The Dons go into the game sitting in third in the league, unbeaten in their last four games, while their opponents are looking to bounce back from back-to-back 4-0 defeats to Celtic and Ajax.

Aberdeen are winless in their last ten home fixtures with Rangers, something Goodwin is well aware of. To put a stop to it, the Irishman wants his team to attack with the view the visitors will be “low in confidence”.

"I want us to have the mindset that we are capable of not just stopping Rangers, but winning the game,” he said.

“In recent games (against Rangers) the club’s approach was maybe not to get beat but I want us to have the positive mindset going into it that we are capable of causing an upset.

“People might not look at it as a major upset but it would be an upset. Aberdeen haven’t beaten Rangers too often in the league in recent years but we want to try to put a stop to that this weekend.

“We have approached every game to be on the front foot, to be entertaining and to be aggressive with the opponent in the right manner. We don’t sit off teams and allow them to dictate to us, regardless of the opposition.

“We want to have that as our main focus in every game we go into and the players have bought into that. We have brought a lot of energy and a lot of pace into the team.

Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin plans to attack Rangers. (Photo by Euan Cherry / SNS Group)

“You can’t be sitting off teams, especially at home at Pittodrie. We cannot allow Rangers to come up the road and dictate the pace of the game.

“They are coming into this game low on confidence, I should imagine, after the last two results. We are on the opposite end of that.

He added: “We are sitting third in the table and there is a great atmosphere and energy about the whole place at the moment. We want to make sure that is there come half past two on Saturday afternoon.”

Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin sets out attacking intent for 'low in confidence' Rangers

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