Mark McGhee reckons there’s more to come from Louis Moult at Motherwell

MOTHERWELL manager Mark McGhee feels Louis Moult is still some way short of his best despite his spectacular goalscoring rate.

The striker has netted seven goals in 210 minutes of action this season, either side of groin surgery.

The 24-year-old grabbed four against Hamilton on Saturday but only lasted 60 minutes of his first start of the Ladbrokes Premiership campaign and McGhee thinks there is much more to come.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s game against Partick Thistle at Firhill, McGhee said: “He has come back and looks very, very sharp, although I still maintain that he needs another six or eight games to get back to his absolute best.

“It just all went right for him on Saturday. It won’t be like that every week. We know he can score goals but we need to pass the ball and get it into wide areas and get crosses to provide service for Louis Moult.”

Motherwell scored as many goals in the opening 50 minutes against Accies as they had in their previous six matches and McGhee has urged his players to maintain their productivity.

“Passing is only a means to an end,” the Scotland assistant coach said. “It was interesting because I was at Hampden this week with Gordon (Strachan) and I came away with all the stuff from the analysis of the Euros. There’s a lot of stats in there like only 33 per cent of teams that had the most possession won.

“So you have to be careful, we are not here to entertain by passing, we are hopefully here to entertain well by scoring.

“Yes, we passed the ball well but we passed it with a purpose. We passed it forward, we passed it to make chances, we passed it to get into areas which would allow us to create opportunities. That’s the important thing, not just to make 200 passes.

“One of the things I had been saying to them over the last few weeks, I had a great belief that they could pass the ball better than they were, and in that half-hour hopefully it went some way to convincing them I was right and they should expect more of themselves in possession. But the end product is the important thing.”