DC92

Some of his long balls out the park in the first half were horrendous, but I can't remember him doing anything wrong defensively in any of his games so far aside from the goal the other night. He's also won 17 of 19 headers in the two league games which is exactly what we were missing last season.

Looks a good signing. Handful of appearances for the first team and just been given a new contract. I'd have said we're done now, but Denholm starting last night and then being replaced by Cochrane suggests to me that Naismith wants another midfielder and I'd agree we could do with one. Early days, but Nieuwenhof seems to be getting the Kuol treatment.

I'm always saying this.

Honestly thought the team selection and subs were fucking shocking. Devlin brilliant, Shankland and Boyce a great front two. Brilliant result. Need a far better approach v PAOK to even make a game of it though.

A 19 year old who couldn't get a start at East Fife in ahead of a £200k player who has yet to play in his proper position, meanwhile a left-back starts on the wing. What is Frances McAvoy cooking?

Based on the last couple of games, Rosenborg will sit deep and look to hit on the break through Nypan and Nelson, while we'll pass the ball slowly and unthreateningly between defence and midfield. You'd hope the atmosphere will naturally raise the tempo and I'm not sure Rosenborg are as defensively solid as Killie, although they are definitely more threatening on the counter and we'll be chasing the game from the start. Rowles has been fine defensively but he's been one of the main culprits for slow buildup. I'd be tempted to put Kingsley in his position since he's better at bringing the ball out and should be better at executing quick switches out to Oda on the right. Midfield also needs a rethink. Haring would be the one guaranteed starter but it looks like he might be out with an ankle injury. If Grant is available I'd be tempted to play him and Devlin and hope they can recreate their Zurich performance last season (without the cheating obvs). Nieuwenhof would be an obvious choice but the fact he didn't feature on Sunday suggests he won't play. Hopefully Boyce is ready to start. He's looked good in his cameos and their defence didn't enjoy playing against him and Shankland last week. Tagawa to come on later on when the game is stretched. Overall, definitely a winnable tie but we've made it a lot harder for ourselves after the first half last week. Time for Naismith to show some tactical acumen please.

They're very well equipped for playing the OF, Hearts/Hibs/Aberdeen away, etc. I'd just question whether they have the creativity to say they're a stick-on for taking 3 points consistently against the bottom 6. Not to say they aren't, but it's early days yet. For us, much more worrying. Most teams we play will sit back, let us have the ball and play on the counter. Even Rosenborg at home did this. We don't look like we have the answer to that so far.

This is the archetypal "could play all day without scoring" performance. Absolutely shite. Kilmarnock are a b*****d of a team to play against and will definitely pick up a few points against the supposed "bigger" clubs this season, but our buildup play is just so slow and lacking ideas. On the evidence we've seen so far, we'll really struggle against anyone setting up to play deep and hit on the break. Only positive is Boyce once again looking sharp after coming on.

Also McKay, who is still easily a first pick for me as things stand, even if that isn't the majority opinion. I don't think there's any great mystery about the "playing shite for the first hour" thing. Shankland isn't a lone striker, Nieuwenhof isn't a 10, Forrest isn't the required quality. Options maybe dictated that we played that way, but hopefully that won't be the case again this season and we should be able to field a strong and balanced front 4 from the start (McKay, Oda, Shankland, Tagawa) with varied options off the bench (Lowry, Boyce, Vargas). One slight concern at the moment for me is midfield. If we can't move the ball quickly and incisively enough then we're not going to make the use of those attacking options. Hopefully Beni can get back to his best and Nieuwenhof is able to smash the "decent option" ceiling the other Aussies have run into and become a key player.

Mitov (St Johnstone) Strain (St Mirren) Goldson (Rangers) Shaughnessy (Dundee) Souaré (Motherwell) Levitt (Hibs) Shinnie (Aberdeen) Dhanda (Ross County) Armstrong (Killie) Kyogo (Celtic) Nouble (Livi) Very much a case of having one player and one club to choose from for one of these

I'm not sure that's the case. I think we have to string it out until Naismith can enroll on the pro-licence course (January?).

He is a tackler and a runner typically. I think he had the most tackles in the league the season before last, or close to it. Him and Baningime consistently turning possession over by winning the ball back was a big factor in us easily finishing third that season. With the ball, he's erratic. In the Zurich home game last year he was brilliant at making space for himself, keeping it simple and and keeping us on the front foot until the red card, but we haven't seen that enough from him, particularly recently.

Yeah, you can only make two changes in the week before the game and that'll have been Tagawa and Lowry.

I see McAvoy says he'll be available. Although he's still not listed in our squad on the UEFA website, so I'm not convinced.

I don't think Vargas was registered for this round (Tagawa and Lowry were the wildcards). He might not have his visa by then anyway. But you're right, we've got a stronger team to choose from next week. Just wish we hadn't shot ourselves in the foot tonight when we could've just started Haring. In contrast to Beni, Boyce looks sharp and played well when he came on.

Disastrous mistake in the team selection, poor performance, players missing, shite ref and gave up a two-goal headstart, so I'll take that in the end. This really was an opportunity missed though. They're not that good and definitely worse than Zurich, but they've got a couple of decent players going forward and this result gives them the chance to sit in and hit on the break knowing that one goal gives us a mountain to climb again. Hopefully we never see Shankland up front on his own again. I get that options were limited for this game but we really look uniformly hopeless when we try this. We were far better when we brought a strike partner on, as was the case at the weekend.

Starting Beni in this game was a disaster of a decision. Clearly isn't up to speed yet, arguably at fault for both goals and now he's pulled a hamstring trying to stop the second. Rosenborg's gameplan seems to be to sit in, let us pass the ball around and hit us on the break and it's working a treat. They haven't had to work hard enough to score. We've been far too slow and cautious moving forward and they're not leaving any space in behind. The only positive is they look pretty average and if we can get it back to a goal we've got a chance at home. As things stand I'd be more worried about losing 3 or 4. Piss poor.

No Nieuwenhof, Tagawa, Vargas or McKay for tomorrow. Obviously no Gordon and Halkett either, and Boyce and Baningime still getting up to speed and probably won't start. I've seen a couple of journos tipping Cochrane to play at left-midfield ahead of Kingsley. I'm not sure if that's based on some ITK knowledge or if it's just speculation, but I hope that doesn't happen. Playing full-backs at wide midfield hardly ever seems to work. It's understandable if we want to prioritise being solid given we're away and have a few players missing, but it feels like their defence is there to be got at and we'd be playing into their hands a bit if we give them the initiative to attack our own questionable defence. With that in mind, I'd be tempted to try Oda up front with Shankland to give us some pace up there. Unfortunately that probably means putting Forrest in Oda's usual wide right position, but options are limited.

Seems we'll be without Tagawa due to visa issues. A shame given you'd expect his pace to be particularly useful in the away leg.

Looking forward to the "Icelandic big guy who is vaccinated against scoring goals" chucking Rowles aside like an empty tracksuit before tucking away his hat-trick.

One problem they've had is having to spend time and money bringing in players who were already there on loan last season, whereas we could've done nothing this summer and arguably got stronger just by virtue of the injury returnees. It would be very funny if they pay that for Scales, but I expect he'll end up back there on loan.

Aberdeen's remaining business is the main unknown at the moment. They've done well to sell a couple of fairly replaceable players for big fees on top of the European money, so I expect they've still got a lot of cash to spend while we're basically done. Still, at this point I'd rather have the squad mostly in place rather than a big wad of cash with a few gaps to fill. Just shuddered thinking back to Neilson's "you can see we need a few in" comment the night before deadline day last year.

Not implying any inside knowledge. Just that he's back from a long time out with a knee injury and missed a couple of months with another knee injury prior to that. Hopefully he's completely clear of it now.

5 wins and a draw in their last 6 now. Although they have benefited from a red card in 4 of those 5 wins, so maybe they've just been lucky rather than turning a corner. I'm cautiously optimistic, but I've seen Scottish sides going out to beatable opposition so often in recent years, including ourselves.

Rosenborg was an objectively good draw and their league form is poor (despite picking up recently). One thing I've noticed though, despite not scoring loads of goals, is that they typically have a lot of shots - 18 shots to 3 so far today against Haugesund with the score currently 1-1. I think Zurich were similar last year. Bet your house on them suddenly find their shooting boots against us. As long as we can keep it within a goal on Thursday and Jorge Grant doesn't play the second leg, we've got a decent chance.