rocket_scientist

That's a different way of looking at it, you calling it an "experiment" v. Patrick and v. ICT. The only thing he did different in those two games was to play Shinnie at LB. I don't see that as the experiment. I see every other game that he pushed Shinnie into midfield as the experiment and it backfired spectacularly on Sunday. You make a great point and you're the first to post it. If many of us were going WTF at the line-up before kick off seeing Ash Taylor in there - which I assumed as 5 at the back with perhaps O'Connor just in front of the back 4, typically cowardly tactics from a manager who hasn't the balls to have a go - then inevitably some (all?) of the players must be wondering what the fuck was going on. What I never imagined was that Ash being recalled meant Shinnie being pushed into midfield, again. This is NOT a sleight at Taylor. He did ok but he's not part of our best CB pairing and him being reintroduced meant Considine was shoved out to a position which he is ok at (but not nearly as good as Shinnie at) and not nearly as strong as he could be if given an extended run at CB next to O'Connor. This begs another question. WTF has happened to Reynolds? His debut season he was player of the year, unanimously I would have thought. He looked class in his first year. What has he been doing in training? What is the manager telling him? What is the culture like at the club where good players can turn mediocre before turning shite? Add a long list to that, not just Mark Reynolds. Edit: Remember 1 point from 6 or 7 games just over a year ago, when we were top of the league? Following a pathetic display at Easter Road? There was some shite being spoken about Taylor's wife and McInnes which I can hardly believe but there was definitely something wrong in the dressing room. A good team - or at least a team getting the most out of themselves and performing good - doesn't suddenly turn shite. The players weren't turning up and playing for the gaffer. Did this happen on Sunday? You may well have nailed it. Derek's nonsensical mistakes aren't just costing us dearly and embarrassingly, it's costing him player respect and ultimately any longevity he may hope for in his pay packet from AFC (because let's face it, being in a job is the height of his aspirations). He may well have lost the dressing room. I don't know how anyone can have respect for him. He clearly doesn't have a clue how to put out the best players in their best positions with the best attitudes with hunger and desire.

I also can't think of an alternative manager. I'm just saying that this one isn't very good but the gene pool is utter shite. I also can't think of any reason why he would change. He's just a very stupid cunt who makes ridiculous management errors and who obviously can't motivate them for the biggest games. The fans know better than the manager who our best 11 are. That's a tragedy.

He's not paid to come up with solutions. McInnes is. Surely after that pathetic display he's entitled to vent off? It's acceptance of shite performances over the years that has given Milne the cement he needed. I don't know who we could get as a decent manager. That's the board's job. All I know is that he is right. McInnes has reached his limit. It's all downhill from here. 2nd and a league cup is all he could ever do. Even the final we did win was a shite performance against a shite opposition.

Go down in the history of AFC finals as the biggest capitulation ever is what I meant. I don't think anyone would consider the 9-0 (not in a final) as not a worse capitulation would they? Unless you're just spoiling for a fight? As your first couple of words might suggest? McGinn isn't considered good enough by his own manager to start the final. THAT'S how bad he's gone backwards. You forgetting his 9 goals in 10 games or whatever it was, including the one for NI v. Portugal? Can you not remember how good he was that many years ago and how he never produces the same consistency these days. Shinnie isn't being played in his best position. That is wholly down to McInnes. Considine is never a LB. He might be 6 out of 10 at best in that position. He is 6 / 10 at worst in CB and would be 8 or 9/10 if he got an extended run at it. You think McInnes is a good manager comparing him to previous fucking incompetents appointing by Milne, which is what I assume the link you put up was that I didn't click on? That's the wrong way to look at it.

I can't argue with much of that. The only thing I would say is that he DID start off good at AFC. He's got a cracking shot on him and he played well v. Patrick and Inverness, the last two games before the debacle, the game that will go down in history as the biggest capitulation ever. And if McLean was to get binned, who the hell else has McInnes recruited to put in his place? Our midfield is SHITE and but for a young loanee - who's debut at Dens was superb and who single-handedly got us the 3 points v. the scum - it would have been even more embarrassingly bad. Like McGinn who has regressed under McInnes, like Jack who is going nowhere under McInnes, like Shinnie who is missing out on a Scotland call-up because of McInnes, like Considine who is being ruined by McInnes, Kenny McLean's career is being completely fucked by an inept manager who hasn't got the basic skills for the job.

He was half right in that Shinnie should always be played at Left Back, something so obvious to almost all of us for a very long time but something McInnes can't get his head round. He obviously hates McLean and he's obviously not the only one. The question is why? Given how he started his career at AFC and his contributions in our last two league games - where he undoubtedly played well and scored a couple of goals - then I don't see that insulting rhetoric like that is appropriate, even though he had been going through a very lean spell on the pitch which seemed to last for ages. If I remember right, was McLean not spotted belting out Rangers songs in an Aberdeen hostelry * ? The stupidity of doing that alone deserves contempt but whilst he's still getting a pick for us, he should be supported by the fans. The real question is - is he being managed properly? He should have been fined heavily and read the riot act (from his fellow Hun AFC manager *) for the social misdemeanour (if true). His performances, like McGinn's over many years, aren't consistent enough so I understand the vilification he gets. He's just not been good enough for AFC if we had any ambition to compete in this league but the reality is, our manager's not good enough and has reached his ceiling. * The sickness of the west of Scotland extends way beyond Glesga. These cunts have been indoctrinated.

I don't think it's controversial to disagree. You make a good point. Neither Jack nor McLean are hard enough and any skills that they do have aren't being allowed to come out because they are easily bullied. I fully understand the criticism of the vast majority of our players today though. They were appalling. But as many are saying, including you, the buck stops with the manager. He is having an adverse effect on Ryan Jack, no question. He's also making an utter cunt of Shinnie and also of Considine, two players I particularly feel sorry for. McLean is a conundrum. His first few months were tremendous. Then he went off the boil for an unfeasibly long period and yet performed well in his last three games, before being pretty anonymous today. It's a fucking shambles and as soon as we saw Ash Taylor in the starting line up, that was terrible. It's not even fair to Taylor as he wasn't as culpable as O'Connor today for example but he's NOT BEEN PLAYING. Changing a settled and natural back four which had obviously been working very well indeed was unforgivable, a symptom of a manager who hasn't got a fucking clue what he's doing and never displays the confidence in his own team to have a go. A coward in other words, a mister-play-it-safe-to avoid-personal-criticism and getting it tragically wrong the vast majority of times, especially in the bigger games.

McInnes should have put the same effort into doing his fucking job as he did in selecting that ridiculous adornment on his lapel, some exotic flower that looked shite.

It's not just about money. As a 5 to 1 chance, we had to give ourselves our best shot at it. Re-introducing Taylor made no sense. It unsettled the natural back four. Shinnie should ALWAYS be played at LB. Considine proved in recent games that he deserves his place in CB next to O'Connor. So having played Shinnie at LB the last twice, why stick him in midfield? It's been a shambles. Both the first two goals came from the side of the pitch Shinnie would have been marshalling had he been picked in his right position. There's no excuse for the gutlessness of this performance though. What the fuck has the manager been telling Jack, McLean and Hayes? Not that it's fair to highlight just three who shat it as they all did. And that's McInnes' job, to inspire and motivate them. He can't even select the best eleven.

This is what happens when the manager picks the wrong team. Even O'Connor making schoolboy errors now. Thanks Derek. You shat it. You failed big time today. Just pathetic from a supposed professional manager.

When he puts McGinn on, Taylor off and Shinnie to LB, it will be at least an hour too late.

Obviously it's not. Playing Shinnie in midfield, anywhere other than his best position killed us. Fucking pathetic management. Ash Taylor? Just why?

5 at the back? Statement of intent. Fuck me.

Out. Pub watching the build up and start. Drinking water. Hopefully last the whole game in the pub if my prediction is wrong. 4-0 them.

Here's the most unpopular AFC opinion today. Celtic will lift the cup. We are 5/1 at the bookies. That's about right. But upsets happen and here's hoping today is one of them. It will be the first trophy lifted I've missed for over 40 years. If it happens. But there's a spinelessness infecting too many of our players. I also don't believe McInnes is strong enough but I hope my opinion is very wrong. It's not like Celtic are class. Just way better than us.

Toy Mountains at Cafe Drummond next month. And Fatherson too, as this is the band TM are supporting.

Stumbled into Mamma Pizza in Belmont Street last night. Never seen it before but the enthusiasm of the Italian owner convinced us. Great decision. All ingredients (including flour) imported from Italy and very reasonably priced. Totally authentic taste and very good food. I defy anyone to go further up the road to the chain after discovering this.

I was at that game and we got pummelled the whole 90 mins. What a bounce it was. That was the first time I heard "we forgot that you were here" as 1,000 of us sang to a half empty stadium. We were robbed in the first game. It was a Sunday ridiculously early ko - something like 6.30 or 7.45 a.m. - and the official attendance was 10 thousand and something. That was the first time I noticed AFC swicking the gate. Fair enough, me thought as ra sellic get a share. There was at least 25% more in Pittodrie, maybe 30%.

I would walk from Seaton to Seaton Carew to grace Grace. Now THAT would be an interesting fuck, unlike Madonna.

No chance. A rare no from me. The only way you would know if it was in the Sun today... Don't admit this without a disclaimer.

I shat myself when Dobbin stood up to take a pen. But I was even more concerned earlier when Charlie Nicholas was getting ready to take his. That day, I took a photo of the ball going past the left goalpost from Rogan with Theo fully stretched and horizontal. It was the iconic image of the final, taken by an amateur photographer with a new toy (Olympus) in the perfect position high up in the terraces to capture the ball coming towards us, just the right side of the post (for us).

Not only do I not understand wot u wroted, the court of law will hear evidence that you liked Dobbin and that you rate Tommy Wright. Edit: Just noticed you edited my words. Ignore my ignorance. The court will also hear that you thought Dodds was a "missing link".

I guess the AFC opinion I have which is the most polarising concerns Duncan Shearer. He was obviously much better than Dodds but he never did it for me. A hard worker with a great hit on him, he got a level of adulation he didn't deserve.

I never rated Dodds nor Irvine too. Interesting concept, the "unpopular opinion", the implication being that people are stupid. The majority of my opinions - on everything - are "unpopular" in that the majority don't agree with me. Not only am I cool with that, it validates and encourages. Roger Anthony's 95% principle is class.

Two weeks is a long time in football. You were totally correct. It's now the team I would start with, one I always suspected McInnes will go with. On McGinn, I hope him being benched on Saturday was part of the management strategy. Specifically, he needs his head filled with how valuable he is, how he's the best footballer at the club, how he needs to be given extra rest to ensure he's ready and fit to take control of the cup final. He should be told that he needs to lead by example and him busting his balls from the off will inspire the rest of his team-mates to victory. A bit of extra psychology for his head in particular might be to enforce that this is the most important game in the club's history, Rogers and Celtic having won the league already. Then watch him like fuck. I wouldn't rule out subbing him off within half an hour if he doesn't show the right levels of commitment and/or starts passing to the opposition or otherwise making very careless mistakes that he, and indeed the vast majority of our team have been capable of already this season.