Under Derek McInnes, Aberdeen have had a signature style, opponent-specific departures from which have tended to work only rarely. Saturday was a resounding exception.
A visit of Kilmarnock would not, in the normal run of things, necessitate Aberdeen compromising their usual approach. But with Killie coming north with a heavily damaged defence, McInnes reasoned that rubbing salt into their wounds would quicken the kill. He was spectacularly correct.
Missing all four senior centre-backs, Angelo Alessio had little option but to measure the remainder of his squad and plug the two tallest options into the gap. Two midfielders – one making his first Killie start of 2019 – would have found it difficult to handle Aberdeen’s regular one centre forward, so McInnes gave them two to worry about. That each scored with his head as the game was bagged within half an hour proved it a roaring success.
It is hard to suggest what else Alessio could have done with his fate – other than the selection to which he belatedly moved by introducing Stephen Hendrie when all was lost – but by making the defensive reinforcement his captain’s responsibility he unwittingly ceded the game to Aberdeen on two levels. As well as the aerial mastery of Sam Cosgrove and Curtis Main over Iain Wilson and Gary Dicker, the Kilmarnock midfield, minus its combative skipper, was overly passive and coughed up possession time and again to Aberdeen’s forceful quartet.
On the whole, it was a masterclass in selective versatility exploiting the opposition’s weaknesses. The resounding nature of the scoreline will not have McInnes tearing up the template which has served him so well at Pittodrie – indeed it may well be that this starting XI never again takes the field en bloc.