Robinson on injury blows, key to consistency & 'enjoyable' defeat
- Published
Stephen Robinson has been speaking to the media before Aberdeen host Falkirk in the Premiership on Wednesday (19:45 GMT).
Here are the key lines from the Pittodrie boss:
Robinson has suffered two "huge" blows with Connor Ronan and Mats Knoester ruled out of Wednesday night's match. Ronan has picked up a medial knee ligament injury and Knoester will visit a specialist about a thigh injury.
Knoester's fellow centre-half Lewis Mayo is out for two months with a foot fracture while Dan Happe has only just resumed training after a virus, meaning Robinson "may have to" rush Kristers Tobers back to first-team action.
"The kid's been out a year, and he was due to play in a KDM (Evolution Trophy) game a week ago, which would have put him in a much better position, but he got the virus as well," said the Dons boss. "We're just going to have to play that by ear. If Dan Happe isn't available tomorrow, he might have to."
Robinson believes the key to consistency and a good run of results is finding a settled team and system, something he hasn't been able to do this season: "I think that's been our biggest problem, consistency and team selection. When you have a good run there are normally very few changes between games. Obviously, we've had to keep constantly changing between systems and personnel and that isn't ideal."
Robinson labelled his team's display at Tannadice as "brave" and called his side "enjoyable to watch". On Saturday's defeat, he says: "There was a lot of positive play, a lot of good play. We're starting to see things come together in that forward area. It was very enjoyable to watch on Saturday, so if we're going to lose games, I'd rather lose games like that rather than sitting back and not being brave."
Robinson knows his side are "expected to win" against Falkirk and will face more criticism if they don't.
The Dons boss praised Falkirk and expects a tough test against a "really good side", ading: "They come into it after a fantastic result on Saturday, so they'll come with no fear. If we can produce the performance, we did on Saturday and tidy up some certain things defensively and individually then we'll go into the game confident."
