Jimmy Thelin is adamant that their first league defeat won’t derail their season and what he is trying to build at Aberdeen.
The Dons crashed to St Mirren at the weekend, which was the team’s first loss in the Premiership since March. Aberdeen still sit in second behind Celtic and have a chance to get back to winning ways on Tuesday night when they head to bottom side Hibernian. Thelin stated: “No, I think a season is long, we talked about it before.
“We always take it game by game and you know you are going to win some games and sometimes you are going to lose. We are not alone in the league, there are a lot of good teams. I don’t think there is going to be any impact at all from our behaviour or our belief. From day one, it is still a long time process and nothing has changed in that.
“Like I told at the last press conference before the game we still have things to do. We have to be more stable in some parts of the game, for example how we start this game.
“That is the first part of our journey, to be more consistent and have accountability in these situations. Then we can add things to our game model and identity but still we are not there yet in terms of consistency in every game and we have to keep focused on that and then try to build a bit stronger every week.”
Thelin admitted he talked to his players and debriefed them as they do after every game, win, lose or draw. The big thing for him was the slow start his team made against St Mirren and it left them playing catch up. The Swede admitted: “We have a good chat with the staff and the players. We always do things together when we want to talk about some parts.
“For us, it was the things we were not happy with. The result is always the result, but for us it is important to have good performance.
“In the first 20-25 minutes of the game we were not happy with that, how we performed, how we acted as a team. The identity we want to show our supporters and ourselves.
“What we want to build into our DNA, how we want to act in certain situations. How we want to start a game away against a difficult team. So those were the things have to focus on in the first 20 minutes of the game.
“Then the game went how it went and we did some good things in the second half. We had some parts of good momentum, but sometimes the ball goes in and sometimes it doesn’t, but also St Mirren did some good things in the transition and created situations from that.
“So we have to keep moving and think about the next game and then we leave that behind. But we have to just talk about the first 20 minutes because that was not the way we wanted to act as a team.“
Hibs are a team who are bottom of the league, struggling for points and confidence. There is a lot of spotlight and talk over the future of their manager David Gray, but Thelin is only focused on his team and what they can do.
Thelin insisted: “No, personally I don’t believe in these things. I think it is better to focus on what we can do. I don’t know how they are going to prepare themselves, maybe they use this to also try to be better, etc.
“For us it is more important what we do and don’t think about their situation. I know their manager is probably a really hard worker and they are going to try to find solutions. The most important thing for me is how we want to act.”
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