Graham Alexander says 'the pressure is on' as Motherwell seek first league win of 2022

Motherwell manager Graham Alexander is feeling the pressure just as much as Rangers ahead of his side’s trip to Ibrox.

Rangers could be six points behind cinch Premiership leaders Celtic by the time of kick-off in Govan on Sunday.

The reigning champions go into the game on the back of a famous triumph over Borussia Dortmund but have only won three of their seven league games since the winter break.

Motherwell, though, have not won in the Premiership in 2022 and face a battle for a top-six place from a growing band of teams.

Alexander said: “There’s pressure on all teams. There’s pressure on us.

“We haven’t had the wins we feel we should have but that’s down to our control. So we have to try and make those improvements.

“There’s pressure on us to win games because we don’t want the season to peter out. We want to finish strong, we want to finish as high as we can.

“Every team coming to this stage of the season has got something to play for, the league table shows that.”

Motherwell drew at Ibrox earlier in the season before suffering a 6-1 reverse against the champions at Fir Park following Stephen O’Donnell’s red card.

Alexander will take lessons from both those games into Sunday’s encounter.

“When we have done well against Rangers, we had to work extremely hard and try to nullify their qualities and make them play in a way they didn’t want to,” he said.

“I think Sunday will be a similar game plan for us – we have to try and make them play in a way they are not particularly comfortable with, and obviously bring our A game in and out of possession.

“It’s important we don’t go there just to defend. We have to have an attacking threat, which we always try and carry and we have to look within ourselves as a team and see that we can score goals.

“It’s about getting the balance right when you come up against any opponent. There is never a game when we don’t have a thought process on how to win it and Sunday won’t be any different.”