Aberdeen’s new signing Kristers Tobers showed he is a thoughtful defender and a leader in his debut against Hearts.
Having signed for £600,000 from Swiss club Grasshoppers, the centre-back was pitched in for a starting debut.
Tobers’ positional sense is impressive, he is calm in possession and also powerful and tall.
His strong debut gives me a lot of hope for the future.
As Latvia national captain, there is a history of taking responsibility, organising and communicating with the team on Tobers’ CV.
It is impressive that, at just 24 years old Tobers, has the character to take on the responsibility of a captain’s armband for his country.
Against Hearts, Tobers didn’t get pulled into strange positions and was not dragged from the job that he was there to do.
Centre-backs are primarily there to keep the ball out of the back of the net – and Tobers played a key role in delivering that.
Tobers will develop at Aberdeen
Tobers looks to be a strong signing for Aberdeen.
I’m looking forward to seeing him in further games for the Dons, as there is definitely much more to come from the centre-back.
He has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract, so there is plenty of development time at Pittodrie ahead for the defender.
The stalemate with Hearts ended a 13-game run without a clean-sheet for the Dons dating back to 1-0 win against Dundee United on October 2.
Obviously keeper Ross Doohan was also pivotal to the shut-out with his superb penalty save to deny Jorge Grant deep into time added on.
Assessment of winger Jeppe Okkels
Aberdeen secured two January transfer window additions ahead of the Hearts clash, with winger Jeppe Okkels taken in on loan from Preston North End.
Okkels was previously managed by Thelin at Swedish top-flight club Elfsborg for three years so the Dons boss knows what he can deliver.
The winger will need time as he has not had regular starts with Preston or former club Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Okkels did look like a player who needs games, and forward-thinking players who are looking to create and score goals generally need time to get settled into the team.
Okkels started well against Hearts, as did Aberdeen in the opening 10 minutes.
He looks like a flying winger and a positive addition.
Aberdeen also have the option to make his move permanent at the end of the season if he impresses, which is a bonus.
Aberdeen are now 11 games without a win, so the new signings coming in have to make an impact.
However, the players already at Pittodrie have to do much better as well.
More signings required in January
The drop in form has been going on for some time now and everyone at the club will be desperate for improvement.
There is still a lot of work to do in the January transfer window and this was underlined by the quality on show against Hearts.
Although the first half was quite even, the second half belonged to the Tynecastle club.
The clean sheet and debuts for Tobers and Okkels are the positives from the match.
However. Thelin will know that performance at home is not good enough.
It was a poor game of football and that was down to both teams.
More thoughtfulness was needed rather than players just running about and bumping into one another.
At times, it was so scrappy, with players lashing at balls.
Energy and speed are good, but that thoughtfulness is still required and I don’t think Aberdeen had that.
Supporters deserve better quality
For the crowd, it wasn’t an entertaining game.
Aberdeen fans have been hugely supportive, but I found it difficult to understand why they applauded at the end of the match against Hearts – it was maybe for effort more than anything else.
The chemistry between the fans and Thelin and his players is good at the moment.
However, to keep that going the quality has to be much higher.
I don’t think that bond will continue to last much longer if they continue to deliver up games like Sunday.
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