Jimmy Thelin spoke to the media on Friday lunchtime to preview our Premier Sports Cup match with Motherwell at Pittodrie.

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Up for the Cup

“The Cup is always exciting. We had a really good year in the Cups last season, a Semi-final, a Final and the Cup win. We know the importance of it, and it’s always exciting with the Cup games. The winner takes it all. It’s a good focus for us, we have worked really hard to achieve something tomorrow.”

Motherwell

“They’re playing intense and done really well. Of course I know the coach from Sweden and he’s done a good job. I also believe our team is growing, and every week we get stronger and more players connected. Our focus has been on ourselves. We have not been happy with the intensity we’ve played with so far, we have to do more, we have to push harder and excite our fans in a more energetic way. So that’s our focus for tomorrow and a strong performance with that.”

Intensity

“It’s been a really busy window with, I think it’s 12 players out and 13 in, and some players arrived late. Every training they do together and understand each other better. When the timing is there, the intensity goes up because then they get quicker at decision making as a team. Football is a team sport, and the players have to be connected, and that’s my job to help them to do that, but also the effort has to be there.

“That’s been our focus the last two weeks, because we haven’t been happy with the intensity we played against Falkirk and Livingston. It’s not the way we want to play. All of the players feel it and share it with me that we have to do much more. Sometimes, when it’s not really connected as a team, they’re trying, they run a lot, but you need your teammates to get the rhythm high and intensity high so that we grow as a team now and get the best of everybody as an individual.”

Searching for improvement

“I respect that there is always emotions and always respect our fans. The club has a long, long, long history, and it’s going to be a long history in the future. So when we are here, we have to give everything for the club, the team and our fans. If there is noise sometimes, it is what it is in this business. That’s why the sport is so big, because it captures everything in a human being, the emotions, the togetherness, excitement, it means so much for so many people.

“It’s not strange when things don’t exactly go as you expected or hoping for, then the emotions are there. When you’re working in it, as a manager or as player, you have to focus and do the job and do it really well, and don’t get distracted by noise or opinions or you guys, because everybody has an opinion. My job is to focus to get the team better and players better and show the identity we want to show. That’s why I was so clear before the Livingston game, the intensity we played in these two games, was not good enough. We want to give our fans more, but also look ourselves in the mirror and do better in the future. It’s a good point to have so many games now, because now it’s games recovery, games recovery. Now it’s up to us.”

Focus on Hampden

“You can’t look too much in the future. You have to look here and now, and you have to have a long term project, because what we’re trying to build, we have brought a lot of young players now. We invest in these young players. It is not direct impact probably, they’ve got to have time to adapt and grow, and they’re going to be a good asset for Aberdeen in the future. Hopefully some will take the steps in some months, sometimes maybe some half a year and then one year, but they will be good.

“We also signed some performance players that have more direct impact with the quality they already have and experience, but now it’s just the timing to get them together and go from there. So you’re building two things, the short term and the long term, but you can’t think about this week. Tomorrow is the game and we want to go to the Semi-final, and we play against a good Motherwell team. How can we show ourselves with intensity and the way we want to play tomorrow for our fans and get the results we need to get through. The league is there, it’s one point so far. It’s not over. It’s just the beginning of the season, but still, we need to take the points. That’s the next focus.”

Team news

“Everybody’s is ready to play. We will finalise the squad later but everybody’s healthy and fresh to play.”