Dundee United

The Dundee derby was in the spotlight on TV, radio and online as the Scottish Premiership kicked off, but what did you make of the 2-2 draw?

United fans, are you happy with the way Jim Goodwin's squad is shaping up?

Give us your thoughts here.

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Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin had mixed feelings about having to settle for a point in a 2-2 draw at home to Dundee on his side's return to the Scottish Premiership.

"I was delighted with the opening 45 minutes," he told BBC Scotland. "I thought the shape of the team and the structure of the team was very good.

"I thought we deservedly got ourselves in front. The goals we concede - disappointing.

"We cause our own problems for the first one and the second one, the penalty, I'm not arguing with the decision - it was the correct call. I can't be too hard on the back three - I thought they defended well all day - and I think, in that one key moment, we got caught on the wrong side.

"Kristijan Trapanovski was through one-one-one on the goalkeeper and I thought he was going to get round him. He went for the chip and it nearly came off.

"Definitely disappointed because I thought we had the opportunity to kill the game off and we didn't.

"I am not trying to say we were dominant. I am pleased with the point as I think the chances created by both teams was relatively even.

"Prior to the game, I had concern that we could match them physically. I was wondering if we would get outfought, but the pleasing thing is I don't think we did.

"We definitely need to strengthen in key areas - but plenty of positives."

Clive Lindsay
BBC Sport Scotland

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The first Dundee derby to start a top-flight season since 2001 ended the same way as the last one - only this time it was a Luke McCowan penalty for Dundee rather than a 90th-minute Jim Hamilton goal that secured a 2-2 draw.

It means United still have not won on matchday one of a Premiership season since 2014.

But they are now unbeaten in seven derbies, while Dundee have not won at Tannadice in 13 visits, and they will no doubt settle for a point on their return to the top flight.

The jury was out on Jim Goodwin's rebuilt United side after they scraped into the League Cup last 16 as one of the best runners-up following an opening defeat by League 1 champions Falkirk.

Nevertheless, they scored 18 goals in the following three victories and their summer signings continue to impress.

His sojourn into the Eastern European transfer market appears to have unearthed some gems, while Dutch-born striker Jort van der Sande gave hints of being another good addition.

However, 20-year-old wide man Miller Thomson, who spent last season on loan to Montrose, showed there is local emerging talent there too as this United look to have improved on the version that ground their way to the Championship title last season.

Defensively, though, there remains work to be done.

Dundee United: Walton; Sevelj, Graham, Gallagher, Holt, Ferry; Babunski, Sibbald, Thomson, Trapanovski, Van der Sande.

Substitutes: Richards, Moult, Odada, Middleton, Fotheringham, O'Donnell, Cleall-Harding, Forbes, Stirton.

Dundee: McCracken; Ingram, Portales, Graham, Larkeche, McGhee, Cameron, Sylla, McCowan, Palmer-Houlden, Murray.

Substitutes: Carson, Sharp, Astley, Tiffoney, Mulligan, Main, Robertson, Richardson, Lochhead.

Dundee United have made Nigerian winger Meshack Ubochioma their tenth summer signing.

The 22-year-old arrives from Hungarian side Zalaegerszegi TE on a two-year deal, with a club-held option of an additional 12 months.

Jim Goodwin described the latest arrival at Tannadice as an "exciting talent".

The United manager added: "His pace on the transition and unpredictability with the ball at his feet perfectly complement his intelligent use of possession, and we hope he can replicate the impact he made on Hungarian football.

"Meshack also has the potential to develop into a real asset for the club in years to come and we feel we have an apt environment in which to nurture his raw talents."

Andy Campbell
BBC Sport Scotland

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The first Dundee derby since April 2022 pitches newly promoted Championship winners United against one of last season's Premiership success stories.

Dundee, in their first season back in the top flight, drew praise from all quarters after Tony Docherty's first campaign as a manager. The Dark Blues finished sixth and have followed that up with four wins out of four in the League Cup group stage.

Sunday's meeting will be the first test of whether Jim Goodwin's United can emulate their city rivals' impressive Premiership return.

Dundee striker Simon Murray will be facing one of his former clubs and aiming to add to the 10 league goals he scored earlier in 2024 for previous club Ross County and his five League Cup goals so far this term.

The last derby at Tannadice finished 2-2, while the Dark Blues have not won there in 12 visits since a 2-1 success in 15 August 2004.

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• This will be the first Dundee derby on matchday one of a top-flight season since 2001-02, when Dundee United’s Jim Hamilton scored a 90th-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw.

• The home side is unbeaten in each of the last 10 Scottish Premiership games between Dundee United and Dundee (W6 D4) since the Tangerines won 4-1 at Dens Park in September 2014. Indeed, Dundee United have lost just one of their last 16 top-flight home games against rivals Dundee (W5 D10), a 1-2 reverse in August 2004.

• Dundee United haven’t won on matchday one of a Scottish Premiership season since 2014-15 (3-0 v Aberdeen), going winless in four such matches since (D2 L2).

• Dundee are winless on the opening matchday in their last four Scottish Premiership seasons (D2 L2) since a 3-1 win over Ross County in 2016-17.

• Since 2015-16, only one of the last 11 newly promoted sides has lost on matchday one in the Scottish Premiership (W5 D5), with Livingston going down 1-3 to Celtic in 2018-19.

Clive Lindsay
BBC Sport Scotland

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With the new Premiership season kicking off this weekend, BBC Sport Scotland have been taking a look at some new faces to keep an eye on.

Kristijan Trapanovski, the 24-year-old Macedonian winger who arrived from Shkupi, was Dundee United's revelation during the League Cup group stage, scoring three times in two games and being a threat in the two others.

Manager Jim Goodwin will be hoping Richard Odada proves to be a similar gem, although it might be too much to ask for the Kenya midfielder to be handed a quickfire debut in a frenetic opening-day Dundee derby.

Online clips of the 23-year-old breaking up attacks and sidestepping opponents before spraying precise diagonal balls will have excited the Tannadice faithful, but can he replicate that Beckenbauer-esque cool in the heated atmosphere of the Premiership having failed to become a first-team regular at Red Star Belgrade and Philadelphia Union?

Read the rest of Clive's piece here.

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Dundee's Jordan McGhee and fellow defender Kevin Holt of Dundee United took the short walk from Dens Park to Tannadice to preview Sunday's derby opener.

Speaking to Sky Sports, external, here's the best of what the pair had to say...

Dundee defender McGhee: "My first derby was a really tough one. I had just signed for Dundee and we lost 6-2. It took a while to get over that and it still hurts.

"Sunday's game is hopefully a chance to rectify that. I've played in plenty of derbies, it's about cool heads. We'll play our usual game and hopefully everything takes care of itself.

"We'll walk down before the game, it's a historical thing for Dundee teams of the past. We'll do that with the fans behind us and probably get pelters from United fans, but it's all part of the experience."

United defender Holt: "We want to put a marker down and say this is the league we deserve to be in.

"All the hard work [of last season] is for games like this. Games like Sunday's is what it's all about.

"[A win] would be huge for us in the changing room. You see what Dundee did last year, finishing in the top six, we look at that and think that's where we want to be."

With Sunday's Dundee derby fast approaching on the Premiership's opening weekend, relive the most recent encounter from April 2022.

Paul McNicoll
Fan writer

The 2024-25 Premiership season is upon us, and Dundee United are back in the big league.

Last season was a tough one, given just how well Raith Rovers performed over the course of the whole season, but from the get go United were the clear favourites.

Biggest team, biggest budget, biggest everything, blah blah blah. That came with a heavy expectation and they were more than made to work for it, but in the end they merited the title win. No doubt about it.

This summer has seen a massive rebuild of the playing staff. 15 players left the club, including an Australian goalie that played a massive part the last time we were in the top flight, and, as of writing this, nine new players have been brought in.

Jim Goodwin has once again used his contacts and knowledge of the Macedonian market to capture the signings of Kristijan Trapanovski and David Babunski, and the others that have come in, Ryan Strain aside, are unknown to most Scottish punters.

The manager has also ripped up his preferred formation handbook from last season and is attempting to implement a whole new system for the upcoming season.

Gone is the 4-2-3-1 era and we are now stepping into this brave new world with a 3- 4-3 line-up.

Why he has decided to go down this route, possibly only he and his coaching staff know, but the early signs from the League Cup have been somewhat less than wonderful.

We have looked quite good on the ball and going forward, but at times we look as open as a barn door when not in possession. I’m hoping that is due to the players getting used to the new system and each other.

As for the League Cup, it looked for all the world like we weren’t going to get out of the group stages again - which would have been highly unfortunate given that we had won three of the four matches and had a +5 goal difference - but we were still reliant on the mighty Buckie Thistle giving us a slight helping hand last Saturday.

With our Cup campaign now on the back burner, for a few weeks at least, we move on to the league campaign, and what better way to start than with a Dundee derby.

My own favourite fixture, although I am fully aware that is not a sentiment shared by all Arabs.

Let me say this, United fans are not all that confident leading into this one, and from what I can gather, Dundee fans feel they are slight favourites.

The team across the road easily won their own League Cup group and scored 18 goals in their four games. It’s fair to say that they’ll be feeling good about themselves, so let's hope that nice wind gets taken right out of their sails next Sunday.

As for the rest of the season from a tangerine-tinted perspective, it still feels like Goodwin has a way to go to win over some United fans. Not all the support have taken to him and in many eyes he will have to ensure the team hit the ground running, or the pressure may very well start mounting.

His summer signings look good so far though. We have the full-of-energy Will Ferry, a wizard on the wing in Trapanoski and a man that simply oozes class every time he touches the ball in Babunski.

The early signs from this team tend to make me believe that our North Macedonians are going to be our star men this season, with Babunski just edging it as our one to watch for me.

As a club, I always feel that United should be aiming for top six. Bare minimum.

Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Dundee last season all achieved that feat so I see no reason why United shouldn’t have similar aspirations. As for where I think we’ll actually finish, I’ll say eighth.

Let the fun, and the rollercoaster, commence.

Paul McNicoll can be found of the Dode Fox Podcast., external

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Sky Sports, external before his side's Premiership opener against city rivals Dundee on Saturday.

Here's the best of what he had to say:

On new signings and recruitment...

"We’ve still got a little bit of work to do in terms of recruitment. But we are delighted with the business we’ve done up until now.

"The new signings have settled in really well. The guys who were here with us last season know what being in the Premiership means to a club like Dundee United.

"We want to make sure we don’t have a repeat of what we had a couple of seasons ago. We want to be competitive."

On targeting Eastern European players, including new arrivals David Babunski and Kristijan Trapanovski...

"Babunski is a really good technical player in the middle of the park. He can play a number of positions in there.

"Trapanovski is similar. Wide player, very direct. Old-fashioned winger that likes to run at defenders.

"I’ve been able to build up some good contacts in Eastern Europe, with [Bojan] Miovski I suppose being the big success up at Aberdeen. It's similar representatives to Trapanovski and Babunski. We hope those two will have a similar impact."

On replicating the success of city rivals Dundee in the Scottish Premiership...

"Stepping up into the Premiership is a different kettle of fish. The quality of opposition you face every week is better, and we have to be prepared for that.

"Tony Docherty has done a terrific job with the Dundee players off the back of their promotion. They secured top six last season and we would love to do something similar.

"The main objective for us is to accumulate enough points to remain a Premiership team. Once we’ve achieved that target we’ve set ourselves, we can look at how close we are to the top six and make a push for that later in the season."

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Dundee United midfielder Ross Docherty says lofty ambitions were part of the reason he signed for the club in 2023, but he insists the primary objective for this season is staying in the top flight.

Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Dundee all earned top-six finishes in the Premiership last season, and Docherty believes the "togetherness" at Tannadice can help United aim high on their return to Scotland's top table.

"For us, the cliche is that you want to stay in the league, but we know there is an expectation around this club," Docherty said.

"It's part of the reason I joined, so you put that pressure on yourself - if we can do more in the league that would be amazing. It's about consolidating and staying in the league first and foremost.

"These clubs who have [broken into the top six] in the last couple of seasons, credit to them - they have been excellent.

"We want to finish as high as possible. We've got confidence in our group and the togetherness we've got, hopefully that can take us a long way."

The arrival of Jort van der Sande appears to have knocked former Celtic and Hearts forward Tony Watt down the pecking order at Dundee United. (The Courier)

Read the rest of Sunday's gossip.

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Jim Goodwin believes Dundee United's final pre-season game against Luton Town was the "perfect" test before their Scottish Premiership return.

The Tangerines drew 2-2 with the English Championship side on Friday night, and there were plenty of positives for the manager.

"I thought it was perfect, it was everything that we were looking for really," he told club media after the draw.

"We've had games recently in the League Cup against lower-league opposition and we've not really been tested against what we would class as a Premiership opposition.

"We knew they would enjoy periods of the game with good possession, so we tried to liken this game to one of the bigger boys in our league. It was going to test our shape, really work us in the key areas we need to get better in, which is that high press we're looking for.

"I don't think we got picked off too many times, so it was a very worthwhile exercise."

United's Premier Sports Cup progression is out of their hands after suffering the opening game defeat to Falkirk, but Goodwin is pleased with the development in the team since then.

"The transition that the team has made in the three weeks has came on leaps and bounds," he added,

"Overall, I'm really pleased and satisfied with the recruitment business we've done and delighted the players have bought into what we want to do, and that's playing on the front foot."

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New arrivals Richard Odada and Jort van der Sande played as Dundee United drew 2-2 with Luton Town in a friendly at Tannadice.

David Babunski smashed the home side in front, finding the top corner of the net with a ferocious strike.

Jordan Clark levelled from the penalty spot, after a foul by Glenn Middleton, and Alfie Doughty volleyed the English Championship visitors in front before the interval.

On 75 minutes Louis Moult, who replaced striker Van der Sande midway through the second half, restored parity with a powerful penalty kick.

Image source, Getty Images

"As soon as I heard there was interest at the end of the season, I just said 'make it happen!' to my agent."

Dundee United's newest recruit, Richard Odada, says he is "excited by the demands" at the club from the fans and the players after joining on a two-year deal from MLS Eastern Conference side Philidelphia Union.

The Kenya international is United's ninth signing of the summer as they prepare for their Scottish Premiership return.

The 23-year midfielder pent last season on loan in Denmark with AaB, but caught the eye of European heavyweights in his younger days, with trial stints at Inter Milan, Juventus and latterly Red Star Belgrade - one which ended in success as he signed with the 35-time Serbian champions at the age of 19.

His cross-country experience is one which caught the eye of Jim Goodwin, as did his powerful stature.

"Despite his relative youth, he has varied experience across world football on three continents, something that illustrates versatility and courage to test himself in different environments," Goodwin told the club's website.

"Richard possesses an ideal balance between technical ability and physicality, both qualities that will significantly improve our midfield."

Dundee United have agreed a deal to sign 23-year-old Kenya midfielder Richard Odada from Philadelphia Union subject to a work permit. (Sky Sports)

Read Friday's Scottish Gossip in full here.