HE is cooler than a Swedish breeze.
But behind the scenes Jimmy Thelin is coaching Aberdeen on being absolutely relentless.
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The Dons boss may come across like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
But new Scotland cap Nicky Devlin insists it’s his gaffer’s drive and will to win that has the team level on points with Celtic at the top of the Premiership.
It’s now 15 wins from 16 games in all competitions after Wednesday night’s victory over Rangers at Pittodrie.
The club and its supporters now head to Hampden tomorrow to take on Celtic with a place in the Premier Sports Cup final on the line.
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And Devlin insists Thelin’s attacking attitude won’t change one bit against the champions.
He said: “It ALL comes from the manager. It all comes from the way he wants us to play.
“It doesn’t really matter if you break teams down in the first minute or the 91st minute.
“He wants us to play a certain way and we keep trying to play that way all the time, no matter who’s on the pitch.
“Even if there are personnel changes, we want to play the same way and that’s the way it’s managed to get us goals.
“We want to get wide, we want to get crosses in, and on Wednesday we got two crosses in and scored two goals.
“It’s exciting times — but we can still improve a lot.”
While Aberdeen’s start to the season has been little short of sensational, Devlin insists Thelin’s men can get even BETTER.
He added: “In a lot of the games we’ve had spells where we’ve been good.
“Even the first half against Rangers we were really good, then for the second half we weren’t so good.
“To be fair, credit to the Rangers, they were good in the second half.
“They kind of penned us in and made it difficult, but the way this team is, we find a way.
“Now it’s about seeing if we can manage to put a full 90 minutes together.”
The Dons fought back to earn a 2-2 draw with champs Celtic at Parkhead a fortnight ago, but Devlin reckons they’ll need to raise their game again to get the better of Brendan Rodgers’ side at Hampden.
He added: “On Saturday if we want to go through we probably will have to put in a 90-minute performance — or even 120!
“I don’t think we can be as poor as we were in the first half at Parkhead. Again, we have to be better on that.
“If anyone’s been watching us recently, I think they would probably say we’ve been good in spells in games, but there’s still loads the manager wants us to improve on.
“As a team, we have to react better to the penalty miss.
“These things happen and I think it kind of set us back a wee bit in the game and Rangers obviously came into it far more.
“Then in the second half, I thought Rangers did really well and made it difficult for us.
“I don’t want to say we were hanging on but we were penned in for large spells and couldn’t get up the pitch.
“But with the character of the team, we found our way to win.
“We’ll now go to Hampden and try to get a result again.
“We showed in the last week against Celtic that we can score goals against them.
“We just have to bring that second-half performance against Celtic to this game from the very start.
Aberdeen under Thelin
Scottish Premiership (2nd): Nine wins, one draw
Premier Sports Cup: (semi-finalists): Topped group, beat Queen’s Park 1-0, beat Spartans 4-0
Goals scored (all comps): 38
Goals conceded (all comps): 10
Top scorers (six goals): Papa Gueye, Ester Sokler
Signings: Peter Ambrose, Dimitar Mitov, Gavin Molloy, Topi Keskinen, Sivert Nilsen, Kevin Nisbet (loan), Ante Palaversa
“The first half against Celtic wasn’t great.
“We probably let them get too much of a foothold in the game and they scored a couple of goals.
“We know we need to keep it a wee bit tighter at the back against them. But we know within the team we’ve got that we can score goals.”
Devlin scored the opener and helped set up Shayden Morris’ winner against Rangers as he continues the brilliant run of form that’s seen him break into the Scotland squad for the first time under boss Steve Clarke.
He added: “Since the new manager’s come in here, he’s stressed he wants me to get myself in the box more.
“I’ve scored four now, but it should be seven or eight. I’ve missed chances as well.
“It’s something the coaching staff and the manager have worked on with me, to make sure I find myself in areas where I can score.
“Luckily on Wednesday it fell to me a couple of times. It was good. It was just a brilliant win for us. You could see from the crowd and the atmosphere that it was a big game.”
Devlin was delighted it was Morris the ball fell to at the vital moment.
He added: “He’s probably disappointed that he’s not started more games, especially recently because of how well he has been doing when he’s been coming on.
“I try to stress to him how we know as a team, as a squad, as the management as well, just how important he is to us.
“He has such a big impact on games for us. I understand he probably wants to be starting in the games.
“I get that, but him getting the winner is probably a reward for how hard he’s had to work recently and how patient he’s had to be.
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“He makes a massive impact for us every time he comes on.
“I was just gutted my shot never hit the post and went in. But I was delighted it fell to him and he was able to tap it in.”
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