“We’ll be ready for them next season. We’ll be waiting for them and ready to go again.”
On Friday’s podcast a question was posed regarding Aberdeen’s attendances. One of the suggestions for increasing the current average of 12,981 for next season was for the board to urge Derek McInnes to declare the club’s aim of challenging for the title.
But it appears that McInnes needed no persuasion judging by his above comments after Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at home to the Celtic. McInnes is building a squad he feels is good enough to challenge for the title and it is refreshing to see, or rather hear, the confident approach in declaring his intentions when it would be so easy to talk about ‘one game at a time’ or ‘finishing best of the rest’ or ‘bettering this season’s points tally’.
When it became clear that Aberdeen were going to be the closest team to Celtic, closer than any predicted, and then when their title challenge faltered, a lot was made of their poor start to the season. Yet, Celtic also made a below par start to the season. The Hoops, over the season, have only picked up two more points than the Pittodrie side against ‘the others’. The big difference is clear; in four meetings between the sides the record simply reads four wins for the champions.
In the last three meetings in particular Aberdeen have went toe-to-toe with Celtic for long spells. A late goal in the first Pittodrie game secured the three points and acted as a pivotal moment in Ronny Deila’s debut season – giving birth to the Ronny Roar. The next meeting was Aberdeen’s chance of creating a realistic title race and for the majority of the first half it looked like they may as Niall McGinn, Adam Rooney and Jonny Hayes put the Celtic backline on the back foot. However, an injury to Hayes and a Scott Brown mistake led to their downfall, eventually going down 4-0.
At Pittodrie on Sunday Celtic again won by a single goal. But it wasn’t a dominant performance. It was one built on a solid defensive performance and counter-attacking football. Aberdeen had control of midfield, pushed their defensive line high and put sufficient pressure on the Celtic backline, pressure they have not had to deal with domestically in recent seasons. McInnes pushed Hayes high up to support Rooney, with the likely intention that the combination of Rooney’s power and Hayes’s pace would trouble Virgil Van Dijk and Jason Denayer. Hayes’s movements would find the space left by Celtic’s attacking full-backs. But such was the way the game panned out Celtic’s full-backs spent more time defending than they did attacking.
The issue for Aberdeen was for all their control and possession in the final third they created very little. There was one glaring miss from Lawrence Shankland near the death as well as Mark Reynolds steering wide in the first half but other than that Aberdeen were wasteful. None more so than McGinn who had the beating of Darnell Fisher but constantly failed to pick out a man in red, while firing over more than once.
In relative terms Van Dijk and Denayer were worked hard but resisted and provided a platform for Celtic to sweep forward as they did in the first half with Stefan Johansen attempting to chip Scott Brown, then more than once in the second half. Their goal was counter-attacking at its finest. Brown won the ball cleanly on the edge of the box before motoring forward. Leigh Griffiths did extremely well to take in his over hit pass and find Armstrong out wide. Shay Logan, who was excellent throughout, made his one mistake by getting square on to the former United man inside the box. Knowing Logan was exposed, Armstrong breezed past him using a move perfected by Fernando Torres at his prime. Further composure was shown by going around Reynolds and picking out the goal scorer Brown.
The celebrations from the Celtic players at the end showed the magnitude of the win, even with the league title secured. They had defeated the team who will run them closest next season.
But what do Aberdeen need to do to close the gap on Celtic? First of all they need to start a lot stronger than they did this season. They only have a three week break before they return for pre-season ahead of the Europa League. With their history in Europe they will want to do well but it should act as the perfect pre-cursor to getting up and running for the league season. Celtic will be focused on securing passage to the lucrative Champions League stages so there may be scope to get a head start in the league. Dropping more than three points in the first half a dozen games could have a deflating effect on the players, management and fans.
Tony talked positively about the signing of Graham Shinnie on Friday’s pod. Not only does he add flexibility and depth to the squad but proven Premiership quality. Getting the Inverness captain on board opens the door for a wide range of formations. McInnes would be able to play 4-4-2, a diamond midfield, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and 3-5-2 more effectively.
In terms of the latter, a team of Considine, Reynolds, Taylor; Logan, Jack, Hayes, Shinnie; McLean/Pawlett; McGinn, Rooney really stirs the juices. Shinnie, as he demonstrated against Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi final, is a warrior who poses a real attacking threat and it would allow Hayes to move into the middle where he performed so well.
The problem McInnes has is two fold. Firstly he needs to add slightly more depth to the squad, while also signing a reliable goalkeeper and a better option than David Goodwillie in attack. One who can lessen the burden on Rooney and allow for McGinn to operate in deeper areas.
Secondly, with a range of tactical options, he needs to decipher what will be his plan A, B and C. Too much chopping and changing early in the season could result in points dropped. If he finds the solution to both of these he will be ready to lead a title charge that begins at the start of the season and hopefully lasts into April and May.
To do so Aberdeen will need to rise to another level when it comes to facing the Champions. They have proven more than once this season they can compete with Celtic. What they need to do as quickly as possible for their sake is prove they can defeat Deila’s men.
It is shaping up to be an exciting summer for the Dandy Dons. Let’s hope it leads into an exciting season for Aberdeen and Scottish football.
WRITTEN BY JOEL SKED
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