If Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson is nervous ahead of his club’s big night against Freiburg, then he is good at hiding it. Given the extensive – and growing - injury list he is dealing with ahead of the meeting with last season’s defeated Europa League finalists, he would be forgiven instead for hiding his head under his pillow.
In their win over Celtic last December, Motherwell fielded a side with an entire back four consisting of players who were, ostensibly, right-backs to trade. After Johnny Koutroumbis became the latest name added to the massed ranks of first-team players jostling for elbow room inside the Fir Park treatment room, they now have none – that are fit and available, in any case.
Koutroumbis will be out for a month or so, there is no firm return date for Paul McGinn or Tom Sparrow, and while Stephen O’Donnell has been added to the Conference League squad, the first leg will come too soon.
The smart money is on new centre-back, Jake Girdwood-Reich, being shuffled over to the flank, but as impressive as he has been to date in his short Motherwell career, it is hardly an ideal situation when that wing is where Freiburg captain and record goalscorer Vincenzo Grifo is likely to be stationed.
Johansson’s demeanour though remains serene. He has, after all, plenty to be positive about given what his side have achieved in these early knockings of the campaign, with not even the sobering League Cup defeat with a much-rotated side at Stenhousemuir on Sunday, nor the daily calamities befalling his squad, affecting his mood.
This is an opportunity that is to be savoured, and certainly not one that should be approached, in Johansson’s view, any inferiority complex.
“My upbringing as a coach mainly has come from Copenhagen,” Johansson said.
“I'm heavily influenced by Copenhagen and coaches from there; Jacob Neestrup, who is now at Panathinaikos, Ståle Solbakken, who is the manager of Norway at the moment, both club legends at FC Copenhagen. Both have brought the club to Champions League twice, punching above their weight class, going really far in Europa League in the COVID period.
“I remember playing a brilliant game, the first team of Copenhagen against Man United, probably should have won that game but didn't go through. Incredible standout Champions League performances for FC Copenhagen in many seasons. I learned a lot from there, how you can approach games.”
He also learned much about German opposition from last summer, when he brought his Rosenborg side into this round of the Conference League, even if they ultimately fell short of reaching the group stage.
They won 2-1 at home before losing 4-1 in Germany, but you sense he would more than settle for a similar half-time score in this tie after tonight’s game at Fir Park.
“I would say that what I learned last year against Mainz is that you can approach games in Europe in a way that you can be brave to play your way against bigger teams,” he said.
“Then some priorities you might need to tweak a little bit.
“I also learned a lot about German football and Bundesliga football because before I've been watching a lot of Bundesliga games on TV, but to experience it by doing the analysis process on Mainz last year and then to go on and play the games, you also learn a lot about German football, the style of play that is very similar in many of the teams. I see similarities between Mainz and Freiburg.
“Also, I learned going to Mainz how the environment is in the German stadiums. I learned a lot about the style of play of the German teams, the energy that they have, the pace in the league, the energy and atmosphere at the stadium in Mainz.
“Also, that you can do well against the other teams in Europe. I have that from last year, I have that from my time in Copenhagen where you need to approach these games in a fearless way and be brave to still do your thing and not showing too much respect, because that's what also helped us against Helsinki, that we maintained ourselves, and that's very important.”
That being said, the scale of the occasion, and the challenge, that he will encounter this evening is far from lost on the Swede.
“Yeah, but we can't focus on it,” he said.
“There is this saying in English that you shouldn't play the occasion, right? We have to play our game, respecting everything that is surrounding us but not focusing too much on it. We have to focus on ourselves and our game and what we have to do on the pitch.
“It's a big difference [in budget], let's just call it that. But, then again, it's 11 versus 11 and it's one ball. We will try our best to perform as good as we can with a strong mentality and are really looking forward to this challenge.”
In brighter news for Johansson, he is optimistic that he will have former Dundee striker Seb Palmer-Houlding available after he joined the club on a three-year deal from Gillingham on Wednesday morning.
The availability of a player who is a natural number nine will be a novelty for Johansson, with the squad’s other recognised strikers – Eythor Bjorgolfsson, Callum Hendry and Apostolos Stamatelopoulos – also absent through injury.
That is unlikely though to mean a wholesale alteration to his approach.
“No big changes,” he said.
“When we've been playing with Cookie [Regan Charles-Cook] as a nine, he's making a lot of the runs in behind which Seb will provide us as well. I don't see huge differences. Seb is a more natural striker than him and is a little bit bigger guy, in some duels he can use his physicality in another way, but I don't see big changes.
“What I am sure is that we will try to be ourselves in as much parts of the games that we possibly can, knowing that it's a really strong opponent and we're going to have to, like we had to against Helsinki at times, suffer as well and be a really strong unit defensively, because you can't expect to dominate the game with 80% ball possession against teams like this.
“Also going to Hibs, we had to dig deep and suffer at times, and we had to also be brave and play our way at times. I believe we'll have to approach this game in a very similar way and fancy our chances.”
