Scotland international dealt major title blow as manager feels the heat - 'you can feel the negativity'
The 43-cap Scotland international has part part of a side that have stuttered in the title race of late.
Scotland international Scott McKenna was dealt a fresh blow to his hopes of claiming the 1. HNL title, as Dinamo Zagreb fell to their second defeat in three league games, losing 2-1 against Astra 1961.
Dinamo Zagreb entered the game at the Aldo Drosina Stadium needing all three points. Title rivals Hajduk Split had won 2-0 against Osijek just 24 hours earlier. Dinamo had an astonishing 31 attempts on goal but found themselves undone when Nigerian youth international Salim Fago Lawal scored twice in the opening half hour. Mounsef Bakrar halved the deficit on 81 minutes, but they couldn’t stage a late comeback.
The 28-year-old defender, who has been named in Steve Clarke’s squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifying games against Greece and Denmark, made the surprise summer move to the Maksimir Stadium in the summer despite being linked with a return to the Scottish Premiership with Celtic and Rangers, triggering a release clause following Las Palmas' relegation from La Liga last season.
Signing a ‘multi-year’ contract with the Purgeri, the former Aberdeen centre-back enjoyed a near-perfect start to life with Mario Kovačević’s side in the Croatian top flight, winning all four of their opening fixtures to go top of the league early on in the campaign, achieving a 14-year first by not conceding a single goal in their first four games. McKenna’s impressive start to life with Dinamo Zagreb resulted in him being labelled as the club’s ‘signing of the summer’.
However, after a strong start to the new season, McKenna’s side have now begun to stutter and have fallen four points behind Hajduk Split in the title race. Having suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to mid-table HNK Vukovar 1991 in late October, they have now recorded back-to-back away defeats, while the Blues also fell to a Europa League defeat last Thursday, losing 3-0 at home to Celta Vigo.
“From the beginning, there was some negativity,” said head coach Kovačevic. “We're doing the best we can right now. The players listen and work; I can't say otherwise. You can feel the negativity, but we have nothing else—we'll try to get out of it. We need to keep working and be persistent. I think the international break will help us calm down. There's a lot of quality here, and when it comes together, it shows. It's not easy to organize, but I think we'll get out of this very quickly.
“Of course I'm sorry for the fans. I'm aware of everything, I know how it is without results. I'm doing the best I can; others decide my future. We had incredible misses in the first half; if we'd scored, it would have been easier. We wanted to, tried maximally, scored once, could have equalized—congratulations to Istra on the win.”
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