Aberdeen boss addresses Kusini Yengi form, Marko Lazetic transfer talk and why key defender missed Celtic

Yengi, a Socceroos internationalist, arrived from Portsmouth on a free transfer during the summer and has started both of the Dons’ league matches against Hearts and the champions. He missed a glaring opportunity at Tynecastle on Monday night and once again underwhelmed on his home debut before being replaced on 55 minutes.

Some Dons fans cheered the decision to bring him off and on the 26-year-old’s display, Thelin said: “Of course every new player always needs time but we also need to support our attackers better with more players.

“We are quite alone in these areas but of course everybody has to take a step forward in our performance right now and that's my job and my coaching staff job to help the players take this step but we have work to do.”

Aberdeen are reported to be closing in on 21-year-old Serbian striker Marko Lazetic, who plays for AC Milan, and on any potential deal for the Serbian, Thelin said: “I have nothing to say about the transfer window right now until we have something to say but we keep working.

“I think the important for us right now is to be better and stronger as a team and still have work to do there and one part is still the training and direction of the team on the training to show on the game but also the improvement and everybody's working really hard to find the right player and bring him to Aberdeen so let's see what's going to happen.”

Aberdeen need to take more risks

On the game itself, Thelin commented: "The problem we have right now is the last pass and last decision when we arrive in an attacking position. And we are not arriving there enough to really hurt them.

“Celtic defend their positions really well but we need to be a bit more on the edge. Not with more risk but with better positions because we had times where we could punish them, but couldn’t do it.

“When we have the ball we have to be better and break the lines better instead of passing backwards. We have to be a bit more comfortable with the ball when breaking their lines. That's my responsibility to keep working on this in the training session and help the players to take this next step as a team as we need to do.”

Aberdeen were without defender Mats Knoester and Thelin added on the Dutchman: “Mats had some pain today in the groin so we don't take any risk with him.”