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Just like the good old days of the European Cup Winners Cup (remember that? We played in it a few times I think) this game brings together the Scottish and Ukrainian cup winners. Shakhtar Donetsk beat the Ukrainian champions on penalties in the final. A great way to win it. They changed manager in summer and so far he's unbeaten over 90 minutes. Their only loss was on penalties to Panathinaikos. They've won away from home this season at Besiktas and Servette, and drew away to Panathinaikos. So fair to say we're massive underdogs for this. Do we rest players for Dundee? Every game gets billed as a "must-win" just now only for it not to be, but I think failure to win that one might be a defeat too far for the board. Dorrington, Bilalovic and Ambrose all definitely can't play anyway as they're not in the squad. Would like Bilalovic at least to get a run out v Dundee. Personally, I'd stick with a similar team that started at Fir Park and the 5-2-3, get some familiarity into it. Just three changes: Nisbet, Aouchiche, Palaversa out; Lazetic, Armstrong, Clarkson in. Even if we lose, a big performance at least (and whisper it, maybe even a goal) would give us a badly needed lift.

What's Neil Warnock doing these days?

It's easy to throw more mud at Thelin. However, the criticisms that he's too stubborn or sticks with his favourites wasn't evident tonight. He changed formation, and made six changes to the line-up. We've gifted them the game at the end there (human errors), and yes there's obviously still criticisms (should Aouchiche stayed on for as long, should Lazetic been on earlier, etc). But in the main he got most things right tonight. If the strikers take their chances we win the game, and at worst it looked like we would at least walk away with a draw. We should be saying it was far from a perfect performance but there was positives to take. At no point tonight did I think we had a team who weren't playing for the manager, or a manager with no clue what to do. Instead it's rock bottom minus three. I think he gets the next two games and if we lose both the outside noise will be too much and the board - not wanting to take any responsibility themselves - will sack him, move for Stephen Robinson, and that'll be the three-year plan binned until another manager announces one.

Thought Thelin came across quite passionate in this, at least by his standards. For the first time I think we just began to see a bit of frustration and an insight into what he's been trying to tell the players.

Sounds like @RicoS321 was causing trouble again. He's the Keith Jackson of the forum. Bloody tabloid posters.

Has he? Where you getting this?

Almost same team that finished the United game, with a few changes. If Clarkson fit, him in for Nilsen, simply because he's a better player. If not, I would give the nod to Palaversa, more just because I don't think Nilsen's histrionics are helpful. Karlsson central (where he looked okay at Tannadice), another chance for Milanovic, Lazetic (if fit) to see if he can be more involved than Nisbet. The good news is there are options here for Thelin and so many other things to try before we give up.

Nilsen was 'marking' him, but fell on his arse, lost him, then spent two minutes demanding the ball because he was convinced it was a free-kick. Watched the replay. It's never a free-kick.

Don't Dons and drive. They were in the first half. In the second, Gyamfi (who had a poor second half anyway) appeared to just shell balls down the wing and stay in his own half, losing every 50/50. Only after Thelin's charges, when Aouchiche and Bilalovic came on (so did Yengi but he doesn't count). Bilalovic actually faced up to the defenders which we appeared scared to do before then. Before that, Karlsson was actually too wide I thought, because he was too far away from Nisbet and because he's not a winger he couldn't slip by players. A lot of attacks stopped with him. I thought he was far better when Bilalovic came on and he went more centrally. Despite my criticism of Gyamfi above, he needs a run of games. Interestingly, one of the coaches ran down to Shinnie (who was warming up but never came on) and spoke at length with him about what was happening on the pitch, and Shinnie was pointing out various things.

Yeh it did look like that. It was clearly designed to get more movement and link-up between the midfielder, winger and full back, and *at times* you could see that, but every combination seemed to have at least one player letting them down, and it never really quite clicked. It also meant Nisbet wasn't involved at all. Apparently he had only 13 touches in the game.

The only positives were the team that finished the game (minus Yengi, obviously) looked like it is at least capable of creating some chances. But too slow and passive for most of the game. Thelin called Aouchiche up to the bench, got him stripped, then changed his mind and left it for 10 minutes. Aouchiche responded by being stroppy little child on the touch line, spending 20 minutes throwing his hands in the air and shaking his head at the dugout, doing it right in front of the fans hoping for some support for it. Then at the end stayed extra long to 'applaud' the Aberdeen fans, standing himself, letting everyone know how much it hurt him and that, you know, if only he had been on earlier. Listen pal, you've done fuck all in an Aberdeen shirt so far. You can maybe act up to the fans when you actually do.

Except he did change the formation tonight and changed it again in the second half. He's not fit and has been carrying an injury for most of the season. Did he? What did he say to them? He certainly didn't upset them from his play. Yeah it was a nonsense that some fans booed Nilsen off as he got subbed. Didn't really see what happened for the second goal (he was adamant he was fouled) but generally he did the job he was asked. Others due a lot more stick than him.

*Price includes a small charge to cover bus transport from fan zones to stadium & back after the game. AFC have to organise these busses so a small charge will assist with this. The club are making somewhere between £4m and £5m from being in the group stages, but want the fans who are paying hundreds of pounds to travel over to these places in order to support the team, to chip in extra to pay for some buses? The cheek of it.

Yeah, sticking with a settled centre back pairing has helped. I guess conceding fewer goals isn't a headline grabber when you can't score or win though. But against Motherwell I did think we looked vulnerable a lot, and they exposed us far too often. That wasn't necessarily down to our back line - was more we were easy to pass through. We pressed their defence but didn't have enough bodies to press their midfield when they beat the press. The way Motherwell got back to front at times was how I expected us to be under Thelin. Motherwell's problem was their players make too many mistakes to really make it work (which is why they don't actually score much). A limit to the standard of player they can get I guess. Worryingly, Dundee United are quite similar in that they're a counter attacking team that have a bit more athleticism this season and they get at you quickly. But, we better have a plan for it, because my poor dad - not really a football fan - lives in Dundee so gets dragged along to these games on the threat of it being the only way to see his beloved son, and the last few at Tannadice have been shocking performances, so really we owe him one before he goes and gets a paternity test to see if he can get rid of me.

At this stage, I just want to see a performance, something that gives an indicator that we're improving. I think we've had plenty of time on the training ground now, maybe a run of two games a week is what we need. If we're sticking with 4-2-3-1, then it can't be the same front four. Based on how they played against Motherwell, I wouldn't be against moving Keskinen to the left and starting Milanovic, and dropping Aouchiche in favour of Lazetic or Polvara. Was disappointed too with Armstrong - too many loose passes, too many fouls. He's playing like a guy who doesn't have much match sharpness unsurprisingly. Anyway, I'm actually heading up for this one. My first game of the season, so here's hoping it brings some luck.

No. That's like saying Cormack knows more than me about football and I'm not having that. He's a CEO. I don't know what he does every day but when it comes to football decisions I hope he and Cormack are staying well out of it.

Thelin - I think you can strongly criticise him and also be strongly against sacking him. I really can't be arsed with another manager change. We've heavily invested in this one. We're not going to be relegated in October. Let's give this manager backing for once. But by fuck do we need to hit some good form, preferably before the year is out.

I don't like blaming any individual, but things have gone to shit ever since you unpinned the cup final thread. You took away the feel good factor and now we look devoid of confidence.

Aye this was the big thing for me. I get Thelin wants Nisbet to play deeper. But you then need either your two wide men getting into the box and getting shots off - which they didn't - or someone going beyond Nisbet to get on the end of things - which isn't Aouchche's game. Our two best chances fell to defenders. At least with Yengi earlier in the season he was getting chances, just not taking them. Now our so-called threats aren't even getting chances. About what? I doubt he knows more about football or coaching than the general fan.

As for the League Cup. We have a brilliant chance to win the trophy, with Rangers and Celtic there for the taking, and the greatest Hearts team in history somehow knocked out by St Mirren. Would be a sickener to pass up the chance to at least make the semis. My team would be:- I think Aouchiche has a lot of potential, but at the moment he's strolling about in a sort of free role, with us hoping he'll produce something special. A few long distance shots that go close, but generally very few killer balls or bringing others into the game. I'm dreading the reaction to this game if we don't win.

Totally unrelated to the Motherwell game (but no-one reads the support forum), but is it just me who is seeing the options to reply to posts with emojis now covered up? Screenshot below so you can see what I'm on about. Appears to have happened after I stupidly updated to iOS 26 on the iPhone.

You sack a manager when you lose all confidence they can ever turn it around. That's what did it for Goodwin and Robson. I don't believe Thelin has reached the stage of running out of ideas yet and I'm keen to see the next few months. Aye, the five wins in 31 is really poor. But forget last season. Different team now, and it took until transfer deadline day to add much needed quality. This season is a bigger judgement of him than last season. We have six players currently not fully match fit (Nisbet, Lazetic, Karlsson, Gyamfi, Armstrong, Bilalovic). We have Yengi, Milanovic, Aouchiche still settling in. Yengi in particular has had a lot of criticism, when in reality he's our third choice striker who was thrust in too early due to lack of bodies. Had all those players been here in July, had a full pre-season, and been available from day one of the season, then it's a different story. Obviously football isn't as neat and tidy as that. Earlier in this thread - I think before the cup final - I said it would be interesting to see who makes the most improvement this season out of Hibs, Dundee United and Aberdeen - the teams that finished above us, but still have the same managers. Hibs have had a few plaudits, but haven't won a home game this season (six games). Dundee United have also had a few plaudits, but they've only beat Strassen and Dundee this season. The top performing sides were the ones who had League Cup games to help build momentum - Hearts, St Mirren and Motherwell. But it's fine margins with them too. Motherwell haven't actually won a league game yet, but people are raving about them. To answer your original question (I'll get there eventually), unless the season becomes a disaster and it appears obvious Thelin isn't up to it, then it becomes a conversation. But I'm confident that won't happen.

I hadn't actually looked that high up the table to notice that Game in hand over most of the table too...

With Hearts and Aberdeen again enjoying different fortunes, it's now 20 months since both teams won on the same say - 2 January 2024. They didn't win on the same day at all last season. Hearts aren't in the League Cup quarter finals, and we play Dundee United on a Tuesday, so perhaps that offers some opportunities to win since it's clearly Derek McInnes' fault for our league start. #McInnesOut

Yet another unfamiliar front three not quite getting it together, but individually I thought we weren't too bad save for a large spell in the second half. Created some really good chances. Aouchiche has two, Nisbet one, Jensen and Palaversa forced good saves, Polvara hits a post, Karlsson goes close too. There was a few times too there was a touch of the Elfsborg about us; Dorrington picking the front three out and we were on their back line. Sometimes you can see moves that have come from the training ground, but we just don't quite get it to work in a match. It'll click at some point, I'm sure of it. And, defensively we were okay too. Gyamfi isn't going to be racing up the byline much by the looks of things, but he's like another centre half at times and compliments Knoester well in that respect. Got to remember we had four debutants today (although granted one of those was Nisbet). Those four plus Lazetic are all lacking games and match sharpness. We'll see more from all of them. Crucially, all look like they have seen a football before. The next three games (Motherwell twice and Dundee United away) will be interesting as they both look handy up front, but are conceding for fun at the back.