Lee Mair has confirmed that Craig Levein`s priority at Tannadice is to sort out his defence first, capitalizing on his own experiences as a player to help them improve their own game.
‘He was a top defender, so we can only learn from him and he is passing on information to us all the time which is making us better players,’ Mair told the Courier.
‘All of the players listen to what he has to say because we know it will help us. I think the back-four have improved together, while we are becoming better defensively as a team as well.’
‘Every day we work on defending, whether it be playing against the youth team strikers or going over things like our shape, or how best to clear balls coming into the box.’
‘He has made all the defenders trust each other and, when we go out on the park, everyone knows they will have 10 other players fighting for them.’
‘Now, when someone goes in for a tackle, they know there will be another one or two players behind them backing them up and ready to win the second ball.’
‘The defensive side of our game is certainly working well just now and things are starting to come together nicely.’
Before Levein`s arrival, United had lost 16 goals in 4 games, but things have improved significantly and there have even been 2 shut-outs in the last 4 matches.
With McCracken & Kenneth both out of the Easter Road match, Lee Mair & Alan Archibald made up the central defensive partnership and did well, but Levein is committed to consistency and its likely that both McCracken & Kenneth will return to the starting line-up against Caley Thistle at Tannadice this weekend.
The best form of defence is attack. So buy Kenny Deuchar and you’ll be laughing…