Jimmy Thelin names Aberdeen ultimate professional at heart of flying start (original) (raw)

Jimmy Thelin has labelled Aberdeen ace Slobodan Rubezic as the ultimate professional.

The Montenegrin international has been a regular starter for the Swede and a big part in the Dons’ 100 per cent start to their league and Premier Sports Cup campaign. The big defender, who Aberdeen turned down a seven-figure bid for in the summer, battled back from serious injury last season. Thelin has seen him continually work on every aspect to help take his game to the next level.

The boss said: “How he acts before, during and after the sessions, how he uses his time in the gym, how he takes care of himself, how he eats, how he conducts himself. That is really important for players to take care of their tools – which are their bodies. If they want to have a long career, and sometimes you can get unlucky with injuries of course, but try to prevent them as much as possible. How Rubezic has played so far and tried to learn things, I’m really happy with how he’s performed.”

Rubezic’s presence on the pitch and his desire to go and win the ball has been there for everyone to see, since he arrived at Pittodrie last season. There were other elements where he was too rash or would get caught out of position. Those shortcomings proved costly.

The centre-half seems to have limited those rookie mistakes and is blossoming under Thelin’s guidance. The Swede said: “So far how he has behaved and conducted himself on the pitch, he looks very strong. What I have seen so far he has done well.”

That has been borne out by the fact that Aberdeen have only lost three goals in their five Premiership wins. They have also only lost one goal in their Premier Sports Cup run and will hope to continue that when Spartans travel to Pittodrie in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

Aberdeen shipped a goal to Motherwell, late on, much to the frustration of Dimitar Mitov and his Dons’ defence. Thelin said: “They want to have a clean sheet and know it’s important. They were trying to achieve it but it was also a good move from them.

“We then focused and tried to win. These things happen at the end of the game. There can be a lot of stresses.”

Dons fans got their first viewing of Croatian Ante Palaversa from the start against Motherwell. Thelin was pleased with the impact the former Manchester City made and reckons he will only get better.

Slobodan Rubezic has impressed for Aberdeen

He said: “We know why we signed him. We scouted him and saw his qualities. He has done well in training and he also played in the testimonial game [against Cove] and was really good. The training sessions are also so important that we train together and get our rhythm and define our clear roles.

“He has qualities to add to the team. How Ante conducted himself on Saturday, playing with Sivert [Nilsen], was good. He came in from the start and did really well.”

Aberdeen have now won all 10 games this season, including six at home. Thelin believes Pittodrie can be the bedrock from which any success is built.

He added: “We are trying to achieve something strong here. We want to feel at home that everything should be clear. We want to play with intensity. We can’t do that with every game because there is always an opponent on the other side.

“You can see the team is growing. The second half we struggled a bit against Motherwell and they pushed us to take the extra steps. We will keep building but we will need this atmosphere when there are tougher times in the season.”

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