Alfred Johansson wants his Motherwell side to get back to their trademark style and end their winless Premiership run.
The Steelmen have lost their last four games and tumbled down the league. They have lost to Rangers, Aberdeen, Dundee and Celtic, but hope to end that run with a victory away to Kilmarnock this weekend.
Johansson admits Celtic performance was well off
Johansson accepted their performance against Celtic was well off and there are many areas where they need to raise their game. He candidly said: “We wanted to do more than what we did, that's for sure. I think we need to press with more togetherness.
“I think we need to have a more offensive balance in our positioning. I think we need to fill the opponent box with more bodies. I think we did it at times in the second half after reinforcing that at halftime. That's still some things that we need to improve, yes.”
Confidence knocked but squad committed
The Swede acknowledged that the confidence of his team has taken a knock, but there is also a real willingness to put things right. “I think it's been fairly easy for me because I have a staff and a squad that they come back with a smile on their faces,” the 'Well boss claimed.
“They are very committed and training with a lot of effort this training week, so it makes my life easier. The more rewards you get, the more it works, the more confidence, right? So obviously that changes really quickly both ways. So we win against Hibs away in the start of the season.
“We could have lost that game and maybe then the confidence would have been lower, but we won it. And then we went on to a really, really good European campaign, probably also thanks to the result in that game.
“So the margins in this league is very, very small. So we definitely, definitely will see confidence ups and downs throughout the season of football.
“But yes, we just need to start to perform a little bit better and some areas a lot better. We need to get some points and then definitely confidence will be higher again. It's not a case now that no one has any confidence at all.”
Vogt backed to respond to criticism
Attacker Willy Vogt came in for criticism after his Celtic display but Johansson is confident he will respond in the right way.
He claimed: “I always speak to the players. Willy is a professional. He can handle this by himself. Obviously, from me and the staff, we're there for supporting the players, but he takes care of that himself.
“I just think that if you play football at this level, if you win games, people will be super happy and praise you a lot. We received a lot of praise. The start to the season was exceptional. How fast could we get the team to perform like that with all the new players?
“I was telling you then that we need to keep our feet on the ground because at some point, this new group of players will face a moment of adversity. Here we are and we have it now. For us, we need to improve and we need to do better and we'll do that.
“The development of the team, having 11 players join this summer—some early, but many late in the window—and then normally having games, games, games, games.
“I mean, it's not going to be fantastic development week by week. It's going to be ups and downs, but over time, it's going to be improvement.”
Injury list starting to clear
Motherwell's injury list is starting to clear and Johnny Koutroumbis should be fit for the trip to Rugby Park and others will return in the coming weeks.
Johansson admitted: “Jonny Koutrombos will probably be available for selection for Kilmarnock, but then the next one, two, three weeks we'll see the likes of Oscar Priestman, (Regan) Charles-Cook, hopefully Paul (McGinn) and Cal Hendry.
“These guys are looking better and better.”
