Panda

Yep. We absolutely haven't learned anything from Thursday. The same tactics and game plan, and on both occasions fortunate to only concede three.

He would suit a back four where he can sit in front of it, and then Aouchiche and Armstrong could play further forward and link up with the front three. Only positive from today is Bilalovic is this generation's Zoltan Varga.

Yeah, I suppose the 9-0 defeat probably still edges it To be honest, I'm beginning to doubt if he's even real.

A shocker of a performance. Playing 5-4-1 yet still being easy to play through is astonishing. The way we were set up in the first half, Lobban, Jensen, Karlsson and Keskinen were barely in the game. It was like seven v eleven before the red card. Mitov - howler for the red card, but some huge saves in the second half to keep us in it, let's not forget that. Milne, up until the mistake for Tierney's goal, was okay. Off the bench, Gyamfi, Shinnie, Kjartansson and Bilalovic all did well. Apart from that, Armstrong and Aouchiche guilty of trying to take Celtic on themselves at times (although, they didn't always have a lot of passing options). And the five at the back just invited Celtic onto us.

Once again, five at the back is doing nothing for us, because we just pass it in a horizontal line, they press us, and we have no-where to go. If you actually get at Celtic they don't look that great at the back, we were playing this pathetic passing out from the back, knocking it along our back line, and losing the ball before it gets close to the halfway line. And now with 10 men.

That goal has been coming because we're getting caught in possession and have no-one to pass to. Keskinen has to go back the way, Lobban receives it in a horrible position, and Maeda - like I knew he would - just kills us down the left. We're beating ourselves here.

That Celtic line-up is (on paper, and pre-match while my optimism is still at relatively normal levels) is as poor a side as I can remember facing at Parkhead. One recognised centre half, in between Ralston and a Tierney who isn't the player he was. Yang, who was one of Aberdeen's best players in the cup final. And Kenny, who isn't even close to the level of striker you expect Celtic to have. Maeda, McGregor and Engels the only players in that team to worry about. Fuck it, it's a winnable game for Aberdeen, get at them.

Results (domestically) have picked up since this thread was last active, but not sure we're much more convincing than we have been at any other stage of the season. Next five games:- I would love to come up at the other end of these with a good tally of points, but that's four away games there, at least three at tough venues, and I can't say I'm confident about winning any of them. At least two of them though are after all our new January signings arrive...

But would Thelin survive another 6-0 within two months?

Yeah, it was one of the reasons why I wanted Thelin, because I thought his "long pass" style of play would actually suit Scottish football. Elfsborg usually played a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, quick transitions, outpaced defences, and their inside forwards were generally the goal scorers. The striker was a mere link up man. But Thelin has moved away from that. When we have been at our best under Thelin, it's been a 4-2-3-1 with a second striker. M**** in the few games he played under Thelin was in that number 10 role, Nisbet did it last season when he had Gueye with him, and together they'd find space for Duk and Morris to run into. Now we have Karlsson on the edge of the box. He waits for an overlap, or cuts inside and takes on three players. Armstrong has to do the same on the right. Whoever is the striker barely touches the ball. I know it wasn't working at the start of the season, and we leaked too many goals and didn't score, so moving to a back three shored things up. However, it'll be interesting to see who he signs in January and what our "style" is in the second half of the season and whether the system changes again.

I watched the Celtic game on Wednesday. They could have had the game won by half time. Maeda suits the 3-4-3 and Celtic were killing United down the left. I'm not overly confident Devlin puts the brakes on him. In the second half, the turnaround was because United played to their strengths, which is that they are probably the tallest team in the top flight. They got it wide to their wing backs and threw crosses in against a side playing just one recognised centre half. I don't see us beating Celtic the same way. But, you would expect Karlsson should be able to cause Ralston problems - it's why I'm surprised he played the full 90 last night. The likes of Aouchiche and Armstrong should get space to work in though. We'll get chances.

I think it could be a lot better than it actually is. For starters, the top five leagues should not be in it. Now, only Strasbourg and Rayo Vallencano actually finished in the top five so you could argue it was competitive, but a lot of that was the others - Fiorentina, Crystal Palace and Mainz - knowing they only had to give 75% effort in some games to get through. Palace made 11 changes for their game last night. At full strength they are way too strong for the Conference League. It should be a competition for the rest. You'll still get good games and a decent final. As for Aberdeen, I think it's a good platform to go test ourselves. I enjoyed the Donestsk game for example, and despite the defeat it actually gave us a lift at a time when we badly needed it. The issue for Scottish clubs is they have been going into these group stages when their domestic form has been poor. Hearts had the same last season and Aberdeen had it the year before. The feeling is the domestic form suffers because of Europe, but I think it's an easy excuse. We should have been doing a lot better domestically this season despite the European games.

If the team was even weaker than it was last night, then that 3-0 could have been another 6-0. Thelin had to balance it with giving some players minutes and still being relatively competitive. That said, not sure playing Karlsson for the full 90 minutes was helpful if you plan to play him on Sunday, while Shinnie's 86 minutes suggests he won't play either at a venue where you would quite like your captain being in the face of the referee arguing against every shit decision we're likely to get against us.

I get Sparta had a similar formation to us, but once again we played three at the back when we really didn't need to. All three at the back really does for us is give us an extra man when teams throw in crosses. But on nights like tonight, we can't hold onto the ball, and the way Sparta played meant any 'advantage' of having an extra man was lost. As much as they are struggling at the moment, Celtic will play a similar way on Sunday, and Wilfried Nancy will absolutely have Maeda and Hatate cutting inside and finding the space to get shots away.

Successful European campaign imo

Thelin mixed it up tonight by not fixing anything at half-time.

I get tonight is a tough watch, but overall Europe has been good for us. Four games where we have played relatively well in, we've banked £6m, and by qualifying we've attracted a few players. But, for those who don't enjoy it, be encouraged that if we do qualify next season, it'll likely all be done and dusted by the end of August.

We're becoming very predictable. Name the wrong line-up, fix it at half-time. Clarkson being hung out to dry in an unfamiliar position. Karlsson not suited for any game where we have to be disciplined. Outnumbered in midfield. Worryingly, Sparta look a better side than AEK Athens.

Clarkson said on the Dons social video yesterday that he would be playing Football Manager on the flight over to Prague, and was playing as Aberdeen. Clearly Thelin is not going to accept him thinking he can do the job better than him. Probably pipes up every 20 minutes to announce Ambrose has just scored a hat-trick in a 7-3 win over Motherwell. He should have played as Torino and tried Serie A. NB: Nilsen said he would be writing poems on the flight over, which sounds lovely, but he's not playing either, so they must either be shit or all about Thelin.

Be interesting to see the midfield set up. Is it the normal two in the middle and front three - and if so, who is stepping into the front three? Or, is it a three-man midfield with Karlsson and Nisbet as a front two? I'd like that, and tonight would be the time to experiment with it.

Edit: Just realised you were taking about Yogi My immediate worry would be Peter Leven being courted for the Kilmarnock job.

Looking at who is in our European squad, happy for this to be the team. If Gyamfi isn't fit, then play Clarkson or Palaversa at LWB for shits and giggles, and play Nilsen in the middle. Or play Jensen and play Shinnie at LWB v Celtic. A shame Bilalovic isn't in the Euro squad because would have been a nice run out for him. Go enjoy yourself lads, Prague should be nice this time of year. But it's all about another Glasgow win over Celtic on Sunday.

To be fair, the RedTV commentary team initially credited the goal to Lazetic too, so the loyal armchair fans are blameless for this mess.

It's on tomorrow night chief. The license fee doesn't cover four Sportscenes in a row.

Donstalk has some excellent legal representation so they'll be able to fight any lawsuit.