As the rest of the country braced itself for the misery of turning its clocks forward an hour, Aberdeen had the more pleasant experience of spinning theirs back. In some cases, further than others.
For Jimmy Thelin and his team in general, this was a trip back to the autumn and the tremendous run with which they opened the season.
The spark and snap so obviously absent throughout the winter doldrums were evidently back, and the intent their football would be played in their opponents’ territory, while Motherwell’s would not be played at all.
It was a much longer journey through time for captain Graeme Shinnie – transported to the very earliest years of his career in which he last regularly played as a left-back.
Though signed initially on the back of his noteworthy turns in Inverness’ number 3 shirt, ultimately Shinnie’s aggressive, ball-hunting instinct led him to fruitful redeployment as a midfield enforcer – yet this was precisely the quality which led to him having a significant influence on this game from the left-back slot.
The shape of Thelin’s team, and the manner in which he asks it to play, relies heavily on full-backs prepared to blitz repeatedly while out of possession.
Days like this one are perfect for the duo of Shinnie and Alexander Jensen, for though neither may be the strongest defender on the books, strangling attacks at source means they don’t need to be.
It is a peculiarity that Aberdeen’s two full-backs had impressed sufficiently to be called into the Scotland squad earlier in the campaign, but here both sat and watched from the bench as others took the baton and ran with it.
At this stage in proceedings, especially with Ante Palaversa increasingly pulling all the midfield strings, it could very well be a permanent shift.
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