DAILY RECORD 🔵 Peter Leven wants his Aberdeen to be ‘different’ from Jimmy Thelin’s ahead of Rangers rematch
The Scottish Cup-winning boss swore by a Spanish-based coaching programme but Leven will now go with his own approach, starting with the Pittodrie clash with Rangers.
Peter Leven(Image: SNS Group)
Peter Leven has insisted he wants his Aberdeen team to play very differently from Jimmy Thelin’s sides.
The first-team coach has been put in interim charge of the Dons after the Scottish Cup-winning Swede was sacked last Sunday. Leven was in charge for Tuesday night’s clash at Ibrox and will be making the big home calls when Rangers travel to Pittodrie this evening.
He is being assisted by sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel, goalkeeping coach Craig Hinchcliffe and academy coaches Stuart Duff and Paul Coutts, while the Dons continue their search for their next manager. Boss Uwe Rosler is one of the leading candidates on his shortlist- but has came out to play the interest down, while Record Sport has revealed that another German, Markus Gisdol is keen for talks over the vacant position.
Leven confirmed: “You can look at every coach and say, right, okay, he does this in training or he does that. His tactics are this or that. I would say I’m a little bit different the way I want to play.”
The former Kilmarnock assistant manager is determined to make his mark on the Aberdeen team, as long as he is in charge. He also wants to get their season back on track. They have dropped into the bottom half and that is well below the minimum expectation of European football.
Leven worked under Thelin and alongside fellow assistant Christer Persson. He admitted his role was very much about supporting the previous manager, but he was very much in the background.
He confirmed: “I had my opinion on whatever Jimmy, Fran (Rubio) and Christer wanted to do. I would obviously support. I always had my input to say, like, can we do this or that? But, yeah, no.
“You always have to adhere to what the manager wants and coach his way. So, it’s things that I’ll take from it and things that I can do that I want to do myself as well.”
Pfannenstiel was in the technical area on Tuesday and it is expected to be the case again this weekend. The interim boss has explained why he has no issue with that.
Leven has assisted Barry Robson, Neil Warnock and Thelin. He is now in his third interim spell. He put Aberdeen on an unbeaten run before Thelin came in and took over in the summer of 2024. The ex-Dynamo Brest and Orenburg assistant has already made it clear that he wants to go on and eventually become a manager in his own right in the future.
He has knocked back the top jobs at Raith Rovers and St Johnstone in recent seasons. The coach admitted Thelin had a different approach to coaching and relied heavily on a Spanish coaching programme for his tactics and approaches. The Swede used the Ekkono Method, which at Elfsborg and took it to Aberdeen and relied heavily on Fran Rubio.
It may have helped him to cup glory but the Swede’s team struggled badly in the Premiership. Leven confirmed: “Yes, obviously, Jimmy had his own ideas.
“As a coach, you’ve got to try and coach the way he wants. Obviously, he had the Spanish company come in.
« It was a company that came in and I think they worked with Jimmy before and stuff like that. So, yeah. So, they designed their own philosophy that they had and we helped coach it.
“They had their own philosophy on how they wanted to work. So, obviously, every coach is different and I’m just trying to tweak a few things.
“Get my points across. Like I’ve done it before. As I’ve said before, when they were at the Dundee game they’re a wee bit in between and it took a wee while for the boys to pick it up. So, hopefully, they’ve picked it up recently.”
Leven was looking at taking in some temporary staff but decided to turn to the Aberdeen academy. He has brought in former Don Duff and ex-Sheffield United midfielder Coutts to back him up. They are both in the academy. He joked they will also bring a bit of ice and calmness to his fire.
The 42-year-old explained: “Paul’s got a lot of experience working with top managers down in England. Calmness as well. Duff as well. I’ve known Coutts for a long time because I went down to Sheffield United with Chris Wilder because I worked with Chris at Oxford.
“So, I went in and saw how they worked and set up. I’ve known Coutts for a long time before I came here.
“But no, it’s good to have these boys step up. It’s good for them as well. They’re on their coaching journey. »
Leven knows Aberdeen could unlock Kevin Nisbet’s goal potential by pairing him with a strike partner. The Dons interim boss played the Scotland alongside Kenan Bilalovic at Ibrox on Tuesday night.
It is the first time that Aberdeen have lined up this way this season because Jimmy Thelin would only go with one central striker. Nisbet has a proven track record in the Premiership with Hibs and Leven wants to see him get back on the goal trail, starting with this afternoon’s clash with Rangers.
Aberdeen have the likes of Marko Lazetic and Kusini Yengi as other central striking options. Leven acknowledged: “It probably does help a striker to have a partner up there. But again, he should have scored.
“But no, listen, the boys know they need to step up. It’s not been good enough. The consistency for this football club needs to be better. They need to play better. But hopefully, we’re starting to see signs that the world will be getting better.”
Nisbet has previously admitted he is keen to get his season going, with the potential of trying to gate-crash the Scotland squad for this summer’s World Cup finals. He was part of the Euro 2020 squad and is keen to get to another major finals, especially as it will be 36 years since they last made it to the World Cup
“That’s down to Kevin and other players,” Leven insisted. “Obviously, we’ve got other players as well to get into the World Cup squads. But again, that’s down to their hard work and dedication.
“We’ve got to do it on the pitch. We’ve got to do it in training first and then we’ve got to do it on the pitch to get considered for the World Cup.”
Aberdeen struggled for goals for long spells under Thelin this season. It is something Leven is keen to address and accepts they need to make a lot more from their set-plays.
Aberdeen have only scored a couple of goals from that particular avenue. That is the lowest in the top-flight. Leven accepted: “I totally agree.
“I think Dante (Polvara) should have scored on Tuesday. He had a great, great opportunity. (Leighton) Clarkson delivery was superb.
“Set-plays have not been good enough, we’ve not been aggressive enough.
“We can say in both boxes.
“That’s something that we’re looking at as well.”