Graham Alexander wants Motherwell team to ‘play on the edge’ like Kevin van Veen

Motherwell manager Graham Alexander expects all of his players to “play on the edge” as he stressed he saw nothing untoward from the Aberdeen defenders towards Kevin van Veen.

Aberdeen visit Fir Park again on Saturday seven days after Van Veen scored a goal which helped Well knock the Dons out of the Scottish Cup and then accused “arrogant” Aberdeen defenders of trying to take him out of the game.

The Dutchman claimed he was punched in the ribs from the opening minute and he was booked for celebrating his goal in the face of former Well skipper Declan Gallagher, before saying: “I wasn’t sent off, but I played on the edge.”

Alexander said: “All players have to play on the edge. We all have to do that, we have to work and live on the edge.

“This is elite professional football, everyone wants to win. You can’t do that at 70-80 per cent, 90 per cent. It has to be all in. Kev plays within the rules, at all times. But he competes, just like any other player.

“I didn’t see anything wrong from either team, to be fair, Kev or their centre-halves. Their centre-halves were trying to stop a good player from doing their job, which is their job.

“Bits that go on after games, verbally, I don’t want to talk about. That’s not my style.

“I just saw two competitive teams trying to win the game. I would expect and I would think every manager to expect every player week in, week out to play right up to the limits they can go to.

“All I saw was Kev pushing as hard as he can to win a game of football for his club and it was great to see. The team played like that and that’s why we got a result. I didn’t see anything untoward so it’s just another game of football.”

Alexander still appears unsure what the limits are when it comes to touchline