OrlandoDon

Jet is a luxury item. He certainly draws attention and creates space for others. Did some nice stuff from what I saw but certainly can be frustrating too. As I said during the week, if we have workers alongside that compensate for him we’re fine, but he’s not the most active off the ball. If we’re in a relegation scrap I don’t think we can afford to play him. Today, like livi, he’s fine.

4-1. Didn’t see the second half but sounds like it could have been even more convincing? Given the season we cannot complain about anything. Good confidence building week.

2 up after 9 mins. Who is this team in red and what have they done with our beloved dons???

Jet is not a bad player. He’s skilled and creative. But he’s not the brightest and not hard working. With the right players around him he can produce. But if we expect the work rate of Marley Watkins and the brain of (insert smart player here) that’s not happening. If we’re a bottom 6 team fighting for survival he’s not in my 11. Luxury we can’t afford there. from what I saw tonight, we were solid and livi were gash. Once they went down to 10 there was only one winner. I also thought we were sloppy and a sharp/confident on form Aberdeen wins by 4 or 5 tonight. Good game for jet to look good.

Didn’t see much of the game but from what I saw it was very similar to a mcinnes old firm game. Painful to watch us be so dominated then struggle to keep the ball unless we went sideways and backwards. Hart had one good save, did we have a shot on goal in the second half, especially when we went behind? Yes it was 2-1 and Lewis didn’t have many saves to make, but not a fun watch by any means. Didn’t see us getting anything from the game at any point. I’ve yet to criticize glass but, jack gurr? Glass talked highly of him, said fans would like him, and that he wasn’t signing squad fillers. Guy is not close to what I expect Aberdeen standard. Did glass underestimate the level of this league??

Wales are still a solid team, not doubting that, plus we have to travel and it will be some atmosphere. Fair to say their best two players are still Ramsey and Bale who both have a fair chance of getting injured and missing the game???

Other than a home final I’d say that’s more or less the best we could have hoped for. If we win the semi, away to wales or Austria isn’t so scary. Saying this, i’m sure all 4 countries are happy with this grouping! and yes, italy or Portugal won’t make the World Cup.

I tend to agree, plus with a solid defense I feel you get the luck and the breaks. When you are piss at the back you get punished for all your mistakes. Right now our weaknesses are exposed and many claim we are ‘unlucky.’ Tighten up at the back and I bet our luck changes.

I’d say our biggest problem is the lack of flair and creativity in the side. We have enough possession in pretty much every game yet don’t nearly create enough. With the amount of the ball we have we don’t create chances. we pretty much have two creative players in hedges (who, as mentioned in other posts, has his downside) and Ramsey and that’s more or less it. I’d add jet but he’s a passenger in most games he plays and is certainly not the brightest or hard working. We need two wingers and a creative attacking mid. (Hayes, mcginn, and Christie from a few years back and we’d be blasting our way through the league!) I rate Ramirez and if he was playing with those three from a few years back he’d be banging them in every game! As has been mentioned by many over the weeks, we have such an imbalanced squad and are so predictable. Easy to stop us and, as you mention, we’ve had the defensive injuries and don’t have a secure and comfortable defensive unit.

Got a hunch it will be Ukraine. Although I certainly wouldn’t mind Austria again, or Poland.

Ok, calm down a little. They had little to play for, almost the opposite for us. We were excellent but let’s not say they were that good. Besides Erickson, who else of their best 11 were missing? I’m not down playing our achievement or performance, or form, but that 11 we faced were not the 3rd best team in Europe.

It will be hard but a home game at hampden helps. Go with the best 11 against Denmark which will mean a booking or two and players missing the semi, which makes it harder. We can only hope…….never expected to win in Serbia, and never really expected to win in Austria. Plus I suppose I never expected a 0-0 against England. We could get fucked and face a team away like Portugal or Italy, or be at home to Norway or Romania, even wales. We just never know.

I’m going for 3-0. Adams, nisbet, and mcginn. Moldova are the worst team and the group, and while it was 1-0 at hampden, it could have been 10. We’ve fucked up to minnows in the past, I just don’t see it this time.

I will not be happy with anything other than a win. Dropping points to a team like Motherwell certainly ruins the feeling of the last three games. 3-1 win, Ferguson Ramirez and hedges

I never really rated Jack, and see Ferguson similarly, although certainly different types of player. But at the same time, both are now internationalists and are rated highly by those in the game. Suppose I’ll say we have the amateur eye. Similarly, thought willo flood was a super player, many thought he was piss! Home to Motherwell a must win before the international break, then at United and at Celtic. If we’ve truly turned the corner I’d expect to beat United and get at least a point from a very average Celtic to finish the month.

I think Brown at the back is a big deal. Strong leader and organizer with the whole game ahead of him, plus allows for a more mobile central midfielder to take his place in there. Think he extends his playing career as a defender.

Exactly how I felt. Tried watching the game while looking after my 2 and 5 year old so really didn’t get to see the flow of the game. Delighted we won but I totally feel we are capable of more, say that every game now. Were pretty much full of premiership players, and some who are important to their teams. How often in the second half did we just gift the ball back, belting it long or dribble and lose it. We need to keep the ball, best form of defense. Plus I thought we could have scored a few, they looked like a team who gave up 5 last weekend. Don’t think we showed belief. I wanted Clarke as manager but I just don’t rate the tactics. Hate being that guy who complains after a win in Austria, but on his tactics I still feel we are the team who will fuck up in one or more of our next three games. listened to some of the David bates interview, said he joined the dons cos we play the right way. And I’d tend to agree, I think we are trying to play better football under glass. Would really like to see Clarke do the same, he has the players who do it at club level.

Although if we are looking for an Ally McLeod personality type, was going to suggest McCoist but since he's most likely taking over at Ibrox this summer, how about Mo Johnston? He's available, has coaching experience, knows Scottish football, and would certainly create some attention! Ok, maybe not....

There are very few managers out there who stand out or inspire any real confidence, and I think it's fair to admit McGhee wasn't an inspirational hire to the majority. It pains me to see club legends like Miller and McGhee tarnish their Pittodrie status, and I prefer we stay away from the ex player and ex manager types as I've never been a fan of players or managers returning to clubs, it rarely seems to work. The only three that I'd be romotely intrigued about would be Steve Clarke, John Collins, or Craig Brown. Clarke has had to work with egos and getting the most out of personalities, has experience, and surely would fancy a step up to lead a team; Collins bring a tougher, disciplined, fitness freak, European pedigree, and while that may be a hard line coach, maybe Collins is the man to clean house and start afresh. I've always liked Craig Brown as he seems an intelligent man who has the experience and knowledge of Scottih football, and has worked most recently with limited funds. Still, we'll no doubt hire John Hughes and be back here again in 12-18 months me thinks.....

Nobody really stands out as a manager so I wouldn't mind seeing Steve Clarke given a chance. Has done well as a coach so why not. Seems to have done well with player/coach relations and having been at high profile clubs should be used to dealing with player egos. Plus I'd like to think over the years that he has decent contacts for loans/transfers. No way to JC as that's going backwards not forwards. Too wary now of ex players getting the job as legends WM and MM have done it and it's painful to see them fall/fail, plus I just don't see Eric Black or Strachan ever want the job.

Don't know what to tell you but I'm the most optimistic person in the world and I don't share your mentality. Today was one of the worst days in our history. We have an incredibly imbalanced shite squad compared to that of 95, the fans have been through so much shit since 95 that crowds are worse than they've been in years. So many fans simply don't care anymore. Far too often I have said thank fuck I live 6000 miles away and can ignore what is happening. We are 2 points off bottom having been gubbed by the top of the league team today and beaten by the bottom of the league last week. Don't share too much semi final optimism given what we saw today. MM talked about getting beaten yesterday and sounded all too much like Ebbe. The club is rotten to the core, until we replace SM and clean house completely we'll just ramble on with limited success. What is success to us exactly anyway??? It was JCs time to go as he'd stabilized the club as a top 6 team and we did need new leadership to take us to the next level. As much as it pains me to say it, it's time to go MM, he failed and I have no clue what he is doing. He fucked up big time in the transfer windows and I really don't know how to defend the guy and what he's trying to achieve. How can he carry on? He should do the decent thing and leave. Walk away with some dignity, how can anyone justify him staying? He has taken us back to where we were before JC in just over 1 season!! The only bright side this season is Hartley, give him the interm position if he's interested and bring in an experienced assistant. Would love wee Gordon as boss but he'll never take the job so why not give it to someone who has shown some much needed leadership this season.

Well, saw both Jim and Theo in their prime. Both were fantastic and I do prefer Leighton as he was a Scot. However, I feel Theo steals it as the slightly better keeper. I felt he was more commanding, better with his feet, and had more of a presence in the box. While Jim was excellent, we had McLeish and Miller infront of him, probably had much less to do, and had players like McLeish, Rougvie, Neale Cooper etc to win the high balls as he wasn't the tallest.

Surprised no thread has been started yet - I say we need a right back, central defender, midfielder, and a winger/forward, assuming McGhee will go with a 4-3-3 Langfield Right Back - Zander - Central Defender - Mulgrew McDonald - Kerr - Midfielder Right winger/forward - Miller - Aluko The rest of the boys are decent squad players and if we could get 4 players in I think we'd have decent depth and I'd be pretty excited about the upcoming season. Any suggestions? Would Stephen Hughes be the missing midfielder?? I'd like to think that the wages freed up by Smith and Seve could get a couple of decent replacements. I still think we haven't fixed the centre of defence since Anderson left so it would be nice to find a decent centre half too.

Here me out with this one, but Brian Irvine was very similar in ability and effort to Darren Mackie. Mackie is a very average forward/squad player who plays some stinkers but has scored a few very important goals for us. Loves the club and will do anything for us. Brian was a very average central defender, although you could say we were spoiled with McLeish and Miller. I always saw him as too nice of a defender, was slow, tended to over commit and get beaten, but came up with a big goal here and there. However, he had some absolute stinkers and guifted a fair few goals. However, he is/was a tremendously nice guy, religious, and would do anything for AFC so very difficult to give him dogs abuse since he was very popular and did wear his heart on the jersey. As was mentioned, he was at the heart of the defence when we fought relegation - coincidence?

Interesting thoughts Ajja and I'll add my opinion. The reasonable expectation debate is the one that has killed me for years, especially since JC took over as I don't think it's unreasonable to expect third, achieving a cup final, and Europe. We always seem to shoot ourselves in the foot - last year versus Dundee Utd and QOS in the cups for example, and yesterday when we had a great opportunity with Hearts and Dundee Utd drawing and we play the bottom of the league team. We tend to let ourselves down far too regularly with a poor (attitude) performance and that is what irritates the fans most - we beat ourselves more than lose to quality opposition. The next level is consistency and this to me is the JC argument - I think we have JC's product, a middle of the league/slightly above average reasonably consistent team - currently 5th, last yr 4th, a 3rd, 6th, and 4th his first year. But by being consistent is he getting the best out of the players, team, squad? Personally I don't think so. I don't buy the 'we're not as shit as we used to be' argument so we should be happy, so are we achieving the most/best we can expect? I've never really been sold on JC but I think we're seeing his best efforts. But can we expect more, realistically should we do better, and can JC progress us even further? I'm not asking for JC to be sacked at present but at the end of the season I think the club/board need to clearly assess whether JC is giving them what AFC deserves having completed 5 seasons. While he has taken the club out of the shit times, are we 3rd, reaching Europe and a cup final most years? One 3rd place, one yr in Europe, and no cup finals so far - is that good enough for AFC? Do we keep JC because were not as shit as we used to be and were now pretty much a top 6 team, or do we look for someone to take us that step further? I think this to me will show the ambition of the board.