Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
No panic at United insists McKinnon
DUNDEE United boss Ray McKinnon has pledged the coming months will see his team show why they are favourites to win the Championship this season.
Ray is still smarting from the weekend defeat at St Mirren that saw his team meekly surrender what until then had been a perfect league record.
And he understands that Tangerines fans expect much better from their team.
But what the gaffer is not doing is panicking and that’s because he has belief in the quality of his squad.
“Everyone is disappointed we got beat, we are all disappointed but the reality is we have the whole season for that team to gel, everyone to get their fitness up and be bang at it at the same time,” he said.
“So we are not panicking. The players know how good they are, we know how good they are and we need to get that strong team on the park.
“And I know the expectation levels are high, I get that and we accept that. We are not there yet, but we will get there.”
Ray believes part of the problem down in Paisley was the continuing variation in fitness levels within the squad.
That’s partly a hangover from a short close-season, but also down some players signing on late and others being hit by injury.
He plans to use the lack of a league game this weekend — United face Alloa in the Irn-Bru Cup at Tannadice on Saturday — to rectify that.
“We need to take these two weeks until the next league game and use them to our advantage.
“Saturday’s game, we’ll use to give people games, or take them out and do things with them to get them to where they need to be in these next two weeks.
“It’s a delicate one and we need to get that balance.
“There are people who probably need to play and others who we will do something different with because we need to get their fitness levels up.
“And we are a wee bit all over the place in terms of levels of fitness. Scott Fraser, Stewart Murdoch, Willo Flood, Jordie Briels, James Keatings, they’re up and down and we are working on that.”
United, meanwhile, are not anticipating doing any major business before tomorrow night’s transfer window.
Several clubs south of the border have been keeping tabs on young fullback Jamie Robson, but no bids are expected.