Speaking after his Kilmarnock side fell to a 2-0 defeat at Celtic Park on Saturday, Derek McInnes said,
“I’ve come here to play against various Celtic teams over the years and maybe none as good as this one”.
Comparing Ange Postecoglou’s side to Brendan Rodger’s “Invincibles” of 2016/17 he continued,
“I don’t want to be disparaging to that team who proved themselves – they were unbelievably relentless.
But this Celtic team have a lot of players at the right age with improvement in them. There’s a lot of hunger and intensity about them – they don’t let you breathe.”
McInnes should know better than most how the two teams compare given that his Aberdeen side were Celtic’s closest competitors back in Rodger’s debut season.
Celtic ultimately won out over the Dons across all three domestic competitions that year.
Pipping them (by a mere thirty points) to the league title and then defeating them in both domestic cup finals.
The image of Tom Rogic waltzing his way through the Aberdeen defence to seal the invincible treble at Hampden on the 27th of May 2017 is perhaps remembered by McInnes as much as it’s remembered by Celtic fans.
So just how do that all conquering side of Brendan Rodgers compare to the relentless attacking machine that we now see under Ange Postcoglou?
This was the question put to us by one of our listeners on The Celtic Exchange.
Thanks to Noel McGrath in London for the question. Listen to the team having the debate here on this week’s show.
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The latest episode of The Celtic Exchange Weekly is available in full on all major podcast players or at The Celtic Exchange website at:
Analysing Celtic: “The Data” vs The “Eye Test” | The Reo Hatate Question