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Dundee United 2018/2019


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11 hours ago, ArabFC said:

Squad-wise, we need ANOTHER overhaul. That we never attempted in two games against St Mirren to ever play the ball through midfield shows that calibre of player we have in there.  Harkes, Butcher et al should be nothing more that squad depth.

Siegrist, who I thought was pretty crap all season has been a revelation during the play-offs, so probably deserves a chance.

The last thing that we need is another overhaul of the squad.  As many have pointed out, recruitment is not our strong suit - so why would we gamble on that!? 

Constantly changing teams/managers has not worked in the past few seasons, and I see no reason why it would miraculously begin to now. 

Let's try to build on the foundations of this season (or, at least, the 30-odd games that Neilson has been in charge).  Yesterday was hugely disappointing, obviously, but I think when we look back on the season we will see that: Neilson took over in October when we were sitting in 4th behind Ayr, Ross County and ICT and already 8 points off the top, having had a disastrous start; and by the end in May we finished 6 points back. 

That is more progress than we have made in years (as sad as that is). 

11 hours ago, ArabianKnight said:

The penalties were ridiculous...

Genuinely the worst penalties in the history of penalty shoot outs.  Just stunningly, stunningly bad.

11 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Feel sorry for Seigrist, has really stepped up to the plate during these playoffs.

After today I would bin Pawlett and Sow and put Connolly on notice.

Siegrist has without doubt been our best performer during the playoffs -  were it not for him we may well not have made the final.  He has impressed me hugely.

He should start the first game next season, but I would suggest he needs more competition than Laidlaw is currently offering.

4 hours ago, mishtergrolsch said:

After slagging f**k out of the squad, we stumbled on to the January window where he signed a first team squad more or less, but in particular four players in Reynolds, Connoly, Pawlett, Sow which at championship level looked like amazing  signings. In my opinion, Reynolds has been the only good performer over the piece. Pawlett has been unfit and injured, Connoly has been really poor and Sow, well, looks like Robbie has made a c**t of that one. 

The other signings have been decent to pish. Id lump Butcher into the decent and the rest into the 'meh' category, then stick Laidlaw and Nesbitt in the 'who?' pile. Honourable mention for Harkes who is utterly terrible but seems to get away with it week on week.

Putting together a whole squad in a month was always going to be really difficult, but I'm not convinced that the signings are as bad as you are saying.

The defence conceded 40 goals over the course of the season - but only 13 in the 21 league games since 1 January.  So, whilst I agree that Connolly does sometimes look stretched/clueless, the defence is far, far more effective with him in it.  In fact, looking back at that, our defence has been excellent - those are figures that we have not got close to in the last few years.  Reynolds is a good signing and Jamie Robson looks transformed under Neilson.

Harkes and Bouhenna formed a decent partnership in the middle of midfield this last few weeks, and thought Harkes was as good as any other outfield player yesterday.

Sow is a work in progress - let's not forget that he left Hearts in February 2016 and basically hasn't played at a high level since (until he signed for us, he had managed 68 games at 4 clubs in China, the UAE and English lower leagues).  He might well come good once he gets a pre-season done and some proper games under his belt.

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Had Neilson approached the play off final differently we could have won it over the two legs.  Note I say could not would.

However his approach condemned us not to win it.

I will say it once again, we will not get promoted with Neilson in charge.

BTW in his pre-match interview with the BBC he said the squad had been practicing penalties!  :lol:

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Have to admit I found it odd to see Neilson fist pump when the final whistle went both at the end of the 90 and ET. The game was there to be won and he's fucked it. 

Looking like a tough league again next year.

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47 minutes ago, Mr.Blue said:

Have to admit I found it odd to see Neilson fist pump when the final whistle went both at the end of the 90 and ET. The game was there to be won and he's fucked it. 

Looking like a tough league again next year.

I found it incredible!! St Mirren were there for the taking if Und had went on the front foot in both games. Looks like Neilson’s ambition was to get to penalties and it backfired massively!

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46 minutes ago, CaspianChris said:

Options A and B for Partick Thistle.

A and C m9. It's the "We'll just win the league next season" DABs who are delusional.

Thank you x

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1 hour ago, Granny Danger said:

Had Neilson approached the play off final differently we could have won it over the two legs.  Note I say could not would.

However his approach condemned us not to win it.

I will say it once again, we will not get promoted with Neilson in charge.

BTW in his pre-match interview with the BBC he said the squad had been practicing penalties!  :lol:

United will not face easier opposition in the play-offs again, so I'd say you'll have to win the title to get promoted.

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7 minutes ago, Poet of the Macabre said:

United will not face easier opposition in the play-offs again, so I'd say you'll have to win the title to get promoted.

I’d agree with that.

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13 minutes ago, stumigoo said:

If anyone wants to read my thoughts - here

In general I am a supporter of the manager but he got it badly wrong over these two legs. He needs a good summer and a good start to next year in order to win back the trust of some supporters. 

Our problem has not been sacking managers too soon, it’s been not sacking them soon enough.  

Neilson is going to be given a few months of next season then the next person is going to be playing catch up with the players Neilson has signed.

Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.  We have no excuse for that as the past is very recent and we’ve already repeated it twice.

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On 1/31/2019 at 14:39, ArabianKnight said:

Connolly best signing so far this window IMO. 

 

On 1/31/2019 at 23:31, Loemba90 said:

What an outstanding day’s work.  5 solid, experienced signings.

Sow on an 18month deal is a brilliant signing 

We can still do this.

 

On 1/31/2019 at 23:53, Mark Connolly said:

Just inject this deadline day straight into my veins

 

On 1/31/2019 at 23:57, FifeArab said:

What a fucking signing.

 

On 2/1/2019 at 07:12, narey83 said:

Absolutely delighted with this transfer window, let’s hope we can kick on and get back to the where we should be,

 

On 2/1/2019 at 10:21, steve55 said:

Sow will bang goals in like he did for Hearts.

 

Guffaw.

Edited by yoda
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3 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

In general I am a supporter of the manager but he got it badly wrong over these two legs. He needs a good summer and a good start to next year in order to win back the trust of some supporters. 

Our problem has not been sacking managers too soon, it’s been not sacking them soon enough.  

Neilson is going to be given a few months of next season then the next person is going to be playing catch up with the players Neilson has signed.

Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.  We have no excuse for that as the past is very recent and we’ve already repeated it twice.

Personally, I think you guys would be mad to sack Neilson.

He took over in the October international break and you've accumulated 54 points from then which matches Ross County.  He's signed a fair few players in January but that market is quite tough as you're invariably having to gamble on players who have issues and it was pretty clear that your squad needed something to even have the chance of going up.You guys got a lot of help even getting to penalties in the first place but the truth is that you were a few kicks away from the top flight.

He's the first competent manager you've had since you've been down IMO. If he's got a full pre-season, I expect him to do much better in a summer market and have a squad that hits 70 points which no one else will get close to. Dundee will obviously be the second biggest wage bill in the league but the squad starts with zero and the new manager comes in and has to start recruitment from scratch so I would be pretty surprised if we even hit 60 points tbh. There's then no one else really obvious who looks like they could sustain a challenge with Inverness and Ayr losing key players and then Dunfermline cutting their cloth, maybe someone has a great summer.

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