Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Changes coming for the Tangerines
SUNDAY was such a disappointing day for Dundee United but the biggest let down was the way it all ended.
The result and missing out on promotion was obviously a massive disappointment but, for me, that they didn’t have a real go at Hamilton is the most frustrating thing.
That was probably down to tiredness after a really tough, long season but in the end it was a nothing performance and that will annoy the manager.
You could see the legs were gone in the second half.
Even Simon Murray, whose game is all about high energy and chasing down defenders, wasn’t his usual self.
The players weren’t going as hard as usual but you can hardly blame them.
United will have played more games than anybody in that division.
Add in their Irn-Bru Cup run and you’re well over 50 games across the season.
The late comeback win over Falkirk will have taken a lot out of them as well. However, you can’t look for excuses. Over the summer, Ray McKinnon has to be active in the transfer market — it was plain to see from the lack of options on the bench for him to call on and change the game.
He threw on Scott Fraser who hasn’t trained or played at all lately because he’s a player that can rustle something up but he wasn’t match ready.
They definitely need some fresh faces going forward.
At the back of late they’ve been OK and, despite Hamilton having the better of the game at the weekend, it wasn’t like they had chances galore.
Looking back at the start of the season, the job Ray had to do was always going to be a tough one.
He still had a squad of players under contract on decent Premiership money and the lack of budget to use made things difficult.
That’s not going to get any easier but it won’t stop him trying to build a team.
There will be big changes to the squad, there has to be, and now it’s about Ray building his own team.
United brought in players throughout this season but there’s a difference between bringing in the players you can get rather than the ones you want.
That’s the job over this summer — get a team together to win the Championship next season.