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Thelin on Gueye return, 'amazing' Scottish Cup & 'fixing things'

Jimmy Thelin
[SNS]

Jimmy Thelin has been speaking to the media before Aberdeen's fourth-round Scottish Cup tie against Elgin City this weekend.

Here are the key lines from his press conference:

  • Striker Pape Habib Gueye - who remains the Dons' top scorer this season - is in the squad and available for his first appearance since September, with Thelin saying: "He's showing on the training pitch that he's hungry to play."

  • Thelin says it's "super important" his side - on a club-record equalling sequence of 12 games without a win - avoid an upset at League Two Elgin and have a good cup run as he strives to "raise standards and levels".

  • The Swede insists his players can't "can't sit down and cry" amid their woeful run of form "because it's not going to help".

  • On the Scottish Cup, Thelin says: "For me the cup here and in Sweden is so amazing because you can play these games against teams from different levels and that is the core of football. You can create dreams, the passion, that is why the cup is an amazing thing."

  • On the recent performances of Graame Shinnie and Sivert Heltne Nilsen, Thelin says: "I think every player is trying their best. They have taken big responsibility, they play out of position, they never complain about the amounts of games, they're always available. They have taken big responsibility and a lot of pressure on them, so I'm really happy with them."

  • He's expecting a challenging fixture against Elgin and says: "For me, even if it's Elgin or Rangers or Hearts, the focus for us right now is to fix the things we can take care of, how we behave as a team, the energy we play with, how we cooperate on the pitch. These things have to be one or two steps higher to get the results."