The Dons Debrief: St. Mirren (A)
This is the SPFL
Aberdeen’s remarkable unbeaten league run came to an end in Paisley on Saturday night. A late goal from Richard Taylor gave St. Mirren the three points. It’s never easy losing but the home side were deserving of their victory.
My main takeaway from watching the game was that the Dons got control of the game and let it slip. I think the FotMob momentum visual does a pretty good job of explaining that.
A good, high energy start that gets a crowd going is not unique when a team plays at home against a team higher up in the league with a higher budget. We’ve seen this at Pittodrie when Celtic come calling, and you saw it at Tynecastle too on Saturday night. Sometimes this ‘opening salvo’ can result in a goal. More often than not, if it does or doesn’t, the storm will be weathered, an equalizer or opening goal will be found and the ‘bigger’ team will go on and get winner or add one or two more.
On Saturday after about 65 minutes, it seemed like things were going that way for Aberdeen. At this point I was getting pretty excited. It seemed Thelin had turned around again at half-time and the Dons were dominating the ball and creating chances. A second goal would be a matter of time. But as we know, it didn’t turn out that way. St. Mirren grew into the second half and eventually got a corner late in the game and scored a winning goal from it.
For me, the interesting element therefore was the last 25 minutes or so. However, I found Jimmy Thelin’s comments very interesting today. He chose to focus on the start of the game, as opposed to the end.
“In the first 20–25 minutes of the game, we were not happy with how we performed, how we acted as a team. It’s about the identity we want to show our supporters and ourselves. What we want to build into our DNA is how we act in certain situations and how we want to start games, especially against difficult teams away from home. That’s what we’ll focus on—the first 20 minutes of the game.”
So this week’s debrief will spend most of the time trying to work out what pissed Jimmy off and then touch on how he fixed it and then how the game was lost. And yes, this is also because I wrote too much on the first half and ran out of space and time for the second.
First Half
As we expected Saint Mirren began the game with long balls into the box, high intensity to win second balls and a deliberation over set-pieces to maximise the opportunity.
Mitov Passing
Unfortunately I don’t have a direct line into Thelin to find out what he means by “how we acted as a team,” but one theory might be on not having complete confidence to make the tricky pass when under pressure and stick to building out short. Mitov struggled a few times with his distribution when pressed, like in the example below.
In the above picture, you can see Devlin indicating that Mitov should pass to Nilsen (but is Shinnie telling him to wide left?). This would be a difficult pass and you can see O’Hara and Kiltie ready to jump if the ball does go to the Norwegian. But maybe this is what Thelin wanted. Nilsen is good enough to get the ball in there, turn and hit one of the attacking midfielders, and then we’re in four versus three territory.
Instead it is intercepted by Fraser who is able to set up McMenamin for the first chance of the game.
In truth it wasn’t the worst idea in the world to hit MacKenzie, but the execution was way off. Mitov had a poor day with his longer kicking, hitting five out of eleven targets, but only three resulting in retaining of possession.
In the opening 20 minutes, St. Mirren were able to get four corners and four shots on goal, generating an xG of 0.69. From 25-45, they had one shot on goal and no corners.
Dealing with the Press, Trying to Create Openings
Aberdeen kept the ball well in their own half, and dealt with the St. Mirren press fairly comfortably aside from a couple of hurried giveaways. This ability to recognise what’s happening on the field and making adjustments in positioning, may also be one of Thelin’s principles. After about 10 minutes, we saw Shinnie move into the right back slot to create some overloads in the build-up:
This created a challenge for the Buddies as they had to worry about Morris in behind and he had pushed Tanser back. It’s what happens next though but may give some more clues to Thelin’s concerns. Shinnie plays inside to Nilsen and he goes long, early, to Morris who loses out to Tanser.
I think the argument there would be that Nilsen has time to move into space, find Morris to find perhaps or connect with McGrath who’s just out of shot on the first pic.
Here’s a pass map of Aberdeen in the first 20 minutes:
As you can see, not a lot going on in the attacking half but certainly nothing in a central area. I’ve highlighted it in yellow in case it’s unclear.
Thelin offered some tactical insight when discussing the first half changes he made:
“We weren’t arriving behind their defensive line and were stuck in front of it, losing the ball and giving them momentum, so we needed a different kind of player. It was more about trying to find another way, we adjusted to be more direct in the second half, which allowed us to arrive in the box.”
Again, just trying to work out what the manager might have been thinking (essentially the entire point of this newsletter), trying to create combinations between Sokler and McGrath/Clarkson to hit Morris might have been the plan.
This came off on one occasion (see below) and Morris was able to get 1v1 after ten minutes after McGrath had played him through following Sokler’s layoff. The cutback was cutout but it was a fast, counter attacking move that got Aberdeen behind the defensive line.
Three minutes later there was another switch to Morris from Clarkson which results in a corner that leads to a great chance for Sokler who’s first touch lets him down and pushes him too wide. It should have been 1-0.
Making things happen in the final third was a struggle, beyond this though. Despite dominating possession 70/30, Aberdeen had only 19 final third entries to Saint Mirren’s 31 in the first half. When they lost the ball in the final third they often left themselves open to a long ball and a rapid change of momentum. Of course, none more so than Olusanya’s opening goal.
A big hoof up the park
Here’s eight seconds before the ball hits the back of the net for the Buddies.
Balcombe is under pressure from Sokler, smashes it away/plays a beautiful defence splitting pass, Olusanyi, like a fast kid in an U14 school match, runs on to it and finishes well past Mitov.
For me, most of the blame lies with Rubezic. I think it’s fair to say the players are caught off guard with the rapid switch from attacking to defending, but being flat on the half-way line with the speed of Olusanyi, against a team that likes to go long, was probably not the smartest plan.
It’s possible they were trying to play him off but the Dons have a very deep defensive line compared to the rest of the league, largely because of Ruby’s lack of speed. Mitov should also be higher if they are willing to push up that high.
Even then however, after the ball drops, he still has the option to cut across Olusanyi to use his strength to shield the ball and clear it, but he gets outmuscled and outrun. It might seem a while ago, but this happened in the last game against Dundee also. I think Ruby’s been great this season, has shown a lot of improvement, but I do wonder if his lack of speed will become an issue for Thelin, if he wants the team to progressively press higher.
So was Jimmy right to be pissed off?
I think aside from the goal (yes that is a big problem), in general Aberdeen did fine in the opening period when you consider control of the ball, not getting caught with a high-ish press like against Hearts and Celtic, or like Hibs did the week before to the Buddies.
On the flip side, St. Mirren were fairly comfortable giving up the ball in those areas. They beat St. Johnstone and Hibs with around 30% possession. At Pittodrie, I said St. Mirren had a lot of meaningless passing, the same was probably true of Aberdeen on Saturday.
Aberdeen failed to combine consistently in the attacking half and failed to get in behind. Clearly Jimmy had a game plan, but it wasn’t executed to his satisfaction. The biggest threat the men in Red had was penetrating through individual runners versus intricate passing, via Morris. So it was this route he again turned to at half-time with the addition of Duk.
Like a Duk to Water
I think for the 20 minutes at the start of the second half, the Dons produced some of their best football of the season. Yes, there was a lot of passing in their own half, but it was more progressive and led to more consistent forms of attacking.
We saw Shinnie drop in as third centre-back for the first time this season in the build up and it allowed Molloy in particular to progress forward with more space and security.
There was some good overloads on the left-hand side, again a common theme of the season, with Nilsen, MacKenzie, McGrath and Duk and they were able to play little one-twos and through balls to get a man into the crossing position.
There was an element of fortune to the goal but it was well-worked prior to that and Duk’s 1v1 running was again on full display. He faded as the game went on but he had a brilliant impact at the start of the second half, just like he did against Dundee.
Wide Men
One observation from watching Thelin’s Elfsborg was the dynamic running of the wide men, we’re edging closer to that for the Dons. This was not a great argument for the Clarkson and McGrath combo and I think right now, it’s one or the other. McGrath should be preferred on current form but long-term it may be Clarkson if, as looks likely, Jamie moves on.
The Dons have looked most dangerous with pace on the flanks. Morris had a really good first-half and is developing well. Duk had another positive performance. Keskinen was certainly lively when he came on but had familiar issues up against a deep block. Things might be different for him tonight.
This is the End
Unfortunately all good things must end. After 65 minutes, St. Mirren put on a Mikael Mandron and moved to a 3-5-2, pressing the Aberdeen backline a bit more aggressively with two strikers. The possession was therefore less controlled and things started to break down more often.
Mandron also presented another aerial threat and he pinned himself on Molloy with diagonal balls played in for him to attack. After 69 minutes Nilsen went off with a head knock and Aberdeen’s attack lost some rhythm and their defence lost some discipline.
Tide Turns
McMenamin should really have made it 2-1 on 64 minutes and the tide just gradually started to turn from there on. Aberdeen lost more midfield battles. Duk couldn’t beat his man. St. Mirren had the ball more and they only need a little bit of time and space anywhere on the field to launch an attack.
It was Mandron’s physical presence that earned him the shot that resulted in the corner for the winner. The Dons have now conceded two goals in three games from corners. It was a great delivery, and well attacked but there’s a lack of defensive responsibility in challenging Taylor. It might have been too crowded for Mitov but it does land well inside the six yard box.
It flags up that the Dons are lacking height. This, I think will continue to be an area of concern, particularly at Tynecastle on Sunday.
A Game of Chances
Ultimately with a game at 1-1 going into the last ten minutes, there’s always going to be an opportunity to lose it. The aim must be to eliminate all luck and chance, to create enough chances to put the other team away but chance creation still remains a concern. The xG numbers on this one, were pretty tight, St. Mirren slightly edging it but overall the picture is not brilliant reading.
Of course, the above is not reality. Aberdeen sit second in the table, eight points clear of third, but I think it’s ok to acknowledge we need to create more opportunities in games to be able to continue this positive period of results.
On to Hibs
By the time you read this, all attention will have turned to Hibs. I expect this to be a totally different game that hopefully will suit the Dons. Whether David Gray changes his approach to avoid another defeat and surely the sack, we will have to wait and see. If he continues his possession based approach, then I think it will suit the Dons.
It would be great to bury the memory of this game with a quick three points. The bubble may have burst but it can be quickly reinflated.
We must keep moving.
Enjoy the game
COYR