The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Tactical triumph and no fluke
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has every right to be feeling good about himself after leading the Dons to yet another cup final at Hampden.
He got his tactics spot on in the 1-0 Betfred League Cup semi-final win against Rangers and proved yet again just how shrewd a tactician he is.
When any team goes to Glasgow to play Celtic or Rangers they head there knowing two things – they won’t have a lot of possession and they are going to have to be organised defensively.
Aberdeen accepted they would have to work hard and be resolute and they were just that as they soaked up wave after wave of Gers pressure before striking the knockout blow 11 minutes from time through Lewis Ferguson.
But it was no fluke. Go back and watch the game again and Aberdeen had the best chances. Rangers had one shot on target.
Mikey Devlin earned a lot of plaudits for his display but for me Aberdeen’s star man was Devlin’s central defensive partner Scott McKenna. He was absolutely fantastic at Hampden and people forget he is still a young boy who is still learning his trade after a meteoric rise in the last 12 months.
He got his head to every ball, cleared the danger when it came and showed so much composure. It was a superb display from him.
Aberdeen knew the pressure would be intense but they stood strong and repelled the best Rangers had to offer. I doubt Joe Lewis has had a quieter afternoon in a semi-final and for that the credit must go to the players who protected him brilliantly.
We’d all love to see swashbuckling attacking games but sometimes you have to dig in and grind it out and Rangers ran out of ideas pretty quickly.
They recycled the ball well and the pressure kept coming but Steven Gerrard must be hugely disappointed at losing. His side was backed by a massive support but the quality in the final third simply was not there and the fact the best chances fell to the men in red shirts tells the story of the game.
Rangers had the ball but couldn’t use it. Aberdeen, when they had it, made it count.
I’d still like to see more of an attacking threat from the Dons, however, and I felt James Wilson struggled leading the line on his own.
I’m not criticising him for that as it’s a role I know I would have struggled to play in my career. I needed a strike partner to feed off.
When you play on your own you need pace and workrate and he didn’t show enough of either for me.
He is a good player with a pedigree from one of the biggest clubs in the world but if he is to thrive at Pittodrie the Dons must find a way of getting the best out of the Manchester United forward.