RicoS321

Never a pen either. Comes off the players leg onto his hand by the looks of it.

Terrible start, all over the shop. Much better in the final fifteen and unlucky not to score with two good chances. Campbell playing the man marking is just a nonsense, we can't afford to take a man out of the midfield, and what a difference when he has the confidence to run with the ball, a great ball across the face too. He needs a rocket at half time, because he's better than he gives himself credit for. Hornby and Kennedy poor, so I'd switch in McLennan and Hendry at half time before we lose another. Hendry will track Ajer a lot more and nip at folk. Hornby isn't bringing others into the game anyway, but not his worst performance.

He's probably right to. It was a debacle, that was overlooked because they could do the old Twitter show to create fake excitement. One thing under McInnes that vastly improved was our ability to make signings professionally and behind closed doors, but I expect Cormack prefers the drama. It sets any manager up for a fall, especially when they're scrabbling at the last minute getting loanees.

There are very few teams who'd have been able to keep the ball on the ground in those conditions today, even the passes along the ground were zipping past or falling short for both sides. You can't just will people to keep the ball on the ground. We'd have lost the game through mistakes trying to play through the midfield as everything needed another touch and a second longer in possession. Going over the top like Campbell did for McGinn in the first half was the way to go, as well as long into the channels. That's why it's inexplicable that Hornby was on the pitch for 77 minutes. Regardless of whether you think he's dogshit or not, that game just wasn't suited to him. You needed Hendry nipping at people and running the channels, not a guy who take six minutes to change direction. The subs epitomised McInnes for me, he just can't do them. Hendry spent 44% as much time waiting to come on as he did on the park. It's staggeringly incompetent management. Really bad. Goodwin had made three subs before we made one. Not because he thought he was being outplayed, but because he thought he could see a way to win. McGinn had a good first half, but it was obvious he was only going to last 55-60 minutes, so get Hendry on at half time so McGinn can feed off the scraps that might come his way. If he doesn't look likely to, then take him off after an hour and bring on McLennan. Kennedy was poor, so there was literally no possible net loss bringing him off (aye...) at the same time. That's how you properly use the extra sub, not as some sort of championship manager fashion on 77 minutes when you're never going to use the other two (McInnes has just started making later subs so he can do the double sub). It's his massive procrastination that has not won us so many points over the years. It's like he can't accept that his original selection hasn't worked or that he's frightened his sub might not work or have an adverse effect. Either way, it's not managing a football team. Nobody in the world was watching that game thinking: "if you just keep doing the same, the goal's coming". There's not a person on earth outside of Alex Miller's living room that would have waited until the 77th minute to change things. Again, this is where the club should be producing metrics that show when McInnes has successfully changed things in a game and holding him to account. It's not even an AFC thing, any club that's on a run of not scoring, if held to the 60th minute, are likely to not score again. It's a basic logic and confidence thing. You make the changes nice and early and give them plenty of chance to work.

Yep, he's not up to it. Hendry isn't an amazing footballer, but he'll got stuck in and win us balls in these conditions. The shape up front is fine if we can get the ball down, with Kamberi and McGinn doing well. Very difficult in these conditions like, so that should relieve the pressure a bit, just get Hendry on and turn it into a proper battle. Campbell doing okay in midfield.

Might be 3-5-2 with McRorie in defence. Or 3-4-3 with McGinn and Kamberi either side of Hornby

Aye, I didn't mean he was great, just likely to be the one that we can fit in/around. He's a slightly tidier version of Main. He can occupy defenders and make space for others. Ruth looks like he needs a lot more game time than Hendry to provide a similar role, looks fairly lightweight and definitely not cut out for the sole striker role. He's been playing out wide in the championship, which isn't the preparation needed for playing through the middle in a stronger league. He could probably get some minutes out wide for us if he ever makes our bench. You could be right about Hornby, I just don't think our 6 month spell should be used to find out. It was a stupid signing in my opinion, it was clear in his u21 games that weren't against dross that he'd need a lot of work.

Desperation I think. This one a bit too important. He's signed one of every type of striker. Ruth hasn't been on our bench yet, so I'm guessing the loan end was for different reasons. Maybe covid arrangements or something, perhaps they feel he's better at Cormack park doing weights or something. I'd take the last window with a large pinch of salt to be honest, I'm not convinced it was supposed to be anything like that and I get the impression zero funds were available and so no permanent moves were ever on the cards. It was a case of trawling the loanees and taking a punt. Hornby stinks of just picking a familiar name, he's clearly not even close to match sharp and there's no way we can afford to get him there. I think Hendry will turn out to be the one that sticks and I actually think he's got something about him. You know what you're getting with him and you know his limitations, so you work with it and around it. Kamberi will be available once the damage is already done, I think we stick with Hendry for better or worse. Send Hornby back, we can't afford to waste time on getting players up to speed.

There are very few players that we sign as squad filler though. The problem stems from poor initial recruitment. Likes of Dom Ball was brought in because we absolutely needed him due to poor recruitment. It was actually risk management. If we had been a poorer (financially) team, we'd simply have had no choice but to go with a youngster for 20-30 games per season. It's actually our first choices that fail so badly (Gleeson), resulting in us mitigating with a Ball type and bloating the squad. Ojo was mitigated by McGeouch, bloating the squad. There's a pragmatism to it that makes complete sense (proven, half decent, SPFL player, like Ball and Leigh), and it has taken place because we've had a budget that allows for it. The obvious problem is that we're stuck with the Ojo and the Gleeson, and feel obligated to give them crucial minutes that could go elsewhere. I've said it 100 times before, the problem here isn't McInnes, it's the club. That recruitment strategy has to be controlled by the board. You'll always get an Ojo that doesn't work out, that's nobody's fault and not worth worrying about. It's the fact that when you do fuck up, you can simply dip back into the pot. There has to be stricter limits on the number of players and the ratio of young players to seasoned pros. Also targets on number of minutes that are young players play and when they go out on loan. No manager should be exempt, McInnes or future boss.

Bit harsh, but I probably agree. He's another of those that isn't required. I don't think the young lad ngwenya was ready when he came on the other month, but likes of Dean Campbell could easily fill in at left back if required, and it would give him more much needed minutes. Again, it's where the club should have been pressuring McInnes into not buying squad fillers. We're in a position where our fourth and fifth choice midfielders are young lads both at an important stage in their careers and only likely to get token minutes between now and the end of the season. Ethan Ross been called back to bolster the time wasting sub options too. We just don't need the filler, especially with a January window. We'll probably start with no youngsters against St Mirren, apart from St Johnstone and Reims youth products.

But that is the quality of discussion in Scottish football full stop. Just listen to the ex pros discussing [anything] on sportsound of an evening. For every "McInnes will keep us top four", there's a corresponding "time to freshen things up", "we need a change" statement which is equally bereft of issue-addressing and realism.

Is it? Is social media representative of the average Aberdeen fan? Or would it be the p&j reader? I genuinely don't know the answer. I doubt you or Crichton do either.

It's phenomenal.

Think it finished weeks ago. Who'd have thought he'd end up becoming a famous drag queen with a regular slot on daytime TV and married to Mariah Carey. What a great ending. Hope I've not given too much away.

I disagree about the source of the problem, our attack has been far more of an issue than our defence this season. I'd say that the long balls are from poor movement in front than sitting deep because of a shakey back line. Given the number of clean sheets we've had, the forward players would have a bit of a nerve blaming the back line this season. All academic though, I think the 3-4-3 is definitely gone, but a 3-5-2 would probably be fine for us too. It does really depend on the opposition. It was noticeable how little Hoban went forward against Hibs compared to even a few weeks back, but the lack of Hedges and Wright has made the intelligent movement grind to a halt. I think you're right that the 4-2-3-1 will get the best out of those players unless Kamberi brings something unexpected. If we still had a lot of post split games against weaker opposition, I'd like to have seen us stick with the back three as I think the additional player is wasted against some of the dross (or should be!). Again, with Hoban and Considine piling up when numbers are required. Given we're so close to the split with the Tims to play twice (I think), we'd be as well getting a good run with a back four as it's the safer option with our attacking options.

Aye, but he hates the hun, so he was bound to play well. This was the move we should have been trying to get him at the start of the season. I'm not sure he'll be good enough, but there were a lot of minutes of football available for a guy like Anderson over the last few years. Many games where we were a couple of goals up and we went for the game management option, with a side portion of Main/Wilson. I think we could have got him to the level of McLennan no bother.

One thing that allowed us to play a 4-2-3-1 for much of deek's tenure was that by-in-large every other team played a 4. They don't now, and it causes problems. Livingston game showed that a three was fine when paired with a five in midfield. Earlier in the season, our three was very successful when we backed it up with fast attacking play. To be honest, it's our lack of ability in the final third and to retain possession high up the park that is of more concern than our defence. Guys playing all over the shop, being moved constantly and a complete lack of coherence has led to us being overrun and outnumbered far too often at the back. Against Hibs, we looked just as likely to lose a goal with Leigh at left back as we did after he went off, with the wing backs. But, basically, it absolutely depends on the opposition. Before anyone starts with the "let them think about us" nonsense, the notion that adding an extra man up front, or another in midfield can be ignored is silly (unless they're really pish). I think your 4-2-3-1 is fairly robust regardless of the opposition though, and I think you're right that it might suit the current personnel, especially with Hedges out. A 3-4-3 is probably too aspirational for our existing side, we simply don't have the dynamic to make it work without Wright/Hedges/Watkins, unfortunately. I'd probably ditch Hornby for Hendry though, who looks to be an improvement on Main. Hornby isn't match sharp and I don't think we can afford to dick about with him in the team, predictably (he's not a January signing for me, or at best a very high risk one). I'll hold fire on Kamberi until we see which one turns up.

That last part has been what many of us have been saying for a while now. I'm probably still in that position (although I think Goodwin is a good manager). Replacing McInnes won't be easy, and I don't believe that we have the structure in place to move relatively seamlessly to the next guy. We might get the fifteen game bounce that a new manager brings, but we need a long term strategy, and I think we're nowhere near that. At present, I'd rather spend the McInnes pay off money on a scouting department.

^^^So annoyed, I replied to the wrong topic

I thought that too, but it was actually well in when you watch it back. Fair play to collum, he was right up with play and probably got it right. Soft, but just a shite attempt at a tackle. Totally agree with the lack of fight for the manager. They looked like a tired team after the pen went in.

I disagree, I think he's been one of our better players this season. Atrocious today. However, dicking him about up front for the first 40 minutes really seemed to throw him off his game and he never recovered. Didn't seem to know where he was standing half the time and looked knackered towards the end (as they all did). I think Collum probably got the pen right, it was a terrible attempt at a tackle, he was really flat footed after some awful play by McLennan. Hornby absolutely atrocious. Really bad. Why we thought an u21 loanee would solve our issues I don't know. Hendry actually looked much better, and a lot more willing to get stuck in. All in all, just a terrible setup and subsequent result. Lack of ideas, both on and off the pitch and an inability to change things for the better. Can't wait to see what Stephen Glass does with the squad.

Be interesting to see if the rumours pan out this weekend. How the fuck he's let it get to this situation, god only knows. Had some bad luck on the way, but most of the problems have arisen by not going back to extreme basics and doing the simple things. Constantly dicking about with formations and players moving from one side to the other when they're in a rut, further denting the confidence. How the fuck Hornby got 90 minutes today, I don't know, he was absolutely honking. I think he's put the board in a fucking awful situation, where we'll be forced to pay out a shite load of dosh during a pandemic to get rid of a manager. He just had to put in battling performances until the summer, it wouldn't have taken much. A bit of fight in a decent, fixed, line up. Totally shite-bagged it today again. A new manager should be able to get an immediate improvement on the last few performances, where there was a glaring deficit. A shame like, he should have been a manager that left us for better things, but he's fucked it.

Yep, it'll be a 4-5-1, changing to a 4-3-3. Bet he'll play Hayes and Kennedy on the wrong wings.

They have a policy, but it's the extent of the policy that you're proposing that is the issue. You must not like post by Rangers players seems a bit of a stretch. Also, it wouldn't be just that. It would be: if a player moves to Motherwell, Hibs, Kilmarnock... you are free to like subsequent welcoming posts, but if that player moves to rangers (I'm guessing that Celtic wouldn't be included for some bizarre reason) then you must decipher whether the player is posting in an official, or personal capacity before liking the post. What would be the punishment for accidentally liking a friend's post that played for the wrong club in your mind?

You've basically invalidated your point by saying it's okay to congratulate them on their phones via personal message. The players either hate Wright (and Jack) for their Judas action or not. That you can see the hate or not is largely irrelevant if it is to have any effect on the pitch, which is what you alluded to in the first post. As for the Robertson nonsense, there is absolutely zero evidence that the AFC players of the day hated Robertson, and if social media existed they'd have liked their friend's post. Wow. You think it's okay for companies to trawl their employees' personal social media accounts? That's fairly dystopian. It's probably the crux of the matter for me. These young lads are just employees of a company same as the rest of us. They're not our property, our slaves. You're actually endorsing telling human beings how to think and how to interact with their friends. Surely you must be able to see that when you exert such a level of control over a person, it can lead to a fairly unhappy existence? Liking a friend's post is a far, distant cry from a director saying that Scottish football needs a strong Rangers. There has to be a line drawn somewhere, and I think your expectation is way beyond that.