Derek McInnes

[rocket_scientist]

With such a pathetic limping out of the Scottish Cup tonight, I want to know what the fuck they do in training?

 

How obvious has it been for such a long time that our squad isn't very good at the basics.

 

If a professional footballer can't trap, control and pass a ball, they're not fit for purpose.

 

Our lot couldn't even kick it cleanly when clearing our back lines tonight.

 

These are skills that should be ingrained on the training pitch.

 

The fact that it's not is a very poor reflection on the manager's ability and competence.

[ayrshire_don74]

Laziness quite simply , decisions like awarding robson a new contract and not playing him says it all, Mcinnes shelf life is nearing expiry date

[ayrshire_don74]

There is an executive at our club paid £250k per year square that

[Edinburghdon]

McInnes needs to take a long hard look at himself tonight. His lack of a plan B has cost us too often now and it needs to be rectified.

[ayrshire_don74]

You dont need a plan b , plan a needs to be ingrained in the dna of the players , it clearly isnt

[BobbyBiscuit]

McInnes needs to take a long hard look at himself tonight. His lack of a plan B has cost us too often now and it needs to be rectified.

 

Same subs every time. Smith and Robson are as well not travelling with the squad.

[Edinburghdon]

You dont need a plan b , plan a needs to be ingrained in the dna of the players , it clearly isnt

 

Plan A doesn't always work, a plan B is a must.

[ayrshire_don74]

Nope having 3 times the wages of hearts there is only plan a win a football game

[Edinburghdon]

Nope having 3 times the wages of hearts there is only plan a win a football game

 

It's not always that simple though is it? You need to be able to react to the other team. We didn't today and didn't have a back up plan. Which is standard for us under McInnes

[Madbadteacher]

"Eh, Pep, ehhh ah hear you'll be oot a job soon, funcy comin' to Aiberdeen? 1000 quid a week an a' the rowies yi can scoff."

 

ETA: We'll be looking at cheap options or someone else's "failure, not that necessarily means failure, but I fear the likes of John Hughes coming in......

[Reidzer 1314]

The starting tactics baffled me, once again we change the whole shape to shoe horn Considine into the squad even after his awful showing against Partick where I think the Dons may have been better nipping Dobbies and tracking down a garden slug and giving him a starting place over Considine, harsh?? Maybe after that performance at the weekend I dont care.

 

What really surprised me as the lack of fight shown by the players at the weekend, it was as if they were not interested in trying to win that game at all.  Our playing style has become so predictable that teams now know how to stop us quite easily and unless McInnes can come up with another idea or 'Plan B' then that wont change.

 

If McInnes also bleats on about not strengthening the squad this month again after that showing then I think his sanity needs questioned. Either bring players who actually want to play or give some of the younger lads a chance.

[RicoS321]

The starting tactics baffled me, once again we change the whole shape to shoe horn Considine into the squad even after his awful showing against Partick where I think the Dons may have been better nipping Dobbies and tracking down a garden slug and giving him a starting place over Considine, harsh?? Maybe after that performance at the weekend I dont care.

 

It's incredibly harsh. It clearly wasn't a case of shoe-horning Considine into the squad, it was a case of not having an option he was happy to start with in centre midfield ahead of Shinnie. That was where we lost the game, even though Hearts were very direct, their midfield pressed us high the whole game. We had no option to go direct, which has been our problem for a few weeks and something everyone who's been involved in Scottish football ever knows is required at this time of year when pitches are very heavy and bobbly. Considine was pish, yer right, but the reasons for playing him were justified. Justified by our lack of squad planning and the purchase of players to fit only one style.

[Reidzer 1314]

It's incredibly harsh. It clearly wasn't a case of shoe-horning Considine into the squad, it was a case of not having an option he was happy to start with in centre midfield ahead of Shinnie. That was where we lost the game, even though Hearts were very direct, their midfield pressed us high the whole game. We had no option to go direct, which has been our problem for a few weeks and something everyone who's been involved in Scottish football ever knows is required at this time of year when pitches are very heavy and bobbly. Considine was pish, yer right, but the reasons for playing him were justified. Justified by our lack of squad planning and the purchase of players to fit only one style.

 

Yeah I guess.

 

Fair enough, I retract the slug comment, the rest stands 

[Edinburghdon]

Shamelessly stolen from the hat, but the article on McInnes in the times is cracking.

 

Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager, tells Graham Spiers how he has made the club feel good about itself again

 

Derek McInnes arrives for work most mornings at 7 o’clock at Pittodrie — he just about opens up the place himself. He checks the heating, makes sure the players’ dressing room is warm, chats with incoming **** staff and others. More than anything, though, McInnes cherishes that hour between 7 and 8am for his own thinking time, his prized solitude.

“I like having that to myself,” he says. “It is full-on for me at Aberdeen: cajoling, encouraging, pushing everyone at the club to be the best we can be. So that hour, before everyone pours in, is my thinking time. I know, once the day proper starts, I won’t get any more time to myself.”

 

It is impossible to miss the striving for perfection in McInnes. He has had one bruising experience in management — when he tried and failed to turn around a chronically malfunctioning Bristol City — and it taught him never to be exposed to that scenario again. Aberdeen now has a football manager driven to bring out the best in himself and those around him.

 

“Public perception is important for a manager,” he says. “You’ve got to remain credible. When you lose your job, as I did at Bristol City, you’ve got to go and prove yourself again. But I never lost confidence in my ability.

“I’ve always backed myself to be able to work with a team and make players better. Three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, when things get really competitive, is still my favourite part of the job. I love my interaction with my players. The other stuff — dealing with directors, agents, the media — all of that is secondary for me. That’s not where I want to spend my time. The bit I feel I always did best — working with players — that’s what I love.”

 

McInnes’s sheer thoroughness at Aberdeen helps to explain why the club has been on an upward trajectory virtually since the day he arrived. It will be three years next month since he was appointed as Craig Brown’s successor.

“My job is all-consuming. We measure the Aberdeen players on every level — physical, emotional, psychological, their general happiness. I’ve ended up in situations where I’ve had some very personal conversations with one or two players, on issues which I discovered were affecting them deeply. My job is all about looking after my players.

 

“I’m just trying to give Aberdeen good value. I try to dedicate myself to the job and to the people who employ me. It has been important to me to have a good relationship with my chairman because I’ve learned in my career, at St Johnstone and especially at Bristol City, that nothing can be done without the support of those above you. I need to have the same chairman relationship I had at St Johnstone with Geoff Brown — that’s what I’ve got at Aberdeen.”

McInnes’s fate and outlook were shaped by a tortuous 16 months spent as Bristol City manager between October 2011 and January 2013. At first lauded at the club, and rescuing City from relegation in May 2012, his time there descended into pain and chaos as a malfunctioning and financially-suicidal club could not fix itself.

 

What happened in Bristol influences McInnes’ thinking to this day. It reminds him of everything modern football and management should not be about. “I needed simplicity after Bristol City, which was an absolute ... I can’t say it,” he says. “After Bristol I just needed to strip everything right back, and do the job the way any football manager is supposed to do his job.

 

“Bristol City had fought relegation for three or four seasons prior to me. I kept the club up in 2012 and, looking back now, that was when I was in my strongest position there. At the end of that season I should have been kicking and screaming to finally get things done properly at that club.

 

“We had players haemorrhaging money at Ashton Gate, earning 14k or 15k a week which the club couldn’t afford. But I wasn’t convinced the club wanted to deal with the situation. I had four different managers’ signings in the dressing room. It was incredible.

 

“I remember one of my first days at training; all these players parked their cars and came over the hill towards me in their red training gear. There was maybe 40 or 50 of them — it was like watching Zulus coming towards me. I had to try to ship loads of them out on loan and get the squad down to an acceptable level.

 

“We managed to keep the club up in 2012, having been way adrift when I arrived there. The board had said, ‘if we go down with Derek McInnes, we’ll come back with Derek McInnes’. I had regiments of players I had to move on, but these guys had nowhere to go. Bristol City was Utopia to them — they were on great money. The club was vastly over-paying its players by thousands of pounds per week.

 

“Everything at Bristol was a mess, including some of the posturing for power in the boardroom. That’s why I said, at Aberdeen, I just needed simplicity. I needed to get back to doing what a football manager does.

“Bristol City taught me one key lesson — when things are going your way, and you are hot, then insist there and then on getting things done. Because it can all change so quickly. You go from a king to a clown.”

 

When McInnes arrived as Aberdeen manager in March 2013 he set about the task with relish. In one of his first games as manager-in-waiting he watched Craig Brown’s team go down to a Dundee United side inspired by a relentless, hungry, irrepressible Willo Flood. The next day McInnes got straight on to Flood’s agent to find out how to get the player to Pittodrie that summer.

 

McInnes came with one ambition: to fill Aberdeen FC again with determination and self-respect. “I want this to be a good workplace to come into,” he says. “One of the first things I gleaned about Aberdeen was, when the players weren’t winning games, they felt s*** about themselves. Well, the one place where they should not feel s*** about themselves is at their work.

 

“I had to fix that. There are a lot of people inside Aberdeen FC, a lot of employees. And at one point there was this underlying feeling here, ‘och, the players have let us down’. The players weren’t feeling very good about themselves coming in to work. It was the opposite of what I wanted. I wanted Aberdeen players to feel good about coming to their work. I wanted them to bounce out the door, feeling like they had had a good day. So there were loads of these little things I had to fix.

 

“Our job is to be the best that we can be at Aberdeen. As a team, we are not brilliant, and we are certainly not s***. I know what happens to the players when they put two or three wins together and they are out in the town. They get, ‘aw, you guys are brilliant’. Well, the players aren’t brilliant, just as they are not s***when they lose a few games. It is all about balance.”

 

Can Aberdeen win the 2015-16 Ladbrokes Premiership title? Currently level with Celtic, who have a game in hand, it is the question McInnes now faces from the media on a weekly basis. In private, I am convinced McInnes believes his team can do it. In public, he is deliberately circumspect.

 

“Put it this way: I am conscious that my players are doing exceptionally well,” he says. “Last season we were 21 points clear of third spot, we set an SPL record for a non-Old Firm team, we broke records left, right and centre over previous Aberdeen teams ... and yet there was still this feeling, ‘aye, but they’ve fallen short’. I’m not in this for credit myself. But what I am here to do is make sure my players don’t feel they have let anyone down.

 

“I talk privately to my players about these things. Whatever I say openly in the press won’t make the slightest bit of difference to the result on a Saturday — but what I say to my players does. So it is what I say to my players that counts, ultimately. I don’t feel the need to give anyone else any motivation, of any sort. The only words that count for me are my words to my players.”

 

McInnes is 44 years old. He is in the prime of his working life and has committed his future to Aberdeen. With some justification, the Red Army loves him. But at some point, down the line, would he like to go back to England?

“Yes, I would,” he replies. “Listen, I love my job, I am really happy where I am, and I’m committed long-term to Aberdeen. We think there is still a lot more to come for this club, and I think that I can satisfy a lot of my own aspirations at Aberdeen.

[RicoS321]

He's fuckin ace.

 

I'd have asked him about his inability to make subs early in a game and trust in youth like....

 

[Tyrant]

He's fuckin ace.

 

I'd have asked him about his inability to make subs early in a game and trust in youth like....

 

 

I think the youth point is a little harsh. Storie, McKenna and Shankland have all broken through under him. Admittedly McKenna only just. But Storie will stay in the 1st team plans as long as he plays well and Shankland is oot because he proved to be shite.

[RicoS321]

 

I think the youth point is a little harsh. Storie, McKenna and Shankland have all broken through under him. Admittedly McKenna only just. But Storie will stay in the 1st team plans as long as he plays well and Shankland is oot because he proved to be shite.

 

 

I was being facetious. I agree. I never thought Shankland was good enough and don't think he'll make the grade (although he could come good in his later years as a target man). I'd like to have seen Smith given more game time and perhaps a run of games though, but we've just never been shite enough or good enough to allow it.

 

One thing I found interesting about the weekend game though was how quickly Smith and Pawlett were subbed. McGinn and Storie were given a full 30 minutes. It's rare that we see that opportunity afforded to Smith or Pawlett. McInnes clearly has his preferred team. What I mean is, I've watched McGinn and McLean (as an example) have poor games and not be involved in the play at all, yet they've generally been given 75+ minutes as standard before a sub is made. It seems like they have to do a lot more wrong in order to be subbed. I would think that both Smith and Pawlett are aware of the pressure on them to grasp any chance given, and I suspect both will move on in the summer.

[manc_don]

 

I was being facetious. I agree. I never thought Shankland was good enough and don't think he'll make the grade (although he could come good in his later years as a target man). I'd like to have seen Smith given more game time and perhaps a run of games though, but we've just never been shite enough or good enough to allow it.

 

One thing I found interesting about the weekend game though was how quickly Smith and Pawlett were subbed. McGinn and Storie were given a full 30 minutes. It's rare that we see that opportunity afforded to Smith or Pawlett. McInnes clearly has his preferred team. What I mean is, I've watched McGinn and McLean (as an example) have poor games and not be involved in the play at all, yet they've generally been given 75+ minutes as standard before a sub is made. It seems like they have to do a lot more wrong in order to be subbed. I would think that both Smith and Pawlett are aware of the pressure on them to grasp any chance given, and I suspect both will move on in the summer.

 

I know Smith it seems like a bit of a marmite player, some like him, others think he's had his chance and we should get rid. I can't say I've seen enough of him to do anything but what I have seen he seems to try and get into good positions. Much more so than Shankland did. Can't disagree with your last sentence though, neither have done enough to really make a positive contribution to the team on a consistent basis. Shame really, had big hopes for them both.

[ayrshire_don74]

Smith has made 85 appearances for us including 20 starts , he has had his chance

[manc_don]

Smith has made 85 appearances for us including 20 starts , he has had his chance

 

As I said, Marmite player

[RicoS321]

Smith has made 85 appearances for us including 20 starts , he has had his chance

 

Of those 65 non-starts, it'd be interesting to see how many were less than 15 minutes. I suspect the vast majority. And of those 20 starts, it'd be interesting to see how many of those he finished. My point was that if Smith started a game and was playing badly, he'd get taken off early. As opposed to McGinn (just an example, I really like McGinn) having a bad game - he'd be given >75 minutes to try and turn it around. I think that must put additional pressure on Smith (and Pawlett) as he knows he's not the preferred choice. There's been plenty of games where we've not looked like doing anything, yet poorly performing (by their own high standards) players have been given a lot of time to turn it around, often to no avail. McInnes makes very late subs regularly to the extent that it's difficult to describe many of the appearances as opportunities.

[BigAl]

Apparently on the QPR radar to become next manager.

[manc_don]

Apparently on the QPR radar to become next manager.

 

Source? Would be a mighty leap in terms of funds available.

[BigAl]

Scottish Sun.

 

No quotes surprisingly

 

ABERDEEN boss Derek McInnes has emerged as a shock contender for the QPR job.

 

SunSport understands the Championship outfit have been impressed by his work at Pittodrie, including one League Cup win and a final appearance later this month.

 

QPR have yet to approach the Dons for permission to speak to McInnes who had a previous spell in England at Bristol City.

 

Former QPR gaffer Ian Holloway is poised to be interviewed by a three-man selection panel, headed by director of football Les Ferdinand.

 

But it’s believed that Ferdinand and Loftus Road chief executive Lee Hoos have placed McInnes on a list of contenders to replace axed Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

 

Tim Sherwood, Karl Robinson, Paul Clement, Steve Cotterill and former Scotland striker Paul Dickov have all been linked to the vacancy.

 

Holloway is popular among QPR fans, having enjoyed five years as a player at Loftus Road, and five more as gaffer.

 

Sherwood, the former Spurs boss and a close pal of Ferdinand, is also in the running, but may prove too expensive for a club languishing 17th in England’s second tier.

 

McInnes has led the Dons to second place in the Premiership and a League Cup Final against Celtic this month.

[tlg1903]

Basket case club, doubt he would be interested