McInnes wary of Celtic desire to ‘slap down’ Dons threat

DEREK McINNES believes Celtic gain motivation from a desire to ‘slap down’ the challengers from Aberdeen.

The champions have a perfect win record in the last two years over McInnes — seven league and two cup clashes since the Dons beat Ronny Deila’s side in February 2016 at Pittodrie.

Aberdeen are the only top-flight outfit to fail to register at least a point against Celtic in that time.

Last season’s relegated club, Inverness, even chipped in when becoming the first team to avoid defeat to a Brendan Rodgers-led side.

Both league games this season were 3-0 victories for Celtic. Today, Aberdeen need a positive result to draw level on points with Rangers and narrow the gap on Celtic to six points.

‘Celtic have always seen our game as an opportunity to slap us down,’ said McInnes. ‘They’ve always played their strongest team and, when the games come thick and fast for Celtic, that isn’t always the case against other teams.’

McInnes chased home Deila’s Celtic twice in the Ladbrokes Premiership then comfortably held off Rangers to claim a third successive runners-up berth last year.

Celtic’s display of less dominant form under Rodgers compared to last year has led to debate about whether Aberdeen or Rangers can now close in further to set up a title race.

The Dons, who were only four points behind with ten games to go in 2015/16, are nine behind with 11 to play.

McInnes laid bare how difficult it will be by claiming Aberdeen will likely need to win every game to be crowned champions.

‘When you have a club the strength of Celtic, it would probably need them to fall below their standards to give others an opportunity — as it currently stands.

‘Ironically, we are as close as we’ve been to them at any point this season — nine behind with 11 games to go.

‘But there are other teams in the mix. When you have three teams within nine points you’d have to say that nothing’s certain.

‘It is up to us to try to keep winning. I still think 80-plus points will win the league. We’re on 52 with 33 to play for so that shows you the task ahead. To get to 80-odd points with only 11 games to go will be tough.’

McInnes, without banned captain Graeme Shinnie and on-loan Ryan Christie, stressed his team must gain belief from what their league rivals have achieved in one-off games against Celtic.

‘You take confidence when you look at how other teams have performed against Celtic,’ said McInnes. ‘We’ve looked at how a couple of European teams have played against them and tried a similar approach.

‘The majority of times we’ve tried to be ourselves, though, with the same personnel and system we’d go with in every other game. And take them on.

‘When we play against a better level of team there’s a bit more thought to the balance between attacking and defending.

‘Earlier this season we took on Celtic with two out-and-out strikers for the first time... we lost 3-0 and absolutely got overrun in the middle of the park.

‘We’ve tried a back five, tried different ways to find a way to win. I watch Celtic playing other teams and they allow themselves to make a lot of changes.

‘But we’ve not quite managed to find a way to beat them in the past two seasons. Last year the Celtic team was very strong and this year, when they’re really focused and on it, are equally as strong.’