RicoS321

What's the view of the UK approach from your neck of the woods? Any suggestions that they're playing with fire and risking people in the rest of the world, or is it not getting much airtime?

I agree about fullbacks. I wouldn't say centre half is a priority. Considine, Gallagher, Devlin and McRorie is enough for the time being. If we could only get one or two players in I'd be looking at a striker and a winger, with a fast striker a priority. Ramirez looked a bit tired around 70 minutes last night (before his goal) and we could have been doing with fresh legs. Jet also looked tired, but was playing slightly deeper so could have been replaced by jenks in theory. Other than McGinn, there wasn't an option to replace. If we're continuing with two up front then we need an option to take off the bench as the number one priority. That said, I don't think we'll be restricted to one or two signings so a centre half would be my third choice. Another priority is to move on some players. If Ojo is ahead of McGeouch then I'd like to see McGeouch moved on, similarly one of McLennan and Kennedy. Our bench looked a little busy last night. Filled with senior players.

Just back. That was top drawer. Some excellent attacking play. Jet and Ferguson were excellent. Considine and McRorie a good partnership, they didn't have a lot of support at times. Ojo did okay, but shouldn't be playing out there, he doesn't offer anything and will get found out against better opposition. Unsure of Ramirez, could go either way, but he'll be good with the fans if he turns out to be good. Some hit fae McLennan. Fantastic to be back, so much better than the tele.

Really good half. Great to be at a game of fitba, good atmosphere, the spreading of the crowd works a treat. Ferguson, JET and Ramsay looking good, Hedges and Considine as always. Fantastic.

Go Great Britain, wooooo.

You could be right Panda, but match sharpness is very much a thing. Even if it only gives them a slight advantage, it might be the difference between them going through or not. Depending on how good jenks is, your lineup looks decent. I'm not sure McKenzie is going to be good enough at left back, so Hayes there is a good option.

Think so. He was red carded in their last European fixture, so think it just carries forward. Assuming that's why Considine and McRorie have been the preferred pairing in pre season too.

I also have zero idea how he might lineup. ..….....................Lewis.............. Gurrrrr... McRorie... Considine... McKenzie .............. Brown.........Ojo......................... ..... McGinn...... Ferguson..... Hedges..... ......................... Ramirez......................... Is my guess (not my preferred).

1-0 the dons. Late winner from Considine. Me to miss the goal having been thrown out for having my mask under my nose.

I'm just looking forward to being there. Sellout crowd too.

Keiran Ngwenya pens a new deal to keep him here forever.

That's a worryingly poor understanding of the term "evidence". There was no evidence that they deliberately broke rules laid out by their manager because they didn't give a toss. That's just a fact. Your opinion is that they didn't give a toss, thus broke rules. That isn't backed up by the manager who defended them and the players who apologised. It's nonsense, blatantly. A handful, again, enough to get us to third and many plaudits. The point being that they had broken the rules before this point but - despite this new found disrespect for the manager and his rule - went on to respect him again and perform well. I'm aware of the record since October as it was - correctly - the reason McInnes was sacked. The only argument here is that you're suggesting a shambles and a transition, whereas I'm suggesting something far less. In fact, the biggest shambles has occurred after McInnes' departure in the time it has taken to hire a DoF and the time it took to get rid of the recruitment guy and get in the new one (TBC), alongside the preventing of signings in the January window. As I've stated on previous posts, my issue here is with the club rather than Glass, and I think describing as a shambles is disingenuous and labelling as McInnes' shambles worse.

Too soon to start the Vienna thread?

The massively loaded part of the statement that said that they couldn't give a toss about breaking the rules their manager put in place. It's unevidenced nonsense. I think you're ignoring the numerous games (although significantly in the minority) where we played fairly well last season, including the game where we tanked hibs and the point at which we were comfortable in third and many people were raving about our style of play. Guys like Considine, Hayes, McGinn, Lewis (I'd argue Taylor too) have proven over numerous seasons that they can work hard and roll their sleeves up (I'm not talking about ability, but workrate and attitude) and McInnes' teams ground out results when playing terribly a huge number of times. Poor signings the deeper you go down the squad and the injuries that resulted in having to play these guys was clearly a big issue. Altogether, I still don't see Glass' job as significantly different to that which we'd task any manager in the close season (including McInnes every year). Not having made signings in January is probably the biggest problem Glass will face, alongside not having the recruitment specialist in place, which leaves us a window behind where we would expect to be. That should definitely buy him a season of leeway, hopefully two.

Sorry, you stated that they "had games cancelled because players couldn't give a toss about breaking rules their manager put in place", which I think is incredibly unfair - and inaccurate. There's a vast difference between a team lacking in confidence and struggling for motivation and a bunch of guys that are taking the piss and making a fool of their manager. The former is an example of what was happening last season (hence the shout in the St Mirren game I expect), the latter was the regular dicking about that we saw under Calderwood of which there is zero indication occurred under McInnes. Glass has been left with very few players who wouldn't give their all when confident and motivated as was evidenced when most dons fans were describing some of the best football they'd seen with Watkins, Wright and Hedges running things. Unfortunately McInnes ran out of ideas on how to make that happen after all three of those players got injured or were removed from history, and wasn't given the backing in January to have another crack at it (rightly, I think). Guys like Considine, Hayes, McGinn, Lewis etc. don't deserve to have their professionalism questioned, all players and teams go through bad spells.

Christ, how many round have we got? That list is made up of teams that would be painted on McInnes' glass ceiling. Will be interesting to see if Glass' glass ceiling is similar. Edit: I've booked flights to all 7 countries just to make sure I don't miss out. Also, Plzen and PAOK are seeded in the next next round and draw is at 1pm

I predict 63 points, but I don't like the copying and pasting of the entire table in each reply, as it is annoying to scroll through so I'm railing against it. I am happy to have my prediction voided whilst making this protest. There needs to be another way, for the sake of the nation.

I don't necessarily disagree with a lot of this, but I do have issues with it. You're giving Glass credit for changing the whole coaching structure, I find that really disconcerting if true. That is not Glass' job. This is what I mean about disliking the term transition. None of the changes in coaching structure required a change in manager and should have happened in order to make McInnes' job easier. If Glass - rather than our football operations team - has handled this then it's a real worry, however it also means that he's the beneficiary of an improved setup. In terms of playing staff, he's inherited a good standard of ~9 players and had no different a job than McInnes was about to face. Unfortunately he hasn't been helped by our lack of recruitment team which has been telling in the signings. What are you referring to in regard to games cancelled/ players not being bothered? We barely had a single incident in the entire time McInnes was at the club, I think it's a bit pathetic to question his ability to develop a mature side with almost zero off field issues. It was bordering on boring at times.

Dons legend Mark Gallagher smashes one past brorororora Huns.

I think the entire national team pros and cons debate is a red herring, there simply isn't the data to back either side of the argument, but it's an extremely useful point to throw into the mix of you're trying to confuse matters and sideline real debate. Should club football in Scotland be entirely designed around improving the national team? Or should it be designed around improving club football? What constitutes improvement? What defines a football league? Is it competition, equality of opportunity, or performance of sides in Europe? Is it about collective improvement or individual improvement? I think we're let down massively by the media - especially the BBC - in discussing the game in this country (and any topic really). We get such short-form soundbite shite, with - for example - a single radio program split into four or five discussion points so that nothing really gets discussed and almost always through the lens of a particular club (usually the scum) rather than the game as a whole. There's no meaningful debate, no philosophical interaction. The system can't be changed, it mustn't be discussed.

Yes, me. But I think I'm probably wrong, it's probably not a bad thing, or a good thing.

I think the term transition probably isn't appropriate to a team who hasn't finished outside top 4 for 8 seasons though. I don't like it as a term either, it just shouldn't be used in modern fitba, although I can completely see how it is possibly applicable - or how Glass could be excused - in our case. We should never be having a transition period of note as improvement should be constant and transcend the manager (as I assumed Cormack knew as he mentioned succession planning on day one). Other than two or three guys that work closely with the manager, there should be very little upheaval. The director of football and recruitment positions should have been sorted while McInnes was still here and they should have been involved in sourcing the new manager. We've done exactly the opposite and to me the term transition just gives a free pass to that failure. I think we should expect better as fans and not accept transition as a thing. The Tims won't be accepting transition as an excuse. Glass has been let down by the process in my opinion, and I think we need to be clear where that fault lies rather than just writing off as something that happens every time you change a manager.

That pretty much justifies the decision to play less friendlies, if there were any doubts previously. The next month is going to be fairly precarious with the level of infections. Unless they change isolation rules, it's going to cause issues. It'd be interesting to know if our players have been vaccinated. You'd think at least Brown, Considine, Hayes, Gallagher and Lewis would have been. If the government decide to reduce isolation times for those vaccinated that haven't tested positive it'd be good to have as many jagged as possible.

5665 fans allowed the club thinks. Will be interesting to see how the ballot works. Hopefully priority is given to the toppest reds.

Nah, I'm pretty certain it's entirely covid related. I think we'll have to rely on luck a little, it's just an unfortunate set of circumstances. I certainly don't won't be holding it against Glass if we fail to get through. Annoyingly this match really affects the rest of the window. If we get through then we can look to bring in a couple more for the squad, but you wouldn't want to invest in a European size squad then get papped out. I think we've got the squad at a reasonable level at this stage in the window, but I'd expect to see further movement if we get through, and slightly different movement if we don't.