Absolutely great seeing an Aberdeen team that can press collectively, has players in position to counter-press, actually tries to do that against Celtic, and when they win the ball doesn’t immediately shell it up the channel. This is what a well coached team looks like 😍😍😍
It’s sooo good 😭. Non-Aberdeen/Scottish football fans might not understand this, but Dons just went from a smart compact 433 in their own half, getting a man extra in wide areas, Celtic have no options, the ball has to go back. Abdn then squeeze up, Clarkson bites…
… the ball has to go back, the team shifts up and then Joe Hart decides to clear the ball long cos of the pressure… and Aberdeen have the ball. I’m not joking when I say I have never ever seen this very simple out of possession approach before in a game against Celtic 😂
Honestly don’t worry about the Celtic counter attacks. They’ll end up winning cos they have great individual players on big money, or silly mistakes like Devlin’s. I’m enjoying just being genuinely competitive, looking like we’ve analysed and worked on the opposition
The Aberdeen goalie just played a 30 yard pass under pressure to find one of the midfielders and start a counter 🥹
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Aberdeen were absolutely brilliant in the first half of the Charlton pre-season friendly on Saturday so I am v surprised to see quite a few absolutely dreadful takes on it, the squad building, and other such items so here comes a small thread of pointless analysis
1st: it’s a friendly in preseason so the result DOESNT MATTER AT ALL. What does matter is building fitness, seeing training ground work executed on the pitch so you can check what’s good and what needs tweaked, and players getting used to their roles and instructions
2nd: despite the great but meaningless result (3-2 win) we saw soooo much great stuff in the first half.
Biggest takeaway for me is the changing team shape and how well coached we look in transition - and especially how well we defended deep and high
Aberdeen's Expected Goals Against number this season is incredible. They are the worst in the league by an absolute mile, should/could have conceded roughly 12 goals more than they actually have. Points towards either a badly coached team, poor tactics, or incredibly bad players
Transitioning from a 'sit deep and punt the ball into space' model to a high press, high line attacking possession team is very difficult, particularly with the budget that a club like Aberdeen has. But the system(s) is/are leaving the defence wide open. And the thing is...
... Stephen Glass, who was hounded out the club cos the team could not kick a jelly bean, is the opposite. It's a full season tbf but there's Aberdeen with 4th best xGA... and the numbers show they underperformed! That points to bad luck and mistakes being made, or a bad goalie
Already seeing one of the big problems present in Argentina's defeat to Saudi Arabia. In buildup they're leaving this circle below vacant, so the CBs passes out from the back are really easy to predict and Mexico can step up on them in a high press
This means it's really really easy to press them and stop them progressing through lines. Feel like I've seen it many times before because Aberdeen used to have this problem (lol) for years and were reduced to playing channel balls or shelling it to a big man
Very easy to be a sofa manager here, but if the build up shape was more like the below with the movements on dotted lines...