Robbie Neilson has been pleased by the quality of football his new-look Dundee United have been producing.
But he accepts it could be a few weeks before it’s being maintained over entire games.
Wins over Morton in the league and St Mirren in the cup have seen the Tangerines dominate the first halves but show signs of tiredness after the break, though Calum Butcher’s red card against the Buddies at the weekend was a factor in that.
With several of his January arrivals lacking match fitness, Robbie accepts that’s likely to be the case for a while to come.
“It will take time for us to get 90 minutes of those levels,” he said.
“In the January window it’s difficult to get people who have been playing all the time, unless you can chuck big money at it and we haven’t been able to do that.
“We’ve had to bring guys who had only maybe played two or three games this season and haven’t really been involved recently.
“You get a good hour out of them and then it’s a ‘dig out’ after that.”
Robbie does believe he’s brought in men who have the know-how to deal with that.
He’s pointed to the work of new central defensive pairing Mark Connolly and Mark Reynolds as an example.
“On Saturday we had two really experienced players in the middle of the defence and two young kids either side of them at full-back. When we were down to 10 men I thought the two in the middle really helped them.”
Midfielder Calum Butcher will miss this weekend’s trip to Queen of the South because of that red card.
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