Originally Posted by
BudMill90
Tom English:
'Neilson not irreplaceable for United'
The change of tactic was as unexpected as it was dramatic. United fans will be angered by all of this, but not many, if any, will see Neilson as irreplaceable. It's the disruption and the concern of making a bad call on the next manager that will cause them angst rather than the loss of Neilson himself.
They don't see him as irreplaceable. There's only one person at Tannadice who holds that mantle and that is Lawrence Shankland. You wouldn't have to travel all that far into a hotbed of United fans to find folk who will tell you that the striker, and not the manager, is the reason they won the Championship at such a canter.
And the stats are compelling. Twenty-four league goals out of a club total of 52 and the decisive goal in nine games amounting to 27 points, Shankland was the difference between a title procession and a title struggle.
The fact that he scored so often for a manager who was regularly criticised by his own supporters for being too negative in his tactics is a testament to Shankland's fantastic predatory instincts. On fairly moderate service he remained a lethal weapon.
United can see a future after Neilson so long as they get the next appointment right - or Wright. The former St Johnstone manager has been mentioned widely as a possible replacement.
There's a lot of uncertainty around that for now, but one absolute truth is that had it been Shankland departing on Sunday you'd have seen an altogether different response, a mixture of tears and tantrums. Neilson's exit didn't really evoke that kind of emotion among the United supporters.