“I thought the first-half was outstanding and I thought our football was really exciting – good quality, working hard but really exciting as well,” said the Celtic manager. “We scored a couple of goals and could have had a couple more quite easily.

"The second half was a bit of a grind for the first 15 or 20 minutes, but then we finished strong again, and the guys coming on made a big impact, so I was pleased.

'We had a chat about making sure we had a strong start today. I thought it was going to be important because Aberdeen are going through a bit of a transitional stage.'

“They’ve got some players there who haven’t experienced playing against us and I thought if we start really strong we could put them on the back foot, and the skipper set us off in that first minute and we didn’t look back after that.

“It’s been important to us,” the Hoops boss said of the importance of his bench.

“We’ve been strong for a long time and that’s the key to it, that even if we do have a bit of flat spot, there’s people coming on who raise the levels again.

“They all want to play their part and they all want to contribute, and as I said, a contribution in the last 10 minutes is just as important as the first 80.

“That’s the way they’ve embraced it and I’m sure the ones who aren’t starting want to play but they also see an opportunity to play because there are guys who aren’t even getting any minutes at the moment who deserve to get some minutes.

'But if we want to be the team we want to be and attack on all fronts in terms of the competitions, we need a strong squad and that’s what we’ve got.'

Now, attention turns to next Sunday and the League Cup final against Rangers at Hampden. Celtic are the holders and are determined hang on to the trophy they won last season with a victory over Hibernian.

And the Celtic manager explained that the squad have to embrace the week ahead and the build-up to the big game.

“That’s why you want to be in cup finals,” he said. “It’s not just another week and it’s not just another normal build-up.

“That’s the beauty of it, that’s why you work so hard to get to these big games and it’s a game of massive consequence in terms of, there’s a trophy on the line.

“We’ll enjoy the week but it won’t deter us from knowing what’s important, and what’s important is that we prepare ourselves as we always do to be the best we can be on the day.”

Manager: Reo is focused on being the best footballer he can be