Jim Goodwin understands criticism of Aberdeens tactics in Celtic loss

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Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin admits it’s hard to argue with criticism of his cautious tactics against Celtic given the end result.

Goodwins’ side had just two shots on goal, both off target and 20 per cent possession in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Premiership leaders Pittodrie.

Former Dons captain and manager Willie Miller called the retirement tactics unacceptable and called on chairman Dave Cormack to let Goodwin know fans expect a more ambitious approach.

Goodwin had been stung by a 4-1 defeat at Ibrox earlier in the season after vowing to attack a stuttering Rangers side, and he decided to go the opposite way against the champions.

However, Callum McGregor’s 87th-minute winner meant Goodwin had little time to alter his tactics and was prepared for flak.

It’s not the most fun to watch, he says. From the fans’ point of view, I understand their frustration at the end of the game. I understand. But we thought it was the best way to go.

Unfortunately now, in hindsight, when you’re sitting here showing nothing, it’s hard to make an argument out of it.

The second half, I don’t think we offered enough to go on. The first half we had three or four dangerous attacks.

But it’s the first game for five weeks and there was probably a bit of fatigue around the hour mark, and we just tried to see the game over at the end. Celtic are a good team, they kept on going and Callum McGregor ended up finding the goods.

But if we had come away with a 0-0 and we hadn’t played particularly well, then everyone would probably have congratulated us and said how organized and disciplined we were.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case because when you settle down that way and leave with nothing, it’s hard to argue with.

Goodwin now has an important decision to make with Rangers visiting Pittodrie on Tuesday.

We haven’t decided what the game plan for the Rangers game will be, he said. We’ll see how the boys recover.

But defensively, I want us to be solid and organized. We received a lot of criticism before the World Cup about the number of goals we conceded. It’s not something that can be blamed on us here as we only conceded six goals at home.

But of course we want to be recognized as a good, attacking-minded football team and I think we have been for most of the season.

Celtic managed 33 efforts on goal in a performance Ange Postecoglou deemed the most dominant of his spell in charge of a gripping claim as his side won 9-0 against Dundee United.

Patience and faith in his players, along with the ability to summon a late winner, was further evidence of their title credentials as they reestablished their nine-point advantage over Rangers.

Postecoglou recently entertained Celtic fans by saying he was more concerned about what he had for dinner than the appointment of Michael Beales as Ibrox manager, but there was a serious element to his statement , which his players have demonstrated.

My ambition is to finish the season stronger than we started it, and if we do that, we won’t have to worry about anything but ourselves, he said.

Sometimes you can fall into the trap of thinking you have some kind of luxury of distance that you can take away from the pedal. We will never do that. I’m not going to allow us to be that kind of team.

We’re going to go for it, whether we’re first, second or wherever we are, however many points, however many goals we’ve scored, whatever, we move on to the next game trying to to be the best team we can be.

We are totally focused on who we are and what kind of football team we want to be.

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