastic attitude and fantastic effort. Everyone is just committed and works really hard. They make my job easy."

• The return of Oscar Priestman and Regan Charles-Cook this weekend is a "big positive" for the Steelmen. Callum Hendry and Paul McGinn are "progressing well" but aren't quite ready for their return.

• On Hearts, the Motherwell boss says: "I expect to come up against a good team that are aggressive in their high pressing. You can see they've got a coach from abroad that focuses on these things. I think they've been doing really well. They've been quite solid defensively in the league apart from the Celtic game. I think we'll come up against a good team that will try and be themselves at Fir Park."

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• Motherwell have spent a league-low 16.7% of their Scottish Premiership games this season winning, while only Celtic have spent a higher proportion of their matches in the lead (64.8%) than Hearts (45.4%)

• Each of Motherwell's past three home league games against Hearts have been drawn, with two of those finishing goalless.

• Hearts are unbeaten in seven league meetings with Motherwell (W3 D4) since a 3-1 defeat in August 2024.

• Motherwell have lost five successive league games, last losing more in a row in April 2003 (6).

• Hearts have won just two of their past 12 away league games (D3 L7), losing 7-1 at Celtic last time out. Home and away, Hearts had shipped just six goals in their previous seven league matches before that defeat.

Former Dundee and Dunfermline Athletic boss James McPake urges under-pressure managers Alfred Johansson and Craig McLeish of Motherwell and St Mirren to "stick to your principles". (Sun, external)

Thursday's Scottish gossip

Jenna Thomson
Fan writer

Well, it certainly wasn't the best trip to Ayrshire, was it?

Conceding a goal after two minutes sums up the issues we've been having lately. Our defence is nowhere near as capable or strong compared to last season and it desperately has to change.

If the highs of last term had never happened no one would be as panicked about the current five-game losing run.

At least there is positivity off the pitch - Saturday is the Well Society's celebration event to mark 10 years of fan ownership.

The Well Society is the crown jewel of Motherwell as both a business and a football club.

I know in a cost-of-living crisis money is tight, but you can contribute as little as £5 per month. That will still be £60 a year the club didn't have in their reserves before you contributed.

In a time of uncertainty and poor results I hope fans can come together and rejoice in the knowledge the club are in good hands behind the scenes.

Sportscene pundit Richard Foster says it is too early to be overly concerned about Motherwell, but believes Alfred Johansson must "try something different" to halt a five-game losing run.

Watch Sportscene highlights of the weekend's top-flight action

Watch all the highlights as Kilmarnock moved off the bottom of the Scottish Premiership, and confined Motherwell to a fifth successive defeat with a victory at Rugby Park. Available to UK users only.

Motherwell fans, we asked for your views on Saturday's defeat to Kilmarnock.

Here's what some of you said:

David: I really fear for us this season. After a promising start, we've fallen away badly. It's all been downhill since the Stenhousemuir cup match. Alfred Johansson seems like a really good guy but I don't think he has the tactical nous that Jens Berthel Askou had.

Stuart: A complete lack of defensive awareness, organisation, and accountability. It's the same issues for weeks now and a real concern it's not being addressed.

John: Another non-Motherwell performance. Too many players making mistakes with the manager failing to get his selection and tactics right. Is his jacket on a shoogly peg? Time will tell.

Andrew: I'm afraid time is running out for the manager. I think he's out of his depth.

Sinky: Things are going from bad to worse. We are heading towards the cliff face and I fear that if we are defeated in our next three games it may be time to start looking for a new manager. It was always unlikely to reach last season's heights but this season couldn't be more polar opposite.

George: It is hard to understand what our plan or structure is nowadays. Where is any prolonged cohesiveness? We have become a team of bits and pieces with a majority of the team looking lost. It would be a terrible irony if the team who lit up the league last term were reduced to a damp squib.

Kilmarnock inflicted a fifth Scottish Premiership defeat in a row on Motherwell in a five-goal thriller at Rugby Park to lift Neil McCann's side off the bottom of the table.

Read the full match report here

Have your say on the game via this link

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Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson tells BBC Scotland: "I think we ended this game in an unacceptable way.

"It's difficult to accept the fact that we lost this match. We did so many good things in this game. We reacted fantastically to conceding so early. After that, I saw a Motherwell team that created big chances, pressed together, scored two goals.

"At half-time we knew they would try to be more direct and that was something we needed to handle. We managed the start to the second half alright but we conceded two unacceptable goals.

"Even if we created more chances to score today, we can't rely on scoring three goals away from home to take points and victories. We conceded goals in a way that was unacceptable and it's something we need to improve.

"It's basics that we're failing and that's not enough.

"We're not going to change thinking, we're going to improve. Whether that's personnel or on the pitch, it's probably both. We need to make sure we don't concede goals like this. The third goal we just left a runner in behind and this is something that needs to be worked on.

"I can't accept how we ended this game. It's really difficult to accept how we lost this game."

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Kilmarnock goalkeeper Max Stryjek remains out for a considerable period of time with a knee injury, but otherwise boss Neil McCann is pleased with the numbers available.

Motherwell welcome back Johnny Koutroumbis but Dylan Williams, Regan Charles-Cook, Oscar Priestman and Callum Hendry are set to miss out.

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Motherwell right-back Stephen O'Donnell is not pressing the panic button despite four straight Scottish Premiership defeats.

Alfred Johansson's side have only taken one win from their last nine – against Dundee United in September – as they prepare to face O'Donnell's former club, Kilmarnock, on Saturday.

"We'll come back in April and, if we haven't won since then, I'll be panicking," he said.

"Just now it's frustrating, it's disappointing, there are lots of words to use, but not 'panic' just now. There have been far too many changes in the summer for us to be panicking this early on, especially when we did have the good run in Europe – albeit we'd have liked it to be more.

"We have a lot of things to work on, no panic, and hopefully we'll get a positive result – and, on grass, which is nice, it will be the first time I've been on grass at Killie since playing reserve football, so that's a long time!

"I'm excited for it and hopefully it's a good game.

"Wins change everything. Three points change the whole rhetoric around everything and you can then start to look to the next game with more of a positive mind-frame.

"We just need to get that win, and hopefully it comes on Saturday."

O'Donnell says he has not seen too much of Saturday's opponents this season.

"I saw them against Celtic in the first game of the season and I thought they were hard done by," he said.

"It will be a tough game, I'm looking forward to going back, and hopefully it will be a good day for us."

O'Donnell says Motherwell are still building as they look to repeat their success last term under Jens Berthel Askou.

"When the previous manager came in there was no expectation, but fans have now put an expectation on what they want to see and that takes time," he added.

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Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson has been speaking to the media ahead of their trip to face Kilmarnock this weekend.

Here are the key points from his press conference:

• After a run of four consecutive losses, Johansson recognises the character in the squad to maintain a positive outlook throughout the squad: "I think here I see a group of people coming into work with a smile on their faces, working really, really hard, both staff and players. So obviously that's not always easy when you don't win, so I think it shows even more character and speaks loud about the personalities and the commitment that we have around this place."

• On what needs to be improved, he adds: "I think our intensity and how we protect our own box needs to be improved. I think we need to press with more togetherness, so that's two things in the basics that we need to improve. I think we need to play a little bit more forward in the offensive half of the pitch, putting more bodies inside the box when we attack."

• Johansson says that while every team, in every season, will have ups and downs, he admits four straight defeats were not expected, but insists Motherwell are still building a strong team: "So am I surprised? No, I'm not. Did I think that we were going to lose four games in a row? No, but obviously, knowing that we will not just bring 11 new players in and then go on and consistently win all the games and be in the top [of the league] straight away. That's not how football works," going on to add, "If you could do that, then everyone would just do that. So we are still building something here. We're building a team."

• However, he knows that he cannot ask the fans to be patient: "I'm never going to ask supporters for patience because what they're thriving off of is their passion. And passion is an emotion. It's a feeling. It's instant," adding, "They should be happy when we win and they are allowed to be angry and disappointed when we lose. Simple as that. They need to be behind the team."

• On whether or not he would be happy to start winning games while sacrificing the performances on the park, he says: "You can't say win or play the way that we want to play. It doesn't make any sense. So what we do is we have a philosophy, we want to play in this way because we believe that that's the best way for us to win. So if we do something else, we have fewer chances of winning."

• Johansson welcomes back Johnny Koutroumbis and hopes the injury list will continue to go down in the next few weeks: "I believe Johnny Koutroumbis will be available for selection, and we wait for other guys for the next couple of weeks. We will look better in a couple of weeks."

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• Motherwell's Emmanuel Longelo has created the most chances of any player without an assist yet in this season's Scottish Premiership (14), while also ranking joint-fourth for most shots without scoring (12).

• Motherwell have lost four consecutive Scottish Premiership league games for the first time since February 2025 (5 in a row). It wasn't until their 29th league match of last season that the Steelmen suffered their fourth defeat.

• Kilmarnock have the joint-fewest points (1, level with Hibernian), joint-fewest goals (2, level with Aberdeen), and most goals conceded (11) at home of any side in the Scottish Premiership this season.

• Motherwell have won three of their last four Scottish Premiership matches against Kilmarnock (D1), as many as their previous 12 beforehand (W3 D5 L4).

• Kilmarnock have lost both of their last two league games against Motherwell, last losing three in a row in September 2017.

Jenna Thomson
Fan writer

After what has felt like an eternity, the first international break is over and the real football has returned.

For as long as I can remember Motherwell have never been the best team to watch for the first game after a break, and Sunday proved that further.

People will sensationalise the result and vilify certain players, and even the manager, however, I think we need to keep a clear head with our criticism after a 2-0 loss to Celtic.

Was the strongest team selected? Absolutely not. Should Ibrahim Said have been brought on at half-time? Yes. Is losing 2-0 to Celtic a terrible result? Absolutely not.

When you take the claret and amber glasses off and look at the game, it is not as bad as it appears. Tactically and team-sheet wise as mentioned, we were miles off and Alex Paulsen stopped it from becoming a cricket score.

Now don't get me wrong, Celtic weren't exactly playing world class either, but they had a bigger point to prove than what we did after the humblings they experienced against Rangers and in Europe.

If I have said it once in this column I must've said it a million times. Bad results against Celtic are not what define our seasons.

Our recent results are grim, there is no denying that, and we need to bounce back fast. Going away to a struggling Kilmarnock side where their manager is under a lot more pressure than ours may just give us the boost we need to stop flirting with the drop zone.

At this stage I am not scared that we will remain so low down the table for very long. The season is only three months old. If we are still floating around ninth to 12th in February, then I'll start to panic.

No-one was ever going to truly be able to replicate what Jens did last season, and that is OK.

It's panic stations for a lot of fans, which I can understand to a slight extent, but I do genuinely believe if we as a fanbase take a step back and breathe, we'll realise it is not as bad as it appears.

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Willy Vogt's hard work in training earned him a place in the Motherwell starting XI for Sunday's defeat to Celtic, manager Alfred Johansson revealed, after some fans were left bemused by the out-of-form winger's inclusion.

The 24-year-old, a summer signing from Swiss club Bellinzona, was handed his first start in two months on the right side as Johansson's men looked to end a losing run that has now stretched to four games.

However, the forward underwhelmed once again in his 13th appearance since joining the club and was substituted to the sound of sarcastic cheers and boos from some home supporters at Fir Park.

Asked why Vogt had started ahead of Ibrahim Said and Tawanda Maswanhise, Johansson replied: "It's just, from the last couple of weeks, how we've been seeing it in training.

"We believe we picked the right starting XI. And that's why Willy played. He's been working really hard, looking much better in training in the past couple of weeks. It's a competition for spots and we went with Willy.

"I think we struggled on our right side, in the low block and in the medium block, and in the high pressing, which is something we need to look at."

Sunday's 2-0 defeat means Motherwell have scored just once in their past four matches, and Johansson believes his side rushed the final pass when they reached promising positions.

"The last pass and the coolness in that moment needs to be improved in that first half," he added.

"That is probably natural when you're in a moment now where you have lost a couple of games. You force things a little bit at times."

Motherwell fans, we asked for your views after Sunday's Scottish Premiership defeat to Celtic.

Here's what some of you had to say:

Michael: We're giving the ball away far too easily, the movement off the ball is poor, the formation isn't working and the tactics are all wrong. We started the season with a massive injury list yet somehow looked a far better side than we do now. We've had three weeks to prepare for this game and that's the performance we produce? Nowhere near good enough.

Graeme: Yet again terrible. Wrong tactics and formation from a manager who is looking out his depth.

George: Our worst performance of the season. We seemed unable to press when out of possession, which simply afforded Celtic time on the ball. I confess I'm at a loss to understand what Willy Vogt brings to the team, as he seems unwilling to take his man on or put in a cross - seems to have little confidence.

Taylor: Not the worst performance you will see this season and those calling for the manager's head are a tad premature, however if Willy Vogt is a professional football player then I am the King of France. Gave nothing for 58 minutes and then replaced with Ibrahim Said (who should have started) who gave more in two minutes than Willy did the full game. Need to find something in the final third and we will start to click like last season.

Rhona: Really disappointing overall performance. I can accept defeat by a better team but the apparent lack of fight and determination is a big concern. After a three week break I'd have expected more of an appetite for the match. Could have been 10-0, the keeper kept the scoreline respectable.

Alistair: The first real concerns over our manager's capabilities are starting to surface. Opting to play Vogt, who has failed to show he can play at this level in any of his appearances, ahead of Said poses a question on player assessment. We remain toothless up front and while the possession style of last season appears to be the preferred blueprint, we are failing to execute it in a manner that produces positive outcomes.

Watch all the highlights as Celtic ended their three-game losing run with a comfortable 2-0 victory at Motherwell as the hosts' winless streak continues. Available to UK users only.

Celtic returned to the top of the Scottish Premiership and recovered from their pre-international break woes with a comprehensive victory at Motherwell.

Read the match report

Have your say

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Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson tells BBC Scotland: "We are the second best team today. Celtic are better than us.

"We were not sharp enough in and around their box. Second half, we started okay, then you concede the second goal in the way we did. After that, we tried to be positive and we created a couple of chances. When the game opens up like that, they look dangerous in transition.

"Some of the things that did work well was that we played more forward, we found Seb Palmer-Houlden in behind. I didn't think our counter-press was particularly good, or that our high press was good.

"[Goalkeeper] Alex Paulsen played a really good game. Still, from the good sequences we had, we need to create more chances from these moments. We are still lacking the last pass - that's something we need to continue to work on.

"Motherwell has a clear football philosophy. This is something I and the players are fully behind. Building a new team is not done overnight. We will get more players back from injury, young players will grow, but we will not change anything [in terms of style]."

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Motherwell boss Alfred Johansson reported no fresh injury concerns following the international break.

Defender Dylan Williams, though, is facing a spell on the sidelines after picking up a hamstring issue.

Forward Regan Charles-Cook is stepping up his recovery but will not be ready for Sunday.

Celtic winger Jota could return after almost 18 months out injured but Cameron Carter-Vickers is a doubt and Yang Hyun-jun, Alistair Johnston (hamstring) and Callum Osmand (ankle) are set to remain sidelined.

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Motherwell boss Alfred Johansson hopes his squad have been able to "clear their heads" over the international break and refocus for a return to Premiership action against leaders Celtic.

After a largely positive start to the new campaign under the Swede, who took over from Jens Berthel Askou in June, the Steelmen have lost their last three games.

However, Johansson feels the break - which also featured a bounce game in Bolton for players not away with their countries - will have provided just the reset needed to go again.

"Everyone that has been at home has been working really hard and the players that come back now are also hopefully boosted with confidence from playing with the national team," Johansson said.

"For us it was good to get some time off in the beginning to clear your heads, everyone, players, staff, myself included. After that, being able to get two good training weeks with the group has been beneficial for sure."

Johansson wants his players to be brave when Martin O'Neill's side visit Fir Park on Sunday looking to avoid what would be a fourth straight loss.

"We need to be a strong collective defensively and aggressive when we press," the Motherwell boss said. "We need to be covering each other's back when they are a bit more direct – and we also need to be brave to play because if not, you can go wrong in these games.

"We need to be brave to show the quality we have as well and the team has been doing that at times this season, so why not?"

Jane Lewis
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson has been speaking to the media before the Premiership match with Celtic at Fir Park on Sunday (12:00 BST).

Here are the main points:

• The break was "beneficial", with those not involved in international duty taking part in two "really good weeks of training" and a bounce game against Bolton. Johansson adds it was good to get some time off in the beginning to "clear their heads" before returning to training.

• Dylan Williams has picked up a hamstring injury and will be out for a couple of weeks. Regan Charles-Cook's fitness is still being managed and he won't be available for Sunday.

• With Motherwell on a three-game losing run, the Swede says his side need to "be always intense in everything that we do. When things are going well and not so well".

• On Celtic, the Fir Park boss admits at being bemused by some of the "ridiculous" criticism they're getting after three successive defeats. "I don't understand these things in football," he says. "If you check now the stats from the league, they are smashing almost all of them in the Premiership. The amount of quality they have in their squad, the amount of talent, they're a good team. Let's just stop there and let's not be ridiculous."

• Motherwell will need to be "brave" on the ball against Martin O'Neill's side, with Johansson adding "we need to be aggressive when we press and cover each other's back".

• Johansson's Rosenborg side faced current Celtic striker Kasper Hogh "many times" during his Bodo/Glimt career and rates him as a "really, really good player".