McInnes has Europe on his mind

The Dons lost 3-0 to the Taysiders at Pittodrie on the opening day of last season, three days after going down 3-2 at home to Real Sociedad in their Europa League qualifier to exit the tournament at the hands of the Spanish side 5-2 on aggregate.

Aberdeen have just returned from a gruelling trip to Kazakhstan where a 2-1 defeat to Kairat Almaty in the first leg of their Europa League third qualifying round game on Thursday night leaves them with a chance to recover the scoreline at home next week.

However, the Dons boss is mindful that United again provide the opposition for the league curtain raiser and will select his team accordingly for what is usually a tough fixture.

McInnes said: "The players put so much into the (Real Sociedad) game and the downside was I don't think we had a lot more in the tank come the United game.

"United deserved to win the game, they had more energy. On that day I possibly picked the wrong team.

"We might make a few more changes from the team that started on Thursday (in Kazakhstan). But the aim will still be to win the game."

Aberdeen were trailing 2-0 in Kazakhstan until midfielder Kenny McLean reduced the deficit with his second goal for the club since joining from St Mirren in February

His first strike was in the 3-0 away win over Rijeka in the previous round which helped the Pittodrie club to a 5-2 aggregate victory, and he hopes Thursday's goal proves to be equally important next week as Aberdeen bid to reach the play-off round.

McLean, a second-half substitute for David Goodwillie, told RedTV: "It was good timing again because 2-0 would have been a mountain to climb.

"But hopefully that goal could prove vital at Pittodrie."