“It’s not how we want to play but you’ve got to respect the opposition,” Jim Goodwin | OneFootball

Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin gave his assessment of his side’s 2-0 defeat to Celtic at Paradise last night in the Scottish Premiership…

Jim Goodwin, Dundee United Manager looks on prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Dundee United as expected visited Celtic Park defending deeply like they did against the Hoops at Tannadice prior to Christmas. However, Daizen Maeda’s 14th goal of the season across all competitions early on settled any fears of a similar outcome to the one in the City of Discovery more than a fortnight ago.

Dundee United’s 32 year wait continues

Second half substitute Reo Hatate sealed the three points for Brendan Rodgers’ league leaders after some intelligent play from his midfield partner Paulo Bernardo. Celtic’s routine win means Dundee United have now gone 32 years and 48 games since their last victory over the Hoops at Celtic Park.

However, Jim Goodwin’s side remain in a strong position in the league. The defeat in Glasgow’s East End keeps the Tannadice club third in the table on 34 points but having played a game more than Jimmy Thelin’s struggling Aberdeen.

Glenn Middleton of Dundee United, formerly of theRangers, looks on during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Speaking to Sky Sports post-match, the Dundee United boss gave his thoughts on the events that played out yesterday evening.

Q: Jim what is your assessment on that in the end?

Jim Goodwin: “Well we knew tonight was always going to be difficult given the volume of games we have had in recent weeks. Tonight is actually our sixth league game in the space of 17 days. So, a really tough ask for the players – to come here fresh at the best of times is difficult enough, but to come two days after the Hearts game with very little recovery, it was always going to be difficult. The players gave everything but just unfortunately we didn’t do enough.”

Daizen Maeda of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: You did stay in the game, did you feel in that second half there was a couple of bright sparks, you might have been able to get back on level terms?

Jim Goodwin: “Yeah, I mean look, we wanted at half time, we spoke about staying in the game. The next 15 minutes after half time was going to be really important to not to concede at that point. The longer the game goes on and its still at 1-0 then of course we need to try and be a bit more adventurous and commit more bodies forward, and I thought we did that really well. I thought we had one or two half chances; we got opportunities to put the ball into the box with some deep free-kicks, and long throws and we won a couple of corners as well. But, unfortunately nothing really fell too kindly for us in and around the box and we got done with the second one because we have committed that many men forward in the end.”

Jim Goodwin, Dundee United Manager shakes hands with Brendan Rodgers, Manager of Celtic prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: Was that the case in the first half, the gameplan didn’t change even though you did concede, it was about making sure you did stay in the game?

Jim Goodwin: “Yeah, I mean look, the problem when you play against Celtic especially like I said there, when you’re coming into the game with only two days recovery after the Hearts game it was going to be super difficult for the players because they are not quite at 100%. So, we are trying to conserve energy, we’re trying to deny Celtic space and we know if we go after them at the top end of the pitch then we are going to leave big gaps behind us, and that is what they want. So, its not pretty to watch at times and it’s not how we want to play week in week out, but you’ve got to respect the opposition.

Reo Hatate of Celtic celebrates scoring the second goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“But, I can’t fault the players efforts, I thought they gave everything. We’ve got another massive game coming up on Saturday – a similar situation where again we’ve only got Thursday, Friday to recover and then a really tough away fixture at St Mirren on Saturday. So, we’ve tried to manage the squad as best we could, we’ve tried to keep players fresh as well for the weekend and hopefully we can start this last block of 11 games on a positive note.”

Conor Spence

Kasper Schmeichel acknowledges the fans following the Scottishl Premiership match between Celtic and Dundee United at Celtic Park on January 08, 2025 . (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

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