COUNTY WILL DESTROY US IF WE FAIL TO FOCUS, SAYS PAATELAINEN
THE propensity of footballers to insist they only consider football matches ‘one game at a time’ isn’t just irritating on account of its banality. It is also patently untrue. As Manuel Pellegrini acknowledged before playing a team of Manchester City kids at Chelsea in the recent FA Cup tie, managers manage matches in clusters. Equally, despite their many utterances to the contrary, players also size-up impending fixtures in job lots. As significant a game as their hosting of Dundee United in the Scottish Cup quarterfinal is today, Ross County needn’t waste their breath by saying it is the only thing on their minds. Next Sunday’s League Cup Final with Hibernian at Hampden is now looming so large that it’s impossible to ignore. ‘It is hard,’ stated Mixu Paatelainen, the United boss. ‘I’m sure they’ll be thinking about the Cup Final. If not, they’re robots. It’s only natural.’ If the fervent hope of the Finn is that Jim McIntyre’s side are not, as a consequence, quite at it today in Dingwall, Paatelainen’s gut feeling is that, collectively, County will be no worse for the looming distraction. ‘Some players will take the prospect of the final as a motivation,’ he explained. ‘They’ll think: “It’s a cup final next week and I’m going to show the manager I’m worth a place in the team”. ‘Others think: “I’m not going into a crunching tackle because I’m a regular starter and I might get injured. I want to be ready for next week”. ‘We’re dealing with human beings — everyone responds differently. Players who believe in themselves take it as an extra motivation. Others don’t put themselves out because they want to be available.’ It could be argued that the same might apply to United. Still eight points adrift at the foot of the table, there surely isn’t a United player or supporter who would trade survival for a Scottish Cup victory right now. Paatelainen has never wavered from the view that remaining in the Premiership is the overriding priority, but those who believe today’s tie will be viewed as some kind of a bonus offering is sorely mistaken. ‘We can’t start thinking about resting players,’ he added. ‘We can’t take a match like this lightly. We take it seriously, it’s the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup. It’s a great opportunity for us, and a cup run will not harm our league job at all. We’ll try our best and field the strongest team we can. If not, Ross County will murder us —
they’re a fantastic team. ‘If somebody thinks my team-talk after the Aberdeen game, and the way I spoke to the players, was to say: “Now it is a cup game, take it easy, no problem, don’t prepare, don’t sleep, don’t eat, blah, blah, blah, have a jolly”. It doesn’t quite go like that.’ County striker Alex Schalk, meanwhile, said his side will have to match United’s fighting spirit if they are to progress. United return to Dingwall fresh from a 3-0 Premiership victory seven days earlier, where Schalk admits County were outfought. They bounced back with a 2-0 midweek win at Kilmarnock, but manager McIntyre has called for improvement in every area from their previous home game. ‘He is exactly right,’ Schalk said. ‘We need to improve and I think we showed that on Tuesday. If you have a bad day at the office, you need to do something else. You need to fight as hard as you can. ‘That’s the most important thing for us, to be a team that is fighting as much as Dundee United, and scrapping for every ball like them.’ United will be without Eiji Kawashima after the Japanese goalkeeper picked up a minor thigh injury. Luis Zwick will deputise, with Guy Demel also sidelined.