Michael Wimmer urges Motherwell to show bravery in possession against Rangers

Motherwell manager Michael Wimmer has challenged his players to show bravery on the ball when he makes his first trip to Ibrox.

The German enjoyed a winning home debut on Wednesday when his team beat Dundee 2-1.

The players responded well to his instructions in the first half as they pressed Dundee and got on the front foot, and then reacted well to Simon Murray’s late equaliser as Dan Casey hit his second goal of the game five minutes later.

Wimmer knows the effort will have taken energy out of the players, but he is looking for more courage when they take on Barry Ferguson’s Rangers.

“It’s a big challenge on Saturday,” he said. “But I like it, to compete with the best teams, it makes us better. And I like this challenge.

“It’s not easy, but it’s easier to drive to Ibrox with a win after Wednesday. But it’s a great team, they’re in the last 16 of the Europa League, which says everything. But we will bring our performance and who knows what is possible?

“I think there will be many minutes we have to suffer. But this is football, it’s always like this against a great team.

“But if we are good out of possession, perhaps we can win the ball, and then we have good counter-attacks. And we can be dangerous in these scenarios.

“But I also want to see that my team is brave, that my team is also brave in possession, that they also have the courage to have possession. Because if you never have the ball, it’s not fun and it’s too much suffering.

“I want to see that we bring the self-confidence that we got on Wednesday.

“I have to feel the energy in the dressing room, I have to feel the power from the players. Wednesday was very, very hard, it cost a lot of energy. So we will see what Friday brings in training and then we will find the best set-up for Saturday.”