Gary Bowyer praised his Dundee squad for their versatility after sweeping half-time changes worked to devastating effect at Partick Thistle.
After trailing to a Harry Milne double, the Dark Blues boss sent his side back out for the second half with three new faces and a new approach.
For the first time in his tenure as manager at Dens Park, Dundee were playing with a back three.
And he hailed the “dominant” nature of the performance in the second half where they hauled back the Jags’ two-goal lead before Cammy Kerr’s 76th-minute strike took all three points.
Back three
That’s despite not even working on the set-up in training all campaign.
“It was the first time we’d used a back three this season. We recognised as a staff before half-time that we needed to change,” Bowyer told the Courier.
“We made the call to match it up and it worked.
“Fair play to the players, they took it all on board and we were very dominant.
“It’s not something we’d worked on either, we had spoken about it but not really done much on the training pitch.
“So the players did even better in that sense.
“A lot is made of formations but if we kept giving the ball away like we did in the first half, it doesn’t matter what formation you play.”
Left-back
The change to a back three allowed full-backs Cammy Kerr and Tyler French to move higher up the pitch as wing-backs.
And that paid off with Kerr firing in his fourth goal of the season as he came in from the left flank to strike the ball with his favoured right.
That was after Jordan Marshall missed the Firhill clash through injury.
Bowyer admits he would prefer a left-footed option to be able to come into the team when Marshall is unavailable but was pleased with Kerr deputising.
“You always prefer to have a left-footed player in that position,” Bowyer added.
“But you don’t always get what you want.
“We’ve had Jordan McGhee fill in there at Hamilton and did well and obviously Cammy Kerr filling in there as well.
“So we have players who can do it.
“And as it played out on Saturday, it fell perfectly for a right-footed player coming onto the ball.”
Jordan Marshall
Marshall, meanwhile, may be missing still for the weekend clash with Raith Rovers.
The former Queen of the South man picked up a problem against Queen’s Park and the extent of the problem is yet to be known.
“He missed the game though injury, something he picked up from the Queen’s Park game,” Bowyer revealed.
“It’s a problem with his knee, we’ll hopefully find out the extent of it later in the week.”
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