Levein - Getting To Know His Squad

Dundee United manager Craig Levein has admitted he`s not made up his mind about all the players in his new team yet.

With the January transfer window looming, several of the 1st team are playing for their futures at the club and a good performance against Saint Mirren today could go a long way to helping Levein make up his mind about each of them.

With Levein likely to bring in a few new names in the New Year, it makes it likely that finances will force him to move a few players on during the window.

Craig Brewster was forced to release several of his 1st team to keep the wage bill low, with Jim McIntyre, Grant Brebner, Derek McInnes, David Fernandez and Paul Ritchie were all shown the exit door.

That should be irrefutable proof to the current squad that nobody is safe at Tannadice, especially in the current climate - where finances and bank managers are the driving force in Scottish football.

"When I was at Hearts I knew my team so well that I was able to say how we would perform with a degree of certainty," said Levein.

"It takes time to get to that stage with a team and I'm not near that yet with these players."

So, Levein is still getting to know his squad and that means there is still time for some of the players to cement themselves into his future plans.

However, with the sand in the hour glass still slipping away on their Dundee United futures, several of the 1st team squad should be watching their backs at concentrating on playing to the best of their ability in the month remaining before the window re-opens.

Lee Wilkie is likely to be already sweating about his future after Levein announced he was planning to loan the injury prone defender out to the lower leagues - apparently to help the defender gain more match practice since recovering from an ankle knock.

It`s not a good sign for the 26-year-old, who is only on a short term pay-as-you-play contract at Tannadice until the end of the season, but he wont be the only player who`s future is featuring in Levein`s currently thoughts.

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