Write off Kusini Yengi at your peril as the Aberdeen striker will come good

The summer signing from Portsmouth has struggled in his first two games but he has strengths and will shine

Kusini Yengi is just two games into his Aberdeen career and already he is in the firing line.

The jury is out on the big striker, who arrived from Portsmouth in the summer.

Certainly, if you were to use social media as a barometer then a lot of people have already written him off.

Yes, the big Australian hasn’t had the best of starts, but give him time.

He is being judged on two games and most Dons are looking for him to follow in the footsteps of their former hero Bojan Miovski.

Yip, against Hearts he had a couple of chances against Hearts but didn’t take them.

At least, he was in the position in the first place.

The Celtic game at the weekend was more of a thankless task. He got very little service although granted he could have held the ball up better and got his team further up the park, but there aren’t many strikers who get much change out of Cameron Carter-Vickers.

There was also the moment when Aberdeen countered and it broke down when Yengi failed to control it in the six yard box.

That for me, that showed a player who is lacking in confidence.

We know and have seen how big that is in any sport, never mind football.

You can understand why.

The big forward didn’t have the best of season’s last year at Portsmouth.

He failed to score and a lot of his campaign was disrupted by injury.

The good thing for Yengi is that he has the backing of his manager

Jimmy Thelin said: “He will grow. He was there for the situations (chances) and you have to arrive there in the first instance. He is getting sharper.”

He also has the backing of his Pittodrie teammates, as Nicky Devlin stated at the weekend.

He acknowledged: “I think we have to probably get the ball in better areas, play more to his strengths.

“It's his first taste of being up here, it's only his second game in the league.

“I think it's probably more about other people doing a wee bit more to support him and getting the ball into areas where we know he can be dangerous.”

What I would say about Yengi is his track record is still half-decent.

The season before he scored 13 goals and had been a big player in Pompey winning promotion back to the Championship.

He has six goals in 11 appearances for Australia, where he is a team mate of Martin Boyle.

That isn’t a bad strike rate and shows there is something there.

Also, he has scored for Aberdeen.

Yengi got the goal in their closed door pre-season friendly at Fulham.

There is definitely something there and that is why Thelin and his scouting team identified him as a top summer signing.

At this point, more than ever, he needs the backing of the fans to get through this difficult time.

Look at Pape Gueye when he first came to Aberdeen.

He hardly hit the ground running and was sent on loan to Aalesunds in Norway.

The writing looked on the wall for him.

Yet, he came back a different player, full of confidence and was given another chance by Thelin.

Big Pape ended up a Scottish Cup winning-legend and made Aberdeen a tidy transfer profit into the bargain.

There was also a spell last season when a lot of Aberdeen fans were wondering why they had signed Kevin Nisbet.

He was another one who went on to buck the trend and became a major player for Thelin last season.

Not every new signing is going to hit the ground running, while some players need time to adapt.

Many people will say he has been playing at Portsmouth and so it shouldn’t take him that long to adjust to the demands of Scottish football!

Yes, I get that but bigger and better names than Yengi have come north and struggled.

I give you Joey Barton as the prime example.

Let’s judge Yengi once he has had a few games and hopefully, for him, a few goals under his belt.

You might well see a different player.

It will also help when Thelin adds to his attacking options with deals for Marko Lazetic and Kenan Bilalovic.

Yengi certainly has everything to play for.

There is a World Cup at the end of the season.

Yengi will want to force his way back into the Socceroos squad for that one.

If he does and then has a decent first season at Pittodrie then he will be in demand.

A big powerful striker, with pace and who scores goals!

Most top European clubs are looking for that and will pay top dollar.

As they say, when it comes to strikers, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish!