Motherwell travel North to Dens Park to face Dundee in the Scottish Premiership following the recent international break. The two sides last met in the split last campaign with the Steelmen defeating the Dees’ 2-1 at Dens despite a sending off.
Antonio Portales got the Dundee side ahead but goals from Tom Sparrow and a late, late Tawanda Maswanhise winner ensured Motherwell left with maximum points.
Dundee have failed to pick up any wins in the league so far this season.They have drawn twice this season, against Kilmarnock as well as a 1-1 draw at Ibrox against Rangers as well as defeats against Hibernian and most recently, rivals Dundee United. Dundee’s last win was a month-and-a-half ago as they defeated League One Montrose 5-0 at Dens’ Park.
Whereas for the visitors, they are undefeated in league duty so far, drawing all four of their opening games against Rangers, St Mirren, Hearts, and Kilmarnock. Motherwell’s last victory was a late winner by Fadinger to send Motherwell through in the League Cup.
Last time out for the hosts, they were defeated on home soil to next door neighbors, Dundee United with both Zak Sepsford and Ivan Dolcek scoring in their first ever Dundee Derby as Jim Goodwin’s side left with the bragging rights.
Motherwell, however, picked up their fourth draw of the season two weeks ago as the Steelmen drew 2-2 against former well boss, Stuart Kettlewell and Kilmarnock as they kept their unbeaten run going.
In terms of injuries, Dundee are without duo Charlie Reilly who’s out with a broken collarbone as well as Paul Digby who is currently doubtful following a calf injury.
Motherwell have four players sidelined. Filip Stuparevic remains out with a cruciate ligament issue. Sam Nicholson also looks to miss out with a knee injury picked up all the way back in February against Ross County. Zach Robinson is also expected to miss out with an Achilles tendon injury as well as last season’s goal scorer when the two sides last met is also set to be an absentee. Stephen Welsh could be set to make his Motherwell debut after joining on loan from Celtic.
Here is what Dundee boss, Steven Pressley had to say ahead of Saturday to BBC Scotland:
“Motherwell are now in the quarterfinals of the League Cup and are unbeaten in the league campaign thus far but what we need to remember is that if we beat them at the weekend, we go above them,” Pressley said.
“So there’s a lot of positives to look forward to.
“We have an opportunity to change the narrative, and we have to be ready for that. We’ve worked very hard for it.”
While still waiting for his first league win, Pressley has been impressed with the progress he’s seen since the start of the campaign.
“If you look back at the Hibs game we were struggling to put a team out there,” he added.
“Slowly but surely, we’ve managed to get players in the building and look a little bit stronger.
“There’s a real positivity around the place; we’re all working incredibly hard. We are all pulling in the one direction but of course wins and results help that process.
“A win at the weekend would certainly go a long way in installing further confidence into the group.”
Motherwell boss, Askou also speaking to BBC Scotland on Saturday’s trip to Dundee:
“We have zoomed in on some tactical details that we need to improve – it’s been a good couple of weeks,” he said.
“We have had a positive start but we want to improve some phases. We’ve been a little bit too open because we’ve been extremely eager to win the ball back, especially in some of the games we’ve dominated possession.
“So the defensive phase has just been counter-pressing, basically, which has sometimes led to unstructured defensive situations that has caused some chances against us that we shouldn’t concede.
“We’ve been working a little bit on how to sharpen that up. So we don’t give big chances away unnecessarily against teams who struggle to produce big chances against us when we’re well structured.
“We have had a little bit too much xG against us given the dominance and the control we feel that we have had through most of the games.”
