Alfred Johansson has told his Motherwell players to go home and eat barbed wire because they will face a major European battle on the frontline of the Faroes. The Steelmen travel to Torshavn to defend their 2-0 lead against Havnar Boltfelag in the return leg of the Conference League.
HB's formidable home record
Johansson is well aware of the challenge Motherwell face, as HB haven’t lost at home in the last five years, beating Buducnost Podgorica, Maccabi Haifa and Newtown and drawing with Derry City, Hajduk Split and Brondby last season. The Motherwell head coach stated: “We are going to go there and try to be positive and try to have a good performance. Of course, we are going there to try and win but at the same time you also have to respect the opponent and the place where we play.
“In 10 years, I believe they have lost twice at home in European qualification. The last five years they have lost zero games in European qualification and that includes Brondby, a big club in Denmark, Maccabi Haifa and HJK. “They are pretty big clubs from other regions of Europe. You can’t neglect the fact they have done well at home and if you think you are going to go there and grab a victory real simple then you are fooling yourself.
“They have done really well at home. I told the guys to go home and eat some barbed wire and to prepare for the battle. “It will be a battle and we will need to be strong and brave to play our way. The intensity has to be there or there is no need to travel.”
Johansson's approach
The Motherwell boss, however, won’t be going to the Torsvollur looking to sit and hold on to what they have. He will be hoping there can be a repeat of Motherwell's away win over HB back in 1994. He said: “Complacency can’t be there if you want to reach goals. If you want to reach your goals you can’t be complacent. That is not for elite sports or Motherwell FC.
“If anyone is complacent or doesn’t want to wind themselves up for this game then they are in the wrong place. We will try to go there and put a lot of intensity in and to go through. “For me, we are going to try and score. We are not going there to park the bus for 90 minutes. That is not going to help us.
“We are going there to try and play our game. “We know it is going to be a more open game. They will try to put more pressure on us and will be more offensive than where they were at Fir Park. We need to take the battle with them in both boxes, that’s what we aim to do.”
Maswanhise boost
The Lanarkshire side are boosted by the fact that top scorer Tawanda Maswanhise is fit. He is available after recovering from his broken jaw. “He will not start the game and he will wear protection,” the Swede, who is still looking to strengthen his Motherwell squad, confirmed. It is massive to have him back in, what a player.
“Did you see last season? What a player and it is a massive boost for everyone.” “He has the (goal) numbers to back me saying yes. “Definitely he can take those chances. “Even in the second half, even if we didn’t have the same presence in the box when we finished the attack, I still think we had some good moment.
“We also had a lot of presence in the first half even playing without a proper No. 9. We had to good chances from the first minute. “We still have the quality inside the box even if JT doesn’t start with the other players we have.”
Reacting after scoring
Martin Moorman and Lukas Fadinger got the goals last week. Johansson actually wants to see his team react better after they score. Johansson explained: “First of all, I want the bravery on the ball to be the same.
“I thought we were confident on the ball and at times we played out of stressful areas with quality. We attacked their box and finished the game with close to 2 on XG. “We definitely looked dangerous and we need to continue with that. That is No. 1 and after both goals in the first game we had a decline in terms of the performance.
“It doesn’t matter what metric you look at. We need to stay focused if we score a goal. We can’t stop focusing. “They will be more aggressive, put in long balls and will fight even more for second ball. We will need to be more rock-solid than ever.
“We will need to work hard, if you get beaten by a long ball you will need to track back and all these things will be really important.”
