Daryl's Notebook: What I learned from Jimmy Thelin's Aberdeen
Aberdeen are unbeaten in the Scottish Premiership, have not lost to both Celtic and Rangers, and JJ Bull praises Aberdeen a lot this season. Something must have gone...right for the Scottish side?
This edition of the Notebook will be slightly different because I will be focusing on a single team instead of a single league or country. And it is different for a reason.
As an avid listener of the Tifo Football Podcast, I have made it a part of my morning commute to work as the Tifo team discusses all things football over the previous weekend. While the main focus seems to be the Premier League for most episodes, an interesting team keeps sneaking up now and then in their conversation. JJ Bull, who happens to be an Aberdeen fan and the Scottish representative on the podcast, brings up Aberdeen almost every week even though their conversation about the Scottish side do not last very long.
While I understand that everyone can talk about their favourite team, JJ is a tactical writer for Tifo and when he praises a team/player, in this case is Aberdeen, there must be something interesting about them. At the time of writing, Aberdeen are second in the Scottish Premiership with 10 wins and 1 draws after 10 matches. Yes, that means 0 loss. They have also not lost to both Celtic and Rangers having claimed a 2-2 draw at Celtic’s and won 2-1 when they hosted Rangers. They have lost to Celtic (6-0 at that!) in the League Cup, but…we don’t talk about the League Cup… Still, maybe JJ is onto something here, so let’s investigate what Jimmy Thelin’s side has to offer!
Aberdeen’s general lineup
Generally, Aberdeen line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with a double pivot sitting slightly deep and two marauding full-backs who usually make overlapping runs down the touchline. At the time of writing, their back four that consists of centre-backs Gavin Molloy and Slobodan Rubežić and full-backs Jack McKenzie and Nicky Devlin, along with goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov, have played every matches for Aberdeen in all competitions. They do have options on the bench in centre-back Angus McDonald, full-backs James McGarry and Jack Milne, but both have mostly played in the Scottish League Cup and have not played in the league.
The central midfielder pairing of Sivert Heltne Nilsen and Graeme Shinnie is very crucial to how Jimmy Thelin wants his team to play. This is because both can be seen as distributors from deep while Heltne Nilsen also likes to dictate the play. Their positioning also allows Aberdeen to successfully play out from the back as they look to sit in pockets of space and receive the ball, which is then played wide for the full-backs to overlap. Usually, Heltne Nilsen and Shinnie will start for Aberdeen, but they also have Ante Palaversa who sometimes starts or comes off the bench to replace either Heltne Nilsen or Shinnie.
The front four is where most of the rotations occur, especially when they are also very active both on and off the ball. More will be talked about the front four, both individually and as a collective group, in each match. But in terms of rotational options for the front four, Thelin has quite plenty at his disposal. While Jamie McGrath and Topi Keskinen are the key wingers for Aberdeen, they also have Duk, Vicente Besuijen, and Shayden Morris coming off the bench, usually after the 60th minute mark, to maintain the intensity of their attacks. The #10 position is occupied by a few players, mainly Pape Habib Guèye and McGrath, but Leighton Clarkson and Kevin Nisbet can also be found starting or coming on to fill into that position. Up top, Ester Sokler is the chosen player to replace the Girona-bound striker Bojan Miovski, but Nisbet and Peter Ambrose can also replace Sokler when needed.
Ross County vs Aberdeen
There was an interesting use of one of the central midfielders, Sivert Heltne Nilsen, to drop in between the centre-backs and create a back three while Aberdeen played out from the back. This allowed them to gain numerical superiority against Ross County’s front two and create a conundrum when the host’s striker duo chose to push forward to press.
Heltne Nilsen’s role as a half-back/deep six also created more spaces for both Gavin Molloy and Slobodan Rubežić to do more with the ball. This included long passes into the final third for striker Ester Sokler to run in behind Ross County’s defence, and Rubežić’s tendency to carry the ball forward and, sometimes, make crosses into the box.
Even though playing as a #10 in Aberdeen’s 4-2-3-1, Pape Habib Guèye had a lot of freedom to roam from his position, which led to him sometimes dropping deep and into the half-spaces to receive the ball from the centre-backs. They also used his movement well to create passing triangles out wide to progress the ball through Ross County’s 5-3-2 defensive block.
Aberdeen pressed really high up the pitch and really aggressively, which seemed to be an attempt to recover the ball as quick as possible and as close to the opposition’s goal as possible. This pushed Ross County far back into their own half and they were only able to break through Aberdeen’s press by playing long passes over the top on the very few occasions. Simple things.
One problem that Jimmy Thelin’s side constantly faced within the first 20 minutes was Ross County’s strikers found runs in between Aberdeen’s centre-backs and managed to get to the space behind the defensive line. Sometimes, Rubežić and Molloy were able to challenge them to recover possession, but they were not able to track such runs on other occasions, which led to dangerous chances conceded. An example of this was the disallowed goal from Ronan Hale at the 18th minute.
JJ did mention this in one of Tifo’s podcast episodes, but Aberdeen seemed to use the up-back-through play very well to progress the ball. This occurred most often when one of their centre-backs played the ball to a full-back or a central midfielder, who received the ball and dragged an opposition player out of their position, and the ball would be played backwards to that centre-back, who then would play the ball forward to one of the wingers running in behind the opposition’s defensive line.
It can be hard to categorise Aberdeen as a slow tempo team since there was a constant change in tempo whenever they were controlling possession. When Ross County sat back in their mid-block, the away side would attempt to slow the play down by circulating the ball among the defenders and midfielders until they found a line-breaking pass to one of the attacking midfielders. At that point, the tempo would increase as Aberdeen looked to progress the ball into the final third and penalty box as quick as possible. However, when a turnover took place and Ross County found themselves unorganised, Aberdeen would use long passes towards Sokler and Gueye with the intention of moving the ball forward as quick as possible.
Dribbles, dribbles, and a lot of dribbles. Because of their preference to attack down the flanks, Aberdeen used small combinations between a group of players to bypass pressure from the opposition and progressed the ball into the final third. The aim was to set the wingers out into 1v1 situations with the full-backs, allowing them to dribble past the opposition’s defender and send crosses into the box for any attackers arriving in the area. The fact that no player in the match attempted more dribbles than winger Topi Keskinen (9 attempted, 3 completed) highlight that preference very clearly.
Another plan that Aberdeen used to isolate their wingers out into 1v1 situations with the full-backs was moving the ball down one side of the pitch and pushed the opposition’s defensive block to that same side. This opened up spaces on the opposite side where a winger would occupy and some quick, short passes to switch the play were all they needed to execute that plan. With Vincent Besuijen and Shayden Morris coming on in the second half to fill in the winger spots, they were found in similar situations on quite a few occasions.
Aberdeen vs Dundee United
Not much note will come out from this match because of the poor quality of the full match that I have, but I will try my best to spot…something!
This was the second match in the series of three matches that I have chosen to analyse where Aberdeen’s opposition played with a back five. Instead of going up against Ross County’s 5-3-2 formation, Dundee United came out with a 5-4-1 out of possession. Good chance to see if Jimmy Thelin used a similar tactic like his tactics against Ross County and if it worked or not.
Having Ante Palaversa playing alongside Heltne Nilsen as the double pivot introduced a slightly different dynamic compared to the dynamic between Heltne Nilsen and Graeme Shinnie in their match against Ross County. Palaversa also preferred to sit deep and distribute passes from deep, which now allowed Heltne Nilsen to position himself a bit further up the pitch. However, the full-back duo of Jack McKenzie and Nicky Devlin benefitted the most since they were able to push further up the pitch while the centre-backs and the double pivot created a box-shaped build-up group. The centre-backs were also given more license to carry the ball into the half-spaces more often, which allowed them to find the full-backs easier.
Shinnie, on the other hand, was much more active with and without the ball and was allowed to roam from his position a lot more often. Besides from dropping deep to receive the ball from the centre-backs and Heltne Nilsen, Shinnie also made forward runs and arrived slightly late into the box for any potential second balls. But he did not take as many long shots as Palaversa did when the Croatian received the ball on the edge of the box.
It was possible to see how influential Jamie McGrath was for Aberdeen down the left-hand side as he was the main chance creator down that side of the pitch. Most attacks down the left ran through McGrath while he worked together with McKenzie to progress the ball forward. When he came off midway through the first half against Ross County, the plan to attack down the flanks was just to isolate the wingers into 1v1 situations and spammed crosses into the box for striker Kevin Nisbet.
Aberdeen definitely created more chances in the second half and they also got more shots on target from their attempts on goal. Instead of relying on crosses into the box, the host worked the ball down the left half-space and attempted to push Dundee United closer to their own goal. This created more spaces on the edge of the box, where the attacking midfielders would receive the ball and take a jab at testing Jack Walton in the opposition’s goal.
It is surprising to see Aberdeen maintaining a high tempo both in and out of possession even at a late stage of the match. Obviously Thelin used most of his subs to replace the attacking quartet to maintain a better level of fitness for the attackers, allowing them to continue pressing the opposition even into the 80th minutes. But this also meant that the back four + Heltne Nilsen had to stay consistent and discipline with their defensive line, or else they risked conceding runs in behind from the opposition’s attackers. I am interested to see how Aberdeen will perform if one of their key defenders or Heltne Nilsen gets injured, can they maintain this level of intensity or will changes have to be made to suit the players coming in.
Aberdeen vs Rangers
Against a stronger team like Rangers, Aberdeen chose not to press high up the pitch, but rather looked to set up a 4-4-2 mid block whenever the opposition had the ball inside their own half. That combination of the midfield four and two attackers looked to overload the central area and shown Rangers out wide, where they could overload and tried to be aggressive to regain the ball.
There was no indication that the attackers wanted to press Rangers’ centre-backs, but they rather looked to sit just in front of the central midfielders pairing and block potential passing lanes that could be opened up through the middle. Once the ball was played wide to one of the full-backs, that was when the pressing started for Aberdeen as that block of six would move across and overload the wide space.
Minor problem…for now, but the same problem against Ross County happened again and, so far, Rangers have not capitalised on that. There were a couple of instances where Rangers’ centre-backs opted to go long to Cyriel Dessers, who made runs into the channels, managed to outmuscle Molloy to receive the ball, and found himself clean through on goal. Thelin seemed to react to this straight away by asking Aberdeen’s defensive line dropped closer to their goal by a bit, but this also meant that more spaces opened up in between their defensive lines. Rangers have not done anything with that…yet, so let’s see how that evolved over the remainder of the first half.
The in possession phase also looked slightly different too, with both centre-backs Rubežić and Molloy not afraid to go long when there was an opportunity. Their targets were wingers who made runs into the channels and looked to exploit the space in behind Rangers’ defensive line. On a few occasions, Keskinen and Duk were able to make those runs in behind and get to the byline with the ball, where they would look for a cutback aiming towards teammates arriving into the box.
There was less of a tendency to use up-back-through combinations to play through the line considering how aggressive Rangers’ press was. But the principles were still there, both centre-backs showed how comfortable they were with controlling the ball under pressure and looked to make passes out wide to the full-backs and wingers, while the central midfielders Heltne Nilsen and Shinnie would stay close or even drop deep to provide passing options and drag Rangers players out of their position.
Once again, Keskinen was one of the most active players on the ball as he acted as the main passing target down the right-hand side. Whenever the ball was played to the Finnish player, he would attempt to take on Rangers’ left-back and caused a bit of a tough time by getting past Neraysho Kasanwirjo and reaching the byline for crosses.
Aberdeen should have done a lot better with the chances that they managed to create within the first 30 minutes or so. They could have settled the match very early, yet somehow, they only ended up with a single goal from Nicky Devlin at the 31st minute. For some of the chances that they created, Aberdeen attackers found themselves in a very good position to score, only to be saved by a Rangers player launching themselves to block the shot. The match was always going to be a feisty derby for sure, but Aberdeen could have at least made things a bit easier for them.
The remainder of the first half turned into an end-to-end clash with both Aberdeen and Rangers creating counter-attacking chances towards each other’s goal. The host pushed a lot of their players forward when they created an attacking chance, which required the players to regroup quickly and cover a lot of distance when Rangers recovered the ball and start hitting on the break. But Rangers were not that good with their counters either, which allowed Aberdeen to get back and regain possession, and then led to a counter-attack towards the opposite direction.
Entering the second half and Aberdeen clearly looked to lower their intensity by sitting a bit deeper and not chasing Rangers players that often. But there was also a sign of fatigue when some of their full-backs and midfielders got left behind by Rangers players and they were forced to concede a foul for a yellow card. Might not be a good sign.
And indeed they had, Aberdeen’s drop in intensity allowed Rangers to create goal-scoring chances and slowly got back into the game. While most of those chances came from hopeful crosses down the right-hand side that both Rubežić and Molloy were able to deal with, it took just a moment of brilliance from Nedim Bajrami for Rangers to find the equaliser. But for the most part, Aberdeen defended well to limit the attacking threat that Rangers created.
It’s tough to say whether Aberdeen deserved their second goal to regain the lead, especially considering they dropped off in the second half and allowed Rangers multiple opportunities to seize control of the game. However, they did work very hard both on and off the ball while Rangers did not show that much quality to win the game. They probably slightly deserved the win if judging on the basis of who worked harder at the end of the day.
Wrapping up
So, what did I learn about Jimmy Thelin’s Aberdeen after watching three of their Scottish Premiership matches?
Quite a bit, mostly the fact that they do the simple things very well and show intensity and hard work both with and without the ball. There is nothing revolutionary about Aberdeen, which does not mean that they are not worth watching and they are bad. They are where they are for a reason, and credits to Thelin for getting the team together to play a style of football that brings back hope for Aberdeen fans.
A style that relies on short combinations between midfielders and defenders to play through the opposition’s defensive lines, which gives the freedom to the attackers to make off-ball runs and attack the channels when they have the ball. No slow passing, not often circulating the ball between the defenders, but rather aiming to get the ball forward as quick as possible using short passes or, at times, long passes towards the lone striker up top. A style that not only requires the players to be good technically, but also tactically, to be in the right positions to receive the ball and create spaces by dragging opposition players out of their position.
A style that shows intensity off the ball by aggressively press the opposition right inside their own half and defensive third to regain possession as close to the opposition’s goal as possible. A tactically flexible style that allows Aberdeen to adapt to the opposition, where they can sit back in a mid-block and force stronger teams to play the ball wide instead of going through their defensive block. It requires determination and hard work, which Aberdeen players have, to be slightly aggressive out of possession and recover a lot of distance to regroup into their defensive shape.
That…is what I learned from Jimmy Thelin’s Aberdeen side.