Kevin Gallacher insists Dundee United should launch a Tannadice inquisition into whether any player threw in the towel during their nine-goal tanking from Celtic.
The United hero’s assessment of the SPFL ’s biggest away win on Sunday is damning and he believes big egos could be to blame for Sunday’s humiliation. It’s now 70 days since Jack Ross arrived as manager but with five defeats on the spin and 23 goals conceded in the last four games, there are calls for his dismissal already.
However, Gallacher is convinced the situation can be salvaged but only after asking some hard questions. He said: “This is a Dundee United side which has been caught out. There will be a reason and an answer as to why it was so bad on Sunday. Was the individual preparation of certain players not right? As a management team you don’t have many days between games so Jack Ross will be in a rush to get some questions answered.
“You do get freak results in football, sometimes they just happen but United need to look at themselves to see where the problems lie. As a player I didn’t come close to that scoreline but at Coventry I lost 5-1 to Arsenal and 6-1 to Liverpool and scored in both games. Both games were humbling but they were against the teams at the top. That’s what Dundee United will also tell you, they faced a team which is emerging again as league champions and Celtic have the finance to bring in better players.
“I have also read comments on social media that certain players threw in the towel at a certain scoreline and that can’t happen.. Jack Ross will look at that and question his players. If that’s the case he can show them on the video. Why do some teams fold as badly as that? Sometimes it can be a mental thing. It is all about individual mentality.
Maybe there are boys inside the dressing room who thought that just because they achieved one good result in Europe that they were a good side. Unfortunately football doesn’t work out like that. When you get a positive result, that’s the time to work twice as hard.”
Gallacher scaled the heights in Europe at Tannadice during a glittering career and he also believes his old club were hit by a perfect storm during an annihilation from a Celtic side at the top of their powers.
He said: “First and foremost it was a shocker. It was crazy, I just swore out loud. I could never have imagined a Dundee United side suffering that type of result, the whole game was crazy. That’s my view on it. The season started with a brilliant win at home to AZ Alkmaar and then it’s been one dreadful result after another. Now we have that display against Celtic on Sunday.
“I had to double-check the scoreline, I couldn’t believe it. These results do happen, we had one down in England at the weekend where a superb Liverpool side put nine past Bournemouth. There is an acceptance down south that both Celtic and Rangers are getting better. I see Celtic getting stronger and stronger, they are getting the type of level which they had at the height of Martin O’Neill’s era.”
There were words of encouragement for Ross from Gallacher and he’s adamant United shouldn’t be in any rush to hit the panic button as he could yet steer them out of the current crisis.
He said: “Jack could still be the man to get the club back on track, of course he can. Sunday’s result and embarrassment could be the result which shows his players that they aren’t better than they thought they were.
“These are the games which bring you back down to earth. These are the games which make it easier for the manager to turn to his players and tell them they’re nowhere near as good as they may think, it’ll be a sobering experience for them.
“That will give Jack a lot of insight into how to work with certain players and make them humble again. It’ll need a reboot and a need to start all over again.”
A League Cup clash at Livingston tomorrow could prove to be the tonic United need but Gallacher admits it’s a game where the players will show either the best or worst of themselves.
He said: “What they don’t want is another defeat. Getting this game at Livingston is probably a good one to bounce back on but it’ll be difficult.
“It’s going to be about how these United players pick themselves up. Can they pick themselves up? Are they going to roll up their sleeves and show people why they are at United and in the SPFL? Jack will chop and change. Maybe there is stuff within the dressing room we don’t know about.”
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