Dundee United Manager Jim Goodwin Discusses 4-3 Defeat to Motherwell

Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin spoke to BBC Scotland, describing the game as “a strange game.” He stated that his team’s defensive performance in the box was “as poor as we’ve defended the box all season,” highlighting the end-to-end nature of the match where “it could have been another two goals for each team.” Goodwin remarked that “both teams, looking at the goals they’ve conceded, will be very disappointed.” He acknowledged that “our defensive record prior to today has been excellent, one of the best in the league,” but conceded that “today, for whatever reason, we didn’t defend the box well enough.” Goodwin noted that “statistically, in terms of possession, crosses into the box, final third entries, we’ve probably had the better of it throughout the game.” However, he attributed the loss to Motherwell being “more clinical than us and that’s why we’ve lost the game.” He reiterated his view that “it’s as poor as we’ve defended.” Goodwin expressed that he did not wish to be “overly critical of the lads at the back because they’ve got a lot of plaudits this season for how good they’ve been,” but stressed that “today, they don’t need told that we need to do better in certain situations.” Despite the outcome, Goodwin mentioned that “we actually played some reasonably good football in the game and had some good chances to take something on the day, but it wasn’t to be.”