Kmcalpin

What goes around comes around I guess. I recall a few years ago we were ordered to play a cup tie at Inverness on the Monday evening after we played on the Saturday (ICT had a free weekend). They're a fit squad but yes the next week should test their stamina.

Didn't notice this before but you're right - he was well behind the line. Maybe being very unassertive/lack of confidence/lack of physical presence. Certainly not what you expect from an Premiership goalie. A good goalie should assert himself more and be proactive rather than trying to react. Not to blame for the other two goals though.

Part of our problem too is that we don't really play with an out and out central defensive midfielder. More than any other part of the team the midfield is about a mix, a balance if you like. We haven't got that right but I suppose its only year 1 of a rebuilding programme. Its crucial therefore that we bring in players who will fit into the team pattern and add something to the side. Its not just about quality its also about sourcing the right type of player.

I reckon we need two new keepers, although Gunnar Neilsen is on a 2 year deal. He's been prone to blunders and despite his height not overly assured in the air. Lee Hollis is what he is. He's the more reliable of the two but is very poor in the air. To his credit he knows that and sticks to his line. With Lee Hollis we at least know what we have. When he plays the central defence has to adapt and sit that bit deeper to protect him. That in turn affects the rest of the defence. The answer to that, in an ideal world, would be to play the two wing/full backs wide to cut out crosses and unnecessary corners, but for some reason we can't or won't do that. Maybe lack of cover from the 2 wide midfield men? Either way we do need a new keeper. OK we can't afford another Darren Randolph but I'm sure we can do better. Our defensive problems go deeper than just a keeper though, but that's another post.

Great post, which sums it up for me. If anyone really feels that cannot attend out of principle then donate the entrance fee to MFC. Maybe this will let you all see just how awkward some clubs can be. Our club directors have to put up with this nonsense week in week out at SPFL meetings and votes. Organise "away season tickets" or change voting rights yer havin a laugh. If other clubs can be this awkward over something a simple as a drum it really does make you think.

I did qualify my post by saying "Potentially the best right back since Paul Quinn - early days though.". The fact that Tom Hateley played over 100 games for us is not definitive in its own right. It indicates that the managers thought he was a decent player and was reliable in terms of injuries. He wasn't a bad back, granted, but in my view he was ok but no better than that. The fact that he played in one of our best teams does not mean much in itself. I don't recall huge competition for the right back berth. In any team, good or bad, you're likely to find a mixture of abilities - its unlikely that you'll find 11 players of exactly equal calibre. Tom, in my view was one of the weaker members of what was a very good side. You'll be as aware as anyone that he split opinions. Although not fast, he was decent on the attack and could hit a decent dead ball (on occasions). Not the best defender in the world. I recall his corners getting crucified on this very board and in the stands week after week. Ok in the air. Personally had no problem with him leaving to try to better himself, but evidence suggests that others didn't share his view of his own value. Yes, perhaps I was a bit premature about Craig Reid but I'm still impressed by him. He put in decent shifts at both Tannadice (45 minutes to be precise) and McDiarmid Park with little or no support from most of those around him. A bit of a baptism of fire I'd say.

I've a lot of time for Simon Ramsden - a dependable no nonsense player. The kind of lad that you don't miss until he's injured. However he's 33 this year and injury prone. Probably room for them both

Having watched Craig Reid in 3 games now he's impressed me and I hope we can sign him long term. He's solid, good in the air and good going forward. Better than Tom Hateley I'd say. Potentially the best right back since Paul Quinn - early days though.

When did we last beat Hearts 4 times on the trot?

A great result and performance today. It could easily have been 5 or 6-1 had we taken our chances. In truth I was expecting a far harder game. Great too to see Jack Leitch make his debut and Murray & Cadden get game time. No real failures today and I thought Hutchinson, Vigurs, Faddy and Reid really caught the eye. Leitch too had a decent game. I'm not Lee Hollis's greatest fan but he did no wrong today. Faddy had a real cracker of a game and Craig Reid really impresses - solid defender, good in the air and good going forward. Having seen him in the past 3 games I'd say he's a better back than Tom Hateley and I'll be disappointed if we don't sign him on a longer deal. Credit too to Keith Lasley - he's had a mixed season in my book but he's played whilst not fit and set a great example today.

Great to see there's honesty around in our support. Well done.

Now I don't pretend to know how our youth football set up works in this country but the conclusion we came to was that United identify the best young players (not snapped up by the Gruesome twosome) pay them or their parents a nice fat signing on fee and lure them to Tannadice through very well paid scouts. They're then given admittedly good training and the best of the bunch are given very lucrative long term deals. They're then sold on for a nice fee. Hey presto - a great youth set up! Given that theres a fair few posters on here that seem to know a lot about youth football - any views? Am I not far off the mark or totally way off beam? Irrespective of the details, what is becoming clear is that United are not running some kind of philanthropic youth set up.

Without doubt our youth system hasn't been producing the goods these last few years. Due to the long term nature of this aspect of a football club, we won't know if we've turned it around for a year or two. I really hope we have reversed the decline. Out of interest I thought I'd try to find out why Dundee United seem to be so successful at bringing through young players. Its very hard to know of course and it instigated a lot of lunchtime debate in our office today. One thing is crystal clear. United spend a lot of cash on their youth system but no-one is sure just how its spent. I always thought that it was down to excellent scouts and coaches - an ability to pick up and retain these guys for decade after decade. That might be true in part but theres far more to it than that. Going through United's current squad, I was surprised to find very few of their starlets actually came right through their youth ranks....maybe 10% or so. That was one my main misconceptions put to bed. 90% or so came from other clubs' youth systems in their mid/late teens. Brechin City (2), Dundee, Falkirk, and Queens Park (2). Also most of their youths come from West/Central Scotland...bang went my theory that Tayside produced many of this country's great young players. Given this, we asked ourselves why a 14/15/16/17/18 year old lad would move away from home to Tayside when they could play for another senior club like Well, Killie, Partick, or St Mirren much nearer home. Is it United's reputation? Up to a point but that still doesn't explain why they would do it. It became obvious that United poach other clubs' young talent or potential signing targets. A related question - how do United manage to retain these young lads on long contracts? How? We had our own theory but I'd like to hear your views especially if you know how youth football works.

It can be very difficult to tell. Fans can see what a player is doing or not doing but its not always easy to identify the reason behind that. On Tuesday evening, time after time many of our lads stood back, stood off opposing players or simply didn't go for the ball or challenge. Lack of effort, mental/physical tiredness, lack of self belief, intimidation (Saints are a very physical side), physically incapable of putting effort due to injury.......who knows. Many who were at McDiarmid Park commented on a seeming "lack of effort" this but who knows the truth? As Stuart McCall said post match we lost just too many personal battles.

When I say he's possibly our best midfielder this term you have to take into account the form of his colleagues in making any comparison. Irrespective of Keith's form, they have been mediocre at best. Lionel Ainsworth has blown hot and cold and defending isn't his strong point. In many games Stuart Carswell has failed to impress most of the time and has been anonymous in just too many games. Paul Lawson hasn't featured much. Iain Vigurs has shown some talent but doesn't exactly put himself about. ZFA has been a bit erratic. In short, whilst you may disagree with some of those assessments in detail, I think they aren't far out. Keith has played reasonably well on the ball and has put himself about as best he can - he was never the fastest guy on the pitch. However he has tended to tire during the last quarter of games and in a number of games has been a bit anonymous - three games come immediately to mind without thinking too much (2 games at McDiarmid Park and one at Tannadice). Defensively he has a tendency to disappear when the opposition are on top. That said he wasn't the only player to play badly in a number of games, and he is currently carrying an injury. He is now 34 (35 this year). Not many players I can think of are fitter and faster at 34 than they were at say 28.

That for me is our biggest shortcoming this season, apart maybe from our goalkeeping situation. OK at the moment we are carrying injuries but as you say we simply aren't competing. Our midfield problems are the largest single factor in our poor goals against record. Right now, our midfield is not shielding the defence and not supporting the strikers. Last night Saints could run up and down the wings largely unopposed and run straight at out central defenders. In his defence, Gunnar Neilsen was being left very exposed at times. John Sutton and Henri didn't have the best of games, but to be fair, they received very poor service. By way of contrast, Saints' midfield played high up the park and didn't allow us to get at their defence and certainly not their keeper. The corners tally bears witness to that. Keith Lasley has been our best midfielder this season but he is getting on and that's showing. He's also not the kind of player to impose himself on games and is prone to being anonymous at times. To compound matters, he's not fit just now as we know. Stuart Carswell, for me hasn't really proved himself this season. Yes, he's had the odd decent game but that's about it. In the last 2 games he's been largely anonymous. Again he's not fit. Questions were recently asked as to why he's wasn't selected for the national squad - I'm surprised the question was even asked. Iain Vigurs is a specialist player who needs mobile aggressive and hard working guys around him - he doesn't have that luxury at Fir Park. ZFA is beginning to worry to me and I certainly would not play him & Vigurs in the same midfield. Lionel Ainsworth blows hot and cold but isn't the best defender in the world and leaves his full back exposed. Paul Lawson - looks a bit slow but haven't really seen much of him to comment. Ok we are lying third but questions do need to be asked of our midfield players? As I see it, one year into our rebuilding programme, our midfield needs major attention. As for Saturday - maybe time to introduce a youngster - Jack Leitch? He won't be the solution on his own but lets see what he can do.

Probably the poorest performance of the season to date. Saints were no great shakes but they were easily worth their 3 or perhaps 4 goal advantage. We showed no determination and fight and were well off the pace. Our right hand side was bare and gave Craig Reid no protection in the first half. I thought he had a very decent game. Hutchy too had a reasonable game. Neilsen was far from impressive in goals but as Steve Diggle says he was left very exposed by a poor defence and non existent midfield. Once again our midfield was imbalanced, especially in the first 45 minutes, and for long periods totally anonymous. Of course half fit players and injuries took their toil. We defended far too deep in the first half and that made it easy for Saints to be creative and threaten Neilsen. A very disheartening performance. For Saturday, I'd bring back Hollis, if fit, and swap Jack Leitch for Stuart Carswell, who looks half fit and totally out of his depth just now. A few other changes are also required, although we are very limited. Time to blood some youth but not too many at once.

Two passmarks for me, Craig Reid, my MOTM, and Hutchy. That was Stuart McCall's view. Hope Reid is ok - he was the victim of a bad off the ball challenge.

Hearts are no great shakes but we can expect plenty of effort and determination from them. They'll give 100%.

At 6-1 Reid can also play at centre back. According to Stuart McCall he can play in several positions.

Injuries aside both Lasley and Carswell or whoever plays in central midfield will have to be very combative and cover a lot of grass on Tuesday if we're to take anything from the evening. Back in October at Perth we had Lawson, Lasley and Carswell in the midfield and we simply didn't compete. They sat so deep that our attacks were stifled before they even began.

If injuries permit, I'd agree that Anier has to start. We will require much more mobility and pace up front and John Sutton will need close support. If we go a couple of goals up then bring Faddy on, or if not bring him on for the last 15-20 minutes. Ideally Reid would slot in at right back but it depends on his level of match fitness. Saints will be missing Fraser Wright but that will be totally irrelevant if we can't put any pressure on their defence.

As often happens, the truth is somewhere between the two extremes. Faddy is not the player he was but still has something to offer. He can still produce that bit of game changing magic. However he has to be used properly and Stuart McCall hasn't quite got that right yet. As with many of the team last night Faddy had a game of 2 halves. In the first he was far too isolated, especially from John Sutton, and he didn't have the pace to put himself about. We needed someone to harry, annoy and pester the United defence but had no-one. Had he been fit Henri Anier would have been a better bet to start. However, in the second when we were on top he was a thorn in United's flesh and tried to create. Faddy is fine when we are on top but when we are under the cosh he is ineffective. As Craig Paterson said last night he is a difficult player to pigeonhole but probably his best position is sitting in the gap just behind two strikers.

Pretty much agree with that summing up. It was pretty depressing stuff in the first half, characterised by poor defending and an apparent lack of belief. It was disappointing to see us defend so deeply, and show fear so openly. That only encouraged United. By 8.30 I had assumed that lack of fitness had been critical in our midfield being scared to put themselves about too much and support the forlorn Sutton who looked most uncomfortable ploughing a lone furrow. However we put a lot more into the game in the second 45 and chased and harried far more - so maybe fitness wasn't so much of an issue after all. As has been said United didn't have to work for their goals which was disappointing. Hutchy made a blunder but surely one of his colleagues could have shouted "man on" but no one did. The ref had a very poor game with a series of decisions that disadvantaged us. In recent years United have displayed an unpleasant nasty edge to their play and last night was no different. A string double footed tackles, flying elbows, leaving boots in. They quickly sussed out the ref was going to let them off leniently and took full advantage. Very, very disappointing to see young Connolly come on from the bench and not long afterwards take a blatant dive. What are they teaching their kids at Tannadice? Still hats off to the likes of Lasley, Carswell, and Ainsworth who clearly should not have been playing but opted to declare themselves fit. Impressed by Craig Reid, who looks to be a good short term signing and Gunnar Neilsen, who could not be faulted last night.

Very impressed with Craig Reid last after he came on from he bench. He had a decent debut and wouldn't allow himself to be knocked about. Certainly helped steady the ship.