Aberdeen get their first Premiership season under Jimmy Thelin up and running against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Monday night (8pm).
After a disappointing return to the top-flight’s bottom six last term, the early signs under new Swedish boss Thelin have been positive, with the Dons recording a flawless four wins from four in the Premier Sports Cup group stage – including a closing 6-0 hammering of League One Dumbarton.
Going into the Saints clash, with hopes of a positive league start, Thelin’s team selection is the biggest of the talking points, due the Dons having a fresh injury concern to deal with.
How does Jimmy Thelin deal with Leighton Clarkson’s injury absence?
No.10 Clarkson was forced off against Dumbarton with a shoulder injury, confirmed as a fracture, which is expected to keep him out until late September.
In the League Cup group games, Thelin’s favoured team lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Dimitar Mitov in goals, and (right to left) Nicky Devlin, Slobodan Rubezic, Gavin Molloy and Jack MacKenzie in defence. Ahead of them was a central midfield pairing of Sivert Heltne Nilsen and Graeme Shinnie, and Shayden Morris, Clarkson and Jamie McGrath in behind loan striker Ester Sokler.
With Clarkson out, Thelin could replace him with £500,000 man Pape Habib Gueye – who came on against Dumbarton and looked capable of making a belated impact this season for the Dons in his first appearance following his loan spell in Norway, having contributed to one of Sokler’s goals.
But does Thelin instead move McGrath from the left wide berth into the middle, and rely on Gueye or Vicente Besuijen to fill the void on the left?
Besuijen also showed some attacking sparkle off as a substitute with an assist against the Sons.
Frozen out under former bosses Jim Goodwin and Barry Robson, the Dutchman – following his productive loan with FC Emmen at the end of last term – failed to impress in his only League Cup group start, at East Kilbride, but showed the talent he undoutedly has in the Dumbarton victory.
Bojan Miovski or Ester Sokler upfront?
All through the Premier Sports Cup campaign, Ester Sokler was Thelin’s first-choice to lead the Aberdeen line upfront, and is already on four goals for the campaign.
We have only seen 45 minutes of last season’s 26-goal star man Bojan Miovski – when the North Macedonian forward helped turn the game in the second half against Airdrieonians at Pittodrie.
The coaching staff’s thinking in using last season’s striking under-study Sokler over Miovski at the start of the new campaign is obvious:
The latter is widely expected to leave the Dons in a big-money move before the transfer window closes. The club, with their player-trading model reliant on speculating on young talent and then selling more high profit, do not want to risk an injury to their prize asset.
It is also understandable why new boss Thelin, who is trying to rebuild Aberdeen for the long-term, would be reticent to play a frontman who will likely only be in the Granite City for a matter of weeks, instead of Slovenian Sokler, who was signed last summer, clearly as succession planning for Miovski’s departure.
Still, with the Premiership all-important to Aberdeen, and Miovski still undeniably the Dons’ best player, some supporters would argue Thelin should play his goalscorer-in-chief right up until the point where his transfer exit is formally sealed.
How will Thelinball fare on its top-flight debut?
Monday will also give fans the first indication of how manager Thelin’s tactical sensibilities – which made Elfsborg an Allsvenskan powerhouse over the past six years – work in the Scottish top-flight.
Although you could say the latter three Premier Sports Cup group games, against East Kilbride, Airdrie and Dumbarton, were all matches where Aberdeen started relatively-slowly before clicking into gear, we’ve seen a willingness to cede possession to opponents and then punish them with rapid counter-attacks, as well as a willingness to press high, commit men forward and overwhelm the opposition.
Trips to McDiarmid Park are famously nip-tuck affairs, though, and it will be fascinating to see, against a Craig Levein St Johnstone side you would expect to be pretty defensive in approach, what the Aberdeen manager’s plan is to unlock them and get off to a winning Premiership start.
Enter our new Dons Score Predictor League!
We have launched our new Dons Score Predictor League, where readers can win £100 for guessing the correct scoreline for each of Aberdeen’s Premiership matches in the 2024/25 season.
As well as a correct result for each league fixture seeing contestants entered into a £100 cash draw, a right answer will also earn them 1 point in our Dons Score Predictor League table – with the highest points scorer over the campaign winning a whopping £1,903.
The Dons Score Predictor League is open to Evening Express print readers and our online subscribers.
To ensure you’re a paying reader, you need to know the upcoming game password to fill in the entry form – which will be included in this pre-game talking points piece for each Premiership match.
The password for the St Johnstone v Aberdeen game on Monday is “Shinnie”.
You can find the form to enter your score prediction here – with the deadline for game 1 entries noon on Monday (the Saints v Dons game kicks-off at 8pm).
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