My concern is growing for what is happening at Dundee United right now – on and off the field.
First of all the Covid-19 crisis they’ve been hit with.
If you’re following all the guidance and protocols and doing all the right things then you can just put it down to bad luck.
It’s an extremely contagious virus after all.
But gathering almost 50 staff members together for a needless team photo is stupid.
It’s not like it’s something they needed to do, it could easily have waited until Covid measures had been relaxed.
I don’t get why they’ve done that because I know the club have been putting firm procedures in place to reduce the risk of catching coronavirus at Tannadice.
I think all that and the nine players missing from the trip to Livingston has overshadowed something I’ve been worried about all season.
I’m sure Arabs are too – the lack of chances being created.
Thankfully, they have got themselves into a strong position in the Premiership so it’s not a massive worry right now.
There are very difficult fixtures coming up now, though, and the teams at the bottom have been picking up points, Hamilton most notably.
Start losing a few and the gap to relegation places starts to narrow then it will be a real problem for Micky Mellon.
I had hoped it was just a spell they were going through and we’d start to see much more attacking threat from the Tangerines.
However, there weren’t many chances at all created at Livi.
It’s getting to be a consistent theme for Mellon’s men this campaign.
And it was a pretty strong XI they managed to field despite having such a depleted squad.
The big problem for me is the disconnect between the midfield and the strikers.
You can’t just stick somebody like Lawrence Shankland up front and expect him to score goals without giving him service.
You can see why he’d be frustrated with his situation right now.
He was on fire last season, scoring week in week out and everything he hit seemed to go in.
You can see the difference in him this season and part of that has to be frustration.
The balance of the midfield isn’t right at the moment.
And it’s a problem that hasn’t gone away – five goals in their last nine games tells you that.
It’s not so bad when the team is defensively sound – which it has been at times.
At other times, like Saturday, they seem to give up cheap goals and there isn’t the consistency at the back you’d like.
United seem to be set up to defend and then try to nick something at the other end.
As soon as you lose the first goal with that strategy it becomes difficult, though.
With all the Covid stuff a lot of people expected United to struggle at Livingston, myself included.
However, I am worried it is a distraction from the real problem at the moment.
A WIN and a clean sheet against Arbroath – Dundee couldn’t ask for much more than that.
I know they had the chances to put the game to bed in the first half but the shutout was exactly what they needed.
The big problem for James McPake’s side has been leaking poor goals so the backline will have taken a huge boost from Saturday.
It was a much-needed three points for the club and the manager, too.
This is where the test comes once more, though – can they build on it?
We saw it a lot last season where Dundee picked up good results but couldn’t turn them into a consistent run of form, leaving them behind in the title race.
That’s where we need to see them improve to cut that gap to the top of the Championship table.
The good thing is we can see the players are fighting, not just for the manager, but for the club and each other.
It seems like that team meeting that Paul McGowan and others have talked about has worked.
Sometimes you just need to clear the air and start working together again.
You can see at Celtic right now, that’s not happening, not everyone is on the same page.
It looks like they are at Dens Park.
Saturday at Inverness, though, will test that.
It’s a massive game.
IT’S great to see fans back in the stands down in England again.
And you can see the difference it makes to games, too.
A lot of the players were talking about it in post-match interviews.
It really seems to have given a lot of the players a boost seeing punters back in the stadiums.
That’s what you are playing for anyway – you are playing for the fans, they are judging you and you can feed off their encouragement as well.
The celebrations, too, were different because players can actually acknowledge the people watching.
Big step forward.
POLL: Would you like to see player ratings by our writers as part of The Courier and Evening Telegraph football coverage?
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.