Player Profile: Sivert Heltne Nilsen
Analysis of one of Aberdeen's Key Men
When Aberdeen paid a rumoured £350K for 32 year-old (about to turn 33) Norwegian in the summer, there were some questions being asked down Pittodrie Way. This did not seem to fit the player-trading model much espoused by the Aberdeen hierarchy. Instead, the capture of Sivert Heltne Nilsen has been a reminder that sometimes finished products need to be purchased and square pegs fitted into square holes.
Since the Norwegian joined from SK Brann in July, reuniting with his former boss Jimmy Thelin, he has in a short space of time, established himself as a vital component of the Aberdeen team both in performances and presence at the base of midfield as the Dons have began the 2024/25 season with 10 straight wins.
Player Profile
We can see from the above graphic that Nilsen excels at both getting on the ball and winning it back. This corresponds with what we’ve seen at Aberdeen so far.
Position
Nilsen has operated as one of the central midfielders in Aberdeen’s 4-2-3-1 system. He has, with the exception of this past weekend against Motherwell, partnered club captain Greame Shinnie, with Nilsen a right footer operating on the left and Shinnie a left footer, operating in the right. Though these designations have not been rigid, Nilsen’s heatmap acknowledges this is where he spends most of his time.
There have been a couple of games (Queen’s Park and Kilmarnock) where Shinnie has dropped into the right back position in the build-up and on those occasions Nilsen then moves more centrally to a more traditional #6 role.
Building out from the back
Nilsen has been a constant option for Aberdeen’s two centre-backs Slobodan Rubezic and Gavin Molloy. He is very comfortable and willing to take the ball under pressure, drawing in defenders. Often just moves the ball back to the same player, or the other central defender. A high majority of his passes are 10-15 yards. See an example below of him in a typical receiving situation versus Kilmarnock.
In that instance, he was able to turn and play to his partner Shinnie who could progress the ball forward. The partnership between the two has been very impressive with Nilsen providing security for Shinnie to make more forward runs with and without the ball. Nilsen is more of #6 and Shinnie a #8 in the double pivot the Dons employ.
Nilsen’s constant availability sees him in the 95% percentile for passes’ thus far in the SPFL and he ranks #12 in number of accurate passes per 90 (51.9 per game, passing accuracy of 82%) Outside of the two Glasgow clubs, only Heart’s centre-back, Frankie Kent is ahead of him and he is the third-ranking midfielder player behind McGregor and Barron.
His influence on the team seems to be growing with progressively higher numbers of passes and an increased passing success rate. This does point to Aberdeen having increasing control of their last three SPFL games, although the opposition’s approach/situation in those games, was a contributing factor.
Currently his biggest weakness is his long passing which is at 29.2%. Looking back on his previous seasons with SK Brann (60% -2024, 66.7% -2023, 54.9 - 2021) and Elfsborg (50% in 2020) this does seem a little low and out of kilter with the other metrics which remain fairly consistent. Perhaps this is something that will increase along with the sample size.
Opposition Half
The average number of passes he makes is split evenly between the attacking and defensive half (25 in each). Naturally his completion drops a little in the attacking half but not by much - 88% to 77%. Nilsen’s primary role in the attacking half is to act as an outlet for players to recycle the ball, particularly in situations where the team wishes to switch the point of attack.
The Norwegian has managed two assists: St. Johnstone away and Queen’s Park at home. The latter a superb first time through ball.
He has shown a nice knack for chipped passes around the top of the box to break down deep lying defenses, like this example below into Nicky Devlin against Queen’s Park.
Out of Possession
Nilsen alongside Shinnie provides a shield in front of the Aberdeen defence. There have not been too many instances when the team has been under severe pressure but he is rarely caught out of possession and performs the role as a sitting midfielder, ready to break up opposition attacks through interceptions, tackles, or recoveries.
He has won 66% of his tackles and most impressively recovered the ball 36 times. On that metric, for comparison Callum McGregor has managed 39, Connor Barron only 20.
On the negative side he has only won 50% of his duels and has been dribbled past 10 times this season, highlighting one of his biggest weaknesses, which would be pace. This sometimes forces him into tactical fouls and he has picked up two yellow cards in his five Premiership outings this season.
Aberdeen have primarily pressed in a mid-block, in a 4-4-2 shape. Nilsen has been ready to engage when the lines are broken although not too many teams have tried to play through the midfield. On most occasions the ball has gone long. See the image below from the Motherwell game on Saturday to illustrate the Aberdeen shape and where he positions himself. It should be acknowledged we’re in injury time at this point and Motherwell are chasing an equaliser.
In his supporting position in the attacking half-he is always close by to step in and win the ball back on the counter-press or on second balls from long kick outs.
On-Field Influence
"I know he will set standards, both on and off the pitch, and his experience will help some of our emerging talent. Sivert is a leader who brings with him a real will to win,” said Jimmy Thelin when announcing Nilsen’s arrival.
It is harder to provide quantitive data to illustrate his influence on the team, but anyone who has watched Aberdeen this season will be familiar with his instruction to teammates, chats during breaks of play and ‘feedback’ when he sees things are not at the level required.
He has added a vital level of experience to what is otherwise, a fairly youthful squad who are playing at the highest level of their careers.
Can he be stopped?
As the season progresses and teams become more familiar with Aberdeen, then it’s likely that there will be more attempts to try and win the ball from Nilsen given the propensity for the centre-backs to us him to build-up play.
As has been noted, his game is not really about receiving in a deep position and sending long-range passes in behind defences, he generally tries to move the ball into a better position from where it came from, either to the spare Rubezic, Shinnie, the full-backs or Jamie McGrath. As the cliche goes, he just keeps the game ticking over.
Kilmarnock and Ross County both made attempts to either man-mark or screen passes into Nilsen and as the data shows this seemed only to increase his time on the ball.
In the latter however, the Staggies were quite happy to allow Aberdeen (and Nilsen) the ball in areas where they could not be hurt. There is not necessarily a correlation between Nilsen’s time on the ball and Aberdeen’s success on the field but it does suggest a greater element of control.
Future Developments
Aberdeen, under Jimmy Thelin, have had more possession of the ball than we expected and this does seem to have presented a challenge for the team to open up defences.
Given Nilsen’s comfort on the ball and willingness to receive under pressure, it’s possible that he may be used to coax opponents into an aggressive press thus opening up space in more dangerous areas in behind. There was a hint of this against Kilmarnock and I wonder if this may be something the team are developing.
He is also likely to have a key role as Aberdeen go into a tougher stretch of the season. His positioning, ability to recover the ball and most importantly keep it, will be critical in those games where the Dons see their moments in possession limited.
Summary
Nilsen has been an essential component of Aberdeen’s improvement this season. The main aspects he is provided to the team are:
Increased control of the ball
Ability to win the ball back
Positional awareness to ensure there are not gaping holes in midfield
Releasing Greame Shinnie to play his natural box-to-box game
Knowlege of Thelin system and on-field coaching
Data used in this article was sourced from Sofascore, Whoscored and FotMob.