Barry Robson felt the defeat to Celtic at Parkhead highlighted the fragility that still lingers within Aberdeen’s side.
The Reds went down 4-0 against Ange Postecoglou’s rampant side, who took the lead through Callum McGregor just two minutes into the game.
Reo Hatate doubled the advantage just 13 minutes in, which pointed to a long afternoon for the Pittodrie side.
It was not until the latter stages that Celtic extended their lead courtesy of Hatate’s second and a Liel Abada strike.
The Dons came into the match having ended a five-match losing streak with a 3-1 home victory over Motherwell last time out.
The bruising nature of defeats against Darvel, Hearts and Hibernian in particular led to the departure of previous boss Jim Goodwin.
Robson, who was taking charge of his third match as interim boss, says the scars of some of the Dons’ recent blows are still to fully heal.
He said: “I’m really frustrated. We know how good a side Celtic are.
“The last thing we wanted to do was concede an early goal, and that puts your game plan out a wee bit.
“We struggled a wee bit after that in the first half. When the second one came, they started to pull us about a wee bit.
“When we got them in at half-time and got them settled down a wee bit, I thought we came out a lot better in the second half.
“I know and I understand they had a few knocks a while ago, and I know that has not totally gone.
“You could see the fragility within the group, with previous games.
“In the last couple of games we had with them we got them going a wee bit, but we knew we had to try and keep Celtic out for a bit longer than we did.”
Robson, who played as a midfielder for both Celtic and Aberdeen, was frustrated the Reds were unable to exert their own gameplan in Glasgow’s east end.
He added: “I’m frustrated because I want to come here and really play at times.
“That takes a lot of time on the training pitch, showing the players the style and system you want to do with them.
“After losing the goal as quickly as we did, credit to them for coming back into it in the second half.
“Don’t forget – they are a top, top team. I have played in some good Celtic teams, and the way they move you about makes it hard to trigger presses.
“But I want an Aberdeen coming down here and really at it – and that takes time.”
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