...and Dons boss Goodwin believes Duk has swagger to rock Rangers in Hampden semi

ABERDEEN manager Jim Goodwin believes in-form attacker Luis ‘Duk’ Lopes has the swagger and selfregard to give the Rangers rearguard nightmares at Hampden — and has admitted he would have hated to come up against him during his days as a player.

With the goals having dried up for centre-forward Bojan Miovski, Duk stepped up to the plate on Saturday with two well-taken efforts to defeat St Johnstone and end a five-game winless streak for the Dons.

The 22-year-old Pittodrie cult hero is now desperate to be given the nod to go toe-to-toe with Rangers in the Viaplay Cup semi-final at the national stadium on Sunday and Goodwin certainly gives the impression the Cape Verde international would not be overawed by the challenge.

‘He doesn’t lack self-belief, that’s for sure,’ said Goodwin. ‘He is a very dangerous player. I wouldn’t have liked to be a defender against him because you don’t know what he’s going to do.

‘He has great technical ability, pace, power and is very composed in front of goal. He has been a great signing for us, as have many others.

‘He hadn’t played a lot of senior football before he joined us and he’s caught us all by surprise in terms of how quickly he’s developed and transitioned into a Scottish Premiership player.

‘He must be a nightmare to defend (against). For a small fellow, he’s strong, very powerful and good technically at linking the game up.’

Whilst thrilled by the way Lisbonborn Duk has adapted to life at firstteam level after joining from Benfica’s ‘B’ squad in the summer, Goodwin is also pleased by the fact his defence has managed to string together two clean sheets against Ross County and St Johnstone in the build-up to Hampden.

Prior to those two matches, the Dons had shipped 32 goals in 19 league fixtures, with Goodwin admitting he had used the World Cup break to put together a plan aimed at stemming the tide.

Defeats by the odd goal to both sides of the Old Firm and a dreadful display in losing at Kilmarnock followed, but Goodwin has seen things begin to crystallise since.

‘It is something we tried to work on in the World Cup break,’ he said. ‘We were three minutes away from getting a clean sheet against the best team in the league in Celtic.

‘We also did really well against Rangers, but, unfortunately, with lapses of concentration and a bit of fatigue, we conceded two late goals. Apart from the Kilmarnock game, the structure and shape has been good. The discipline and concentration has been very good.

‘We’ve had a lot of criticism — and rightly so — for the number of goals we’ve conceded. But the back four and the goalkeeper will get muchneeded confidence off the back of two very good clean sheets.’

Goodwin has had to contend with a degree of unrest from the Aberdeen faithful in recent times and concedes he is aware of the hopes and dreams that will travel both with the squad and the large support expected at Hampden.

‘Sunday is massive,’ he said. ‘Every game is huge but it is the semi-final of a cup competition and we know what is expected. We will go there to try and give ourselves the chance of getting to a final.’

Former captain Graeme Shinnie, signed on loan from Wigan Athletic, returned to Pittodrie and made his 500th senior appearance against St Johnstone — enjoying a standing ovation as he left the field to be replaced by Connor Barron — but Goodwin insists the on-field challenges ahead mean there is no time to think about the longer-term future of the 31-year-old yet.

‘We’re just thinking of our shortterm objectives at the moment,’ he said. ‘We’ve spoken to Graeme about the need for performances to help maintain our league position and to try to catch Hearts, who are sitting in third place.

‘He’s coming in at an important time for us with the Viaplay Cup semi-final on Sunday. As soon as I knew he was available, we made our intentions clear. He is hugely admired by our supporters, so it was a no-brainer for us in terms of bringing him to the club.

‘He is the type of character that we need. He and (Ylber) Ramadani are similar in their attitude and professionalism. Two very good leaders and we saw that they stifled many of the St Johnstone attacks and kept things nice and simple for us.’

Goodwin reports himself content with his dealings in the winter market so far, but admits there may still be space for another defender in his squad.

‘Our head of recruitment and our scouts are working tirelessly but the January window isn’t one when I like to do too much in terms of volume,’ he said. ‘I wanted to sign two or three bits of quality and we’ve done that with Shinnie and Patrik Myslovic from MSK Zilina. ‘We could potentially do with another defender, just in case anything was to happen to Anthony Stewart and Liam Scales, but there’s no point in bringing one in just for the sake of it. Whoever we’d bring in has to be good enough to handle the expectation we have.’

In form: Duk has found shooting boots