Aberdeen part company with Stephen Robinson after poor league form

Aberdeen have dismissed head coach Stephen Robinson after eight months in charge following a run of poor results, the club announced on Monday; the Dons have won three of 12 Premiership matches this season, sit second bottom, and Saturday’s 4-0 home defeat by Hibernian was their fourth successive loss in all competitions.

Brian Kerr and Stephen Craigan have also left the club, with Stuart Duff placed in interim charge, and club great Willie Miller told BBC Sportsound the 51-year-old Robinson’s side were “utterly embarrassing” and that the manager resembled “a man lost”. Robinson, a former Northern Ireland international, had previously managed Oldham Athletic, Motherwell, Morecambe and St Mirren and moved to Aberdeen from St Mirren in March on a contract running until the summer of 2029.

Robinson was the sixth permanent manager appointed since Dave Cormack took control at Pittodrie in November 2019; he had guided Aberdeen away from relegation last season before overseeing a squad overhaul that brought in 15 new signings. Across all competitions his record at Aberdeen stood at 11 wins, five draws and 12 defeats from 28 games.

The club will hand the next manager a squad described in the club report as low on confidence and one of the joint lowest scorers in the league. Robinson alternated between four and five at the back during his tenure, a tactical approach that produced only two top-flight clean sheets.

Among the arrivals from the summer recruitment drive, only goalkeeper Marius Muller and full-back Nesta Guinness-Walker had featured in every league game; top scorer Kevin Nisbet was the other player to appear in every match and disgruntled fans cheered when the captain was substituted at the weekend. "You are looking at 15 payers out and 15 players in, so it is a huge turnaround of players, was that all Stephen Robinson? I would imagine probably yes but I don't know because I am not privy to that information. But at the same time, when you make that amount of changes, when you have assessed the squad and to be fair on Stephen as well he came in at a very uncertain time and relegation perhaps staring the club in the face so he managed initially to get the performances with the players he inherited. But then you make all the changes with the support from the board, you bring all these new players in and I think there was never a stable formation either," Miller said.

Former Aberdeen defender Alex McLeish added: "The board have really worked hard over the years to try and get Aberdeen back to a kind of level, won a cup a couple of years ago. I don't blame the board for anything at all. Recruitment is absolutely key and if you've bought a bunch of players and then they're not performing then that is a real worry. There's a few players in there that are already at a good level but can the others jump on that wagon and get Aberdeen rolling again because it's a very difficult time for them. I'm not going to criticise the players because I'm not really sure what level they're at. You have to be a fairly good level to be in the Aberdeen team and to get back to that kind of level is going to be tough."

Aberdeen's next set of fixtures after the international break are a trip to Kilmarnock on 21 November, a visit to Rangers three days later, and a home match against Dundee on 28 November.