Winger must pass physical test before taking flight in Ayrshire

Sports writer

Saturday 6 October 2012

To Manuel Pascali, it is a question of culture.

Manuel Pascali believes Kilmarnock must be 'aggressive' to cope with the pace of Aberdeen winger Ryan Fraser. Picture: SNS

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Richard Wilson and Frank Gilfeather

The Italian wears a knowing grin when he talks about how he might deal with the threat posed by Ryan Fraser, Aberdeen's exciting young winger, but in essence he is referring to pragmatism. The Kilmarnock manager, Kenny Shiels, is more idealistic, since he is adamant that none of his players will seek to bully Fraser, but the two only differ on a matter of nuance.

Craig Brown, the Aberdeen manager, grumbled last week that opponents were targeting Fraser, whose quick, impulsive attacking skills have been a revelation for the Pittodrie side this season. Brown takes his team to Rugby Park today, no doubt hopeful that his remark will ensure that the referee monitors closely the way that defenders play against his young winger. Pascali would never set out to hamper an opponent, but he does not shirk from the fact that the game is a physical contest."It's a proper Italian way to think [about stopping Fraser], if you want to win," he says. "There are some players who are maybe better than you one against one. I grew up in a culture where you have to do what you can to stop the other team from scoring and winning. We are not going to say we are going to tackle him at the start, but we will be aggressive, that's part of football. They will do the same with [James] Dayton. But it's not all about Fraser because they've got a very good team, with players like [Stephen] Hughes in the middle of the park, I always liked him, [Scott] Vernon is always a threat and a physical presence."Shiels notes, too, that his players were the victims of the most fouls last season, in particular his son, Dean, who was the creative spark of the side. He will not instruct his team to single out Fraser today, other than for his defenders to be wary of the attacker's pace and guile. Shiels remains a purist, to the same extent that Pascali remains true to the traditions of the Italian game. In truth, it is Shiels' values that are expressed by Kilmarnock as a whole."We committed the least fouls last season. That's consistent on the way we approach games," the Rugby Park manager said. "We'd never dream of anything like that and I'm sure Craig Brown knows we won't be singling out any player for treatment. It's not the way we play and I'm proud of that. Fraser's a player who's got ability and pace and drive. He's very exciting and I like to watch him. There's no way we'll be trying to stop him from providing his skills and talents and entertaining the Scottish game."He is unlikely to need too much encouragement to do just that, with Mark Reynolds asserting that there is "a bit more spring in the step of the boys" at Aberdeen these days. The Pittodrie side picked up their first home win of the season against Hibernian last week, raising the spirits within the squad.Aberdeen now sit in sixth place just three points from Premier League leaders Celtic, despite drawing five of their eight SPL games. "If we had drawn or lost last week then the league would have taken a bit more shape and we could have got cast adrift," said Reynolds, who has settled into central defence alongside Russell Anderson."Last week was a massive result and we knew that. We spoke before the game of the importance of trying to get the win. The pressure was on and it is good when the pressure is on that we can go out and deliver."It has been so tight and although we have been on an undefeated run we have drawn a few, but we have been lucky that other results have gone for us and other teams have been beating everybody else."I remember when I was down the road [at Sheffield Wednesday] and Huddersfield were on a decent run, something like 36 games undefeated, but a lot of them were draws. They were almost just trying to preserve their record with draws and they started to drop down the league. It will be the same with us and if it continues then teams will pull away."

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Winger must pass physical test before taking flight in Ayrshire

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