Why Thelin can't cover up 'embarrassing' Aberdeen loss

Willie Miller called Aberdeen's record 6-0 Conference League defeat by AEK Athens "embarrassing".

Given the club legend was captain in one of their previous heaviest losses in Europe, he is well-qualified to say.

Despite their recent upturn in domestic form, Aberdeen returned to their old ways in Greece. The abject loss was their second in as many matches in the competition and leaves them bottom of the 36-team table.

"Jimmy Thelin's got to address this and not cover it up," said Miller on Sportsound. "He's got to tell the fans that this wasn't good enough.

"He can maybe make the case that they're learning at this level but at the same time he needs to address that this simply hasn't been good enough."

But what can Aberdeen learn from their biggest European loss?

Firstly, they probably need to learn to defend better. AEK had 27 shots on goal over the 90 minutes -10 of which were on target. As a point of comparison, Aberdeen had eight overall and only two on target.

AEK touched the ball 43 times in Aberdeen's box, compared to 13 for their visitors. The Greek side had a passing accuracy of 91% (compared to 77%) and made far more passes - 609 to 178.

After conceding three goals in the first half an hour, Thelin's side will need to learn to shore up after they've let goals in.

Aboubakary Koita opened the scoring after just 11 minutes and had a second seven minutes later and Niclas Eliasson had a third with just 27 minutes on the clock.

"It's been a lesson," a disgruntled Miller told BBC Sportsound after the first half. "It could get embarrassing - and it should be embarrassing.

"If you lose early goals you need to think about the game a bit more and I don't feel Aberdeen did that."

The Dons faced similar problems in the second half. AEK's first goal in the second period - their fourth in the game - came after just 10 minutes.

Aberdeen did manage to hold out for almost half an hour until the fifth by Luka Jovic on 81 minutes and the final goal came just six minutes after that.

"We have a journey to do to reach another level and compete in Europe," Thelin conceded afterwards. "We have to build this year and next year to become a more competitive team in these kinds of games.

"I think the best I can do as a manager is support my players and learn from this."

If Aberdeen are still learning on the European stage, they'll have to do it pretty quickly with games against AEK Larnaca, FC Noah, Strasbourg, and Sparta Prague still to come before the end of the league phase.

Domestically, Thelin's side can't really afford to spend any more time learning.

The north east club are currently second bottom of the Premiership with seven points from their opening eight matches, and have games against Hibernian and Kilmarnock before the end of October.

"The most important thing right now is we have a super important game on Sunday," added Thelin.

"We have to focus on the right things and make it a good game against Hibs on Sunday to show our supporters that we can do really well in the league."