Craig McLeish aims to turn mentor Stephen Robinson's teachings against him when the former St Mirren boss returns to Paisley with Aberdeen on Saturday.
After a 1-0 defeat by Rangers and 2-1 win at Falkirk, youth coach McLeish's interim stewardship has been extended until the end of the season.
This weekend he goes head to head with Robinson in a massive showdown, with 10th-place St Mirren three points adrift of the Dons.
McLeish, who has also been joined by former St Mirren player Stuart Taylor as part of his backroom team, said: "We had so much success under the manager and he built such a good foundation.
"We all have our own views on football and how we would do things and the manager used to tell me there are only two types of coach.
"You can be a defensive coach who attacks, or you can be an attacking coach who defends, and we used to joke that I was an attacking coach who would sometimes defend. He helped balance me out so much.
"He taught me so much, he probably doesn't realise how much I watched and how much I took in of his sessions and he built such a good structure and foundation here. I now just kind of get to take that and put my own spin on it.
"It's not even about the bravery side of it, the change side of it, it's what I know. It's how I know how to coach, how to set a team up and how to try and attack.
"We're nowhere near yet where I want it look, but at the same time it's not about how pretty we look, or the style of play or what I can do as a coach, it is picking up points and winning games."
In tandem with their struggle for league survival, St Mirren also have a Scottish Cup semi-final clash against Celtic at Hampden later this month.
McLeish said: "People keep mentioning the semi-final, we'll deal with the semi-final when that comes.
"Everything right now is just Aberdeen. How do they play? What have they been doing?
"Obviously the manager's gone up there and they've had a couple of games so we're trying to watch what they've done.
"We're trying to just gameplan and prepare ourselves as best we can and once that one's out of the way, we just move on to the next game."
