Pressure is all on Dons to rock Deila’s rookie recruits, insists Boyd
‘We will be ready for them next year. We will be waiting for them and ready to go again.’ – Derek McInnes, Sunday May 10, 2015
ON the touchline at a deserted Pittodrie and only a few minutes after Craig Thomson’s final whistle marked a fourth Premiership defeat to Celtic, Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes issued some fighting talk. He did so with Ronny Deila’s first visit back to the venue as a defending champion expressly in mind.
So here it is. A lunchtime clash on Saturday represents the first opportunity for McInnes to back up those words and unsettle Celtic, the opening head-to-head of a new title rivalry. And, as far as being ‘ready for them’, he may well have a point.
Aberdeen’s admirable, relentless form against the rest of the division has not suffered a break in stride by a summer. They opened with five wins out of five, conceding only one goal after upgrading their defence with Liverpool loan keeper Danny Ward and Inverness Caley Thistle skipper Graeme Shinnie.
McInnes made close-season tweaks, with the aspiration of Aberdeen being better equipped for the quartet of fixtures that hold the key to whether there will be a title race or not this season. For showdown No 1, he will hope there is advantage in Celtic stripping less sturdy and less experienced.
Virgil van Dijk, scorer of a last-minute winner at Pittodrie in November, is gone. He leaves Efe Ambrose and Emilio Izaguirre with a host of young defensive options introducing themselves to each other on the team bus north following the final week of transfer-window trading and international break.
Dedryck Boyata is the old head of the new signings at 24, Tyler Blackett and £3million capture Jozo Simunovic are 21. Blackett’s ex-Manchester United colleague Saidy Janko is 19. No wonder Tom Boyd throws out there the suggestion that Charlie Mulgrew could instil his influence at Pittodrie in the back four for this massive contest on his return to domestic action.
‘Charlie could be the man to play at centre-half as an option, but time will tell and it’ll be interesting to see how they get on up at Aberdeen,’ said Boyd. ‘Jozo comes in with a decent reputation, Blackett can play both left-back and centre-half, which I imagine makes him more a left-back option.
‘Boyata could be responsible for helping others bed in, yet it’s early days for him at the club. Some players take that on board, can handle that and say: “OK, I’ll be the dominant one.” Virgil was that guy and the organiser. So the mantle has been handed to someone else.
‘It’s Aberdeen away to start with for the new ones. Does the manager throw them all in? I would just say: “Go for it”. If they think they are good enough, if you think they are up for it.
‘Certainly, if you’ve paid a good bit of money for one then, yeah, just put him in. I’m not sure how much time he’ll get to work on that with internationalists being away. I’m sure they’ll cope, they’ve played in big games.
‘There’s a potential young back four in there and you don’t get much time to adapt, bed in and work your way through it at a club the size of Celtic now. You’ve got to make sure you hit the ground running.
‘At least it will be a similar philosophy to what the lads had playing for Manchester City or Manchester United, the demands of being expected to win just about every game. They know what it involves.
‘You’ve seen players come to Celtic who are not able to cope when you expected more from them. It takes a special breed to handle that. I’m sure the manager will have every faith in them and that’s why he signed them.’
With the swagger of van Dijk alongside him, the 12-appearance-start to Boyata’s Celtic career is the most sustained spell of first-team football the Belgian has enjoyed in his career. He scored against both Stjarnan and Qarabag in European qualifying, then suffered own-goal agonies in Malmo and last weekend at home to St Johnstone.
Performances have been punctuated by signs of slackness in distribution, although, to no harm for Celtic’s Ladbrokes Premiership hopes as their only blip came when Boyata was absent from the 2-2 draw at Kilmarnock.
Boyd said: ‘Boyata looks a decent defender. He just needs, on occasion, to brush up on his use of the ball in passing situations.
‘That would be the key thing, it’s important to Celtic central defenders.
‘They have a lot of possession, so really need to utilise that and drive into areas where, previously, centre-halves might just be expected to launch it. He scored a couple of goals, so he’s got that asset of doing well in the opposition box. But he’s been unfortunate with two own goals because there’s not a lot he could have done with them.’
Pittodrie provides the most stern domestic test of Boyata and Deila’s second-season side, complete finally with Nadir Ciftci following his biting ban. McInnes, who scored two victories in a month over a Neil Lennon-led Celtic in February 2014, is utterly confident his men bear no mental scars from last season’s losses.
Boyd claims, however, that Celtic could inflict a September setback on the Dons from which they may struggle to psychologically recover.
‘I’d imagine the failure to beat Celtic last year heaps a lot more pressure on Aberdeen,’ said Boyd. ‘Celtic, if they get beaten, would be able to recover.
‘If they’re seriously going to mount a challenge, this will be the biggest test, so Aberdeen would have to take something from the game.
‘Their attacking line-up is very decent and, defensively, they don’t give a lot away. They’re going along nicely again and it could well be the case that Celtic will be the only team to beat them.’