Interim manager Peter Leven met with the media on Thursday afternoon to look ahead to our Scottish Cup tie against Raith Rovers.
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“We have to win every game; that’s the standards here. It’s a good opportunity to have a good run in the cup, obviously we want to defend it and we’re looking forward to it.
“The boys have been full of confidence this week. Training’s been really good. On Raith, we watched them today. We came up against Dougie Imrie’s team earlier in the season at Morton. They’ve got good, experienced players and the boys know it’s going to be a tough task.
“We have got a young team but it’s also good, because they are fearless at times. I want them to bring that fearlessness onto the pitch, and we will work with them day in, day out to make them better. Whoever trains well during the week will get that opportunity.
Preparations at Cormack Park
“It’s been a good week so far. We’ve had more detail. Last week was a bit panicky with the snow and the conditions, but this week’s been really good. We’ve had time to sit down with a few players individually and as a group. We’ve got our ideas across and the tempo in training has been outstanding.
“It’s one thing doing things in training but you’ve got to implement it in games. I say to them we’re doing this for a reason. I want you to go and play this way and express yourselves, but first and foremost we’ve got to work hard.”
The challenge of Raith
“Everybody that comes up against Aberdeen wants to win, we are a big club. We’ve got to do the basics first. We’ve got to match the effort and the fight and then bring more quality. They’ve got good players. Brian Easton, Paul Hanlon, Lewis Stevenson, experienced players who’ve played at Premiership level. It’s a tough task.
“We’ve got something to fight for and something to play for. We’ve got to show a reaction this weekend. We want to win every game. As cup holders we’ve got something special we want to hold on to. We want to do well, we want to get to the final, and we want a trophy again. That’s what I said to the players this morning.”
Fast starts
“We’ve been training well this week and we’ve still got a few days to go. The boys are in good spirits. We’re at home again so we need to start fast. That’s something we spoke about. Getting the first goal is important. When you get the first goal, 70 odd percent of the time you don’t lose the game.
“We need to start fast, get goals early on, and kick on from there.
“We went over last week, but then we draw a line under it. We’ve spoken about what we need to get better at. There are things I’m seeing that are decent at times and we need to build on that. We take the next game as it comes. We can’t affect the past, but we can get better.”
Squad updates
“I’m just getting prepared for the game at the weekend, and we’ll see what happens next week.
“Lutz and the recruitment team are working on things. We are trying to get maybe one or two in for the weekend potentially. There’ll also be some going out. Everyone’s fit for Sunday.”
Giving back to the fans
“We’ve got to give the fans something back. We need to start fast, play our way, we need to attack. They come week in, week out and travel everywhere. We’ve got to give them something back.
“Preparation is key. We’ve trained well this week. We’ve watched Raith, we’ll go into detail and have a game plan. They have threats and they’re dangerous in certain areas, but we’ve got to match the attitude and then bring more quality.”
