We aren’t broken but we must be resilient, says Glass

ABERDEEN BOSS CALLS FOR FOCUS AHEAD OF CRUCIAL TRIP TO DENS

AS a Dundee boy, albeit one who favoured tangerine over dark blue, Stephen Glass will be hoping a trip to the city of his birth can provide some much-needed comfort.

The importance of victory at Dens Park tomorrow evening is obvious. It’s something underlined by the recent past and emphasised again by the near future.

aberdeen’s nine games without a win is the club’s worst run since 2010. Their last four outings have ended in defeat. They sit ninth in the Premiership table.

Rock-bottom Dundee lie three places below, so this feels like the point when the rot in results must stop. Because what lies beyond could otherwise appear a very daunting proposition.

Glass’ side meet Hibs, Rangers and Hearts in their next three fixtures after this weekend. With Motherwell also to come, the period between now and the next international break looks pivotal to whether they can break out of this sequence and strive to make their season more optimistic. Otherwise a deeper — and more serious — mood of gloom might descend on Pittodrie.

Glass certainly remains positive about their prospects. The international break just completed was spent drumming home to his players a demand for durability and mental focus.

Honing those elements will, he believes, turn the more promising elements of aberdeen’s attackminded performances into the right outcomes.

‘I think there needs to be a change in the resilience level that we’ve shown when we come under any sort of pressure in a game,’ admitted the 45-year-old.

‘I do think it’s been individual bits and I think that’s why the team is showing belief. We’re on a poor run of games, there’s no doubt about that, but it would be easy for a group of players to look dejected, to look lost, to look broken. and I don’t think you see that when you look at our team.

‘That shows the positivity and belief in the group. There’s a block of games until the next international fixtures and we’ve got three home games in there, we’ve got Dundee away where we’re taking a significant support.

‘We know there’s some high-level games coming up where I think all the teams will come out and try to win games and try to not lose. I think that will give us an opportunity to play as well.

‘We need to be more resilient. We also need to be slightly more effective in games and there’s a couple in which we didn’t score.

‘But we look like a team that can score goals and, if we can brush up at the back and be a bit more — resilient is the word, I think — then I think we’ll be fine.’

aberdeen’s sole Premiership clean sheet came on the opening day against Dundee United. So how can a manager alleviate mistakes by players who are regularly being punished by the opposition?

‘We put them under that situation with a lot of repetition and similar situations to try to knock the habit of switching off out of them,’ said Glass. ‘I think that is something we can do because we know we have a good class of player in here. That is important as well.

‘It sounds simplistic but it doesn’t take a lot for them to stop switching off at the worst moments.

‘I would also say we have been pretty heavily punished in the moments that we have switched off.

‘You count the number of shots and things we give up as a team, it is very, very limited. But when we do that, we get punished. It is a bit of a double whammy.

‘There are a lot of teams giving up more chances than us and perhaps don’t get punished as much. Maybe defensively they are doing better but they are getting exposed to that more in games than we are.’

around 2,500 Dons fans will make the trip down the a90 for tomorrow’s tea-time kick-off. asked about the value of a win to quell any potential rebellion in their ranks, Glass said: ‘To me, it’s important that we go and put on a performance for a big number of people that are coming to watch us on a Saturday night.

‘The amount of tickets we’ve sold is on the back of a bit of belief in what they think their team can do. We’ll show an energy, we’ll show an aggression and I think it’s important that we get back to winning ways. That’s all we’re focused on.’

Glass dropped Joe Lewis to the bench for the 2-1 defeat to Celtic 12 days ago, with Gary Woods taking over in goal.

‘Joe has looked more like himself in training, which gives me a decision,’ said Glass, who has Marley Watkins and Ryan Hedges available again.

‘I think he looked like a guy that felt it might be coming. and then he’s reacted the right way.

‘Every time I’ve left a player out of the team, they have done that. I didn’t expect it to be any different with the goalkeeper and I have been proved right.

‘It gives me a decision, which I have had every week. It’s made more difficult when you have made a change.’