Mark Wilson has slammed the “ridiculous argument” put forward by Kris Boyd that Aberdeen will be more motivated to play Rangers than they were against Celtic.
Aberdeen were thrashed 6-0 by Celtic in their most recent Scottish Premiership outing on 12 November, conceding half of those goals in second-half stoppage time.
Speaking on Sky Sports after the match, Boyd said manager Barry Robson would have “absolutely no problem in getting them up for the next game because Rangers are in town”.
However, former Celtic player Wilson has questioned that logic ahead of the Gers’ trip to Pittodrie on Sunday (26 November).
“How can you possibly think a professional team goes out there and tries harder against one other team in the league than the other?” he told SportSynergy, via Football Scotland
“It’s a ridiculous argument that you’d think professional footballers would go and do that. At that, if you think that, surely if Rangers have got better individuals than Aberdeen, are you not having a go at your own team in Rangers and saying why can’t they equally get up for it?
“Maybe they don’t like the atmosphere, I don’t know. But how could you possibly think Aberdeen, who have really good players, will think for the other 10 teams in the league, ‘We’ll go alright today, but Rangers are coming? We’re gonna try really hard here!’”
Focus on our own game
The comments made by Boyd were pretty strange on the face of it. Aberdeen had an off-day against Celtic two weeks ago and crumbled late on when the game was over.
That was poor on the Dons’ behalf, and they will no doubt have learned lessons and will be eager to put things right against Rangers upon their return to action.
Where Boyd could have a point is that this is a dress rehearsal of sorts for the upcoming Viaplay Cup final, so Aberdeen will be out to show that they can more than hold their own.
Motivation is an intangible factor, meaning you cannot really measure how much the opposition are up for a game. You would imagine, though, that every player will give that extra one per cent in next month’s showdown at Hampden.
As for this weekend, Philippe Clement’s men just have to stick to their game and pick up from where they left off before the international break. Do that, and it will not matter how good or bad the opposition play.
