Louis Moult is feted by Motherwell fans for the way he has terrorised Premiership defences down the years, but the darling of the Fir Park support is keen to point out that he hasn’t always done it on his own.
Throughout his first spell in Lanarkshire, Moult got by with a little help from his friends like Scott McDonald and Ryan Bowman, both of whom he dovetailed with to often devastating effect in attack for the Steelmen.
Despite a disappointing late defeat at Tynecastle on Sunday after fighting back against 10-man Hearts from two goals down, the Motherwell faithful may have been heartened by the promise of the partnership between Moult and Kevin van Veen, with the spark between the pair the catalyst for their team’s initial comeback.
Now Moult is hoping they can link up again when his team host Celtic this evening, and go on to form the latest potent partnership of his time in claret and amber.
“We have linked up well in that 30 or 40 minutes and you can see straight away that we are on a similar wavelength,” Moult said.
“I had that previously with strike partners here and it is a positive and something for the manager to think about. I think going back, even previous to Ryan was Scott McDonald.
“I think the modern game has changed slightly, most teams go with one up top and it is important that we adjust, but I think it is a great tool to have that option if we need to.
“If the gaffer selected me to go with Kev then it would be a massive positive.”
Moult was the architect of Celtic’s downfall the last time Motherwell defeated the Glasgow giants back in 2015, when his double at Celtic Park secured an unlikely 2-1 win.
The key then, he says, was belief, and that is a quality Motherwell must have if they are to have any hope of upsetting the odds again this evening.
“I would take that, that’s for sure,” he said.
“That was a great night, I can’t believe how long ago it was. But we have to look at that and think of that.
“I will, myself. I will think to myself that we have done this before, that I have done this before and scored these goals before.
“It is something I will think about before the game and we have to believe going into the game but otherwise there is no point.
“We have to believe we can cause an upset and win the game.”
Moult’s manager Steven Hammell agrees, and is trying to instil that belief in his players.
Their cause isn’t helped though, he admits, by the five substitutes available to Celtic on the night, with Ange Postecoglou’s ability to bring numerous international players off the bench making the task an even steeper one for his threadbare squad.
“That is why they are where they are, it’s a big part of their game model,” Hammell said.
“They feel like they can put so much into the game for an hour and then pretty much every week they will bring on three subs on the hour mark.
“I think the last time we played them they bring on the three international players, it was the same in the Rangers game, and where we were at with the squad we had three 16-year-olds that have pretty much just left school in the summer that we can bring on.
“It was Lennon Miller, Mark Ferrie and Luca Ross on the bench. Two boys that have never been on the pitch, Lennon has been on, but has literally just left school.
“I think that’s where you see the difference in terms of impact off the bench which is massive these days. It’s absolutely huge, and it’s something they have got in strength in depth.
“It’s a big challenge, but it’s something we’ll be as ready as we can be for.”
Hammell is already looking forward to the chance to address Motherwell’s shortcomings in terms of their own squad strength in the January window.
“We need a couple of players in for sure, especially at the top end of the pitch,” he said.
“I think you have seen that we’re rushing Louis back, trying to get him on the pitch as quickly as we can.
“Joe Efford has been a massive loss for us, we didn’t have massive options. We got a big jump from him when we came in in terms of his performance level, he became a big player for us quickly, and for him to come out has been a loss for us.
“It’s something we’ve not really got, that strength in depth to really, really compete with these teams.”
