If Houston was to be replaced just now I think United would find themselves in a bit of a state. You don't how good someone is until they are away.

I totally agree with you 4ever. I think stability is needed at our club. Houston in my opinion is the correct man for United and he will get us out of this slump in form.

I hope that you are right and that he can turn it around, however he will have to do this very quickly. In all honesty can you see him changing his style and seriously pushing us up the league over the next 5-6 weeks?

I don't beleive for a second that Houston will move away from 4-5-1 and this will eventually be his downfall. Arabs that are backing him now will lose patience with this dull and negative football. As I have said I will always support the team and that will never change. Despite this no good can come from continuing to blindly back a man who is making the same mistakes time and again.

People point to last season and finishing fourth. Last season we had a premiership striker playing for us who was knocking in goals for fun. The system and the tactics will not work with this squad and must change now.

The next 4 games are massive for Houston and I will get right behing United. However, if we fail to deliver in the league and cup over this period he has to be under serious pressure.

I honestly can see him moving us up the league in the next 5-6 weeks. However, I also think he will stick with his 4-5-1 formation. As much as I don't like us playing it I think it can be very effective with the correct players. What I mean by this is in midfield PH can't keep playing the same central midfielders out wide as they are not effective there. He needs to pick two wide players in my opinion GMS wide left and Swanson wide right. Then in the centre of the park he can have his 3 players, Rankin,
Flood and probably Robertson with either Daly, Russell or Dalla Valle up top.

This should mean that the team is hard to break down but when going forward it can spring into a 4-3-3 with GMS left, one of the strikers through the middle and Swanson on the right. This is what we played when we had Conway in the team and although it was still criticised it got results.

If PH can get us winning again playing 4-5-1 would people still be asking for a change of manager?

I would love to see free flowing football every week from United playing two up top but I think we would concede too many goals.

Only my thoughts and others are welcome.

Arabest - last season, when playing 4-5-1, we conceded twice as many as we scored. When playing 4-4-2, we scored twice as many as we conceded.

We conceded more playing the more "defensive" formation yet scored far, far less.

Much more important to have a balance to your team with players playing in the correct position rather than just sticking as many men back as possible. 4-4-2 also helps in that we can actually keep the ball rather than just giving it to the opposition every time we play it up top...

I totally agree with your balance point and I have always stated that I would prefer a 4-4-2 formation.

Is Houston going to change it today? The answer is probably not. I was speaking to GMS and he doesn't think he will get a start today. This means we will probably be same as usual.

We need to cut out the stupid mistakes at the back to give us any chance.

When we were missing Swanson and Conway last season we were rubbish. Swanson comes back this season we start playing. He has to see GMS is a natural successor to Conway yet fails to start him. Sort this problem and it will be sorted.

Jonny Russell needs to start upfront or stay on the bench. He is not a wide player. Also Scott Robertson is needing benched.

I agree with all those points, however it's not difficult to manage when all of your best players are fit and playing well. What matters more is what you do when you're forced to change the team due to injuries/lack of form. Houston has failed pretty spectacularly in this respect. If your best winger is fit, you don't replace him with a central midfielder, you replace him with your back-up winger. He doesn't seem to grasp this. If Scott Robertson hasn't found a team-mate in 4 games and failed to tackle a blade of grass, you drop him. You don't keep playing him in the hope that he'll eventually be good.

I've said it before - he got lucky in his first 6 months. Pretty much the entire best team was fit, and crucially Scott Robertson was injured. I'm sure if he was fit we wouldn't have got 3rd or won the cup, as he'd have been forced into the team, we'd have played 4-5-1 with Daly up top, Goodwillie wouldn't have got the game time to develop and things would be much worse. Scott Robertson being injured is probably the best thing that'd happened to the club in the last 10 years!

*If you're best winger ISN'T fit is what that's supposed to read...

So what are the thoughts about Michael O'Neil. Would he be a good replacement if a change was made?

Michael O'Neil would be a good possibility however I think he may be off to a bigger club than Dundee United.

IF a change was made, the O'Neill would be a great candidate and I'd be happy with that.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if we are to persist with the negative formation, then we can make it positive by playing the right players and for me Danny Swanson has to play centrally. Yes, play two ball winners in there (Rankin and Flood) but have Danny getting a bit of license to get on the ball and dictate the game. Putting him wide limits his involvement and stubbs his creativity.

We have limited options wide, so I'd be happy with GMS and probably Russell in that position, although I'd prefer Russell up front because, although I'm a big, big Jon Daly fan, I think with Swanson pulling the strings we need forwards with more movement and Russell would offer that. You know, I'd even have Flood wide ahead of wasting Swanson out there.





Oh, and Scott Allan is playing today. Interesting.

Pernis, Kenneth, Gunning, Dixon, Flood, Robertson, Rankin, Allan, Swanson, Daly, Russell



Erm....who's playing right back? 3-5-2?

Was thinking the same thing Ivan. Unless he is going with Willo at RB but I hope not. I can't see us playing 3 at the back. We have been bad enough with 4 at the back.

Flood at right-back I presume. 5 central midfidlers in total, that's half of our outfield that play the one position. Absolutely mental.

2-0 down to a terrible Aberdeen side. Surely no-one can now say he deserves to keep his job?

It goes from bad to worse,

I must admit I am not so confident about PH after todays game. If the team can't put in a performance on the anniversary of ET's death then there is something wrong!

Arabest, i have been defending houston on here for a while, but if we dont beat st johnstone and then go out the cup to falkirk i'd say his days will be numbered, i try not to get involved in too many tactics debates as i dont get to see the team play that often, but the 4-5-1 doesn't seem to be working and nobody seems to like it and i cant understand why GMS isnt getting a game he changed the game at st johnstone. Going to the falkirk and pars games hopefully we will have turned a corner by then, but if i'm honest i'm not optimistic. Cant really see us beating st johnstone the way they're playing just now, but in saying that they could be without a manager by then. Hopefully we can turn in a good performance in the cup game and get a bit of confidence back in the team.
On another note great to see both the weegies dropping points on the same day, every cloud and all that.

Last week I said I wouldn't be joining any 'Houstie Out' campaign.

Call me fickle, but I've totally changed my mind. Saturday was the straw that broke the camel's back.

It's not all Houstie's fault tho' - the board didn't back him with appropriate finances in the summer, and the fact that they didn't have the finances to back him is the boards fault.

Year-after-year we have been throwing thousands of pounds down the drain due to intetest payments on a massive debt that should never been allowed to accrue to such a level.

As for Houstie, his blind obedience to his 4-5-1 tactic is pathetic. His alleigance to Scott Robertson makes me sick. The player apparently has no intention of staying at Tannadice once his contract is up - I for one can't wait for that day to come so he can GTF.

Confidence in the squad is rock bottom - we can't even count on guys like Pernis anymore.

I'm sick of the level of performance served up by our team, sick of our pathetic board who have squandered our meagre financial resources year-after-year, sick of seeing the manager saunter off to go and work with the Scotland squad when he clearly has a shedload of work to do in his real job.

Cyber, you are spot on and your views underline how much the tide has turned against Houston. He has to go now! This is no going to suddenly going to start working, get him out now while we still have a season to save. He talks about Allan being a money grabber, he gets paid from United, Scotland and still wants all the pundit jobs he can get. Time to go Houston.

The problem for the board is that these,tactics and his insistence of putting players out of position is going to further reduce attendances. We can't afford that.

He was moaning again in the press about his small squad but it's starting to really frustrate me that,he has,no faith in the kids. It's short termism at its,worst. The fact is that if we are playing kids and losing then the fans are much more likely to accept that than the way he's sabotaging his own team by forcing in his,preferred senior players. I would much rather lose trying to play an attacking, entertaining game than lose,playing defensive pash.

It's also not helping my mood reading about how Dixon is out of contract at the end of the season. He's maybe not the best defender, but he's the only player who gets a game that can cross a ball in open play. Another entertaining element of our team leaving...

Agreed Ivan, do you think that Dixon is a certainty to leave? Has he even been offered a new contract? Also is that true that Robertson has no intention of staying? If so I'm happy that he's going, he's utter garbage, however I think that his attitude is appalling.

It is certainly true that we will show more patience to a young side who lose than to one with senior players who just don't give a toss. Houston keeps saying that it is a young team, that's rubbish. I would only classify Allan and Russel as young out of Saturdays starting 11.

More excuses from an inept and desperate man.

his insistence of putting players out of position is going to further reduce attendances
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Exactly Ivan.

It will be interesting to see how many turn out against Falkirk in the cup-tie when season tickets are not valid.

Maybe the record low 'crowd' I suspect next Tuesday will provide the board with the wake-up call they clearly need!

The weird thing is that Houstie started off so positively (with his team formations) when he took over the managerial reigns.

How long before we see the dreaded 4-6-0 line up?

Cyber, this is what I can't understand. When appointed he played 4-4-2 and gave Goodie the extended run in the team that CL would not. At that time we were playing some of the best football I had seen at Tannadice for a while.

After the cup win it just got more and more negative. Has Houston been listening to Levein and implementing his suggestions? This for me would be even worse than if he were making such bad decisions himself.

The board must already be aware of the dramatic drop in attendances. We need to get behind the team against Falkirk, a semi and possible final would be a very welcome financial boost to the club. Hopefully we'll be going to Hampden with a new manager.