Barry Robson and defender Stefan Gartenmann spoke to the media on Wednesday afternoon to preview our UEFA Europa Conference League Group G match against PAOK at Pittodrie. RedTV subscribers can watch the press conference in full through the video above. You can also read some of Barry’s thoughts below.
“They are a top side, we all know that, everybody knows that, the players know that, we have done a lot of video analysis on them. We’ve seen their quality when they played at Tynecastle. We know that they are full of quality all over the pitch. As I said we’re at home and we’ve got an opportunity to try and put our stamp on the game. I think our performances in Europe have been good, although I don’t think we’ve got the results that probably our performances deserved. We need to put a proper performance on and if we can do that, and if we have the fans behind us which we will have, you never know we can hopefully try and get a good result in the game.
“They are strong all over the pitch. The wide players that Stefan spoke about are a handful, they have good speed that come in on opposite sides. The striker, the number 10 can run so we know what qualities they have and where they can hurt us but also where we can hurt them. We need to get the balance right in the game. We need to make sure if we want to press, then we press at the right times, if we need to come off the game then we need to come off at the right times. We need to make it as close to a perfect performance as we can and if we do that with the fans behind us then we’ve got a chance.
“I think with the quality of players they have got, they try and play that way. I have watched them over a few games, I watched them against Frankfurt. Frankfurt could have scored a few goals against them, I think Helsinki were the same. They will come at us at times and actually sometimes they will drop off the game as well and they have got real speed on transition. They do a lot of that and it is something we need to be aware of as well.
“We know the quality that we’re coming up against. We’re at home, we’ve got an opportunity here with the fans with us to try and cause an upset because it would be an upset. We know the financial side of the two clubs and these type of things, but listen, we’re an underdog in the game and I like that sometimes for us and the players like that and we want to bring our best performance and if we do that we’ve got a chance.
“With the ones that were here last season to get to this stage, this is where they wanted to be. I think this is the first time in 17 years we’ve been here as a club and they are all excited about that. That was the aim and where we wanted to get to. Also the ones we recruited, we wanted to take them here and give them this platform and opportunity to play at this level and play in the group stages. So that should excite them and it has excited them. I’ve been really pleased with them and the way they have performed in Europe and with a bit more luck we could have had some better results. We went over to Frankfurt and I think it was pushing at the end and we should have got an equaliser, in front of 55000 and that size of team. That should give them real confidence of having a real good showing of a good Aberdeen team trying to perform well in Europe.
“We have to make sure that we get it right in terms of structurally, tactically, our concentration levels, when to press, when not to press, when to go low and when to go high. Finding areas on the pitch where we can hurt them and also be good on transition which we are very good at. The players need to be at eights and nines and if we get that hopefully we can give them a real game, a proper game.”
