After a, quite frankly, dismal display on Tuesday night, Motherwell are looking to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and make amends against Elvis’ Dundee.
The Blues are in a similar run of form to ourselves. With good wins in the Dundee derby and against our recent opponents Aberdeen in the league, it means they sit just below the Steelmen in 6th, with seven points.
League context
Scottish Premiership · 2026/27
Latest available standings for this season, refreshed automatically. This is league context, including for cup and European reports; it is not a table frozen at the final whistle.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Celtic | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 | +18 | 24 |
| 2 | Rangers | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | +6 | 20 |
| 3 | Heart of Midlothian | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | +5 | 16 |
| 4 | Dundee | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | +3 | 14 |
| 5 | St Johnstone | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 12 |
| 6 | Dundee United | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | -1 | 12 |
| 7 | Aberdeen | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 11 |
| 8 | St Mirren | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | -8 | 10 |
| 9 | Falkirk | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -3 | 9 |
| 10 | Motherwell | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | -5 | 8 |
| 11 | Kilmarnock | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | -10 | 8 |
| 12 | Hibernian | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | -5 | 7 |
Source: Wikipedia · Feed checked 23 Oct 2026, 02:27 BST. Feed checks do not guarantee that every result has been incorporated.
The Teams
Last time out, Motherwell lined up in their ever familiar 4-3-3 under AJ, with the only changes being the straight swap of Kanga for Said, with the man with a perpetual smile dropping to the bench for this one.
There are no changes to the squad as of press conference for Johansson’s side, with good progressions towards return for most, and some will reportedly return to team training by the end of the international break, which is encouraging to hear. With this being said, we should expect a similar set-up and team sheet to the Aberdeen game, although perhaps with some tweaks for resting/rotating.
Dundee made four changes for Sunday’s trip to Hearts from the side held to a draw by newly-promoted St Johnstone in midweek, with Brad Halliday, Idris Odutayo, Joe Bevan, and Bobby Wales making way for Drey Wright, Imari Samuels, Finlay Robertson, and Bradley Fink. Both Samuels and Robertson reportedly limped off in the Hearts game with injuries, however, so we may be unlikely to see them featuring.
One overarching feature of the Dundee squad this season so far is their laundry-list of injuries, with a number of key players out for a number of weeks and months. Club captain Simon Murray is out with an ACL rupture, probably not to return this season, Joe Westley is suffering from a broken cheekbone, but has said publicly that he will be ready to go come match-day. They are all joined by Charlie Reilly, Joe Wright, Ash Hay, and Zan Besir who won’t, or are unlikely to feature at the weekend, with the latter serving a suspension.
It is unclear how Pressley will tackle his selection headache at this time, but it is fair to say that there are gaps needing filled. There could be a first feature for Welshman Callum Jones, having struggled with an ankle injury since arriving in the summer from Hull City.
The Tactics
Dundee’s attack, while pragmatic, does seem to rely on quick build-up in transition and effective wing play. The more than occasional long ball in behind could cause the Motherwell back line some problems – especially considering the types of goals conceded against Aberdeen on Tuesday.
Defensively, they are a tight, cohesive unit that tend to prefer numerical superiority in the middle as opposed to man-for-man marking. This does allow the opportunity for second balls and rebounds from the edge of the box, so I would expect AJ to make use of a similar attacking philosophy to what he employed early on in his tenure in the HB Torshavn and HJK Helsinki games: crosses into the box and playing for second contact. With this being said, however, there is also an opportunity to play with quick build-up ourselves, using our own pace in transition as a weapon of disrupting that tight-knit defensive shape. If we hit Dundee on the counter, or build quickly with multiple options and outballs forwards, we could have a lot of joy in chance-creation.
What absolutely needs to happen regardless is an improvement from Tuesday going forward. Motherwell seemed lethargic, toothless, and almost out of ideas in large spells against Aberdeen, and at times looked like they could not string three 5-yard passes together without putting the ball into touch or into the feet of a Dons player. The ‘horse-shoe’ possessional play was embarrassing to watch at times, and incredibly naive considering both the manager and tactics we were up against.
What the Manager had to say
To Sum Up
Motherwell should win this game. But also, we absolutely should have won the game against Aberdeen on Tuesday on paper. But, as we all know, football isn’t played on paper, it’s played on grass. So we hope that lessons were learned, and changes were applied, so the team we see on Saturday gets us back to winning ways.
Mon the Stinking Well.
Pick your XI before kick-off with the Lineup Predictor, or check the rest of the card on our fixtures page.
