With a solid pre-season completed, we enter the season full of optimism. It would be hard to maintain standards with a weaker squad but were we up to it? As always, see snippets and teasers on my Twitter account – @FM_Henke.
Tartan Army on Tour
Our run was ended 4-0 away at Trabzonspor. Rangers beat Roma and Guimaraes, then lost to Valencia – man was that tough. Hibs beat Vojvodina and lost to Midtjylland.
Celtic beat Trepca, HJK, Rapid Vienna and Panathinaikos to draw a CL group of PSG, Shakhtar and Anderlecht! Ouch. 7 points saw them sneak third place and they will face old rivals Beskitas in the Europa League. The coefficient is looking good!
The League
You’re probably familiar with the phrase ‘a game of two halves’ or maybe even ‘a season of two halves’, but my season so far has been ‘a half season of two halves’! I don’t think it will catch on either…
I say this because there are a few cracks appearing in our game. Looking at the results we had a blistering opening half (quarter?) scoring goals for fun – 25 goals in our opening 10 games sitting at the top of the pile. Sure, we were conceding too but what the hell, it’s fun to watch! That came crashing to a halt at Celtic Park and we’d only pick up 3 wins in our next 11 games. Absolutely rubbish. We dragged ourselves out of the slump against Hamilton Accies but then a trip to Ibrox robbed us of any belief we had and we went back to our losing ways. The last game before the break was a 1-2 home loss to Celtic. Morale Manager 2018 strikes again!
Is it fair to call it MM18? Probably not. A quick trip to #slack during the St. Johnstone battering (said no fitba fan ever) had me talk through some of our problems. The goals had dried up. Our defence was leaky. We couldn’t pass the ball. Chances were few and far between. Morale was shot. Our first place was now a desperate hold on 4th, setting up a frantic chase to drag us back into Europe next year. OK, it was a long talk! So many areas needed fixing, and this needed to happen yesterday!
Constant tinkering during our run had deformed our philosophy and upon reflection we were playing anti-futbol without going all out defensive. A half measure, stuck in the middle of a bizarre limbo. No wonder the fans and board were getting edgy.
Out came the paper pad and I listed my best players and their best roles: McLean (advanced playmaker); Shinnie (aggressive fullback); Rooney (pure goal scorer); Wright (tricky inside forward); Savoury (winger); Mackay-Steven (winger). I needed to let these players off the leash, doing what they do best. I employed a 5×5 method (5 defenders and 5 attackers). This is perhaps a 5.5 x 4.5 with the wingers on support but the point is that before I was steadily getting deeper and deeper allowing St. J to dominate me – we need to start getting at teams! Two results in 3-0 vs Ross County and 1-2 vs Celtic could be promising. I’ve got 4 points to make up on Hearts and I’ll be playing them at least once away before the season comes to an end. Exciting times.
Looking at that XI picture it strikes me how many injuries we’ve had so far. Logan is out, Tansey has just come back. McLean has been out a lot, so has Rooney. In an already thin first team squad, injuries can be a crippler. I also really can’t decide who my best GK is! Poor Scott Wright still can’t get into my team! I need this to click because to finish 4th or worse would be a complete disaster and I’m not sure the board would keep me in a job. I’ll mention how important those youth intakes are again, when injuries strike you need those 3-star potential players coming through who can come in and be a cog in the machine to get you through a few games.
Scottish League Cup
Scraped through vs Livingstone. Beaten by Celtic. Bummer. Exciting chapter!
Manager’s Office
During the winter break, we will be staying in Aberdeen and pumping some minnows for morale. I’m quite tense about our opener away at Partick too which is a banana skin. Four points behind Hearts… we can do this.
I need a cup run, despite the extra games, and a home tie vs Brechin should be a nice start in the last 32. It’s all about that draw though because I can’t get near Celtic or Rangers.
Financially we look OK and we have improved a lot of facilities and the backroom team. This is an ongoing process. Once the league prize money comes in at the end of the season we should be secure to then ask for some more upgrades. We have however already paid out £3.2m in ground maintenance, I told you Pittodrie was falling down!
As ever, I look forward to the youth intake! We need depth and something to get excited about!
