Former Dundee United striker Billy Dodds believes losing to Aberdeen in the William Hill Scottish Cup could be a “blessing in disguise.”
Dodds, who enjoyed two successful spells on the park at Tannadice as well as serving the Tangerines as both assistant and caretaker manager, gave his extremely frank assessment as he looked ahead to United’s daunting-looking trip to Pittodrie on Sunday for the fifth-round clash against the Dons.
His reasoning is that, as someone who would love to see his old team back up in the Premiership as soon as possible, he feels an exit would force the players to make promotion their one and only goal for the remainder of the season.
United have fallen a massive 14 points behind league leaders St Mirren after the Buddies beat Queen of the South on Saturday while Csaba Laszlo’s men didn’t play due to the postponement of their match at Inverness.
To put that into context, the Paisley men are now further ahead in their division than the imperious Manchester City are in the English Premier League.
Therefore, Dodds thinks United will be doing themselves a favour if they go out of the cup come Sunday night.
“Me, looking in from the outside, I wouldn’t think it would be a bad thing,” he said.
“I know their manager Csaba Laszlo won’t be saying these words but I don’t think it would be a bad thing for United to go out the cup.
“It is a bold statement, I know.
“The reason why I say that is because it lets them totally concentrate on the Championship campaign because they have some catch-up job, and that’s if they have the mentality and the right group of players.
“For me, United are maybe missing something. You always talk about the balance of experience and energy and I think they maybe have too many experienced ones.
“I think you need it to be a half and half job and they have lost a couple of their energetic players through injury – their playmakers who get about the pitch (Scott Fraser and Fraser Fyvie).
“They have been hit with that.
“So even though they might lose, that result might be a blessing in disguise.
“It’s not a good thing in itself to be out of the cup but it might really let them knuckle down and realise the job they’ve got.
“It’s such a huge club.
“I want to see United back in the Premier because of that.
“I also want to see St Mirren back up because there are good people there but I certainly want to see United back.
“People keep saying it but if you take Barcelona and Real Madrid out of the Spanish league it’s not the same, is it?
“It’s not as attractive, is it?
“In a Scottish context, you need your bigger teams up there.”
With Aberdeen sitting second in the top flight after their 3-0 win over Hamilton Accies on Saturday and United struggling so badly down a division, Dodds was asked if he could remember a time when the gap between the two clubs was as great as it is now.
The ex-Scotland star, who was celebrating his 49th birthday yesterday, replied: “It has probably been as wide at some point, thinking back, but it is quite wide just now.
“I’m not saying Dundee United can’t go and get a result in a one-off game but it will take a huge effort.
“Probably on a consistent level against Aberdeen they will know there is a gap but in this type of match, a cup-tie, plus this fixture – which has something special about it – they are capable of getting themselves up.
“Sometimes this is when shocks happen, even though I’m not saying it will this time.
“I keep on harking back to the St Mirren game (Aberdeen’s 4-1 success at Pittodrie in the last round).
“I am a great believer that there is a gap between the Championship and Premiership.
“I really do think that, especially over a sustained period,” added Dodds, also a former Aberdeen player.
“When you see St Mirren, who were flying higher than United, suddenly go up to Aberdeen and get, maybe not a hiding but it was a pretty straightforward result (for the Dons), that shows you how big a gap there is.”
Billy Dodds was speaking at a William Hill media event held at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.
