What might Robinson's Aberdeen look like this season?

In 10 days' time Aberdeen will take on Brora Rangers in the Premier Sports Cup, as the Stephen Robinson era truly starts at Pittodrie.

The Northern Irishman took charge in March with the job to keep the underperforming club in the Scottish Premiership, which he managed to achieve.

But now, with eight signings in the door and a pre-season to introduce his own vision, expectations will rise again.

So what might Robinson's Aberdeen team look like? And have the myriad of problems from last season been addressed?

The foundation of Robinson's succesful four-year spell at St Mirren was assembling squads which could cope with the rigours of Scottish football.

St Mirren were effective at pressing, physically imposing, and quick to get the ball into the final third, while carrying a threat from set-pieces.

In essence, everything Aberdeen were not last season. The Dons had the lowest duel success rate in the league and conceded the most goals from set-pieces.

Anyone who watched them could see they struggled to control games without the ball, and in possession too.

Robinson and sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel have sought to address those frailties straight away.

The club's first signing of the summer, Austrian midfielder Alexander Briedl, was reared in the academy of RB Salzburg and Robinson has spoken about his speed and pressing statistics.

Fellow midfielder Brad Lyons has also been added for his mobility and experience of Scottish football, while his former Kilmarnock team-mate, centre-back Lewis Mayo has been one of the top ball winners at centre-back in recent seasons.

Dan Happe, a centre-back signed from Leyton Orient, is around 6ft 6in tall and has clearly been brought in to combat Aberdeen's lack of presence in the box.

Nicky Devlin said after pre-season testing the squad is as fit as he has seen in his three years at the club so it is fair to expect a side which runs more and will be physically ready for the months ahead.

Only St Mirren scored fewer goals than Aberdeen last season, with the Dons finding the net 40 times in 38 league matches. That rate was even poorer away from home.

It is an issue they simply have to solve if they want to return to the top half of the table. So how might they go about it?

No team played more long passes than St Mirren over Robinson's four years in charge, while only Celtic and Rangers put more balls into the opposition's box.

They used three centre-backs with wing-backs consistently, sometimes with two strikers, but at other points with two advanced midfielders either side of a single striker.

Will Robinson adopt a similar shape? He did when he came in last season to try to add some defensive solidity.

But the addition of winger Tony Yogane from Dundee, the return of Toyosi Olusanya, and a keeness to get more from Kenan Bilalovic could mean 4-3-3 is a good option to get the best from them, and Aberdeen's full-backs, none of whom are a perfect fit at wing-back.

Only Sebastien Tounekti, Alexandros Kyziridis, Mikey, Moore, and Djeidi Gassama created more chances from dribbles than Yogane last season.

And though Dundee did often play with three at the back and wing-backs, the former Brentford player benefitted from more space to run into rather than overlapping players around him, and Robinson has talked regularly about getting more from the pace in the team.

Up front, Kevin Nisbet was the club's top scorer last season with 11 goals despite being starved of service.

With Marko Lazetic potentially moving on, Moroccan striker Ayoub Mouloua joined last week having scored 19 goals in 53 games for FUS Rabat.

Like Nisbet, the 23-year-old does not appear to be a traditional target man, which may also hint at a different approach from Robinson.

Saturday's friendly against FC Twente at the end of a week's training camp in the Netherlands will tell fans a lot more about how Aberdeen intend to play.

With signings in early and a fuller pre-season schedule, Aberdeen appear determined to correct the mistakes of a year ago which resulted in the team failing to score a league goal in their first seven games.

It set the tone for a grim campaign which never got going. Robinson has said Aberdeen must take advantage of not being in European football, which Scottish sides outside of Celtic and Rangers often struggle to cope with.

However, he has also been clear the reshaping of the squad will take more than one summer, hinting at a need for some patience.

Aberdeen also have a tough start, with Hearts, Celtic, and Rangers to play in the first month.

However, the League Cup group stage has proven to be a good starting point for top-flight sides, including Jimmy Thelin's Aberdeen two seasons ago.

A top-six finish will be expected as a minimum from Robinson and his players given the budget the club has, even if Aberdeen have shown in three of the last five seasons that is by no means a given.