While Aberdeen’s 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock was disappointing the Dons can’t have any complaints with the result.
Playing against a Killie side who are struggling down at the bottom of the league the Reds would have expected to win on Saturday, but I don’t think their performance merited the three points.
Aberdeen started well and scored their goal through Stevie May.
But once the enforced substitution was made by Kilmarnock, with Dean Hawkshaw coming on for Iain Wilson after 20 minutes, they played extremely well up to half time and then for the first 20 minutes of the second half.
Although Aberdeen made their substitutions with Ryan Christie, Gary Mackay-Steven and Adam Rooney coming on, which turned the game a bit for them, it was a struggle to see the Dons getting a winning goal.
I thought the performance lacked a bit of inspiration at times and in midfield I thought Kilmarnock’s players dominated for that period either side of half time.
Lee McCulloch’s team had a formation which gave them an extra man in midfield. I thought they played well in that area and that was their best area of the pitch.
Although captain Graeme Shinnie played his normal game in midfield I didn’t think there was a control in the game and that’s unusual.
In recent years Aberdeen have dominated in that area. It’s the first time outside of games against Celtic I can remember them being dominated in that way.
There are players at the club who can give the team a calmness in midfield but it wasn’t there on Saturday.
While it is a disappointing result I think you have to look at the changes made during the summer as part of the reason for it.
I think Derek McInnes is still searching for his best central defenders, his best strikers and his best formation.
Sometimes the options can be too much and I think he will want to find the settled side with players he can rely on.
But they are still undefeated in the league and second in the table so it’s nothing to be too concerned about.
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