Give yourselves a chance.
The rallying cry of underdog managers everywhere, seeking to reinforce the importance of their players laying the foundation for unlikely success by keeping the score close for as long as possible.
Longer, certainly, than 120 seconds.
In their extended preparation time for this fixture Aberdeen will have done much work on Celtic’s trademark tactic of fast restarts, but even the best-laid footballing plans are subject to the vagaries of events.
Though twice in their first possession did the hosts attempt to wrong-foot the Dons by getting a ball into play atypically quickly – from a goal kick and then a throw-in – on each occasion Aberdeen’s defensive shape was immediately perfect.
By the time it dropped to Callum McGregor there were seven Dons behind the ball and between the goalposts.
Sometimes, against quality opponents, even good defensive strategy isn’t enough.
But it is in that knowledge that players must be prepared to switch track when unwelcome outcomes occur, and it is on that metric that Aberdeen unquestionably fell far short.
Having no shots on target during an entire match is not ideal under most circumstances, but when playing from behind for almost the full 90 minutes it becomes, to all intents and purposes, a concession.
Even in the bizarre passage of play where the patently bored Joe Hart trundled out of his box and bobbled around in midfield in the manner of a works five-a-side, the Dons failed to muster sufficient bodies in the final third to create an open lane for a strike at goal.
Ultimately this came unhelpfully early in the post-Jim Goodwin rebuild of a shellshocked squad, whose fragility Barry Robson was entirely correct to note.
New managers rarely enter with a light tread, so they would be well advised to toughen up fast.
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