Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Boss backs McGhee to become Dark Blues’ Davidson
REPEAT performances like Inverness could see Jordan McGhee make the box-to-box central midfield position his own says Dundee manager James McPake.
The Dens boss compared McGhee’s display – where he netted the equaliser late on in the Highlands – to former Dee Mark O’Hara and his old Livingston team-mate Murray Davidson.
As well as finishing off a fine move to make it 2-2, McGhee cracked the bar with a header leading to the opening goal for Liam Fontaine and had two good chances in the second period.
The Dark Blues still have former Dundee United and Hibs midfielder Sam Stanton training with them but if defender McGhee continues to shine in the middle of the park any thoughts of signing Stanton may be on ice.
In the meantime, McPake is just delighted to have McGhee back in his side and playing well after a difficult start to the campaign for the former Hearts man.
McPake said: “I played with Murray Davidson at Livingston and me and Dave Mackay spoke about that.
“Jordan also reminds me a wee bit of Mark O’Hara and the way he can drive into the box.
“Jordan is also a really strong runner and like Murray bangs into people.
“Murray became one of the best in Scotland at clearing the ball in his own box then running up and heading the ball in the net in the other box.
“Scott Robertson was another one like that here when he was a young kid.
“Those types of players are hard to find – midfielders who can get into the box beyond the strikers.
“After watching Jordan in a bounce game against Forfar last week with a view to Saturday, a couple of wee things he did reminded me and Dave of Murray Davidson.
“Could Jordan make the position his own? If he plays like he did at Inverness, I don’t see why not.
“He is very versatile. That sometimes hinders him a little bit because if someone needs to play somewhere it can be him but he never moans, he just goes and does it.
“We have to remember that he is still relatively young.
“He is such a good player we need him in the team, first and foremost. I thought him playing that role, the balance with Shaun (Byrne) and Charlie (Adam) was good.
“Max Anderson has done great and we also have Finlay Robertson so there is competition there but I really enjoyed watching Jordan playing like that.
“I think he can be a bit hard on himself. He has not come back like the Jordan McGhee that we saw last year – our most consistent player.
“That happens and goes back to his age as well. We also have to add in the fact that we hadn’t played for so long.
“He had surgery just before the lockdown and he was just getting back into the team. He was out for a while so we always had that slight concern that he might take longer to get up to speed.
“We sometimes overlook Jordan because he is so consistent and plays so many different positions but we knew we would get him back.
“He has been a bit hard on himself and we have had a wee chat about that. But even in training the last two weeks, I