Aberdeen defender Mats Knoester backs under-fire keeper Dimitar Mitov ahead of Rangers clash

Aberdeen defender Mats Knoester has backed under-fire keeper Dimitar Mitov ahead of the Pittodrie showdown with Rangers.

Bulgaria international Mitov has made a number of costly errors in recent months.

The latest led to the the opening goal in the 2-0 loss to Rangers at Ibrox on Tuesday.

Scottish Cup hero Mitov made two saves in the penalty shoot-out final win over Celtic in May as the club landed the trophy for the first time since 1990.

However Mitov has been in the firing line of criticism recently after mistakes, with  No.2 Nick Suman yet to get game time since signing last summer.

Centre-back Knoester says he has complete faith in Mitov.

Backing keeper Dimitar Mitov

Aberdeen face Rangers for the second time in five days when hosting Danny Rohl’s in-form side at Pittodrie on Sunday.

Knoester, 27, said: “He is a great goalie and playing for the national team as well which says a lot.

“I don’t have anything negative because everybody makes mistakes if you look at this season.

“Dimi has had some great saves as well.

“There is nothing negative about him.

“If you take the last game the goals we conceded, plus the chances we had, it is in both sides that we did not do well enough.

“Then you are fighting against yourself and making it so difficult.

“I cannot speak for the others but I think we need to improve both sides to get a run and confidence going.

“Then it can look a whole lot different in a short period of time.”

Chairman Dave Cormack and the club’s hierarchy axed Thelin 24 hours after a 1-o loss at Falkirk dropped the Reds to eighth in the Premiership.

Bouncing back from Thelin sacking

First-team coach Peter Leven has been placed in interim charge as the Dons search for a replacement to the Swede.

Sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel is leading the hunt for the new boss.

Knoester said: “It is never nice to see someone lose his job as Jimmy was a good guy.

“He won the Scottish Cup and nobody can take that from him.

“But on the other side results were poor and at a club like Aberdeen things can change fast.

“We cannot hide behind the manager, it is us on the pitch.

“There has been a lot of changes and you have to adapt quick.

“Football can go like that and it is not the first time I have experienced it, even how hard it can be.

“You need to change your mindset quickly, move on, and try to turn things around.”

Aberdeen‘s loss at Ibrox extended a slump that has now yielded only one point from the last five Premiership games.

Bravery needed when facing Rangers

Despite the defeat Knoester has taken positives from Tuesday’s match in Glasgow, insisting the Dons played with “courage”.

They will need to be brave in possession again on Sunday, but also clinical.

He said: “This is the first time in my career that I have played a team twice in such a short period.

“That’s going to make it interesting but we are at home with so many fans behind us.

“If I can compare playing Rangers last season to this one I had the feeling we could get a better press on them.

“I think we had some good transitions at Ibrox but we need to be more clinical in exploiting that.

“It’s not going to be easy against Rangers and if you don’t take those chances it’s going to be a difficult game.

“Then on the other side the goals we conceded were all too easy for them to score.

“But the positives were we played with courage to try to steal the ball in their half.

“When we got the ball we always tried to play and it wasn’t always good but the intention was better.”

After the high of the Scottish Cup win the Aberdeen board invested heavily in the summer transfer window in a bid to build on that momentum.

Season can still be salvaged

It hasn’t happened and the Reds are languishing in the bottom six.

Knoester insists the season can still be salvaged under Leven and the new manager when appointed.

On the league position, he said: “It’s disappointing.

“This is the reality of where we are right now and we have to deal with it and improve.

“That starts with a win on Sunday as we must focus on getting a few wins again.

“Then we can start looking at what the others in the league are doing.

“That depends on getting ourselves right first of all before we can do that.

“We need to fix our own team.

“After that it has to be top six and getting back into European football next season.

“But it doesn’t seem right to talk about that before sorting out the situation we are in now, but we have expectations.

“It’s step by step but we want to defend the Scottish Cup as well as that’s very important.”