Alfred Johansson seemed to inherit a daunting task at Motherwell this summer.
The club had just finished fourth in the Scottish Premiership, playing sparkling football on one of the division’s smallest budgets. Johansson not only had to follow Jens Berthel Askou, who departed for Toulouse, but also contend with the exits of key players Elijah Just, Elliot Watt and Calum Ward to Swansea City, Samsunspor and QPR.
Yet the Swede has begun impressively. Sunday’s 2-1 win at Hibernian made it three victories in a row, coming on the back of a 5-0 aggregate defeat of HB Torshavn, and showcased contrasting strengths at Easter Road. Under heavy second-half pressure, Motherwell held firm—summer signing Martin Moormann leading the rearguard—before Ibrahim Said struck a superb counterattacking winner.
Johansson said he was thrilled to take three points from a game that swung both ways. He praised the team’s first-half play but, above all, their resilience in weathering difficult spells, highlighting Moormann’s blocks, the front three’s defensive work, and Alex Paulsen’s excellent saves. He added that while their good passages already look very strong and he wants them to last longer, even as the team improves they will still need to suffer at times—and his players showed they’re ready for that.