Aberdeen head coach Stephen Robinson has revealed that he has had to work to build social bonds between his players as he looks to rescue their season.
The Northern Irishman was appointed at Pittodrie last month with the immediate task of steering the team away from relegation fears but a draw and two defeats since then has seen the team move closer to the play-off spot.
As he prepares the team to face Hibs at home on Saturday, he said that part of the work he's been doing to improve things has been focused on trying to build a togetherness that he thinks is lacking in the squad.
"There's been small little tweaks since I have come in to try and get people to speak more," Robinson said at his pre-match media conference. "We have got 16 different nationalities at this football club, which is incredible, and everyone has got different cultures and different ideas.
"It's been about trying to get people together a little bit more, to put the social area into one place, instead of being in three different places. There wasn't a social area actually, [a place where they can] sit and have a coffee, speak to each other and get to know each other. So we are hoping that will help.
'When you are in the trenches you need to know a little bit about each other and try and fight your way out of it.'
Robinson made it clear there were no cliques or factions within the Dons squad but he wants stronger bonds between players and more cohesion to help build a run of positive results starting this weekend and through the post-split fixtures.
'There are certainly not factions," he said. "When you come from different cultures of course you gravitate towards people you have a little bit more in common with, so it's to get everyone together.
"When things aren't going well if you actually know a little bit about each other, you speak to each other outside of football then you have got a real desire to help each other and we are just trying to create that, trying to create that atmosphere.'
"It is the same at every club, every club I have been to, you try and do that, usually in a pre-season you have a lot of time to do that, here we are trying to fast-track that very quickly."
