Kilmarnock captain Manuel Pascali revealed new signing Borja Perez was taken aback when he told the Spaniard his team would try to pass the ball through him.

Playmaker Borja, 30, signed a one-year contract ahead of Saturday's Clydesdale Bank Premier League clash against Motherwell at Rugby Park after leaving Spanish football for the first time.

Killie were the surprise package of the SPL two seasons ago with their expansive style under Mixu Paatelainen and they confounded expectations by winning the Scottish Communities League Cup last season after Kenny Shiels was forced to rebuild the team.

And Pascali revealed expectations of those who come in from outside Scotland are also different from reality.

The Italian said: "I remember when Borja played in James Fowler's testimonial. He was asking me how we were going to play. He was surprised when I said to him: `We are going to try to play football here'.

"He is a number 10 so I said: 'We are going to try to find you as much as we can.'

"He was surprised and said: 'So you don't play direct like the Scottish way?'

"There are a few clubs who are trying to play because it's very enjoyable from the players' point of view. This philosophy took us into fifth position two years ago with Mixu and to the cup win last season.

"We will try to do it again. It's going to be hard because now all teams know that we will try to do it so they will try to press very high and hard but that's a new challenge for us."

Motherwell manager Stuart McCall has been given the green light to add to his squad with at least one new signing.

And the Fir Park boss will speak to James McFadden in the near future about the Scotland forward's plans, although he played down the likelihood of any potential deal being struck.

McCall has only added versatile defender Simon Ramsden and on-loan teenage Birmingham centre-back Fraser Kerr this summer despite losing Stephen Craigan, Tim Clancy, Steve Jennings and Ross Forbes plus six young fringe players.

And he was encouraged by talks with the Motherwell board, who rejected recent bids for Shaun Hutchinson and Nicky Law.

"It was quite promising, so I have got two weeks to try to get one person or maybe a couple in, probably loans," said McCall.

"But at least there is something there, which wasn't looking the case.

"It wasn't the greatest amount in the world but it was something and I was really pleased."

McCall has several dilemmas as he ponders his priorities.

"You look at central midfield for a physical presence, obviously we lost Jennings," he said.

"We are playing Law and (Keith) Lasley there, who are both good going forward.

"Maybe we need a defensive one to anchor.

"Having said that Simon Ramsden can play that and we might look at a centre-half.

"We will wait and see what's out there. I don't want to bring two or three people in who are not going to improve it, but on the other hand the squad is small.

"You can get a couple of young ones from down south but how do you know they are any better than the young ones we have got? Because we have been pleased with them."

Fans' favourite McFadden, who left Fir Park as a teenager in 2003, has been training with Motherwell since the start of pre-season after being released by Everton.

When asked if there was any chance of a deal, McCall said: "I wouldn't say it's completely dead but I wouldn't say there was any life in it either."

McCall joked: "I'm getting fed up of Faddy being around the training ground if I'm honest. He's too skilful for us all.

"I'll maybe have a little chat with him today, but I don't really know what James is thinking.

"I would imagine he has got offers elsewhere far bigger and brighter than ours, not that we have made him an offer.

"But he's been around a long time now so maybe he wants to get his boots on and start playing.

"That will be a chat to have in the next day or so."

Motherwell travel to Kilmarnock with both sides having claimed one goal and two points from their opening two Clydesdale Bank Premier League games.

"They were the only side last season we never managed a goal against," McCall said.

"We had two entertaining nil-nils when both sides could have scored lots of goals other than for some excellent goalkeeping.

"Then we probably had our most inept performance when we lost 2-0, so we definitely need to be better than that."

Kilmarnock squad: Bell, O'Leary, Pascali, Pursehouse, Nelson, Tesselaar, Kelly, Johnson, Harkins, Kennedy, Fowler, Dayton, Letheren, Racchi, Boulding, Fisher, McKeown, McKenzie, Winchester, Borja.

Motherwell squad: Randolph, Hateley, Francis-Angol, Ramsden, Hutchinson, Lasley, Law, Ojamaa, Higdon, Murphy, McHugh, Erwin, Carswell, Murray, Humphrey, Hetherington, Kerr, Hollis.