Csaba Laszlo has revealed he fielded an unchanged team against Dumbarton on Tuesday to send a message to his players they were heading in the right direction.
The Dundee United boss hasn’t left his line-up unaltered for consecutive games since before the turn of the year.
And with the fixtures coming an average of every three-and-a-half days right now, at times he’s made as many as six swaps between a Saturday and Tuesday or vice-versa.
Csaba’s done that to keep his players as fresh as possible in the run up to what, he hopes, will be a hectic end-of-season play-off campaign.
On Tuesday, though, he admits he employed a bit of psychology when it came to picking the team.
Although United threw away two points with the loss of a disastrous injury time own goal at Morton last Saturday, he felt it was important the players involved realised overall they’d turned in a good display.
And he even made a point of seeking out own goal culprit Billy King to let him know he would retain his place.
“I did not change the team because I was disappointed at Morton but I knew they had played well,” he said.
“I told them them on Sunday that we go with the same 11 against Dumbarton and also I told Billy King he would be on the field.”
Csaba has also confirmed harsh words were exchanged in the dressing-room after the game at Cappielow but what unfolded confirmed to him his team are all pulling in the same direction.
“It was very interesting that we had some emotion, let’s say. It was with Scott McDonald but in the same evening he called Billy King and said ‘head up, we are in the team and my emotion was against nobody’. It shows Scott McDonald understands he can build up young players and I appreciate this very much.”
With no fresh injury worries, Csaba is likely to freshen up his side when United travel to face Dumbarton on Saturday for the second time in four days.
Long-term injury victim Jordie Briels is back doing some work in training again, but it looks unlikely the Dutchman will feature before the end of the season.
The midfielder has not been seen at first-team level since the defeat at Livingston in mid-October because of a groin problem. He’s made several attempts to come back but has been hit by a string of set backs.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.