The 5 urgent Aberdeen problems Jimmy Thelin MUST fix as title challenge collapses into top six scrap

Sinking Aberdeen have now gone 13 games without a win as their form suffers an alarming slump

A once immensely promising season continues to go down the toilet and their dramatic fall-off in form has seen them drop down to fourth spot, with seventh-placed St Mirren are now just five points behind. It wasn't so long ago they were genuine title contenders – now even a place in the top six is at threat and failing to achieve that would be nothing short of a disaster for boss Jimmy Thelin.

The Dons travel to Hibs at the weekend and will be hoping that can be the turning point for them and the Swedish manager in his rollercoaster first season at Pittodrie. Record Sport looks at the main issues that Thelin has to address as he tries to arrest the slump and keep his team on course to finish in the European places.

The biggest issue for Aberdeen of late has been the goals they have been losing and the manner of them. A lot of the time it has been down to individual mistakes. Saturday’s defeat to St Mirren was the prime example, where all three were the result of defensive errors.

There is no doubt that confidence is starting to drain and the players probably feel like they are being punished for every mistake. They are in a cycle where they feel everything is going against them.

Thelin is trying and on the training pitch he has been working on the defensive side of the game. Making his team more compact when they are on the back foot but there is very little he can do when different players keep making big confidence-sapping mistakes. The problem is that several players have made them and it’s not as if you can take one player out and the mistakes will magically stop.

The manager has also brought in his own players in