Dante Polvara handed ultimate Aberdeen challenge by Jimmy Thelin
The American has impressed this season while coming off the bench for the Dons
Jimmy Thelin has challenged Euro hero Dante Polvara to go and show he can become a big player for Aberdeen.
The American has produced some impressive displays off the bench this season.
He came up with another with a goal in a fine showing in the 2-2 comeback draw with FCSB at Pittodrie in the Europa League play-off first-leg on Thursday.
Thelin labelled his goal as top level and has challenged him to bring that standard into his game on a more consistent basis - starting with Thursday’s return leg in Bucharest.
The Aberdeen manager stated: “Dante has shown now for some weeks and some performances inside games that his form is coming back.
“He is strong and can do something extra, something on his own.
“He can bring that creativity and the way he scored the goal against FCSB was totally top level.
“Always, it is about performance and he did really well.
“Now it is about stretching this capacity in more and more minutes.
“But he is showing now in all the games he plays that he is much quicker with his feet, his intensity and decision making.
“He has strength and power in the box so let’s see in the future, but his performance against FCSB was top.”
Polvara was a big player with a couple of goals against Eintracht Frankfurt and PAOK in Aberdeen’s last European adventure two seasons ago. The Dons will be hoping for more of the same this season.
His manager wouldn’t be surprised because he knows he has the quality.
He added: “Even in training in the last week he has been really top inside the box and scoring really good goals in training sessions.
“He showed that against FCSB which is a sign for us and his performances speak for us.”
The 25-year-old is out-of-contract in the summer. Thelin confirmed the Daily Record’s story from last week that the Dons would hold talks after the transfer window closes.
The Dons boss said: “We will wait for this window to close with the ins and outs then we will sit down with the long term situations.”
Ester Sokler also came off the bench to score the goal that salvaged the draw. Thelin has praised him for his unselfish approach. The Slovenian is in the last year of his deal and had been pushed behind Kusini Yengi and with fellow new boy Marko Lazetic also coming in.
He stated: “Ester with his working capacity and how he scored the goal was so important for him.
“But also for us as a team to have this push inside the team that more and more players are coming back into form.”
Aberdeen called off their game at Dundee United to prepare for their Romanian trip.
“That is really good as we have the time to have the last punch for the game and to do this together,” the Swede insisted.
“The two goals gave us a chance but now we have to improve things.
“It will be a different kind of game in Bucharest but now we have some power and score some goals.
“We are on the right track where we are creating and scoring goals.”
The one area where Aberdeen will need to be tighter is defensively, after two errors gave FCSB an early first-leg lead.
Thelin warned: “It is small things but they cost us a lot in the first leg, the situations.
“We have to work on these things and we have to learn also how in the end when we scored to make it 2-2.
“In the last six minutes, how we arrived into the crossing zones and the decision making we made then as a team. That is what we are going to focus on, and some other things.”