Manager Jimmy Thelin spoke to the media on Thursday morning to preview our Scottish Gas Scottish Cup tie with Dunfermline Athletic on Sunday. RedTV subscribers can watch in full by clicking here.
Work in the transfer window
“I think it was a good window for us. Everybody worked really hard to find the best solution for the squad, for the short term, but also for the long term. We’re trying to rebuild a little bit for the future but also add quality for the short term objectives that we have right now. The form we are in the league that we have to improve some parts and create a stronger competition inside the squad so we can get one or two levels up in intensity and how we compete on the pitch with ourselves, but also inside the team to be playing, but also against our opponents.”
Reaction after Hibs game
“I also belong to the group. I’m the manager and my staff and the players, so it’s not about them or me. We have an identity, what we want to show to our supporters and ourselves, what we want to stand for playing football games and how we compete.
“The thing for me was you can lose games but it’s how you lose games. Sometimes you feel like you give everything you can, but they were better. Some parts of the games, you have to show more, like we are sending a message to ourselves, the opponents and the fans, what we actually stand for. We are an aggressive, high pressing team with an aggressive attack but we don’t show that right now, and that is about extra steps and extra minutes on the pitch, the intensity of the of the game, and that’s up to us to look ourselves in the mirror and take responsibility for what we’ve shown and change it really quickly.
“I’m an optimistic person, and I still think we can catch third place in the table, but there has to be a turning point right now. The energy when the players came back on Tuesday was really top and training has been really good this week. Everybody knows that it’s about ourselves.”
Response this week
“It was an important feeling after the Hibs game, we can’t keep going like this. We have to change it now and change it quick. The response was really, really strong in the week with the stronger competition inside the squad, but also how the intensity has been on the training pitch.
“If you have a good relationship I think that’s the basic for everyone when you know when you have to be strong in some messages or not. As a human being you know when you don’t do the right things. Sometimes you don’t need to say it, because they know themselves. It’s not about that. We have meetings every week, nothing has changed about that, we go through the game, but maybe we highlighted some different things this time, like more about how competitive you are.
“If you go in to try to change some parts of the way we want to go in the future, it always takes time. It’s still a long time, but short time, like it’s six months but of course we know the results have to come. Everybody knows that but still we’re trying to build and change parts, and then we can be a little bit up and down in your performance.
“Of course now has been a long time without victories, and that’s a thing we have to show everybody that with the upcoming games, that we can show a different kind of result, even if the performance in parts go up and down. We have to bring this result now to ourselves, to our fans and the club. When the season starts, when you’re trying to change some parts, and you go into a long term, you have to be brave also to make some decisions during the journey, to actually change things during a season and that’s what we’re trying to do, both inside the squad and also the way we play.”
Looking ahead to Dunfermline
“It’s another chance for us to change the way we approach the games and the identity we want to show for our fans. We’re really looking forward to the game. They have changed manager, they are playing more now, how they build up the game. They are good team, but we also have a good team but we have been out of form for a while, and I think how the players respond this week and the training sessions and with the new players, we are really, really ready to show our fans to win this Cup game.
“For team news, there is nothing new, everybody is ready to train. Oday could take a longer time.
“We’re living in in a world with the performance, results and passion and sometimes this criticism is there because it’s based on the performance and the results, and it’s nothing to hide from. We know we have to do better. It’s clear for everyone. Now we have to work together to fix it but the support has been there every game at home and away, and that’s so important to get out of these difficult runs that we keep pushing together. It’s the board, it’s the chairman, it’s everybody around the team, everybody’s working so hard together with the supporters to find a way back to good results again, and no one is hiding or trying to find excuses. It’s only about stepping up now and what we have to change for how we compete inside the games.”
