Leighton Clarkson admits there have been plenty angry words in the Aberdeen dressing room.
But the midfielder knows it is on the pitch where the Dons players need to start doing their talking again. The out-of-form Reds were being heralded as potential title challengers after their unbeaten start to the season. But their form has fallen off a cliff with the home defeat to Ross County on Thursday their fourth defeat on the spin. Jimmy Thelin ’s side, who head to Motherwell tomorrow, haven’t won in nine games and have picked up just three points from 27.
Clarkson confirmed the Dons players have held meetings among themselves and knows talk is cheap unless they can turn their season around. He said: “After every bad defeat we’ve been in there for 20 minutes before the manager even walks in, saying what we all want to say and digging players out when needed.
“But we’ve done everything to try and stop losing and then we’ve gone and lost against Ross County. So we need to just try and get a win and find a way to do it on Sunday.
“We all need to play our part. We can obviously say what we want in the dressing room and stuff like that but you need to reflect on your own performances as well.
“It’s another quick turn-around so we need to do as well as we can and get back to winning ways.”
The former Liverpool youngster knows the Dons are not being clinical enough in either box. They are giving away soft goals and no longer taking the chances they were at the start of the campaign.
Clarkson said: “We need points on the board but I think the main thing is the performances haven’t been there. We’re not creating enough, we’re not taking chances when they come and then conceding really bad goals – albeit the first one on Saturday was a really good strike which you can’t really do much about.
“But I’d say the last 10 goals we’ve conceded have all been easily preventable and have come from our mistakes. So we need to cut that out as soon as possible and just find a way of getting points on the board.”
Boss Thelin plays a rigid 4-2-3-1 formation and there is a belief that Premiership rivals now find it too easy to nullify. Clarkson said: “The majority of teams, especially when they come up here, like to sit in and counter-attack and they have done that at the start when we were winning the games.
“But now we’re not scoring the goals we were at the start at crucial points and they’re coming back to bite us with mistakes. So teams might have sussed us out but that’s football. We have to go in the next game and try and win it. We need to get that one win under our belt and then take it from there – but it’s a lot easier said than done.”