The brand of football Csaba Laszlo’s introduced has got Dundee United fans bouncing — but the manager’s feet are remaining firmly on the ground.
The Tangerines were mightily impressive as they dismantled Falkirk on Sunday with a brand of flowing football there’s little doubt few sides in the Championship could live with.
It earned the players standing ovations at half-time and full-time and delighted the gaffer.
But while his aim will always be for his players to perform like that every week, he knows in the real world that won’t happen and some tough days lie ahead in his mission to get United back to the Premiership.
And he believes the key to getting there is by not letting anyone at Tannadice get too far ahead of themselves.
That’s partly because as a man whose career is peppered with examples of him arriving at clubs in crisis and bringing about an immediate improvement, he knows doing that at the top of a league is more difficult.
It’s why he is looking no further forward than Saturday’s trip to Brechin and has told his players to do the same.
That includes ordering them not to look at the league table, however, nice that is with them sitting at the top.
“It is very important to be clear. It is very heavy to be champion. It is easier to save a team from relegation,” said Csaba.
“To win the championship you need a lot of skills. To save from relegation you need a little bit luck and a lot of fighting, stay deep, counter attack, collect points.
“A draw can be important but to win the league you need to win games and that is a pressure mentally and physically.
“You have to handle that but Falkirk was a very good step in this direction.
“We have a lot of games to go and at the moment for us it is very important we just don’t watch the table, instead just think from game to game.
“Now we have Brechin on Saturday and this is now the most important game.”
His words are not a case of down playing expectation and he makes no secret of the fact his target is not just promotion but getting United back doing well in the top flight.
And he admits he is far more optimistic now than he was after the Irn-Bru Cup loss to part-timers Crusaders in his first game in charge.
With the league all-important and a team of largely fringe players sent out for the cup defeat was largely dismissed as irrelevant by fans. For Csaba, though, it was a concern.
“After the Challenge Cup I was so, so disappointed.
“You fly out, with all respect, against this Irish team and I was thinking ‘my goodness how can you take a game so easy?’
“Especially the first half and then after you go one-zero you let this victory go from your hands. I was thinking if Falkirk and other teams come against us with confidence you don’t win anything.
“But in one week the team responded very well. We changed some small things in our schedule. I was a still little sceptical but the players understood. We made small changes and it gave us more.”
That ability to listen to instructions and put them into practice in a game situation has left him encouraged.
“Football is not just in the legs it is here, in the head. It is important to think and know what you are trying to do.”
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