How Hearts made Dundee United crumble to force 10 men into no-win situation - Tynecastle tactical deep dive
05.02.2023 - 15:53
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
For Liam Fox, Saturday’s trip to Tynecastle must have felt like a particularly cruel exercise in testing the Dundee United coaching staff to breaking point and beyond. Call it a character building experience. A day when blow after thudding blow eventually saw the visitors crumple to the turf, their pride intact despite a defeat that left them stuck to the foot of the Scottish Premiership table.
That the 10 men of United eventually succumbed to the inevitable was no reflection on either their ability or Fox’s tactical masterplan. Because the rookie head coach, only handed the reins at Tannadice back in September, never really got a chance to see Plan A, B or even C in action on Saturday.
From losing selected starter Jamie McGrath in the warm-up to captain Ryan Edwards’ red card, then seeing McGrath’s outstanding replacement, Peter Pawlett, limp off early in the second half, it was quite a day for the brains trust in the away technical area. That they couldn’t quite hang on for a point is no disgrace. With a bit of luck, though, they might have left Edinburgh celebrating a famous victory.
United’s starting shape, a 5-4-1 that relied heavily on the excellent Steven Fletcher holding up the ball and linking play (see photo 1), caused Hearts – who lined up in a 3-1-4-2 – no end of problems in the early exchanges. And the opening goal inside 10 minutes came from clever exploiting of gaps in a stretched home back line, with the clever running of left wing-back Ilmari Niskanen enabling him to run onto a through ball and cross for Fletcher to score (photo 2).
Niskanen and Glenn Middleton seemed to take it in turns to exploit the right flank of Hearts (see photo 3), leaving Alan Forrest – hooked at half-time – and James Hill
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