The Dons Debrief: Celtic (H)

Some obeservations on pressing

Unfortunately the Dons were unable to reignite their title challenge on Wednesday amid atrocious conditions in the North-East. Overall it was quite an impressive defensive performance from Aberdeen who restricted Celtic to few clear cut chances, particularly in the first-half.

Time has got the better of me this week, so I’m not able to do a full debrief. One area I did find interesting, as ever, was how Aberdeen pressed. This is always going to be a big part of any strategy against Brendan Rodgers Celtic and Thelin has shown an ability to frustrate and create openings in the two games previous.

However, Celtic’s movement caused issues at Hampden as the game wore on. We saw some glimpses of Aberdeen may look to deal with the problem moving forward.

In the preview I wondered Aberdeen might look change their shape compared to the other two matches, and employ a 4-2-3-1 shape. I think there were elements of that but it wasn’t just a clear flick of the switch.

McGrath on McGregor

There was a clearer designation on McGrath to pick up McGregor. That’s not to say he didn’t press alongside Nisbet in the 4-4-2 shape, but he definitely stuck closer to the Celtic captain to try deny service to him. In the moments he did go and press one of the centre-backs, Nisbet sometimes hopped back in to cover for him.

Keskinen Splitting the Difference

As you can see in the above image. With McGrath closer to McGregor it does reduce pressure on the two Celtic centre-backs.

It looked to me like Keskinen was given the task of marking both Carter-Vickers and Johnson which I think he did quite well. The Finn made sure to position himself in the passing lanes when Johnston moved inside or outside.

McGrath is tight on McGregor. Keskinen is tucked inside.

Keskinen is able to apply pressure whilst denying pass to Johnston. Aberdeen have good coverage on the rest of Celtic’s team.

Here’s another example. In this case Johnston is in more space and Schmeichel takes the opportunity to chip a pass to him.

Nilsen, Keskinen and McGarry all press the ball aggressively and are able to turn the ball over.

McGarry ends up breaking into space but is unable to make anything happen.

The aggression at which Nilsen pressed up makes me think this might have been a designed trap. If the ball moves in the air, then it needs to be brought down which gives the defending team a bit more time to find their targets.

Duk the Defensive Midfielder

This was not an overly common occurence but it suggests Aberdeen were adapting their approach to some of the nuances of Celtic’s build-up, namely the inversion of the left back.

We also saw Celtic move to a back-three at times, something we haven’t seen that often before, so their in-possession shape was a 3-2-2-3.

You could draw lines on the Aberdeen team to put them in a 4-2-4 or 4-3-3 here but later on in other situation, it’s much clearer that Duk has tucked in to provide additional support to the midfield as Valle has moved inside in a higher area.

So just like we’ve seen in build-up, there was an assymetrical element to Aberdeen’s pressing on Wednesday.

In the end, it is an inverted left-back that makes the difference. Beusijen is slow to react to pick up Taylor, which is not totally unreasonable given how far inside he is. Morris and Clarkson could perhaps put more pressure on McGregor. Fine details and find margins.

Summary

If you’re not already convinced, I hope this provides some more evidence to have faith in the coaching team. Not only does Thelin seem to have some clear ideas on how he wants Aberdeen to play, he also recognises the need to adapt to the opposition.

The first half was a very organised performance and as the above details, an example of the coaching staff making tweaks based on previous evidence.

Apologies I could not cover more. On to St. Johnstone.