RicoS321

I don't think they could plan for every eventuality, because some games are on Tuesday, and St Mirren might have got through instead of, or as well as, Kilmarnock. That said, you're right, they knew Hearts were playing in Europe this week and they could have just made an assumption that the next best placed team in the league would maybe get the furthest and so have arranged for them to be playing each other.

In his last season, or half season, I can't remember, Nisbet bulked up considerably and started playing like an actual number nine. He was good then, and he'd very much improve our team on that form. However, it was a 6-12 month part of his career that may not ever be replicated. He's also got Hibs in him, which means he'll automatically be a lazy, overweight jakey, who'll spend more time in the physio room.

Nisbet rumoured....

Not surprisingly, that start to the season sees Colin Bell end his Dons management career.

Good move. I still think there is something there, but he needs game time. He's still young enough that he could turn out to be decent. Needs to find that ability to do those driving runs he used to do when out on his first loan. He's a big lad and with a bit of bulk added could be a great player.

What does the W stand for?

They haven't though, they've leaked to the press that they "might" request a postponement six days before a match, setting the Dons up to be the bad guys when they correctly tell them to fuck off. Although I assume we just won't respond unless they actually request postponement. Bit of mind games too, I guess, setting up both excuses and trying to keep the Dons guessing on whether they'll rest players or giving us false confidence in that we might be playing a team that's shattered. The notion that teams should help other teams in Europe is dogshite anyway. The group stages are an absolute disaster, that give clubs obscene amounts of cash in return for them unnecessarily running with massive squads. Teams experiencing it either for the first time, or as a one off event, have to run the gauntlet of trying to do three times as much recruitment as normal, making it more likely that they'll make an arse of it and be lumped with shite players on long deals (that happens anyway, but the groups exacerbate the problem significantly). If Scottish football decided that it would equitably share European prize funds then we could talk seriously about trying to get the best outcome for all teams, but that isn't on the table.

Yep, they've lost their best players to full time teams and are playing against full time teams. It'll be interesting to see how they perform against the bottom six, part timers. The full time teams are just going to get further and further ahead I expect.

We need a down vote button

I thought they said he was struggling with fitness on the radio yesterday, but could be wrong. Maybe he's struggling to come to terms with the fact that he's a dirty Judas Hun cunt? Hopefully not though, and he falls out of favour, rotting on their bench, until one day another player trips over his rotting corpse on their bench, injuring themselves in the process.

I think it's healthy, on a football forum, to give a first impression of someone based on the small amount of evidence available. If it turns out to be wrong, then nobody loses anything. I think he looked like a wide player that likes to drift in field a lot, like McGrath, and perhaps adopt a sort of free role. If that doesn't suit our system, then he'll be instructed to remain wide. I think it's easily soon enough to say that he clearly has football intelligence and workrate, and I'm certain he's going to be a great addition.

I don't think that would be the frame they'd have chosen. I suspect there'd be another one after that when the ball is last touched, that would possibly take the player's shoulder beyond the leg of the defender. The point is that it's not a terrible decision by the linesman, who made his call quickly, and gave immediate clarity for everyone in the ground, and with zero complaints. It highlights perfectly the fallibility of VAR too, in that frame selection is absolutely vital. I suspect the automatic frame selection in the very expensive VAR would produce a different answer to the manual frame selection very regularly, and I'd argue that for these types of close call it's just as accurate to go with the linesman's call as it is the lines. We simply don't need the pretend millimetre precision of the shitey lines.

Great to have a game without VAR today, with the offside goal looking to be a good call. A tedious three minute wait for that would have been zero improvement. Interestingly the Huns now the only other team to benefit from a ref giving a "maybe a freekick" call (the other being the Tims benefitting from the opposite overturn in the semi against us). It stands to reason that refs are reffing their games to a different standard. Letting the game play at a freekick incident (not offside, obviously) is just fucking ridiculous. If the ref blows for a freekick then it's because he thinks it's a freekick. He hasn't missed the incident. Thus, by definition, it (using VAR) cannot be anything but re-reffing the game. People (stupid people) will argue that it's great that you let the play roll and let the goal stand and allow the ref a second look, but there is absolutely no way to apply this logic with any consistency - because it completely ignores the silent evidence. In order for this to be fair, you'd have to take into account all those decisions where very soft freekicks were given for a foul by an attacker, and imagine what might have occurred had the ref allowed play to continue. It makes no sense whatsoever. The ref should just have given the freekick as happens in all other circumstances, because that was his decision.

Not going to be big money because he's not worth big money. He's a consistent player for us, at our level, but doesn't really have any areas that are easy to improve (pace). Hopefully he'll sign a new deal with us and we get another few years out of him. The fact that he nearly joined Atlanta before his last contract renewal suggests he's willing to go elsewhere, and maybe that's his preference, but I hope he stays.

Think it's decided by the teams in each fixture, where one of the teams doesn't normally have VAR, which seems fair enough. Anyway, normal domestic decision making resumed for the Hun.

Yep, agreed, another player that can play through the middle! He was good though, looks a player. Not a terrible game, but perfectly highlighted our biggest weakness, which is the front man. Neither looked good enough, nor offered anything that the others wouldn't. I think it's our number one priority. Can we carry one of the strikers through the campaign? Possibly. Not sure we should though. It's difficult for Thelin, he's adopted two average strikers and the data lads have identified an even worse one, but chopping and changing them until January to try and find something isn't a great solution. Anyway, not many standouts today. The back four were good enough, the midfield two solid and McGrath was good as usual. Topi great and Besuijen did well when he came on (hopefully ending this season's Shayden Morris experiment).

I think he could use the "shite at football" excuse without too much argument.

We're establishment, permits are fast tracked for likes of us.

Hilariously bad decision for the second yellow. Brilliant.

It's not quite the swap deal for Morris we were all hoping for, but it seems like a decent signing. Hopefully he'll feature against Queen's Park.

That would make sense. It's a strange move though, I didn't think it would be a priority position with Molloy starting well. I've seen him briefly for the Scotland u21s, but I don't remember anything about him. I assume he'd be leaving Fulham to get regular games, and I'm not sure he'll get that here. Whilst Jensen might not be happy on the bench, he's probably first cover for left centre half, left back and sitting midfield, so it's likely he'll see plenty of game time. In theory, Milne can be the same on the right, and I think that's a nice efficient way to run a squad when there is no European fixtures and a high turnover of players. Unless this lad is more versatile than it reads, then there's a chance that he's just bulking the squad a little, which again goes back to my earlier point about offloading some of the duplicates.

Thank fuck. He was shite at the weekend, didn't even touch the ball.

I don't think it'll have been the intention, originally, to have to sign a replacement, but I think Thelin will know by now that he'll need to if he has any chance of Europe. The number nine is vital in a 4-2-3-1, otherwise we sacrifice likes of Clarkson or the new guy to accommodate a 4-4-2. It might be that the new guy and the new winger (if it actually goes ahead) are good enough to carry an average striker, but I think that'd be high risk. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to have time in this window to try out our best team with, say, Sokler up front to see if it bears fruit, so the pragmatic thing to do would be to get a striker in (even on loan) instead of gambling until January. Obviously, that is dependent on us having a target that will come and at the right price. As I said previously, we need to be shifting players on ASAP to give the squad room to breathe and allow for new signings. Otherwise it's another lopsided season with too many [nothing] players vying for the same role. I'd happily punt the first and last scorers from yesterday for example (I'd prefer Ambrose to leave over Gueye, but that would be difficult! I have a feeling it might quietly happen in January), but it could be Duncan, Morris or whoever.

There's no way we'll be getting rid of Miovski and not replacing. Sokler will be either a second striker in a two or, more likely, a sub again. He was more interested in trying to win a foul when he was through on goal today and he was generally poor. As @OrlandoDon says, he does have good movement, but that was completely missing today when Miovski wasn't playing. So far, he's not returned this season any better than he was last. He's the best of a bad bunch, but it is a bad bunch.

I'm fairly certain that if you know, so does Robinson. He's just pandering to his own fans, he'll know they were convincingly beaten and offered little. Anyway, we were quite good in spells. Shinnie (legs gone etc) motm, he was excellent, especially his cross. McGrath and Nilsen also good and as was Devlin. Morris nearly had me fooled for around six minutes until he remembered he was shite. Sokler was poor, and hasn't done much to show that he can get anywhere near replacing Miovski - his best performances all coming alongside Miovski. Gueye was below average, and the subs are nothing players more generally. We need to offload several players, we can't be keeping guys like Vinny, Morris, Gueye and Ambrose content all season. I'm not saying get rid of all, but the process has to begin, it's simply a case of picking one or two and shifting them on, it's much and such the same who comes off the bench. When Miovski leaves, we'll be replacing him and that replacement will be ahead of Sokler, Gueye and Ambrose for a single position (we'll move to a 4-2-3-1, I expect, when Clarkson or the new guy are fit). We can't sustain that number of average players in the squad.