There are ways to lose football matches – this was not one of them.
Dundee were motoring through January but the start of February has seen them hit the skids.
The 6-0 home hammering suffered against Hearts was as bad a performance as has been seen at Dens Park in a long, long time.
Offensively it was inept, defensively it was atrocious.
The heady days of a derby cup win are well and truly in the past now and Dundee have a lot of making up to do to their supporters.
Hearts horror show
This was Dundee’s worst home defeat in eight years. Tony Docherty was in the away dugout that day when Aberdeen won 7-0 in 2017.
To say it was a bad day at the office would not do this justice.
From the moment Lawrence Shankland was given too much space in the area to pick out the far corner, the Dark Blues were second to every ball and distinctly second-best throughout.
Their finishing was clinical but Hearts didn’t need to be good to win this because Dundee were nowhere near the standard required.
The Jambos pressed well and the Dark Blues backline couldn’t handle it.
Experienced and young players alike were culpable for goals – Clark Robertson had a day to forget, Trevor Carson made plenty saves but had a moment to forget, Aaron Donnelly was miles off the player we’ve seen since his return and the attack was posted missing.
Much of the defeat was self-inflicted. Of the six goals, two came from gifts of possession, one of those followed by a poor clearance, one was a goalkeeping howler, there was a set-piece and a breakaway from a turnover of possession.
All of these could and should have been dealt with better.
It seemed in recent weeks that Dundee’s defensive problems were being sorted out. Suddenly they’ve gotten a lot worse.
And that is a big, big concern.
Shankland
Lawrence Shankland loves playing Dundee. He’s only scored in three matches this season – two of them against the Dark Blues.
And that’s now 10 goals he’s got against them in his entire career.
The Scotland striker was the reason Hearts won this game so well. He was ably helped by the likes of Blair Spittal, who scored the goal of the game, and Elton Kabangu.
But the opening goal was key and then the third goal killed any hope Dundee had of getting back into the game early in the second half.
It was a brilliant pass into space, knowing that Kabangu had the beating of Clark Robertson for pace.
Dundee couldn’t handle him.
Imari Samuels
The horror nature of the second half meant Samuels’ first start for the club will have largely been forgotten.
The former Brighton kid started well, a nice turn in his first touch started things off on the front foot, there were good runs forward and he took on corner-taking responsibility.
Things faded, though. One corner delivery was poor and then he earned a yellow card after taking a poor touch.
Fin Robertson replaced him at the break as Dundee tried to get back into the game.
But there were flashes of what he might bring and there will be better times ahead for the young wing-back.
The only positive
Cesar Garza was probably the only player in dark blue who came out of this game approaching pass marks, even though he was hooked at the break.
His replacement was a tactical switch to try to get back into the contest by throwing on striker Seb Palmer-Houlden as Dundee chased the game.
However, that’s not the only positive – Ziyad Larkeche’s return is.
His absence over the past three months has been a big problem for Dundee, such was his start to life at the club.
Evidently he’s not yet ready for 90 minutes but getting those 20 minutes, even if they were painful, will have done him the world of good.
He’ll be back up to 100% before long and that’s a silver lining around this very dark cloud.
Next
This midweek sees the daunting task of heading to champions Celtic.
They go into that contest way down in tenth in the Premiership, the lowest position Dundee have been in during Tony Docherty’s tenure.
If they play like this against the Hoops at Parkhead, it could easily be double figures.
Massive improvements are needed if there is anything to be gained from the clash at Parkhead.
Any more of this and Dundee’s season is in big trouble.
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