McInnes will fight to retain McKenna
ABERDEEN boss Derek McInnes admits he is expecting to have to fend off fresh offers for defender Scott McKenna this summer.
The 21-year-old has capped an impressive breakthrough season with a PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award nomination.
His manager knows that will only alert fresh suitors to the new Scotland cap’s burgeoning potential after a number of bids from Hull City were rejected in January.
However, with McKenna tied down on a new deal until 2023, McInnes is confident he will be able to persuade the centre-half to continue his footballing education with the Dons.
‘Next season people will be looking at him a bit closer because the spotlight has been on him,’ said McInnes. ‘So it’s up to Scott to replicate his form and that is the challenge for him and for any young player.
‘There will be challenges ahead. We will get offers, as we have done
in the past, but we can decide with Scott what is best for him.
‘Thankfully Scott has re-signed again and has the maturity and patience to remain here — and the intelligence to know he is far from the finished article.
‘He will gain experiences good and bad.
‘We will make him a more rounded player and more ready for what he will face in the future.
‘Scott can also get a lot of that experience through international football now Alex McLeish has made him a firm part of the Scotland set-up.
‘But he can also get highly competitive games here and hopefully European football. He will play a key part in key games, especially the ones coming up.’
Tonight’s clash with Hearts at Pittodrie comes into that bracket. As the race for second place reaches boiling point, McInnes has challenged his players to handle the heat.
If they are to secure a fourth consecutive second-place finish, they will have to find a winning
formula that has eluded them in big games this season.
After beating Kilmarnock at Rugby Park last Saturday, McInnes is targeting a minimum of three wins out of the four remaining league fixtures this season.
But they have a tough run. After Hearts, they face Hibernian and Rangers, also at home, before finishing the season at Celtic Park on May 13.
Aberdeen have lost all three matches against both Old Firm sides this season.
They have also drawn twice with Hearts and lost once, failing to score a single goal against Craig Levein’s side.
McInnes knows that must change if his team are to again finish best of the rest.
‘What will it take to finish second? I think winning at least three of our last four games,’ he said. ‘And maybe even more, you never know.
‘Hibs, Rangers and ourselves have all shown over the course of the season that we are capable of being good teams.
‘None of us have been quite good enough to challenge Celtic properly for the title. But I’ve
always felt there was not a lot in it between us.’
Hibs host Kilmarnock tomorrow while Rangers travel to Celtic on Sunday.
But rather than try to heap pressure on his rivals by emphasising how an Aberdeen victory tonight would leave them chasing the Dons, he is more concerned with trying to breach a watertight Hearts backline that earlier this season set a new club record for consecutive clean sheets.
‘That psychological stuff is not something I pay too much attention to,’ said the Dons boss. ‘It’s just about trying to get a win. If you can win your own match you have done your bit.
‘I was pleased with the
performance here against Hearts when we drew 0-0 in December.
‘There was no doubt they were the better team and the game was in the middle of their clean-sheet record.
‘They have good experience in Aaron Hughes and Christophe Berra, who are fantastic centrebacks, and young John Souttar is good, too.
‘Jon McLaughlin, their keeper, has been excellent and in front of the defence they are always compact and organised.
‘They like to get plenty of bodies in their own half and, last time out, we played to their strengths and allowed them to counter us.
‘We have to find a way to breach their defence and find a way to goal. That’s the challenge for us.’