Jimmy Thelin has vowed to help Jeppe Okkels get back to his best at Aberdeen.
The Swedish boss got the talented winger grabbing the limelight in their time together at Elfsborg. Thelin ended up selling the Dane for £3million to Utrecht but since then he has struggled to hit the heights in the Netherlands and then Preston.
The Dons have signed the 25-year-old on-loan, with an option to buy in the summer, and Thelin is looking to get his career back on track at Pittodrie. Thelin explained: “He got an injury in Holland. I know what he is capable of and I want to help him get back to that level. I think for me it’s more to use his strengths here and I think that’s quite easy to adapt to what we want to do here.
“It is not exactly the same as Elfsborg but there are some similarities. I know what he can do so I know the player also and I can use him in the best way for the team.”
Okkels started both league games against Hearts and Rangers but was left on the bench for the Scottish Cup win over Elgin City at the weekend. Thelin acknowledged they have to build him up gently due to his lack of playing time this season. The Aberdeen boss explained: “He is adapting quickly to the team out on the training pitch but if you haven’t played so much you always have to be a little bit smart in how you load the players.”
The good thing for Okkels is that he knows Thelin has his back and believes in him. The Dons boss admitted: “I think even if you have a player for six months, the trust has to be there and clear. Even if you don’t play, you have to be clear to the player why they don’t play and what they have to do to play. “I think that’s most important.
“Sometimes you have to have the trust for everyone because you need the players to grow. But they also need to know clearly why they don’t play and when they play, what they have to keep doing to keep playing.
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“So that’s why you can raise the standards of the team week by week or season by season. If you don’t talk before the emotions come in too much and kidnap you, then you’re dropping the standards. So we need to put some easy things for the players to stick to. and it’s easy. Even when we were winning games, we saw some things that were really, really good.
“But then we start to focus on the smaller parts and then we drop in some other areas and that’s the thing when you’re in the beginning of building something, it’s switching too much.“
Aberdeen’s victory at Elgin ended their long, winless run and now they are hoping to get back to winning ways in the league, when St Mirren visit the Granite City this weekend. The Dons have struggled for goals in recent Premiership games and Thelin acknowledged that he has to get more of his players into the box to make things happen. He believes Okkels will help with that.
Thelin claimed: “Now I feel the team is taking too much time before we arrive at a good attacking opportunity. So that’s the thing we have to speed up.
“Jeppe knows what he wants to do and I think he can bring this quality. That’s the trust he has there. Then of course he always has to adapt to new teammates, new opponents. But the basics for him are really easy to adapt to.”