I’ll be honest, I don’t really have much to talk about. After YET ANOTHER POSTPONEMENT there isn’t much to say. What we do know is that United will now have to fit in their remaining 13 league games between tomorrow and the 28th of April. This will essentially mean playing two games a week, every week, until that final weekend. The knock on effect of this might mean a good run of form if the team can build up some momentum but even if that happens the fatigue of playing that many games will kick-in before the playoffs and it might prove costly.
One piece of team news that is being reported today is the possibility of Bilel Mohsni signing in time to feature in tomorrow’s squad. The former Rangers and Southend player has been a free agent for nearly two years and the 30-year-old defender has a fair bit of baggage having been a constant figure of fun during his time at Rangers. This is the first recommendation from Paul Sturrock and will be met with almost universal scepticism (especially given Mike Martin’s crusade on fit and proper recruitment). I doubt there will be any middle ground with this signing. It will either be an absolute disaster or a stroke of genius.
I’ll make things easy for myself when recommending a team for tomorrow and I will stick with the side that I thought would feature against Brechin. I’ll add Mohsni to the bench rather than throw him immediately into the side but nobody knows what to expect from United right now and it wouldn’t surprise me if the new signing starts as a lone striker tomorrow night just for the hell of it.
Queen of the South are in decent form and will see tomorrow evening as a chance to boost their top four hopes (and leapfrog us in the table). Unbelievably if United do lose tomorrow then we will drop to fifth and out of the playoff spots (albeit with our games in hand to come). Given we were top at Christmas it really is astonishing just how much we have fallen away in the last two and a half months. A good result tomorrow might kickstart a decent mini-run especially with three home games on the bounce starting on Saturday.
My predicted team for tomorrow –
GK – Harry Lewis
RB – Stewart Murdoch
CB – Mark Durnan
CB – Tam Scobbie
LB – Jamie Robson
CM – Grant Gillespie
CM – Willo Flood
RM – Paul McMullan
CAM – Sam Stanton
LM – Billy King
ST – Scott McDonald
Subs – Deniz Mehmet, Thomas Mikkelsen, Emil Lyng, Matty Smith, Bilel Mohsni, Craig Slater, William Edjenguele.
Key Player – Everyone – I’ve written this a few times now. The responsibility is on ALL of the players to step up to the mark. They have met the chairman and the board so were told by them about the importance of playing for Dundee United and what it should mean to them. Not all of them will have listened and many of the players are simply passing through as they see out another contract but for those with a bit of professional pride they need to show the supporters they are up for whatever it takes to at least make a good go of things in the remaining fixtures.