RicoS321

What style would you recommend for these guys like? None of those players should be struggling in this formation. Unless we move to a 6-0-4 I think the problem will persist. It's been by far the worst performance of the season. How we're in level I don't know. Even the goal was shit. I'd consider just taking Ojo off. No replacement.

Pish sports more like.

Fit media is it on anyway?

I think the positions themselves have been the main issue, rather than just the number. It's fairly unusual to have your four best midfielders missing like we did against the Hun. Plus Wright who could have played there too. In fact Hayes would have also been in midfield ahead of Leigh against the Hun. There's a fine line to be drawn between squad unity and cover, and I'd rather we didn't go down the road of having a massive squad for these infrequent times. Throughout McInnes' tenure, we've had at least 3 players too many in our squads. That's usually been because of poor recruitment, and we end up saddled with players on long term bench warming contracts. I'd far rather see us struggle when we have this many out for a couple of games, than load our squad with Main, Hernandez types. I've got zero expectations for this one. Good luck to them. There was no shortage of work against Hamilton, we'll just have to hope someone flukes ability for the day.

But DM has taken us forward this season so far. We're a much, much better team to watch and the points return reflects that. I don't think it's time to throw out all the good performances this season and judge us based on the last two games with 8 players missing. Even last night, we didn't revert to game management or a cautious approach after going a goal up, we were just simply shite because our fringe of the fringe players are shite. I think even if we had Wright or Hayes playing last night alone would have made the difference between winning and drawing.

Surely that's understandable? With Main, Ojo, Leigh and Kennedy and Cosgrove looking unfit it is largely the team from last season. We became uncreative basically. Campbell and Ojo didn't take the game to Hamilton in the same way as Ferguson and McRorie (or McGeouch) would have, Main or Edmondson aren't a patch on what Wright offers in the advanced area, an unfit Kennedy isn't as good as McLennan and an unfit Cosgrove not as good as Watkins (both Kennedy and Cosgrove could have been subbed around 60 minutes if we'd had replacements), Leigh not even close to Hayes. Where you see our performances as gutless, I see a lack of ability. Kennedy unable to beat a man, Campbell still a bit away from being able to dominate the midfield and move the ball forward quickly, Ojo not being aggressive enough, or being aggressive at stupid moments because he's lost any sharpness he might have had, Main having the touch of an elephant that's really, really shite at fitba etc. All that before losing a soft goal due to poor marking (I suggested it was offside at the time, but having watched it on the BBC, I think I was wrong or certainly it's too marginal to worry about - although still never a free kick) at their first attempt at getting anywhere near our box. I've said it 100 times before, the youngsters should be filling the spots in our squad that we're down to: Ethan Ross where Leigh is, Anderson where Main is, Virtanen where Ojo is etc. However, maybe that does them a disservice by depriving them of a vital loan experience with lots of game time just to give us a fall back on the odd occasion. I don't know. Realistically though, how often are we going to have 8 players out? I don't think we should dwell too much on guys like Ojo and Main. We all know they're pish, but they're not going to feature much once we get a couple of players back.

Hernandez is pish. Equally as pish as either Main or Ojo. It's a difficult one, these guys are here until summer and as we've seen will be required at various points of the season. Games like these we should really be able to throw them in. With Campbell in centre midfield, you probably wouldn't risk another youngster alongside. Campbell was okay tonight, I think he'll be a great player, but really needs to work on moving it forward more incisively. Always takes the easy side to side option. Anyway, it is eight players out though, that's fairly disruptive and we struggled to create much. Their goal came from nothing too (never a free kick, terrible decision), and looked suspiciously offside, but terrible defending. The one goal should easily have been enough. A player like McGinn needs longer than 10-15 minutes, McInnes is very guilty of taking an age to make a sub. Edmondson isn't good enough either, anyone on the bench behind Main needs to be let go.

This, hedges moved further forward, which is ideal. Main might be alright in this type of game too.

I think it would be under normal circumstances, but that midfield isn't getting better overnight. I'd love to have seen us go full belt at them with our strongest 11, but I think a turgid single goal might be the order of the day.

Should, in theory. A midfield of Ojo and Leigh is weak though and it wouldn't surprise me if we dropped points. Ideally we wouldn't be in a league where one team can lose 9 players and still be expected to beat the opposition, whether it be Aberdeen, the scum, or anyone else.

Most important thing is that Rice keeps job, at least until Thursday.

Yep, absolutely, I agree entirely. Lack of transparency. To be honest, I've no real issue with the SFA making mistakes, they're in a far harder position than most clubs given the travel arrangements, but it is the lack of transparency that is the problem. Just a clear outline of events, what went wrong etc and how they're going to change things. When you said "who investigates them?" earlier, I had it in my head that you meant from a punitive perspective, but you're completely right and investigation of the facts that can be presented to the public is what's required. AD, I just read the transcript of the interview, you're right he doesn't quite nail it down. This is where the club have to be more incisive and more forensic (a good effort by McInnes to be fair, it's not really his job). We really need a solicitor type, not to sue, just to transcribe the series of events and lay out what went wrong. The SFA aren't going to do it, and we're really, massively, let down by the journalism in this country in that regard (especially the BBC who seem to just report rather than question). Force the SFA to come out and take ownership of what could be simple little mistakes, or things that are proven to be unavoidable.

Definitely watch the whole thing if you can, you get a much better view of it, it's fantastically bad. You can skip the first 5-6minutes if you don't care about the other pens. It is probably the best thing I've seen all season. Edit: it just shows though, Scotland are fairly lucky to have got through against Serbia, as Marshall was definitely off his line. Thank christ VAR wasn't on the go.

Nah, watch the whole thing pens

Have they investigated clubs for potential failings? I don't think they have. They've issued punishment for rule breaking, but that's an entirely different thing. I hadn't heard about the timing of testing problem, I'd be interested to hear more. The biggest problem with communication for me is the fact that people like us have to speculate about the circumstances on the internet - it's a lack of transparency, we're left guessing and accusing. Motherwell experienced a bizarre lack of communication, but obviously that had no bearing on Campbell being allowed to play or not. I don't think its incompetent to insist that players from the same team are placed beside one another whilst travelling, it's just a policy that has to occur at international level due to location. I'm guessing that's the single difference between a dons game and a Scotland game. There were 3 dons players in a squad of 25, where 11 had to isolate. Even those placed apart would have faced a strong chance of being infected. Given Aberdeen's infection rate compared to Glasgow and surrounding area, I'd have been more comfortable with dons players sitting together than next to another team's player, and if I'm an Aberdeen manager I'd be telling my players to stick together and avoid others because I'd be more comfortable with our procedures at AFC being robust compared to other teams (I'm not saying that they are more robust, just that McInnes would be more aware and trusting of them). What I suspect happened, is that the hun called Robbie McRorie back to Ibrox for a meeting at which he was deliberately infected with the vid in the knowledge that he'd likely be close to his brother with the u21 squad, and he in turn would infect Ferguson and Mclennan. Because they're sleekit huns.

Why are they incompetent though? I've seen a lot of unsubstantiated criticism, but nobody has been able to put a finger on what they did wrong (Robinson mentioned communication, but that's it). The only thing that I'd say is that we shouldn't have to isolate for 14 days because all our players gained herd immunity whilst partying in soul bar. The Huns have a strong squad. Them and the tims would cope with 8 players missing. So would we against half the teams in the league in fairness.

I disagree. He has at least one good one-on-one save in every big game, always comes for crosses and has excellent positioning. I don't think you necessarily need or want a goalkeeper screaming his arse off behind you, a defence that holds its line doesn't need that distraction. Overall I don't think goalies as Captains are really that useful, but he leads by example.

Strange one. Of all the performances to criticise, I wouldn't have picked Lewis. A few great saves. Not sure which goal he was supposed to have stopped?

Not a great half like. We're all over the shop. This isn't the team to be playing against with your midfield missing, their movement is excellent. Hedges doing well, Cosgrove doing okay on the ball too (how the fuck their guy wasn't booked for bringing him down on the half way line when Hedges broke I've nae idea). Ojo and Leigh isn't a pairing that brings much joy. I'm assuming Campbell isn't 100% fit, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the second half.

Where you reading/seeing that? Hopefully he's specific about the issue. We need to be really clear about what we're doing differently to the SFA and why those players would have been safe in our care and not the SFA's. The bland statement from the club is useless and completely without merit. We can't have it both ways, if it wasn't for guys like McKenna travelling with the Scotland squad, we'd never get the fee we did for him and the potential fee we might get for guys like Ferguson in the future. Be specific and open about what went wrong so that we can be sure it doesn't occur again. What would be the difference in arrangements for training for and travel to an away dons match versus a Scotland game?

Perhaps a slight overstatement. It's a fairly transmittable virus. They'll be using much the same protocol as the dons, so it'll be down to luck, or bad luck. As far as we know it's only one Don at the minute, but I'm guessing there's a strong chance that they'll have been close together in the squad. A formidable midfield of Ojo and Leigh should see us take home the win.

Sounds like it is McRorie. Probably a good thing to be honest, it would be extremely harsh to have to drop Ojo following his three goals tomorrow.

I think McInnes will have learned from the season opener. We got nowhere close that day. We weren't cautious against the tims either, so I expect a similar performance against the Hun. I have some sympathy with him on the Ojo situation though, it's a real dilemma. What do you do to bolster that gap? The obvious solution would be to throw another player alongside him and Ferguson, but then the accusation will be that we're too defensive. Who would you choose anyway? With Hayes out, you'd expect Leigh to be out wide (which I'm not convinced by, especially up against tavernier), so could Kennedy do a job centrally? It's frustrating, as we really need our best eleven out to get something, and McRorie and Hayes are huge players for us. They bring so much to the balance of the team. I fear our only hope is to get scrappy and ugly and get some luck.

It's impressive gaslighting from the charlatan like. The republican party concerned about election fraud? Fantastic. I'm only 20 minutes in, but none of what he has described so far is electoral fraud. He has great showmanship, the sort that would convince a public jury, but that's not how these things work with electoral fraud. He knows it to, so he must have some other angle. Perhaps it's just sowing doubt in the public to try and get some leverage before January comes and goes and Trump is in the courts. Who knows. The man's an utter sleaze like.

Aye, wasn't a great result. Could have played all day and not scored, they were comfortable in the end. If that result had been under any other circumstance, the manager would be taking a fair bit of abuse, but they're a decent team that we shouldn't be expecting to beat away from home without a very good performance. We lacked a cutting edge, Dykes works very hard but he's not going to get on the end of his own knock downs. Christie and McGinn looked knackered, Fraser or Forrest in the squad would have made a difference. O'Donnell and Jack had good games tonight, Gallagher too. Thought for a second Burke had turned into a footballer, but then he ran out of play with the ball in customary fashion. Oh well.