glasgow sheep

I think that is relative (top of the league and cruising through to the last 16 in europe

dinnae read too many of mizer's posts about JC then

yet again the Sunday Herald shows it is the only decent paper in the country and has Sports reporters that actually know what they are writing about: Whole Article, to save folk clicking the link: The Mad House ABERDEEN: With big games ahead the state of the defence is significant, says Michael Grant Comment | Read Comments (1) THERE ARE spies working for Celtic and Bayern Munich who must feel like lying down in a darkened room to let their headaches clear. Their managers, Gordon Strachan and Ottmar Hitzfeld, will have charged them with compiling dossiers on what to expect from Aberdeen's players and system. That is a cruel assignment to give any man. There is not a spy in the land who could go back to his boss and confidently predict who will be in their back four, nor even if it will be a back four at all. How could they, when even Aberdeen's manager has still to decide what works best? About the only thing that can be said with certainty about Aberdeen's defending is that there aren't many at Pittodrie who expect it to deny Celtic this afternoon nor Bayern Munich in the last 32 of the Uefa Cup on Thursday. Chopping, changing, switching, dropping and recalling from one week to the next: exasperated supporters accuse manager Jimmy Calderwood of picking his defence by taking their squad numbers out of a tombola. Aberdeen have had their fair share of injuries and defenders have not been immune, but they have not suffered casualties on a scale which can explain the endless tinkering with their back four. Calderwood has yet to let his strongest defence develop. advertisementAt any level of football the finest and most successful defences are built on stability and consistency, with players knowing their positions and building an understanding of the strengths, weaknesses and preferences of the team-mate by their side. When Bayern Munich were last at Pittodrie in 1983 Aberdeen had exactly that: back then Stewart Kennedy, Alex McLeish, Willie Miller and Doug Rougvie were the north-east's Mount Rushmore. Now their defence is there for the taking. They have conceded at least one goal in 25 of their 36 matches so far this season. Individual errors have been countless and it is no coincidence that those come within a context of overall uncertainty. The latest capitulation came when they lost 4-1 in the CIS Cup semi-final against Dundee United five nights ago, the ninth time this season they had conceded three or more goals in a match. They have not played the same back four for more than two consecutive games. No-one can be sure they will still be in the defence the following week, or who will be beside them. The most incredible statistic relates to how many different central defensive partnerships have been tried: 16. Diamond-Considine, Diamond-Severin, Diamond-Mair, Diamond-Hart, Diamond-McNamara, Diamond-Touzani, Diamond-Byrne, Considine-McNamara, Considine-Severin, Considine-Mair, McNamara-Foster, Severin-Bryne, Touzani-Byrne, Mair-Byrne and - when Calderwood has experimented with a back three - Diamond-Severin-Byrne or Mair-Severin-Byrne. At Parkhead in November they played a back three in the first half and a four in the second. And they lost 3-0. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras are expected to be the partnership trusted to extend a run of more than six years since Celtic failed to score against Aberdeen, while the absence of the injured Franck Ribery is a setback Bayern Munich can tolerate given that their arsenal includes Luca Toni, Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski. The magnitude of the Bayern tie may inspire Aberdeen to the sort of exceptional and surprising performance they delivered in their last Uefa Cup match, the 4-0 rout of FC Copenhagen in December, but the fragility of their defence has given them no foundation to challenge in the SPL. The team has missed the organisational ability of captain Russell Anderson since he left for Sunderland in the close season, a point Calderwood finally admitted in the aftermath of the semi-final defeat. When Michael Hart was sold to Preston last month it meant 50 per cent of the defence which took Aberdeen to third last season was gone. Two new defenders came in January: the Dutch centre half David Bus and former Hearts right-back Alan Maybury, who may make his first start today. More changes. Aberdeen went 1-0 up in midweek before United carved them open. "No disrespect to Dundee United, who fully deserved their win," said Calderwood. "But we've done it against bigger teams. Dnipro were better than United Aberdeen kept a Pittodrie clean sheet against them and so were Lokomotiv Moscow who drew 1-1 in the north-east. So we've done it before." Calderwood was unhappy that Richard Foster said United had bullied them. "If Richard has said that, and our players are thinking that, they should do something about it. It's a sad indictment of him if he said that. "In years gone by if we went ahead we would win the game, or certainly not lose it. We used to be dogged and for some reason we have lost that. We have been guilty of a comedy of errors at times this season, especially away from home. It's not so bad at Pittodrie." Ahead of Celtic and Bayern that might be a comment which is hard to defend before the week is out.

I read it all JC is a cunt ST is talking crap

I also have a ticket for the RDU that nobody seems to want

oh great another thread about this

I thought we started 442 but as we were getting fucked over due to some horrifically slack play tango decided to pack the midfield and went 451. As far as I could see this didn't change until shortly before Miller was sent off

ban the lot of us and put ICT into the final

well we should be punished but L&B Police were negligent in their response to the initial incident which I dare say had a negative impact on their subsequent response to our bams

couldn't have put it better myself fucking scum

Wonder if afc will make a complaint about this, because quite frankly the Police were a disgrace: from RedWeb: "The keeper was then pelted with missiles from the United end as the stewards appeared to be posted missing"

Disgusted in the arabs Disgusted with the police Disgusted with our fans Disgusted with the ref Fucking furious, depressed, disillusioned and dejected with our team Might have to change the old sig

semifinals are always shit (sic)

has been for ages....was a Sunday when we last won it, I'm sure

snap great chance to get to hampden tomorrow night....and by god we need to take it as we ain't getting to the Scottish Cup final

murrayfield looked like a tattie field yesterday.....mind you there were 15 neeps lying about the park too

fucking nightmare draw, not least because it is the "tie of the round" and thus will be moved to some horrifically anti social (anti booze) kick off time on a saturday or sunday morning. Atleast we should get some extra TV cash and a bigger crowd than yesterday.

so he'll be dropped for tuesday then?

we never had such small crowds when we were shit(er)

really ooops indeed bloody part timers

looks like a reasonable crowd in. any word on how we are doing?

game definitely on and no pitch inspection according to redweb. Looks ok too:

Quite fancied this one but the logistics of getting north this weekend just weren't going to fall into place. Should be a comfortable win and a much need confidence prior to Tue night

When most of these youngsters have been loaned out in recent times it has merely preceded them signing for that club at the end of the season. I'd be surprised if we see any of these loons back. particularly given JCs record in bringing youngsters through from the youth ranks at pittodrie

Motherwell pitch is a disgrace. How many times have games been cancelled for waterlogged pitches in the last few years?