Dundee United captain Dylan Tait has no doubt his side will bounce back from Sunday’s defeat to Hearts- even if there are potential teething issues due to this summer’s overhaul on Dens Road.
Tait, who was part of the overhaul, was named Dundee United captain this summer insists that there’s positives to take from Sunday’s match, despite a poor scoreline.
United were defeated 4-0 by Hearts at Tynecastle Park on Sunday, with seven new signings (himself included) in the starting eleven. Jim Goodwin has added a whopping eleven new players to his squad so far this window.
Speaking after the match, Tait said: It’s a really good group I think already. It’s quite a tight knit group and we’re just trying to gel. There’s a lot of new boys to be fair.
“In the teams I’ve played in before it’s kind of not been like that. There’s a lot of new boys, it’s a big turnover. I think once we gel, we’ll become a really good team.”
Tait, without pulling any punches offered comment on the squads immediate reaction to the match, and how he tries to motivate them as captain, he said: ” Obviously, it’s a sore result after last week. We played well last week and came into the game with confidence. We thought we could get after Hearts. Obviously, it’s a bad start, lose two goals. After that, I thought we came into the game a bit, we had chances and just didn’t take them.
“The second half, it’s naive and soft from us. It’s something we’re gonna need to learn (from) quick. It’s a tough league.
“I just think we’re a real new team, there’s a lot of new boys that’s not played in the league before, that’s what can happen against the good teams in this league. You need to just stick together. That’s what I was saying in there, you need to work harder than the opposition, you need to run hard and when the going gets tough- that’s when you need to stick together and that’s the most important thing.
“When we do look back at the game, there was a lot of good things in the game, in possession. We got into good areas, when you get into good areas can you make something happen and really take your chances like Hearts did?”
There’s no time for United to feel sorry for themselves, a check of the fixture list will show it’s Celtic at home in the League Cup next week, before a Dundee Derby the following week. Speaking about the Celtic match, Tait said: “It’s gonna be another hard game, but it’s one we’ll really look forward to. It’s a chance to progress in a cup, so that’s something we want to do.
“Celtic’s the best team in the league and they’ve won everything for however many years, so it’s gonna be a hard game, but we’ll have a game plan to go into it.”