Dundee United manager Mixu Paatelainen has backed Luis Zwick to step up when needed after Eiji Kawashima was ruled out of their William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final against Ross County.
The Japan goalkeeper suffered a thigh strain early in United’s midweek defeat by Aberdeen and, with Michal Szromnik still working his way back from illness, Zwick is set to deputise in Dingwall.
The 21-year-old German has not featured since a 5-0 defeat at Celtic early in Paatelainen’s reign, before making way for Szromnik ahead of Kawashima’s New Year arrival.
Paatelainen said: “Eiji is a good goalkeeper but so is Luis. Eiji is experienced, Luis is not so experienced, but Luis is a tremendous goalkeeper.
“We work with Luis every day and know exactly what he can do. There is no problem there.”
The Finn, who still has Guy Demel and Callum Morris missing and has a doubt over Gavin Gunning (groin), added: “We have a few experienced players missing from the team but we will have inexperienced, hungry guys out there and hopefully they do the job.”
United won 3-0 at the same venue on Ladbrokes Premiership duty last weekend but Paatelainen knows a repeat scoreline against Jim McIntyre’s men is a tall order.
“It would be nice but I expect a very, very difficult match,” he said.
“They are spitting bullets after last weekend.
“The management team in place at Ross County is an excellent one. They are good guys, total professionals. You can see they have changed the whole team, how they play, how organised they are from last season.
“They are in the League Cup final and that’s a sign of hard work and being successful.
“So they can beat us, there is no question about that because they are a good team. It won’t be plain sailing.”
United cut the gap at the bottom to eight points with their win in the Highlands but they failed to make further ground in midweek.
Survival is the priority but Paatelainen is determined to continue their interest in the cup.
“I don’t see a cup run harming our chances of surviving in the league at all,” he said. “Vice-versa. It tells us we can win matches, that we are a good team, that we are doing the right things.
“There is plenty of recovery time after matches. We will do everything to do well in the cup. We are greedy, we want to survive in the league and win the cup.
“League survival is a bigger thing, definitely, but the Scottish Cup is a wonderful tournament.”