Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin says he will accept all the criticism for “being brave and having a go” against Rangers.
The Reds blew an early lead from Connor Barron’s opener to lose 4-1 at Ibrox.
Dons boss Goodwin says he could easily have parked the bus on the 18-yard line and played it safe.
He insists he thought long and hard pre-match about being adventurous in Glasgow before deciding to be adventurous.
Goodwin thought Rangers would be fatigued after losing 3-0 away to Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
He wanted to take advantage of that and retained the attacking 3-5-2 formation which had been successful in a recent three game winning streak.
The Reds boss accepts his strategy back-fired as the Reds slumped to a humbling, heavy defeat – but Goodwin is ready to take any flak for the devastating defeat on the chin.
He said: “In a fixture like this you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
“Hindsight is a great thing.
“We could have set up with a 5-4-1 and parked the bus on the 18-yard line and asked Rangers to come and break us down.
“However, I think people can see with the line-up we went with that we tried to be positive and offensive.
“We went with two strikers up top who were in really good form coming into the game.
“It was a bit adventurous, but I felt Rangers would be slightly fatigued after the midweek game. After the travelling and the lack of training.
“You can set up in two ways – we tried to be positive and it didn’t work.
“I deserve all the criticism that comes my way.
“I am extremely disappointed in the way the game panned out.”
Failure to hold on to early lead
Aberdeen had grabbed an early lead against the run of play through Connor Barron in the 21st minute.
It was the 20-year-old midfielder’s first senior goal for the Dons.
However, the Reds collapsed after that opener conceding goals from Antonio Colak, John Lundstrum, James Tavernier and Alfredo Morelos.
Rangers skipper Tavernier also hit the post with a penalty as the Gers racked up 36 shots at goal, with 13 on target.
In contrast, Aberdeen mustered just one shot on target with a further four off.
The Ibrox shocker brought to a grinding halt an upsurge in form by Aberdeen, with the Reds having racked up three straight wins prior to the trip to Rangers.
‘We tried to be brave and have a go’
The Dons boss said he had to previously play negatively when losing to Rangers 1-0 away in March last season just weeks after arriving at Pittodrie.
However, he insisted after an extensive summer rebuild he now had the option to go on the attack at Ibrox.
Only Premiership leaders Celtic had scored more league goals than Aberdeen this season.
Goodwin opted to go with a positive philosophy in Govan.
It backfired.
He said: “We thought long and hard about it.
“When I came here in February this fixture (Rangers away) came up pretty soon after that.
“With that group of players I inherited, I thought the best way to line up then was to be negative.
“To sit off the game and deny Rangers space.
“We only lost the game 1-0 and everyone was giving me a pat on the back and saying unlucky.
“But it wasn’t unlucky, because we didn’t offer anything to the game.
“Today we tried to be brave and have a go and we got our noses in front.
“We wanted to try to cause Rangers problems at the back, which I think we did at times.
“I thought Duk was our best player as he looked a threat all afternoon.”
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