CUP FINAL
McInnes and Sunderland. I can understand why the Black Cats would be interested in him – but I’m not sure what there is to interest McInnes going there.
On the face of it Sunderland looks great. The chance to play in front of 40,000-plus crowds and get a big club moving in the right direction on a massive salary sounds appealing.
But dig below the surface and you might see something different. The club is a mess. David Moyes left because he had no money to spend, the best players could be leaving and the squad is going to be stripped for the start of the next season.
There are also issues over the future of chairman Ellis Short and a possible change at the top. It might be more trouble than it’s worth.
That’s for later of course. Hampden is all that counts for McInnes today and coming up with a way to stop Celtic.
Although Dons lost a fifth straight game to the champions at Pittodrie two weeks ago there was still plenty of encouragement.
Aberdeen caused Celtic problems and they did so by being direct.
Long balls put Rodgers’s defence under pressure and they gave up chances to the Reds.
Had Aberdeen been more clinical they could have recovered a 3-0 deficit. That’s not fanciful, that’s the truth. It’s not pretty but if I was McInnes I’d name Jayden Stockley in the starting line-up again to ruffle up Dedryck Boyata and try to play off second balls.
That worked at Pittodrie. I’m a big Adam Rooney fan but I think Stockley is the best bet for this game.
It’s about finding a way to win and Aberdeen’s best chance is to avoid a flowing game because they don’t have the players to cope with Celtic.
Containing Rodgers’s team is virtually impossible and sometimes you just have to go out and win a game.
Celtic are the masters and, as they showed in the Betfred Cup Final and the first 11 minutes at Pittodrie a fortnight ago, they have the talent to blow Aberdeen out of Hampden.
As is always the case if the front four turn up Celtic are unstoppable.
They are super talented and their performances at home and in Europe made a mockery of Kris Boyd’s comments about Scottish football’s standards never being lower. That was disgraceful if you ask me. It’s nothing like that. It’s bad enough getting kicked by those in the south without one of the game’s own lobbing out such severe criticism. Anyway back to the point. It was noticeable the only time Celtic didn’t beat Rangers this season, Moussa Dembele, Scott Sinclair and James Forrest had poor games. Flip that and when Leigh Griffiths, Sinclair and Patrick Roberts turned up at Ibrox they went to town. Griffiths, Sinclair, Roberts, Callum McGregor and Stuart Armstrong can run the show, ably backed by Kieran Tierney wide and Scott Brown running the game in the middle of the park. It’ll be stressful. They know pressure is on them to deliver and to cap this season in style. Will they do it? Yes, they will, but it won’t be without strain.
They know pressure is on them to deliver and to cap this season in style