Dundee United: Jack Ross opens up on playing style, Hibs criticism, Tony Asghar, Ben Kensell and Ron Gordon

It is near impossible to discuss style of football in the context of Dundee United and not reference Jim McLean once fining his team for not being entertaining enough in a 6-1 Scottish Cup over Motherwell.

In fact, the punishment was for slacking off. Dundee United supporters feel an exciting brand of football remains part of their heritage. The danger is it is becoming a lost part. Sound familiar? Ross has heard it all before.

Because Hibs also believe they are the purveyors of a noble tradition as great entertainers. And the new United manager suffered for the perception that his team were not exhibiting this quality to an acceptable standard while at Easter Road.

Of course, sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for. Hibs swapped cup finals for bottom six football under Shaun Maloney, Ross’s successor. The football certainly didn’t get any more watchable.

Like the new club badge unveiled by United on Monday, and which didn’t seem to be very different from the old one, it’s often in the eye of the beholder in any case.

“It is a funny one,” said Ross. “It happens a lot. I had it at Hibs. The more football is accessible all around the world and the more people are searching and believing it should be done in a different way.

“It is very easy for a manager to make false or lazy promises. You have to produce a team that wins but ideally in the right way.

“But I feel as if I have had teams that have been front foot teams. That probably irked me a little bit at Hibs. I am quite detailed. I know for example that in over 50 per cent of our games Hibs scored two or more goals. I just throw that at people. Because that’s not bad.

“Maybe we did not score the goals in the right way … I don’t know if there is a right way to