Dundee United have sacked head coach Jack Ross after the Scottish Premiership side were thrashed 9-0 by Celtic to leave them rock bottom of the table.
The Tangerines were soundly beaten by Ange Postecoglou’s top-flight champions, with Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada both scoring hat-tricks at Tannadice – a result which sealed Ross’ fate.
Dundee United have failed to win any of their first five league matches, losing four of them, and have shipped 18 goals.
Ross’ side also exited the Europa Conference League via a 7-1 aggregate loss to AZ Alkmaar in the third-qualifying round. From the 7-0 second-leg loss, United conceded a goal once every 15 minutes, on average.
The 46-year-old was hired to replace Tam Courts in June after Ross’ predecessor left the club by mutual consent before taking charge at Hungarian club Budapest Honved over the summer.
Assistant Liam Fox will take charge of the first team on an interim basis ahead of Wednesday’s Premier Sports Cup match at Livingston.
Speaking after the 9-0 defeat to Celtic, Ross admitted he was not getting enough out of his squad but was adamant that he wanted time to get it right again.
“I think prior to this season I hadn’t lost a game by more than three goals as a manager, so this is hurting me and I’m suffering from it,” he told Sky Sports. “It doesn’t diminish my want to put it right. I’ve overcome challenges before and I want to overcome this one, but it hurts a lot.
“The extra attention, debate or speculation I accept that because that’s just the nature of my job. When you’re in charge of a team that’s produced those two results [7-0 vs Alkmaar and 9-0 vs Celtic] then it’s absolutely deserved.
“I’m not getting enough from the current group I have, so it would be weak and remiss of me to look for excuses and apportion blame to others at the club. We’ve got a good group here who should be producing better than they are, led by me.
“I can understand people looking at what we can do to strengthen the group again, but first and foremost I need to get more from the group than I’m getting.”
0 Comments