Has Derek McInnes had his Alex Smith moment?

Alex Smith. Cup double winning manager. The man who gave Eoin Jess his debut at just 17. Took Aberdeen to the brink of the league title. The last Dons boss to win at Ibrox.

Ask any Aberdeen fan about him though, and the majority will lament him as the one who blew it on May 11 1991.

He had spent the season playing 4-3-3 with a team that was easy on the eye. Dutch goalkeeper Theo Snelders behind a defence that had lost the retired Willie Miller but still had Alex McLeish, Brian Irvine, Stewart McKimmie and David Robertson. In midfield they had an abundance of quality with Jim Bett, Brian Grant, Peter Van de Ven and Robert Connor to pick from. Hans Guilhaus, Eoin Jess and Paul Mason added the goals with 19 year old Scott Booth emerging in the side as well.

That day at Ibrox, all Aberdeen needed was a draw to win the league. That was seen as an advantage, the Dons now favourites to win. However, the general consensus was it led to the wrong mentality in the mind of Smith.

Rangers were on ropes. A 3-0 defeat at Motherwell the week before saw them leapfrogged by Aberdeen. Manager Graeme Souness had departed a month before. Richard Gough was ill. John Brown needed an injection to play. Ally McCoist and Ian Durrant took part despite not being fit. Tom Cowan broke his leg during the game.

And yet, rather than go for their throats, the Dons boss abandoned his attacking philosophy. Aberdeen lined up 4-4-2, an on-form Booth dropping to the bench. They missed two early chances that could have changed the course of the game and history, but lost 2-0.

Smith, forever damaged by that day, lasted just nine months before being sacked.

After a string of failed successors, Derek McInnes has been good for Aberdeen. They are no longer a joke. He has provided consistency in the league, established the club as best of the rest to big spending Celtic, ended a long wait for silverware and last month provided another cup final.

This season though was always going to be a big one. Celtic were upping their game. Hearts, having settled back into the Premiership, now had their sights firmly trained on usurping the Dons. Rangers spent big with promises of sweeping everyone before them.

McInnes can have no complaints about not being backed by the board. His squad remained intact with Shay Logan giving him a surprising boost by turning down offers from England. He was able to sign six new players and add Wes Burns on loan. Since the season began Norwich’s £3.5m midfielder James Maddison has provided further talent.

Yet, even having made a cup final, the feeling is Aberdeen are yet to get going.

Europe was a disappointment. While the early qualifying rounds are a harsh climate few Scottish clubs survive, it felt a missed opportunity against a Maribor side who appeared beatable, while the defeat in Luxembourg to Fola Esch, although not fatal, rang alarm bells.

Matching Celtic in the league looks a tall order for anyone, but they haven’t given themselves a chance by dropping points in seven of their 14 league games.

These things are forgivable. Should Aberdeen finish second for the third year in a row, in addition to a good Scottish Cup run and European football once more sealed, then it will have been an acceptable season, if unremarkable.

What is harder to forget is the way Aberdeen have surrendered so weakly against the country’s top sides.

Since April, Aberdeen have faced nine games against Celtic, Rangers or Hearts. They have won just one, losing seven.

The one they did win was September’s 2-1 success at home to Rangers. In truth, but for Maddison’s genius in the last minute, Aberdeen had been second best for much of the afternoon.

However, they were on the brink of history as they faced Celtic at Hampden in the League Cup final, followed by Rangers at Ibrox. Claim a second trophy and end a 25-year wait for victory in Govan within six days. The significance of the two games appears to have been lost either on McInnes or the players. They went to Glasgow both times looking less like the Aberdeen we have known in the last three years and more like the one of the previous 20.

In wins against Partick and Inverness, McInnes appeared to have stabilised a leaky defence. Goals were conceded in both games but the back four of Logan, Anthony O’Connor, Andrew Considine and Graeme Shinnie looked organised and comfortable. Jonny Hayes and Maddison provided the creative spark, Kenny McLean looked a threat from midfield with Ryan Jack pulling the strings, and up front Adam Rooney and Jayden Stockley combined well.

So often against Celtic and on trips to Tynecastle, Rooney struggled to get into the game, finding himself detached from midfield. Simon Church’s short stint on loan last season had given something different – providing an outlet, someone to win headers and bring Rooney into the game. That partnership helped Aberdeen defeat Celtic in February and the arrival of Stockley appeared an attempt at recreating it in games when the Dons would be unlikely to dominate possession. He is never going to offer the same goal threat as Rooney, but alongside him they can make Aberdeen difficult to defend against.

At Hampden, that idea was abandoned. The defence was reshuffled; Considine and O’Connor shunted left to accommodate Ash Taylor. Shinnie moved from his favoured position back to midfield. Rooney played up front alone where he barely touched the ball.

You could see the game plan from McInnes. In the previous four encounters with the Old Firm, he had been happy to sit his players deep, let the opposition have possession in front of them, and hit on the break. The problem was on three of those occasions Aberdeen had lost and in all four it didn’t look a tactic that was working for him.

In a cup final in front of over 20,000 travelling supporters, to have just 17% possession in the opening 20 minutes is difficult to accept.

A week later, his line-up at Ibrox made even less sense.

This time Taylor partnered Mark Reynolds in defence. It is a partnership that has been tried, tested and failed so many times. O’Connor stayed on the bench, while it is a small exclusive group of people who have seen Callum Morris in an Aberdeen shirt.

Stockley started up front, but by himself. Rooney and Niall McGinn, the club’s top goalscorers, sat on the bench.

What resulted from that was Aberdeen were opened up far too easily at the back, and offered little up front. Hayes became the only outlet in the second half, playing balls into a crowded penalty area that were easily defended as Aberdeen became predictable. The one time a cross found a striker, Stockley somehow headed wide while Rooney, a man who puts them chances away in his sleep, sat with his tracksuit on.

These were games that called for McInnes to be brave. If anything, this was what he had spent three and a half years building towards. He knew at some point Rangers would be on the fixture list. He knew to win another trophy that he was unlikely to avoid an encounter with Celtic. No-one demanded him to win them both. What they expected were Aberdeen to at least show up.

Instead of achieving legendary status, fans are now asking whether he has taken the Dons as far as he can.

Unfair? Maybe. However, Celtic let Ronny Deila go despite two league titles and a League Cup. Robbie Neilson departed Edinburgh for Milton Keynes with many Hearts fans happy to see him go despite a landslide Championship win, a solid third place finish on the top flight return, and with the club in second as he departed. Had the Ibrox encounter gone the other way Rangers boss Mark Warburton may well have gone from magic hat to sacked.

McInnes is far more in credit with his board then those three, but he is under pressure now to show what he can do in adversity. He has made six signings and played only three regularly, with two yet to feature in the first team. He will likely lose Maddison and Burns in January, leaving holes that need to be plugged. What the last two games have shown more than ever is that a combatant midfielder is a necessity, and playing O’Connor or Shinnie out of position to fulfill that role is not working.

Buying well is one thing. Using them players correctly is another. When you face Celtic in a cup final you need everyone to be at their best. Four players played out of position hinders your chance to achieve that. Whether it was an attempt to be too clever or an admission that McInnes wasn’t comfortable enough taking the game to the opposition, it didn’t work. It happens, but far too often under his watch now. He will continue to lose sympathy from the support if the same mistakes are continuously repeated.

Smith lasted nine months after his big week turned sour. The next six months will answer whether McInnes has the stomach for the fight that Celtic, Rangers and Hearts are providing.

Written by Andrew Southwick