SAME OLD PROBLEMS RETURN TO HAUNT UNITED

Motherwell took three points at a canter at Tannadice yesterday, and one has to wonder what the problem is there.

When Alex Smith was in charge the biggest problem was motivation. McCall was brought in, in my opinion, to address that problem. He started off well, avoiding relegation in his first (part) season, and finishing in the top half last season, with a good home record too. Fortress Tannadice! Remember that?

So what has happened this season? We have two wins from 17 games. Two. We have lost two derbies (and not won one under McCall). We are bottom of the SPL. Why? No one doubts that we have a decent pool of players, however, many people doubt that the best starting eleven actually starts at 3pm on a Saturday. I was pondering the strikers’ options through the week there, and had Grady and Samuel at 4^th and 5^th behind McIntyre, Scotland and Dodds, and yet Grady started only to be subbed by Scotland on 60 mins.

United piled the strikers on towards the end of the game, and had Scotland, Samuel, McIntyre and Dodds on at the finish, but to no avail. We just couldn’t score. It was the same last week – we had plenty of possession, but we couldn’t score.

Of course the pressure mounts on McCall now. Even several games ago many United fans were calling for McCall’s head. That chorus has since multiplied in volume and members, and there are very few Arabs who still think that McCall is the man for the job. We have Kilmarnock next week, and an under-par performance then will, I think, be the final straw for even the most staunch McCall supporter.

It’s been said a thousand times, but I still believe we have a squad that is too strong to get relegated, but also, it is NOT out of the question. We are fast approaching the halfway stage of the season, and if we have a second half like the first – make no mistake, we will be down. We need to start picking up points, and we need to start scoring goals.