There are several ways to approach Thursday’s game in Iceland. Motherwell could set off with of an away goal he intention of shutting up shop and defending the narrow lead that Forbes’ goal delivered. Our new ‘keeper had an easy claret and amber debut at Fir Park and he should be confident that another clean sheet is within reach. We have a stable back four available and they could be protected by a five across the park midfield with a lone striker to offer some relief.
Our new 'keeper in action
Another option could be to set up with an aggressive formation, 4-3-3. An away goal (or two!) would give the part-timers of Breidablik a huge obstacle and would surely see us through to the 3rd qualifying round. A combination of Murphy, Sutton and Smith or McHugh up front would offer our hosts a real problem and divert their resources from their need to score.
But according to the manager’s comments to the BBC we’ll be somewhere in between, “I don't think you go and defend because you're away from home. We go and try and score away from home in Europe. We were a wee bit cautious at home in case we lost an away goal, but we'll be more adventurous up there”.
The value of the clean sheet in the home leg seems to grow as we anticipate the away encounter. The Icelander’s will be under great pressure on every occasion that we approach their penalty box and we must take advantage.