Dons vs Livi 13/9/2025

[manc_don]

Livi have proved to be stuffy as expected, so again, what should be an easy game won’t be. Interesting to see what changes given the signings we’ve made, although I’d expect karlsson and Armstrong will be a while away. Nisbet should be fit and should start. We can’t afford to fuck about with Yengi at all. I’d expect Milanovic to miss out having travelled back from NZ this week. You’d think we might even get a glimpse of Gyamfi, at least for the last 20 mins or something. 
 

out

bed

bed

family time

1-1, Nisbet. 

[Jute]

A game we really need to be winning. I would expect Lazetic to start with Nisbet being on the bench. As Manc says it’s unlikely that the Armstrong or Karlsson will be fit enough to be involved in this one. Gyamfi got minutes against Buckie and Frame got off bench for Scotland U21s so one of them may make the bench. Will be disappointed if Yengi is even on the bench. 
 

Not sure I will be heading up to this as loads of work on just now. 
 

2-0 Dons Keskinen and Nisbet
 

 

[OrlandoDon]

Excited for this game, window is closed and no excuses now, season starts here. 

3-1 us, lazetic 2 and palaversa.

i believe karlsson is fit, he was simply an unused sub at bologna. Would like to see him and gyamfi on the left and lazetic up top. I’m more excited for him than nisbet to be honest. Not sure JT will go for a new left back left mid straight away, but milanovic has been travelling around the world so we maybe topi on the right, and I think maybe devlin is suspended??

[RicoS321]

Should get decent odds on Yengi or Shinnie to score.

[OrlandoDon]

Really curious to see if we stick with Clarkson. With three flair players ahead of him and two attacking full backs I do feel 6 and 8 need to be our heavy lifters. All of our CMs have their flaws, and as we’ve identified, the window didn’t solve the problem. maybe we go w sivert and palaversa? Hoping kjarten comes good and quickly to replace sivert, and would like to start seeing him play.

[RicoS321]

44 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Really curious to see if we stick with Clarkson. With three flair players ahead of him and two attacking full backs I do feel 6 and 8 need to be our heavy lifters. All of our CMs have their flaws, and as we’ve identified, the window didn’t solve the problem. maybe we go w sivert and palaversa? Hoping kjarten comes good and quickly to replace sivert, and would like to start seeing him play.

Agreed, but Palaversa hasn't remotely shown himself to be a heavy lifter at all. I'd love to see stats on coverage for the two, as I suspect Clarkson puts in a lot more yards. Bar a couple of games, Palaversa has generally just been a player that should be a box to box midfielder, rather than actually being one. He's a frustrating lad. He certainly hasn't earned his place.

[OrlandoDon]

40 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Agreed, but Palaversa hasn't remotely shown himself to be a heavy lifter at all. I'd love to see stats on coverage for the two, as I suspect Clarkson puts in a lot more yards. Bar a couple of games, Palaversa has generally just been a player that should be a box to box midfielder, rather than actually being one. He's a frustrating lad. He certainly hasn't earned his place.

Don’t disagree, but every central midfielder we have is flawed. I think palaversa has a physical presence that some of our others don’t have. Polvara shinnie sivert Clarkson are all frustrating too, none are ideal in the current situation. I also think shinnie has value in there but sivert isn’t mobile or disciplined enough for him to cover allowing Shinnie roam/push up. I wonder how close kjarten is to first team football. It’s an obvious problem area for us that the fact we didn’t sign anyone for this position has me curious as to how soon we see kjarten.

[RicoS321]

48 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Don’t disagree, but every central midfielder we have is flawed. I think palaversa has a physical presence that some of our others don’t have. Polvara shinnie sivert Clarkson are all frustrating too, none are ideal in the current situation. I also think shinnie has value in there but sivert isn’t mobile or disciplined enough for him to cover allowing Shinnie roam/push up. I wonder how close kjarten is to first team football. It’s an obvious problem area for us that the fact we didn’t sign anyone for this position has me curious as to how soon we see kjarten.

I don't think we'll see a 19 year old going box to box, which is what we need. I'd like to see him though, but I suspect he'll get <10 games this season.

[wee toon red]

I think it has to be Shinne/Sivert and Clarkson/Palaversa. The other combos are either not creative enough or don't cover enough ground. Shinnie and Clarkson would be my first pick, subject to finding out more about Kjartanson's capabilities.

[Elgindon]

Oot - Unfortunately,was looking forward to seeing some of the new boys at some stage on Saturday,but forgot about a pre-arranged trip. Hopefully our new firepower up front will be enough to distract Livi from frailties further back

 3 - 1 Dons. Nisbet x2, Armstrong 30 yard rocket

[OrlandoDon]

1 hour ago, wee toon red said:

I think it has to be Shinne/Sivert and Clarkson/Palaversa. The other combos are either not creative enough or don't cover enough ground. Shinnie and Clarkson would be my first pick, subject to finding out more about Kjartanson's capabilities.

You dont need creativity, that’s the whole point. We have three flair players ahead of them and attacking fullbacks, these guys serve a very different role to balance the team. Harsh on Clarkson but I don’t think he’s the type of player we need in there. As I said before though, all of our central mids have weaknesses.

[wee toon red]

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

You dont need creativity, that’s the whole point. We have three flair players ahead of them and attacking fullbacks, these guys serve a very different role to balance the team. Harsh on Clarkson but I don’t think he’s the type of player we need in there. As I said before though, all of our central mids have weaknesses.

You might not need creativity in the sense of beating a man or slipping in a through ball but you need to be able to manipulate space and pick a pass, as well as dictate the tempo. You can’t just have two players  in there to be a brick wall, that would just lead to the midfield getting bypassed and spending 90 minutes watching the ball fly over their heads. There’s got to be balance between the pair.

[OrlandoDon]

59 minutes ago, wee toon red said:

You might not need creativity in the sense of beating a man or slipping in a through ball but you need to be able to manipulate space and pick a pass, as well as dictate the tempo. You can’t just have two players  in there to be a brick wall, that would just lead to the midfield getting bypassed and spending 90 minutes watching the ball fly over their heads. There’s got to be balance between the pair.

That’s why you have creativity at 7, 10, and 11, plus the full backs bombing on. You have two guys in there whose job is to win the ball/create turnovers, and play passes. They can be good passers with range, and can still attack, but flair/creativity is mainly from that 3 behind the 9. 

Edited Wednesday at 18:31 by OrlandoDon

[manc_don]

I don’t think we’ll see much of kjartan anytime soon. JT said he pretty had to bide his time so with Nilsen “fit”, I don’t think he’ll be making an appearance for the first time, or at least any notable minutes, anytime soon.

[wee toon red]

19 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

That’s why you have creativity at 7, 10, and 11, plus the full backs bombing on. You have two guys in there whose job is to win the ball/create turnovers, and play passes. They can be good passers with range, and can still attack, but flair/creativity is mainly from that 3 behind the 9. 

If I change my original use of "creativity" to "comfortable on the ball" then I don't think we're in any disagreement.

Edited Thursday at 13:43 by wee toon red

[dons8321]

On 10/09/2025 at 15:11, RicoS321 said:

I don't think we'll see a 19 year old going box to box, which is what we need. I'd like to see him though, but I suspect he'll get <10 games this season.

He's the same age as Lewis Ferguson was when we signed him.

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, dons8321 said:

He's the same age as Lewis Ferguson was when we signed him.

Yep, and Ferguson wasn't a box to box midfielder at that point either. It was really only in his final season and then his move to Bologna that he started covering the whole pitch. Him and Ramadani were the top two in terms of yards covered in the Italian league a wee while back, so it's not an easy role to replace!

[Goldie03]

We were super unlucky only to have Ramadani for so short a time yeh 

[manc_don]

From the P&J.
 

Everyone back in full training – including Kristers Tobers

Aberdeen centre-back Kristers Tobers, centre behind Topi Keskinen and Kevin Nisbet, at training on Friday. Image: SNS.

2pm: Dons manager Thelin says everyone in his squad, including Latvia centre-back Kristers Tobers, is now fit..

“Some players needs some minutes in the training pitch to get ready for games,” Thelin adds, though, revealing: “We are probably going to add some friendly games also to get everybody in game-shape.

“But even Tobers (is back)… everybody is in full training – they just need some time to be quick and sharp enough.”

---

‘To get the time, you also have to win during the time’ – Thelin says before Aberdeen v Livingston

1.56pm: On to Saturday’s fixture against Livingston, and Thelin says he is fully aware the Red Army are demanding a win of his side.

“As a manager you know that. We have to have the long(-term) vision in our head, but results have to come also.” Thelin said.

“We’ve had a tough start to the season, but we play at home and we have to turn things around and start winning games.

“To get the time, you also have to win during the time.

“They (Livi) have done well. They’re a good team, but I think and I believe we have taken a step now.

“With these new signings and some adjustments, I think we can do a good performance now and start winning games.”

[Panda]

Be interesting to see who starts up front. Yengi does have the most minutes under his belt. There's every chance he starts with Lazetic and Nisbet coming off the bench later on. Also, I wonder if Thelin will be swayed by letting him play against his brother.

There is also the fact we might have a few new faces tomorrow - maybe too many - and Thelin won't want to throw them all in at once.

But it's the first time in a long time that we've got some excitement around new signings, may even have boosted the ticket sales slightly. Keen to see Karlsson, a bit more of Lazetic, maybe even Gyamfi if fit enough, and even Armstrong in an Aberdeen shirt is intriguing. 

But just win Aberdeen, because I'm sick of the negativity, pundits tipping us for the bottom six and people questioning Thelin's shelf life. Can't be arsed with another week of it.

As someone else said further up the thread I think - the season starts now.

[OrlandoDon]

23 minutes ago, Panda said:

Be interesting to see who starts up front. Yengi does have the most minutes under his belt. There's every chance he starts with Lazetic and Nisbet coming off the bench later on. Also, I wonder if Thelin will be swayed by letting him play against his brother.

There is also the fact we might have a few new faces tomorrow - maybe too many - and Thelin won't want to throw them all in at once.

But it's the first time in a long time that we've got some excitement around new signings, may even have boosted the ticket sales slightly. Keen to see Karlsson, a bit more of Lazetic, maybe even Gyamfi if fit enough, and even Armstrong in an Aberdeen shirt is intriguing. 

But just win Aberdeen, because I'm sick of the negativity, pundits tipping us for the bottom six and people questioning Thelin's shelf life. Can't be arsed with another week of it.

As someone else said further up the thread I think - the season starts now.

I’m very excited for tomorrow, as if it’s the first game of the season. I’d really like to see gyamfi karlsson and lazetic start tomorrow. Thelin said everyone is fit but not all are fully match fit, Armstrong wasn’t with a club so I’d say we may not see him tomorrow. Nisbet hasn’t played a lot either so off the bench makes sense. As you say, too many changes isn’t ideal either. Was said earlier in the week, milanovic may be on the bench since he’s travelled, so maybe topi in the right.

with karlsson on the left and having familiarity playing with sivert, wonder if we see the experience of sivert and shinnie in the middle with karlsson adil and topi behind lazetic. We’re young too so experienced leaders in the middle may be wise to start.

i think we see goals tomorrow.

[tlg1903]

I'm confident for tomorrow but I think it will still be a really tough game.  Livi are a good side, Martindale is a good manager, a win will very much have to be earned.   

This is potentially the most fascinating team sheet we have anticipated from Thelin yet. No-one is injured, we have at least 2 players for every position (mostly signed by Thelin)  and this is probably the biggest selection headache he's had since he was appointed.   The obvious likely picks are Mitov, Jensen (though I would go with Devlin myself), Knoester, Karlsson (surely he starts, even if he's not fully fit he will likely be the best player on the park by a distance), Keskinen and probably Aouchiche.  My instinct says it's a game or two too early for Gyamfi to start but he's been in training for a few weeks now so it's far from impossible.  If it's not him it might be Molloy for a bit more physical presence.  Could see Dorrington getting the start at CB given his euro omission.   Midfield? Who knows!  2bh I don't think Thelin really knows who his best pairing is there which is probably my biggest black mark against him 2bh. I reckon he might go for Nisbet to start as in his RTV interview he made a point of saying this time he's arrived in good shape this time.  He's had a full pre season and I imagine that's pretty thorough with Alex Neil, he also knows how we are trying to play better than the other two options. Just in the door or not he's head and shoulders the best option for me.    Agree with OD that it will likely be Keskinen on the right for the reasons he states.  Armstrong is an interesting one for me, he's a very different option to Aouchiche and I wouldn't be that surprised to see him off the bench despite lack of a pre season as he looks like he's kept himself in shape.

Hard fought 3-1 win with the 3rd goal coming late.  Nisbet, Karlsson and Aouchiche.