Panda

Check your phone, you've a few missed calls from Alan Burrows...

I've actually watched a lot of Hibs, Hearts and Dundee United this season and not been overly impressed by any of them which is what makes our predicament so frustrating. But what they're better than us at just now is doing the basics - defending and getting the ball to their strikers' feet inside the box. You also feel with how slow our defence is and how we are often exposed at wing back that Martin Boyle is going to have a lot of fun. If Glass is the man for the job, then let's see if he's learned from Dundee (long ball forward and Griffiths being able to skip in behind). One thing Hibs struggled with on Saturday v Dundee United was midfielders making runs from deep into their box. Pawlett & Niskannen were doing that with Harkes making passes. Clark hung around the edge of the box. They opened Hibs up that way. Declan Glass and Fuchs were extra players moving about to overload Hibs. I don't think they actually played with a traditional number 9, they haven't really done so since Shankland left. We have the personnel to do exactly the same. I would start McGinn considering the impact he has made from the bench this season, and he has that type of movement that will create space. I would even be tempted to say this is the game to drop Ramirez and play Jet as a false nine and let Hedges and Longstaff run ahead of him. McGeouch too is a good passer of the ball. Ramsay and Mackenzie can take turns getting forward to stretch Hibs. I presume McCrorie & Longstaff aren't long term injuries and will be fit. I'd play Brown as a hybrid defender & deep midfielder. Too often he's trying to be a box to box midfielder which he clearly isn't anymore. Stay deep and at times makes it a back three which allows the two defenders to pick up a man and not allow Boyle and Nisbet to get in behind them. Sorry, I sound way too tactical. Just fucking get wired intae them. 2-0 the Dons. Woods Ramsay Bates McCrorie Mackenzie Brown McGeouch Longstaff McGinn Jet Hedges

Welcome to the forum. How can he be spot on with managers needing to be given time, yet Glass needs to be punted? Last season Neilson was losing to Brora Rangers and Alloa.

Listened to it. I liked most of what he said, and he was right to point out that many wanted Neilson out, and had written off Tam Courts early in the season. But, he was out of order with his comment to Kenny MacIntyre though about wanting Aberdeen to fail or whatever the actual quip was. But, I wonder if that and a lot of his quite noticeable anger on the show was down to what he's been getting on Twitter and also what was written about him in the papers. Bill Leckie wrote a piece about him in the sun that was really going for him personally, and bizarrely comparing him to the Saudi Arabia owners at Newcastle. It also criticised him for promising a training ground and funds in the team, like that was a bad thing. Anyway Cormack has convinced me we're gonna pump Hibs and I've just bought a ticket for the away end at Ibrox too. A magic week coming up, intae them.

While I don't agree with everything Dave Cormack says or does, the boy has put money into the club, not only helping fund the training ground but also steering the club through a pretty rocky 12-18 months due to covid and then giving the manager funds to invest in the team afterwards. He's also tried stuff with the merkland which has proved popular. If we're calling for him to go after that then I don't see why anyone would ever want to take us on.

At the start of the season when we were playing well, Brown was getting most of the praise. I don't think he's playing great but he's very far from being the main problem in that team. Brown's position in the team should be between the two centre halves, stepping into midfield when needed. We need an extra body in defence. It was something Brown was effective at earlier on in the season but he appears to be trying to push further forward in games. Just sit back and do the simple stuff min. Problem is, if he does that we need the midfield ahead of him to take command. Ferguson and Ojo are both ineffectual. Jenks and Longstaff haven't done anything yet. JET is the best player out of the lot of them but just stands still. One player I like the look of is Dundee United's Ian Harkes. Get Ferguson sold in January and use the money to get him and Jamie McGrath.

Big difference between us and then tonight. Charlie Adam - he did everything-defended, made tackles, made passes, and took shots on only when they were actually on. Compare that to Lewis Ferguson. Collects a pass, ignores everyone, takes a shot from distance that generally goes wide - something he's doing every game. He's not playing for the team, he's playing for himself. Doesn't want to be here, wants the headlines. Even his dad didn't predict an Aberdeen win on the BBC predictor - if he doesn't believe his son's team are going to turn it around what does that say? As an aside, another game where we improved when Niall McGinn came on.

Thumped 5-0 and 4-0 by Rangers. 4-0 down to Celtic before half-time, and various other tankings. Taken apart 3-0 by Motherwell at Hampden. Taken apart 3-0 by Motherwell at Fir Park (twice). Taken apart 3-0 by Motherwell at Pittodrie. Embarrassed 4-1 by Ross County away. Embarrassed 4-0 by Ross County at home. Hosed 3-0 by Hamilton, who have beaten us a remarkable amount of times. Walloped 5-1 at home to St Johnstone. Fola Esch won their first ever European game against Aberdeen. Scored once in 10 games last season. Scored just 36 in 38 games. It's a poor run we're on but the hyperbole is laughable. I presume you mean Calderwood. Not sure I would class that as recent, but binning him and McInnes were not the wrong decisions.

I can't even edit it! Is there not a sub-editor around here?

Don't really remember any saves from Woods. Celtic had two shits on target and not sure he could have done much about either of them.

A draw would have been a fair result, but you knew even when we were on top Celtic were the more likely to score. They have players who, even when the performance has been poor, can just produce something to cut open a defence. At the goal Rogic does that; has his back to goal but takes a touch, two players on him, pulls them out then turns, passes and Celtic are in. Yes Ramsay gets caught napping but it's the type of movement that at the other end we never make. In a similar position we turn and blast a shot either over the bar or off a defender. We don't make enough clever movements like that. Jet could be that player if he wasn't so lazy. Ferguson thinks he's that type of player but he's not, he doesn't cut teams open or at least not often enough. There was one moment in the first half when he played an outside of the foot pass and sent Samuels clear and was so impressed with himself he kept trying it and kept messing it up. Samuels played okay but in the second half was wasting possession and after he did it once too often Glass turned and called for McLennan, but McLennan isn't a game changer. Hayes our best player I thought - worked well off both full-backs and was the one player who looked like making something happen.

Is your first sentence there not the biggest problem? I don't really recall many shots in the box that we made a mess of.

Right, tickets bought, petrol in Glasgow found, leaving in about seven hours time. I agree with Tom, can picture 2-2 in my head. Looking forward to everyone having a meltdown when Brown inevitably goes over to applaud the Celtic support, as if he's supposed to ignore them.

That Twitter's other "exclusives" have been Neil Lennon to be Celtic director of football and Stephen O'Donnell to join Celtic in January. I'm planning to go to this but waiting to see if I can get any petrol first to make it up from Glasgow Might have to jump on a Celtic supporters bus. The earliest Scotrail can get me there is 17:30.

How has that happened? Let's look at the six teams above us. Rangers - People were queuing up to say Gerrard was too inexperienced, and a year before he won the league there there were fans who wanted him out. Hibs - Fans wanted Jack Ross out last season because they kept blowing it at Hampden. Hearts - Fans demonstrated outside Tynecastle for him and Budge to go. Motherwell - Not actually a very popular manager with the fans. Dundee Utd - Start of season fans were saying he's not up to it. He was getting slated during the Dundee derby up until they scored. Celtic - well, the fact they're sixth on this list says it all. Sometimes a bit of patience pays off.

Just noticed Aberdeen are charging £32 a ticket next week (£36 for some areas). Have they learned nothing from pricing fans out?

While I don't quite agree with you that Brown offers nothing and needs dropped, I do think he had his poorest half in a Dons shirt in the second 45 minutes - he was giving away too many fouls and his passing was a let-down too. When you needed your captain to get a grip of the team he fell to bits. Would like to see McGeouch back in the team though.

Time to drop Joe Lewis. He's at fault for two of the goals. One clean sheet in 20 games - he's got to be culpable for some of that. I can give David Bates a bit more leeway in that he's still new, but fucking hell. Can we not find a decent centre half anywhere? Lewis Ferguson is another needing dropped. Offering very little at the moment. He's just playing for himself just now, constantly taking pot shots at goal because he wants to boost his goals for account and net himself a January move. That would be fine if he was hitting the target but most of the time he's not even forcing the goalkeeper into a save. Other than that, at times we were playing good stuff. It's easy to lose the head because of the run we're on. I watched Dundee v Rangers yesterday and Dundee missed a pile of chances and Rangers, without playing particularly well, get out of there with a 1-0 win. When you're luck is out, it's out. As negative as it would be, I can't help but feel maybe we should go three at the back next week v Celtic. We're losing too many goals with the back four and I really don't fancy us to go toe-to-toe attacking wise with Celtic just now.

Second highest in the league for possession this season (65% average, beaten only by Celtic). Thought Glass said it was Watkins that was injured?

Lewis Ramsay Bates McCrorie Mackenzie Brown Campbell McGinn Hedges Hayes Samuels McGinn & Hayes in since they did well off the bench last week. Campbell because we badly lacked someone able to pass the ball (I'm presuming McGeouch injured otherwise I'd have said him). I reckon Hedges only has an hour in him then I'd give Longstaff a chance. 2-0 the Dons. Come on.

Go on then, I'll take that bet.

I disagree with you there. Aberdeen did - from a very low mark mind you - improve as the game went on in terms of creating chances. Glass surely takes credit for recognising what needed changed and a lot of the times his subs do work. Hayes coming on for Samuels meant a lot more crosses were being put into the box. McGinn replacing Jet gave us more movement in the final third when we had been far too static. His third sub was an enforced one, and as pointed out above he was planning to switch on Jenks for Ojo, which I presume was to give us more height in the box. Last weekend against Motherwell the two big factors that let us down were Gallagher's defending and Watkins missing chances. Both were dropped this week. There's still things we can still pick at but "he doesn't appear to have a clue" just isn't true at all. He is seeing what we're seeing, he is making changes, he is trying things. On a side not, someone said to me today "to be fair to McInnes, he wouldn't have lost this game". Just two days short of a year ago we got scudded 3-0 at home to Motherwell. I am, perhaps naively, still optimistic. I think with Bates the defence looked more settled. Just need to sort the midfield next. What I think we really missed today was someone in the middle able to pick a pass. Brown was too deep (he had to be to protect the defence) and in my previous post I pointed out Ferguson, Ojo & Jet were just all over the place. McGeouch (is he injured, wasn't in squad) and Campbell are two players who can provide that. I'd be looking to start at least one of them next week.

For all the midfielders we have, we appeared to lack a midfield today. Brown the only one who can pass the ball. Ojo, Ferguson, and Jet too when he was on, not sure what their roles were. Had we taken Ojo & Ferguson out of the team in the second half and played with nine men I think our performance would have been the same. McGinn & Hayes actually did well off the bench, but that's quite a sad indictment that two players who should probably be back-ups this season are coming in and offering more than the others. Lot of good balls into the box yet none resulted in an effort on target.

Hold on, what the fuck am I on about? Rangers is October 27, not September 27.

I've a rare Saturday off so heading up to this. After this we've St Mirren away (not a happy hunting ground for us recently), Rangers away and Celtic at home, so we could really do with a win in this one to a) set us up for those ones and b) avoid another Saturday of getting booed off. Plus, you know, winning is pretty nice. I presume Hedges still out. Hope Bates starts. Glass made a pointed message last week about those who aren't taking their chances have got to realise there's others waiting, so I wonder if Ramirez may find himself on the bench. Watkins too though maybe harsh as he's not played much.