Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes reckons having a manager that believes in him will bring the best out of Dylan McGeouch.
The ex-Hibernian midfielder joined the Dons on a two-and-a-half-year deal prior to their training camp in Dubai, having fallen out of favour at Sunderland under Phil Parkinson.
McInnes has tried previously to bring McGeouch to Pittodrie, with the midfielder opting to join the Black Cats previously on his departure from Easter Road in the summer of 2018. But persistence has paid off and McInnes hopes the Dons will get the best out of the Scotland international.
McInnes said: “He’s always a player I’ve admired and I tried to get him on two or three occasions previously. It didn’t happen for whatever reason but now we’ve got him. He knows the league, he knows what is expected of him and that he’s working for a manager who believes in him and what he’ll bring to us is a confidence in possession, he has that last pass in him and that creative side as well.
“I think he is a capable player. I love how he handles the ball, his ability to make that last pass for you in a creative sense. I like the way he operates. He gets about his business, gravitates about the pitch, keeps you in possession and has that quality in possession.
“Having the injuries we have had this season at times we have not had that real controlling midfield player. I think Dylan can help bring that to my team, a calmness in possession, a quality in possession. He is still a good age.
“He has managed to play for a few different clubs now. But in his last spell in Scottish football I thought he was part of a Hibs midfield that was very impressive.”
McGeouch partnered John McGinn in that Hibernian midfield, prior to both going their separate ways for challenges in England.
McInnes hopes the addition of the former Celtic youngster can bring a controlling presence to the midfield he has enjoyed in the past through players such as Ryan Jack and Kenny McLean.
He added: “Having that quality in possession, that confidence in possession, that swagger in possession. I think it is something that I have missed. Last season my midfield two, Lewis Ferguson and Graeme Shinnie, played the game differently. They played more forward, playing in perpetual motion, driving forward without the ball.
“They were different. I always felt I needed that midfield controller. Funso Ojo was brought in to be part of that and Craig Bryson to do it in a certain way. But we have been without them.
“Now hopefully bringing Dylan in, with the good players we have already got there, young Dean Campbell, Lewis Ferguson, Ojo and Bryson when he comes back, it starts to give me a bit of strength in there that I haven’t had this season.”
