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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Andy McGilvray

Motherwell have enough up front to cause Sligo problems, says boss

Motherwell boss Graham Alexander reckons his side have the fire-power to succeed in Europe, but must keep it tight at the back.

The Fir Park gaffer has hinted that he may be without hit man Kevin van Veen and new signing Paul McGinn for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round first leg match against Sligo Rovers at Fir Park on Thursday.

And with Justin Amaluzor, Jordan Roberts and now Kaiyne Woolery having left this summer, some might feel that some of that attacking edge has departed with them.

But Alexander says it's simply the case that others now need to step up to the plate.

He said: "We have lost a couple of players but, not being disrespectful, we were comfortable with certain players moving on, because we felt we needed to trim the squad and redefine it a little bit.

"We have only brought three players in so far - Paul McGinn, Blair Spittal and Josh Morris - but these are proven performers.

Motherwell boss Graham Alexander says his squad have what it takes to grab goals (SNS Group)

"Spittal and Morris are proven attacking midfielders who can score goals. Josh has scored goals in the previous two times that I managed him and Blair Spittal had a good goal-scoring season last season.

Alexander is preparing his squad for their Europa Conference League qualifier (Motherwell FC)

"It's not a case of replacing like for like. They're different players and different attributes, but certainly proven goal-scorers.

"We feel we have other players in the squad, people like Connor Shields, Joe Efford, Ross Tierney, Callum Slattery, Sean Goss, where we expect them to improve on their goal-scoring from last season.

"They have the ability to do that. So we have to give them the opportunities to prove that's the case."

Alexander added: "I'm confident we have enough goal-scoring threats in our squad to score the amount of goals that we did last season. If you took away penalties, we were the fourth-top goal-scorers in the league.

"The improvements we feel we have to make are on the defensive side of it and not concede as many goals as we did. We have done a lot of work on that. I feel we have the players that can help us improve that aspect.

Striker Kevin van Veen will be given every chance to make Thursday's clash (SNS Group)

"I feel we have the players to win games now but we are always on the lookout to try and improve the squad.

"What we have got to do is focus on how we prepare and not getting any excuses ready. We are ready to go into a game of football, we are physically ready and tactically ready. Mentally the players are ready for this challenge.

"Sligo are a good footballing team, they can be expansive, they have got the right players in the right positions to be a successful team.

"The harder the challenge for us, I think the better we perform. We are expecting a tough game but the biggest aim for us is to make sure they have a tough game."

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