Aberdeen vs Rangers preview: Hoping for the best, expecting the worst

Morning all, a trip to Pittodrie awaits for Rangers tonight. It's fair to say that aside from Gerrard's time in the job, our record at Pittodrie has been patchy. And even under Gerrard it wasn't exactly incredible.

We suffered our first league loss since returning to the top flight in 2016/17 thanks to a James Maddison free kick (whatever happened to him?). I'd completely erased our 3-0 victory at Pittodrie that season from my memory, one of the positive results under Pedro Caixinha. We threw away a 2-0 goal lead there in 2019/20 when the wheels really started to come off on our title charge. We've had a few limp 1-1 draws in recent memory too.

Aside from our 2 very professional victories in 2020/21, we always drop points at Pittodrie in a season. It's not good enough, especially given the quality/form of some of the Aberdeen sides we've played there. And it makes me especially worried for tonight, given we are travelling to face a Dons side in great form, while we've hardly been pulling up trees ourselves.

I've had a look at some of Aberdeen's recent games to get a fix on how they play and what we have to look out for tonight. It didn't make for pleasant watching, from a Rangers perspective. In terms of attacking play they like to build patiently and have one fullback invert to provide an option in midfield, from there they can get the ball into wide areas quickly to isolate a defender 1 on 1. From that position they look for cutbacks into the box for players arriving. It's the pattern of play most top teams go for, watch Manchester City or Arsenal play and you'll see similar moves.

I think this is bad for us given the amount of strain we already put on our midfield partnership, Raskin and Barron will have their hands full dealing with the runs into the area, presuming we can't stop the cut backs at source.

I think this could be a game for Clement to show a bit of tactical acumen though. When a team has fullbacks that invert, it means there's space in the wide areas. That means your centre-halves will need to defend the channels, it's why you don't see every team play this way, if you don't have an athletic monster you can be very vulnerable in transition.

So, step forward Vaclav Cerny, if I was Clement (still got all my hair so it looks a while off) I'd relieve him of his defensive duties and ask him to stay in that right channel when we don't have the ball. To allow for this I'd play Diomande over Lawrence and ask him to form a midfield 3 out of possession. If we go for Igamane upfront it means we have two very dangerous options for when we win the ball and can really give Aberdeen something to think about.

The weakness we should look to exploit in possession is crosses to the back post. When defending, Aberdeen shift over the pitch as a unit and try to press the opposition into tight areas by committing extra bodies to win the ball. This means that if you can get enough space to cross, you will have an overload at the back post. If he plays this could really be the night for Tav to find his crossing boots, or alternatively we could ask him to roll back the months to when he could run and have him attack the back post when we have the ball on the left. This could be our main source of joy in terms of attacking play tonight.

I write all of that in hope rather than expectation, I expect us to stay in that inflexible 4231 shape, with Lawrence coming back in and us struggling to progress the ball as they press us to oblivion, with Barron and Raskin doing their best to stop 3 or 4 players attacking the box.

In other news, our financials for the year were released yesterday. I don't profess to be an accounting genius (I wish I had the confidence of the other side of Glasgow) so have a look at this thread where it's all explained well.

From the explanation, it's not great. I don't think anyone expected anything too positive given the mismanagement of the club, but it's still hard to see it laid out in such a way. We will need a few more years of austerity to turn things around, and it's hard to win the league and get the UCL money in such circumstances. I don't want to dwell on that too much though.

I expect tonight to be a tough watch, but hopefully Clement has something special in store for us. Have a good day everyone.