The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Manager has no fear over introducing new talent
HOUSTON SHOWED he wasn’t shy of giving youth a chance as he handed a debut to defender John Souttar.
“I gave a 16-year-old his start and I believe he is the youngest player to play for United,” said Houston.
“He was nervous to begin with when playing 10-yard passes but one of the things he has in him is that he is good on the ball and will be a player at centre-half eventually for United.
“I rate him so highly and I wasn’t frightened to put him on today.
“I could have gone with the safety option of Sean Dillon there but chose not to, using him in the middle of the park instead.
“John, after 10 or 15 minutes, did very well and all credit to him.
“This was forced upon us because of injuries and suspensions but I am not scared to give young players a chance.
“Indeed, both teams had plenty of young talent on show, none better than Johnny Russell and Stuart Armstrong who I thought were both a constant threat to Aberdeen.
“But I find it hard to single out any individuals because I thought it was a good team performance.
“We had a mixed-up back four as well because I had to take my top scorer out (Jon Daly) because we don’t have any other centrehalves.
“We put him back and the young lad came in at right-back.”
The Tangerines played well in what was fine first game of the year at Pittodrie.
Houston felt that his team were a little hard done by in the lead-up to Niall McGinn’s free-kick that made it 2-2.
“A draw might have been a fair result but the wee thing I am annoyed with is that I didn’t think it was a free-kick for Aberdeen when Jon Daly won the header and McGinn was backing into him,” he said.
“There were loads of incidents like that in the middle of the park so I don’t know why it was given just outside our box when Jon was just standing his ground.
“Great credit to the players, though, for coming back from a goal down again.
“I thought we were dangerous on the counterattack and the players worked really hard. I think there were a lot of star performances in our team today.”
Aberdeen boss Craig Brown, meanwhile, noted with interest the debut for young Souttar.
“I would like to commend Dundee United’s young boy Souttar,” he said.
“I thought he played very well and was not replaced later on through a lack of efficiency—he was maybe just tired. I like to see young players coming in.”