This is the first of 12 individual blogs that will study the outlook for each team in the SPL this season. The teams will appear one by one, through the week, in alphabetical order. So we start, as we always do, with Aberdeen. The club took baby steps in the right direction last year, but the supporters are looking for improvement to be more in the style of “leaps and bounds” if they are going to begin flooding back to Pittodrie. So is a return to European football likely? Craig Fowler and Simon Furnivall write.
An awful start saw the club win only once in their first nine league games and sit just one point off the bottom of the table, with just four goals scored. Their form in December and January held off any talk of potential relegation, but the club rarely looked like finding the top six as they were continuously blighted by a lack of goals. In short, they scored the fewest in the SPL. It’s a strange statistic when you consider that, in Scott Vernon, they have one of the better natural goalscorers in the league. Vernon managed a respectable 11 goals, but the next highest teammate only managed three, and his various strike partners (Mackie, Magennis and Fallon) combined for only four.
Summer Activity
Craig Brown has moved to fix his side’s attacking woes by bringing in Niall McGinn from Celtic (via a loan spell at Brentford) and Jonny Hayes from Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Interestingly it seems that Brown is intent on using McGinn as a striker, most likely off Scott Vernon. McGinn certainly has the pace and directness to make a success of the role, and with a hopefully increased supply of chances given the addition of Hayes, could make Aberdeen a much more threatening prospect to face this season.
A lot of the deadweight has been shifted, but they’ve also lost a lot of their steel with Kari Arnason departing for Rotherham. Arnason was a big reason for the turnaround after the club’s sluggish start, and though his form dipped towards the end of the season, his presence in the middle of the park will be sorely missed. The return of Mark Reynolds to Sheffield Wednesday, following his loan, creates a depth problem in the centre of defence, while Fraser Fyvie’s switch to Wigan robs the club of a talented young player.
Key Player
Jonny Hayes – Aberdeen’s single biggest problem last season was scoring goals. They failed to find the net on seventeen occasions in the league, and perhaps the main reason for their goal shy nature was a lack of quality chances. Brown has moved to address that in signing Niall McGinn and Jonny Hayes, and it is the latter I expect to be crucial. A man who built a good reputation for himself during his three years in Inverness, with the ability to beat a man and deliver a cross, which is exactly what Aberdeen need. To get goals they need chances, and it’ll fall upon Hayes’ shoulders to create them.
Manager
Craig Brown’s salvage job on the 2010/11 season had many predicting more than what we eventually saw from Aberdeen last term. His teams have always had a reputation for being difficult to watch, but that Aberdeen side took the biscuit; at one point they drew 0-0 four times in a run of seven games. On the whole, though, his signings have been strong, and if that trend continues then more excitement will be brought to Pittordrie with the acquisition of Hayes and McGinn. However, if Aberdeen fail to make a run at 2nd place then expect the pressure to be heaped on Brown.
Projection
Brown’s reputation took a dent last season but he’s still one of the more astute managers in the Scottish game. With players like Hughes, Vernon, Considine, Anderson, and now Hayes, his team already have the basis of a top six side with a nice balance of talent throughout the starting eleven. Last season Aberdeen seemed to have a solid defensive foundation – they ended the campaign with the fifth best defensive record in the league – and with Brown having moved to address their lack of attacking guile, improvement upon last season is the minimum the fans should expect. That improvement, allayed to Brown’s ability to get the best out of limited players and the continuing flow of young talent coming through the system, means that the Dons have one of their strongest squads in quite a few years, and a jump into the top six is certainly a realistic aim.
Verdict
The defence stays solid and things continue to improve on the attacking front. It’s not enough for second but it’s a major improvement.
Craig: 4th Simon: 6th Joel: 4th
20/20 Hindsight
What we got right and what we got wrong
Right: We didn’t see 20 goals but we trusted Brown and his opinion that McGinn would make a good forward. At the other end of the park the defence was just as strong as we thought it’d be.
Wrong: We now look ridiculous for bigging up Johnny Hayes to the extent that we did and this directly led to us being completely wrong about the attacking guile improving and amount of 0-0’s diminishing.