Possession 27 per cent. Shots on target 3. Corners 3. No, it's not the vital statistics from Aberdeen's much-criticised performance against Celtic at the weekend but rather the crucial numbers from Morocco's 1-0 victory over Portugal in the World Cup quarter-final.

Those figures, despite the North Africans playing out a frantic backs-to-the-wall last six minutes against Cristiano Ronaldo and his confreres with only 10 men, were actually a notch up on those in Morocco's last-16 victory over Spain five days earlier when they only managed to hold on to the ball for 23 per cent of the game while registering a mere two shots on target and a sum total of zero corners.

The reason for all this number totting is relatively simple. Aberdeen took pelters in the aftermath of Saturday's defeat to a Celtic side which has been rampant during the early part of the campaign while Morocco were hailed as heroes by breaking new ground to become the first African semi-finalists at a World Cup. It should be noted that football has always been a game of trend-following, it is also very much a results business. 

So just as there were clear factors that explained Morocco's tactical set-up against bigger and better opponents, there were similarly sound reasons for Aberdeen's conservatism against Celtic. St Mirren had already demonstrated earlier this season that the way to beat Ange Postecoglou's side – albeit a much-changed and leggier version following a gruelling Champions League encounter against Shakhtar Donetsk than the one which lined up at Aberdeen – was by employing a low block. Indeed, the Paisley outfit recorded just 20 per cent possession and a mere two shots on target when dishing out Celtic's only league defeat of the campaign back in September. 

READ MORE: Jim Goodwin responds to Aberdeen criticism as he offers Scales update

Meanwhile, you had to go back to February 2016 to find the last time Aberdeen had beaten Celtic. Goodwin will also have looked at his gameplan in February of this year when his team went at Postecoglou's champions-elect and still lost by the odd goal in five.

Despite the paucity of their attacking output on Saturday, Aberdeen were still just three minutes away from a draw. How might their performance have been re-evaluated had they managed to take only their fourth point in 19 matches against opponents they have historically struggled so badly against?

Then there was the mauling at the hands of Rangers seven weeks earlier when Aberdeen took the game to their opponents at Ibrox and ended up on the receiving end of a 4-1 thrashing. 

READ MORE: Ross McCrorie attracts English interest ahead of Rangers clash

A look back at Goodwin's post-match comments in the aftermath of that humbling proves instructive. Aberdeen had been sent out to attack but having taken the lead in the match through Connor Barron, they then surrendered a soft equaliser and that invited an onslaught.

“We found it very hard to put three or four passes together, we were very sloppy in possession, and it was wave after wave of attack which was very disappointing,” the Aberdeen manager said back in October. “In a fixture like this, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. You can see from our team selection we tried to be positive, we had two strikers up top, so it was a bit adventurous. When we came here last season just after I joined and with that group of players, I felt the best approach was to be negative. We lost 1-0 and everybody’s giving you a pat on the back, but we didn’t offer anything to the game.”

It was an observation he echoed at yesterday's pre-match press conference but that last sentence might just as easily have been summing up his side's Saturday afternoon at Pittodrie; instead Goodwin has met with a chorus of criticism.

Of course, back then Aberdeen were in miserable form and in the midst of what would become a 10-game winless run. There has been considerably more optimism about the club this season and that is in no small measure down to Goodwin. So, having elevated his side into third place by December, he deserves the opportunity to get it wrong from time to time, if losing 1-0 to the champions and nine-point leaders could even be considered 'getting it wrong'.

It will be intriguing, nevertheless, to see what tactical instructions he gives to his side this evening. With new manager Michael Beale still bedding in and Rangers still looking vulnerable at the back with Connor Goldson only just returning from the injury he sustained against Liverpool in the Champions League, the smart money would be on Goodwin's side being a tad more expansive.

The Herald:

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