Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin will make a late decision on the availability of Louis Moult for this weekend’s Championship showdown against Queen’s Park.
Moult limped off during the Tangerines’ 1-0 victory over Inverness after complaining of a groin strain.
However, Goodwin played down any fears regarding the severity of the issue earlier this week — and, offering an update on Thursday afternoon, confirmed that the set-back has “amounted to nothing” in subsequent days.
Nevertheless, the United gaffer will handle his star striker with care due to the muscular nature of the complaint, and is loath to take any unnecessary risks; especially with a top-of-the-table clash against Raith Rovers looming next week.
“We’ll sit down as a staff, speak to the medical team and have a chat with Louis,” confirmed Goodwin. “He is a very important and influential player for us, not just with his goals, but his all-round contribution to the team.
“But at the same time, we need to make a calculated decision on whether it is worth risking him if there’s any danger of losing him for longer.
“Or do we bide our time and give him another four or five days so that he’ll definitely be fit and available for Raith the following Saturday?
“That (question) is where our heads are at.”
Tony Watt: A matter of time?
Should Goodwin decide not to field Moult, Tony Watt — yet to ripple the net this term — will lead the line.
“Tony is putting a lot of pressure on himself, playing at this level, to score goals,” conceded Goodwin. “But we are reminding him that it’s about his overall contribution — and he has done really well.
“I do think that first goal is coming. I see Tony every day in training and he is working so hard on every area of his game.
“All that is missing from his game is a goal — and I am very confident that he’ll get himself up and running soon and, once he does, then hopefully that’ll be the start of a run.
“He is getting fitter and sharper. It’s really important to remind everyone that he had a very serious ankle injury towards the end of last season and missed a bit of pre-season.
“But we are very confident Tony is getting back to the levels he is capable of; the way he played his best football for Motherwell prior to coming here.”
Spiders fragility?
Meanwhile, Goodwin has urged his United charges to mercilessly exploit any defensive fragility in the Queen’s Park ranks this weekend.
Goodwin is full of admiration for Robin Veldman’s Spiders, describing them as “brave” and “great to watch”, however their adventurous nature has resulted in them shipping 15 goals in seven Championship games.
They were hammered 5-2 by Ayr at Hampden last time out and only Arbroath have a worse average expected goals (xG) conceded than the Glasgow outfit’s 1.43 per game (StatsBomb, below).
“I take my hat off the manager (Veldman), his philosophy and the way they want to play the game,” said Goodwin. “It’s great to watch at times.
“They have some good attacking players and carry a threat at the top of the pitch. Dom Thomas has pace and a quality left foot; Ruari Paton is an established goal threat
“We have to make sure our shape out of possession is good — similar to what it was against Airdrie when, as much as they had plenty of possession, they never really hurt us.”
But Goodwin added: “They have a lot of inexperience in their team. I think that’s where mistakes can happen. They play very brave football and sometimes they have played their way into trouble.
“With experience, some of those younger players might make different decisions and pick the better moments to play that type of game.
“They have been conceding a lot of goals — 15 in the league — and that is something we need to look to exploit. We need to try and play on any lack of confidence at the back and use it to our advantage.”
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