One win from 11 leagues games, 21 goals conceded, four points adrift at the bottom of the Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership? Dundee United are in the kind of uncomfortable position you’d tend to find in the later pages of the Kama Sutra.
It won’t get any easier either. After Sunday’s 1-0 reversal at home to Hearts, in Mixu Paatelainen’s first match as head coach, the team from Tannadice travel to Glasgow to face table-topping Celtic this weekend. It’s a fairly daunting prospect given United’s current predicament but John Rankin, the combative midfielder, is up for the fight ahead.
“Although, we are bottom of the league we don’t fear anyone,” said the 32-year-old. “It’s not as if we will be going to Parkhead thinking, ‘Oh, here we go…’ We don’t think like that. We will go there with the belief that we can win and that can only be a good thing. We need to fight tooth and nail to get out of this and we thoroughly plan to do so. The manager has made his plans known to us that he doesn’t want to be in this position for too long. We need to look at that table and make it hurt us. It certainly hurts us now, seeing that we are four points off second-bottom albeit we are only 11 games into the season. The desire and willingness in the dressing room to get about our business and get ourselves out of trouble is certainly there for all to see.”
Despite the Paatelainen regime beginning with a defeat, the new man at the helm was encouraged by the spirit shown in the ranks even if United’s lack of a cutting edge caused him concerns.
Paatelainen may just be getting his feet under the table at Tannadice but Rankin, who played under the Finn at Hibernian, is confident his impact will be purposeful and profitable.
“He is a big man, he has that fear factor just by looking at him and there is an aura about him,” added Rankin. “He only had two days with us before the Hearts game so this week is a big week for us in training. That will give the manager time to get to know us on the training pitch and we can put in a lot of good work
“When a new manager comes in a place always gets lifted because the players who hadn’t been in the plans before see an opportunity for themselves, while those who were playing have to prove themselves to the new manager all over again.
“There is a mountain to climb for the club at the moment but we can see ourselves climbing it.”
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