Dundee United - No Longer A Generous Side

Craig Levein has done a magnificent job at Tannadice, by turning Dundee United from a "Christmas" club, into a side that even Scrooge would be impressed with.

At the start of last season, opposition sides thought it was Christmas when they played at Tannadice, because the Dundee United defence were presenting teams with goals quicker than Santa Claus himself.

However, Levein has strengthened the United backline and now they don`t give much away at all, making it much harder for visiting SPL clubs to find the back of the net.

It has now been 363 minutes since Dundee United lost an SPL goal, with on-loan Polish keeper Grzegorz Szamotulski securing an impressive 5 cleansheets in the 6 league matches so far this season.

Only Kilmarnock have scored against United so far this season, but even Jim Jeffries side had to rely on blundering referee Brian Winter`s to mistakenly send off defender Christian Kalvenes before they could get on the score sheet.

Ironically, Kilmarnock keeper Alan Combe had gone 450minutes without conceding a league goal, until Noel Hunt scored in the 50th minute of that match at Rugby Park.

Although it was the former United goalie that had the last laugh, as Willie Gibson and Collin Nish gave the home side an undeserved 2-1 win.

Even SPL leaders Celtic have conceded more goals than United, but Gordon Strachan`s team have a much better goal difference, because they have managed to score 22 goals already this season.

According to defender Lee Wilkie, Dundee United have stopped leaking goals because of the commanding presence of Polish goalie Grzegorz Szamotulski.
"I think we are having a good understanding," admitted Wilkie to the Scotsman.

"Keepers have to be vocal and as long as he can shout things like how many he wants in a wall or where he wants the defence to sit that's all it takes and he's good at that."

"We are trying to make Tannadice a place where teams are dreading to come and he has helped."

"We want it to be a place where they know it will be hard to get a result and they know they will be in for a real tough battle, even if we are not playing well."

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