What happened yesterday? What is it that makes professional footballers play so badly? Surely there are some basic footballing 'rules' that never change?
1) Be first to the ball
2) Make sure your pass goes where you intended it to go
3) Concentrate.
4) Don't gamble in defence, make sure.
This is by no means a be all and end all of football tactics, just a few basics. Other factors to take into consideration are, of course, the individuals players' fitness and ability. Assuming both fitness and ability are all OK with United players, why can't we do any of the above? What makes us so 'lacking in bite'?
We just didn't seem to want to play yesterday.
Someone at Tannadice needs to take a long hard look at the club from top to bottom and find out what the problem is. This 'negativity' has spread through the club for many a season now, through successive managers, and someone needs to get to the bottom of what it is. Perhaps it's because of United's illustrious past? Maybe we are not living up to older fans' too-high expectations? Maybe, as a Dee friend of mine has pointed out, we were punching above our weight during 'the glory years' and have now returned to our more natural level. Who knows? And even if the any of this paragraph is true, WHY OH WHY CAN WE NOT PUT INTO PRACTICE ANY OF THE BASIC FOOTBALLING 'RULES' ABOVE?
I want my team to play well and win. I want them to try on the park. I want them to be first on every loose ball. I want tackles. I want them closing down the opposition. I want EVERYTHING cleared from defence. I want it to be difficult for other teams to score. I want goals. I want success and i want bigger crowds through the gates. (that last one would actually happen if we could string some results together).
Many people are now calling for McCall's head. In my view, he should stay and fight, and i mean FIGHT!!
Most of the players at the club are his signings - he SHOULD be able to work with them. If a new man comes in, he will do the same as McCall in my opinion. What we need to do is root out the negativity inside the club. We can win games. We can play well. We can show fight. But we are not. Whatever it takes to get these basic principles into operation must be done.