Recruitment last route left for under-fire boss

It is not hard to see why Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin regards strengthening his defence as the most important recruitment issue facing the club in the remaining days of the transfer window.

Fans can see it is the team’s fundamental flaw. The manager and his backroom staff can see it too. We all can.

It has been clear for months that a porous defence, mixed with a truly horrific away record, is a toxic combination.

It has been equally evident that the away form has been a problem which stretches back longer than Goodwin’s reign.

Aberdeen have gone from being a team which won more than half of its away league matches from 2013-2019 to a team struggling to win a quarter of them.

Even the draw specialists under Craig Brown, a team which drew 15 of 38 league games, won five away matches in his final campaign in 2012-13.

The double-figure away wins slipped to five in 201920, albeit in a season which came to a premature end after 30 games.

Derek McInnes’ final campaign in charge brought six wins on the road. Stephen Glass’ sole season produced a miserly two, a tally matched by the current Dons boss.

No wonder confidence is draining. The current squad has not picked up a solitary point so far from any game home or away where they have conceded the opening goal.

It is a statistic which the Aberdeen manager is far

from pleased about. Goodwin said: “It is very difficult to put your finger on how you change that but you have to keep trying to encourage and motivate.

“The players are well aware of what needs to happen.

“Internally we feel that we have made significant progress in terms of the movement that we have made but from an external point of view all that is noticed is the results and we don’t shy away from that or the fact we have conceded too many goals.

“It needs to change quickly.”

The problem for anyone trying to make a case for the defence at Aberdeen is that there simply isn’t one.

The team has kept one clean sheet away from

home in the Premiership, and that was back in August 20 when they won 1-0 at St Johnstone.

The previous clean sheet away from home? McDiarmid Park again, in December 2021.

Wednesday’s 5-0 capitulation to Hearts took the Dons’ tally of conceded goals on the road in the league this season to 27.

Goodwin was stunned by how cheaply the goals were given away.

He said: “It was very strange because it was not one that I saw coming.

“We took two steps backwards on Wednesday with the goals we conceded.

“We found ourselves going behind to a goal from a long throw and then 10 minutes after that a 70yard diagonal ball over the

defence. You are 2-0 down with a mountain to climb against one of the top teams in the league and they were very avoidable situations for me.”

The 27 goals conceded away from home equals the number conceded in the whole of last season, which amounted to 19 matches.

This Dons team has only played 11 away games so far in the Premiership and is on course to be the first Aberdeen side since season 2010-11 to break the 30-goal barrier.

In total 38 goals were conceded in that campaign and it cost Gothenburg Great Mark McGhee his job as Dons boss.

It was left to former Scotland manager Brown and Archie Knox to haul the club out of the mire in

the old Scottish Premier League.

If it sounds like a broken record at this point it is only because the problems are not being addressed.

Everyone keeps talking about it because it keeps happening and clearly it makes for depressing and possibly ominous viewing for all concerned.

For all the talk of the personnel at the club, of which there has been plenty, the bigger issue at play is the repeated mistakes which seem to be costing this side dear.

A deep dive through the season stats on statsbomb tell the story.

To date the Dons have allowed the opposition 172 shots at goal excluding penalties.

Only Livingston (179) and Ross County (197) have given their opponents more chances at goal.

Away from home five of the 27 goals have been from the penalty spot while five others have been given away from set-pieces.

That can be broken down further to two from a throw-in, two from a corner and one from an indirect free-kick.

The other 17 goals have been from open play where teams have found their way through the defence and converted their chances.

Those 17 goals have been conceded from 116 openplay shots in 11 games and only 39 of them have been from outside the box.

It suggests home teams do not struggle to break down the Dons defensive barrier when they come calling.

There is no rhyme nor reason to this. No distinct pattern. But clearly the problems are numerous and still happening.

Goodwin has tweaked personnel and his system. The shocking 4-0 loss at Dundee United in early October led to the Dons boss switching to a back five.

However, he has reverted to a back four following four straight defeats after the World Cup break and then expressed his desire to finish the season with a four-man backline.

Establishing what is happening is the easy part. Fixing it is proving the problematic bit.

The Dons boss has exhausted all options within his squad.

The only option remaining at this point seems to be trying something or someone else.

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PRESSURE: Dons manager Jim Goodwin knows he has to boost his defensive options amid scrutiny over his position.