Former Aberdeen defender Alex McLeish reckons the Dons will come out on top in Sunday’s crucial match against with Rangers.
The Dons face St Johnstone in a Betfred Cup quarter-final at Pittodrie tomorrow evening – but the build-up to the tie has been overshadowed by the visit of the Ibrox club to Pittodrie this weekend.
Gothenburg Great McLeish has a foot in both camps having enjoyed a trophy-laden playing career with the Dons during the club’s most successful period, while later spending five years in charge of Rangers before being replaced by Paul Le Guen in 2006.
The bookmakers have made Rangers slight favourites for Sunday’s match – but 57-year-old McLeish disagrees.
He said: “Aberdeen are favourites. They’ve had the nucleus of a team who have played together for a long while now.
“They’re a good team, they’re the home team, and it’s never easy for Rangers to come here.
“If Rangers need a result, then it’s definitely this one they could be doing with.
“But I see Aberdeen as favourites to win the game. Rangers manager Mark Warburton should get the pressure taken off him a little bit.
“Having been the Rangers manager and walked in his shoes, I know the problem is that you’re expected to win, no matter who you’ve got on the pitch.
“If a club hasn’t quite got the quality as yet, the supporters still expect the team to win.
“Now, he might be happy that I’m saying I think Aberdeen should win. He can maybe use that in his dressing room. But, at the same time, I’m trying to take the pressure off him a wee bit.”
McLeish has been hugely impressed by the work carried out by Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes at Pittodrie – and, after successive runners-up finishes, the former Don sees no reason why they can’t remain as the second force in Scottish football behind Celtic.
He said: “I think Aberdeen will take up that challenge. People expected Rangers to keep up with Celtic and everyone else to be bit-part players.
“That’s a great incentive for Aberdeen to show Rangers how consistent they have been as a team over the past few years.
“There was a spell last season when it was pretty close between Celtic and Aberdeen.
“People have got to be realistic. I always believed Celtic would win that league. This season there is nothing to say they won’t again, but they are going to have to compete for everything – just look at the 2-2 draw against Inverness on Sunday.”
Aberdeen’s under-20 side drew 1-1 with Rangers at Balmoor in the SPFL Development League yesterday.
Frank Ross opened the scoring for the Dons after 12 minutes but Amin Bouzaig equalised for the Gers 11 minutes after the break.
