Last week I tried to be positive about Dundee United, hoping it was just a bit of a one-off after the AZ nightmare.
After being thumped 3-0 at home to St Mirren on Saturday, however, it is clear there are major problems at Tannadice.
Right now United are a very easy team to play against.
They are a very easy team to score against.
And there does not look like a quick fix available.
Basics
Looking at the stats from Saturday’s match, they don’t make that bad reading for Jack Ross’s side.
They might have had more possession but the hugely worrying thing is how easily they are opened up when they don’t have it.
The goals they are conceding are very cheap.
It’s not just the goals they let in that concern me.
There were loads of examples where they just didn’t do the basics.
I remember a throw-in for the Buddies in United’s defensive third and they were allowed to just throw it to feet and get a cross into the box. How can that happen?
Steven Fletcher was the closest player to the ball but he’s the striker.
The third goal was another big concern from my point of view.
I don’t blame the goalie, he could’ve done better of course, but had he got a block on it there were three St Mirren players around the ball waiting for a loose ball.
Every other United player apart from Mathew Cudjoe had given up on it (see below).
Willingness to fight
The heart has gone from the team when you see things like that.
With a new manager in the building, every player should be working their socks off to prove to him they should be in the team.
That’s not happening right now, the total opposite is happening.
The only way a team gets through a run like this is getting back to basics.
We know there are talented players in that squad.
But there needs to be a willingness to fight for everything, tooth and nail.
Any second ball needs to be scrapped for at every opportunity, it’s all about being fit, strong and hardworking.
The current crop of players have to get better at the simple things.
Calum Butcher and Jeando Fuchs
But there’s also an issue with recruitment that’s added to that.
Calum Butcher left in the summer, six months after Jeando Fuchs departed.
Those two have not been replaced and we are seeing what can happen without that sort of tenacious midfield presence.
I think that’s why Charlie Mulgrew was moved into midfield against Hearts.
Butcher was a fairly limited player, no disrespect, but he was a master at the dirty side of the game and we saw that in big derby clashes and matches like that.
Get another player like that in midfield alongside Dylan Levitt and I will feel a lot better about this United team.
But they have a lot of work on to sort themselves out.
It doesn’t bear thinking about what Celtic will do to them next weekend if they don’t.
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