Mixu Paatelainen - 'He clearly had the potential to go nuts'

However, his hardline approach appeared to reap dividends with a one-goal win over Ross County at the weekend and he will find himself with the opportunity to take the club into a Hampden semi-final on Wednesday evening when he visits former club Hibernian in the last eight of the League Cup.

James Fowler, the Queen of the South manager, played under Paatelainen at Kilmarnock during his one and only season there in 2010-11. It is a period he recalls with great fondness and one which he admits has influenced the way he approaches his own career in coaching.

Rather like this period at United, the Finn’s time at Rugby Park started with a couple of defeats. There were several moments in which the temper he occasionally refers to was only barely concealed.

Yet, he did work a minor revolution at the Ayrshire club, developing them into a team that finished fifth in the league while becoming renowned for a commitment to passing football. It was a revolution that also earned him the call from the Finnish FA to become national team coach.

Fowler has listened to Paatelainen’s uncompromising words with interest over recent weeks, but he makes it clear that it is the work he did with him on the training ground that remains imprinted upon his memory rather than any kind of explosive rage.

“I don’t remember him being too bad, but I always remember him saying that you didn’t want to see the bear in him,” said Fowler. “He clearly had the potential to go nuts.

“His size maybe made him a little intimidating as well.

“I’d say he was relatively calm, though, when you consider some of the managers I’d had previously such as Jim Jefferies.

“Certainly, it looks like he went into United with the intention of making his mark early and making sure that the players know he is not going to be some kind of gentle giant.

“He maybe wanted to show he has a different side to him. After all, he was a winner and a very combative player. They are a nice team, but he possibly wants to put a bit of fight into them.

“Of course, he has a slightly younger squad. Sometimes, that makes it easier to make your changes because younger players are often receptive to new ideas.

“Having said that, I was 29 when he came in at Killie and he really opened my eyes up to different things.

“He was always good on the training pitch and he made me a better player, giving me a more detailed understanding of the game in terms of building play from the back.

“He had his vision of playing, but we went back to basics on the training pitch as well. We walked through a lot of things and went through things such as the shape of the team so that players not only understood their own position, but where others on the pitch were expected to be and what options would exist should someone receive the ball in a certain area.

“There should always be a minimum two or three options with players making different runs. All that stuff improved me and I think I have taken that into the way I want my teams to play as a manager.

“It was interesting because it was different.”

No doubt, there will be bumps in the road at United. They remain rooted to the bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership despite Saturday’s most welcome victory and questions remain over just how experienced the squad is to deal with what is shaping up to be a battle against relegation.

Whatever happens, Fowler is sure that Paatelainen will not be swayed from the course he has plotted at the club he once served so well as a powerful centre-forward.

“He had a sticky start at Kilmarnock, but there was always a great belief in what he was trying to do and that was clear with the work he was putting in on the training pitch,” said Fowler.

“It proved fruitful in the end because we went on to get a lot of plaudits for our style of play at that time. The results came with that and the combination of both led him moving on quite quickly.

“He had the pre-season with us as well, which I am sure helped him a lot. We spent lots of time on the training pitch that summer, just going through things and letting him put his ideas across to the players so that everyone knew what their role was, when to receive the ball and the options that they should have in terms of movement off the ball.

“He hasn’t had long to settle in there and he hasn’t had the same amount of time to implement his philosophy at Dundee United, which maybe puts him at a bit of a disadvantage. It does take a bit of time to get your message across when you go into a new club. It is not an overnight thing.

“We had the luxury of the pre-season and I think it took a while for us to start getting results when the games started. From memory, we were bottom of the league for a little while, but he kept his belief, the players bought into what he was doing.”

Paatelainen, of course, inherited a Dundee United side that was in freefall and has not had the opportunity to perform any kind of surgery on the squad. Fowler believes past history shows that he will choose a certain kind of player to complement the style he is looking for.

“Alexei Eremenko arrived at Kilmarnock and he was just a master with the ball,” he said. “The likes of Craig Bryson, Liam Kelly and Conor Sammon all made big contributions as well.

“We had Eremenko playing as a number 10 playing high up the pitch, but it was never a case of the keeper kicking it long to try to find him.

We were committed to building from the back and creating space for the technically gifted players to give the opposition problems.

“Of course, a lot of it was about getting Eremenko on the ball because of what he could do, but there was a build-up and a strategy from goalkeeper to defence to midfield.

“He wanted us all to be brave on the ball and stuck to his guns through thick and thin.

“Of course, he could be an imposing figure, but he was really great at encouraging players and trying to get the very best out of them. I am sure the players at Dundee United will already be seeing that side of him behind the scenes.”