Stoke City · World Cup · Goalkeeper · #1 · Sweden · 27 yrs
Alfred Johansson's side bid to bounce back from that shock exit when they welcome Freiburg to a sold-out Fir Park for their Conference League play-off first leg. "It's disappointing to make that many changes," Halliday told the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.
Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson says underestimating Stenhousemuir in Sunday's League Cup clash "would be the most stupid thing in the world to do". Johnasson took over at Fir Park this summer following the departure of Jens Berthel Askou for French side Toulouse, and the transition has been almost seamless. Motherwell are unbeaten so far this term and earlier this week booked a spot in the Conference League play-off where they will face last year's Europa League finalist Freiburg.
Motherwell boss Alfred Johansson admitted last night's outstanding Europa Conference League victory over HJK Helsinki was up there with the best of his managerial career.
Manager Alfred Johansson says Motherwell play in a style that will allow "excellent footballer" Joe Hodge to "flourish and develop further" after the Republic of Ireland midfielder signed for an undisclosed fee from Portuguese side FC Tondela. Primarily a deep-lying midfielder, the former Wolves player featured in 26 games in Portugal's top flight last term as Tondela suffered relegation to the second tier. A product of Manchester City's youth academy, he played 13 times for Wolves, six of which came in the Premier League, and had loans at Queens Park Rangers and Huddersfield before his move to Portugal.
Last season's Europa League finalists Freiburg are probably the last team Motherwell wanted to see being picked out the pot in Monday's Conference League play-off draw. The Fir Park side have to defeat HJK Helsinki first, but whoever wins between they and the Finns will be underdogs to progress to the league stage. Alfred Johansson's side did avoid Atalanta of Italy and the winner of the tie between Greek side Panathinaikos and Bulgaria's CSKA.
Lukas Fadinger hailed Motherwell's "amazing" winning goal against Hibernian as an example that they are sticking close to last season's successful template despite a change in management. The midfielder had slotted the visitors ahead from the penalty spot in their first game of the new Scottish Premiership season before watching admiringly as Ibrahim Said restored the advantage to finish off a sweeping counter-attack. Jens Berthel Askou moved to Toulouse this summer after leading Motherwell to a fourth-place finish, with Alfred Johansson his replacement.
Tap a headline to view metadata and excerpt fields in Sportra, then use the article website button to continue on the original publisher page.
