Aberdeen boss Barry Robson insists he will continue to back defender Slobodan Rubezic despite recent costly mistakes.
Summer signing Rubezic’s misjudgement of a long ball led to the opening goal in a 2-0 Premiership loss at Hibs on Sunday.
The centre-back was also at fault for the goal that put HJK Helsinki 1-0 up in Thursday’s 2-2 Europa Conference League Group G draw in Finland.
Robson admits Rubezic has made mistakes but will continue to support and retain faith in the stopper.
Rubezic was signed in the summer from Serbian SuperLiga club on three-year contract for a fee of £200,000.
The Dons have the option to add a fourth year to Rubezic’s contract.
Since arriving at Pittodrie the defender has forced his way into the Montenegro international squad.
Robson said: “We all make mistakes, players make mistakes.
“For the first goal we lost the goalie miss-hit it and Ruby got too close to Martin Boyle when he should have deepened a wee bit.
“And he ends up getting caught and Boyle gets through with a big lump up the pitch.
“You can see he (Rubezic) has made a couple of mistakes but you have to support him and back him. ”
Four clean sheets in 23 matches
Rubezic has been capped three time since moving to Pittodrie and scored his first international goal for Montenegro in a 3-1 Euro 2024 qualifier loss to Hungary last month.
Defender Rubezic was one of only three players from the starting line-up against HJK Helsinki to also get the nod to start against Hibs.
Aberdeen have secured just four clean sheets from 23 games in all competitions this season.
The Dons’ previous shut-out was the 1-0 Viaplay Cup semi-final defeat of Hibs at Hampden on November 4.
Since then Aberdeen have conceded 13 goals in five games.
Robson was frustrated at the manner of the goals conceded against Hibs, with their second headed in by Will Fish at a corner.
The Dons boss confirmed he will conduct a post mortem into the goals conceded at Easter Road in a bid to keep “the backdoor shut”.
He said: “That is something we need to cut out.
“We need to tighten up at the back because we have been scoring goals, there is no issue with not scoring goals.
“At the back end of last season we defended as a team probably a lot better.
“That is where the training ground will help.
“We will do a lot more analysis and will go through it all.
“We will make sure we get our distances right and will walk through things every day.
“To make sure we keep that backdoor shut because I have always said you can’t be a good attacking team until you are a good defensive team.
“There are little things we need to cut out.”
Robson remains upbeat despite lowly league position
Aberdeen are languishing a lowly 10th in the Premiership table with a return of only 13 points from 13 league fixtures.
The Reds are just three points ahead of bottom club Livingston, albeit the Dons have a game in hand.
Robson’s side are now 10 points behind third placed Hearts who have also played a game more than Aberdeen.
The Pittodrie gaffer is confident the Dons will move up the league table.
He said: “I am not downbeat at all.
“I am really pleased with the performances and would be worried if I was watching players not performing.
“But when I see them perform the way they are, things will turn.
“The results will come if we keep performing like that.
“We have played the Old Firm four times and Hibs away.
“We have played a lot of difficult games but still need to have more points than we have.
“Some of the performances coming off the back of Europe weren’t good enough, we know that.
“We have been leaning from that.
“I am pretty confident we will pick up points.
“And we have some really good games to look forward to.”
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