Aberdeen midfielder Sivert Heltne Nilsen is convinced the Dons will emerge even stronger from their mid-season malaise.
It has been a wildly inconsistent season for the Dons with Jimmy Thelin’s side started the campaign with 31 points out of 33 before embarking on a 14 game winless league run.
The only respite has come in the Scottish Cup where Aberdeen have beaten Elgin City and Dunfermline 3-0 to reach the quarter-final but Nilsen is adamant his side will rebound stronger than ever.
The Norwegian experienced relegation with his former club Brann before bouncing back to win promotion and establish themselves in the top flight of Norwegian football again.
While the Dons are not in a relegation dogfight, Nilsen expects a similar upwards trajectory for his club at Pittodrie.
Nilsen said: “When you come out of a tough period you have learned and know more than you did before.
“When it’s over you know what you can trust in your team and won’t go back into it again.
“I have been through it before, at my old team we went down but came out the other side.
“After that we felt invincible.
“We are not in the challenge to go down, but we’ve been in a tough time.
“I am sure that we will come out of the other side – and will be stronger.”
Nilsen not dwelling on mistakes
Fictional football coach Ted Lasso urged one of his players to “be a goldfish” and forget whenever he made a mistake or missed a chance to score, and it seems Nilsen follows a similar mantra.
The tough-tackling midfielder is not one for dwelling on bad results. It is what can be learned, win or lose, and used to improve his team, which his focus is on.
Nilsen said: “We all have the belief that we’re going to get better.
“In football you need to have a short memory, you can’t always be thinking about what has happened.
“It’s about the next match, of course you have to learn but you can’t stick too long. That’s important for us.”
Nilsen knows Thelin demands high standards
Nilsen is no stranger to Dons boss Thelin’s methods having worked with the Aberdeen manager at Elfsborg.
Aberdeen’s current struggles are the first time Nilsen has seen his manager have to navigate such a protracted run without a victory but he says his boss has not changed his ways at all.
He said: “I joined Elfsborg at a good time because the team was strong then, they had experienced their tough times before I arrived.
“I timed it well, we didn’t lose very many games when I was there.
“When I came here I didn’t expect it to go right all the time, you can’t when a team has been changing a lot with their performances.
“It can be complex to get everyone on the same page and make a team think like one.
“It’s usual for the manager to be honest, if he sees something then he will say it.
“Jimmy is a very demanding manager, he uses a lot of himself.
“He spends a lot of time analysing the training and the performances in games to help us get better.
“That gives him the right to demand a lot from us as well, he sets a good example by demanding from himself.
“When he does that, it’s easier to demand things from his players.
“He is very calm but he is always eager to win and you can feel his passion, which is a good thing.”
‘Shinnie is very important for us’
Nilsen wore the captain’s armband at Pittodrie for the first time last weekend as regular skipper Graeme Shinnie and vice-captain Nicky Devlin started the cup win against Dunfermline on the bench.
The Norwegian could be in charge again for Saturday’s Premiership trip to Dens Park to face Dundee but he will be happy to hand the armband back to Shinnie if necessary.
Nilsen said: “It’s a great honour to be asked to be captain but the best feeling was to win and be through in the cup.
“We have a very strong leader in Shinnie, he is very important for us.”
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