Analysis Corner: How Rangers frustrated Aberdeen with 10 men

Published 7th Aug 2018
Last updated 7th Aug 2018

Sunday’s afternoon game at Pittodrie was probably the best of Scottish football in a microcosm. You had a penalty, a sending off, a last-minute goal and all the blood and thunder that encompasses a fixture between Rangers and Aberdeen. Here’s how the game unfolded from a tactical point of view.

The sending off and the response

In the opening 12 minutes, Rangers dominated. Jamie Murphy was unlucky to score one on one as the visitors out passed their hosts 84 to 35. The game was set up for Rangers to dominate possession and territory, while Aberdeen would try a get something from a set play

However, this was a game defined by what happened before and after the 12-minute mark. Following this, Alfredo Morelos was sent off for an off the ball incident as Rangers found themselves a man down with 78 minutes left to play.

The complexion of the game changed accordingly, though not as you might expect.

Aberdeen used the man advantage to their benefit as they threw the ball around. However, instead of opting to sacrifice a defender/midfielder to replace Morelos’ presence up front, Steven Gerrard opted for a 4-5-0 formation.

This was a smart move from the Rangers coach for several reasons.

Firstly, Derek McInnes is usually very reluctant to play a high defensive line. Typically, the midfielders will even drop in alongside the defenders when Aberdeen are in possession.

However, all four of Aberdeen’s defenders are typically centre backs. While Andrew Considine has recently taken up the role of full back in the side, most his Aberdeen career has been in the centre and it’s fair to say he still looks far from comfortable out there, especially faced with a pacy winger.

This meant that Aberdeen would sit with four defenders deep, versus either ten or eleven men. Sit tight together, mop up any long balls from Rangers, and look to play out simple passes to Shinnie or Gleeson in the centre.

For as long as that held true, Rangers would still be able to outnumber Aberdeen in the centre of the park. While there was no target man to “hit”, they could crowd their hosts out in the middle, wait for a large enough gap to open between Aberdeen’s midfield and there low lying defence, then look to counter quickly out wide against their uncomfortable fullbacks.

The perfect Aberdonian storm

For 78 minutes, this plan worked a treat.

Aberdeen didn’t have a single shot on goal as their game was reduced to playing long diagonals to Gary Mackay-Steven. If he was lucky, he’d get a low percentage cross into a packed penalty box. If not, he’d get tackled and Rangers would clear.

Aberdeen’s situation quickly went from blunt and frustrated to blunt, frustrated and behind.

Windass, Flanagan and Arfield are three athletic players capable of playing one touch football. That’s a recipe for getting the ball and bodies up the pitch very quickly, and they combined on the left-hand side to do exactly that.

A penalty box stramash concluded with Dominic Ball bringing down Josh Windass with the Rangers player rushing to tap the ball into an empty net.

A coolly dispatched spot kick from James Tavernier put the ten men of Rangers ahead.

Going behind to ten men is pretty demoralising. Going down against ten men when you’re playing at home in your season opener against your biggest rivals and still unable to create chances must be pretty mortifying.

Over the summer, Aberdeen lost three of their biggest attackers from last season in Ryan Christie, Adam Rooney and Kenny McLean. While Lewis Ferguson’s potential was underlined with a stunning overhead kick in the Europa League against Burnley, it’s fair to say that the Dons are still missing a trick or two up front.

McGinn, Mackay-Steven and Cosgrove were isolated all too often, losing the ball thirty four times between them.

Shinnie is usually the bionic man for Aberdeen, buzzing between defence and attack supporting his team-mates. However, in the aforementioned stramash that led to the Rangers’ penalty, centre back Scott McKenna was injured. An Aberdeen reshuffle resulted in Considine moving inside to centre back, Shinnie dropping to left back and new signing Chris Forrester taking to the midfield.

Not only did this rob Aberdeen of their box to box midfielder, it meant that they had three debutants in the centre of midfield. The fluency and automatisms that come with playing together competitively week after week are a necessity if you’re looking to play through the kind of tight nine-man block Rangers set up.

This left Aberdeen with a makeshift defence that wouldn’t push forward, a midfield still getting to know each other, and an isolated attack.

Often in football, possession and control are confused with each other. While Aberdeen had the ball for most of the game, the above factors meant that they were unable to do anything effective with it. Rangers may have had a man down, but seemed fully in control of the contest.

Rangers’ standouts

At this point, I’ve talked about the factors that made Aberdeen struggle so badly- it would be remiss if I didn’t credit a couple of Rangers individuals who had some fine performances.

Jon Flanagan was one of the best players in a blue jersey. Tucking in at left back, he made nine tackles, nine interceptions and was unbeaten in the air. For defenders, you’d want them to be able to hold their own one on one, read the game and be solid in the air. Flanagan ticked each of these boxes.

Nikola Katic was another Rangers player making his debut in the Scottish Premiership. Twelve interceptions through the game, more than any of his team-mates, is a statistic symptomatic of good decision making. “Decisive” is probably the best word to describe the Croat. Whether going for a header, choosing to boot the ball into the stands, or leaving his position to intercept a pass, Katic will quickly commit to a course of action. This proactivity means that he’s very rarely caught in possession or caught ball watching: two of the cardinal sins from Rangers defenders of the past.

Bittersweet for both sides

Yet despite their best efforts, it turned out Rangers needed to hold on for longer than 78 minutes after 6 minutes of injury time were added.

19-year-old Bruce Anderson describes himself as “greedy”. In his debut for his hometown club, the young striker lived up to that trait when a long diagonal for Aberdeen finally paid off, and he found himself on the end of an Andy Considine knock on. One touch, then a low power shot placed just below Connor Goldson’s foot, just to the right of Allan McGregor’s glove and just to the left of the post. His Roy of the Rovers moment rescued his side a point.

In the context of the match, both sides will “take it”.

Rangers won’t have many tougher tests than Aberdeen away, and will be encouraged to have come so close to a perfect ten-man performance. With Maribor and St Mirren to play at Ibrox in the next few days, Gerrard’s side have the perfect opportunity to exhibit what they’re capable of with eleven men- Sunday’s performance was arguably a false start.

If you’d had told Derek McInnes that he’d find himself with an extra man after 12 minutes in a game against Rangers at Pittodrie, he’d have been delighted. His side’s failure to fully take advantage of this situation will be seen by some as further ineptitude in games against Rangers. It’s now two years and eight games since his team last defeated the Ibrox club, despite finishing above them in each of the past two seasons. Yet, he too will look at this as a false start. With his bogey team out the way, the Dons will look to get down to business.

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