How Alfred Johansson is rising to daunting Motherwell challenge

Alfred Johansson appeared to have walked into an incredibly difficult job at Motherwell this summer.

Motherwell finished fourth in the Scottish Premiership last season, playing some of the best football you could wish to see, and all on one of the top-flight’s lowest budgets.

Not only was Johansson following in Jens Berthel Askou’s sizeable footsteps after the Danish manager left for Toulouse, he was also dealing with the departures of key players in Elijah Just, Elliot Watt and Calum Ward, who have joined Swansea City, Samsunspor and QPR, respectively.

And yet, the Swede has started in fine style.

Sunday’s 2-1 win at Hibernian was a third victory on the spin after a 5-0 aggregate success against Faroese outfit HB Torshavn and they showed two very different sides of themselves at Easter Road.

Amid a second-half onslaught from the hosts, Motherwell stood firm, led defensively by summer recruit Martin Moormann, before Ibrahim Said scored a brilliant winner on the break.

“It was a game of ups and downs for both teams and obviously I’m really pleased to come out with the three points,” Johansson said.

“In the first half we showed some good stuff on the ball, but more than tactics, we have to praise the spirit of the team because at times we had to ride out storms.

“We have Martin Moormann throwing himself to make blocks, the front three dropping deep to help and Alex Paulsen making exceptional saves.

“When we hit it off, the good periods look really good, but we want those periods to be longer, but even months from now when we are better we will have to suffer and the guys showed they are ready to do that.”