What next for Derek McInnes and Aberdeen after his Rangers rejection?

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes after his side defeated Dundee on Saturday. Picture: SNS

Alan Pattullo: Rangers statement was infantile and ill judged

A perfect example of football’s fickle nature was played out in the space of 30 hours last week. On Thursday afternoon, Aberdeen fans were, almost to an individual, calling their manager all the names under the sun for the crime of leaving the club to join their most despised rivals. Fast forward to the following day’s evening at Dens Park and they were singing his name in appreciation to the tune of I wish it could be Christmas everyday after Rangers “came calling” and Del decided “to staaaaaaaay”.

Now that the dust has settled on this momentous decision in the Scottish football season, it’s a question of ‘what next?’. Not so much about Rangers and their seemingly never-ending search for a new manager - a wait so long even Airdrie are thinking, ‘c’mon, sort it out lads’ - since we’ve been down that road plenty of times before. But ‘what next?’ for the other creator in this patter A-bomb: Derek McInnes.

His rejection of Rangers wasn’t just a shock because it was a manager turning down the opportunity to take charge of his boyhood heroes, or that Rangers are a bigger club, but also because it seemed the natural time to leave his job in the North East. The team haven’t been playing particularly well this season and, having banged his head off the glass ceiling, it seemed like as good a time as any to jump ship.

McInnes has worked wonders at Pittodrie. Not only to revive a club more concerned with relegation than European football in the immediate years before his arrival, or indeed to win them their first piece of silverware in 19 years, but to achieve a level of consistency and continuity which is almost unmatched by any non-Old Firm club in the past two decades. For the fifth season in succession they’re in the battle for second place. That’s an incredible achievement.

Unfortunately, football fans, as well as being fickle, are notoriously impatient. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’ve come from as a club, if you begin to stagnate then supporters want a change. While many fans were just lashing out in anger when it seemed McInnes was destined for Ibrox, many were genuine when they said they believed the manager had taken them as far as he could go.

In order to quell such a movement from rising up again once the feel-good factor from his Rangers rejection has worn off, McInnes will need to improve his team’s quality in the short-term.

You may not have noticed if you’ve only been paying attention to the results, but Aberdeen have barely impressed this term. At least not in comparison to recent seasons. There is still a resiliency, and they’re undoubtedly tough to beat, but the performances haven’t been there for the most part. There’s a lack of fluidity, cohesion and sometimes even energy in the Dons attack, and its left fans wanting more even when their side claim three points. In short: it’s been a slog.

The biggest positive has been the centre-back pairing, with fans much more confident in Kari Arnason and rising star Scott McKenna as their last line of defence than the duo of Ash Taylor and Mark Reynolds which came before them. However, there’s too few at the other end of the park who’ve regularly impressed.

The talent should be there. At the beginning of the campaign many felt that Aberdeen had not only replaced the loss of Jonny Hayes, Niall McGinn and Ryan Jack, but that they’d improved the strength of the squad overall. The second observation might still be true, as McInnes still has his side in joint-second, but there’s little doubt that Aberdeen miss all three of those players to a certain extent. Jack’s move to Rangers has left them without the deep-lying midfielder who’s responsible for continually recycling possession, and without Hayes and McGinn they lack pace in the side, something which badly needs addressed in the January transfer window.

There’s also a number of players who’ve have yet to fit in properly, or are playing well below their reputation. Of the latter category there’s Greg Tansey, Gary Mackay-Steven and Greg Stewart, and arguably even Stevie May. At each of their respective primes they would have been considered among the top 25 players in the league. On current form they’d struggle to make a top 10 at their own position.

The manager has tried a number of different tactical alterations: 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 3-4-3, you name it. There’s no system he seems content with. Mackay-Steven and Stewart were, on paper, terrific replacements for McGinn and Hayes, but they’re different sorts of players. Same goes for Tansey and May compared with Jack and Jayden Stockley. Aberdeen have had to change the way they play and they’ve still to truly iron it all out.

Last season they were second for total shots inside the penalty area with 361. This season they’re mid-table and on pace for only 230. Crosses, meanwhile, are way down. They used to be the most enthusiastic in the league for whipping the ball in from wide areas, leading the top flight with 939 over the course. Currently they’re on pace to record just 628.

The silver lining in all this belongs in the familiarity. Fans have seen this movie before. Last season McInnes tweaked and fiddled and eventually found a consistent starting XI which helped them finish second in front of Rangers and the rest of the chasing pack at a canter. If he can do the same again this time, Aberdeen will surely finish second and McInnes will remain the best man for the job in the eyes of the fans.

Having said that, last season there was one advantage in his favour. The team he ultimately settled on was his prefered starting XI from the season before, with Joe Lewis in place of the much-maligned Scott Brown. With all the change this past summer he no longer has that option. He’s certainly got his work cut out for him.