Jim Goodwin names the same 'issue' Hearts and Dundee United share as players deal with relentless workload
The Dundee United manager has identified a problem that is shared by both clubs at the minute.
Jim Goodwin says that both his Dundee United side and Hearts are dealing with the issue of unforgiving workloads.
The Tannadice side succumbed to Neil Critchley’s Jambos 1-0 on Sunday in the Premiership, thanks to a James Penrice strike. It came just a couple of days rest following Hearts’ win over Motherwell and United’s derby win against Dundee, and Goodwin says the Hearts game came too soon for his players.
He believes that three days should be the minimum players are afforded between games, but knows Hearts have been dealing with the same thing during the festive period. Boss Goodwin said: “Both teams didn’t have a great deal of time to recover after Thursday and we put a hell of a lot into that performance. I just don’t think the energy levels were where they needed to be.
“I thought there was a real lack of quality in the game. The game came too soon for us. Every team is in the same boat and lots of managers have spoken about the congestion. I just don’t think two days recovery between games is enough for players. It should be three days minimum.
“It’s not an excuse – Hearts had a similar issue themselves – but it is difficult. That said, the players gave everything and kept going. You kind of felt that one goal was going to be enough to win it and unfortunately we were on the wrong end of that.
“Hindsight is a great thing. You could argue that, had Declan Gallagher been on the pitch, and we were still in a back three…would we have conceded that goal? Who knows? We wanted to be positive, get more energy and pace onto the park and try to win the match. Unfortunately, that backfired, and I’ll take responsibility for that.”