Aberdeen man furious as Celtic situation explained

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Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie has urged his side to ‘stop beating themselves’ after they suffered defeats against Hibs and Hearts either side of the international break. Adam Le Fondre and Christian Doidge both grabbed second-half goals as Hibs managed to claim a first win of the season at Pittodrie earlier this month and their cross-city rivals matched them when Yutaro Oda and Liam Boyce found the net in Hearts’ 2-0 home win over Barry Robson’s side on Saturday.

The results left the Dons sat second from bottom in the Premiership table, with only a superior goal difference keeping them above basement club St Johnstone. Shinnie insisted an improvement must be made as soon as possible and pointed to two deficiencies as key reasons for their struggle to find form.

He told The Herald: “We have not scored many goals. We didn’t score at home to Hibs and didn’t score at Hearts. And we have been conceding too many goals so we need to be more solid defensively.

“Last season, that’s what we were very good at - at one stage we conceded one in seven or eight games. We have to be harder to beat. Sometimes it feels like we have been gifting goals and we haven’t been getting them.

“We need to stop beating ourselves sometimes. We need to cut out the sloppy mistakes and make ourselves harder to score against. When you are that team, with the players we have at the top end of the pitch, you know you’ll win games.

Former Celtic star’s absence explained by current manager

Former Celtic winger Jota is yet to make a real impact since joining the likes of Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and Fabinho at Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad. The Portuguese star has scored one goal in five appearances but is yet to make a start for his new club and was out of their matchday squad for last week’s 1-0 away win at Al-Okhdood.

Former Celtic winger Jota is facing exclusion from the Al-Ittihad squad, according to reports in Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)

Manager Nuno Esprito Santo has revealed Jota has suffered an injury that led to him being de-registered from his club’s Pro League squad and admitted a possible return date is ‘unknown”.

“Since the end of last season we have known that in each match we have foreign players in the AFC Champions League, and each match is different from the other. Each time we will choose the most suitable according to our study of the opponent.

“Jota left the Al Hilal match due to injuries, and is currently improving continuously. There is nothing serious. I will meet with the medical team to determine his readiness but a return date is unknown.”