Dundee United boss Mixu Paatelainen won’t be panicking despite realising exactly how serious the situation is for the Tangerines.
The forthright Finn was in bullish mood at the club’s St Andrews training base in the wake of the weekend defeat to Hamilton Accies that cast United seven points adrift of second-bottom Motherwell at the foot of the Premiership.
Paatelainen argued, with some foundation, that the performance level has gone up in recent weeks despite results not going their way.
He believes there is now a “backbone” to his team and that the players are doing everything they possibly can to turn things around.
The Tangerines’ head coach said: “We’re not stupid or blind – we know how serious the situation is.
“Do you want me to say we are all in a panic?
“I wonder if I should say that we can’t sleep at night and that every player is so nervous. Is that the answer you want?
“I can only say how we feel and what the situation is.
“We realise how serious it is and if it continues we’ll get relegated.
“But we also realise how much we have progressed and believe we can turn things around.
“It won’t be easy and there will be setbacks.
“We realise what we do wrong and what we do well.
“We haven’t done anything worse than when we started. Every aspect of our game has improved so things are looking positive.
“But we are still in trouble and we will be in trouble in a few weeks because we are a little bit adrift but it’s amazing how things can change.
“The players are showing so much determination in the way they speak, train and play in the last two matches.
“You wouldn’t think we were bottom of the league the way we played.”
It may not have been his intention but Paatelainen gave a damning indictment of the state of the team when he took over from Jackie McNamara.
He added: “When we started here and you looked at those performances, both defensively and offensively, we didn’t have any kind of backbone.
“I thought our game was in a really, really poor state – the whole game.
“We tried to work on things tactically but it wasn’t happening.
“Now things are happening.
“That is what we’ve created and that is what we intend to carry on with.
“We want to install tactics into this side that were never there – never existed.
“The mood is good. We are disappointed but the boys know themselves they played better at the weekend.
“We’re on the edge now of turning things around.
“Look back at our performances through October and then into November and compare them with the last two.
“We have every right to feel that, yes, it’s turning.
“I would have preferred to have been playing winning football straight away but it’s not easy to turn (considering) the standard the team had. It’s not easy to turn that around.
“We are turning slowly and thankfully we still have time.
“We can’t afford to think about time, though. We only have to think about our next match and our next performance.”