Aberdeen’s alarming crash in form plunged new depths with a defeat that piles more pressure on manager Stephen Glass and his squad.
After suffering a fifth successive Premiership defeat with a 2-1 reverse at Dundee, manager Stephen Glass admitted Aberdeen are in a hole.
Only the manager and his under-performing players can dig themselves out of it.
They have to find wins and find them quick to ensure this ever-deepening hole does not become a bottomless pit.
With a new manager and rebuilt squad, Aberdeen’s transition is taking longer and is far more painful than anyone could have envisaged at the start of the season.
Aberdeen fans are frustrated and angry and showed that at full-time.
Ninth in the league and on the worst run of form since 2010 – this is not how anyone imagined the season would pan out.
The squad manager Glass assembled in the summer should, on paper, be strong.
The problem is they are not showing it with too many key senior players under-performing. On the occasions Aberdeen do look on the verge of clicking they implode with mistakes, defensive naivety and spurned opportunities in front of goal.
It is a costly combination.
Aberdeen’s US-based chairman Dave Cormack was at Dens Park to watch the Reds’ slump further.
Aberdeen’s season is in freefall
Aberdeen’s season is in freefall with no wins in 10 in all competitions and no clean sheets for 13 games.
The Dons have taken just two points from the last possible 21 – which is completely unacceptable for a team operating on the budget of Aberdeen.
It gets worse because Aberdeen’s next games are against sides pushing in the top half of the table – Hibs, league leaders Rangers, unbeaten Hearts, Motherwell and Dundee United.
If you cannot beat a newly-promoted team sitting rock bottom of the table with no wins so far this season, it offers little hope of taking a substantial points haul from October.
Aberdeen are in a rut that is self inflicted and only they can drag themselves out of it.
October will be pivotal month for Dons
October will be the real test of Aberdeen’s character as they face the league’s top teams.
The next month will give a clear indication on how this season will pan out – good or bad.
Whether the Dons will deliver a timely revival to emerge out of the hole or fall ever deeper into it remains to be seen, but the tough run of games is majorly concerning, considering the Dons are just three points ahead of Dundee, who occupy the relegation play-off zone, and five ahead of bottom side Ross County.
The influence of Andy Considine missed
Aberdeen are clearly missing the calming influence of veteran Andy Considine in defence.
Scotland international Considine has been sidelined since August following cruciate ligament surgery and is out until the New Year.
Considine is a key player, but his absence shouldn’t be felt so keenly.
Both centre-backs against Dundee were Scotland internationals – Declan Gallagher, capped eight times, and David Bates, four times.
Yet the defence were guilty of costly mistakes again. It is happening with alarming regularity game after game.
Despite a change in centre-back partnership and two weeks of working on eradicating errors in training during the international break, that defensive frailty remains.
Now 13 games without a clean sheet, one of the issues is that full-backs Calvin Ramsay and Jack MacKenzie play so high they leave the centre-backs exposed at times and particularly vulnerable to a quick counter attack.
The centre-backs are struggling to cover that area when it opens up.
However, Ramsay and MacKenzie were the two players that brought an attacking threat against Dundee.
Young full-backs Ramsay and MacKenzie have set up all of Aberdeen’s last four goals with assists.
If their attacking prowess is tempered to tighten up at the back, it lessens the Dons goal-scoring threat at a time when they are struggling to deliver quality in that area.
Continue to push the young full-backs on and they run the risk of that vulnerability at the back continuing. It is a conundrum to which an answer must be found to quickly.
Perhaps three centre-backs with the full-backs more advanced as wing-backs?
Also desperate for a win, Dundee created an early opening when Luke McCowan tried to shape a 22-yard drive from the left flank into goal, but Gary Woods punched clear.
Aberdeen came close in the 31st minute when Ramsay’s corner kick picked out Ramirez, who unleashed a powerful diving header from 15 yards, but Leigh Griffiths was on hand to head off the line at the near post.
Aberdeen fell behind in the 49th minute when Paul McMullan played a superb ball upfield to Griffiths.
Centre-back David Bates tried to play Griffiths offside, but he got it wrong as the striker timed his run in behind the defence perfectly.
Griffiths raced in on goal and drilled a right-footed shot from just inside the box through the legs of keeper Woods.
Aberdeen’s fell further behind on 62 minutes when Jordan McGhee played a pass into Paul McGowan at the edge of the area and the Dundee player curled a shot low beyond Woods.
Aberdeen grabbed a lifeline in the 67th minute when MacKenzie curled an inviting cross along the face of goal.
Ramirez drifted into a pocket of space at the back post to send a right-footed shot in from eight yards.
In the latter stages, tempers frayed on the sidelines with Aberdeen goalkeeping coach Gordon Marshall sent to the stand.
In injury time, Dundee gaffer James McPake was also sent to the stand after the home bench refused to give the ball back at an Aberdeen throw-in and a melee ensued.
ABERDEEN (4-2-3-1): Woods 6; Mackenzie 6, Gallagher 5, Bates 5, Ramsay 6, Brown 6, Ferguson 5 (Emmanuel-Thomas 97), Ojo 5 (McGinn 65), Hayes 5 (Watkins 65), Hedges 5, Ramirez 5
Subs: Ritchie, McGeouch, Jenks, Samuels
DUNDEE (4-1-4-1): Legzdins 6; Kerr 6, Marshall 6, Sweeney 6, McGhee 6, Bryne 6, Ashcroft 7, McCowan 7, McMullan 6, Adam 7, Griffiths 6 (Sheridan 56)
Substitutes: Sharp, Mullen, Elliot, Anderson, Cummings, Lamb
REFEREE: Colin Steven
MAN OF THE MATCH: Charlie Adam (Dundee)
ATTENDANCE: 6,578