Stephen Robinson hopes to show Hearts a different side of his Motherwell team when the pair meet for the second time this season on Saturday.
Motherwell exited the Betfred Cup after suffering a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Hearts last month.
But the two clubs have had very different fortunes since, with Well winning their two league games to climb to fifth in the table and 11th-placed Hearts taking one point from clashes against Celtic and Hamilton.
“I think hopefully Hearts will face a different team than what they faced against us,” said Robinson.
“That was the blip in our season so far. We didn’t take the game to them, we had too many people that under-performed, we didn’t play with a tempo and we played in front of them a lot.
“We didn’t hurt them at all. We passed the ball about and had lots of possession.
“They are the things I think we’ve improved on over the last few weeks.
“There is an end product to our game, there are balls going down the sides into strikers and there’s more penetration in our game.
“And that’s something I think Hearts are going to have to look at.
“We’ll face arguably the third biggest or strongest squad in Scotland. They’re a huge club with a massive fan base.
“It’s somewhere I love going to play football. It’s a great stadium with a great atmosphere. So we’re going to face a hard task with a very strong Hearts squad.
“We have to put our stamp on the game, which I feel we didn’t do in the previous cup game.”
Robinson was pleased with the work Motherwell have done during the international break.
He said: “We’ve worked hard on things. We’ve worked to get people fitter as well, which is something I spoke about before we broke up.
“All in all, it’s been very good, very positive and refreshing with the attitudes because the week when you don’t have a game is very hard sometimes, with nothing to aim for.
“But the attention to detail that the boys have taken on board and the application has been superb.”
Motherwell signed defender Bevis Mugabi on Thursday after losing Charles Dunne to injury.
Uganda international Mugabi, who played 102 times in three years at Yeovil, had been training with the club.
Robinson added: “Bevis had been training with us. What he does is he brings a level of experience. He’s played games down south at League One and League Two level and he’s played international football as well.
“He’s a big, strong boy and he’s decent on the ball.
“We were trying to find a way to do the deal anyway but it became a necessity when Charles got injured.”
