Aberdeen gets spanked in Greece, 3-0

By: Ian Rose | October 25th, 2007

This match week in Europe has gone a bit less positively than the last for the three SPL sides left in continental play. Rangers took a point from Barcelona, but have been criticized for their “antifootball”, Celtic played equally defensive ball (but without earning the point), and now Aberdeen has lost their first match of the UEFA Cup group stages, 3-0 at Panathinaikos.

No huge surprise here. Panathinaikos were certainly the favored side, especially at home, but the ease of the victory by the Greek side is a bit unsettling for Dons fans. As I said on the UEFA Cup blog, I doubt Aberdeen will move on, and I saw nothing here to change my mind.

Let’s look at the match week as a whole for Scotland. Three matches, all of which our sides came into as underdogs. All three teams played defensively minded 4-5-1 formations. In Aberdeen’s defense, their formation was forced on them a bit by the injury of striker Darren Mackie. Lee Miller was really the only viable option up front, but the fact remains that all three sides fielded single-striker formations. The results? 2 losses and a draw. ZERO goals scored. Four conceded.

There’s been a lot of talk this week, on The Offside and elsewhere, about the lack of a positive Scottish game. I think that’s going a bit far, and though I don’t claim to be unbiased, neither are a lot of the sources of this sort of talk. If I was a French fan, I would tend to complain a bit about Scottish defending too … but we should not overlook the real point that these critics make. I think that the defensive formation that Rangers chose for Barcelona was necessary, especially against an insane 4-striker formation. Celtic, though, really could have put more men forward and made more of an attempt for a win. Aberdeen were outmatched, and again, a defensive approach was probably a wise one. It’s not that Scotland doesn’t have attacking players … the recent comments that have been that broad are frankly kind of ridiculous … but we’re not using the attack that we have. Celtic in particular had the opportunity to go after Benfica and chose the safer route, which turned out not to be safe at all. There are matches that we will need to sit back and counterattack in order to win … France was one of those matches, and it worked brilliantly. But there are also matches that we can attack and win, and I think the managers of the Old Firm in particular need to take a look at their European ties a bit more carefully and pick those games a bit differently.

That being said, Rangers at Barcelona is NOT one of those matches, so sit back and counter, boys. Sit back and counter.

Celtic v. Benfica at Celtic Park, however, IS one of those matches. If I don’t see two strikers on that pitch, I’ll be really disappointed in Wee Gordon.