Dundee United boss Robbie Neilson has told star striker Pavol Safranko to keep on running.
A feature of the Slovakian’s performances since he joined up on loan from Danish Super Liga outfit Aalborg has been his phenomenal work-rate.
In fact, the 23-year-old has been working so hard to help his team-mates when United don’t have the ball that it’s been suggested he should do a bit less to help his main task of scoring goals.
His manager, though, is not buying into this “less could be more” theory and is happy for Safranko to continue clocking up the miles in each game.
Robbie believes it sets the example he wants from his top performers.
“Pavol is very good. He is one of our main players and if you’ve got one of your main players who works so hard and does a lot of running, there is no excuse for anyone else,” he said.
“That’s a key. If you can get three or four of your top players working hard like that then everyone else has to do it.
“So I’m all for him doing that running. It’s not often you get a centre forward doing that kind of running and he has great quality as well.”
To date there is no suggestion the front man’s willingness to run himself into the ground in every game is affecting his ability to take chances.
He’s hit the back of the net seven times in 15 appearances so far. His manager believes that goals-to-game ratio can get even better with a little help from his team-mates.
“He has scored a lot of goals and on top of that and his work-rate he is a strong boy who leads the line well.
“Against Alloa on Tuesday I felt we didn’t give him a good enough service.
“From deeper the quality of passing wasn’t good enough, so it was a difficult night for him, but he still popped up with a goal.”
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