Lewis Smith

I just don't see it happening.

Why would he if he's just had three... decent results and we'll come and talk about the results in a minute or two so let's just say that that is going to be what happens no minutes off the bench for Yogan for Lewis Smith or for admittedly Hashim Mahou who only got onto the bench for the Game of Heavens but no minutes off the bench for any of those players across any of the three games that have gone this week and

going to be interesting to see how much game time any wingers are going to get

after the international break now because at the moment it's like we don't need them and it feels very much like Barry Robson all over again.

But yeah, I mean, it's going to be interesting.

I can't see a scenario where we do change shape coming back.

If you're the likes of Lewis Smith now, you're probably sitting there wondering, why did I bother making this move? Other than the fact that I've presumably ended up with a better salary than I was on at Livingston.

and he's not playing in the championship that as well maybe there'll be an opportunity for Smith feels like the one who might get a chance if you play more central but as for Ugandan I'm not really sure I see where Mahou's going to feature I think it's going to be a long old season for both of them now

After extra time, Aberdeen winning by three goals to one on penalty kicks, or kicks from the penalty mark, if we are that way inclined, Saturday the 12th of September, 2026.

In the Premier Sports Cup quarterfinal at Rugby Park, two changes to the starting 11 as Mats Knuster and Connor Ronan came back into the side with Tony Ogan and Lewis Smith dropping to the bench.

That meant, Graeme, of course, we lined up in the infamous 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 with Nesta Guinness-Walker and Chris Cadna's wing-backs and Telo and Nisbet up front.

Let's be honest, are we even that surprised it's just taken us this early into the season for Robinson to decide it's a back three?

second half.

My main positive was Smith came on at half-time and took players on, beat players.

He was the only one on the pitch who was doing that, at least the second half.

He also made changes at half-time as well, again, as per

definitely yeah you always think it's the you've got to play first 11 before you can start judging but well we'll play two of them they're absolutely right after Wednesday night that became Saturday

became a must win yeah so yeah Saturday became a must win so we'll move on to To that, which the Dons welcomed Kilmarnock to photography, the Dons went back to a more familiar 4-3-3.

Ape, Jogan and Nutello came back into the team and Smith also got his first league start of the season.

Thoughts on that? Me personally, I was delighted Smith got a chance.

I was quite excited to see if that Nisbet Maloua partnership might have flourished against a back line that has conceded left, right and centre so far this season.

But the other thing that really frustrated me in the first half was how often when we received the ball in the middle of the park, Yogan and Lewis Smith were inside.

We had no width there.

It's that 4-2-4.

And, you know, players showed glimpses.

He rewarded them with a start.

I feel he's kind of singling out Lewis Smith right now, which for me is a bit unfair.

But see, when we play shite, Do not come away with pish.

We changed that after about 20-odd minutes.

Lewis Smith, who started the game today, despite the fact he's...

Not fit enough, apparently.

That was some of the commentary during the week.

I don't think he pulled up any trees but I certainly don't think he looked any worse than anybody around him and therefore this idea about young players have to be significantly better than the other options I think goes out the window because what I saw today is he's already on a par with most of the people that are there anyway and I thought what he did was neat and tidy and everything else I'm seeing is just people being about as facetious as we normally would be in the sense of most people saying that the best thing about today was that they weren't there or the pie of the month was good um the guy who stands behind me wasn't there um I got this week mixed up and thought this was the cup game at 5 30 so I missed the whole thing um

I think people have highlighted Manus Muller made some saves I mean there were a couple of moments where Kilmarnock went down to 10 and they still had some chances and I was just like waiting for the inevitable final kick in the balls of a late Kilmarnock goal and Muller did at least he did the important work from his point of view I guess even though his distribution was a little bit ropey

I thought bits of Lewis Smith's performance were okay, but it wasn't anything I'm going to really hang on to at the moment.

I mean, Armstrong tried.

Arimu gets in a mess about what the halfway line on the touchline was.

clips the ball off his own player while attempting to pass the ball back to Muller I think it is off goes Duran, Yang gets played to slot that win and it's 3-0 just before the break and that's it done and dusted there's that quadruple change at the break which saw Smith, Ronan, Osanya and Intelo on for Nisbet, Malou, Arim and Brido have I ever seen a quadruple substitution at half time before as an Aberdeen fan? I was struggling to rack my brains last night to think if that had ever happened

certainly not out with pre-season

yeah exactly I couldn't think of a time where it happened very little happened second half I mean Celtic played that basically held them at bay yeah Celtic played that pretty much at testimonial slash friendly pace Jack Milne came up for Gavin Malloy in 82 minutes full time 3-0 um The things I just want to touch about a little bit were, and I'm sorry, Stephen Robinson, we are going to talk about this, whether or not we are pundits or not.

There's always lots of players who leave and there's lots of players who come in.

One thing we paid credit to the board for was we acted rather quickly and got a lot of these players in well ahead of the season schedule.

a lot of them have been here for quite some time getting a full pre-season in again there was a lot of chat about the team was not fit under Jimmy Killeen and I do not disagree with that and that's one thing we're going to absolutely work on So when I then hear the manager talk about how Lewis Smith, who's been here since before the Pro Rangers game, isn't fit enough to complete 90 minutes, well, why is that? Was he carrying a knock in the summer? I don't think he was.

What's going on there? Why, after a two-week break, do we need to rotate and rest players at this early stage of the season? If Lewis Smith's not capable of finishing 90 minutes, how is Mats Knuster, who's been back in training for, what, a matter of weeks, capable of doing a 90 minutes against Celtic at their ground? There's so many things that just the numbers do not add up.

I think Tagler would stay with him.

Why not? I would once again bring in Lewis Smith for Tony Hogan.

Why not? If Hogan's a 45 minute player, let him play the same 45.

Against slightly tired legs? Yeah.