When it comes to picking his players up again following the end of their unbeaten start to the season Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin will draw upon his own experience at his last club Elfsborg.
The Dons have spent the week licking their wounds following a humbling 6-0 defeat by Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden.
Victory for the Hoops at the National Stadium brought Aberdeen’s stunning 16-game unbeaten start to the season to an end but a defiant Thelin has insisted the defeat, no matter how painful, is only a bump in the road.
Furthermore, the Dons boss is determined to learn from the loss.
After all, it is in defeat you truly find out what you are made of and that is why the reaction to the setback, rather than the agony of defeat itself, is what Aberdeen’s Swedish manager is keeping his focus on.
Elfsborg experience will help
Crucially for Aberdeen, Thelin has been here before.
Last year in the Allsvenskan, Sweden’s top-flight, Thelin responded to an opening day defeat by Hacken by guiding his former club Elfsborg on a 15-game unbeaten run which took them to the top of the table.
It was the same team, Hacken, who ended that run with a 3-1 win but Elfsborg did not let that loss upset his side as Per Frick’s goal gave Elfsborg a narrow 1-0 win over Sirius in the next game.
There was one intangible which perhaps did come into play in the run-in – nerve.
With the pressure building Malmo, the biggest club in Sweden and the title favourites, suffered one defeat in their final eight games, and it was that team Hacken which put a spanner in the works.
But Elfsborg could not take advantage. Noah Soderberg’s equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time earned Elfsborg a point at home to relegation-threatened Degerfors in a 2-2 draw. Had the home side won the game they would have been crowned champions.
That left Elfsborg facing a winner-takes-all encounter at Malmo which they lost 1-0, allowing the hosts to pip Elfsborg to the title on goal difference.
Thelin’s approach goes against the grain
Elfsborg may have come up short but Thelin knew his approach was a successful one.
He did it his own way too, ripping up the norm which normally features a team vying for a league championship dominating possession and displaying a fluent passing game.
Thelin’s Elfsborg were happy to let their opponents have the ball with the focus on making sure when they did gain possession, they broke at pace with a direct approach.
Elfsborg reached the top of the Allsvenskan despite failing to score a goal from a build-up of 10 passes or more in the process with their high-pressing approach as opposed to a low-block proving hugely successful.
Add in the fact the club committed more fouls than any other team in the division and it’s not hard to envision the style of play.
Cause for optimism at Pittodrie despite cup loss
Thelin has utilised much of the tactics which served him so well in his homeland in Scottish football and it has been a huge success.
Like his Elfsborg side, Aberdeen are determined and proving hugely difficult to play against.
Celtic may have breached the Dons rearguard at Hampden but Aberdeen can take some solace in the fact most of the damage was self-inflicted.
Moments of hesitancy were punished by a ruthless Hoops side which effectively took a page out of Thelin’s playbook by maximising their goalscoring chances.
Six goals from eight shots on target is efficient to say the least.
The cup loss was sore for sure but the league remains a happy place for Aberdeen right now.
They are level with Brendan Rodgers’ side at the of the table, having fought back from 2-0 down to earn a point in a 2-2 thriller at Celtic Park last month, and are nine points clear of Rangers, who are third, after 10 games.
They have done so by being organised and clinical. Celtic, with 223 shots so far, lead the Dons, who are 10th in the shots table and 100 behind the Hoops, only on goal difference.
Those are the details Thelin will be reinforcing now his focus has switched to Dundee’s visit to Pittodrie on Saturday.
Trust in the process, stick to the principles, stay humble. It was the Elfsborg way.
It’s the Aberdeen way now too.
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