Kmcalpin

I wasn't aware that he had. However until that game I was somewhat naive believing that football was all about 2 teams going hammer and tongs at each other fairly and the best team won. However Alex Ferguson's antics soon dispelled that myth and I've never had any time for him since.

I'd think another striker is a must. Conor Shields is showing promise but he's a work in progress. I like KVV a lot but he is slightly injury prone and susceptible to the odd card meaning that suspensions are inevitable. That leaves us a bit short. Ross Tierney looks really promising but I'm not sure where fits in a 4-3-3- formation. I think he's more suited to some variant of 4-4-2. As always time will tell.

Thats pretty much it Allan as we said during the game. We may have a good number of midfielders on paper but not all are decent first team material.

We deserved to win today although we made very hard work of it - self inflicted. As others have said, the team selection surprised me before kick off and my fears were realised. The defence was just ok but O'Donnell got caught on the wrong side of his man a couple of times and we lacked an aggressive dominant central defender at both ends of the park. I don’t know what Carroll was doing for Morton’s goal – just seemed to be a bemused spectator caught in no mans land– this game was his big chance to impress. I thought midfield was very poor with Goss being the best of a bad bunch. He’s the kind of player who needs other midfielders to do the spade work for him. Donnelly was anonymous apart from his match winning peach of a goal and I just don't see what Barry Maguire brings to the team. At times the defence lost patience with the midfield and just began shelling balls forward, in desperation, to an outnumbered Shields. We had better midfielders on the bench like Slattery, Corelius and perhaps the untested Shaw. Tierney added much needed energy and pace when he appeared. Up front no-one shone except Van Veen who had been inexplicably benched. The front 3 didn't work with two isolated wide men and Shields ploughing a lone furrow in middle against 3 big defenders. For me, we can't play Roberts and Woolery together - we need to bring in another main striker. I was surprised this front line up wasn't jettisoned after Tuesday night. There were plenty of crosses from out wide, but very often no-one in the box to get on the end of them. Morton did what they came to do and their keeper, for all his weaknesses is a great shot stopper. They were a bit crude at times and the lad Strapp made 4 blatant dives, winning fouls for them all. Overall the ref was ok but a bit inconsistent at times. I don't know why we benched several of our first picks but it was a big risk which almost didn't come off. Lets hope we change things around for the upcoming Hibs game.

Really impressed with young Tierney when he came on. Quick and good on the ball. He'll need to put a stone of muscle on though. The key thing for me is where and how we play him. The other thing I took from today is that we need to add another striker this window to replace Watt - not necessarily like for like though.

We almost have a stronger bench than the picked 11!!

Not overly worried about that. Dundee have cash to burn as we know and have always been known as a "If its new and shiny we'll buy 3 " kind of club. They'll be desperate to get rid of Cummings and Griffiths.

After Tuesday evening's result, there's a good case to be made for making changes to all areas of the team except Goalie. However I trust GA to pick the right team. He sees the players in training and knows them better than we do. The outstanding issue I have, like many others, is why Slattery has been benched. All this said, he might choose the same team in order for them to "put matters right". Who knows?

Interesting article from the Dundee Courier https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-united/2923494/tony-watt-i-dont-care-what-critics-say/

An even longer one for the players I'll wager. I doubt many of them would want to have sat anywhere near him.

Just listened to Graham Alexander's interview. Rarely have I heard or seen a manager so seething with anger.

Any weaknesses we had tonight or indeed have had for some time go way beyond Nathan McGinley. I believe both full backs have been poor this season but they've been hung out to dry by a narrow midfield. For whatever reason our midfield line up tonight was well below our best selection. I'm also not convinced of our striking line up tonight. However I believe in GA and don't think he'll shy away from tough decisions. If we're going to shell long balls up front, and I've no objections to doing that,then another striker is required.

I wasn't at the game fortunately and haven't seen any of it but am I correct in thinking that if it wasn't for Nathan McGinley we would have won tonight?

and Shaw has yet to play.

Yes, 2 goalies on bench but no Shaw or Tierney.

Interesting line up. Still no Ojala and Slattery still on bench. Two "wide" players up front. Not sure about midfield or strikers but I can't argue with GA's record so far.

It speaks volumes that Dundee wanted to cut his loan short whilst Celtic wanted to extend it. A unique loan situation I think.

Dundee Courier reports Watt's fee as being £100,000. I don't necessarily believe that though.

Is Tierney not a midfielder, albeit an attacking one? Watt was a striker.

Irrespective of what we call them or how we categorise them, we haven't seen much of Woolery, Roberts or Amaluzor play in the middle.

But, 3 of them are wingers.

I've wiped that game from memory.

An assessment of Zak Rudden by the Dundee Courier, primarily for St Johnstone fans. https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/st-johnstone/2911191/zak-rudden-analysis-did-st-johnstone-signing-target-show-in-partick-thistle-v-kilmarnock-game-he-is-what-perth-club-need/ As an aside, Dundee United are announcing, via the tabloid press, that a deal for Tony Watt is imminent and in time for tomorrow night's games.

Sorry I was being facetious about Partick. I don't have a soft spot for them either. It was a phrase used not uncommonly by the media, who have had a long love in with Partick. Maybe because the BBC had their HQ not far from Maryhill. The last person I heard say something along these lines was Richard Gordon a few years ago. Something about every Scots fan's second club being Partick. Patronising and untrue.

Of course there are many promising players in the lower leagues, including the Championship, who have potential and will make the step up succesfully. However Rudden is slightly different. If he had been playing with the likes of Arbroath, Morton or QoS there would not have been as much media hype. But the fact is that he plays with a team that every Scots football fan has a soft spot for. His manager Ian McCall has said that 8 or 9 clubs would be watching him on Friday. Stirring up an auction...yes. Its not uncommon for a decent player to supposedly attract interest from 3 or maybe 4 clubs - I give you Dykes, Turnbull, Shankland, Campbell, Watt et al. However "8 or 9" suggests that this player is something extra special. Thats what fans have been basing their expectations on. You can't judge a player on one game of course, but with so many watching eyes from the stands he is under pressure to prove what he's capable of. Friday night wasn't a good start.