Gothenburg Great Gordon Strachan has urged Aberdeen’s players to embrace the challenge of this season’s hectic fixture schedule.
The Dons will combine their domestic commitments with European group stage football for the first time since the 2007-08 campaign.
The Dons will discover their opponents for this month’s Europa League play-off on Monday.
Should they win, they will be playing in the Europa League groups stages alongside teams such as Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen and Roma.
If they lose they will be playing in the group stages of the Europa Conference League.
With eight European games between now and Christmas guaranteed, it is going to be a demanding season for Barry Robson’s side.
But Strachan, a member of the Dons’ victorious 1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup team, says the players at a club of Aberdeen’s stature should be able to cope with those additional games and trips across Europe.
He said: “That is when you need a decent squad.
“Everyone wants to get into Europe and then you get there and ask ‘Was it worth it?’
Good players play twice a week.”
Gordon Strachan
“There are so many English teams who have qualified and then really struggled.
“It isn’t easy (to balance both).
“The teams who aren’t in Europe have a week to prepare for games.
“If you are playing Motherwell and they are not in Europe, they might have a week to prepare to face you, whereas you might be travelling back and only have one day training before the game.
“Those teams also don’t have the injuries you may pick up so it is difficult.
“But as a player at Aberdeen you should be expecting to play twice a week.
“If you want to be a top player then you have to get your body and mind ready to play twice a week.
“Good players play twice a week.
“If you don’t want two games a week, join a rubbish team.”
Barry Robson will give his all
Strachan has high hopes for his former team, who begin the 2023-24 Scottish Premiership campaign with a trip to Livingston on Saturday.
The former Scotland boss managed Robson at Celtic and Middlesbrough and is unsurprised he has made a superb start to life in the Dons hotseat.
Robson took over a Dons team in dire straits in January, still reeling at being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by sixth tier Darvel either side of heavy losses to Hearts and Hibs, but managed to get the club back to winning ways and led them to third spot.
Strachan said: “I’m expecting a lot from Aberdeen.
“Whatever Barry does is 100% so I expect nothing less from him.
“They aren’t going to win the league – we know that.
“But there is a chance of them getting third.”
Strachan, a technical director at Dundee, believes there will be added interest when former Dons coaching team of Derek McInnes, Tony Docherty and Robson face each other this season.
Robson was a first team coach when McInnes, now Kilmarnock boss, was in charge at Pittodrie.
McInnes’ long-term assistant was appointed Dundee manager in the summer and Strachan believes this will provide added intrigue to the matches between the three teams this season.
He added: “It will be wonderful.
“It shows they must have been a good group working together.
“There will be an edge to those games but we like a bit of edge. That is what we want.”
