Jimmy Thelin sets 20-goal target for Aberdeen strikers despite delight in players spreading the joy

Jimmy Thelin would be delighted to see one of his Aberdeen strikers meet his 20-goal target but has expressed his joy in seeing the strikes spread throughout his squad.

Since Bojan Miovski's record-breaking sale to Girona, the goals have been spread across the squad, with Pape Habib Gueye leading the way on five despite being out with a long-term injury.

The Dons head to Easter Road on Tuesday night knowing they will need to bounce back from their first Premiership defeat of the season against St Mirren against a hapless Hibs side if they are to stay hot on Celtic's heels at the top.

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And Thelin has plenty of players who can ensure the points go back to Pittodrie tonight, with Kevin Nisbet, Jamie McGrath, Topi Keskinen and Nicky Devlin all having three strikes to their name.

Ester Sokler and Peter Ambrose have just one league goal each, and Thelin wants to see his side create the chances that will bring more delight in front of goal, writes the Daily Record.

He said: "The most important thing for me is how we create chances and which areas we want to arrive with X number of players. Sometimes it doesn't need to be the number nine, it can be someone else, but the most important thing is that we can see it's happening over time.

"Of course I'd be happy if someone scores 20 goals, but it's not easy to find these players. The most important is how many goals the team scores together over a season and share this responsibility so you're not so reliant if someone gets injured or someone disappears, you're not out of ideas.

"So I think that's why we want to create now and get players better and better in their positions."

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The likes of Scotland star Nisbet has shown in the past he is capable of getting to those levels and will be looking to get the chance on his return to Easter Road tonight.

He is one of many in the Aberdeen squad who could hit that 20 mark. Thelin stated: "I don't want to put that pressure in the future, but we can talk about that after another few months, but it would be nice (if a striker hit those sorts of levels). Yeah, if the team can help them to arrive in this position and get the opportunity.

"We want to get into certain areas, but we want to do it more and more and sometimes we feel like even if we score it is not because we had to create X number of chances per game. That's what we focus on and we know if we do that consistently, we know we're going to score. That's our focus."

A lot of people expect Aberdeen to get back to winning ways at struggling Hibs. The Edinburgh giants are bottom of the table but Thelin knows it is still early in the season and a lot of things can change. He has also seen it in his homeland where big clubs, like IFK, have struggled at the wrong end of the table.

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The Aberdeen boss said: "Yeah, but the season is not over yet. It's still, I think, only one third played. It happens also in Sweden sometimes.

"We have some clubs there that have been really big clubs, but you get in this period and then how you get out of them is the most important thing. So football, that's why it's such a passionate sport because it's really complex sometimes how you can get stable over some years and it takes time to build a consistency that can be good every year.

"When you're building sometimes you can take some steps backwards and then you get two steps forward. I don't know Hibernian as a club. I don't know the people who work there. I don't know so much about it."