Jimmy Thelin isn’t worried that his Premiership rivals have worked his Aberdeen team out because he knows if his players hit top gear then they will take some stopping.
The Dons made an almost perfect start to the season but lost at St Mirren last weekend and dropped two points in stoppage time at Hibs on Tuesday evening. Thelin’s squad is still in its early steps but he believes good progress is being made and if they continue to abide by their principles then
Thelin, who takes his team to Hearts on Sunday, stated: “The best teams in the world are really clear in their identity. You know exactly what they’re going to do, but you can’t stop it. So it’s no surprise when they play football games today more or less, but it’s the timing, the speed and the quality of the things you’re doing that is difficult to cope with.
“We have to be better in some parts in a longer time and more frequent inside of our games. How we defend and how we attack. For example, we scored three goals away, so we’re still doing good things. It’s not easy to score three goals in an away game.
“I’m not worried about if teams understand how we play because that can be a good thing in one way, that we start outlying something that we are really good at. I know if we can do that really well, it’s difficult to stop us anyway.
“That’s why we’re trying to also create here. If you watch the best teams in the world now or in some leagues, it’s clear what they’re doing, but you can’t do anything about it anyway. So you have to be sharp.”
Aberdeen haven’t won at Tynecastle since 2017 but that is something Thelin and his team want to put right. Three points from Gorgie would be a major boost for Aberdeen before they get set to take on champions Celtic on Wednesday.
“We can’t look in the past and go into a game and you already feel like you can’t do it,” the Dons boss stated. “I don’t like that approach, so we have to focus on the thing but then also respect that away games are always difficult.
“You have to be sharp, you have to be ready, “You have to run a lot, you have to be fresh. “You have to take responsibility, and nothing comes for free. “It’s a lot of work you have to put in to get the points, so that’s the mentality we want to create here. “You always get what you deserve, so you have to be ready and you have to fight for it.”
Thelin has already seen changes in Hearts under new boss Neil Critchley. He acknowledged: “Yeah, they are still in that process. They try to make some changes, how they play with the full-backs and wingers. So, of course, they’re making small changes and they want to improve. But still, they have good individual players who can find situations one against one, etc. So we need to be ready.”