Motherwell

In a way, Johansson had one of the most unenviable jobs upon his appointment. Filling the very large boots left by Askou.

Despite only spending one season in the Scottish Premiership, the Dane attracted so many admirers – far beyond Lanarkshire – through his approach, attitude and style of football.

It’s remarkable how seamlessly Johansson has picked up where he left off. Even more so considering key performers Elijah Just, Elliot Watt, Callum Slattery and Calum Ward also moved on.

Few people had a better view of the now-Toulouse boss’ brilliance than Halliday – who spent his last playing year under Askou’s eye – and he says “a lot of the fundamentals are very similar” under Johansson.

Halliday, who apparently jumped out his seat at Said’s second goal against the Finns, added on BBC Sportsound: “I love what Motherwell stand for, how progressive they are, trying to do it a completely different way that’s proven, surely to everyone, that it can work.

“Squad development, the youth academy, playing a brilliant brand of football and the fact they lost a fantastic coach and manager last year to go out and recruit similar, I love it.”

Invested like many others, the former midfielder does maintain that a signing or two – particularly a goalscoring forward – would be the final piece of the captivating puzzle.

“In wider Scottish football, I hope people sit up and take note of what they’re doing,” Halliday added.

“I really hope they sign one or two more players at the top end of the pitch, because if they do that, I think they could be every bit as good as last year.”

Alfred Johansson appeared to have walked into an incredibly difficult job at Motherwell this summer.

Motherwell finished fourth in the Scottish Premiership last season, playing some of the best football you could wish to see, and all on one of the top-flight’s lowest budgets.

Not only was Johansson following in Jens Berthel Askou’s sizeable footsteps after the Danish manager left for Toulouse, he was also dealing with the departures of key players in Elijah Just, Elliot Watt and Calum Ward, who have joined Swansea City, Samsunspor and QPR, respectively.

And yet, the Swede has started in fine style.

Sunday’s 2-1 win at Hibernian was a third victory on the spin after a 5-0 aggregate success against Faroese outfit HB Torshavn and they showed two very different sides of themselves at Easter Road.

Amid a second-half onslaught from the hosts, Motherwell stood firm, led defensively by summer recruit Martin Moormann, before Ibrahim Said scored a brilliant winner on the break.

“It was a game of ups and downs for both teams and obviously I’m really pleased to come out with the three points,” Johansson said.

“In the first half we showed some good stuff on the ball, but more than tactics, we have to praise the spirit of the team because at times we had to ride out storms.

“We have Martin Moormann throwing himself to make blocks, the front three dropping deep to help and Alex Paulsen making exceptional saves.

“When we hit it off, the good periods look really good, but we want those periods to be longer, but even months from now when we are better we will have to suffer and the guys showed they are ready to do that.”

“He can play in more than one position and his versatility will be a great fit in the side,” said Swansea head coach Vitor Matos.

“Elijah joins us after performing well in all aspects of our recruitment process, and after a brilliant performance at the World Cup and we are very happy to have him with us.”

Just joins fellow New Zealand international Marko Stamenic at Swansea.

He will also be reunited with summer signing Stephen Welsh, who spent last season on loan at Motherwell from Celtic.