rocket_scientist

3 fantastic goals

They said on North Tonight that the goal drought has been the longest since 1973, almost half a century ago. Trends and records are there to be broken so surely, against a team who have shipped 4 goals three times in recent games, this is the time to score goals. It would be uselessness beyond belief if it finishes Aberdeen nil tonight.

In my case, the coal fire will eliminate the possibility of cold but the brutal football won't drive me to drink. After 26 dry days, the last 11 days are all red unit alcohol counts so nae touching a bevvy this week. It's a tragedy that we're all expecting another shitfest, particularly as the reasons for the inevitable are well known, already identified and firmly established. Wouldn't surprise me if Hamilton won. They could easily have equalised on Saturday and made a game of it.

The fact that Kennedy and Cosgrove cheated to get fouls today, plus the manager blaming ref's decisions, are symptoms of a desperate cause. AFC are fucking embarrassing and a very shit team.

Very surprising result but a tremendous one. That's four points teen aff the huns in the last two games. That helps to keep them trophyless, not having won a damn thing in their short-arsed poisonous history

If I had to pick a dream team for Scottish history, would go Dalglish and Charlie Nic. They two together would've produced major magic. Would love to pick Joe Jordan, who, assuming he would've found the same telepathic wavelength as Keegan and if he'd played 100+ games with him, may well have been better than Toshack and been recognised as the best front duo of all time. At the best team of all time however, they have a best trio! Firmino is the MVP in that frontline, with probably Jordan Henderson overall as the MVP for the record breakers.

Keegan and Toshack, Rush and Dalglish, both were beautifully natural fits.

Cole and Yorke

Do any of you remember the thrashing of Hibs the month before Kenny signed for Norwich? It was a December Saturday and GMS got a hat trick. However, the first goal was the best because it started with the best pass I've seen at Pittodrie this century (2007 and 2019 excluded). McLean launched this long ball cross field towards the left edge of the box where GMS raced in (and had to cover a lot of ground), met it on the volley, cut it back and Shinnie battered it home. It's rare that we see a height of vision so good that we couldn't have anticipated the possibility, even after it's been executed but I was completely blind to that move. It was sheer genius.

On McLean, or Mc Clean as the illiterate inarticulate disgrace of a human Merse would say, I was surprised that Norwich wanted him but I was then shocked how good he played in his last five months with AFC. There was a good footballer in there all along. We saw glimpses of it in his first few games but due to shocking management, he was allowed to underperform consistently for well over a year. Wilson should've been binned at the first opportunity. I'll always remember his goal v. Hamilton in a midweek game we won 3-0. It was a thing of beauty at the Merkland end and the first and only time I'd been in that end in the last 5/10 years. But he wasn't ever going to be capable of producing over 90 minutes. His head wasn't in it for reasons unknown. It may have been the millions Man U paid him. It may have been the cruciate injury. Whatever the fuck, he was obviously spent. He didn't have any hunger nor desire and talent isn't enough to succeed in this game.

Interesting. I think the bigger issue is social media, how it's used and how it's perceived. These comments are going to offend people so I should apologise in advance but as I'm really not sorry at all, I won't. I'm never sorry when stupid cunts get offended. I'm not even sorry if I offend non-stupid cunts. The act of being offended, of taking offence is a decision taken by the offendee, not an act inflicted by the offendor. There are exceptions to most rules of course and I see that Katie Hopkins has had her Twitter account pulled. I could never work that dumb bitch out, mostly because she wasn't dumb - I'm speaking of her in the past tense here, maybe I'm guilty of framing it through social media lenses too? - and has a robustly-functioning intellect, unfortunately coloured by much prejudice and coming out in that guffy nasally "we know best" tone really was offensive to anyone not similarly discoloured. Here's the thing; people are becoming increasingly stupid. One of the biggest contributors to their imbecilic advancement is education, or the lack of it. Kids don't read these days. They don't have the attention spans. Sure they can read texts and tweets and look at pictures but investing ten hours to read a book and then engage in an exercise to interpret what they've just read and discuss it in the classroom, forget about it. Without reading, proper reading, there is a limitation of vocabulary available to them. Without words, we fail to express and limiting our words limits our ability to express ourselves. Thinking, proper thinking, is only achievable when we have the capacity to see and the capacity to understand. This includes not understanding but having the critical thinking abilities to begin to tackle the subject that we don't understand which of course requires the desire and the motivation to want to learn and understand something that we don't at first, which needs words to ask the right questions, mainly of ourselves. The most vile manifestation of the expanding thick cunt brigade are those who regurgitate something as truth without knowing it to be so, them not having the discipline to invest time to establish it for themselves. Tragically, they don't even consider whether it's true or not as they take as gospel anything they read, facilitated by an absence of integrity which, like education, is something in terminal decline. Teenagers have an excuse for being stupid. We as a society are engineering them that way but for a grown man to regurgitate something he read on a football forum as truth and repeating it often, that man should be exterminated from society and executed as an enemy of progress, plus any offspring he may have fathered. Edit: that's wrong. An even worse manifestation is using social media to deliberately peddle a mistruth. That's active deception rather than the repeating that the exceptionally stupid do. The latter should still be shot. The former get a fair and proper trial and due process.

I put £2.50 on 6-0 @ 40/1 which may become a possibility following Lewis Ferguson's red card in the 9th minute.

The fact we beat them 3 times in Glasgow last season was a karmic consequence of Gerrard's disrespectful comments after his first ever SPFL game in charge at Pittodrie. That has now been spent and this season is more about ability and true worth. 8/11 for the home win at HT and FT is massive value. Can't see them not winning and evens for winning to nil is tempting too.

Met a new client for the first time yesterday. As he is wos I said to him "forgot to ask, Rangers or Celtic?" He said "I'm a BIG Rangers fan. You?" I said "I used to support a team but after six decades, gave up on them. Haven't been back since December 2018 and won't go back until they get rid of the manager. Put it this way, you're going to thrash them on Saturday!" He agreed that they dodged a bullet, thanks to our cunt of an ex-chairman throwing the chequebook at the midget bearded fuck. He was also proof that there are exceptions to every rule, a rare hun of great intelligence and one of the few that support that team who I really liked as a person. Being less than half my age, I hope that he will come to love them less in the coming years. There's nothing more undignified than men my age caring too much about their own team that they would be willing to fight over it in various pubs up and down the country. Been there, done that. Then I grew up. Misdirected passion is ugly.

Catch me if you can. The 2002 version with Leo di Caprio and Hanks T. Had never heard of it but the youngest was home for a night and we watched it. Thoroughly enjoyably excellent.

Respect. Some men aren't man enough to admit their mistakes. As Marcellus said "that's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride". The wise man understands that we all make mistakes and that mistakes are good. It's how we learn. The shrimp of a man can't admit his mistakes because he erroneously thinks that making an error is a sign of incompetence and that admitting it is a sign of weakness. He is prepared to deny truth in order to perpetuate his sickness.

It is now incumbent on the accused to explain his sources. Surprised he hadn't responded already given that he saw this last night?

Cosgrove worth more than Shankland? * shaks heid in bewilderment *

You raise another important aspect in the whole equation, tactics and strategy. For me (and following my need to simplify the complex) football is threefold; Physical, Technical and Mental, with tactics coming under the Technical umbrella (alongwith basic individual skills of course, the ability to trap, pass and kick a ba). In context, the conditioning of the players is nowhere near the top of the list of areas for focus and improvement. They look fit enough for the job overall without being physically impressive. There's an argument that they would run and move the ball faster if they knew exactly what they're supposed to be doing and were confident both in their own capabilities (mental) and the overall game plan (technical) but that's an aside. The biggest influencer in overall performance is the manager. This has always been the case and always will be. Before they can work on their physical, technical and mental skills, they have to be capable of performing at the level required which in the case of a club the size of AFC is to win stuff so recruitment (part of the remit of the technical abilities of the manager) is very important too. Every decade of my lifetime, Aberdeen won stuff, including the spectacular 80's which was a freak period of overachievement that nobody could have anticipated. Much as it was welcome and hugely enjoyable, we knew it could never last, even at the time. When Hewitt scored v. Real Madrid, I turned to my mate in the Ullevi and said "THIS is the pinnacle". That period was made possible by the hunger and the genius of the manager, probably the best manager of all time in the whole of football history, even though he had his faults too, as always, yin and yang. This century, AFC have had their leanest trophy return in all of our lifetimes. McInnes should never be mentioned in the same breath as good and great managers of course, let alone the best. His performance record doesn't stand up. We see it in his players month in, year out. It takes just a basic level of critical thinking to pinpoint his specific weaknesses and it is for his boss to decide whether he can change and whether to pursue with him or not. I say that seven years of concrete evidence is screaming at us that he's not fit for purpose. At least he now knows that he's on his way out but it should never have taken this long to get rid of the charlatan midget cunt, just like Calderwood was given far too long and should never have been recruited.

Some very interesting and knowledgeable posts on this thread. This caught my eye: - That's the theory but there will be variances due to who's doing the picking. I have no access to their medical/ fitness/ strength and conditioning/ nutritional files. All I have is experience, which includes watching professional football over a period of seven decades now, as well as 57.5 years of life plus working very closely with professional athletes, some of whom earning more in a year than every AFC footballer earns in a playing career. One of my best mates is a kinesiologist and I am well aware of the importance of physical conditioning without having detailed knowledge of what current trends are in football and at AFC. I'm also aware than some practitioners are better than others, in every field. Some lawyers are worth fifty times more than the average hack, some doctors are incompetent whilst others have an amazing instinct for healing, in every field there are massive differences between the best and the worst. Whatever they're doing at the state of the art training facility on the road to Westhill, and whatever they've been doing for seven years, the only question at the end of the day is is it working? Before that question can be answered, we need to know the objective and the game. We also need to appreciate that one man is in charge of everything pertaining to the "football side of the business". Football is not an endurance sport. It's not as dependent on physical bulking as the East German shot putters. It's not as reliant on muscle mass composition and breathing efficiency as the cyclists. Physique and physical conditioning is very important in football, of course it is but it's only one part of the equation. Technical and mental factors are also equally important to overall performance, both individually and (as it is a team game) collectively. Yesterday the difference between the two SPFL games shown on Sky was stark. St Mirren and Aberdeen was littered with errors including unforced errors, losing possession carelessly and passes going astray in every minute of the game. At Tynecastle, not only were there far fewer unforced errors, the pace of the game was way faster and sharper. The Hearts and Rangers players were hungrier and played with an intensity and desire which was in stark contrast to the previous shambles, despite Gerrard "not recognising" his team. Hearts are bottom of the league for fuck sake so why, under their new manager can they show enough to beat the league leaders (or at least they would've been if they'd won their game in hand) whereas AFC under their old manager couldn't show enough to threaten the goal of a very shit club who despite being managed well by all accounts have no chance of top six? They all go on about how Aberdeen are a "physical side" but I don't care how many fouls Cosgrove and Ferguson give away. I don't care if McKenna uses his size to bump into, hassle and frustrate the opposition. All I do know is that results are the most important measure of overall effectiveness and something hasn't been working for a very long time. McInnes DOES pick players who aren't good enough, whatever their personal files says. He recruited them! A system is only as good as the people who implement and manage it. Their condition looks far from "optimal" to me but even if it was on a par with Rangers and Hearts, they're not capable of performing like that, with sharp crisp passing, controlling it instantly and attacking with desire, pace and imagination. The technical skills are poor and their motivation levels are so bad. However physically fit they might be isn't producing a product worth watching and it's getting worse.

There were no mitigating factors in that game, nothing positive at all. Just pathetic. I'll be interested to hear from the usual suspects and how they try to spin this one? We won't hear a damn thing of course. Their modus operandi is to let the dust settle before they offer their generalistic plaudits and their support for the established order of things.

I don't think you can give him any sort of pass on his performance thus far. Passing out the pitch regularly and that losing possession on their 18 yard line 5 mins into the 2nd half was equally criminal. He'll probably score a cracker now.

The worst half of football I've watched on telly for a very long time. Unsurprisingly given that these are two dreadful teams, unable to execute the basics. Tragically, Cosgrove and McGinn are considered two of Aberdeen's best footballers. Both were utterly inept in that first half and neither looked like a footballer. The gormless vacancy of both their expressions is a symptom of the emptiness of their heads. Fucking shite beyond shite.

The last time I was at this "stadium" - a functional soulless box, almost identical to Hamilton's - we heard Clangers screaming from the other end of the pitch. He was bawling at McGinn who was having a mare. It was another abject performance from him but I was surprised that a teammate was calling him out. Then again, he may well have heard me five minutes earlier, my only outburst of the game, an unplanned and spontaneous one giving McGinn pelters after another inept losing of possession. I remember thinking why doesn't the manager drop McGinn as I assumed he had been rocketing his arse for a long line of thoroughly demotivated and pathetic performances, a really bad spell he was going through at the time. It's on Sky. That's going to reduce the crowd to barely 3,000 I would've thought.

There you go again. It's not even the right question. The ONLY question is if the manager is fit for purpose? He's not. He's the last of a very long list of managers recruited by Milne, all of whom have failed. It's quite a remarkable 100% record actually, appointing that many incompetent people in the most important job and at least some of them had been competent before working for Milne. It's not our job to recruit the manager. It's the chairman's.