RicoS321

I actually thought Nisbet looked his most useful when Gueye was buzzing about and getting flick ons earlier in the season, so maybe that'll offer something. Nisbet is a good finisher, maybe another player there will create the space required to get the shots away. Otherwise, Keskinen is a decent shout. I'd fancy him most of the time to keep his head, despite his miss against hearts.

What's the point in even having a window, if we're not giving the fans a signing or a hint of a signing every single hour?

Dunfermline. Will take that Edit: at home Edit: our home

Aye, you're right, I forgot about the lad on the line. Agreed, he likely shouldn't have given it.

Think he was in line with the last defender, so maybe five yards out, but could be wrong.

Aye, definitely deserves a thread in this forum. A frustrating manager, but I liked him. Some great times with him in charge, and his record stands up very well as Dons boss.

I'd say that angle actually shows it wasn't in at that point. There's no way that whole ball is over the line. That angle biases the attacking team, if you were to imagine the image rotated around the axis of the line where it meets the ball, you'd most likely see that a good portion of the ball is covering the line (even though there is a sliver of green between line and ball in the image). That said, that particular still frame could be the one taken after the keeper has pushed it back the way a little bit, we don't know. What's funny is that the guys on Red TV were sure it was in because they take the reaction of the players into account. Because Nisbet was strongly claiming immediately suggested that it was a goal. On sportscene, later, the pundits were sure it wasn't a goal because they take the reaction of the players into account. Because the fullback was strongly claiming, it suggested that it wasn't in. Neither weighed up the reaction of the player who didn't agree with their opinion. As you say, sympathise with the officials here. Luckily those types of call are rare. I think I'd probably have sided with Elgin in this case, but the linesman has to go with the view he has got. If VAR had been in play, we'd have been waiting 8 minutes, and they'd have just guessed in the end.

Nonsense. We're back.

Subs flowing now. Not sure I'd have Shinnie and Clarkson sitting when we're only one up, but never mind.

We've been amazing against strong opposition. Tanking these lads. Fairly certain we'll win the cup from here.

Morris. Good goal, much better pressing. Morris playing well.

Somebody needs to tell the camera man that when there's only one camera, you don't do the close ups on managers and so on. Just stick to the one angle. It's fucking annoying when there's more than one camera, but it's just nauseous when the single camera is zooming in and out and moving at the same time.

Will be interesting to see how Tobers does on his wrong foot. He's looked very composed on the ball generally. If he can play there, that will solve a lot of our issues. Jensen getting a start is good too. Not sure I'd pick Morris on a tight, shitey pitch, but hopefully he can get back to some of kind of form.

Shunning the Hibs v Clydebank game? Don't blame you.

Aye, but he's not good enough to be freeloading in the Dons forum.

Not in the Aberdeen section though. Rules are rules. Made some pretty disgusting complimentary remarks about the Huns too.

Sounds like the Huns can no longer afford theirs.

Apart from the many, many games where he's done just that. When he's on it, he lifts everyone around him. Through his work rate and tenacity. He has done it numerous times this season. It's no surprise that as Nilsen has dropped off, Shinnie has not managed to cope with the extra burden. He ran himself into the ground. See Devlin and McGrath for exactly the same. Guys like MacKenzie just picked up injuries instead. Shinnie is far from done. Just as he wasn't when everyone said he was last season. Thelin's system requires a squad. That takes time. In the meantime we have to expect that guys playing it every week in the demanding positions, such as midfield and fullback are going to be feeling it, and that's going to have a knock on effect in terms of quality on the park.

Yep. The only argument we could make against that is that same logic should have applied to Glass, Goodwin and Robson. Not really an argument against, just a point! It does seem a little strange that the technical director role is still sitting empty, after our urgent review identified that weak point. More concerning is that we seem to be ceding control slightly to Thelin, although I'm prepared to accept it was both coincidence and pragmatism that our new recruitment lead is someone who has worked with him before. Things will likely get worse before they get better too. I don't imagine we're going to get a perfect strike rate overnight, so I'd expect a few duds out of the existing bunch. Concerning is the speed of dud replacement currently, I mentioned in the summer that we needed to shift a few out the door, but we never did, and our squad looks worse for it. We've had several missed windows over the years, including McInnes' final January, which should be an absolute sin. Regardless of managerial situation, the club should have the confidence and ability to be able to shift players in and out to keep the churn of players going. They don't have to do much, just a couple in and out can freshen things nicely and not allow us to stagnate. Guys like Vinnie and Jensen etc should be happily shifted on, confident that they could improve but aren't going to turn into world beaters that we suddenly regret letting go. It seems like every new manager has come in with the "I'll give everyone a chance" attitude, which has meant average squad players not being turned over. Hopefully a couple of years of a consistent manager should finally get us back to parity.

He's also been there in our biggest successes. Pretty much every win we've had against the Huns has involved Shinnie for example. The biggest points total for any team outside the scum was with Shinnie. He's still a very good player. He's one of the only ones who doesn't hide during games, ever. Unfortunately, his passing can be a let down at times, especially when he's knackered. His other attributes outweigh that though, and we're probably better calling for the other players to try and develop some of those attributes rather than asking Shinnie to improve.

Doohan was good again last night. However, he does struggle with the ball at his feet. I don't think it can be overstated how important that is to the way Thelin plays. Doohan is good at coming off his line, but he's very slow to distribute the ball, and that has a cumulative effect going upfield and has a lot to do with us having nothing on when we reach the final third. In terms of it being his team, I don't really think that'll be the case for a good year. Six players is still only half a team, and that would assume that we had 100% success in any window. On the flip side, there are players already there who I'm certain Thelin would want to keep too. Overall, I'm not seeing anything we didn't understand Glass. Both try the playing out from the back at all cost, with zero pragmatism thrown in. The biggest difference is that Thelin has already earned the right to give it significantly longer to try and get right than Glass did. It remains to be seen whether it's possible to get a team capable of playing that way on our budget, despite its increase. I'm not convinced it is. It just takes one or two in the team who can't use the ball well, or they can when fully fit but not when at 90%, and we lose careless goals. I think we're going to have to see some pragmatism at some point. Maybe when Gueye is back, that'll offer us the option of mixing it up a little.

I'd like to see evidence of this bandwagon.

Aye, it didn't flatter them. Very comfortable. Not many positives to take. Tobers looked good again (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the last goal, he wasn't expecting Dorrington to get shot and never had his position nailed to push the attacker wide). Jensen looked decent too. All the attacking players were poor, with Clarkson probably doing the most to make something happen. My Hibee mate asked if Okkels has something on Thelin, and I'd tend to agree - he just didn't involve himself at all, and I don't think we should be playing him into fitness. Biggest issue at the back was Nilsen on his wrong side. I mentioned it at the weekend, it was so obvious it would lead to error. It appears we've signed another right sided player to replace him, who looks no more able to carry the ball out without making a cunt of it (just the body shape, again). There must have been an available left footed defender somewhere in the world? Obviously we've now got a right footed left back if McGarry is injured just to compound things. Anyway, Gueye's back soon.

Because Okkels has been shite, and is probably now tired.

McGarry played well.