Dundee United Manager Jim Goodwin spoke to the broadcast media to preview our William Hill Premiership clash with Celtic on Matchday 17.
The boss offered an update on the fitness of his charges, discussed the pressures of managing at the top level and challenged his players to play on the ‘front foot’ ahead of tomorrow evening’s matchup under the lights at Tannadice.
Watch the full press conference below!
ON SECURING A FIRST CLEAN SHEET SINCE SEPTEMBER
I did the boys a disservice after the game. I said our last clean sheet was a way back at Dundee in August, but it was actually the middle of September against Aberdeen! But at the same time, it was too long ago anyway for me to even remember.
Defensively, we haven’t been good enough. That was a real key feature of our performances last year – that resilience that we showed. But it is important to contexuliaze some of the goals we have conceded.
There have been some poor decisions made and individual errors. You can add some, what we feel, are poor refereeing decisions as well in terms of penalty kicks. But Saturday against Motherwell was a lot more like it in terms of the shape of the team.
The players defended brilliantly against a really good opponent. We have to make sure that we’re defending at the same level tomorrow, with that discipline and that structure when we don’t have possession.
But at the same time, we need to find that attacking threat that we’ve lacked in the last couple of games.
ON TAKING INSPIRATION FROM ST MIRREN’S TRIUMPH OVER CELTIC
St Mirren were outstanding on Sunday, particularly in the second half – Stephen Robinson and his players deserve a huge amount of credit. Coming into games like this, the focus tends to be on Celtic, especially with the kind of week that they’ve had.
But it’s still important to remember that they’re a team full of international-class players, individuals that are used to winning trophies and no doubt will be hurting after the week that they’ve had. I’m pretty sure they’ll all be wanting to show a positive reaction to that.
So we’ve got to be wary of that, but at the same time we have to believe that, if we can go and put on a similar type of game plan and performance to what St Mirren did at the weekend, then there’s no reason why we can’t get the same outcome.
ON THE PRESSURES OF SITTING IN THE MANAGERIAL HOT-SEAT
We see it all over Europe and we’re all in the same boat. I understand exactly what the Celtic manager will be going through and the emotions that he’ll be feeling at the moment.
There’s no hiding place in this game. As the manager of the club, and I’m talking about Dundee United here, it’s my responsibility to make sure that I motivate the players, get the results.
At the moment, lately, the results haven’t been good enough and we don’t shy away from that. But there’s pressure on everybody in this game. We’re judged on results and we’re judged on performances and Wilfred Nancy is no different to any of the rest of us.
We’ve seen that already this week with a couple of good managers, unfortunately, losing their jobs. The pressure is always there and I’m no different to anybody else. I need to start winning games.
We’re all aware of what we’re doing to ourselves in terms of putting our neck on the block and being manager of any team now in the modern day game. Patience is not a virtue that too many have in the modern day and we’re all wanting instant success.
ON CONTEXUALISING RESULTS
Some of the performances have probably merited a bit more. The Rangers game at home, we felt we should have won that game, but for the late penalty, and down at Kilmarnock, a really poor decision was given against us.
We do believe that some of the performances have been acceptable, but then some others maybe haven’t been as good as what we would have needed.
During my time here at Dundee United we’ve done not too bad in terms of getting out of the Championship at the first time of asking, then finishing fourth in the league last year.
We enjoyed a bit of European football in the summer, but I’m not shying away from the fact that I’m not happy and I’m not satisfied with where we are in the league table at the moment and the results that we’ve had of late.
But I do try and put things in context and I try and be realistic about some of those results. I’ll openly admit that some of the performances have been poor. Some of the other performances that we haven’t quite got the win in have actually been okay. So we’re working hard here as a group, as a staff, as players.
The reality is we haven’t won enough games. We’ve drawn far too many and we need to try and find a way to turn those draws into victories.
It’s such fine margins at times. It is always, for me, about putting context on some of the results. I felt the draw was fair against Motherwell but St Mirren were the better team at Paisley a week prior.
I’m honest enough and open enough to admit when we get things wrong, but I don’t think the team has played particularly badly over the course of the campaign up to now. We’ve just had too many draws and it’s just about finding a way to turn those draws into victories.
ON THE SUPPORTERS’ CONTINUED BACKING
The supporters at Dundee United have been absolutely brilliant with me up to now, but at the same time I know they want to see their team winning games of football.
So you’ve got to be thick-skinned to sit in this chair. You take all the pats on the back and all the plaudits when things are going well, you’ve got to then be willing to accept the fact that a bit of criticism is going to come your way when you’re not getting the results. That’s part and parcel of the job, but I love it and I wouldn’t change it.
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING THE FIRST GOAL TO IGNITE THE HOME CROWD
The first goal in any game is of a huge significance and tomorrow night will be no different. You saw the impact that that had on Sunday when St Mirren got that early goal from the set play, it gave them a real lift and it certainly knocked the wind out of Celtic’s sails for a period of time.
So our supporters will be there in great numbers again tomorrow night driving the team on – they want to see us being attacking-minded and being aggressive with Celtic and not being passive.
That’s the instruction from myself to the players – to go out there and fight for the jersey and leave nothing in the tank.
There’s a lot at stake tomorrow night for both teams, but ultimately my focus is always on Dundee United. Hopefully we can build on the good performance from last Saturday against Motherwell and take that into the game tomorrow night.
ON A CELTIC IN TRANSITION
It remains to be seen in terms of the system Celtic are going to play.
They’ve got flexibility there within the group. The manager has spoken publicly about how he wants to play 3-4-3 similar to ourselves. He quite simply just hasn’t had enough time at the moment to implement it and get his ideas across to the players on the pitch.
We’re expecting a reaction from the Celtic players tomorrow night but at the same time, we believe if we can play to the levels that we’re capable of, then we could cause them some real problems as well.
ON BELIEF REMAINING WITHIN THE DRESSING ROOM
The mood in the camp is really positive. I have to say the back lads and the goalkeeper in particular took a lot of confidence from the result at the weekend and the clean sheet. That means as much to those guys as what goals do to strikers.
We’re very much a collective in terms of winning and losing together and the clean sheet was a real group effort. We showed some really good resilience at times, but we lacked that cutting edge at the top end of the pitch, which is not something that could be labelled at us too often this season.
We just have to try and get it right at both ends and that’s what every manager and every team out there is trying to do. We carry a real attacking threat. I would imagine tomorrow night, we’ll have good opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net but we also need to respect the opposition and concentrate for 90 plus minutes to ensure we get that result.
ON TEAM NEWS
Panutche Camara is the only absentee for tomorrow, and pleased to have Krisztian Keresztes back available from suspension as well.
