JACK’S TEAM ARE NOT CONCEDING LAST-MINUTE GOALS AND LOSING GAMES UNLUCKILY. THEY ARE GETTING PUMMELLED

WJack is under pressure. His United team are getting pummelled

HEN I was making my predictions for the new Scottish Premiership season, I really fancied Dundee United to be dark horses.

Jack Ross is a hungry and driven manager. He’s hard-working, he wants to excel and I thought he would be a perfect fit at Tannadice.

United already had good experience at the club in the likes of Charlie Mulgrew, and under Jack they’ve signed experience in Steven Fletcher, who is talented and has enjoyed a very good career down south.

They are a club that has spent money and are showing ambition, and I thought they would be pushing Hearts at the top end of the table.

But they’ve had a dreadful start to the season, suffering a record-equalling 7-0 loss away to Alkmaar in Europe on Thursday night then going down 4-1 to Hearts at Tynecastle yesterday.

I’ve always thought the manner you lose a game reflects on what’s happening behind the scenes. And the manner of Dundee United’s performances are suggesting that all is not rosy in the camp right now.

They’ve only scored two goals from open play. That’s a poor return. They’ve conceded 11 goals in two games which is astronomical.

The players don’t seem to be clicking. They look like they’ve got no goalkeeper in their goal. From the outside looking in there seem to be real concerns.

I’ve said before that I don’t like to see managers getting the bullet after five or six games. But we all saw Graham Alexander leave Motherwell before a ball was kicked in the Premiership this season and there are several managers in the Premiership now under severe scrutiny.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Jack Ross is under pressure. His team are not conceding last-minute goals and losing matches unluckily. They are getting absolutely pummelled.

The bus journey home from Tynecastle yesterday must have been quite something for the United players after losing heavily back-to-back.

I’ve been on bus journeys back from defeats with Celtic under Neil Lennon and we had watched the full game back before we got back to Celtic Park. Lenny would be saying to players: ‘What were you thinking there? What were you doing there?’

Jack’s a good coach but there’s only so much work you can do on the training ground Monday to Friday.

Does he concentrate on his goalkeeper and his defence? Or does he decide attack is the best form of defence and work on scoring goals?

Jim Goodwin at Aberdeen is another who is under pressure after Saturday’s 3-2 loss to

Motherwell at Pittodrie left him with just three wins in 15 league games.

I don’t really know Jim but I look at the football Aberdeen play and I’ve seen his interviews and he’s not a manager who gives me huge confidence he’s going to turn that club around.

He’s been well backed in the transfer market but he’s not a manager I think is going to make Aberdeen into a powerhouse.

At least under Derek McInnes you knew what you were getting with Aberdeen. You knew you were up against a team that could potentially beat you.

Derek’s team took Brendan Rodgers’ Invincible treble-winners all the way to injury time in the 2017 Scottish Cup final before Tom Rogic struck the winner.

That shows where Aberdeen were. Where are they now? I’ve got a friend who is an Aberdeen fan and he doesn’t even want to speak about it because it’s that bad.

Lee Johnson at Hibs is another manager feeling the pressure. They are another club that has spent a few quid but, as I said last week, I wouldn’t know if they are a pressing team or if they are trying to defend in a low block, sitting happily on the 18-yard box and looking for a breakaway with the pace of Martin Boyle.

They play so many long balls. It’s lottery football. You buy a ticket and hope for the best. There’s no plan there. I think Hibs will blow very hot and cold this year.

Ross County sit bottom of the table with no points from three games but Malky Mackay is not under pressure. He has plenty of credit in the bank after steering the team to a top-six finish last season.

Stephen Robinson at St Mirren has been under pressure but he will be helped massively by picking up those three points against County in Paisley at the weekend.

The pressure will jump from manager to manager on almost a weekly basis as the season progresses.

What the footballers working for those under-fire managers need to show is a glimpse that things are heading in the right direction. That they’ve got a bit of fight about them. That they are all in it together.

Dundee United are the main team everyone will be looking at this weekend to see if Jack can get a reaction to losing 7-0 and 4-1.

They play St Mirren at Tannadice and he will be asking his players to show they are worthy of pulling on that tangerine jersey. He will be asking them to show they are committed.

If United get beat by St Mirren there will be massive concerns.

After that, United host Celtic in a lunchtime kick off on August 28 and they will be thinking they will be very lucky to get anything out of that.

Then they have Livingston away in the Betfred Cup and Livi are no pushovers.

I watched them against Rangers at home and they pushed them until the 70th minute, so that will be a tricky game.

Dundee United and Jack Ross are under pressure right now and they need to get some good results under their belt fast to get people off their backs.

On the unimpressive evidence served up so far this season by United, Aberdeen and Hibs, there’s a battle for fourth place behind Celtic, Rangers and Hearts — but nobody seems to want it.