“In general, I think we’d rather be training and playing than having a free weekend at this time of the season, although it does give people who’ve had wee knocks or aches a few days to get themselves ready again,” he said.

“To deal with the specific point about us, a lot has been written and said about us under-achieving as a group, but, having had to watch most of the games because I’ve been injured, I think it is fair to say that we have actually been playing a bit better than last year.

“I’m not trying to kid people by saying that. For long spells, we’ve been playing decent football, but the results haven’t reflected that, so, while the criticism is not nice, you have to take it.

“There is pressure on this club to achieve. In the last couple of years since that pressure has intensified, we have finished fifth in the league, reached semi-finals, a Scottish Cup Final and Europe, so we have made progress.

“Don’t get me wrong, the league position last year was nothing like acceptable and we are not as high as we should be now.”

And, having been a spectator during much of the last two months, he has been able to pinpoint the biggest single setback.

“I think everyone knows that going out of Europe to MyPa was a huge blow to us and it’s taken a while to recover.

“We’ve been showing signs of that and, in a way, it is good we are playing Rangers on Sunday because we have a good record against them recently and a big result would be the kind of thing we need for a good run.”

Another ingredient in the recipe for recovery was the clean sheet against Kilmarnock a fortnight ago. That Tannadice stalemate may not have been pleasing on the eye, but McInnes feels it represented an important confidence boost.

“Fans like to see goals and that’s the way it should be, but, for us, it is also important that we are solid defensively. There’s been a few games where we haven’t been and, in the build up to the Killie game, we worked hard on that, so not to concede was pleasing.

“If we keep that going, we can be confident of getting up where we want to be, because I feel we will always create chances — in most games this season we have.”

Just as he is backing his own team to recover from a sluggish start, he believes former employers Rangers will be back challenging at the top before long, though he is happy to put just a little more pressure on them.

“It is still too early in the season to be judging teams, and that goes for them as well as us. I am sure they will put in a strong challenge for the title, but, if they are going to, they cannot afford many more slips and that makes this another hard game for them.”

With the exception of long-term casualty Lee Mair, United will have a full squad to choose from. Teenage defender Garry Kenneth came through his trip to Switzerland with the Scotland Under-19 team unscathed and is set for a place on the bench.