Aziz Behich is not fretting over Dundee United’s league position because he is a relegation-fighting specialist who has vast experience of scrambling out of trouble.
The Australian international was involved in three dogfights during his time in Turkey and helped his teams to come out on top each time. The left-back hopes to use those experiences to United’s benefit as they scrap to get off the Premiership basement. They have a big game today as the bottom two square up, with Ross County having home advantage in Dingwall.
Behich said: “I’ve been in this position plenty of times before so I know what it’s all about. I’ve had three relegation battles and won all of them. I was involved in one with Bursaspor, Kayserispor and also last season with Giresunspor but we did well enough in the final month to get away with a bit to spare. So I know how to handle it and the big thing is not pressing panic buttons. You all have to stick together.
“This situation will be new to a few boys. It’s not nice but in my experience you just have to tackle it head on.”
The Socceroos ace knows it is a time for everyone at United to stick together and insisted: “You can’t drop your confidence and you can’t start pointing fingers at each other.
“You have to focus on each game as it comes along and not be distracted by anything else. I believe in the squad we’ve got. I believe we can get out of it – we have enough experience to dig ourselves out.
“You have to win the big games and if you do that then you give yourselves a good chance. This weekend is a big game. It’s away from home and we have to go into it with the right mentality. On a bad run you sometimes think everything is against you but you can’t let yourself get into that mindset.
“You also have to learn not to lose games. Sometimes if you get a point, in situations like this it could be massive come the end of the season. Picking up points is what it’s all about, you just have to get as many on the board as you can – no matter how.”
Chairman Mark Ogren has given his backing to sporting director Tony Asghar and head coach Liam Fox but the experienced full-back admits he understands why the fans are feeling frustrated. He added: “You can’t fault the supporters. They come to watch us every week and they want to see us win games.
“They support the club for their whole lives so you can’t fault them for having a go when things are not going well.
“The fans have been great, they give us a really good backing home and away. So hopefully they stick by us but at the same time I can understand why they’re frustrated at the way the season has gone. We can’t start breaking away from each other.”
Behich also revealed the United dressing-room had rallied round fellow Australian Mark Birighitti after his blunder cost them dearly in the 2-1 loss to St Johnstone last week. The keeper gifted Stevie May his second of the game, just moments after Dylan Levitt had grabbed the equaliser.
But Behich said: “Birraz has the character to bounce back. He has been great for us for the last few months and has made big saves in big games.
“Last weekend hurt him a lot but this is football and we all make mistakes. Obviously it’s not ideal late in a game like that but it’s part of the game – outfield players make mistakes all the time too.
“We have rallied around him the last few days and this weekend is an opportunity to make up for it.”
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