Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass admits he anticipated some setbacks after a summer rebuild of the squad.
Having introduced 10 new signings with nine exiting during a busy transfer window Glass believes he would be an ‘idiot’ to expect plain sailing.
Aberdeen are seven games without victory and have dropped into the Premiership’s bottom six.
During that winless run the Dons have also crashed out of the League Cup to lower league opposition and exited Europe.
Defiant Glass was ready for ‘bumps in the road’ during the transition and has vowed to haul Aberdeen out of a ‘sticky period’ – beginning at St Mirren on Sunday.
He said: “No-one on the staff expected us to come in and start winning every game and for it to be smooth every week.
“I would be an idiot to think it was going to be all plain sailing.
“I think every manager in the country would like it to be but the reality is it is never going to be.
“The process is a little bit longer than we would have liked but I think it’s happening at a lot of places.
“It’s not always straightforward and everybody knows there are a few bumps in the road.
“It is how you handle what is viewed as adversity.
“Obviously the results we have had recently are not great but we believe in what we are doing and believe in the players.
“That is the key thing.
“We believe that we will come out of a sticky period on the right side.
“We are sitting in the middle of the league five points off the top and have a lot of big games coming up and are looking forward to.”
Talk is cheap, performances get results
Those ‘big games’ are looming after the St Mirren clash with the Reds facing Celtic (h), Dundee (a), Hibs (h), Rangers (a) and Hearts (h) during October.
Glass accepts results must turn now.
He said: “If you don’t get results you give people the opportunity to talk about you.
“It’s important we start turning the corner to get results which I’m sure we will.
“Talk is cheap though and you can say it as long as you want.
“Performances on the pitch are what end up getting results.”
Glass has belief and won’t chop and change
Aberdeen have netted just four goals in the seven game winless run and have failed to register a clean sheet for 10 games.
Glass insists he will not change his tactics nor make sweeping changes to his side for the trip to St Mirren.
🔴 All focus on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/E8M3p4ObKC
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) September 22, 2021
He has unwavering faith in both his footballing philosophy and the team he built to deliver it.
Glass said: “You can change chop and change and not believe in what you do.
“But we believe in what we do and the players do as well.
“It’s not like we’ve been getting overrun by teams, we’ve not been getting cut open by teams.
“We’ve created decent opportunities, we should be better, and we recognise we should be better than what we’ve been doing.
“With the amount of possession we’ve had, the situations we get into, we believe we’re on the right track.
“It’s important that as a staff we show that to the players.
“If you start chopping and changing, I think you show you don’t believe in the process you’ve got in place.
“We’re a limited time into our time here and we believe in what we do.
“We’re here for a reason and we’ve got a great group of players.”
A tough game against St Mirren expected
Attacker Ryan Hedges will return from a hamstring injury for the trip to St Mirren having been ruled out of the previous six games.
Marley Watkins (hamstring), Matty Kennedy (back) and Connor McLennan (back) are also ruled out for the St Mirren game.
Aberdeen have failed to win in their four previous visits to St Mirren, having lost one and drawn twice in the last three league games.
They also crashed out of the Scottish Cup, under former boss Derek McInnes, 2-1 away at St Mirren last season.
Glass said: “St Mirren are a good team, well organised and are looking to get some more points on the board pretty quickly as well.
“They are a good team with good players littered throughout it – experienced and young ones.
“It is always a tough challenge but one we think we can handle.”