Jimmy Thelin admitted his Aberdeen need to learn from their Hibs howlers.
He acknowledged there were too many errors and that was a major factor in the Edinburgh side coming from 1-0 down to win 3-1. Thelin’s team have dropped down to third, behind Rangers and are now six games without a win. He said: “I talked about it with the players and staff after the game about how we have to stay close to each other on the pitch.
“Mistakes will happen inside the game but we can’t get so hurt from a mistake and that’s a sign we’re not balanced enough. We don’t cover each other enough. Myself and my staff have to keep working together with the players to fix that “It’s this balance inside the game but also how we balance each other as a team. The only way out is if we stay together and keep working on the training pitch and do things better.”
The problem for Aberdeen just now is they are leaking goals and not taking their chances at the other end. Sub Peter Ambrose also had three decent chances to get Aberdeen back into things. Thelin insisted: “That can also sometimes be what happens inside a game and where we have our strengths, where we can attack them etc.
“It can be different of course in some games but for me it’s more the distance between our players. It’s football and you can’t always expect everybody to score and have a chance to get in the game. The chances were there and that’s good in one way to create some chances but for me it’s more about the balance of the game today.”
It is in sharp contrast to their 16 game unbeaten start to the season. They have picked three points from 18 and their form has dropped off a cliff.
The Honeymoon period is very much over and the Dons were booed off at Pittodrie after this defeat. The Swede has insisted that his team will turn the corner again but he knows it will take character and hard work on the training pitch. They had to Kilmarnock on Boxing Day to take on former Dons boss Derek McInnes. The Dons did beat Killie earlier in the season at Pittodrie and will be looking to make it a double.
Thelin added: “That’s my point, we did some good things and even when the score is 1-1 we can’t get so disappointed or stressed about that. It’s still a good performance so far and doesn’t get that affected so much as we did today and give away the momentum so easily.
“Football is a good start of the season, we have a period right now that’s not the best one but the challenge is how we want to end it. The way to get out of this is to focus on the next training and the next game and try to be better on some parts that we right now struggle a little bit with.”