Richard Odada keen to make impact after patient start at Dundee United

Richard Odada is determined to start making his presence felt at Dundee United after struggling to impose himself in the team so far.

The 23-year-old moved to Tannadice in the summer from Aalborg and has been restricted to just three substitute outings, with Craig Sibbald, Ross Docherty, Vicko Sevelj and David Babunski ahead of him in the central midfield pecking order.

Injuries to Sibbald and Docherty opened the door for Odada to come on for a rare appearance in the second half of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat away to Aberdeen, and now he is eager to get more game time.

“I am enjoying it, but I just want to settle in much better to the team,” said the Kenya international. “I am here to play as much as possible and help the team to the best results possible.

“I have had to be patient, but every day I am working hard in training because we have a lot of good players.

“The competition is very healthy so every day counts, you have to be at your best in every session.

“I am giving my best and I believe everything will fall into place. It is a little bit difficult to be up to speed because I haven’t played too much, but I got some minutes when I was away with the national team.

“I was pleased to get a chance against Aberdeen and hopefully I can get more minutes now.”

Odada hopes to play a part when fourth-placed United host Motherwell, who sit in fifth, in the William Hill Premiership on Wednesday, just over a month after the Lanarkshire side won a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final between the teams courtesy of a last-minute penalty.

“Motherwell are a good team and they beat us in the cup game not that long ago, so hopefully we can get our revenge for that,” said Odada.

“Football is a game of learning, you learn from previous games and you learn from your mistakes, so this is an opportunity.

“We were disappointed against Aberdeen on Saturday because we defended well, but they were the better side and scored when they got a chance.

“We have to keep going now, we have another game coming up and the focus is on that.

“We have a goal as a team, there are a lot of new players here and it’s a new group.

“So far we have done a good job so we just have to keep on going and see what will happen.”