Opinion: Will Shinnie Feature Much Next Season?

Lee Clark’s era at the club was littered with negative vibes both from the players and fans. He often recruited youngsters in on loan whom didn’t gel with the other players and quite frankly were not good enough. We all remember Tyler Blackett. But one positive that did come out of that was Andrew Shinnie’s performances.

Clark played Shinnie in his preferred role as a play maker, just behind Donaldson and by doing this scored some cracking goals to earn us some valuable points such as against Watford. However, he became more and more on the edges of the team after Clark was omitted. He lost his place in the team firstly to Fabbrini when he was on loan and then to Jon Toral. The final nail in Shinnie’s coffin was when he was loaned out to Rotherham making only 3 appearances in a rather subdued loan period.

Personally, I think that Shinnie being dropped came at the wrong time. He is a confidence player and often thrives when he has a good first half and is playing well. Yes, his head does drop, but this needs man managing from the gaffer rather than being sent off to play at another club for a few months. This all happened because Shinnie picked up an injury in an U21 match after being dropped and he was seen to be just coasting.

However, I think that Shinnie brings something different to the party than Fab. Despite the blonde hair and white smile, he is actually a grafter. When Fab goes in for a tackle, he often is a bit lightweight and although he is very good in a positional sense, his aggression lets him down. Whereas I think that Shinnie does his defensive duties better than Fab and as we all know, attack is the best form of defence.

It is clear that Rowett doesn’t rate Shinnie and it is a shame that many fans have forgotten how inspirational he was in that very chaotic season under Clark’s management. But it may be the time for him to go. We have Arthur and Brown both up and coming in that position who need experience and game time so we should play them over an ageing Shinnie.

It is a good sign that he is in the squad to go on the pre-season warm weather training camp that the players go on every year as it gives Shinnie an option to bond with team mates that he hasn’t seen in a while and it gives him an opportunity to impress Gary so hopefully he can really kick on. He has one year left of his contract so it will be interesting to see what happens.