Derek McInnes

[afc1903mad]

there doesn't appear to have been any long term strategy with regards youth integration

This is a tough one, changing an approach with the youth teams take a long time to bear the fruits.
Its not a magic button to switch and suddenly improve the throughput.
That said, there's plenty of evidence that shows McInness is reluctant to put in "homegrown" youths on a regular basis and maybe needs to have more confidence that the lads can deliver.

[Don_Corleone]

This is a tough one, changing an approach with the youth teams take a long time to bear the fruits.
Its not a magic button to switch and suddenly improve the throughput.
That said, there's plenty of evidence that shows McInness is reluctant to put in "homegrown" youths on a regular basis and maybe needs to have more confidence that the lads can deliver.

The youngsters coming through aren’t good enough to help us achieve what we want to achieve - so he can throw them all in but we’ll end up bottom 6. Some of them just don’t fit his system or style of play - Bruce Anderson for example. Where could he play in McInnes standard system? Others like McLennan and Wright have had a fair bit of game time but neither have really been consistent enough. Campbell has had reasonable game time and always looks comfortable but I’m just not convinced he’s got enough edge and drive about him to become a permanent fixture

[Red Zone]

All good points, but as a business, year on year improvements include off field activities, which I recall seeing that has happened under DM's term.

It is clear that we have reached a plateau and in order to break through that glass ceiling on the football pitch, something has to change.
That could be the manager, it could be our training opportunities, it could be the playing budget or a few other things

Summertime could be a pivotal period and where we see what the new board decides.

I was a long time supporter of McInnes, as is well documented on here, but have gradually moved to the other side of the fence. You are absolutely right to say that we made year on year improvements under McInnes, from to be fair a pretty low starting point and as most would probably agree reached a peak in the season we lost the Scottish Cup final to celtic 2-1.

I think though for you to say we have reached a plateau is being overly kind towards McInnes as that implies we have maintained a consistent level of performance since that peak, which is clearly not the case. There is little doubt that last season our performance levels, results and entertainment value started to decline and that trend has continued this season. If that was due to our direct competitors burning up the league and us suffering as a result you could sort of understand but the reality is that outside celtic and sevco the rest of the teams in the league are collectively as poor as I can remember.

There is little doubt that this regression is 100% due to a combination of poor recruitment, negative team selections and overly defensive mindset all of which I am sad to say can only be laid at the door of the manager.

Is it a foregone conclusion that Cormack will sack McInnes? - no I don't think it is. However I have consistently said that what will cost him his job ultimately is declining crowds. Clearly that trend is well underway and will only be stopped and turned around if people are attracted to go back on the back of more attractive attacking football (like we played in the first half of his reign) or better signings. Do I think that will happen? No, likely not as McInnes is nothing if not stubborn.

I suspect that he will be sacked within the next twelve months. It will either happen in the Summer if we don't qualify for Europe, which I don't think is likely as fourth will almost certainly be good enough again, and we should be at least fourth given the head start we have, or early next season as we could be really toiling in the league if Hibs continue to improve under Ross and Stendel works out at Hertz (neither of which are slam dunks).

So in reality McInnes probably has one or two transfer windows to save his job as the current Group of players are not capable of playing the attacking style of football that is required to get the missing fans back, even assuming McInnes let's off the handbrake.

[afc1903mad]

^^^^^
Excellent post and well put across.

I would agree that the plateau I referred to is a little generous. We are a smidgen off absolute peak (table wise /points wise) which has a number of various influences affecting where we are.

I think we have become a little too predictable and risk being increasingly found out.

Centre midfield has to be our major concern at the moment and indeed the last few windows.
Ferguson is fantastic and our risk is how long we have him for.
We have struggled to find suitable companions alongside / around him.
I think Ojo will improve us when he is back, but not having more / better back-ups in the engine of the team is a factor.
I've said before that Jack the rat was largely an unappreciated asset. We miss McLeans vision and range of passing, Christie's creativity and Shinnies drive.
I don't know what influeve the Atlanta link-up will bring but if we can add a couple of decent centre midfielders in, it would help us immensely

[ZakkTheMakk]

Going by recent reports then I highly doubt that we'll see any centre mids coming in, looks like the ol' classic "like a new signing" will be brought out for Ojo n Bryson in the new year when they're both fit and available.

To be fair we never got to see a midfield of Ferguson, Bryson and Ojo operating so maybe when those three are all 100% match ready then the jigsaw pieces will come together. If not then I really do worry moving forward as those two have been touted as being our marquee summer signings various times now.

We do however still miss a Maddison/Christie/Mclean type player who can spot a pass to split the opposition defence, as well as getting bums off their seats which has been too few and far between this season.

[Red Zone]

^^^^^
Excellent post and well put across.

I would agree that the plateau I referred to is a little generous. We are a smidgen off absolute peak (table wise /points wise) which has a number of various influences affecting where we are.

I think we have become a little too predictable and risk being increasingly found out.

Centre midfield has to be our major concern at the moment and indeed the last few windows.
Ferguson is fantastic and our risk is how long we have him for.
We have struggled to find suitable companions alongside / around him.
I think Ojo will improve us when he is back, but not having more / better back-ups in the engine of the team is a factor.
I've said before that Jack the rat was largely an unappreciated asset. We miss McLeans vision and range of passing, Christie's creativity and Shinnies drive.
I don't know what influeve the Atlanta link-up will bring but if we can add a couple of decent centre midfielders in, it would help us immensely

We have a number of areas needing attention in the team including right back and winger but I think you are right to say that midfield should be the number one priority but for me specifically it needs to be a creative midfielder like a Christie as our team is sorely short of an ability to pick apart a stuffy defence.

[Aldo1983]

Hats off to you, curvasud, for flying in the face of seemingly popular opinion. It's good to see someone going against the grain, otherwise the tedious repetition of those who hog the board makes it virtually unreadable for someone like myself.

Me, I feel no need to shout my opinions from the rooftops but I do find it refreshing that curvasud has bucked the latest trend, and rather than being abused from all quarters the lad/lass should be acknowledged, at the very least, for putting his opinion across in such a forthright manner. The poster, lone wolf though he may be, merits support from somewhere.

Extreme opinions hold no interest for me, and I would suggest, as usual, that the truth lies somewhere between what curvasud says and what his numerous detractors proclaim. But, y'know, who cares what I think? I certainly don't give a fiddler's f uck who does. There's decent arguments on both sides, but please keep up your end curvasud... if you don't I'll more than likely stop visiting this board because it's pretty unreadable (mcwinless/mchun/mcarse/mcwhatever.

Just as an aside, don't some of you get completely bored by typing that same old, same old, don't you fancy coming up with something a bit more valid, that your imagination can churn up rather than milne/hun/mcwinless/hun/****e/*******s? Is life really that bad? I'm happy to make an exception for moog, chiefly because he mounts a credible critique, but many of the rest of you (aldo, red john, even pac FFS, take a look at yourselves) are just mind numbingly boring, and I suspect you know it yourselves.

Pant pishers/happy clappers/top reds.... jesus christ, it's just like the playground when the so-called top dogs create derogatory names for those who hold different opinions to their own. It's pathetic. Moreover, I'd say that because he does go to loads of games and many of you others revel in the fact that you don't, quite justifiably gives him a massive headstart on you, yet even then he gets slammed as a 'top red' or whatever. The board is as tedious as the team this season. Yawn.

Is that so?

[Aldo1983]

I was a long time supporter of McInnes, as is well documented on here, but have gradually moved to the other side of the fence. You are absolutely right to say that we made year on year improvements under McInnes, from to be fair a pretty low starting point and as most would probably agree reached a peak in the season we lost the Scottish Cup final to celtic 2-1.

I think though for you to say we have reached a plateau is being overly kind towards McInnes as that implies we have maintained a consistent level of performance since that peak, which is clearly not the case. There is little doubt that last season our performance levels, results and entertainment value started to decline and that trend has continued this season. If that was due to our direct competitors burning up the league and us suffering as a result you could sort of understand but the reality is that outside celtic and sevco the rest of the teams in the league are collectively as poor as I can remember.

There is little doubt that this regression is 100% due to a combination of poor recruitment, negative team selections and overly defensive mindset all of which I am sad to say can only be laid at the door of the manager.

Is it a foregone conclusion that Cormack will sack McInnes? - no I don't think it is. However I have consistently said that what will cost him his job ultimately is declining crowds. Clearly that trend is well underway and will only be stopped and turned around if people are attracted to go back on the back of more attractive attacking football (like we played in the first half of his reign) or better signings. Do I think that will happen? No, likely not as McInnes is nothing if not stubborn.

I suspect that he will be sacked within the next twelve months. It will either happen in the Summer if we don't qualify for Europe, which I don't think is likely as fourth will almost certainly be good enough again, and we should be at least fourth given the head start we have, or early next season as we could be really toiling in the league if Hibs continue to improve under Ross and Stendel works out at Hertz (neither of which are slam dunks).

So in reality McInnes probably has one or two transfer windows to save his job as the current Group of players are not capable of playing the attacking style of football that is required to get the missing fans back, even assuming McInnes let's off the handbrake.

I think most are coming round to the thinking that he's had it easy but it's getting harder and if hearts and Hibs do get their act together then it'll get even harder.

[Don_Corleone]

Going by recent reports then I highly doubt that we'll see any centre mids coming in, looks like the ol' classic "like a new signing" will be brought out for Ojo n Bryson in the new year when they're both fit and available.

To be fair we never got to see a midfield of Ferguson, Bryson and Ojo operating so maybe when those three are all 100% match ready then the jigsaw pieces will come together. If not then I really do worry moving forward as those two have been touted as being our marquee summer signings various times now.

We do however still miss a Maddison/Christie/Mclean type player who can spot a pass to split the opposition defence, as well as getting bums off their seats which has been too few and far between this season.

Bryson is a failed experiment. The guy is never going to be fit to play two full games in a row. I'm willing to give Ojo a chance when he returns - if he can form a partnership with Ferguson, we still need a creative midfielder to play ahead of them. In the current sqaud I think there are 3 options. 1) Scott Wright - injury prone and inconsistent but could do the role pretty well against most teams in the league. 2) James Wilson - in behind Cosgrove is probably his best position, but McInnes never plays him there for some reason. 3) Niall McGinn - not fast enough for the wing, but could play in behind Cosgrove and likely create and score a few.

Will McInnes go with any of these options? Probably not. He will shoehorn defenders into the sitting midfield roles and play Ferguson in the attacking role which he isn't all that suited to. Or he'll play Curtis Main or Gallagher in the attacking role / just off Cosgrove because they run around like maniacs.

[BogBrush1903]

I believe we're in the final few months of the McInnes. There's a few signs over the last couple of months that things are starting to niggle him and that he's developing a persecution complex. This hasn't been helped by the knowledge that the team's decline has been gathering pace since the start of the season and the return of the duopoly.

If Hearts and Hibs do make improvements to challenge the top 4 (likely with regards Hibs and debatable in the short term for Hearts) then we might have a problem. Kilmarnock finished above us last year and Motherwell are currently above us now. I don't think Cormack is here to oversee a team struggling to make it into the top 6.

McInnes though still seems to have the favour of the dressing room and has the ability to get a result when he needs it. The problem is that requiring a result is happening with more frequency now. We're heading for the lowest points total since McInnes took over. He badly needs to secure a European spot and get lucky in the forthcoming Scottish Cup draws.

Hibs and Motherwell both look capable of finishing above us. 5th place in the league and an early or disappointing cup exit and McInnes's persecution complex is only going to grow...and perhaps it will be fully justified.