Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin has hinted he is ready to restore Ross McCrorie to a role in the heart of the Dons midfield.
McCrorie has played in defence all season under former manager Stephen Glass but featured in a central role in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Motherwell and Goodwin is a big admirer of the former Rangers player.
He said: “We started with a 4-3-3 with Ross in the middle of that to give a little more support for the centre backs. He leads by example.
“When I think to my early days at Alloa Ross was a young lad at Rangers and I tried to bring him in back then.
“I’ve always been an admirer of him, I love his attitude and application, the way he goes about things.
“He is full of energy and a real leader.”
Improvement needed throughout the team
McCrorie’s change in role helped the Dons end a three-game losing run to the Steelmen this season but Goodwin knows there is room for improvement in all departments.
The Dons boss said: “We need to carry more of an attacking threat. We’ve got a really good number nine in Christian Ramirez, who is one of the top strikers in the league at the moment.
“We need to get more assists to him and create more in the final third.
“The Aberdeen teams I’ve faced didn’t concede many goals. We need to get back to being hard to beat and organised then look to add a cutting edge.
“There’s always work to be done. I’m in here for a reason because things haven’t been going particularly well.
“There’s a lot we need to improve on, not just defensively. We need to be more creative in the middle of the park and carry a bit more of an attacking threat but Saturday wasn’t about that.
“It was about competing against a physical team and the boys showed they were willing to roll their sleeves up and dig in and they care about the club.
“It’s a tough task but I think there is enough here to start climbing the table.
“We need start keeping clean sheets which I think is the easy part of coaching and managing and can be easily ironed out in the next week or so.
“Then we need to be more of an attacking threat and not rely solely on Christian Ramirez.”