Straight-talking captain Graeme Shinnie warned lessons must be learned from the hammering by Rangers at Ibrox.
Shinnie admits the Dons “fell apart” in a disastrous second half where all four goals in the 4-0 loss were conceded.
Skipper Shinnie insists a key learning point must be around the Dons’ mentality when suffering a setback.
The 33-year old accepts Aberdeen were too detached and exposed against a Rangers side who were on a seven-game winless slump at Ibrox.
Shinnie revealed an in depth post-mortem into the loss was conducted by the management and squad.
Analysing what went wrong at Ibrox
And they aim to come up with a solution for the Pittodrie clash against Celtic on Wednesday.
He said: “It’s a big lesson and one we have to analyse over the next couple of days.
“There are a lot of things that we need to put right.
“It was not good enough in the second half.
“There’s a lot to analyse. We needed to look at some of the things when we didn’t do well.
“Sometimes when you come to places like Ibrox people want to make up for it when you go a goal down.
“And sometimes you can do the wrong things in trying to do that.
“Sticking to what we plan on doing as a team is stronger, but the mentality and the way we reacted to going a goal down, it just wasn’t good enough – and they took full advantage of it.
“Football is always a learning game.”
Aberdeen’s capitulation at Ibrox was horrific timing ahead of two season-defining matches against treble-chasing Celtic inside two weeks.
Aberdeen’s structure ‘too detached’
Following this week’s Pittodrie showdown, the Dons will again face Celtic in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday, May 24.
It could have been a heavier loss at Ibrox as keeper Dimitar Mitov made seven saves despite conceding four goals.
Shinnie said: “We started well and created a few chances.
“But when we lost one goal the team stopped doing what we planned on doing.
“The structure of the team just became too detached and Rangers countered that well with the areas they picked up.
“They exposed it and we didn’t deal with it well enough.
“Even in the first half, I didn’t think we did well enough with the ball
“We rushed too much when we got into the forward areas and gave the ball back to them too easily.
“We had to take more care, because there was large spaces for us when we turned over the ball.
“Wednesday’s another game.
“We need to dust ourselves down and get ready to go again.”
Defeat at Ibrox delivered a damaging blow to Aberdeen’s rapidly evaporating aspirations of finishing third in the Premiership.
Shinnie will not give up fight for third
Third-placed Hibs hold a three point advantage and a superior goal advantage over the Reds.
Shinnie accepts overtaking the Easter Road club is an uphill task – but he will continue fighting.
He said: “It will be very tough, but we will still give it our all and try to get third.
“There’s two games to go.
“And there’s still a chance, so we will still give everything that we’ve got to try and get it.
“And we’ll see what happens.”
Scottish Cup final not a distraction
Aberdeen are set to contest the club’s first Scottish Cup final since 2017.
It is 35 years since Aberdeen last lifted the Scottish Cup in 1990.
Could the players have been distracted at Ibrox by thoughts of the Scottish Cup final?
“Absolutely not, “ said Shinnie. “Because these types of performances have happened during the season before.
“So the cup final playing no part in that.
“It’s about taking each individual game as it comes and we prepared well for Rangers.
“I thought we were fine until the first goal went in around about the 55th minute.
“First half, Rangers had a few chances, but nothing major.
“In the second half, we came out and started well.
“Up to the first goal, it was alright, but after that was when it fell apart.”
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