Aberdeen can take advantage of Rangers’ fragility when they travel to Ibrox on Saturday.
This is the right time to face a Rangers side who are nowhere near their best.
The only downside is that the Premier Sports Cup semi-final against Rangers at Hampden is not until January 16.
Rangers have strength in depth, but there seems to be something off just now within that club which needs to be exploited.
Aberdeen and manager Jim Goodwin are more than capable of capitalising on where Rangers find themselves at the moment.
Recent performances against Livingston (1-1) and Championship Dundee (1-0 win) show the Ibrox club are nowhere near their best.
I don’t think you can in any way take Rangers for granted as they will have the backing of the support at a full Ibrox.
Rangers have to be given respect as the side has good players and there is nothing worse than a wounded animal.
However, Aberdeen must be confident in their own form which gives them a great chance of taking something.
They have to go to Rangers with a positive attitude and I think Goodwin will have that.
I don’t see the Aberdeen manager going to Ibrox and changing it to be too defensive.
While you have to be wary of Rangers you also have to carry your own threat.
If Aberdeen go to Ibrox with a positive mood, they will know, if Rangers repeat their recent form, a victory can be secured.
Switching to a back three recently appears to be making Aberdeen more solid at the back after three successive wins.
That system suits the players in defence.
With Liam Scales on the left of the defensive three and Ross McCrorie on the right, they are both versatile players who are strong defensively.
Scales and McCrorie are also good on the ball.
Then in the middle of the back three is captain Anthony Stewart, who enjoys defending – that is definitely the strongest part of Stewart’s game.
The back three of Scales, Stewart and McCrorie is looking like a formidable unit.
It also helps the full-backs become wing-backs as well.
I believe the full-backs’ strengths are more going forward than defending.
All round, the new formation and move to a back three is paying dividends and has certainly made the Aberdeen team more difficult to break down.
The wing-backs are then able to get forward and are posing a threat from the wide positions without exposing the central defenders.
Aberdeen’s new formation has also seen Bojan Miovski partner Luis “Duk” Lopes in attack.
The emergence of Duk must be really pleasing manager Goodwin as the former Benfica striker looks a threat in every game.
Duk has real pace, directness and has scored in each of the last three matches.
North Macedonian international Miovski is the more natural goalscorer as he is cool and calm running off the shoulder of defenders.
However, Duk would frighten the life out of most defenders due to his directness and pace.
Defenders will be very, very wary of Duk.
There is a good balance between Miovski and Duk as they are not the same type of striker.
They complement one another, which is what you need in a two-man strike force – players that are not similar and can offer different attacking aspects to occupy and frighten defenders.
If I was playing against those two, I would know I was in a game of football and had to really concentrate to take care of them.
They offer different threats, don’t make the same runs and offer different options for their teammates.
When you are a manager looking to create a potent strike force that diversity is what is needed.
It is refreshing to see the commitment to two strikers as well.
Aberdeen are scoring goals and looking more defensively solid.
It is definitely a step forward and the new formation offers a lot in terms of attacking and defending.
At either end of the park, manager Goodwin must be pleased with what he is getting with the formation he has settled on.
I’m not suggesting it is going to be that formation all the time, but certainly it looks the way forward for Aberdeen.
VAR will not eradicate controversy
The introduction of VAR to the Scottish Premiership at the weekend ensured Aberdeen were not denied a perfectly good goal.
However, there will still be controversy despite the arrival of the technology.
Aberdeen’s first goal from Bojan Miovksi in the 2-1 win at Motherwell was clearly onside.
Yet the linesman flagged for offside.
Without VAR that excellent finish by Miovski would have been disallowed.
That would have been wrong, and VAR ensured the right outcome on that matter.
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However, there was also an issue in the last throes of the game against Motherwell.
Aberdeen captain Anthony Stewart appeared to tug the jersey of Ricki Lamie.
But referee Euan Anderson then blew his whistle to finish the match.
Just because the referee blew his whistle to end the match doesn’t mean the incident can’t be reviewed, but that incident wasn’t reviewed.
As far as the learning process is concerned that must be taken into consideration if there is an incident towards the end of a game.
For clarity, though, I’m not saying it was a penalty.
If you start penalising defenders for every tug of the jersey in the box there will be a tsunami of penalties – but it should still have been reviewed by VAR.
It was the first weekend of VAR in the Premiership and I feel it went reasonably well.
I applaud the move by the SFA and the SPFL to get it into Scottish football and it will help referees.
Although VAR will hopefully reduce mistakes, controversy will remain as a lot of the time it is about opinions.
We all have various opinions on different aspects of the game.
Many hurdles for new Dons stadium
I wish Aberdeen well in the bid to come up with a plan where they will finally put behind the club the constant question of where the new stadium will be.
Now priced at £80 million, a new home for the Dons has been proposed as a centre-piece for a revamp of Aberdeen’s beachfront.
However, there have been a number of different sites for a stadium spoken about over the years.
So much money has been spent on aspects such as employing architects and engineers to look at sites and report on them.
I just hope that Aberdeen get it right and get a new home for the club.
I am still not convinced it is going to happen because the cost of building stadia now is unbelievably expensive.
It is going to take a financial plan to get it in place which will be a difficult task for chairman Dave Cormack and the board of directors to pull off.
If we can see a new stadium that would be great.
And it would be fabulous if it was at the beach.
However, there is still a long way to go before we can hang our hat on getting a game of football close to Pittodrie in a new stadium.
There are still many, many hurdles to overcome before that is the case.
But I applaud the club for being proactive in trying to make it better for the fans and the long-term future of Aberdeen.
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