Panda

I'm going to be controversial here Rico. You're gonna disagree but you'll think about it on the way down tomorrow and eventually agree with me. I'd be inclined to start playing MacDonald over Gartenmann. Gartenmann in a few games now, notably Hibs, Hearts and Frankfurt, so often doesn't bother his arse following the runner and gets caught out. It makes him a liability. He's actually pretty lazy. Jensen Pollock MacDonald in January thanks.

Think Miovski will start. He wouldn't be posting all his Instagram professionally done preview stuff if he thought he wasn't playing. Robson's told him he wouldn't be playing v Frankfurt so he may as well play up the injury stuff. I think Solker and Duk will both start on the bench, and it'll be Polvara and McGrath supporting Miovski. Hopefully MacDonald plays too. Dons to win it 2-0, Polvara first goal.

I've put a bet on Polvara to score tomorrow. Just have a feeling about it.

There are parking restrictions on match day which means you need to be usually at least a 20 minute walk away. Try to park near Glasgow Road / Mill Street. You'll be close to Dons friendly pubs in Rutherglen and it's at most a 30 minute walk to Hampden (quicker if you're sprightly on your feet). From memory the Quarry Bar was full of Rangers fans at the semi-final last time, so avoid going there or walking past with colours on. Millcroft will have Dons fans in it though.

The BBC are committed to reducing their carbon footprint and saving the planet. Rather than making unnecessary travel to conduct more interviews, they have - rather admirably I would argue - recycled some articles. I think the words you're looking for are "thank you".

Stephen Craigan: "Frankfurt would have came here wanting a tough game and so far they've been disappointed" Also noticed the sarcastic "Aberdeen - giants" as well. TNT sports coverage of Aberdeen has been woeful. Thankfully the BBC salvaged it by providing great coverage throughout.

Stephen Craigan sounds angry that he's being paid to watch this game. Hopefully he requests never to do an Aberdeen game again.

Someone has reuploaded the 1989 final to YouTube. (The fact I'm responsible for the last five posts on this thread spanning nearly a month makes me think I'm the only one looking forward to this )

I would start Duk and Sokler and let them believe they're fighting it out for a cup final place. Would like to see MacDonald get more minutes with a view to starting the final. Shinnie, Clarkson, McGrath, Devlin and Miovski all wrapped in cotton wool. Suspect Barron will start. Polvara too. I'd even keep Roos on the bench to save him from injury. They pumped Bayern 5-1 on Saturday. Only raise their against the men from Munich clearly.

That's strike one That's strike two. You're on your final warning Orlando.

At the moment, Rangers will be missing Danilo & Lawrence through injury, and possibly Cifuentes who is suspended after his red card today (though Rangers will appeal against it). Big blows for them as Danilo was beginning to find form, and Lawrence has looked good but hasn't been able to stay fight. It also means Rangers can't make too many changes in those positions for the Real Betis game. Hopefully Miovski okay for us. Still a concern about LWB as Hayes and McGarry not exactly inspiring at the moment. I expect Hayes to start though, so McGarry or even Duncan to get a run-out v Frankfurt.

Darren Mackie was alright, he just didn't have the finish to match. But Morris playing aread of Or Dadia surely makes Dadia the worst Aberdeen player of all time. Now, you've misquoted me, I didn't say he didn't mean to pass it, I said I didn't know if it meant to pass it. Wars have been started for less. But I'm not surprised to hear Duk was just being his brilliant self. I've only seen it once and was watching it on my phone, so hard to judge.

Merry Christmas when it comes Lawrence Shankland.

Great win, poor performance. Scrambled a win against a Hearts side who didn't come out for the second half at all. Second half we looked a bit hungrier in midfield and the long balls weren't quite so frequent so we got up the park a bit more. I still thought we looked poor though, even with the chances being created. Always looked a bit ragged but Hearts defending was chronic, which I didn't see coming because they looked so well organised in the first half. Miovski left unmarked for the equaliser, good finish from a tight angle though. And Duk shows why he's still a massive player for us (although I'm still not sure if he meant to pass it or if that was a shot). A historic day in that we got to see Morris beat a man and put in a cross (was our best move of the day, Duk should score), but he was woeful again. Let's not let the win overshadow that. He does though give us some width, but the very few things he does okay are outweighed by the things he does wrong. Sorry for the negativity after a win, but we've just won in the 93rd minute and yet I'm fuming at our performance.

I forgot about Morris

Around 70 mins Duk will replace Sokler, Barron for Clarkson, MacDonald for Milne so Devlin can go RWB. Maybe at half-time it'll be Polvara for Shinnie or Duncan for Hayes. Be surprised if we try anything else.

Why is Shinnie marking Shankland at that corner? He should do better, but stick a defender on their number nine, not Shinnie. That apart, two teams who are playing poorly, but Hearts look organised defensively, we've ran out of ideas already how to get back into this.

Don't worry, it's only Frankfurt up next...

The more I think about it, the more I think Milne could be in midfield but dropping into defence to make it a three. That would allow Shinnie and Clarkson to press higher up the pitch which Robson likes. Last time we played Hearts, we played aimless long balls. If we play that way again we may as well just cut our losses and give them the points after 20 minutes.

I did. Managed to get 'fans first' prices for all three. Cost me €110, my mate went on the next day and it cost him €700 for the three games. Another mate on 10 points could only get €600 tickets for Germany today. The pricing is mental so feeling very lucky I've not been stung too much.

Be interesting to see where Milne plays. Centre of back three, to the right of the three, wing back with Devlin in the three, right back as part of a four, or even in midfield with Devlin at right back? Surprised at MacDonald being dropped, but it could be his fitness isn't quite 100%. I'm off today, decided against going up for it, and the work link the game is on is on a different channel than I'm able to access from home, so if anyone has a stream I'll take it.

The general feeling from those that know him is he has no interest in managing in Scotland again. Might depend on what his offers in England are I suppose (he's 60 now) but appears the challenge of getting a Championship team to the Premier League then testing himself against the best trump anything we can offer him. And his stock is still relatively high down there as many feel he was emptied from Sunderland a bit early, he'll be back in a job after Christmas.

Duk: four goals. That's a goal every 313 minutes. Sokler: one goal. That's a goal every 365 minutes.

I don't get the hype with Sokler to be honest. Would stick with Duk who is a far better player and more likely to score. Start Barron and Clarkson. Start MacDonald. Fuck it, start Williams and drop Jensen. Lose and Robson... well, nothing. I fully expect him to be at the agm on Monday talking about the European games and how we've been unlucky, and Cormack to tell us the stadium is five years away.