How Jimmy Thelin’s Aberdeen Tactics Exposed Philippe Clement’s Rangers

Aberdeen faced Rangers in the 10th fixture of the 2024/25 Scottish Premiership season and won 2-1.

This match enabled Aberdeen to join Celtic at the top of the standings with 28 points each.

Holding the top spot alongside Celtic with just the goal difference favouring The Bhoys represents a very positive overall start of the season for Aberdeen as they’ve won nine games, drawn once and succeeded in avoiding losses until now.

These results make them concrete challengers for the league title, which they have not won since 1984/85 under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Therefore, winning against Rangers and drawing against Celtic in this first phase will surely impact Jimmy Thelin‘s team positively and make them believe further in their ability to challenge seriously for the title in the playoffs, as they were already able to win and draw against the top teams of the league.

The team’s challenge, however, is to know how to remain consistent until reaching the playoffs in order to achieve the same positive results during that phase, too.

This would bring them closer to reaching the title or holding a position that qualifies them for one of the European tournaments.

Another test will await the team on Saturday to further evaluate Aberdeen’s powerful start to the season.

The team will face Celtic once again, but in a different tournament: the Scottish League Cup semi-final.

If Aberdeen succeeds in knocking Celtic out of this tournament, it would consolidate the idea that Aberdeen is a concrete challenger for the league title this season.

However, for Rangers, things are not as good as for Aberdeen since the team has already lost three games against Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, and Celtic.

They hold the third position with 19 points, nine points away from both Aberdeen and Celtic.

This means that Rangers will have to recover as soon as possible, make up for their three losses by putting on more convincing performances, and avoid dropping more points in the remaining portion of this first phase.

It should be noted that Rangers’s UEFA Europa League journey is still blurry as well since they won against Malmö, lost 1-4 against Lyon at home, and won 4-0 against FC Steaua București.

Rangers will need to be more consistent in terms of results both in the Scottish Premiership and in the UEFA Europa League to regain their confidence and improve in both the defensive and attacking phases.

In this tactical analysis article, we will explore Aberdeen’s strengths and how they beat Rangers.

The analysis will also

to avoid losing similar games in the league.

Aberdeen Vs Rangers Lineups

Jimmy Thelin succeeded in surprising most of the Scottish Premiership followers with the results he achieved at the start of this season so far and with the convincing performances the team has put on thanks to the constant 4-2-3-1 formation with Dimitar Mitov as a goalkeeper, Nicky Devlin, Slobodan Rubežić, Gavin Molloy and Jack MacKenzie in defence, Graeme Shinnie and Sivert Heltne Nilsen as central midfielders, Topi Keskinen and Duk as wingers, and Jamie McGrath as an advanced playmaker behind the team’s striker, Ester Sokler.

On the other hand, Philippe Clement’s side failed to win the game, knowing that he started it using the 4-2-3-1 formation as well with Jack Butland as a goalkeeper, James Tavernier, John Souttar, Leon Balogun and Neraysho Kasanwirjo in defence, Connor Barron and Nicolas Raskin as central midfielders, Ross McCausland and Nedim Bajrami as wingers, Tom Lawrence as an advanced playmaker and Cyriel Dessers as a striker.

Rangers Issues & Needed Improvements

With 14 shots, three of them on target, Rangers did not trouble Aberdeen’s goal.

On the contrary, Rangers did reach the box on numerous occasions but failed to score when they needed to, as Philippe Clement himself said in his post-match interview, ” We have to be clinical in the final third.”

Rangers were predictable inside the final third, lacking variety and creativity in their attacking plans.

Although some of their attempts could have been finished better, Rangers’ performance also lacked their ability to surprise Aberdeen’s defence and goalkeeper.

The only time Rangers launched an ‘unpredictable’ attack, they succeeded in troubling the goalkeeper Mitov, thanks to Bajrami’s solo effort.

One of the rare times Rangers’ attacking players decided to use their creativity helped them score a goal.

Bajrami took advantage of his successful dribbles to create a shooting trajectory for himself between his two markers and surprised the goalkeeper with an excellent curved shot.

That said, the team should not rely solely on individual players’ creativity or fail to score without solo efforts.

Extra work on the variety of attacking actions, patterns, and ideas should be done urgently on the training ground to make it much more dangerous, especially against organised defences like those of Aberdeen and Celtic.

Moreover, Rangers’ inability to successfully launch counterattacks made it more difficult for Them to score other goals and equalise.

Dessers’ first chance of the match highlights this inability to finish well due to poor decision-making inside the box.

In this action, Dessers knew that it was very unlikely that his shot would reach the goal if he struck it on the right angle since there were two defenders ready to deviate the ball.

Nevertheless, he opted for that angle instead of the left one.

He missed a golden opportunity early in the game, knowing that he could have also feinted with his body and shot using his right foot in order to get rid of the two defenders and shoot without disturbance.

Defensively, the Rangers’ game was very poor in this regard, even though they could save goalscoring opportunities that could have made the result worse.

Rangers conceded 20 shots and won only 40% of their aerial duels, which highlights the team’s issues and how easily Aberdeen reached Butland’s goal.

Being poor in the air—and especially when marking during set-pieces or in open play—made things more complicated for Rangers.

They conceded the first goal mainly due to very poor/indifferent marking and their inability to defend crosses and expose their opponent’s plan.

As you can see in this picture of what happened just a few seconds before scoring Aberdeen’s first goal, Devlin hid behind Sokler and asked for the ball when the cross was about to be made.

At the same time, Keskinen retreated a little bit to avoid marking and make himself free to receive the cross while noticing Devlin and Sokler, who were waiting for the ball.

When all of this was happening, none of the Rangers’ defenders were attentive, and none of them reacted so as to follow Keskinen when he retreated or to quickly mark Devlin, who was totally unmarked from the start until the end of the action.

Consequently, Keskinen was totally free and had the time and space to orient the ball to Devlin with a header, and the latter had the time and space needed to shoot on target as he was unmarked.

They need to work harder on man-marking and on defending as a unit, especially during set-pieces or crosses.

Aberdeen’s Exploitation Of Rangers’ Errors

Throughout this match, Aberdeen were more intelligent in exploiting their opponent’s errors and using their strengths exceptionally well.

It is true that there is always a margin for progress both defensively and attacking-wise since Aberdeen had the opportunity to score more than two goals, nevertheless, the team’s overall performance was convincing and made them deserve the win.

The team’s ability to bounce back soon after conceding the equalising goal and succeed in scoring a goal with great determination shows that they have a very positive mentality and a lot of ambition to win.

The second goal was remarkable mainly because the whole action lasted for a few minutes.

We witnessed a dangerous shot from a second ball following the execution of a set piece.

The whole team was determined not to lose the attack and to keep the ball inside the Rangers’ final third.

This determination was the key to finally creating the goal action, as the defence intercepted the counterattacking attempt and moved the ball to the left wing, where McKenzie did his overlap and crossed to Devlin, who tried to score but ended up providing an assist to Shayden Morris.

Defensively speaking, Aberdeen were very impactful and stopped many of Rangers’ attempts apart from the conceded goal.

The ability to close gaps on forwards and be aggressive without committing dangerous fouls makes Aberdeen very difficult to beat in defence.

They were capable of limiting Rangers’ danger on numerous occasions, like in this one, when they prevented all passing or shooting possibilities for the ball holder as soon as he controlled the ball inside the box.

These quick defensive reactions are very important and must be encouraged.

Still, extra attention will be needed as the risks of leaving another player unmarked are there, as you can see in the following picture.

Conclusion

Aberdeen certainly deserved their win in this crucial match.

Such a win will boost Aberdeen’s morale and push them to play with even more determination and desire.

Continuing with the same level of performance and desire while fixing the few errors of this match will help Aberdeen remain undefeated.

It will also help them win even more points to guarantee a playoff spot, and why not challenge for the league title later on?

On the other hand, Rangers will have to fix their errors from a defensive and an attacking perspective and focus mainly on marking and finishing to perform better and, more importantly, avoid losing points in the upcoming games.