Boss Peter Houston believes it was a good thing his team were dumped out of Europe last season after just one tie.
The Tangerines were within a whisker of going through on away goals against AEK Athens when Danny Swanson flashed a late shot just past the post in the dying minutes of the second leg in Greece.
But Houston has admitted his squad was not strong enough to cope with a Europa League campaign, especially as they were hit by an injury crisis mid-season, and he concedes progress in Europe would have cost them domestically.
United are in the draw for the qualifiers again this season and the manager reckons one year’s more experience will be crucial.
He said, “We are in an earlier round this season and looking at the draw there are teams we should be able to beat.
“It won’t be easy because European football is played at a different tempo and you will come up against different styles of play. But we learned a lot from AEK Athens last season.
“In the game at Tannadice they played us off the park but when they scored against us in Greece our players threw our inhibitions away. “We dominated in the last 20 minutes and were a few inches away from going through with Danny Swanson’s shot.
“In hindsight, if we had gone through it would have cost us. After that game we suffered a lot of injuries to the likes of Craig Conway, Danny Swanson and Scott Severin.’Massive strain'”If we had got to the group stages it would have put massive strain on the squad and there’s no doubt our domestic form would have suffered.
“This time round we are looking forward to it. We certainly don’t fear it. The only worry would be the depth of the squad.”
United will join Hearts in competing in Europe and Houston who has signed Willo Flood and John Rankin this summer admits the size of the Tynecastle squad will make life easier for Jim Jefferies.
Houston needs to sell players before he can add any more but he insisted he’s not jealous of the Hearts boss.
He said, “If you look at Hearts, who have a much bigger budget than we do, they are signing a lot of players because of their European games.
“They have added Danny Grainger, John Sutton and Jamie Hamill to what is already a big squad.
“We are not envious but of course I’d like a bigger budget because I could make the club stronger.”