Stuart Kettlewell wants Motherwell to go on the offensive after meek defeats

Stuart Kettlewell has ordered misfiring Motherwell to “take a bat out and have a swing” at Dundee on Wednesday as they bid to respond to meek back-to-back defeats.

The Steelmen are still fifth in the William Hill Premiership but have given teams below them – including the Dark Blues – the chance to get closer after going down 2-1 at Ross County and 3-0 at home to lowly Hibernian over the last two weekends.

Kettlewell admits his side need to “wake from a slumber” and has demanded a more aggressive approach at Dens Park.

“I think we have to understand where we’ve come up short and make sure that we have a real intent in trying to attack the game with the vision of trying to win it, not just turning up there to try and avoid an error, trying to tiptoe through a game,” the Well boss said on Monday morning.

“I actually feel that we probably need to take a bat out and have a swing. And that’s my job, to make sure that the players are braced for that and prepared to attack it in that sense.”

Kettlewell believes Well must play with more purpose than in their last two games.

“Very simply, we will create chances if we show some sort of intensity to run towards the opposition goal,” he said. “I know that sounds very layman in how I’m describing that, but if we show better intensity and a greater willingness to make movements off the ball, then we’ll start to create chances.

“We’ve looked through a number of different stats. When we get into that final third, we’re one of the teams that create some of the best quality chances in the division. We have to do that more readily. We have to have a greater willingness to pass the ball forward and run forward, really simply.”

Australia striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos has scored just one goal in 12 appearances since joining Well, but Kettlewell was keen to point out that Theo Bair only had two goals at this stage of last term and went on to finish with 15 before earning a move to Auxerre in the summer.

“I think (Bair) probably had two goals at this stage and wasn’t a permanent fixture on our team to this point,” he said. “Then he found his feet. I still believe that Apostolos – without linking the two too much but I’m talking about two strikers – will find his feet at this level.

“But we need to help him along the way as well with the type of service and the type of decision-making that we have, especially leaning towards that forward area.”