RicoS321

He isn't good enough, and never has been? He's got nice feet and can finish, but he's not quick enough and lacks the physical side. He reminds me of Cammie Smith, a good technical footballer who's just a level below. Unless he's improved in ways that are difficult to improve since he's been away, I don't think he'll get many minutes this season. As for the pitch, I agree it was definitely a factor. Having the ball hold up like that is ridiculous and does the plastic pitch a disservice. Twenty minutes of sprinklers and it'd have been playing perfectly.

What a win. Name's on the trophy. Reasonable performance. Shinnie, Clarkson, McGrath, McKenzie all decent. Difficult to tell regarding the new signings, I wasn't really sold on any of them if I'm honest. Nilsen looked like he might be good, but would need to see him tested against real pace and pressing as he didn't look particularly quick in pace or quickness of feet (with obvious caveats given preseason fitness and new player and country). Molloy I thought similar, we need to see him under pressure against pace, but his distribution was decent and looked quite calm. Ambrose looks like he might take a good bit of work. Decision making might be a problem. Morris did what he's done before against limited opposition, Duncan wasn't great but improved when Milne came on. Milne needs to be getting more minutes to challenge Devlin, who was average. Sokler took his goals well and was okay generally. He doesn't seem to have bulked up at all in the summer and isn't going to provide the hold up play we need I don't think. Energy and pressing was good, but I think we've got a worse team than that which finished the season (because Miovski). We need more players.

Amazing half. There's nothing stopping us this season

Brilliant third. Excellent from McGrath. These lads are pish.

Some battling from Shinnie. Nothing thon Hun ref can do to prevent that one. The pitch looks honking. Not watering a plastic pitch shouldn't be allowed.

Yasss. Commentary ahead of picture. Shayden with a beautiful cross. Dons legend.

Good to see Shinnie defying suspension too.

That's what I assumed. Interesting to see if the back pair form a good relationship.

Not even a countdown timer on the page. Pretty disgusting. I had to check elsewhere for the game time. No idea how we'll set up for this one. Small potential for an upset I'd say.

Duk gone missing. Shame. Six months of a purple patch has gone to his head clearly. There's always been a huge amount missing from his game, with no obvious way to address it. I'm not sure he can escape that in today's world of data analytics. Not many clubs that have the funds that the Dons will want for him will be operating the McInnes model of picking guys that played well against you, or looked good on telly. With him previously returning to the club overweight, and now not at all, he'll have just removed any remaining value he might have had. Hopefully someone at the club has the wherewithal to not drag this out into the season. If there's a club (not in Scotland!) willing to buy out his contract and maybe a token sum, we should just offload.

Nah, we've got Shinnie and the new guy, no need for another all action midfielder. Although I'm saying that with no real idea of how Thelin intends to play. I'd like to see us just leave the squad quite bare, with no overloading of positions until we get an idea of how things are progressing. A loan late in the window if we feel that we're missing something, to tide us over until Polvara returns.

No he did not. That'll be his first European goal. Unless he scored an own goal in Europe? Wouldn't be surprised. Good to see he's still playing, and far enough away that we don't have to witness it.

Not to mention the stewards trying to injure their opponent's captain.

Think it's been difficult for him in training so far, everybody's talkin' at him.

Why would we need wingers when we have the dynamic width and overlapping prowess of McGurry and Richardson?

Aye, heard that. Shame. Might just be a guy that we never see the best of. It'll be interesting to see if we replace him. Maybe an ideal chance for a loanee later in the windae.

A mental case in the midfield, that'll please the fans. Just what we've been lacking, they'll say. "I've been saying it for years". In a year's time, they'll be moaning about lack of discipline. I do like a strong midfielder, but I think it's less important these days than being able to cover a lot of ground, or being able to control the tempo of the game. Quite a few on that twitter feed suggesting he's a Ramadani replacement, but seems a different player altogether. Ramadani wasn't a defensive midfielder, in the sense that you couldn't have him sitting on his own in a 4-1-4-1 type formation (Goodwin tried it and it was terrible). Ramadani defending - like Shinnie - on the front foot, by playing high up (or deeper) in people's faces. His game - like Shinnie - involved covering lots of ground and being fit. He could sit in a two also - like Shinnie - but I still don't think you'd call him a defensive midfielder. Ramadani is basically just a less aggressive version of Shinnie, which, when added together, was very potent. It'll be really interesting to see what Thelin has in mind for him. From the lineup last night, it looked like it could be a 4-3-3, but I don't see us going with that if this guy is in the team alongside Shinnie, which I assume will be the case. I don't think we'll need two sitting midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 for most games (at home, anyway), so this guy might sit in while Shinnie bombs about and Clarkson does his thing, both pressing high off the ball. I can see Clarkson being the weak link in that press, but hopefully the preseason will have battered it into him. It does suggest that we have the option of completely changing the way we play by bringing Polvara off the bench. He finished the season very strongly and has a good bit of headroom to improve if he's given the opportunity. McGrath will be, I assume, out wide and probably cover several roles. We really need something creative from the wings.

It's fine, VAR will clear it up.

I think I'd need four thousand and twenty four others before resorting to Morris.

Good signing that. Does what he can do well and keeps himself fit. Hibs will likely think they can do better, before signing someone shiter.

Should be playing at Peterhead tonight

At least our only friendly is still going ahead......

Job-share with Shinnie?

McInnes signs McRorie. Classic McInnes.

It's every player's dream to play in the league cup group stages. The Sun have picked up the bait too, and they've never been wrong about a transfer story, they only ever print stuff when they've checked with at least five reliable sources I believe.