Ross Docherty has named his “pick” of Dundee United’s summer signings.
The Tannadice captain’s return to fitness – and to Jim Goodwin’s starting XI – has brought leadership and drive to the Tangerines’ engine room.
Now, amid ongoing training ground graft, Docherty has offered an international break assessment of United’s summer transfer business.
Speaking on the latest episode of Open Goal, the 31-year-old admitted to surprise over the scale of the Championship-winning club’s reshuffle.
But, seven games into their top-flight return, he accepts Goodwin and head of recruitment Michael Cairney’s wide-ranging approach looks to be paying off.
“[The manager] made a lot of changes from what we had last year and I think a few boys were like: ‘Wait a wee minute here,’ he said.
“I was surprised to see so many coming in and so many going, but it’s obviously working at the moment.
“It’s one of them, when you’ve had a winning team, as we did last year, winning the league, I thought why are we changing it so much here?
“But we’ve got a decent balance.
“In the last couple of weeks we’ve had boys coming off the bench and having a right impact.”
Asked for his opinion of the club’s signings, Docherty was forthright, expressing admiration for a number of stars.
He also named his “pick” of United’s new recruits, identifying a player fans have quickly taken to their hearts.
Docherty rates signings
“Trapa [Kristijan Trapanovski]’s good,” he said.
“The boy Babunksi – technically very good. But it’s hard sometimes in this league when you’re trying to find him in areas.
“He was at Barca from [age] 12 to 22. He’s mentioned it a few times right enough!
“He’s got an arrogance, but it’s not over the top or anything and he’ll be honest if he’s had a s***e game himself.
“[Will Ferry]’s probably been the pick, for me, of the boys who’ve come in. He’s done brilliant.
“Big Sam Dalby has played the last couple of weeks. He’s some size, man.
“Jort van der Sande has been playing as a [number] nine. It’s been a 3-4-3 and he’s been dropping in.
“He’s been working his b***s off for the team and not really getting any service in terms of getting chances to score, then we went two up top against against Motherwell and Dalby and Moult link up for a goal, Moult scores a cracker.
“The following week we go down to Killie and the two of them did well again.
“I feel for big Jort, but the boys that are coming in are well able to change a game for us.”
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