OrlandoDon

I don’t see two up top as the way forward, or three at the back. We just don’t have a strong enough midfield to play two up top. I think relying on two very lightweight center mids is a tough ask. i agree though, I don’t think we are far from a bad team. think we weren’t far away with a back 4 and ramadani and mccrorie in midfield. I hear very different opinions of mccrorie but early season he proved to be a very effective midfielder. miovski up top with Duk as the john Hewitt off the bench. where we have failed is wide and attacking mid. hayes continues to be our best winger and I see vinnie, kennedy, Watkins, and Morris as squad fillers, Morris in particular a panic buy. Still feel Ronan at 10 and another legit winger are needed. Maybe Roberts is the answer, but presently I’d rather see Duncan play over kennedy or Morris. I think Stewart is a tough one. I don’t see us enough to really judge but he seems a really good leader and a solid player, just not for us if we expect to be a top 3 team. Is he really much of an upgrade on ash Taylor??

Few observations. We’ve conceded 20 goals in the first 12 games of the league season. Awful. This has to be our worst defensive record in a long time. Last year was our worst season in a while and we conceded 46 in 38 games. We’re certainly on schedule to beat that! You can’t be a good team if you are shit defensively. And we are shit defensively. I commented last week 3-5-2 is not the answer, and Barron and clarkson in center mid is not the answer. We are starting to see more of a long ball team appearing again too and that means we’re less appealing to watch too, a priority of goodwin, and don’t keep the ball. Watched the first half, we couldn’t string passes together so lose possession and or belt it long. We are/were a decent passing team but the 3-5-2 and two up top seems to have brought about more long ball which doesn’t help us. Didn’t want goodwin as you all heard but I’m still giving him time given the squad overhaul. However, step one of with any good coach is to fix a team from losing goals, or at least become tougher to score on. We are worse. winter window is always a tough window so I expect little transfer help there. So we need quality coaching to improve us. We’re 12 games in plus the cup and I totally believe moving to the 3-5-2 has made us worse. Interesting times ahead. The league is weak, rangers and Celtic aside the league is not strong at all. A half decent coach with our money and squad should surely get us third. Even with our awful defense and inconsistent performance we’re 4th, go back to 4-2-3-1 and work on defending and 3rd is ours.

Bunch of line up changes for the Huns tonight. Injuries or resting players for us??

Saw the first hour and didn’t see us winning the game. Not a great performance but certainly a good result. Totally feel the 4-2-3-1 is the way to go, just don’t see our midfield strong enough, didn’t think much of Barron and clarkson in together there. While two up top is working ok I just don’t think midfield and defense is as solid. Mccrorie and ramadani ahead of them is our best bet, helps defense and midfield, plus I still feel an attacking creative 10 is still missing. A game like today needed that. I rate miovski highly, the service isn’t great, and I think we’re going more long ball again with two up top. Also funny to see the evolution of Duk, an overweight eyebrow raiser a couple of months ago! third and we cannot figure out our best lineup or formation, hope we see continuity soon.

First game I’ve seen in a while, not impressed so far. Besides a lovely finish from bojan, it’s been more Motherwell than us and they should have equalized. Don’t see Barron and clarkson as a good partnership, too similar, and they’ve been dominated in there. Barron understandably doesn’t look sharp. Think we miss the energy and drive of mccrorie in there. Hoping for an imprepoved second half, we are making them look decent, much like we did to Dundee utd.

Perhaps unfair but I don't see us enough these days, has anyone seen Shaydon Morris do.......anything positive......in any game??

Coulson is a good player, get him on a permanent ASAP. Wish I could say the same on the other side, do not rate Kennedy at all and no real surprise nothing is coming from that side from him. As much as Richardson has his critics, feel he offers so much more than Kennedy. Play him he only gets better.

Yup Seebass, good post. I have definitely lost interest in some aspects of football. I also have to acknowledge marriage and kids and having other priorities I didn't have before I turned 40! Still have the same interest in Aberdeen and still watch as much as I can, but it saddens me that we cannot be a team dominated by Scottish players. Would love say at least 5-6 players in the team Scottish. Would really like to see us go all out to pick up young Scottish players and really try to get that core. Would rather see the back of Rangers and Celtic and have a competitive league again, and genuine intrigue in the cups. Same interest in Scotland, always want the national team to do well. Had a little less interest when it seemed we were a team getting more dominated by 'fake' Scottish players who relied on a granny and I don't think played for the jersey. But I'm Scottish and always a fan. I enjoy the premiership but that is, sadly, because I enjoy fantasy football. I don't watch games for the hell of it anymore. I have minimal interest in European football, hate tournaments where teams can lose and get in the back door of another tournament. I want straight knockout tournaments where if you lose you are done. Or group stages and advance but no options for the third and fourth placed teams to get shifted to another tournament. To be honest, I miss the European Cup, Cup Winners Cup, and UEFA cup.

Any update on coulson and hayes? Haven’t seen much out there about either of them.??

Or a Levein 4-6-0…

Anyone keeping track of the lad? With hickey doing well and Doig called up, was wondering how Calvin is doing these days.

I could be wrong but I read somewhere it was partly a policing issue (a lack of) due to the queen being transported south. I could be wrong though.

Would really like to see 4-0 us. Would really end the week on a proper high. If there is a god, make it happen.

That's how you interpret what you see but you may not be correct. When the pass is played it's Taylor's job to cover the other defender who is about to pressure the ball. Is he chasing the ball or is he about to cover the left back/left central defender? The defensive play is to get the rangers player to pass again rather than take on the defender 1v1. You want an attacker to go sideways/away from goal and not directly forward, giving more time for further defenders to get back which you see. Defensively you slow the attack by showing the attacker a 1v2 in a sense forcing an other pass and not direct forward penetration to goal. Where Taylor get's caught is in his body shape and being too square instead of deeper. He doesn't have the mobility or positioning to recover from the second pass. At the same time, saying all of this, is it not just good attacking play that leads to a goal?? I'm also going by the pics and not video, not wasting any more of my time with Killie Rangers!

Slower than Considine means he's standing still......

I’m not getting into political debates, waste of time. But I think govt is very relevant. Biden and Trump are two perfect examples of very different policies relating to energy. Both affect their countries in very different ways. While you have little faith in any government, I think leadership and philosophy makes a difference.

I’m ignorant here as I don’t have the time to pay attention to what’s going on at home these days, what shit is made up?? The whole world is totally fucked at the moment in so many ways. Over here King Biden is doing a great job and in California they stated this week that gas cars will not be allowed to be sold from 2035, yet the following day beg for people to turn off electrical appliances, don’t charge electric cars etc because they cannot handle the current power demands. Madness.

Correct, time as in patience, not game time, that's earned. Also agree that we have a large enough squad that despite not having a 10, we can juggle. Watkins or Duk can also play wide if Vinny is 10. No point in signing a mediocre player if we can maybe get Ronan in Jan.

I'd agree with that but I'll repeat myself for the umpteenth window. It's another window we've failed to sign a legit #10 and missing that player has hurt us over the last few years. Since Christie left that has been needed. Seems like it was Ronan or McGrath and nobody else considered perhaps?? Vinny can play there but that then means Kennedy or Morris starting wide and neither are convincing, although Morris deserves some time.

I like Ramirez. He was good for at least half of last season but with shit service. I'd expect him to score a fair few this year if played as our main #9. Something must have happened as I don't think he's much different to Miovski. Certainly appears like Goodwin more or less wants to erase the Glass era and start fresh.

Kennedy and Morris off at HT, no surprise there, Hayes and Duk on to win it for us....

I'd say that's a good comparison, Morris-McLennan, surely Morris has more but watched the entire first half and yet to see him take on a player. Vinny has been buzzing around but don't see him with that creative final ball. This is the game a legit #10 makes a difference, tight field, bit of magic centrally. I do see Hayes making a difference, maybe this is the game for the more physical Duk. We have to play much faster, run them off the park. Too slow which suits them perfectly. Half time where Goodwin makes his money hopefully.

Brutal first half. Virtually no chances for us and Annan hit the post. While nobody has been any good, Morris and Kennedy need to do so much more. They get the start, make it count. Pretty happy we're at 0-0 given the level of shittiness, surely a better second half.

Curious to see what Morris can do with a start. Would rather have seen Duncan than Kennedy, but to be fair Kennedy wasn't too bad earlier in the season, even though he is ultimately pish....

I understand that. I’m also on the thinking that we’re still a new team finding our feet, and prior to the last two games we weren’t even sure if we were any good. Still aren’t sure really. Why not hammer them to further build confidence? With not having Europe at the moment we’re not getting slammed with two games a week as in previous years so the players aren’t being over used. As I said, minimal change, get a few up to kill them off, then sub early.