Wilting Dons are a bit of a worry for McInnes
IF Derek McInnes wasn’t already facing a Scottish Cup semi-final selection crisis you’d fancy this performance would have driven the Aberdeen manager to wield the axe for Hampden.
Consistent enough to have moved clear of Rangers and into second place with a win over Motherwell in midweek, Aberdeen wilted at Tynecastle in an alarming drop in performance level ahead of the club’s biggest game of the season.
With Kenny McLean, Shay Logan and Graeme Shinnie all suspended for the national stadium, McInnes doesn’t have much scope to shake things and seemed bewildered by his team’s lack of initiative at such a key juncture in the campaign.
‘Looking at today you wouldn’t say that too many have cemented their places,’ remarked McInnes afterwards. ‘I thought we were lacklustre in terms of possession. We were laboured, tepid, not dynamic enough.’
By contrast his was a controlled and measured performance from Hearts, anchored by the excellent Don Cowie and Michael Smith in central midfield, and one which extended the club’s unbeaten run since returning to Tynecastle to 14.
Aberdeen were the first team hosted by Hearts at Murrayfield, Levein’s first game back in the dug-out ending in a 0-0 draw that was notable for the fine performance from the Dons goalkeeper Joe Lewis.
He couldn’t keep a clean sheet this time but those in front simply did not offer him the necessary level of protection.
Naismith showed real composure to slot home the first, accepting Milinkovic’s pass before working the ball onto his right foot for a precise finish but there was hardly any pressure on the ball.
Worse was to follow from Scott McKenna. The youngster has rightly been lauded for a fine breakthrough season but a panicky piece of distribution put Hearts in for the second. Kyle Lafferty opted to shoot off the bat and when his effort ricocheted to the right angle of Lewis’s goal, Milinkovic was there to tuck away the second.
‘When Steven goes through in that sort of position I always feel quite comfortable that he is going to score,’ said Levein.
‘He is a very good player and David Milinkovic is alaways a threat too. He’s been out for a while so it was nice to get him back.’
Although Andy Considine had earlier headed off a post and keeper Jon McLaughlin’s handling was tested by Shay Logan and Kenny McLean, there was suddenly an abnormally high degree of comfort in the game for Levein and his players.
It was no surprise to see McInnes make a change at the interval, with Greg Stewart hooked for Kari Arnason on the back of a woeful 45 minutes.
The Iceland cap slotted in at centre-half, with Anthony O’Connor stepping forward into midfield and Kenny McLean occupying a more advanced role behind Stevie May.
One of Aberdeen’s great problems had been an inability to get Ryan Christie on the ball and, stuck on the wide right beat the on-loan Celtic player remained marginalised.
Credit for that was largely due to Marcus Godinho, the Canadian charged with staffing the left flank for Hearts. Christie was eventually withdrawn as McInnes threw another striker at the game and Adam Rooney came close to pulling one back when he knocked Considine’s header off the post and wide.
Otherwise, the Hearts defence, marshalled by the imperious Christophe Berra, held firm. ‘He is the best centre-back in the league,’ Levein later said of his captain. ‘I don’t think there is anybody who can look at him. He does the same things week in, week out and if his performance level drops it’s by half a per cent – if that. That degree of consistency helps everybody.
‘It was a strong performance and a really emphatic win.’
Although Rooney and fellow sub Gary Mackay-Steven brightened things up for Aberdeen, Hearts squandered the better of the remaining second-half chances.
Lafferty was the culprit when first he blazed over as team-mate Michael Smith waited for a tap-in at the back post and then the Northern Ireland man hit a shot straight at Lewis on the angle.
Although Rangers nudged back ahead of his team on goal difference, McInnes played down the significance of the result in terms of the race to finish runnersup behind Celtic.
‘Listen there is going to be toing and froing in the last five games. Ourselves, Hibs and Rangers all have it in our own hands. We can all finish second.
‘I think we are good enough but we have to be more competitive than we were today. But I’ve been pleased with how competitive we’ve been over the last six or seven games.
‘We came here 19 points ahead of Hearts and with so much to play for but we didn’t show any of that today.
‘Hearts didn’t need to do a lot to beat us. We beat ourselves by playing in the wrong areas and not being sharp enough in our work.
‘Hearts were worthy of their win but I don’t think it was emphatic as Craig said.’
McInnes also refuted the suggestion that his players may have been distracted by the prospect of the cup game next week.
He added: ‘I actually toyed with making more changes today but I didn’t want to give the players any indication that next weekend was more important than this.
‘I wanted to give Niall McGinn some minutes but that was it. We’ll need to make some more changes next week but these are the games we look forward to.
‘That’s why we signed up to be at Aberdeen, to get to the big games and cup finals.’