Agents of Chaos. Deliverers of Disruption.

A short lament for departed attacking prowess.

Ah well. It’s just happening right now for Jimmy Thelin’s Dons. After another similar fixture on Saturday, in which the Dons failed to win for the fifth home game in a row (six if you want to include last season) and couldn’t find the net for the sixth time out of the eight matches this season, we’re all wondering how things can turn around.

From an in-possession sense, Saturday just felt like a series of centre-backs aiming long balls forward that amounted to nothing or switches of play to Alexander Jensen, which also ended up amounting to nothing.

We haven’t scored a goal against a Premiership team this season. Of the five we have scored, two came against 10 men, of which one was a corner. The other three came against a Championship side that is yet to win a league game this season. One of those was another from a corner (hey, maybe the set-pieces are improving) scored by a Sivert Heltne-Nilsen (not currently a fan favourite), one was a breakaway in the dying embers of the match, and in between (here’s the segue) was a strike from Shayden Morris, playing on the left wing. 40% of our goals from this season have been scored by players who are not at the club anymore.

I mention Morris and this is absolutely a genuine question: was this always just about Shayden Morris and Pape Gueye? Two agents of chaos? Not the whole thing, of course. But the goalscoring part. Actually no, it wasn’t, Jamie McGrath was there, too, and yeah, I’m doing it, I’m throwing in Duk, as well.

Morris

Inverting wingers are how most top teams play these days (maybe not in Scotland) and I’m not saying Aberdeen can’t do that, but it just feels like in order to get in behind a defensive line, we need some real on-point combinations. When we find Karlsson, he likes to drift inside and on the right, it’s Jensen and he’s either crossing from deep, laying it back, or trying to work some kind of combination to find a player in-behind.

So this system is great, in theory. The process may work on paper. Maybe it worked before in the Borås factory. But there are times when that rogue worker just doesn’t follow the script, in order to get the job done.

In Aberdeen terms, what we’re missing is the guys who we can give the ball to and just ask them to make something happen. And that’s where Morris was so good. The Luton Town man’s absence was acutely felt on Saturday when it got to that 65-70 minute mark, and the subs board went up. It was Dante Polvara, a centre midfielder by trade, now an impact left winger target man who I, at least, was pinning my hopes on. Oh to see that #20 pick up the ball in the ‘Jensen’ slot and run at his man…

Gueye

I’m not going to rehash the Gueye arguments, but I would point to three main areas in which we miss his presence. Firstly, as an outlet. He played mainly as the #10 so we had him and Nisbet available for the longer balls from goal-kicks or centre-backs. Secondly, he was clearly a major threat from set-pieces. Lastly, he was able to carry the ball. The Motherwell goal was a bit of an outlier, but it demonstrates his ability in that area of the game.

There’s also this ongoing question of, why play Gueye so often if that’s not the type of #10 you want? And if it is, why not sign one?

Duk

Though it won’t go down as his vintage Aberdeen period, Duk when he returned to the team, still contributed last season. Indeed it was his return that saw this late winner from Palaversa.

Just look at that. A wide man with chalk on his boots, going at a defender, getting to the end line and cutting the ball back to midfielders crashing the box. I get that it was against 10-men but it’s still a sight we’re not seeing too often these days.

Duk for all his faults still managed two assists last season. The same amount as Topi Keskinen.

McGrath

Again, I’ve talked before about McGrath’s intelligence to pick up positions from left wing and tuck inside. What’s not been mentioned is his ability to arrive in the box and finish. An excellent SPFL player whom the club deemed not worth the investment if club media is to be trusted. 10 goal involvements last year in the League.

From FBRef

Facts

I’m not trying to rewrite history. But let’s remind ourselves of that winning run last Autumn and about who contributed to the goals and assists.

Since that Dundee win, the Dons picked up five more league wins. Gueye started in all of them, Morris grabbing the winner against Ross County.

Learning Stuff

The Dons overperformed in their opening run of 10 wins out of 11 last season. But it wasn’t just a fluke, there were some real fine performances in there.

I totally understand why the club took the money for Morris, Gueye and Duk. But what I don’t understand is how they failed to recognize what they brought to the team. It seems to me that taking learnings from that period and in regards to the profile of players that were contributing has been ignored.

Perhaps the whole room doesn’t need to be flatpack furniture from Ikea? Maybe we can still keep that old desk we inherited, or one that looks like it.

Instead we’ve brought in players that fit the system. The feeling seems to be that the system just needs to be fine tuned. Maybe we’re in the messy middle of change management, however it seems we’re all gradually moving towards the ‘I like Jimmy but…’. territory.

So the point of this post really is to suggest that perhaps we should have recognised the need for:

• A winger mix that allows for the team to play with width high up the pitch (could be wrong here but I’ve not seen it thus far)

• A flexible forward with ability in the air (this could be Nisbet and Lazetic???)

It’s fair that Aouchiche was probably seen as McGrath’s replacement; perhaps Armstrong will shoulder some of that responsibility, too. We don’t know the ins and outs of that Hibs deal but if it was really about the extra fourth year, when McGrath would be starting the fourth season at the age of 31, well I’m going to say that I think that was a mistake.

The Way it Goes

From Jimmy’s post-match interview on Saturday I got two main takeaways. Firstly, when managers (and players) start putting everything down to winning 50/50s and running harder, it hints at some disharmony within the group. Secondly, I got the hunch that Jimmy knows that something might need to change, similar in the way that he realised before the Cup Final.

For tomorrow, I think we could see Aouchiche, Keskinen, and maybe Jensen out of the team. Milanovic to come in and though it’s an inverted winger, he might start wider with perhaps a Devlin offering on overlaps. At the #10 maybe it’s Polvara for some extra height. Centre-mids? I don’t know.

Not that anyone is asking but I’m still Jimmy-In. This is not the post that will break those reasons down however, he needs some goals and some wins. Over the next two games we have a pretty good idea of how the opponent will play and how their likely to score goals. If we don’t see any clear signs of adapting to that, especially against Motherwell, then it does not bode well for the longer-term.

COYR

P.s. There was a lot to look at in the Motherwell game. I would recommend Andrew Budge’s review here.