Jim Goodwin: I heard Aberdeen fans moaning about tactics against Celtic - but I felt it was best way to go

Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin defended his team’s ultra-conservative approach despite losing 1-0 at home to Celtic in the cinch Premiership.

Jim Goodwin explained his tactical approach in Aberdeen's 1-0 defeat by Celtic.

The Dons went down to a late Callum McGregor strike after frustrating Celtic for long periods of the match with a 5-3-2 formation and sitting very deep. However, they failed to have a shot on target and there were boos from the Aberdeen fans at full time after watching what they deemed to be negative football.

“There are plenty of ways to play a game of football,” said Goodwin. “We went to Ibrox earlier in the season tired to have a go and could have conceded ten. So we tried to frustrate Celtic and did that, although we didn’t do enough with the ball when we got it. We got tired and a bit of fatigue set in about the hour mark.

“It’s not a style of football our fans have been used to, we have been very attacking and scored a lot of goals. But today I felt this was the best way to go, to give us a chance. I heard the mumping and moaning from the fans at the end and I understand it, but I felt this was the best way to get something.

“You want to be viewed as a good attacking team, but as much as I’d like to say we can go toe to toe with Celtic we have tried that in the past and it hasn’t worked. So we tried something different and for 87 minutes it worked even though it’s not good to watch.

“In hindsight, sitting here with nothing to show from it it’s hard to argue. The criticism that is going to come should come my way because the players carried out the instructions. We didn’t offer enough going forward in the second half, I felt we did in the first half with Duk getting up the pitch. If we had come away with a 0-0 everyone would have been patting us on the back. But when you set up that way and come away with nothing, it’s difficult to argue.”

Asked if he would replicate the same approach on Tuesday, when Aberdeen host Rangers, Goodwin replied: “We have not decided on the game plan for the Rangers game, The boys put a lot into it so we’ll have to see how they are. We have had criticism about the amount of goals we have lost away from home, at home we have been a good attacking team. We will sit down as a staff tomorrow and decide what to do for Tuesday.”