After slagging of MacLean & Mackie, in todays P&J:

 

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1629309

 

Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee has had to resist the temptation to tell his underperforming players exactly what he thinks of them – because he must rely on them to turn around the club’s season.

 

An eight-game winless run has wrecked high hopes – with the Dons poised for a bottom-six finish.

 

McGhee has no option but to keep working with the current squad and try to instil a sense of pride – even if it goes against his belief that major changes are required.

 

He said: “I have a small squad to work with. Nomatter what I think of them, it is not in my interests to tell you. Some of them will suspect I feel certain things but, ultimately, I have got to get this group through to the end of the season in reasonable shape and then I can do the work I came here to do.

 

“That has always been the case. The fact it is proving a little more rockier along the way is a surprise, but it has not diverted me from the job I was brought here to do.†Despite last Saturday’s defeat by Hearts, which leaves the Dons eight points adrift of the sixth-placed Jambos and with an inferior goal difference, the manager believes his players are capable of halting the slide down the SPL.

 

He added: “I really don’t think we lost on Saturday because we were intimidated by results at home or recent performances. We lost because Hearts got a goal and we didn’t. We were better than them but we conspired to lose a game we should never have lost. At worse, it should have ended 0-0.

 

“We were not good enough to break them down and I felt our forwards played poorly.

 

“We can only go on to the next game now and I can assure you there is no hangover from Saturday.â€

 

The deteriorating condition of the Pittodrie playing surface is also proving a cause for concern and McGhee is looking to his players to alter their style of play so they can better cope with the conditions.

 

He said: “I’ve watched Saturday’s game again and we were the better team, even if the pitch was rubbish, and it was shocking. Our attempted build-up broke down around the edge of the box and square passes never quite got there, but it wasn’t all bad.

 

“There were a lot of balls which went off our attackers and the defenders were first to them. We saw that with the goal as Steven MacLean was second to the ball and Hearts broke up the field and scored.

 

“The quality of the service is affected by the pitch. I was talking about playing percentage balls into the corner, winning corners and throw-ins and getting pressure on the opposition – simplifying things a bit more.â€

 

I'm grasping at straws here, but does he realise Kerr and McDonald are gash but he is too scared to say anything to them as they may go into a huff?

After slagging of MacLean & Mackie, in todays P&J:

 

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1629309

 

I'm grasping at straws here, but does he realise Kerr and McDonald are gash but he is too scared to say anything to them as they may go into a huff?

 

I've always thought that, the fact they're two of the most senior players in this side and two he considered giving the captaincy to right from the off suggests they may be two of the stronger characters in the dressing room.

 

I don't need him or want him to slag them off in public, I just want them dropped, but if that was going to happen it would have happened by now I suspect.

 

I don't like managers slagging and naming players in public, all that stuff should be kept in house in my opinion.

Its worse to think that one of the players he is slagging has been one of our better players this season

I've always thought that, the fact they're two of the most senior players in this side and two he considered giving the captaincy to right from the off suggests they may be two of the stronger characters in the dressing room.

 

I don't need him or want him to slag them off in public, I just want them dropped, but if that was going to happen it would have happened by now I suspect.

 

I don't like managers slagging and naming players in public, all that stuff should be kept in house in my opinion.

 

I doubt McGhee would normally do that, but it seems just now that slating the players keeps his image relatively clean. For the past month he's essentially been shouting from the rooftops that he dislikes a fair number of the players and, as a result, is desperate to be judged on who he brings in during the summer rather than where we finish this season.

No doubt. Every manager should be judged on where they finish at the end of the season, and how they do in the cups. That is our raison d'être. Who he brings in to achieve that is irrelevant.

 

 

JC was judged by that very performance contract - McGhee will be the same.

 

 

 

Is Mcghee spending every evening in the Aberdeen Journals offices?

I doubt McGhee would normally do that, but it seems just now that slating the players keeps his image relatively clean. For the past month he's essentially been shouting from the rooftops that he dislikes a fair number of the players and, as a result, is desperate to be judged on who he brings in during the summer rather than where we finish this season.

 

Where we finish this season will be as a direct result of who he brought in (or didn't) during the summer last year and also the January window - why should he not be judged on that 

 

Is Mcghee spending every evening in the Aberdeen Journals offices?

 

Or is Charlie Allan peering in through McGhees letter box?

Where we finish this season will be as a direct result of who he brought in (or didn't) during the summer last year and also the January window - why should he not be judged on that 

 

Yeah I'd agree with that, but I get the feeling McGhee is criticising the players he inherited so frequently purely as an excuse for this season, rightly or wrongly shifting the blame from himself.

Where we finish this season will be as a direct result of who he brought in (or didn't) during the summer last year and also the January window - why should he not be judged on that 

 

 

Exactly, two transfer windows thus far and we've signed Ifil, Grassi, Marshall, and 2 loan players.  And I'd suggest it's going to be even harder to attract players in the Summer given the state the club's in just now.

Yeah I'd agree with that, but I get the feeling McGhee is criticising the players he inherited so frequently purely as an excuse for this season, rightly or wrongly shifting the blame from himself.

 

Yet the most scathing criticism from him so far came the other day when he described his own signing MacLean as playing "rubbish" on Saturday.

 

Don't see much deflecting from the manager, he's taken his share of the blame as far as I can see. Criticism of the players IMO has generally been merited throughout this season rather than being used "purely as an excuse" - if anything until recently I thought McGhee had gone out of his way not to criticise individuals 

Yet the most scathing criticism from him so far came the other day when he described his own signing MacLean as playing "rubbish" on Saturday.

 

Don't see much deflecting from the manager, he's taken his share of the blame as far as I can see. Criticism of the players IMO has generally been merited throughout this season rather than being used "purely as an excuse" - if anything until recently I thought McGhee had gone out of his way not to criticise individuals 

 

To be fair I think he suggested all the forwards were 'rubbish', not just MacLean. Nonetheless the fairly regular criticism of the squad recently suggests he's writing off this season and staking everything on a summer overhaul - a risky tactic, especially if no significant improvement follows.

 

The players have certainly looked poor recently and, as suggested above, that includes McGhee's buys. He knows himself he'll be in for more stick from the fans if we continue this poor run of form until May, so such overt criticism of the players, although perhaps not his preferred method of man management, may buy him some time.

I've always thought that, the fact they're two of the most senior players in this side and two he considered giving the captaincy to right from the off suggests they may be two of the stronger characters in the dressing room.

 

I don't need him or want him to slag them off in public, I just want them dropped, but if that was going to happen it would have happened by now I suspect.

 

I don't like managers slagging and naming players in public, all that stuff should be kept in house in my opinion.

 

I very much agree with this. Everything McGhee ever says in the press should be positive. Even when we lose, he should be finding any positive and shouting about that in the press. If he is somehow 'scared' to be honest to the players in private, hes not fit to manage the team, thats one of the most important parts of his job to be honest.

Feck off, Dave.  Look at the egg-chasers.  England go to Italy, scrape a win, and Borthwock describes the performance "at times we played some outstanding rugby today."

 

To mass ridicule, because it was plainly obvious they were shite.

 

If Aberdeen are underperforming I don't want to hear a manager saying he's happy with the effort.  I want a balanced review.  At least then I have a degree of confidence that he realises there's a problem and will be doing something about it.

 

All this "you can't criticise" pish gets on my tits.

 

All this "you can't criticise" pish gets on my tits.

 

There are ways of doing it though WR.  Coming out and saying "Mackie was shite and Young was fucking ding" isn't really going to help anyone.  Agree that there's no point in trying to tell the fans something they know is utter bollocks, but at the same time there has to be some degree of united front with the manager and his players.  McGhee may well want shot of a lot of them, God knows the rest of us do, but he's got over two months of this season to go still.  Things are going to be hard enough without further apparent divisions.

Absolutely.  You don't even have to name names.  "We didn't create enough in midfield" doesn't say whether Kerr's been utter piss, McLean didn't track back as he was asked, the oppos did something surprising or he just picked the wrong tactic.

 

It just tells you he watched the same game you did.  Not that I'm against the odd rocket.

 

THe problems start when you watch two strikers apparently starved of supply get roasted.  Were they told to do something else and didn't?  Fk knows.  You never know - it might work.  Risky, though.

Feck off, Dave.  Look at the egg-chasers.

 

Fuck no.

Where we finish this season will be as a direct result of who he brought in (or didn't) during the summer last year and also the January window - why should he not be judged on that 

Totally agree. Also why blame the strikers when everyone could see they were starved of service?

I'm hearing Azteca. It's almost as if McGhee is too media (in particular internet) savy. I felt sorry for him at the end of the Hearts game, before a wave of sickness passed over me as I realised he was playing our TV support for fools.

McGhee's IQ seems to drop to single figures during interviews. What he said about the players who he won't mention was an absolute embarrassment. There was absolutely no need for him to talk about that in the slightest and it just made him seem completely dishonest. If I was one of his players I would be demanding to know who he was referring to as every player has a right to know where he stands in relation to his manager.

McGhee's IQ seems to drop to single figures during interviews. What he said about the players who he won't mention was an absolute embarrassment. There was absolutely no need for him to talk about that in the slightest and it just made him seem completely dishonest. If I was one of his players I would be demanding to know who he was referring to as every player has a right to know where he stands in relation to his manager.

possible they already know who they are

 

 

getting a bit sick of the shite spouted in the papers by MM