'Full trust': Aberdeen players behind Jim Goodwin's tactics despite criticism of Celtic approach

Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin has come under fierce criticism for the way he set out his team in the 1-0 defeat by Celtic, with many supporters and pundits saying that he was far too defensive and negative in a 5-3-2 formation designed to counter-attack the rampant Premiership leaders.

Reo Hatate and Ross McCrorie in action during a cinch Premiership match between Aberdeen and Celtic.

However – and perhaps crucially – Goodwin’s tactics were not questioned by his players, who were happy to stick with his plan to get a result against the defending champions. It so nearly worked. While Aberdeen only saw 20 per cent of the ball and had no shots on target themselves, they largely limited Celtic to long-range efforts and their back-five was only breached a handful of times. It took until the 87th minute for their resistance to be broken, a Callum McGregor shot from just outside the penalty box whistling past Kelle Roos.

"We defended really well for large parts and limited them to chances – it took a wonder strike for them to score and win,” said Ross McCrorie, a key part of Aberdeen’s defence. “You’ve got to look at the team you’re playing against. Celtic are a top side and they have top quality players within their ranks. It’s hard to attack as much as we want to when they’re attacking you just as much.So sometimes you’re going to have a different style of play and game plan and that’s what we did.

“I don’t think the style of play really matters, it’s the result at the end of the day. We were very unlucky to not come away with a point but you need to look at the fact we were up against a top quality side and you can’t go gung-ho every time against these teams. We did that against Rangers at Ibrox and it was a sore one but we had our game plan and stuck to it and I thought the boys did really well at times. It was just really unfortunate to lose that goal in the last few minutes.

When asked if the stick coming Goodwin’s way was unfair, McCrorie immediately responded: “Look, the players have got full trust in the manager. He’s been excellent since he came in. We have had a really good first half of the season. We’ve had a tough couple of fixtures coming up in Celtic and Rangers [on Tuesday]. There’s no getting away from the fact the gaffer has been great since he came in. Whatever he tells us to do, we go out and do the gameplan the best we can.”