Former Hibs star sent urgent demand by Aberdeen as World Cup task set

A former Hibs star has been told he’ll need to find form soon or risk his World Cup status.

The Dons are looking for a new manager after the sacking fo Jimmy Thelin and Peter Leven was put in charge for a midweek defeat to Rangers. It’s Danny Rohl’s side again for Aberdeen on Sunday, only this time at Pittodrie instead of Ibrox, as they look to gain ground in the race for the Premiership’s top six.

Kevin Nisbet made a permanent return to the north-east in the summer from Millwall, having won the Scottish Cup at Aberdeen during a loan spell last season. It marked a full return to Scottish football having joined Millwall from Hibs in 2023 in a goal-laden stint that put him in the national team picture. With Scotland heading to the World Cup in the summer, Leven has warned only a trail of goals will get him there, having scored just twice this season.

Aberdeen on Kevin Nisbet

Leven said: "It probably does help a striker to have a partner up there, but he should have scored at Ibrox. It's down to Kevin and other players to get into the World Cup squads.

"It's down to hard work and dedication and they have got to do it in training first Then they have got to do it on the pitch to get considered for the World Cup. But the boys know they need to step up as it's not been good enough, really. The consistency needs to be better and they need to play better, but hopefully we are starting to see some signs."

The interim Aberdeen boss said after the 2-0 loss at Rangers midweek: “I’m really disappointed in the goals that we lost. We know Rangers are good at set pieces, but we need to do better than that. But the boys reacted to it the way I wanted. The pressing was good, the intensity and the fight was there. When we do play, we’ve got a good team. We need to take the opportunities that we created. It’s just add a little bit of composure needed, but I thought we did create chances.

Aberdeen on matches vs Rangers

“I think everybody’s seen the intensity, the aggression, being on the front foot, the pressing. We’ve had a number of times we stole the ball and created chances. We had five or six in the second half, really good chances, so there were a lot of positives.

“We only had Monday to work ahead on this game. For Sunday, we’ve got three or four days to work with them this time, time to sit down and show them things that was good out there, but also show them things we can get better at.

“At home, it’s a game that we are looking forward to. There’s always a big atmosphere to these games. We’ll just maybe tweak a couple of things that I’ve seen that we can get better at. I still think we can play more and that will give us more opportunities to score goals.”