Just Business

In the words of the late, great Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed:

"No duckin', no jiving, just business..."

No fictional characters, no tales of high jinks in a foreign country, just a straight up moan. After last night where we dominated most of the game but still fucked it, I am thoroughly pissed off with United.

There are several key questions:

Has Jim Goodwin won a 'crunch' game for us since becoming manager?

No is the simple answer. He lost his first game, lost every post split game, knocked out of all cups with a whimper and failed to beat Raith so far, our only realistic title challenger. It's just not good enough. As far as last night goes, Goodwin was right that we were better than we have been for the past month, but that is such a low bar, it really isn't something to brag about. We had loads of the ball but Wotherspoon apart, we really have no clear idea how to create anything.

Why is our mentality so weak?

When the boy needlessly upended Walton their fans got a lift. As soon as that happened our team just seemed to go into their shells despite almost total dominance of the game out with the first 15 minutes or so. I've lost count of the amount of times we've come out the dressing room after half time and been flat as a pancake. Is he giving them a bollocking at half-time and they are just going into their shells? Fuck knows. There was absolutely no urgency when we had corners, set pieces, throw in's around their box etc. The players just look like they are going through the motions with no desire to really show the opposition who is the best team in the league.

Did Goodwin fuck it last night?

Subbing Moult and Wotherspoon when neither appeared to be tiring or have a knock when we were in complete control of the game (even if we lacked urgency) is what has cost us against Raith. Their subbies strengthened them, our subbies weakened us needlessly. Our bench is still crap. We've just went from a no bad first XI to a no bad 13 if you factor in Ross Graham (who played well last night after a poor first 10 minutes) and David Wotherspoon. But of course given that they started in place of the injured Gallagher and Docherty (more on him later) meant that we still had the usual weak bench to choose from.

Their subs were all boys who play regularly or pretty regularly. Ours was full of academy boys who start one in 10 games and usually get hooked for being completely ineffectual.

Why is our attacking play so shite? 

It's easy to blame the crowd at home for this last one but, having watched the majority of away games this season I can tell you that's it's just as shite away from home.

The fact is our attackers are fucking dreadful. They don't play as a unit, there's no clear patterns of attacking play, everything appears to be off the cuff, the problem is none of them is good enough to be some sort of maverick. The one when the ref played advantage and Mochrie had got in behind, was in acres of space to pick out a cross but still hit their first man was infuriating. The attacking side of things for us is just not good enough. It's totally unacceptable and has been our undoing too often.

Middleton was ok first half but never did anything that hurt them second half, Fotheringham is the most awkward looking winger I have ever seen and spends most of the game with the ball stuck between his feet. Watt was pish yet again when he was on from the start.

Bringing the boy Grieve on last night (and signing him in the first place) was pretty pointless since the way we play is so slow that a boy with pace will never get any joy whatsoever. Teams just either sit in on their 18 yard line and even if they don't we never catch anyone on the counter (like last night) because we'd rather play across the back four 3 or 4 times and let our opponents get 11 men behind the ball before we have a thought of attempting to play the ball forwards. We are either reliant on a decent cross coming in from wide, which Grieve isn't going to win (especially since most of them hit the first man) or a defence splitting pass coming from the midfield finding him to run onto or in behind. Of course we took the boy off who was actually playing these types of passes when we put Grieve on. There were actually a couple of occasions last night where we broke on them in the first half and had 3 vs 1 and Watt was so shite he just ran the ball into their defender. It was clear as day that we had no idea what to do in this situation, probably because it was so out of step with the way we normally 'attack'. It's fucking diabolical.

Let's face it though, Raith were no great shakes, the first goal is offside and the second is a one in a hundred shot. I'd also say having watched it back that from one of the angles it looks like if Walton adjusts his feet quicker he's saving Raith's second. But the other angle looks like it's not his fault 🤔

Who's to blame for the way we play? 

Jim Goodwin has said on several occasions recently that he is telling players to press high, be on the front foot and move the ball quicker with less backwards and sideways stuff. I heard the same on Friday second hand from a mate speaking to someone within the club. Ronny Costello has said on more that one occasion that he can hear Goodwin screaming at the players to press higher and up the tempo. And yet it frequently is not happening. 

Are the players not listening to the manager? 

Or, are they simply not good enough to put these instructions into practice in games?

If you'd asked me this last season I'd have said the former, but it's now increasingly clear that this season it's the latter.

Too many players who are poor technically, who are unable to put the managers plans into practice either because of a poor touch slowing us down or instead choosing the safe option of turning and playing back the way. Unfortunately last night that criticism has to be levelled at Liam Grimshaw who was mince yet again on an astroturf pitch. I've stated very publicly that I like Grimshaw but he wasn't good last night at all. I noticed at the start that Raith heavily watered the side that he was playing then watered the opposite side at half time. Clearly a tactic to make it as difficult as possible for him and it worked since the ball was skidding across the surface in his area and he was struggling to even control the ball whilst passing and dribbling (neither of which are his strongest suits at the best of times) became like a fucking lottery. The scary thing is how much more often we try to attack down his side rather than through McMann (who had been off it for weeks) and Middleton's. It's just another contributing factor as to why our attacking play is so shite. When was the last time United had a really competent footballer at right back? 2008-2012 era Sean Dillon? Mark Wilson? Kyle Knoyle? 

Are we also needing another coach is who actually has attacking instincts? What I see is the manager was a centre half/defensive midfielder, the assistant was a left back and the coach was also a defensive midfielder. Our lack of nous in forward areas really shows too often.

What's the way forward?

Playing Wotherspoon as an orthodox central midfielder was actually a bold move which did have a positive impact and should be our go-to for the run-in, especially in home games since he actually looked like he could create something against a packed defence. Let's face it, we'd be as well writing Ross Docherty off for the rest of the season. Amazing how Declan Gallagher can get surgery and be back on the training ground after 4 weeks (a few weeks ahead of schedule) and yet Docherty's latest 'niggle' is apparently putting him out for 6 weeks. I'm starting to wonder if this niggle is really in the back of his mind tbh.

I'd be giving Miller Thomson a run of games playing wide right (or even at right back). He's looked decent when I've seen him playing, is actually fast and direct and showed he's quite versatile as well. I'd also like to see him switch the wingers during the game to do SOMETHING different to how we play. I'm no fan of inverted wingers normally but changing the angle of attack surely is worth try given how predictable we are and how ineffective Middleton and Fotheringham are in too many games. I also still maintain that Fortheringham is more comfortable playing on the left despite being right footed. It would certainly be a nice change to see Kai do something other than dribble into traffic then lose the ball or watch Middleton fail to beat his man for pace or hit the the first man with a cross.

Is the academy worth keeping on?

This is a slight aside from the first team's performance in general and last night in particular but it was noticeable that in the past few weeks Darren Watson, who had been released by us in the summer to go to Forfar was released by them and has signed for Broughty Athletic whilst Craig Moore today signed for Lochee United on loan. These were two who were introduced into the first team to some fanfare ('Champions League youngsters'). In Moore's case played very well in his only first team game (a game Watson played well in too) and captained Scotland at various youth levels. What has gone wrong there? Why are we not developing those laddie's to take the next step into regular mens football? The fact they can't do it at United is bad enough, but not doing it at teams like Forfar suggests there is an endemic problem at Tannadice. You could also add in Rory McLeod also not getting a game on his loan at Forfar. He's doing well now that he has dropped back to the relative safety of the u18s. Bryan Mwangi barely kicked a ball for Spartans as well and neither has the laddie Bisland at Falkirk. It's telling that the only player who has done well on his loan: Lewis O'Donnell is continually being linked with a move to England next season suggesting we'll never actually see him play a first team game.

It really begs the question of the point of £750 grand being chucked at this annually. Even the one laddie who we did get a decent fee for: Kerr Smith is sitting on the bench for St Johnstone having played about 5 minutes of football for them. Meanwhile, Lewis Neilson is on loan at Partick, one of only two teams who our inept attack have actually scored several goals against this season. The laddies who we have kept on aren't featuring consistently bar Kai Fotheringham. Managers keep saying, "but the next group coming through will be better." But it doesn't ever seem to happen. We've not produced anything since the Stevie Campbell-Ian Cathro era, which was run on a shoestring compared to what we have now.

It's worrying. The guys at Baldragon work really hard with the laddie's but something is going wrong with the transition into the young adult levels and then mens football. The academy also has to deliver for them academically. If it's not delivering first team players then is it better redirecting that money elsewhere and picking up laddies let go from other teams at age 18-21 and having a B Team rather than umpteen youth levels? I really don't know the answer to this one.

Where do we go from here?

As depressing as all this sounds, we are still top of the league and it is still entirely in our own hands. I meant what I said in the last blog when I had been really positive about how we were doing. But tbh, we've really declined in terms of performance, even if we've managed to stumble to results recently. We've got 13 games to go but really we could easily have had this league wrapped up by now. But with a tricky away double header against Morton plus Raith still to play, a bit of a reality check and some soul searching is needed by a lot of players at the club about what is needed to get us over the line because I've seen better United teams than the one we have now fail in the playoffs. Winning the league is a must.

And you know what, as shite as last night's result was, it wasn't the most depressing thing that I saw at Starks Park, that honour was won by the young lassie's openly taking cocaine along from us in the end behind the goal, with kids sat both in rows in front and behind them. Naturally this glamorous act was followed by them taking selfies. Seemingly it was bad in the toilets as well. Maybe I'm getting old but I can't see any other outcome to this current culture than this ending in tears in 15-20 years time.

Anyway, final word goes to Apollo Creed: 

"You'll see the real Apollo Creed. Lightening fast and hard to catch."

Maybe we'll see that from United in the last 13 games?

Or maybe we won't.