Beyond The Score

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On Sunday afternoon at Tannadice, Dundee United will host ST Mirren in the last sixteen of this season’s Premier Sports Cup. With a place in the quarter-finals on the line, who will progress to the final stage before Hampden?

For Dundee United, it’s been a respectable start to the campaign. Two draws from two games means that they are still to find their first victory. Although, they have displayed that they will be a competitive outfit. Yet, last week only an equaliser in the ninety-fifth minute from Ronan Hale eluded them of their first victory. In the words of Jim Goodwin:

“It’s going to take a little time to get over the way the game finished.”

Either way, two points on the board is satisfactory. While nothing gets decided after two fixtures, for Kilmarnock and Hibs alone at the bottom, they’ll want to pick up their first point sooner rather than later. The longer the run goes on the more uneasy things become. Momentum is an understated factor in league football.

As for any club recently promoted, Dundee United’s aim first and foremost will be survival. After a pleasing Summer of recruitment though , with the likes of North Macedonian pairing Trapanovski and Babunski signed, this squad is capable of more.

Their opponents St Mirren must pick themselves up from European disappointment last night. They did Scottish football proud battling with Norwegian outfit Brann over two legs but were knocked out narrowly thanks to two goals at the death. Brann sit level second place in the Norwegian league, with eighteen matches played.

Their start to the Premier League season has been a mixed bag. A 3-0 win over Hibernian on opening day carried over all the positive vibes of last season. The next week the Paisley-Men suffered a comprehensive three-one defeat at the to a high-flying Aberdeen side led by Jimmy Thelin.

St Mirren haven’t had to deal with the hefty demands of a European schedule since their participation in the 1987/88 European Winners Cup. Ironically, they beat Tromso one-nil over two legs in the first round, the same outfit that Kilmarnock narrowly overcame in the Conference League play-off last night. Although, Tromso are considerably worse than Brann as they sit thirteenth in a sixteen-team Eliteserien (fifteen points behind Brann with just eighteen matches played).

The fact St Mirren are involved in a European discussion is testament to the wonderful job that Stephen Robinson has done. Since leading Motherwell to two cup finals in 2017/18 and securing a top-six finish, he has replicated strong league form at the SMISA stadium. However, they have yet to reach a domestic cup semi-final during the Robinson reign. The Northern Irishman will be looking for progress.

Dundee United Out of Possession structure

A manager as astute as Stephen Robinson will be looking to exploit the aggressive defensive structure of Dundee United.

It’s rather unusual to see in Scottish football but Jim Goodwin instructs Dundee United to be aggressive in their counter-pressing, rather than going for a man-to-man or zonal system. We saw this during his time at Aberdeen and in his previous spell at St Mirren. This like any structure has its pros and cons.

With energetic players of similar or better level, it can suffocate the opposition and mean you spend less time out of possession. In the championship last season it worked perfectly, as they had a quality of player so superior to the opposition.

However, it’s a more risky game on an even playing field.

In the opening game against Dundee, we witnessed it lead to an early goal as the visitors struggled to match United’s intensity in the opening stages. Although as legs tired, spaces opened up and a lack of stability at the back meant the visitors got in behind time and time again.

Take a look at a chance Ross County were able to create last week:

While Dundee United aim to play a 3-4-2-1, when their backs are against the wall this naturally develops to a line of five. Trying to play such a system while implementing a counter-press is tricky, as you often find yourself with one less man in the middle of the park, thereby making it a tougher task to crowd out the ball carrier.

In the opening frame, Ross County have just passed the ball from their left side to the middle. The tangerines have tried to crowd out the opposite side of the park and now shift together to the left side. A pass into midfield means that right wing-back Vicko Sevelj must come inside and together with Craig Sibbald try to dispossess Connor Randal.

In most cases this would work, however, a piece of individual brilliance from the former Liverpool academy player means that he turns by the United pairing and has options in front of him. He can shoot or play either Roman Hale or Eamonn Brophy through on goal. In the end, Ronan Hale forces a smart save from Jack Walton as neither of the centre-backs mark him. This can often happen with three centre-backs playing together, none take the initiative.

While, this was just one chance it highlighted a frailty. If you can play through the counter-press of Dundee United acres of space will open. This was a frequent problem that Goodwin couldn’t fix as Aberdeen boss.

Prediction

This will be a tight one no doubt. With the home side having fresh legs and a point to prove they should narrowly prevail. ST Mirren will put up a fight scoring themselves, however a 2-1 win will come the way of Dundee United and send them into their first cup quarter-final in five attempts.