Dundee’s gamble on Neil McCann not so huge

[News Anchor]

Dundee’s weekend win at Motherwell was massive.

After two traumatic weeks at Dens Park that saw the team drop down to the Premiership’s relegation play-off place, manager Paul Hartley sacked and Neil McCann brought in as interim boss, it provided exactly the boost the Dark Blues needed.

It meant the first part of the gamble the board took in bringing in a new manager, never mind one with no previous experience of picking a team, had paid off.

They were looking for the kind of bounce appointing a fresh face can, but does not always, bring and got it.

But it wasn’t just a case of waving a magic wand and everything was OK. The 3-2 success at Fir Park was down to more than that.

The Tele looks at what went on to transform a team that, for seven games, couldn’t buy a win to one that resembled the top-six challengers of a couple of months ago.

Neil McCann congratulates Mark O’Hara (left) and Tom Hateley following the win at Motherwell.

TIMING

The first factor was timing. Given the success he’d enjoyed before this season in getting Dundee back to the top flight, securing one top-six finish and completing the second year up without any relegation worries, the decision to sack Hartley was tough.

By doing it within 48 hours of defeat to Hamilton, then having his replacement in place a day later, new boss McCann had as much time as was possible to fix the problems.

And there’s no doubt he used it wisely. He gave the players tough training sessions in the build up to Motherwell and got his team into something like the shape he wanted.

Just as wise was his decision to give them free time. His first full day in charge was the players’ normal day off and instead of cancelling it as many would, he let them have it.

After a couple of days work, he sent them away for the weekend and told them to forget about football. As the rut they were in had deepened, that was probably the best thing. It gave them time to clear their heads and come back to work fresh and ready for the challenge ahead.

FORMATION

There was no day off last week as he used it to make the changes he wanted. In some ways they were radical. The back three that’s been used for much of the season was scrapped as, for Motherwell at least, he employed a 4-2-3-1 formation.

On the surface that seemed a huge gamble. Such a major alteration during a campaign looked risky — Mixu Paatelainen tried something similar at United last season and it was a disaster.

Dig a little deeper and you suspect maybe what McCann did was not as dramatic a throw of the dice as it appeared. Many of Dundee’s best performance in the past two years saw them line up this way, so Saturday’s system was familiar to most of the players.

It worked because every player ran out with clear instructions of what was expected of them.

In a first half that ’Well dominated in terms of possession, attacking wide men Craig Wighton and Mark O’Hara were quick to cover the forward runs of the home wing-backs, while holding midfielders James Vincent and Nick Ross sat deep. That meant the back four was never exposed and, one Louis Moult chance apart, were able to deal with everything that came their way.

And the defending started high up the pitch. As well as grabbing two goals, Marcus Haber put in a lung-busting shift to make sure the ’Well back line didn’t get time on the ball.

LUCK

Luck played a part, both with a couple of the goals and one Motherwell should have had but didn’t get.

That couldn’t change the fact this was a good start. More work lies ahead but at least there is hope at Dens Park.

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