
Two and a half weeks ago, the Dons signed the summer recruit from Preston North End on loan. The Dane has since played 151 minutes in two games for the Scottish Premiership team, against Hearts and Rangers.
The catch with Okkels, who had trouble contributing in those two games, is that he hasn’t played much in the past 12 months. He played 306 minutes in 10 games after reportedly spending £1.7 million to join PNE.
Prior to that, the winger turned out five times for FC Utrecht following his January 2024 move to the top flight Dutch club.
Thelin recognises the work that needs to be done to get Okkels firing again, but he’s still hopeful the former Elfsborg pair can achieve it.
“I know what he is capable of and I want to help him get back to that level,” said Thelin.
”I think for me it’s more to use his strengths here and I think that’s quite easy to adapt to what we want to do here. It is not exactly the same as Elfsborg but there are some similarities.
“I know what he can do so I know the player also and I can use him in the best way for the team. He got an injury in Holland.
He is adapting quickly to the team out on the training pitch but if you haven’t played so much you always have to be a little bit smart in how you load the players.
“I think even if you have a player for six months, the trust has to be there and clear. Even if you don’t play, you have to be clear to the player why they don’t play and what they have to do to play.
Sometimes you have to have the trust for everyone because you need the players to grow.

“But they also need to know clearly why they don’t play and when they play, what they have to keep doing to keep playing. So that’s why you can raise the standards of the team week-by-week or season-by-season.”
Okkels has joined a team desperately looking to get their season back on track. The Dons ended a 12-game winless run last weekend by beating Elgin City 3-0 in the Scottish Cup.
Aberdeen started the season on fire and Thelin sees Okkels as someone who can help spark the needed improvement.
“When we were winning the games, we saw some things that were really good,” said Thelin. “Now I feel the team is taking too much time before we arrive at a good attacking opportunity. So that’s the thing we have to speed up.
Jeppe knows what he wants to do and I think he can bring this quality. That’s the trust he has there. Then of course he always has to adapt to new team-mates, new opponents. But the basics for him are really easy to adapt to.”