The Dons Debrief: Dundee (H)
Trampling on the 'seeds of doubt'
Aberdeen Football Club remain joint-top of the SPFL, after securing their tenth win in eleven matches. Yes, it really is a joy to write that sentence.
Though the Dons pulled away in the second half, and added a gloss to the scoreline, I thought Dundee played their part, particularly in the first half. It was in my opinion, a fine advert for the league. Not perfect, it never is, but two teams who played good, attacking,well-coached, pro-active football in front of a packed stadium.
Doc Surprise
Those of you who consumed the preview on Saturday morning, may have been surprised like me, as Dundee opted for a 4-3-3 formation. As far as I can tell this is the first time Tony Docherty has opted for this since they played Rangers away in the League Cup in mid-September. Though we're only in November, it was more like a Christmas Tree setup (4-3-2-1) with Adewumi and Palmer-Houlen, playing inside the field (more on this later).
For the Dons, we saw the unexpected absence of Sivert Heltne-Nilsen and Jamie McGrath with Ante Palaversa and Leighton Clarkson replacing them respectively. This too would have an impact, both positive and negative. Otherwise, the team was the same that started against Celtic, including Duk, who I suggested in the preview should maybe drop out. Another piece of evidence that I should keep my thoughts on the line-up to myself.
Four Parts of the Game
The first half was pretty even and we had good examples from both teams on the four phases of the game:
In Possession
Out of possession
Attacking transitions
Defensive transitions
I’m not going to be able to go through all four but I think there are some elements of Dundee’s approach that Aberdeen struggled with in the first half through a mixture of Dundee Good, Aberdeen Bad.
Behind the Lines
“It was a difficult first half, we were quite open in our structure, the organisation was not really where we wanted it to be.”
Jimmy Thelin post-match
The Dark Blues were able to create a couple of good openings in the first half, through the two ‘wingers’ Adewumi and Palmer-Houlden, particularly the former. Dundee also kept their full-backs very high in build-up, so much of the same elements of their attacking structure were still in place. This led to the best open-play chance of the half (0.34xG) and it’s worth looking at it right from the start.
As was quite common Clark Robertson received the ball and had time to look up. He played a pass wide to around half-way for Larkeche to receive on the touchline.
The first issue here is the lack of organisation and intensity in the Aberdeen pressure to allow this pass to travel that distance and take so many players out of the game.
Larkeche faces up Nicky Devlin and is able to clip a simple ball down the line for Adewumi to chase.
Adewumi beats Rubezic in the footrace. The Dons two central midfielders and two full-backs are taken out of the game.
He gets into the box and though he possibly could have gone down, he shoots and Mitov saves well. Such is Dundee’s overload he could possibly have opted for a lay-off to Murray or Palmer-Houlden.
This highlights two of the Aberdeen problems in the first-half.
Firstly the press not being as coordinated as it should have been. There were numerous occasions where Dundee were willing to play the ball between the two centre-backs and Sylla was able to receive in between the two ‘forward’ players (Clarkson and Sokler). Keskinen too, as highlighted above, was also loose in his pressure on the ball and allowed passes to get by him too easily.
I’m not sure if this was related to the absence of Nilsen, the transitional nature of the game or the back centre-backs concerned about the pace in behind, thus dropping a little deeper, as I have mentioned, Aberdeen have one of the deepest defensive lines in the league. It just looked to me like Clarkson and Sokler were going to press, when they did not have the support behind them to do so, and when they did go there was no real intensity and the angles of pressure were poor.
Secondly, Dundee’s high positioning of the full-backs created a problem for the Aberdeen full-backs, just like at Dens. If the pressure was not quick enough they could either play to feet (if the line was cut-off) or hit into space like on this occasion. Rubezic versus Adewumi was a bad match-up for Aberdeen.
The third issue Dundee caused was via long balls from McCracken and then playing off the second ball. These would often come after Aberdeen progressively moved up the field as Dundee held possession in their own half thus creating some space for the midfielders to attack. McCracken looked to target Palmer-Houlden who often moved into the centre-forward position. He went to him seven times, with possession lost on only one occasion. And even on that turnover, it ended up creating another good chance when Cameron played in Murray on the 32nd minute.
So it looked to me like Dundee had worked on some different combinations and methods to break through Aberdeen’s press and even discounting the penalty they were able to create a number of good chances (0.68xG) and generate nine shots (three on target).
Dons on the Ball
Dundee looked to man-mark Shinnie and Palaversa with Cameron and Mulligan and they also aggressively pushed up their full-backs. Aberdeen did struggle with this at times, but when they got it right with their passing they were able to expose the space.
In this situation, Larkeche had squeezed high on Devlin which forced Cameron to drop into the left-back slot to cover Keskinen leaving Shinnie free.
The ball ended up back at Mitov who played a wonderful second-line pass to Shinnie who was in acres of space.
From there Shinnie was able to play a long ball to Duk who got into a 1v1 situation and subsequently got a shot off.
This again is a common theme over the season and we’re seeing the benefits to be able to provoke that press and then take advantage of the space.
There was also some good transitional play. Palaversa showed how his technique and passing range is such an asset with one pass on 10 minutes. After another long ball from McCracken, the ball ended up at the Croat with pressure on him and bodies surrounding.
Two touches later the ball is with Keskinen running at the Dundee remaining Dundee defenders.
“We were struggling, the game was quite open, we also had some chances, they had some chances, it was back and forth”
Jimmy Thelin post-match
It’s a fair assessment from the boss and though I’ve highlighted some of the struggles the Dons did have, they were able to create quite a few opportunities in that half themselves. Obviously the penalty save is a big turning point and I think if anything that was the first time when we saw how big players can turn these games with big moments.
Some Data and Stuff
You really only need one set of data to tell you that the second-half was less even and that’s the scoreline. But here’s some more.
We talked in the dressing room, adjusted small things, no panic, but looking to find better rhythm inside the game, and more stability in how to defend the transitions.
Jimmy Thelin post-match
Everything Jimmy says lines up with what we can see on the graphs above. There’s not a huge difference in Aberdeen’s output but there is a clear drop in Dundee’s possession and passing accuracy and an increase in the number of long balls, particularly in the opening 15 minutes of the second-half.
It wasn’t easy for me to really identify clear examples of this but we can see early on in the half that Clarkson is a lot closer to Robertson, his body position is stopping him from going back and the units behind him are more compact. Cameron in the middle may have been an option but Sokler is making moves to slide over and cover.
Keskinen was also livelier in this period in his pressing and anticipation to pick up lose balls. I wasn’t able to identify too many examples of Aberdeen doing better in transitions but it was only seven minutes into the half that Aberdeen took the lead.
Speaking of which, there’s an old-fashioned saying that goals change games and well, I think this was a big factor. Murray misses at one end, Aberdeen score twice in four minutes at the other (well technically the same, but you get the point).
After this, we’re in a totally different game state and for all but eight minutes, Dundee are playing the whole second half, two goals behind. That opening salvo was another example of Aberdeen having a strong spell for a consistent period of time. A wee wave inside the bigger tides of the ocean. We’ve seen this in the Rangers game, the first Celtic match, even the first game at Dens.
The Path to Goal
At the end of the day all this writing, analysing and pontificating is looking to determine two things: how does a coach try to get his team to stop the other team scoring, and how does he get his team to score?
In the regards to the latter, we know that Jimmy has mentioned his intention of creating overloads in the box and we’ve observed that a number of goals are scored from cut-backs and so there’s a focus on trying to get players into wide areas and have them enter the penalty area.
So the effectiveness of the game-plan is often determined by this. If Aberdeen can consistently get players into those positions, then they’re executing the work being done on the training field. But that would not be seen if you were watching the highlights from Saturday’s game. The first was via a corner, the second via a throw-in.
However, rewind the tape a minute or so and you’ll see that both corners come from runs from Duk in the left-wing. And the second goal only happens because the Cape Verdean’s header is a few inches too high.
Clarkson drifted further left in the second half, occupying a lot of the spaces that McGrath was taking up when he played left-wing, only now there was a left-winger to play passes too. Sylla did not like being pulled out there so he tended to get a good amount of space and though this screenshot will not do it justice, Clarkson’s reverse pass just before the first goal was a thing of beauty.
Duk just ran Dundee ragged. Being critical, his final ball was poor (although he did win corners) but there’s a confidence there that that will be developed with the coaching team in place.
It adds another dimension to the team and you can see how as mentioned, with Clarkson drifting into those zones that McGrath likes to frequent, you can have the best of both worlds - a crafty playmaker coming in from the wing and a pacy wideman to deliver shots and crosses. And it’s another sign that Aberdeen are still developing and getting better.
Big Moments
Back to my big moments. Well for the first goal we just have the superb technique of Palaversa to volley that ball right into the corner. He’s involved in the second with a flick that doesn’t quite come off but lands at Keskinen’s feet after the Finn pressurises the defender into a mistake (seen that before) and finishes emphatically.
And then we have the third. Perfect timing that avoided a panic like at Dens or against Motherwell. All I can say is that the quick thinking of Nisbetand the run from Vinnie shows two things. It speaks to a confidence being given to the players to try things that may not come off and secondly, a mental readiness and desire to make an impact from those coming off the bench.
Nisbet, Besuijen and Morris all were excellent when they came on. This Aberdeen bench is really something. I can’t help but think that Dundee, having missed the penalty right before half-time were cognizant of this and the Dons second-half turnarounds, and it may well have played on their minds as they began the second period.
Summary
Certainly some learnings from Jimmy and the team to take from this and perhaps a warning that teams now have a body of work to analyse and develop game-plans from. But we’re still improving too.
St. Mirren away, will be a hard game, a test, if you will. But for now, most of the team gets an opportunity to recharge their batteries, and we as fans can enjoy the electricity around this team that continues to shock the footballing world.
Week Ahead
As it’s another International Break, I’m going to dig into a couple of side-projects. I’ll look to stick to the same Tuesday-Saturday schedule.
COYR