'We've seen it' - Aberdeen defender leaps to Kusini Yengi's defence as former Portsmouth striker's Scottish struggles continue

Defender Nicky Devlin has leapt to the defence of Aberdeen team-mate Kusini Yengi as the former Pompey striker’s tough start to life at Pittodrie continues.

Less than a week after the one-time Fratton favourite was criticised by former Celtic and Chelsea striker Chris Sutton for his performance in the Dons’ season-opener defeat at Hearts, the Aussie has been on the receiving end of yet more flak following his display in Sunday’s 2-0 home loss to reigning Scottish Premiership champions Celtic.

An underwelcoming performance against Brendan Rodgers’ Bhoys which included some woeful ball control late in the first half following some good work from team-mate Topi Keskinen, saw the 26-year-old substituted after just 55 minutes by manager Jimmy Thelin.

That was seven minutes less game time than what Yengi experienced against Hearts, with the former Western Sydney Wanderers forward lasting just over an hour on his full debut at Tynecastle.

Aberdeen are next in action on Saturday, when they travel to Morton in the Scottish League Cup.

Whether Yengi starts that game remains to be seen. In the meantime, defender Devlin believes the forward possesses the quality to succeed at Pittodrie. However, he insisted he and his Dons team-mates have to do better to play to the striker’s strengths.

Aberdeen’s Nicky Devlin defends team-mate Kusini Yengi

Speaking after Aberdeen’s 2-0 defeat to Celtic, which leaves Yengi & Co bottom of the table, the full-back said: ‘It's probably important for the rest of us to give him more opportunity. There were times he was having to feed off balls that weren't great quality into him.

‘He was fighting against two big centre-halves, which was obviously making it difficult for him. 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. It's probably more about other people doing a wee bit more to support him and getting the ball into areas that we know he can be dangerous.

‘We've seen it in training already, we've seen it in some of the pre-season games. We have to play more to his strengths at times, get the ball into areas that we know he's going to hurt teams.

‘We wanted to start the first home game with picking up points, but ultimately I don't think we've done enough in the game to trouble Celtic.’

How Kusini Yengi ended up at Aberdeen

Yengi moved to Aberdeen on a free transfer this summer after Pompey declined the option to extend his two-year stay on the south coast by another 12 months.

The decision came after a 2024-25 season to forget for the League One title winner, who failed to score for John Mousinho’s side during an injury-hampered campaign and produced just 14 appearances.

A switch to Scotland was considered a good move for the Australia international, who bagged nine goals in 26 league appearances for Pompey as they secured promotion back to the Championship in 2023-24.

However, two games into the Scottish season, Yengi is yet to show fans north of the border what he can offer.

Chris Sutton’s criticims of former Pompey favourite Kusini Yengi

Speaking after the frontman missd several good chances against Hearts, former Celtic favourite Sutton said: ‘Look that’s not an easy chance (Yengi’s first attempt which hit the post), that sort of hits him as much as anything. But he's been brought in to score goals.

‘He had an injury-plagued season last year and didn’t get any goals but it’s a real conundrum for Jimmy Thelin. They found goals from all sorts of areas last season but he’s the guy who they brought to score the goals and it didn’t happen for him.

‘This one (Yengi’s second effort which went wide), he’s got to absolutely bury. He’s got to go with his head, That’s the only thing he’ll be thinking. At six yards you can not miss with your head from there.

‘There’s that margin of error if you go with your foot and it just catches him on his calf. He should still score anyway but you go with your head there - you do not miss.That’s a terrible decision from Yengi and he got hooked not long after that.

‘We are not going to judge him on one game but clearly he needs to improve. He hasn’t had a great game has he.’

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