Panda

No, I've said more than once - including in the post that you're replying to - that we need to get on with appointing a permanent manager. Yes, it is entirely possible that he could be worse. And replacing a caretaker with another caretaker would be laughable. Are you suggesting we sack Leven, in which case we now need another coach. Or do we swap him & Doc, which likely wouldn't be accepted by either party.

Whilst I don't think Leven should be considered long term, the decline isn't all down to him. Our recruitment across the season has been abysmal, and we are arguably weaker than we were at the start of the January window. We've brought in a goalkeeper who doesn't look any better than Mitov. Morrison is poor, McIntyre average. Geiger so far has been more liability than an improvement on anyone. Aremu and Olusanya - we needed players to improve the first team, and instead we've two players to sit on the bench. Cameron the only signing I'd give plus marks to at the moment, and he's a loan signing from a rival club. Going back to summer:- Gueye been replaced by Yengi/lazetic. Morris by Milanovic. Despite the criticism he used to get, Jack Mackenzie would start for us just now. No-one of the level of Jamie McGrath has been brought in. Even Ester Sokler would be ahead of everyone bar Nisbet just now. Promoting Tony Docherty would solve nothing. He's already at the club so his "experience" is already there. Him picking the team makes little difference because he still has the same group of players, and he's not good enough to get more out of them. Get a new manager appointed now - whether he official starts in summer or not. Someone needs to be evaluating the squad and working with Lutz & Mowbray to identify what we need in summer, and we need it done early so we're not signing half our squad on transfer deadline day again.

But when did this become a thing, that you can only appoint the right manager in summer? Dundee United could sack Jim Goodwin on Monday and have a new man in place by the end of the week. We need to get our fucking act together. We are playing like a team that doesn't have a manager, and have been doing so for over two months now. I was happy for the club to take their time to get the right man, but this is taking the piss. And no, the "unforeseen circumstances" around Horneland situation doesn't excuse it.

I only got there are half-time because I was working at the rugby. Met my mates, stayed for half an hour, and we decided to leave with 15 minutes to go. Value for money, would do it again. Even in that little time, I saw too much. Every throw in, we threw it back the way towards the centre halves so they could improve their passing stats. Every pass in the final third had to go wide to Keskinen, who Dunfermline just closed down. Too easy. Have no idea why people (more than one) on this board think Tony Docherty should be interim manager. Go look at his appalling spell at Ross County. What we need is a permanent manager. Preferably a good one.

Shame, really fancied United at Hampden. Lot of United fans desperate for Goodwin to go. His cup record is shocking, and being as bad as us in the league should be a sackable offence in itself.

There'll be no VAR for this game, which is a surprise because usually it's a requirement for televised games at this stage of the competition. But, will add to the traditional cup tie feel.

For those at the game, did Sandro Schwarz get any sort of reception when he appeared on the big screen? I guess it's hard to get too up or down about his potential appointment. Did well at Mainz and Dynamo Moscow, without any real success though. Has struggled in his next two jobs, but even the fans there haven't given him much grief for it as he never really had the tools to work with. Was having a look at what he played at New York Red Bulls. A 4-4-2/4-2-2-2 was what he came with from his previous clubs, but he played a 4-2-3-1 and a 3-1-4-2 often last season. Would love to have heard his thought on us after the Celtic game.

We had the right idea in playing Nilsen in the centre of defence, and playing two up front. We had some good width too with Frame. But, not enough quality throughout the starting XI to press home when we were on top (for about 15 minutes in the first half and the last 10 minutes). Although had Nisbet scored with that header at the start of the second half, would have made for a very interesting game. Leven - from memory - started with a 3/5 at the back at Ibrox when he began his interim spell (was that his first game or am I imagining it?). And then since then hasn't bothered with it until the second half on Saturday at Tynecastle. I think he should probably stick with it. It's not spectacular, but makes us a little harder to beat and a touch more dangerous on the counter. I don't think we have the squad to play an expensive 4-3-3 at the moment.

This requires context.

Quite funny how it's all worked out. When this game was originally due to be played, we planned to have Eirik Horneland as a guest. Now it's been rearranged, tonight we plan to have Sandro Schwarz as a guest.

I actually listened to the recent episode on the way home yesterday after it was advertised on here, and I had AI vibes too. I've been on the HereWeGo podcast a few times in the past as a guest, but sullied myself each time by talking shite. I think I'm better off with the written word rather than trying to have real life human interactions.

What's the eligibility? Like, can we use posters from the English forums if they have grandparents that post on Donstalk?

That's just a fever dream.

Yeah, twice, but they don't count because that prick Ferguson wore a maroon tie on Saturday, so we've disowned anything he won.

My predictions are clearly shite. Like I said before though, I'd play the players who can't play v Dunfermline (Geiger for one, is anyone else suspended?) and give those who need minutes - Frame, Lobban, Morrison, Armstrong, Bilalovic, Lazetic, Aremu, a run out. Our entire season is now all about the cup. Without Nisbet, I don't think we have the players to play an effective front three. I'd play a front two.

Aye, it's too obvious now.

The man was clearly wearing a red scarf yesterday, in the support of his team. There's bigger problems in the world to worry about.

Do we have such a thing?

Is it a full moon all this week?

I think Celtic will win at Ibrox but drop points at Pittodrie. Not because we're any good, but because this season is fucking mental and it's going to end with Hearts winning the league and Aberdeen beating Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi then Mitov failing to save a single pen in the shoot out v Jim Goodwin's Dundee United. I've went off on a bit of a tangent there...sorry. Play the reserves & Geiger, and save everyone for East End Park.

Odd behaviour this from McInnes. Geiger overreacts, but why do it in the first place? You've won an important match and are nine games away from becoming a legend at Hearts and probably Scottish football. Enjoy it. According to some Hearts fans, he also made some derogatory comments about Aberdeen in midweek at a supporters event. Bit needless and a fine way to lose goodwill with a club who gave him an opportunity in 2013, treated him very well and paid him handsomely for the privilege.

Watching that today felt like watching a Barry Robson team. Was a lot of long balls that didn't really have much purpose behind it. Hearts played the same way at times, and it was a rubbish game for the neutral, but Hearts are a bit more adept at it and had players they actually found with their passing. Then, late on, we were just knocking it around our back line and going nowhere. The main difference (among many failures for us) was Hearts' positioning. They knew when to double up on a player, when they passed they found players in space (space we gave them because our positioning was so bad), they just had players in the right position while we look so badly coached. Positives (few, but there were some). Some of Mitov's goal kicks were poor but generally thought he played well. He's still our number one in my eyes. Frame was hitting the byline well when he came on. Nilsen played okay. Also thought Nisbet played as well as he could with no service, but as @RicoS321 pointed out, twice he was screaming for the ball in a great position and someone else made the wrong decision (I actually think it may have been three times as Frame couldn't find him late on when he had made an intelligent run).

We're determined to pump it long, which means Geiger and Cameron are barely in the game, but are being pushed high anyway, which means when Hearts break they just breeze through all the space we've given them. Hearts are also wise to us trying to find Keskinen and Olusanya out wide, so are covering them, and after a shaky opening from them they now look relatively comfortable.

I dunno if I'd start him. I think Olusanya and Nisbet do manage to cause a wee bit of havoc together if played as a front two, which I think we've been trying to do (looking more closely at the average positions v Dundee United). It's like we're 4-3-3 out of possession but a 3-1-4-2 in possession.