The Dons Debrief: Aberdeen 2 Airdrie 1
Second half comeback sees Dons move to 3 wins out of 3
Two second half goals from Shinnie and Clarkson gave Aberdeen a win on Jimmy Thelin’s home debut.
This is what patience looks like.
1-0 down in the first home game of the season, the third of Thelin’s reign and some boos began to ring out. Thelin is a smart coach. He will have a process. He will focus on certain principles to implement initially. There will be a plan. But there will be ups and downs and we need give him time. Unlike his predecessors, Thelin has a track record he can point to.
Clarkson the #10. Thelin has made Clarkson the creative hub of the team and his performance showed freedom in the attacking sense and discipline defensively. Drifting out to the left to create overloads, he was a constant menace. Pressing wise he pushed up alongside the center forward to disrupt the build up.
Pressing. Following on from the point above, Thelin looks to have quickly got the team into a standard pressing structure when the opposition is building up. Clarkson’s advancement creates a 4-4-2 shape and the Dons created scoring chances when successful in disrupting Airdrie’s build up.
Full backs. The full back areas were a weakness both defensively and offensively. Airdrie were able to put a number of dangerous crosses in with Nicky Devlin looking outnumbered at the back post. This is possibly a byproduct of having wide players that cheat. It’s a gamble and let to Airdrie’s goal. Attacking wise Devlin made some headway but looked slow and lumbered when doing so. Mackenzie was better but should have scored when put clean through.
Reinforcements. Though there were positives, Airdrie caused Aberdeen numerous problems, a testament to their coaching team. And it is unlikely many teams will have the bravery to play that way in the SPFL. However, it was the first real test and shine a light on the glaring weaknesses of the team. Full backs as mentioned, and they would not even be the number one priority. Morris really struggled, much like we all thought he might and it will be interesting to see if McGrath remains as the left winger. Defensively Molloy and Rubezic dealt with crosses well but showed little composure on the ball. Back to point one, Jimmy needs time. But he also needs players.