Derek McInnes’ Post-Match Analysis After Kilmarnock’s 0-2 Loss to Celtic

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes conveyed his thoughts to Sportsound following the match, stating: “I feel for the players. We’ve been the better team. We’re up against a talented team, a lot of talented individuals. They’ve been getting so many plaudits of late and rightly so, they’re a good team, but they didn’t enjoy that.” He further commented that he did not believe Celtic maintained the level of control over the game they typically exhibit. This, he attributed significantly to “the tenacity of the team, the fitness of the team, the intelligence of the team.” McInnes elaborated on their strategy, explaining that their approach extended beyond mere physicality and disruption. He emphasized: “It wasn’t just about trying to be physical and stop them and getting touches, it was also playing on the back of that. We stressed on that. It’s not just enough to win the ball, we’ve got to look after the pass when we win it and try and get to Celtic quite quickly.” He highlighted Kilmarnock’s statistical performance, noting: “The XG we had, the chances we created – twice as many as Celtic, twice as many touches in the box as Celtic, twice as many shots, but ultimately it comes down to goals and moments.” Addressing the concession of the first goal, McInnes stated: “It was a blow and we spoke at half time about making sure that wasn’t going to define us. We had to make sure we came out the same, try to accentuate the positives from the first half performance and try and do that again.” Despite the outcome, he expressed: “I’m disappointed for my players that they’ve not got something from it. But a lot of what we wanted from the game today we got. We made it difficult for Celtic who have been swatting teams away of late. It was the type of competitive performance that I really was hoping for for my team.”