Aberdeen are the only team in UEFA’s top 50 ranked countries to have won every game they have played this season.

For those unsure: yes, this is a surprise.

Last season, Aberdeen flirted with relegation from Scotland’s top tier before caretaker manager Peter Leven helped correct course and finish seventh.

That came after a highly unsuccessful 32 days with Neil Warnock in charge, which followed the sacking of Barry Robson, who had been appointed permanent manager seven months previously after his spell as caretaker manager, which happened after he replaced Jim Goodwin, whose 11 months as manager came to an end after 5-0 and 6-0 defeats to Hearts and Hibernian, either side of a 1-0 cup defeat to Darvel, seen by many at the time as the biggest shock in Scottish Cup history.

Things had not been going well.

But at the time of writing, Aberdeen are flying high, perched joint-top of the Scottish Premiership (second on goal difference to Celtic) having won 13 of their first 13 games in all competitions.

So what on Earth happened?

A new star manager

The short answer is: Jimmy Thelin, the Swedish manager headhunted from IF Elfsborg who has transformed the team. Hired in April, the 46-year-old requested to remain at his former club until June, finishing what he started in Sweden before jumping ship. It was worth the wait.

Thelin started a project that took Elfsborg from 12th place (out of 16) in the Swedish top flight (Allsvenskan) to two second-place finishes over six seasons, playing a style of direct, counter-attack football, and battling against clubs with significantly higher financial resources. 

“He has a reputation in Sweden as a team-builder who will methodically construct a winning side over time,” said chairman Dave Cormack on the club website after his arrival was announced. “We want this appointment to anchor the club for years to come to create something special at Aberdeen. That will take time, we understand that.”

(Ross MacDonald/SNS Group via Getty Images)

Thelin has made a strong first impression. No one could have expected him to oversee a 13-game winning streak, but this has led to a galvanised, rejuvenated support feeding on the idea that something exciting is happening.

It is long overdue; Aberdeen are the most recent team in Scotland other than Celtic or Rangers to have won the top flight since 1985, when Sir Alex Ferguson’s side won their third title of his tenure. No one seems to know what happened to Ferguson after his Aberdeen years, but since then no other team has really come close and the financial gulf between the Old Firm and everyone else has become so vast it now feels insurmountable. 

If finishing third is the only realistic achievement… what’s the point? Perhaps now is the time to try something new… 

How Thelin’s tactics have instantly improved Aberdeen

Thelin’s tactical principles are not revolutionary: attack quickly; find the free man; defend compactly in a block.

But they are incredibly effective. 

The basic structure looks like a 4-2-3-1…

… and defends as a 4-4-2 block.

The team presses high when the opponents have the ball in their own third and have had success preventing opponents playing out from the back, but the real thinking behind all of this is more devious.

Aberdeen’s press is designed to cut the pitch in half and make it smaller, keeping players close together to pounce on anything winnable in midfield. If the opponent can play through the press, Thelin’s players will drop into a mid-block with emphasis on the ‘mid’ (meaning midway or middle). 

The trick is that Aberdeen do not fall into a deep, defensive state and invite teams on to them unless they are forced to. By maintaining this mid-block, they ensure they are not stuck miles from goal and can also lure opponents into traps.

This exact part of the pitch is where Thelin really wants his players to win the ball. 

The opponent is midway through an attacking transitional phase with players higher than the ball unable to prevent a counter-attack. Aberdeen have individuals ready to run the instant possession turns over. 

In this example, from the 2-1 win over Dundee, captain Graeme Shinnie wins the ball and immediately looks forward. 

Aberdeen’s right-winger, Topi Keskinen, has already started running out to in, anticipating this is where the ball will be played… and receives it.

Aberdeen have a two-versus-one situation in the final third, all from one tackle and one pass.

It is not always that simple, but these attacks do not come about by chance. Aberdeen are trying to create transitional moments and then exploit them, and there are repeated patterns that keep working.

One of these follows a high press. Aberdeen will press or counter-press high up the pitch, but the opponent finds a way through the first line of pressure into the middle. The trap is two-fold: either Aberdeen’s front players intercept the pass or, as we keep seeing, Aberdeen’s two midfielders pounce on the receiver in the centre circle and steal possession back.

This is the trigger for attackers to run. If the first pass to a runner is available, as in the example above, that’s the best route to goal. If not, the ball will often go forward, then back, then forward even higher.

This is a classic ‘up, back, through’ that children learn in summer coaching courses, but which is often referred to in tactical parlance as finding the “free” or “spare” man. Thelin utilises this concept to create constant forward movement, and has players regularly execute this simple, repeatable pattern. Occasionally players will combine two or three of these moves, playing a short pass to one player to get the ball to another in space, to work a better opportunity to get it forward.

Plenty of managers, players and teams do something similar (Brighton under Roberto De Zerbi last season, for example) but when coached well and understood by players, it is difficult to stop the ball constantly going forward.

The trick is knowing not only how to do it but when, and Aberdeen’s average possession of 54.7 per cent — third-highest in the league — suggests they are finding the balance between recycling play and attacking quickly.

Thelin’s Elfsborg played a lot of long passes but they were not aimless punts — and we are seeing this at Aberdeen too.

This is another example from the game against Dundee. Right-back Nicky Devlin, who recently signed a new contract and has been called up to the Scottish national team for the first time, receives the ball during deep build-up.

The Dundee manager, Tony Doherty, had identified a need to press Aberdeen high to disrupt their passing moves when playing out from goalkeeper to midfield, going man-to-man in the final third. 

This leads to Devlin having no short options. He looks up and belts the ball…

… towards right-winger Keskinen. 

Keskinen gets to the ball first. It’s a long pass, not a smash.

He burns past the remaining defenders and plays a simple cutback to the edge of the box for Kevin Nisbet to finish.

Once again we see Thelin’s simple, effective principles in action in Aberdeen’s tactics.

Aberdeen have held and moved the ball around just long enough to draw the Dundee press on to them, which in turn has created space higher up the pitch. 

• Play from the back
• Draw pressure
• Exploit the space
• Find the free man

Cutbacks usually generate high values in expected goals (xG, the likelihood of a shot becoming a goal before the player shoots). Thelin likes his team to play cutbacks. 

Money is the answer to everything

Thelin’s tactics are an enormous part of what is working so well for Aberdeen this season, but a few key things have needed to happen for the first XI to be what it is now.

In 2014, businessman Willie Donald and his wife Elaine became shareholders and board members after offering to wipe out the club’s £15million ($19.6m at current rates) of debt. Entrepreneur Dave Cormack invested £5million into the club, £2million of which came from a partnership agreement with MLS club Atlanta United, and helped fund the development of a training ground and expanded the scouting network. Until 2019, Aberdeen had been training at army barracks, parks and university facilities. Cormack replaced Stewart Milne as chairman in 2019 and revolutionised the club. He also helped oversee a complete overhaul of player recruitment.

Aberdeen won the 2013-14 Scottish League Cup — their first trophy since 1996 — with a team composed solely of British or Irish players, with the recruitment team focused on lower-league British sides for hidden and affordable gems as well as reliable first-team starters. 

With the investments and changes made since, Aberdeen scout a far larger pool of (mostly) European markets, identifying talent in countries such as Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia, where there is still relative value to be had.

The problem has been competing against other clubs with even bigger resources in the same markets — players can earn far more playing for a middling English Championship club than they can at Aberdeen — which is where the promise of European football and competing for trophies comes in handy.

Ylber Ramadani is one example of the progress. An Albania international midfielder, Ramadani was signed by Serie A club Lecce from Aberdeen for €1.2million (£1m; $1.3m) in 2023 having been bought for just €120,000 one year previously — a profit of 10 times what they paid. 

This approach to the market is one of the only realistic ways a club like Aberdeen can generate revenue large enough to invest in better players. Increasingly, this approach is paying off. 

Others followed Ramadani out of Pittodrie, with Lewis Ferguson named Serie A’s midfielder of the year in 2024 having joined Bologna for €2million, leading all the way to this summer’s club record sale of Bojan Miovski to Girona for a reported fee of £6.8million. As more players left (Scott McKenna to Nottingham Forest, Calvin Ramsay to Liverpool), so the transfer fees increased.

(Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images)

Now Aberdeen can invest relatively significant sums of money for transfers and wages, offering a chance to perform in front of the watching European and Premier League data scout audience. Aberdeen are an attractive rung on the ladder for an ambitious player’s career.

This has led to Thelin being able to select Keskinen, a Finland winger who cost €1million, a transfer fee unimaginable five years ago. He will almost certainly be sold for more.

Sivert Heltne Nilsen was crucial to Thelin’s success at Elfsborg, but at 32 years old (now 33), did not seem to represent value at €355,000. However, he has been one of Aberdeen’s best players, essential for instigating calm composure on the ball, and aggression and organisation off it. Financial freedom has facilitated an important transfer most similar clubs would not touch. 

The recent 3-2 win over Hearts featured goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov, signed for free, Gavin Molloy (a €75,000 signing from Shelbourne), Kevin Nisbet (on loan from Millwall), and Ante Palaversa, a Croatian midfielder once signed by the City Football Group for £1million, and part of the deal that saw Miovski leave. Scottish Premiership top scorer (with five goals) Pape Habib Gueye was missing through injury, having been transformed by a change of position (striker to left-winger).

Squad depth and first-team strength allow Aberdeen to compete at a higher level than in the previous 30, if not 40, years.

Is it sustainable? Are they the best? 

This run of form is the result of years of planning, strategy, and careful financial management. But without the right manager, none of that would manifest on the pitch. 

Underlying numbers can help inform opinions and xG tells us that Aberdeen are over-performing while Celtic (level on 21 points with Aberdeen but with a superior goal difference) are about where they should be.

The expected goals against (xGA) metric tells us that, again, Aberdeen are over-performing.

They have the third-lowest xGA but should probably have conceded four more.

The opinions we can draw from these depend on our outlook on data, football and life. Optimistically, the xGA is skewed because Mitov has been outstanding and comfortably above the standard of average shot in the Scottish Premiership. 

Several players have missed huge chances against Aberdeen this season: Hearts had five — a situation where a player should reasonably be expected to score — in their 3-2 defeat alone.

Over-performance on xG can be down to Aberdeen players being in red-hot form, the standard of goalkeepers in Scotland not being the highest, luck favouring red shirts, confidence, morale — intangible variables created by a manager managing people effectively and winning games.

Alternatively, they really have been lucky and this could all middle out at any time.

Aberdeen’s next opponents on October 19 are Celtic, who are not only better in every underlying metric but also in a very real sense. Top of the table with 22 goals scored and one conceded, seemingly unbeatable, and with squad value estimated by Transfermrkt to be nearly 10 times larger than Aberdeen’s. 

The chasm in finances between Celtic, Rangers and the rest in Scotland will likely never disappear. And yet there is hope. Optimism. 

All that needs to happen is smart planning and recruitment, an improved financial situation, and a manager with an identifiable style of play who galvanises the players.

The players buy in, then the fans, the building lights across the city blink like bulbs in the dark, then come alive, buzzing and dazzling, and before you know it nothing you knew was ever really that way. Football doesn’t always go the way it’s supposed to. 

Aberdeen are not the best team in Europe, but if they beat Celtic on Saturday, they will be the only club in the top 50 UEFA leagues to still have a 100 per cent record. You’ll never sing that!

(Top photo: Ross MacDonald/SNS Group via Getty Images)