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Harsh on happe, we are so much better at defending crosses, throwins, free kicks and corners into the box etc compared to last year, and he’s a big part of that. I don’t expect a goal with every ball into our box, I did last year. Already been said, modern day Ash Taylor, no better no worse. Our defenders aren’t great but they aren’t the problem. Our midfield is awful for yet another season, which also means our forward(s) feeds of shit and gets so few chances. Nisbet was also lucky he got a few league cup goals as it gave him confidence, but he’s a limited forward, and certainly not a captain. Don’t see him scoring much, and confidence will drop, we don’t have the creativity to give him a handful of chances every game. I think Mouloua is a better player too, and think he should be given a run with nisbet in a 2. I think we have to go 3-5-2 as our wingers are poor, plus we are weak in center mid. Putting three in the middle of the park will help us. The negative is that we’ll see quite a lot of route one football to our forwards since our full backs/wing backs will not get in advanced positions for the entire game.

I don't know if we have it in us to win this game, but by fuck we need a performance. There is NO excuse for another insipid showing. We have a week to prepare, Lyons apart no real injuries, and we're going to a venue where Dundee United won 4-0 last week. I haven't quite joined the ever growing Robinson out bandwagon, but if we don't at least show some evidence our manager knows how to fix this, then I suspect the numbers will grow by Saturday evening, and it could get very toxic.

Andy Halliday summed it up on Sportsound when he said Aberdeen tend to just throw the ball into an area and hope something happens. We are 10 games in now - plus friendlies - and we don't have a settled formation or game plan yet. We lined up with a 4-1-3-2. I said yesterday I wanted us to line up that way so I can't criticise it. It looked like it was Aremu sitting deep to help the defence, meaning the full backs could go forward. Armstrong dictating play and making passes - and I did pore over the opta stats earlier and the majority of forward passes came from Armstrong to Smith, and most passes into the final third were from Armstrong. He did his job relatively well in that regard. The problem was, Smith was our only dangerous player. Yogane a passenger, Ntelo and Nisbet weren't playing as a partnership at all. The movement all over the park was static, it looked like a new formation to them and they didn't know where to be. So Robinson throws his hands in the air and goes 5-3-2, which he played in midweek so presumably thought the players would have better knowledge of. Two new strikers for more energy. Mouloua is an improvement, Olusanya isn't. Armstrong now goes from creator to runner when he's probably close to empty. Smith runs his race, Marshall to be fair does well when he replaces him, but he's inexperienced and not at a level yet where you expect him to come on and change the game. Back to Halliday's comments. There was no real game plan. It was trying to get the wing backs as high as possible to throw the ball into the box. They had a few half chances and may have got away with it, but the Kilmarnock goalkeeper barely made a save. Tired? The front four all played only 45 minutes in midweek. Smith and Aremu 45 minutes. Yogane didn't play at all on Wednesday. Can it improve? Well Ronan could be fit and your three is him, Armstrong and Smith and you ditch Yogane. Maybe you work on positioning with the front two. Maybe Knoester can play in a four and we can all stop pretending that Happe is a good player. However, my guess is we'll change formation again next week. 4-2-3-1 or 5-3-2. And then we'll change it again at half-time.

Okay, I'll bite. He deals with player contracts. He's got Dylan Lobban, Alfie Stewart, Alfie Bavidge and Findlay Marshall to all sign new deals. His job this summer has also been to sell the players that Robinson doesn't want, and by all accounts has done it well and made the club very decent money (I read somewhere we're roughly £2m in profit from the transfer window). The players which are his signings - a lot of them were players we needed in January when there was a bit of firefighting going on. And Geiger could have been a very shrewd bit of business had we got him fit. This summer - the two German goalkeepers apart, are any of the other signings down to him? He's not head of recruitment, Darren Mowbray is. He's also not the manager so doesn't have final say. Playing style: I don't know the every day business at Cormack Park and how much input he has into that (and neither, I suspect, do you). Is Robinson seeking his council? I'm also not sure he would have really pushed for Robinson's appointment in the first place. So there's the difficulty in trying to do your best for a manager you didn't really want. I'd say there are many others at the club who deserve criticism ahead of Lutz.

That sounds like something a St Mirren fan would say. The St Mirrenism of Aberdeen is almost complete.

San Lorenzo v Talleres on Premier Sport 2 just now. 0-0 but still entertaining game.

By a point with them having had similar fixtures and having given both sides a much harder game than we did.

I’m usually a glass half full guy but fuck, I can’t see past doom and gloom. We have very little creativity and very little width. I can totally see us becoming a 3-5-2 team again like we did a season or two ago when we’d no right or left mid. As limited as Cadden and Guinness walker may be, they will push up. Three in the middle, afeez Armstrong/lyons and Ronan/smith with two up top. Willing to admit smith showed more at 10 in the second half, and had a bit more freedom to roam. I dont care he’s scored 9 goals, but not a fan of nisbet and wouldn’t have him as captain. I’d much rather see Mouloua lead the line, just seems a livelier player, strong and technical, maybe him and nisbet can become a partnership. I just don’t think against league opponents we have the quality to provide enough service consistently for nisbet to consistently thrive. Last 3 league games is a truer representation of nisbet and the team. Happy to see smith more central as I said, plus Marshall was decent. Armstrong was better than expected but 2 full games in 4 days is too much for him. Still hope we get docherty as he’ll do a job for us. Won’t solve the creativity problem, that would require 2-3 more signings at least. Don’t think Robinson can fix this. Goodwin is maybe a good comparison, he’s a limited manager. Don’t see us playing any sort of attacking style, he’s improved our defending but, like the Dundee league game in particular, the effort just isn’t there. Bullshit to say we’re tired, 5 subs makes me feel that shouldn’t be an issue. I just don’t see us having much creativity or quality, and we’re not a top 6 team.

Maybe a good thing.

If I thought a miracle worker could do anything with this pile of sh---, I'd have him in tomorrow. Sadly we are going to be stuck with Robinson. His after match comments are deplorable and insulting. Not just today.

I just honestly don't know where we go from here now. I said as bad as we were I thought we'd win. How wrong was I. Truly truly awful. As someone said Robinson already looks a beaten man. After today I now fear the worst next Saturday. I've already said I don't see us getting anything at Fir Park nor Easter Road. Nothing I've seen today changes my opinion.

Reminder for any central belt fans there are no trains from Central to Kilmarnock next Saturday.

Curious as to which of the 13 players Darren Mowbray had a hand in as to the untrained eye it would appear very few, if any, of them could've been recommended by him going by his previous targets for us. The club was very self-congratulatory back in March when he was appointed and by all accounts was advising us on an on/off basis for a while preceding his appointment so I'm left scratching my head as which of the 13 could possibly have been identified by him. If indeed he is in any way responsible for any of these charlatans donning the famous red then serious questions need asked of him also along with the usual suspects (Burrows & Lutz). We genuinely have the worst squad we've had for many years, with respect of sell on value anyway, and this was a major point in the recruitment of Mowbray. We'd be lucky to recoup a packet of Postman Pats on any of this mob even with Lutz using his book of dodgy pictures which he's obviously been using to get people to buy our players.

I think he has been fantastic garnering some cash for a heap of dross

Just a really embarrassing performance. We should have scored in the first minute (just like last Sunday) when we opened up Killie but Armstrong, instead of shooting tries to play another pass to Nisbet. Should have scored in the first minute of the 2nd half when Guiness-Walker played an excellent ball across the box and no-one gambled. Apart from that we didn't look like scoring (Yogane's effort wasn't a shot at goal it was a typical, wayward cross which happened to hit the post - why is he still getting so many minutes? be as well as giving Fosayna a run-out. Yogane never, ever tries to take his man on on the outside because he's not that quick). We have Muller to thank for keeping us in the game with an excellent stop when their forward had an easy header to score. Why are we so poor at playing 5-yard passes to our teammates? And why do we have so many players who can't last 90 minutes? Smith, I thought was good today as was Guiness-Walker but they're both fucked after 60minutes. And why was Armstrong taking all the deadball kicks (just as Ronan does when he's playing). The last corner we got was crying out for a left footed player (Marshall?) who could have delivered a different cross, instead Armstrong took it and was lucky to hit the first defender. OK rant over but still fucking embarrassed!

2 years in a row we've signed a heap of players who've all turned out to be utter rubbish. That is defying the law of averages.

Had we signed any decent players in this window it wouldn't have needed to be...

If he has a decent game, I’d imagine the diets will snap him up. Unlike us, they’re nae feart of taking a punt on a lower league player - with decent results. Of course we’re the club where careers & promising players come to die, so he’d be mental coming here…

What a way to waste a couple of hours of a rare trip north. Not sure when I'll next bother coming back up! At least I got a good few beers in with old faces (quite literally old faces these days!)

Here's his first half heat map, for reference. I think the touches of the ball on the right was him having to go and collect some of the wayward balls to him.

Gonna be a busy one isn’t it. Again…

Just getting the Pom Poms out for Mikey Anderson again. Top of their league, set up the winner away to Livi and just all round better than the garbage we’ve got. They’re playing the Diet Huns in the cup next. Possibly setting myself up here if they get pumped but keep an eye on him

Got someone to sign Ambrose (who was not his signing). Got someone to take Yengi on loan again (ditto not his signing). Lazetic gone, for money I assume (signing him not his fault either) Er, that’s about it I think. Trouble is, his replacements look just as bad so far mind…

Club are now looking at a site on the outskirts of Stirling. This is to help cut down on the exhaustive travel.

With our away form? Not a chance.