Boss Stephen Glass has taken measures to ‘knock out’ Aberdeen’s costly lapses in concentration.
The Dons boss revealed he has used repetition on the training ground in a bid to stop his players ‘switching off’ at key moments.
On a nine-game run without victory, Glass reckons the Reds have paid a heavy price for slips in concentration, particularly in defence.
Struggling Aberdeen have lost their last four Premiership games and have dropped to ninth in the league table.
Now 12 games without a clean sheet, Glass is determined that shut-out drought stops at Premiership bottom side Dundee on Saturday.
Glass has been working with his squad at Cormark Park to eradicate errors and is confident it will pay off at Dens Park.
Glass said: “It sounds simplistic, but it doesn’t take a lot for them to stop switching off at the worst moments.
“We put them under a lot of repetition with similar situations to try to knock the habit of switching off out of them.
“Defensively you start to negate any switch-offs individually.
“You put them under a bulk of work at both ends of the pitch.
“It is to re-focus and also re-focus the players.
“I think that is something we can do, because we know we have a good class of player in here.
“That is important as well – that we are aware of that and the players themselves are aware of that.
“We look like a team that can score goals and if we can brush up at the back and be a bit more – resilient is the word I think – then I think we’ll be fine.”
Lack of clean sheets has been damaging
Aberdeen last registered a clean sheet in the 2-0 defeat of Dundee United on the opening day of the Premiership campaign on August 1.
Almost three months later, the wait for a shut-out continues.
Aberdeen face a must-win clash at Dundee, who have yet to win in the Premiership this season, at 6pm on Saturday.
A 2,500-strong travelling Red Army will cheer on the Dons in the hope they can finally deliver a win.
We have been pretty heavily punished in the moments that we have switched off.
“You count the number of shots and things we give up as a team, it is very, very limited.
“But when we do that and we get punished it is a bit of a double whammy.”
Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass
Glass insists the Reds have paid the price for lapses in concentration – perhaps more so than other teams in the league.
In the bid to eradicate the lack of clean sheets, Glass made the call to drop keeper Joe Lewis to the bench for the loss to Celtic prior to the international break.
It was the first time in Lewis’ five-and-a-half years at Pittodrie he has not started a game when fit and available.
Replacement Gary Woods was unable to deliver a clean sheet as he was left exposed by his defence for both Celtic goals.
Glass said: “We have been pretty heavily punished in the moments that we have switched off.
“You count the number of shots and things we give up as a team, it is very, very limited.
“But when we do that and we get punished it is a bit of a double whammy.
“There are a lot of teams give up more chances than us and perhaps don’t get punished as much.
“Maybe defensively they are doing better, but they are getting exposed to that more in games than we are.”
Glass’ message to remain switched on
Glass has had almost two weeks during the international break to work on eradicating those costly lapses in concentration.
Aberdeen endured a period where they were lacking a cutting edge in attack with just three goals in five games during August and September.
Glass believes he has fixed that problem with the Dons netting three times in the previous two games against Celtic (2-1 loss) and St Mirren (3-2 loss).
However, those goals were rendered meaningless as the ongoing and costly problem continues at the back.
He said: “As a team we would like to keep more clean sheets, of course we would.
“Needing to carry a threat in every game was something we had to address.
“We feel like we have done that.
GOAL! Aberdeen 1-1 Celtic (Ferguson, 56)
Lewis Ferguson equalises for Aberdeen – game on! ⚽
📺 Watch live on Sky Sports Football! pic.twitter.com/cLsiDeVlPW
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) October 3, 2021
“It is important as well that we recognise as a group that it has been individual incidents that has cost us.
“I think the quality of Celtic at the end picked us apart a touch – but it was still a lot of our own doing.
“The lesson is that we have to stay switched on until the last minute of the game.”