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1995: Eoin Jess will sign for Rangers 2025: Bojan Miovski will sign for Rangers

I don't think they're as good as Celtic. I think this is akin to going to Ibrox. They're the favourites, clearly have threats, but are beatable. At the moment, I'd go Mitov Devlin Dorrington Knoester Shinnie Nilsen Clarkson Polvara Milanovic Sokler Keskinen Dorrington because he's more comfortable on the ball than Milne. Polvara because Aouchiche I don't think is a guy suited to counter attacking football (happy to be proved wrong). Sokler far more mobile than Yengi.

Same one that chalked off McTominay's goal in Spain, and aye tonight he was chronic. Or Shinnie, who came on at left back and was one of the reasons for the improvement late on. I would start Devlin over Jensen in Bucharest though. I'd also agree Sokler should start, he's far better than Yengi in pretty much every aspect of the game. But, I don't think he missed chances because he's not match sharp, he just has that in him which is stopping him from being our starting number nine. I thought Milanovic was excellent in the first half. But, he would drive into good positions and then we rarely had another player in a good spot to take advantage. A lot of that is on Yengi, but also Aouchiche, Palaversa and Keskinen don't have that penalty box instinct. Sokler, to be fair to him, is very good at sensing where the ball is going to come to. We have the personnel to go and win there, even if - as @RicoS321says - overall they're a better team than us (they are the Romanian champions after all). But Thelin has to get the line-up spot on. Would like to see Sokler, Clarkson, Shinnie and Devlin all start over there.

Three of the FCSB players ruled out because of visa issues. That's the good news. The bad news is one of them was the right back who sold the jerseys on Sunday in the Bucharest derby. Was hoping he would play tonight.

A rather impassioned plea from Dave Cormack. https://www.afc.co.uk/2025/08/21/dave-cormack-lets-provide-future-aberdonians-with-a-city-to-be-proud-of/

There is an odd thing about the Old Firm struggling to make the Champions League. Should they make the Europa League, and we also make it, we'll have to share the TV money with them, meaning we'll actually earn less than we would have done had they both made the CL.

And that is that.

I don't know why it's not been announced, but it's live on BBC Scotland on Thursday. Enjoy the pub.

Big clubs play on big channels...

When Morris plays you expect him to go wide, hit the byline and send in crosses toward the striker. Bilalovic - the in-depth tactical analysis I did of him (twitter video ) - appears to be the same. With Milanovic and Keskinen they're more like inside forwards with the striker essentially creating for them. Thats two different approaches. A plan A and a plan B. Significant difference - no, and Thelin explained why in his Q&A the other week - but alone example of changes Thelin can make with different personnel.

Again, it's still using Morris in a different way and position than normal. The front three does switch around. The wide players are different types of players (Morris different from Milanovic, Bilalovic different from Keskinen). I don't think we're doing to see huge changes to how Thelin wants to set up, but there clearly is a plan B there.

Which, considering he usually plays on the right, would that not be an example of trying a different plan?

I don't know if Nisbet will sign, but I wouldn't say he doesn't fit the way he play. All three strikers we have are all very different players. Would also say our options out wide are all different types of player (for example, Milanovic cuts inside while Morris is more of a traditional winger) so don't agree with the lack of plan B.

We appear to have named a 20-man squad (the youth players don't need to be named). Thelin had said (but didn't confirm) we may go with a smaller European squad dependent on signings. No Rubezic (leaving), Tobers (injured), Gyamfi (injured), Ambrose, Bilalovic or Lazetic. Didn't notice any other major names absent. As per the transfer window thread, they can add two more before Wednesday night (24 hours before the game). https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/clubs/50122--aberdeen/squad/

Allowed to register two additional players up to 24 hours before the match.

*in fact, apologies, my maths is rubbish. I make it 20 goals conceded in 13 games, not 16.

Watched the last 15 minutes, where they blew a two-goal lead, and Rapid missed a 95th minute sitter to win it. I've no idea how good they were for the first 75 minutes and if they were worthy of their 2-0 lead, but they were terrible from what I saw, against an average looking Rapid team. Their right back Ngezana is apparently rated at $6m and won the best South African player in Europe award, but he was hopeless (again, I only watched 15 minutes). That's just one league win all season (from six games), bumped out of the Champions League by Shkendija, and it's 16 goals conceded in 13 games - 9 of those goals have been in Europe against opposition from Moldova, Macedonia and Kosovo. Very beatable I'd say, especially at home. Give them hell Aberdeen. (See if the below video works of the equaliser) ScreenRecording_08-17-2025 21-24-06_1.mov

Thanks @Bucharest Help - I'm not going but have passed on to a few friends who are. As an aside, they're playing Rapid Bucharest tonight for anyone wishing to spy a look at them. They lost the other Bucharest derby a few weeks ago, with a certain Danny Armstrong banging in a hat-trick.

As for our cup draw (which, for balance, is our 10th home game from 24 cup ties), I'm to blame/thank for us getting Motherwell. A rather excited Motherwell fan at work - buoyed by beating Rangers 1-1, hammering St Mirren 0-0, and smashing Clyde on penalties - has bet me that Motherwell will finish above Aberdeen this season. So of course we will now face them back-to-back, home and away.

Now, I don't subscribe to the notion cup draws are rigged. However... In Celtic's last 24 domestic cup games, 20 of them have been in Glasgow. The tie with Partick Thistle now makes that 21 from 25. The four that were not in Glasgow - three of them are relatively close by (Paisley, Motherwell, Kilmarnock) with the furthest being Tynecastle (which is less than an hour away). Yet if they make Hampden again (in their own city) expect plenty of attendance chat and talk about loyalty and big game fans, while criticising Aberdeen (should it be us) for not filling the our end for a lunchtime/evening kick-off.

Thought Aouchiche was the man of the match today. Was almost an unsung hero in the way he linked the play and brought others into the game - was what we've been missing. For example, Morris doesn't look that dangerous without him there playing one-twos and moving defenders about. He basically did the job Okkels struggled to do last season, and that Gueye only did in flashes. Off the ball he gets himself into the right positions to be a goal threat too, and I think he'll score a few from midfield this season. Overall it was a game we needed, almost the pre-season game we didn't have. Not perfect, but some good play and a confidence builder for the European matches.

I think more likely Thelin was thinking about who is going to start on Thursday, which is why the five guys that came on are all in contention to start, or at least play a big part in the game. Freshened up the team, but still made sure everyone likely to play on Thursday played some part.

Morris and Aouchiche are destroying them down the left. They're sitting off Nilsen and Palaversa which is allowing them to pick passes for fun. I imagine they might try to get tighter in the second half. If not, we could score a few more here.

Molloy at left back. Milanovic (I presume) on the left unless we're trying Morris there. Yengi min, you've got to do something today, anything. Even a shot on target or a successful pass to a teammate would be progress.