Jim Goodwin explains decision to ditch Dundee Utd captain Ryan Edwards

The new Tannadice manager made the decision to keep his skipper out of the line of fire for Wednesday’s tie against Livingston as he believed the defender would benefit from “pressing the reset button”.

Edwards was heavily criticized as United slipped to last place in the Premiership. Expert and ex-Dundee manager Neil McCann even claimed he ‘threw it’ during a 4-0 hammer at Ross County. However, Goodwin defended the 29-year-old’s integrity, insisting he was a “very honest big guy”.

But he still thinks the move to withdraw Edwards from his starting XI was the right one – and hopes it sends a message to the rest of his squad that nobody is above the axe.

“Ryan is the club’s captain and he’s had a really good reaction to leaving the team,” revealed Goodwin. “I told him on Tuesday morning and he trained really well afterwards.

“His reaction was positive. He’s a very honest big guy, he understands that his own performances individually haven’t been quite where they should be.

“It’s very important to me that the group knows that it doesn’t matter if you’re one of the most experienced players on the team, the captain, or one of the younger ones. If you don’t perform at the required level, you risk being dropped from the team.

CONTINUE READING: Dundee Utd shows Jim Goodwin they have the ‘guts’ for relegation battle

“Ryan reacted brilliantly, he encouraged the lads before the game and will be an important player for us until the end of the season. Sometimes players have to leave the team just to hit the reset button to get going again.

“I was very happy with Loick’s entry, I thought he was excellent – very confident. He played with a lot of maturity for a young centre-back, that was great to see.”

A point at the Tony Macaroni Arena ends a run of six straight losses for the bottom of the table. The return of the Scottish Cup now gives Goodwin 10 an important role on the training ground ahead of hosting St Mirren; crucial time to implement the methods he hopes will keep United at the top.

“The break we have now will be huge for us. We can now go into the next ten days and work extremely hard on what we need to improve.

“We’ve only been together for six or seven days and if you play Saturday and then Wednesday you don’t have much time on the training ground.

“The players were extremely receptive to what we asked them to do. I was impressed by the will, commitment and aggression they showed – and you need that in any relegation battle.

“Wednesday was just a point so let’s not get carried away but it was important to get something given the run we had. And it could be a crucial point at the end of the season.”

Meanwhile, Goodwin announced that Dylan Levitt is being evaluated for a knee injury and that the club have decided not to finalize a deal for former DC United goalkeeper Bill Hamid.

“There were conversations before I came in,” Goodwin said. “Bill came by, looked around and we chatted with him. We decided to go in a different direction in that regard.”