ABERDEEN’S defeat at Ibrox in October was a painful one for Dons supporters. Many were feeling quietly optimistic as Jim Goodwin’s in-form side made the trip to Glasgow to face an out-of-sorts Rangers managed by Giovanni van Bronckhorst, and the subsequent 4-1 defeat was a sobering one for the contingent of travelling fans.
Goodwin opted to take the handbrake off that night in Govan and really have a go, and it was a decision that backfired on the Irishman. His team were cut open with alarming regularity while offering little in attack and the final scoreline did not reflect the hosts’ superiority. If anything, it could have been more.
That loss in Glasgow’s south side also served as the jumping-off point for a worrying trend. Of their 11 Premiership matches up until that point, Aberdeen had outperformed their opponents’ expected goals (xG) on nine occasions, using a 10-game rolling average. In a nutshell, this means they generally created better chances – and more of them – than the opposing team in these league encounters (they failed to do so away to Celtic and Hibs). In the subsequent eight games, their expected goals against (xGA) has outstripped their xG.
