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Willie Miller: Why Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin must target experienced defenders in transfer window

A ragged display v Hibs to lose for the third time in the Premiership this season laid bare Aberdeen's immaturity in defence, writes Willie Miller.

Aberdeen's Slobodan Rubezic (R) and Hibernian's Nicky Cadden in action. Image: SNS.
Aberdeen's Slobodan Rubezic (R) and Hibernian's Nicky Cadden in action. Image: SNS.

In last week’s column, I wrote how I thought a goalscorer would be Aberdeen’s winter transfer window focus – but Jimmy Thelin’s priorities will surely have switched to defenders following the 3-1 home defeat to Hibernian.

It was another frustrating outing for Aberdeen, who – despite leading 1-0 through wideman Topi Keskinen’s clinical early finish – have now suffered a third Premiership defeat of the campaign and slipped behind Rangers in the table as a result.

While I still think the Reds need to find a regular goalscorer – as current options Ester Sokler, Kevin Nisbet and Peter Ambrose are not cutting it – the Aberdeen coaching staff should now be more concerned with bulking up the defence once the window opens.

The Aberdeen defenders have shown this season they can be solid – especially with first-choice goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov behind them.

That’s not any slight on second-choice goalie Ross Doohan, because I don’t think he has had any particularly poor games following Mitov’s injury.  I just think the set-up looked more solid with Bulgarian Mitov in there, who is vocal and marshals the players in front of him.

If you look at the defenders in the Aberdeen backline, at centre-back, Slobodan Rubezic is the type of player who is driven by his heart, rather than his head – and he made a critical error which let Hibs in to make it 1-1 on Saturday.

Aberdeen’s Slobodan Rubezic, left, and Hibernian’s Elie Youan. Image: SNS.

While he showed he could be more measured during the Dons impressive start of this season, Rubezic is not cut out to be the calm head in the defence, and it was evident the Montenegro international was affected by his slip-up against the Hibees and took quite a bit of time to calm himself back down.

Gavin Molloy next to him, meanwhile, is still very young at 23.

The Irishman has played a lot more this season, since signing from Shelbourne, than anyone probably expected he would.

And while I am convinced he has a bright future, it has reached a point in the last few games where you are thinking the Reds could be done with a little bit more experience, to get a bit more calmness in there and allow the manager to take Molloy out of the firing line for a period.

Martin Boyle of Hibernian takes on Gavin Molloy of Aberdeen. Image: Shutterstock.

I thought Angus MacDonald, 32, might have come off the Aberdeen bench to shore things up at the weekend as the defenders on the field struggled to hold Hibs at bay, but, with just one league start under Thelin, it is clear – for whatever reason – the Swede doesn’t fancy him.

There’s also now a bigger question at right-back following news of young Jack Milne’s injury and operation. 

While Nicky Devlin has been an ever-present for Aberdeen this season – although I’d argue his strengths are in attack, rather than defending – there is no obvious cover for the 31-year-old for the next 12 weeks should he, too, get injured.

Out-of-contract this summer as things stand, Jack MacKenzie was not particularly effective at left-back on Saturday either.

In general, similar to the recent performance at Easter Road, where the Dons were 3-2 up with seconds remaining but allowed the home side to equalise, the weekend’s defensive display showed a lack of maturity and was ragged, underlining the need for some new recruits.

Further up the pitch, news of back-up attacker Vicente Besuijen’s season-ending knee injury is unfortunate, but less of a transfer headache.

Putting the main goalscorer question aside (effective forward Pape Habib Gueye should soon be returning to action from his thigh tear), there are good options in the midfield and the wide areas for the Dons.

Aberdeen need results at Kilmarnock and Dundee United to prevent top-three doubts creeping in

Before the transfer window opens on January 1, Thelin’s Aberdeen will travel to Kilmarnock (Boxing Day) and Dundee United (Sunday) – and the manager will learn a lot from how his squad handle these two difficult away trips.

There is understandably a bit of grumbling among the supporters with the Dons now six games without a win.

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin standing on the touch-line during the 3-1 Premiership loss to Hibs at Pittodrie..
Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin during the 3-1 Premiership loss to Hibs at Pittodrie. Image: SNS.

Incoming boss Thelin has been a victim of his own success in a sense, as both he and Aberdeen’s hierarchy have repeatedly labelled his fledgling tenure as a long-term project, but expectations this season were turbo-charged when the new manager steered the Reds to 10 wins from his first 11 top-flight matches in charge.

There were a lot of games in the run where the performances themselves were not premium and rather patchy. But Aberdeen found ways to win the fixtures – something which they haven’t managed in recent weeks.

Thelin deserves credit for his early work, including turning round a lot of players who didn’t look like they had futures at the club.

But the energy levels, and execution of Thelin’s style of play, have drifted a bit over the last few weeks.

This was certainly evident as Hibs bossed the latter stages of the match on Saturday – and despite me losing count of the substitutions Thelin made!

I don’t think we should be allowing players, with all of their access to modern sports science, the excuse of being tired halfway through the campaign.

The margins in key moments of games can be fine, of course. If wideman Keskinen – who was on fire early on – had scored again with his stunning curling effort from range to make it 2-1, rather than hitting the post, I think Aberdeen would have gone on to beat their Edinburgh visitors.

Aberdeen’s Topi Keskinen scores to make it 1-0 against Hibernian. Image: SNS.

But with the Dons no longer second in the league standings, failure to get a result on the plastic pitch at Killie or against fierce rivals United at Tannadice prior to New Year could raise the faint spectre of finishing lower than third this term – which would be disappointing, in the extreme, following the start to the season the Dons made.

Before transfer window reinforcements can be brought in, it is up to Jimmy’s existing squad of players to find two pre-2025 performances to stop such doubts creeping in.

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