We're as prepared for Rangers as we can be, says Motherwell boss

Daily Record

4 days ago

Jens Berthel Askou says his side are ready to face the Ibrox giants
Jens Berthel Askou says his Motherwell side are as prepared as they can be for their Premiership opener at home to Rangers next Saturday.
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The Lanarkshire side drew 1-1 with German 2 Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin at Fir Park on Friday night in their final warm-up game before Russell Martin brings his Rangers side to town.
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Askou feels that the Premier Sports Cup group stage games and friendlies have allowed him to properly assess his squad, so that he knows who should play where, and which areas need to be strengthened.
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He said: 'I think we are as prepared as we can be. We would like to have had a few more weeks with just one game a week, because it would have given us some extra time to train and load them differently.
'We could have put more volume into the week, in terms of running and specific phases in training, but that's how it is.
'I think we've got the most out of it, we've had the results we wanted and needed, and progress in many phases of the game, and then we know we have to keep building over the summer.
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'We still have to add players to the squad, and we also know that our goal is not to be the best we can be in July or August, but to be the best team we can be this season, and from next season, see if we can become even better.
'I think the games have been very competitive, so it's not like we've missed competition. There have been some really tough cup games for us as well.
'We had a good intense game against Carlisle United, Twente, and [Hertha Berlin] was surely very competitive as well.
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'We're getting answers every week of what do we think of the players in the squad, who will play that role the most.
'We've swapped a little bit in different positions, because the system we play is a little bit different from what they've been used to.
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'That means some of the answers we had a couple of weeks ago are maybe different to what we're getting now, so it's a bigger puzzle, and we're working with it every day, but I think we're getting more and more valuable information.
'That lets us figure what position we need to target.'
On Hertha, Askou said: 'It's the closest we'd get to the standard of Rangers.
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'The team we played is pushing to get back to the Bundesliga, and have a good possibility of getting there, with some really good players who have a lot of experience at a very high level.
'I expected this to be a very hard test, it was for sure, but I think we managed it very well.
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'We looked the fitter team in the end and I was impressed with that and I was happy with many things.
'In the first 10 or 15 minutes during the middle of the second half we started to look really tired, and were able to pull ourselves up, without the possibility to swap five players.
'I was also happy with the intensity that we started the game with, and some of the spells we had throughout the game, and the courage to press them high on many occasions.
'In the moments when we struggled a little bit, we didn't lose the bravery and didn't drop back more than necessary.'