‘Doom & gloom’ after Aberdeen blunted again in Scottish Premiership

Aberdeen’s struggles in the past 10 months have been characterised by the concession of sloppy goals combined with a lack of spark in the final third.

Only now-relegated Ross County and St Johnstone have scored fewer goals than Aberdeen in the Premiership since the start of the last campaign, discounting Falkirk and Livingston, who have played four top-flight games in that time.

Unsurprisingly then, they also rank very low for conversion rate and the number of big chances they score.

That lack of a killer touch has been compounded by the fact they are also down the Premiership rankings when it comes to expected goals (xG) and crosses. They just do not test opposition defences enough and, when they do, they waste opportunities.

In four matches this season, Thelin’s side have created a combined xG value of 4.08. That is evidence of the poor finishing across the Aberdeen squad.

Against Livingston, only two of 16 shots were on target, with Jerome Prior in the opposition goal never truly tested.

Thelin was heartened by some of the opportunities Aberdeen created, but admits his team are well below their best level.

“We feel some frustration,” Thelin said. “We did some more stable things today, kept a clean sheet and created a lot of chances.

“It’s still not there, we still have things to work on. It’s not good enough and we have to keep working hard to get the team up to speed.

“The good thing today was the chances we created. When we play at home, we have to be quicker as a team. That’s why we have to work really hard to get the team up to their full potential.”