Alexander: Mental preparation is key
Motherwell manager calls for full focus
MOTHERWELL manager Graham Alexander will redouble his efforts to sharpen his players’ focus following their 3-0 defeat at Dundee.
The Fir Park side travelled to Tayside on the back of consecutive wins over Aberdeen and Hearts, but they followed their best performance of the season with arguably their worst.
Motherwell have a swift opportunity to bounce back when they host fourth-place Dundee United in the cinch Premiership tonight and Alexander will continue trying to maximise his squad’s “mental preparation”, which he blamed for Saturday’s performance.
“The most important thing is we have a consistent level of focus, preparation, commitment, work ethic, because I know you cannot always produce the skill levels, because you always have an opponent trying to stop you,” he said.
“You really cannot have an opponent stop you from working hard.
“When I am talking about working hard, I don’t think any of my players were lazy on Saturday but we came off it a few per cent and that’s enough for us to drop our levels.
“It’s down to us to make a choice to focus on ourselves and set our own standards. If you go by the opposition, your form is going to be up and down. What we have seen from ourselves is some great heights when we are focused on what is required but certainly Saturday was a low, and it’s not the first.
“We have to avoid that at all costs and I think that starts in the mind and ends in the
mind, and for me that’s what we have to work on.
“The mentality, focus and discipline is just as much a skill that you have to practise and train as any other aspect in professional football.
“You use absolutely everything you have got – the training sessions, analysis, your other staff, good examples of team-mates. You try to make them look at the most
consistent players - how does that players approach his everyday training, his life? Is he on time every day? Is he first in the gym? Is he doing all the things he needs to do? And if he is, then copy that. There’s great examples for all players to follow in football.
“Our job is to remind them how to do that but it’s a constant process because it’s easy to lose discipline and
focus, because there’s so many distractions in the world.
“But, ultimately, as a professional footballer you are in football to win games. So that should be the forefront of any other distraction. But they are all human.”
Meanwhile, opposite number Tam Courts claims Dundee United are in “quite a privileged position” going into the clash with Motherwell.
The Terrors lost a stoppagetime goal to Ross County on Saturday to draw 1-1 but they remain two points behind Hearts and four ahead of the Steelmen.
After shrugging off his frustration at Dingwall, Courts is adopting a typically positive outlook for the trip to Fir Park.
The Tannadice boss said: “We have a big opportunity on Tuesday night to turn that point from Dingwall into a good one by winning three.
“We are in quite a privileged position because even if the worst was to happen at Fir Park, Motherwell would close the distance on us, they can’t overtake us.
“But it is also a huge incentive for us to get on to 28 points which, at the 16game mark, would be quite a significant haul and put us in a really strong position as we target the top-six position.
“But again, we knew last week that this was going to be quite a significant week.
“Ross County is a really tough venue and a good point if we beat Motherwell on Tuesday night.”
After impressive wins over Hearts and Aberdeen, Motherwell lost 3-0 to Dundee at Dens Park at the weekend but Courts believes that result simply confirmed the competitive nature of the league.
He said: “I don’t think there are many results that surprise me in this league.
“I think I was asked that when Ross County beat Dundee 5-0 and I think I replied at that time that is a very tight league, anyone can beat anyone in any given day which is why the type of team that we are, we just need to be on it and at it every single game.
“By and large we have been which is why we have had some good performances and a decent points haul at this stage of the season.”