KIERAN Freeman has stressed the Dundee United players are still firmly behind manager Jack Ross and stated they are to blame for the Tannadice club’s dire run of form.
Freeman was yesterday still struggling to come to terms with the humiliating 9-0 mauling that his side suffered at the hands of Celtic in the cinch Premiership on Sunday.
The defeat was the heaviest that any team has suffered at home in the Scottish top flight in the modern era and heaped further pressure on Ross.
The Tayside outfit, who slumped to their biggest European reverse when they were beaten 7-0 by AZ Alkmaar in Conference League qualifying earlier month, have now lost five games in a row and conceded 24 goals in the process.
But right back Freeman, who helped United finish fourth in the top flight last term, is adamant that he and his team mates should take the blame for the slump and not the man in the dugout.
“It’s us on the pitch, the manager can’t do anything on the pitch,” he said. “It was us who produced a 9-0 defeat, you can’t deflect it onto anyone else but the players. It’s easy for people to say we are not playing for the manager on that performance, but everyone is playing for him.
“I can’t say everything’s perfect because of what we have produced. We need to look at the performances first and then hopefully a result will come. But we need to work harder than we have and try to put it right.”
United only received one yellow card in the match against Celtic – striker Steven Fletcher was booked for a challenge on goalkeeper Joe Hart in just the second minute when the scoreline was 0-0.
However, Freeman has denied the Tannadice players are lacking in fighting spirit and admitted that they struggled to put in challenges on Ange Postecoglou’s dominant charges at the weekend.
“You can look at it like that,” he said. “But if someone goes and gets a red card that’s completely selfish for the rest of the players out there.
“So it’s an easy thing to say, but when it’s 7-0 or 8-0 you can’t get near anyone, it was damage limitation and we were not even able to do that.
“The scoreline said it all, it was a terrible day. There’s nothing we can say to justify it, everyone knows it was shocking.
“For everyone to pay their money and for us to produce that? We are wasting everyone’s time.”
United take on Livingston at Almondvale in the Premier Sports Cup tomorrow evening and Freeman is determined to quell the growing unrest in the stands with a victory.
“As bad as it was, we can’t paper over the cracks and we have a game on Wednesday now,” he said. “The only way we can even begin to put it right is by getting a win and staying in the cup.
“No game is easy after that. The minimum we have to do is show we’re fighting and at least put some effort in. Hopefully we can pay the fans back a bit.”
He added: “Can I put my finger on what’s happened? None of us know. We are working hard to try to fix it.
“Nobody wants to be on the pitch or watching performances like that - it’s horrible. We just have to work harder and slowly get things right.
“If we had the answers we would have changed it already but nobody has had the answers recently. But we need to do it quickly before Wednesday.”
