Aberdeen midfielder Jonny Hayes has warned no player is certain to start for the Pittodrie club despite the excellent start to the Premiership season.
The Dons’ Europa League campaign may have been ended in the third qualifying round by Kairat Almaty, but Derek McInnes’ men have made a flawless start to the new league campaign with three wins from three.
New arrivals Graeme Shinnie, Paul Quinn and Danny Ward have added steel to an already strong base, while the Dons manager still has scope to strengthen his squad.
Even Adam Rooney, last season’s leading-scorer and player of the year, is fighting to make the starting line-up.
The Irishman has started only four of Aberdeen’s nine matches this season, further evidence of Aberdeen’s added strength.
With fierce competition for places, Hayes believes no one is guaranteed a start and said: “The manager always said he wanted to have a squad where everyone was challenging for a start.
“I think he has that now because if you look at the bench then everyone of them is good enough to start.
“It’s a great level of competition for him to pick from, especially as a lot of the players can perform in a number of positions.
“Football is no longer a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 game, players have to be able to adapt to different systems.
“That’s true from game-to-game but much more often it needs to happen within matches as well.
“It means players have to be able to adapt quickly and the manager has the players to carry that out.
“We quite often start and finish the games with completely different formations and personnel.
“When you look at the players we have you can see that there is a lot flexibility which is a big benefit to us.”
Aberdeen are six points better off than they were at the start of last season when they began with a win and two defeats.
Hayes added: “The difference from last season is we couldn’t have prepared ourselves any better this time.
“We knew what was needed to win these games whereas a year ago we were maybe caught a bit by surprise by the demands of European football.
“Going out to Real Sociedad was tough on the Thursday night and Dundee United caught us on the Sunday by winning 3-0 at Pittodrie.
“We learned a lot from that experience and this time we went to Tannadice on the opening day of the season and won quite comfortably.
“We were disappointed not to progress in the Europa League but we are certainly happy with where we are in the Premiership at the minute.
“The team is playing well and the likes of Danny, Graeme and Paul have all settled in really quickly.
“They are all playing well along with those who were already here, only time well tell how good we can be.”