Tony Docherty is delighted by the levels he is getting from his Dundee squad this season.
However, he is determined to strengthen his options even further in the final weeks of the summer transfer window.
With injuries to four first-team players for the weekend’s impressive win over Hearts, back-up options were limited.
Docherty made just one change before stoppage time and that was due to injury.
Ziyad Larkeche went off to be replaced by new signing Billy Koumetio as the Dark Blues held onto their first-half lead.
Curtis Main and Fin Robertson would come on to help see out the game after 90 minutes.
But it’s clear business will be done by the end of the month.
Docherty said: “On my bench on Saturday, I only had one midfielder and one striker and I had three defenders on it.
“We’ve got another three weeks of the window so we’ll be looking at areas where we can strengthen the squad.
“The core squad I’ve got at the moment, I’m absolutely delighted with what I’m getting.
“Six games we’ve scored 23 goals, so I think we’ve got brilliant attacking options but maybe there are other areas that we can strengthen.
“It’s trying to get that balance of scoring goals, which we’re doing, we’re free-flowing, but making sure we don’t concede as well.”
Burnley
One surprise this summer is that there have been no players coming up the road to Dundee on loan from Burnley.
The two clubs entered a strategic partnership at the start of 2024 and immediately three young talents were sent up on loan.
Owen Dodgson, Michael Mellon and Dara Costelloe bolstered Docherty’s options without using up his playing budget.
Burnley began their season on Monday night with a superb 4-1 win away to Luton Town in new boss Scott Parker’s first match in charge.
Docherty explained that later start has delayed any loans coming north of the border.
“We’ve still got that relationship with Burnley,” the Dundee boss said.
“We’re constantly working, we constantly get recruitment meetings to identify what we need.
“It’s important because obviously when this window shuts, that’s you until January.
“So this window is really important, you can establish your squad for the season and of course you get January coming up when you can add to it or whatever.
“But we’ll spend the next three weeks until the window shuts on the 31st, just making sure we identify areas that we can strengthen.
“It was Burnley’s first game on Monday night and we’re six games in already.
“So there is an element of that, not just Burnley, because the English league starts later than ours.
“You find at this stage there’s a lot more movement than there had been two or three weeks ago.
“What I will say, though, is we already have great competition for places and that’s really healthy.”
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