Ahead of Sunday’s match with Celtic, Jimmy Thelin sat down with the media at Cormack Park to look ahead to the game at Pittodrie.

RedTV subscribers are able to watch the press conference in full now.

Looking Ahead to Sunday

“We’re looking forward to a first league game at home. There is going to be a lot of people there, a good atmosphere, and hopefully a good game from us.

“I still think we have things we need to improve. We created some good chances against Hearts, but they were better in the small moments, the duels, and that’s why they won the game. We have to be a little bit sharper in this moment to get a better result in the next game. It’s going to be a different kind of game, but still in this 50/50, or in the one against one situations, we need to take one more step to get a better performance and then a better result.

“It’s a new game, a new season, and we believe in the things we have practiced on and try to evolve our team. They have some new players also, but still is a clear identity what they want to do. So we have to be ready, but also do our things a little bit better than the last game, and I hope we can keep progressing now during the season.”

Summer Transfer Window

“We always think that we are getting better and still a progress that we’re trying to make in every window. Again, you have to train some parts. The time together is important, and also what we’re improving, but sometimes you need recruitment also to help the team to get better. It’s always this both in the time together and training and recruitment, and our aim is always to get better every window and every season.

“In the windows you can’t control exactly what’s happened but we have a lot of people working hard to always try to improve the squad.

“Everybody is so aligned with what we want to do, and it has to be the right player, not just a player. We know what we’re trying to do, and we have to find the right profiles and also how we build the squad. If you work in this business, it’s not frustration, we know it’s a difficult market and everybody is trying to do the best we can do and trying to nail the things we want to happen.  Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t happen. Then you move on, and then you always have an optimistic mindset and try to do the best you can do.

“It’s always challenging but you also want to grow in some part with the players you have, and then find some specific players. We need to recruit the players to be of an importance here for some years. Sometimes you have also depending on injuries and maybe different other reasons, you have short term solutions, a loan, for example. Let’s see how the window ends.”

Team News

“(Emmanuel) Gyamfi and (Kristers) Tobers are still out and will be for a while, otherwise everybody is ready. It’s difficult to say but they will be out until the middle of September, around there.”

Learnings From Monday

“Against Hearts in the first half, it was more back and forward, and they were better in the second ball situations and getting behind us. In the second half, we were a bit better with the ball, and that got more situations for us. Overall the whole game, the small battles, they were better, the big chances were quite equal but they were better in the small moments. The way they scored the goals, they were there 100% and put the ball in our net. We had similar situations, but we couldn’t do it, and they defend well also.

“I think he will grow (Kusini Yengi). He was there in the situations. You have to arrive to the chances, and then during the time, getting sharper. Also, we got two goals against us, and we have to start there to be better and the way we defend and how we protect our own goal.”

Backing of The Red Army

“It’s always important with the supporters. If you think about last season and the start of the season, they’re there again. They are massive. It’s always good atmosphere at Pittodrie and also at the away games. So we know it, the players know it, and the best we can do is to promise the performance we have to do and the way we fight on the pitch. We can never promise results or success, but the work load always has to be there.”