It’s difficult to describe my feelings as an Arab, losing to MyPa. No disrespect to MyPa intended, but they were not the best side to have visited Tannadice over the last year, and far better teams have been disposed of.
We lost last night to two careless goals. The penalty didn’t need to happen, and the player responsible needs to look at himself ask why he did that, because to me it seems like a poor reading of the game. Ritchie’s blunder can be attributed to the same thing, a poor reading. Put it down to tiredness maybe, but the MyPa players looked fitter. Many of our players look heavy, not in the sense that they are overweight, more in the sense that they are heavy-set. Perhaps some work on sprinting and agility is needed here? And we certainly need to concentrate on being assertive a lot more, especially at the start of games, and towards the end when fatigue becomes a factor.
I don’t think Chisholm can be apportioned more than the fair share he would normally take as the manager. For example he started Samuel, which was a surprising choice, but Samuel had an excellent game. His substitution was a like for like, though I think if we’d also brought Kenneth on to shore up the rear it would have won us the game, and also got the fans behind the team, who are baying for Kenneth to play.
It’s a tough one to swallow after being so close, but that’s football – there are heartbreaks, and it was our turn last night.
The team need to take a long look at themselves, especially at the back, and I would not be surprised to see a signing or two in this area before the window closes.
We’ve had an, at best, sluggish start to the season, though we’ve scored seven goals in a week, which is one bright spot; but our defence look incapable at times, take a long time to settle, and desperately need to start proving themselves.