The Dundee United Thread 22/23

[Granny Danger]

1 minute ago, Merkland Red said:

Calm down Tam.

I hope that’s not the Tam I think you mean.  From the little I know his taste in music is atrocious.

[DukDukGoose]

Just now, Granny Danger said:

I hope that’s not the Tam I think you mean.  From the little I know his taste in music is atrocious.

[kingjoey]

6 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Yeah, that’s why I said most.  There are some notable exceptions.

The Birdy Song and Can You Fix It?

[Granny Danger]

1 hour ago, kingjoey said:

The Birdy Song and Can You Fix It?

Mind reader!

[ArabianKnight]

The last few games...

Nothing in particular about the screams to me terrible footballers. 

Nothing about it screams a team in dire straits even though the league position says otherwise. 

But there's problems. Playing Levitt in that role doesn't suit. Just remove Harkes from his forward position and have someone alongside Levitt to break up the opposition play. 

Harkes doesn't offer anything that Levitt couldn't moving forwards out of holding midfield which he would be able to do if he had someone defensively minded alongside him. 

[johnnydun]

[ArabianKnight]

11 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

Aye we'll be joining you guys soon enough... 

[invergowrie arab]

That's a terrifying afternoons football.

You can mould bad players into a solid unit but half decent players putting in half a shift and collapsing in confidence after one goal scares me more.

Pass marks for Fletcher and Sadat for me. Meekison also positive when he came on.

 

[Alert Mongoose]

Graham needs to be rested for a bit. Trying to continue with a back three in this situation is suicide. Go to a back four. Neither of our wingbacks can take a man on so why bother?

[SGMilne]

It all comes back to recruitment and how poor it has been over the summer. The focus was all about signing a certain type of 'exciting' player to arrest our lack of goals last season, and attention completely slipped away from what is needed to prevent goals.

Jack Ross didn't think he needed a tough tackling midfielder or any sort of defensive cover, and Asghar and his mate Sean McGee obviously agreed with him. Hence where we are now.

Yeah, taken as individual signings, Middleton, McGrath, Fletcher, Anaku, Levitt and Behic are all the sort of players you want to sign, but they aren't the only types of players you want to sign, especially when Mulgrew is so close to retirement and the only right footed centre back is in his first year of playing top flight football.

And that's compounded by selling off Butcher and Connolly who are absolutely the types of players you'd want in the team at the moment.

We've just got too many similar types of player on the park. Slow defenders and soft midfielders.

The takeaway from today simply has to be Harkes dropped and a defensive midfielder from literally anywhere in.

[captainkev]

I don't think the overall performance was particularly disastrous today, but there's quite clearly plenty of stuff to be worried about.

The first goal is abysmal on our part. Getting caught out that easily is piss poor.

Harkes has to be done now. I'm relieved that Fox took him off today, but I want Meekison or Sibbald replacing him from the start in the next few games.

Niskanen has had his chances. He tries hard but he's not good enough; I'm concerned about the fact Fox turned to him and not Cudjoe.

What's particularly concerning is the atmosphere at Tannadice. Today felt very reminiscent of how things were after we sold GMS and Armstrong. Just excessively hostile and negative. I don't particularly like Tony Watt,  but what does booing him when he comes off the bench achieve?

Edited October 1, 2022 by captainkev

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

oh dearie me.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Precisely.  Some of us do not have the privilege to work where we choose (otherwise I'd be typing this from an apartment in Manhattan and planning my weekend in the Hamptons!).
 
Anyway, it looks like Liam Fox is getting the job, with Stevie Crawford as his assistant - at least we can all agree that's an underwhelming appointment (if it happens) but that we'll back him 100% (until we lose our first game...).

He doesn't reside in the UK but Lanzarote.

[Steven W]

Whilst far from great, I didn't think we were bad today. Better than v Motherwell where we got a point.

I thought we were better when Fletcher went off. He wins most of his headers in fairness, but offers very little with the ball at his feet. I know a lot of fans like him (probably cause of the all action winning of headers) but I'd be wanting more from a striker.

Few other gripes that I can't be bothered airing, but it's obviously a worrying position. 

 

[ArabFC]

2 hours ago, ArabianKnight said:

But there's problems. Playing Levitt in that role doesn't suit. Just remove Harkes from his forward position and have someone alongside Levitt to break up the opposition play. 

Harkes doesn't offer anything that Levitt couldn't moving forwards out of holding midfield which he would be able to do if he had someone defensively minded alongside him. 

For much of the second half, Smith was running about pretty much anywhere other than CB, but kept retreating back into position when the ball went dead.

I don’t really understand why he wasn’t just officially slotted into midfield alongside Levitt with us going 4 at the back.

Also, what’s Sibbald done? He struck me as our most industrious midfielder when he started the season.

[ArabFC]

2 hours ago, SGMilne said:

Jack Ross didn't think he needed a tough tackling midfielder

Didn’t he?

I know he said he didn’t, but what input did he actually have on transfers?

Listening to Sportsound before the game, Liam Fox was asked if he would’ve liked to have kept Nicky Clark and he responded… “That wasn’t up to me so I won’t answer that question.”

Maybe JR did want one but Fat Tony was making the call.

[johnnydun]

27 minutes ago, ArabFC said:

Fat Tony was making the call.

[Tannadeechee]

30 minutes ago, ArabFC said:

Didn’t he?

I know he said he didn’t, but what input did he actually have on transfers?

Listening to Sportsound before the game, Liam Fox was asked if he would’ve liked to have kept Nicky Clark and he responded… “That wasn’t up to me so I won’t answer that question.”

Maybe JR did want one but Fat Tony was making the call.

That was a complaint Hibs fans had over his team. While he signed Gogic, he didn't ay him that often and seemingly did the same with Sunderland.

 

[Pull My Strings]

29 minutes ago, ArabFC said:

Didn’t he?

I know he said he didn’t, but what input did he actually have on transfers?

Listening to Sportsound before the game, Liam Fox was asked if he would’ve liked to have kept Nicky Clark and he responded… “That wasn’t up to me so I won’t answer that question.”

Maybe JR did want one but Fat Tony was making the call.

I think we can be fairly certain that the Assistant Manager didn't have the final say on transfers. 

Ross was given lots of shiny things and played them all together. It's just silly to think that what he desperately wanted was a solid midfielder and he was denied one when the boat was pushed out repeatedly for Fletcher, Middleton, Behich, McGrath et al. He brought in Sibbald, who is as close to a defensive midfielder as we have, and barely looked at him.

[Tannadeechee]

My thoughts on our team/squad is we are down. Unless there is a big change then for me that's it. The season will determine exactly how bad it is.

For the squad as @SGMilnepoints out above, we signed "exciting" attacking minded players. We have signed players, but have not created a TEAM. A team is greater than the sum of its parts, what we put out appears to be less than the sum of its parts.

Not going through every player, but a few "highlights"

Edwards is not a captain, seems myopic when receiving the ball at the back and can't see players wide open, especially to his right. He also seems to be unable to make a decision quickly.

Graham seems lost, still a young lad though

Behich for someonne who has over 50 caps, won the cup and league in Turkey as well as being signed for €4 million in the past, is poor. For someone who is known for bombing forward he is completely shirking responsibility. Almost every single time the ball came to him in that first half, irrespective of the situation it was first timed right back to the defender who gave it to him.  Most of the time there was 1 Saints.player in front of him and space behind for him to run in to.

Harkes, too soft, has ability, but not when under pressure in games. Harkes & McGrath cannot play in the same midfield. One or the other and on today's showing that should be McGrath.

Fletcher, seems to care, one of a few that shows they do. Needs support and time machine to go back 5 years.

Anaku looks very promising. Has pace, heart and a will to win. A few in this squad could do well to copy. Deserved his start and worked well with Fletcher

Levitt, compared to last season's best performances for me, is playing too deep. Although it has to be said that's where he was playing for Wales, but he appears lost and completely ineffectual, with games passing him by. He looked far, far better after Harkes went off and he moved further forward. He needs to be played further forward with us or he is a passenger. Having said that it doesn't help him if no one is making a move for the ball.

We play far too slowly and do not attack collectively. No one will take a shot when in position and pass the responsibility to someone else.

The lack of an aggressive DM is killing us. Ignoring what may or may not have gone on, Butcher would have torn his team mates a new arsehole in a performance like that and would have at least have earned a booking for going through someone. He would have driven the team on and a player in that ilk would have broken up attacks, and then allowed Levitt and McGrath to play. Would also have an added layer of defense before it reached the comedy of errors that is our defence.

The team is too passive, not strong enough, Harkes being brushed time after time off the ball. He wasn't the only one. The fact that there is no real reaction, no dig, no tackles, no imagination, no movement, no busting a gut, just flat nothingness is incredible. There has been one real blip at home to AZ, and the rest other than that win against Livi in the cup, is just insipid pish and that's being polite. The thing is from the on pitch reactions, some of these players  just can not have any personal or professional pride, and are completely lacking in awareness of the current situation. McGrath in his DUTV interview thought we were the better team but didn't take chances. We had more possession but it's the no purpose defender to defender to wingback to defender to midfielder to defender to no one.

I'm so scunnered at the whole thing so far, so annoyed, I'm no longer annoyed if that makes sense. See no signs of getting out of the  current situation, it's just shite!

Edited October 1, 2022 by Tannadeechee
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