Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin plots ‘big task’ ahead of welcoming Celtic to Tannadice for tomorrow’s lunchtime kickoff in the Scottish Premiership…
Brendan Rodgers’ side head to the City of Discovery nine points in front of Aberdeen, and 11 clear of Premier Sports League Cup Final losers theRangers who remain third place. Celtic will be aiming to maintain their 100% away record in the league this season and make it nine wins from nine on the road.
Dundee United in fifth place
Meanwhile, the Hoops’ opponents have had a tremendous start to their return to the top-flight. The Tangerines sit impressively in fifth place on 24 points, four points off Motherwell in fourth.
Despite a disappointing result last week in a 4-3 defeat to Motherwell at Fir Park, the newly-promoted side haven’t lost at home in the league for two months, and possess a decent record at Tannadice since the beginning of the season.
Interestingly, Celtic have yet to play Jim Goodwin’s men this campaign, and Brendan Rodgers has never faced Dundee United across his two spells as Hoops boss.
Speaking to local Dundee outlet The Courier, Goodwin lavished praise on the Scottish champions, and spoke about how monumental a task it will be for his players to pull off a shock result when the two sides meet tomorrow lunchtime.
‘We’ve got a big task on our hands’
Goodwin said: “We know we’ve got a big task on our hands on Sunday. Nobody has managed to beat Celtic in the league yet. They’ve only dropped two points all season, only conceded four goals and scored an obscene number of goals. Hopefully we can come up with a plan, a system and personnel that can cause an upset.
“Aberdeen held them to a draw at Parkhead, but the chances that Celtic missed in the first half probably didn’t put the game to bed. They’ve got so many good quality players. You can put your attention on one player and then another player finds space and causes you problems. It’s as tough a game as it comes.”
Goodwin added: “We’re hoping to deny them space and have a good defensive shape. We can’t make the same mistakes we made last Saturday, or we’ll get punished. We’ve got to try and come up with an offensive plan to cause them one or two problems.
‘You can’t leave yourself wide open’
“It’s trying to get the balance right when you’re playing against such a good opponent; you can’t leave yourself wide open and get punished because of the space, but you’ve also got to try and impose yourself. That’s the task that lies ahead. Every team has tried it so far and nobody’s been successful – but we have to believe that we’re capable of doing it.”
With a week’s break, it was much-needed for the Celtic players who have went through a gruelling schedule in recent months. Let’s hope their rest and recovery plays dividends at a tough venue tomorrow afternoon, where it very much looks like the hosts will be parking the bus.
Park the bus
Wasn’t it Jim Goodwin who took parking the bus against Celtic to new extremes against Celtic at Pittodrie when he was Aberdeen boss, only for Callum McGregor to break the deadlock in the closing stages? Surely we’re not going to see him try that again tomorrow?
Conor Spence
Celtic in the Thirties
