Derek McInnes was not a happy Kilmarnock manager after Celtic beat his team at Rugby Park at the weekend.
Celtic had to grind out a win against Kilmarnock on that monstrosity of a pitch as Brendan Rodgers kept his unbeaten start to the domestic season alive.
An outstanding performance by Kasper Schmeichel wowed the Celtic support as the big Dane pulled off some good saves to keep Kilmarnock at bay.
Speaking after the match, Derek McInnes went on a bit of a bizarre stats rant as he had a winge about Celtic’s Rugby Park win.
Derek McInnes’ Celtic ‘blow’ in strange Kilmarnock rant
McInnes told PLZ Soccer, “I think really pleased with how the players set about the task. I think we had to show real competitiveness, tenacity, physicality, fitness, intelligence.
“It’s not just enough to try and stop Celtic and some sort of groove and some sort of rhythm, it’s important that we try and play off the back of it. And I think we got that.
“We arrived outside their box, we got more touches than I think I’ve ever seen when we’ve played Celtic inside their box.
“We had twice as many as them and twice as many shots, twice as many better opportunities, but ultimately, as good as the performance was, we just fell short with those chances, obviously, for the woodwork, and Celtic got some good blocks, one or two saves.
“But in the main, we were still bemoaning the fact that, and you know yourself, any team that plays against Celtic, you’ve got to take the chances when they come along.
“The goal was a blow for us at halftime and was a real sucker punch for us to be honest. Celtic have been getting so many plaudits of late, and rightly so.
“They’re a fantastic technical team used to being in charge of games and I don’t think they were in charge at any point today.”
The real stats behind Celtic’s win over Kilmarnock
Sunday’s game wasn’t as easy as Celtic fans would have liked. Playing on that plastic pitch is never a game they look forward and coming away with all three points is always the aim, no matter how the team does it.
Kilmarnock did well to fashion out as many chances as they did but the stats McInnes rhymed off actually show a true reflection of the game the Celtic fans watched? Not accorfing to Fotmob.
- Possession: Kilmarnock 34% – 66% Celtic
- Shots: Kilmarnock 18 – Celtic 10
- Shots on target: Kilmarnock 6 – Celtic 6
- Shots off target: Kilmarnock 6 – Celtic 2
- Shots inside box: Kilmarnock 14 – Celtic 5
- Touches in opposition box: Kilmarnock 36 – Celtic 22
- Blocked shots: Kilmarnock 6 – Celtic 2
- Big chances: Kilmarnock 2 – Celtic 2
- Big chances missed: Kilmarnock 2 – Celtic 2
- Passing accuracy: Kilmarnock 64% – Celtic 83%
- Result: Kilmarnock 0 v 2 Celtic
The only stat that mattered was the scoreline but out of all the ones that the Kilmarnock boss spoke of only two of them were accurate.
More shots on goal and more shots inside the box. Celtic did control the match with 66% possession and Kilmarnock did not have twice the number of better opportunities.
Emotions were clearly high with McInnes but in the cold light of day, Celtic’s quality shined through and the three points went back to Glasgow. That is the only stat that matters.
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