After the Dons slipped to defeat against Ross County, Jimmy Thelin pointed to Aberdeen’s need to raise standards in the coming weeks to return to winning ways.

“The big work for me is to push the standards and the performance higher and higher and that’s what we have to do. There’s no other way around it because from the beginning it was clear how we want the team to look and what we want to improve and we’re still in that process.

“For me it’s more about the performance. I’m the manager, I’m responsible for the team and how we play. We have a journey to be that team we want to be in the future, being consistent, with intensity and high standards. In some games like Kilmarnock, we were quite unstable and then Dundee United we were better again. We hoped we can push on from that, but the first half today we took a step back. Second half, we were better, we got the momentum and then they score. We were a bit stressed but then because of the supporters who stayed and believe in us, we get chances in the end to equalize at least, but it didn’t happen.

“Everything is about how stable you are as a team. Does the opponent create chances from what they actually do or from how we and where we lose the ball? We have to keep working on higher standards and accountability inside the game. It’s not easy, especially when you are on this run, the stress that comes too. We must not get panicked, but be calm. We can improve the team through training and the pressure is on me to push that, and also we improve through recruitments, so we have to know how we want the team to look in the future and execute these things step by step.”

Asked if the issue was one of confidence, the manager refused to look or such ab easy answer.

“I’m always trying to avoid the word confidence. If you hide just behind confidence, how can how can you find a solution? You have to keep doing the work, do the basics really well. You have to stay humble when things go well and you also need to stay humble when things going bad and you can’t lose track of what you want to build. For me it’s the most important thing that I have to focus on, to try to build a stronger and stronger team and that’s what I am trying to do, and the players are trying but we right now we don’t get the performance right. It hurts us because we were quite good in that moment and then suddenly it’s 2-1 to the opponent and then we struggle to come back.

“We have to refocus and try to be better. When you work in this business as a manager or a player, you have to be really strong in your mentality because there’s always pressure there. When you’re going really well you have to stay your feet on the ground so you don’t lose the direction, and when they’re really, really tough you can’t get beaten down, you have to have a strong belief in what you’re actually doing. For me nothing has changed there from the long-term process and we know what we want to execute to get there.”

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