Disappointed Jack Ross insists Dundee United can’t use their European exploits as an excuse after their Livingston let-down.
United went from the high of Thursday’s 1-0 home win over AZ Alkmaar to the low of losing their first Premiership game of the season at Tannadice to Livi. Ross knows that with Thursday’s trip to Holland to come that it is new for a lot of his squad and they have to get used to juggling the expectations on two fronts.
The United manager said: “I am loath to use it as an excuse because that would take away from Livingston’s performance and where we fell short. But I think if you speak to the managers in the Premiership outwith the big two who have done this, it is difficult. You don’t have the real depth which means you can make multiple changes but we still should have had a greater intensity.
"I think it becomes a state of mind for us but it is a new experience for a lot of the players. They had an incredible high on Thursday in terms of what they put into it, physically and what they put into it emotionally.
“It’s not an excuse, but it isn’t easy. It’s a learning experience for us as a squad as well and no matter what comes of it this Thursday, hopefully we can learn from it and be stronger next weekend.“
Ross reckons a slow start cost his team although he reckons they could have grabbed a late leveller. He added: "In the first sixty minutes we were not good but the last half hour we were okay.
“We had more intensity to our play, it wasn’t perfect but was better. On the balance of the first hour we didn’t deserve anything from the game, on the basis of the last half hour you could argue we could have got a point. But certainly not enough to win the game.”
Young Ghanian Matthew Cudjoe came off the bench and almost rescued a point for United. "I toyed with bringing him on at half-time to give us a spark then brought him on quite early in the second half,” Ross admitted.
“He has been good in pre-season and deserved to start against Kilmarnock. He would have been on the pitch in different circumstances last Thursday but didn’t get on because of how the game panned out.
“For an 18-year-old he’s in a good place, he’s a big part of my plans because I like him. He was unfortunate not to score, he’s brave in how he takes the ball and I like how his first thought is always to go forward and score a goal.
“He’s also brave in that he’s small in stature but he takes the knocks, the bumps and bruises. He will continue to start games and be involved in games for us this season.”
Ross admitted that the work permit wait for Australian international Aziz Behich continues to be a source of frustration ahead of their trip to Alkmaar. He confirmed: “Aziz still doesn’t have his work permit, it’s frustrating for him and for me.
“He’s trained really well, he’s a good player but we just need the documents to come through now. I don’t know what the hold up is, it is becoming an irritation because we had hoped the permit would be here long before now.
“Hopefully it will arrive in time for Thursday and he will be able to be involved but it’s out of our hands. We have done as much as we can, we just have to hope it arrives in the next few days.”
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