"We know Motherwell are going to come and create a challenge for us and be difficult opponents," said the former Liverpool and England captain, who will freshen his side up following their exertions in Portugal.

"They are in good form, certainly away from home.

"But at home we've been really strong outside the Old Firm (1-0 defeat by Celtic) and we've put in performances that have been really good enough.

"The last two home games have been against Aberdeen and Hamilton and we won both games 5-0 and looked really strong and controlled all the game and that's the type of performance I'm going to be looking for at the weekend."

Gerrard, however, is reading little into last season's 7-1 win over Motherwell last November in which Carl McHugh was sent off for the visitors in the first half.

He said: "Obviously they lost a man on that day so I think the scoreline probably reflected that a little bit, although we were really good on the day.

"Motherwell are a different team from that game, I think they've recruited really well.

"I must pay respect to Stephen Robinson for the way he's changed from being a physical team that's really direct to a team that constructs and tries to play and they are backing themselves to play attractive football.

"And I think they have seen the benefits from that, they have gone away from home and got some really strong results.

"I went to the game against Aberdeen last week.

"They started really positively, played some nice stuff, missed a penalty and missed a chance to get themselves in front and then they conceded against a strong Aberdeen team and Aberdeen really dominated them from that point.

"So I've seen both sides of Motherwell in 90 minutes, just last week."