In stamping his authority as manager of Aberdeen, Jim Goodwin has also made an example of Jay Emmanuel-Thomas. “The big man has got a bit of work to do physically before he will be considered,” Goodwin said yesterday of the broad forward. If Goodwin is to turn Aberdeen’s season around, there can be no room for passengers.
Aberdeen have three games left if they are to salvage something from their season and finish in the top half of the cinch Premiership. They sit 10th, five points behind fourth-place Hibernian and host the Easter Road side at Pittodrie tomorrow.
Emmanuel-Thomas was signed last summer and in one of his first interviews predicted that he would score between 20 and 25 goals this term. In 24 appearances, he has managed just one and he has been left out of the matchday squad for the last three matches.
Goodwin believes Aberdeen can finish in the top six if they win their next three matches against Hibernian, Dundee and Ross County. He did not go as far as to say that Emmanuel-Thomas’s career in the north-east was over, but the 31-year-old certainly faces a stern task in proving to Goodwin that he deserves an opportunity to play a part in the final games of the campaign.
“The fitness aspect is a big thing for the players and they have all been made aware of that since day one,” Goodwin said. “We need players in the squad who can withstand the physical demands I’m going to put on them and that is the nuts and bolts of why the big man is not involved.” Aberdeen have failed to win any of their last 10 matches but remarkably remain in the hunt for European football and a win tomorrow would thrust them into the battle for fourth. For Goodwin, however, the immediate priority is a top-half finish.
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“We’ve got three huge games coming up and it all starts on Saturday against Hibs,” Goodwin said. “They are all cup finals and we need to win all of them.
“I think it is going to take three wins to get us to where we want to be. It might not be enough but we have to believe it will be. Some people are suggesting two wins and a draw might be enough but I think we have to go all-out and try to get three wins and see where it takes us. It will be tough on Saturday as Hibs are a good side and they scored two good goals against Motherwell at the weekend. We know how they will approach the game so we have to impose ourselves on them.”
Joe Lewis will captain the team after Scott Brown cut short his Aberdeen contract. Goodwin moved to play down speculation that the midfielder had left the club on bad terms.
“Scott came to Aberdeen with the previous management team to get some coaching,” Goodwin said. “I’m quite hands-on as a manager. I do a lot of the day-to-day stuff. There really wasn’t going to be an opportunity for Scott on that front. Also on the playing side of things, we’ve got quite a few midfielders and I just didn’t feel Scott was going to play regularly between now and the end of the season. He kind of agreed that maybe it was best that we part company.”
Andy Considine and Marley Watkins will return to the squad for the visit of Hibs having both been injured for much of the campaign. The return of Considine will be particularly pleasing for fans, the veteran defender having injured his cruciate ligament in the Europa Conference League qualifier against Qarabag last August.
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“We need to be fair to him,” Goodwin said. “I don’t want to throw him in and ask too much of him too early, because that’s when you end up getting another kind of injury.”
Aberdeen have not played since March 5 and Goodwin hopes that time spent on the training ground during the two-week break will pay dividends when they return to action.
“We’ve had plenty of time to get our ideas across to the players and give them a good understanding of what we are asking them to do,” he said.
“There has been a lot of work done on the training pitch to get my ideas across and it is now very much my way of doing things. That’s why I will take full responsibility. You can’t keep passing the buck and blaming the past manager. It’s on me now going forward and we need to win these three games. We won’t be shying away from it.”