Graeme Shinnie maps out how Aberdeen can turns things around as he refutes battle for second 'write off'
Graeme Shinnie believes Aberdeen can use 2025 to end their winless Premiership run and turn their season around with a win against Ross County
The Dons have failed to win in their last eight games and that is something that Jimmy Thelin and everybody at Pittodrie is determined to put right. County are next up when they go first-footing in the Granite City today. The captain said: “I think everyone's picking up wins in December and Christmas time, where there's a lot of games. A lot of teams are digging in and fighting and winning points where they can. I think we're maybe the only ones that haven't been doing that recently.
“You know it's always going to be tough against Ross County but like I said if we can play to the way we want to play and get back to what we were doing well, which was winning us games, then it's a game we know we can win and try and use that to turn things around for us.”
The Dons are still in third place, two points behind Rangers and just three points in front of Dundee United. As it stands, their season could still go either way. “We are in a good position and that's down to the start we had to the season which we can't just write off,” Shinnie added.
“We had a brilliant start to the season and the turn and form nobody can quite put their finger on what's gone wrong. We just need to focus on performances and that's why we want to win games now any way possible, but we want to also show our identity and what kind of team we were when we were winning those games.
“We're still in a strong position. We're not in as strong a position now because of our form but we can turn our form. It's a long season, I've said it so many times. A season is judged in May when the last game of the season is finished.
“You achieve nothing in October or November when you're winning games and you're on this massive high, and you've not lost anything when you're on a bit of a low and you haven't won in a few games. Things look a bit bleaker but nothing's lost in these moments. We've still got so much to play for and we're still in a strong position, but we need to improve and I think that's clear to see.”
Shinnie is likely to come back in for the suspended Sivert Nilsen after missing the Dundee United defeat that saw them lose in stoppage time. The midfielder claimed: “I watched it from the side so it was a different feeling to actually playing in it, but I felt for large spells of the game that the team looked comfortable.
“When we had possession of the ball we wanted to create more in the front areas, I think that was maybe one of the bits that was missing. We didn't create enough chances that we would like but in terms of the shape of the team and the distances between units it looked more like what we want it to be.
“We've still got a lot more work to be done and a lot more improvement to do and to start winning games, but those are the positives that we take and build on from that game and look to get back to winning ways on Thursday.”
Thelin saw his side hit rock-bottom in the 4-0 defeat to Kilmarnock but he definitely saw an improvement in performance at Tannadice. Shinnie claimed: “We were all very disappointed with the whole way everything went at Kilmarnock.
“The Dundee United game was a bit more positive in terms of the way that we played. It was more like ourselves and more like our old ways and things that we talked about and worked on were much better. Losing the game in the last minute was a bit of a sucker punch but overall in the game we did a lot more things that were more like us.
“We just have to improve that bit further again to start picking up wins. We’re looking now to Thursday and trying to get back to winning ways, but also performance-wise keeping it to where we want to be in terms of how we want to play and how we want to win games.”
