Derek McInnes’ Manny Fernandez defence certain has gotten tongues wagging down Govan way.

We looked at it earlier, in more superficial detail, but let’s go to the full quotes and look at it more deeply.

“I only get asked about Fernandez when he has a poor game. Nobody asked me about Fernandez on Saturday, he was outstanding on Saturday [against St Johnstone]. Wednesday night wasn’t on Manny Fernandez, Wednesday night was a collective. I never get asked about Manny when he does really well and he’s been a big part of our better performances this season.”

There’s a lot to chew on here, but let’s have a look at each piece.

‘I only get asked about Fernandez when he has a poor game’.

First of all, any player who has a bad game, with errors or missed chances, is going to be a topic of conversation. If McInnes is complaining about ‘only hearing about him when he has a poor game’, it means he’s having a lot of them.

That, ultimately, is indefensible.

That in itself is almost case closed.

However there’s more, isn’t there.

‘Nobody asked me about Fernandez on Saturday, he was outstanding’

Most of the team had a good match on Saturday, probably helped a little by St Johnstone being down to 10 men. Derek McInnes defence of Manny wants his boy praised for a victory over a side with 10 players? Only Dan Neil scored less than 7/10 in that match with many of them 8 or higher, according to Sofascore. Why did McInnes not praise the rest of them for being ‘outstanding’?

‘I never get asked about Manny when he does really well and he’s been a big part of our better performances this season.’

Another red flag. If a player does really well, well, he’s doing his job and it shouldn’t exactly be neon-signed, should it? The only reasons a player gets singled out are if they are completely outstanding, or absolutely horrible. And he’s also been a big part of our horrible performances as well, hasn’t he? Usually, in fact, one of the biggest causes.

Fernandez has rarely been completely outstanding, including at any point since he joined.

A fan or two have asked if this is just public man-management from the manager, or if he is plain stubborn. Or if this is him just backing his man publicly but being more scathing in private.

If the latter, why is Ben Godfrey always on the bench?

Put simply, McInnes’ quotes of recent times have been unconvincing.

He’s making some bad mistakes and errors of judgement, and is moving heaven and earth to defend those choices.

It’s fine when the team wins, but when it starts dropping points, there’s a case to answer.

Unfortunately, just like many of his predecessors, McInnes doesn’t see it that way.