Winger Vicente Besuijen insists sky high levels during training sessions indicate there is far more to come from Aberdeen.
The Dons hammered Kilmarnock 4-1 at the weekend to move within two points of third place in the Premiership.
Dutch attacker Besuijen says the Reds are still capable of much more.
He witnesses the rebuilt Dons excelling during Cormack Park training sessions and is convinced they will eventually reproduce that regularly in games.
And when they do Besuijen is confident the Dons will be motoring.
The 21-year-old hopes the Reds begin to show the levels he believes they are capable of in Saturday’s New Firm derby clash at Dundee United.
He said: “We have been playing well and scoring goals but what I can see from the training pitch is so much higher and so much better.
“I know that we can reach a higher level.
“We can still get better with things like possession and how we press as a unit, playing longer on the ball.
“Also not just 60 minutes of playing well, but 90 minutes.
“We have a great team and I see every week we are getting better and better.
“There is still more to come.
“We still haven’t reached that level so that is something to look forward to.”
Building a strong bond as a team
Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin overhauled the squad during the summer transfer window with 11 new signings.
That rebuild cost in excess of £1.5 million in transfer fees.
Besuijen accepts it was going to take time for so many new new additions to click completely.
However he believes the new-look squad are gaining an increased understanding and bond with each passing game.
He said: “At the beginning of the season we had loads of new guys in our team.
“You need to give that time.
“You can see during games we are getting stronger and have more of a bond with each other.
“Everything will click even more when we know everyone’s strengths.”
‘I feel my game is getting better’
Aberdeen signed Besuijen from Dutch second tier ADO Den Haag in a £440,000 transfer in January this year.
Winger Besuijen penned a long term four-and-a-half year contract tying him to the Dons until summer 2026.
Besuijen netted the opener in the comprehensive defeat of Kilmarnock to take his goal tally to six for the season.
🇳🇱 VB 🔟
⚽ Vinnie gets us off and running at Pittodrie. #StandFree | @VicenteBesuijen pic.twitter.com/B3yCIosJqT
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) October 2, 2022
He said: “I feel my game is getting better because I’m an attacking player.
“When you play in a good team everything flows better.
“We are happy that we are scoring, we do it as a team.
“The players who don’t have an assist or goal can also play a great match and be important for the team.”
Backing Miovski’s scoring target
Besuijen is just two goals behind striker Bojan Miovski who has netted eight times since his summer transfer from MTK Budapest.
Aberdeen paid the Hungarian club £535,000 for the North Macedonian international striker.
Miovski bagged a brace in the defeat of Kilmarnock and then insisted he aims to finish the season as the Premiership’s top scorer.
Rangers’ Antonio Colak tops the Premiership scoring table on eight goals
Dons striker Miovski, 23. is level with Celtic’s Japanese international Kyogo Furuhashi on seven.
Besuijen hopes his team-mate can realise his ambition of finishing the season as top hitman.
He said: “If we get the ball into the box we know that Bojan is there.
“He’s a real handful for the other teams.
“To reach the striker you have to do well as a team so we do it as a team.
“We are playing for Aberdeen, we have good players and I happy that we have Bojan.
“The most important thing is the team.
“We have good strikers and Bojan is one of them.
“He is in good form and we hope he can be the top scorer in the league.”
Winning mentality a requirement for playing at Aberdeen
Aberdeen will bid to build on the emphatic defeat of Kilmarnock when travelling to Dundee United on Saturday for the New Firm derby.
The kick-off has been pushed back three hours to 6pm at the request of both clubs in an experiment to attract a larger crowd.
Aberdeen fans have certainly embraced the initiative.
A 4,000 strong travelling Red Army will be at Tannadice to cheer on Aberdeen.
Dons boss Jim Goodwin will be absent from the dugout as he is serving an eight game ban for comments made about Hibs’ defender Ryan Porteous.
The Pittodrie gaffer will serve an immediate six-game ban with two matches suspended until the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
Aberdeen have confirmed they will appeal the eight-game ban.
Besuijen aims to reward the travelling support by putting on a ‘show’… and delivering three points.
He said: “What excites me is that we will have 4,000 fans behind us which is amazing.
“Knowing that has given us a real energy boost.
“We want to give the fans a show.
“If the kick-off time is better for the fans that is good with us because we play for the fans.
“As footballers we love to play in front of as many fans as possible.
“When you play for Aberdeen you need to approach every game as a winning game.
“You have to learn to cope and deal with that, and I know we are capable of doing that.”
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