Tam Courts believes recent criticism of Benjamin Siegrist stems from the Dundee United goalkeeper’s own lofty standards.
The Tannadice stopper — the club’s player of the year last season — has endured a couple of ropey moments in recent months.
Siegrist made a high-profile blunder to allow Georgios Giakoumakis to ripple the net in Celtic’s 3-0 win at Tannadice in March.
Questions were asked of his efforts for both Dundee goals in the recent 2-2 derby draw.
Even against Hearts last month, Ellis Simms’ near-post winner was a that shot Siegrist — on his best day — arguably gets a glove to.
However, United boss Courts has kept faith with the composed keeper, who is out of contract in the summer, and was rewarded with a crucial clean sheet against Motherwell on Saturday.
Indeed, Siegrist made a wonderful point-blank save to deny Ross Tierney in the dying embers.
“Benji has set such high standards at Dundee United,” said Courts. “Any time he is perceived to have fallen beneath those, he is going to be a target.
“The fans expect such consistent performances.
“But Benji is never a concern to me because he has such a strong mentality.
“He is a big game performer. You saw that with the save in the second half [to thwart Tierney].”
Marc McNulty: ‘Top player’
Meanwhile, Courts has hailed the ‘work-rate and determination’ of Marc McNulty despite a frustrating campaign.
The Scotland international has found the net just three times in 24 outings this season, with his progress interrupted on several occasions by injury woes.
Indeed, his luck was rather exemplified on Saturday when he was involved in a nasty, fluke collision with teammate Liam Smith.
That resulted in the on-loan Reading striker being replaced by Nicky Clark.
“Marc [McNulty] is a willing worker and a top player,” continued Courts.
“Probably because he has had a couple of injuries this season, he has not hit the form he maybe expected himself.
“But when he puts a tangerine shirt on you can see the work rate and determination.
“I hope he is going to be available for the next game [against Rangers].”
On the incident that led to McNulty’s withdrawal, Courts rued: “The conditions were very tricky. The pitch was firm but quite greasy on top.
“What looked like a really promising move for us turned into a nightmare for Marc.”
