RicoS321

And Jeffrey De Visscher.

Weirdly enough, I read that he'd played for Scotland youth when we signed him, but I just had it in my head that he was Irish despite all evidence to the contrary. He's South of Stonehaven, so he's basically a foreign Weegie. I only recognise Andy Considine, Scott Wright and Bruce Anderson as proper dandies, the rest are foreigners.

More than half our team are foreign. Lewis, Logan, Taylor, Ojo, mcginn, Kennedy and Cosgrove. We've only a handful of Scots getting a game for us.

Gallagher is perfect in that role when we're likely to have less possession, it's blatantly obvious (and obvious he can't play out wide). It fits all his strengths. However, when we've got more possession, which we regularly do, then it has to be hedges or Anderson in that advanced role. McInnes got it right for the most part yesterday, as he regularly seems to against the huns (before making the same rudimentary errors against teams we should be beating. Neither Gallagher, or the holding midfield trio should be starting against killie. We need to be forward thinking at home.

I've been saying for years that should be our approach. Far too much responsibility given to one man. He should identify positions of course and have a final say (or be part of a final say) but we need to build proper recruitment that transcends the current manager, regardless of who that is.

Not a bad result in the end. We did quite well in stages. Defence was fairly solid. Cosgrove breathing out his airse for the last 20, it's a shame we don't have anyone we can bring on for him in these types of games (Anderson not really going to hold the ball up). Didn't really look like sneaking one in the second half, but they didn't cause us too many problems either. Edit, to add: Lewis was fantastic. Brilliant at one-on-ones.

Not a bad game so far. Cosgrove will be kicking himself with that one on one, he did so well to get on to it. We just need to be a little bit better in pressing, as their defenders aren't great. Their midfield is decent. The pitch is a fucking disaster. Huns spent all their groundsmen funds. Hopefully get a goal in the second half. Kennedy and McGinn playing well.

I agree, although there's no way he can continue playing those three against poorer opposition and creating nothing. By the time Wright is back you'd have expected the horrendous experiment to be over. Although Wright has a very long way to go to prove himself of course, but he's definitely the type of player we need in there.

No problem playing the three away at Ibrox (or timland). Similar worked in the recent past. Not for all other games though. I definitely think Wright would have been playing there a number of times had he been fit. However, 6 minutes in, he'd have switched him to left wing, then right then back again, so he wouldn't have had a run of games in the no 10, which is an obvious place for him.

Really? He looks distinctly average to me. Although I've only properly seen him on the telly.

I'm guessing Stewart fae county. The right height for getting on the end of a Taylor punt. Overall, not a great window. Strengthened areas that didn't really need strengthening with players that are similar to what we've got with two of them, and an exciting one that could be the next chidi or the next [insert successful recent foreign import here], but in a role that probably won't change the team on it's own. Good that we have a right wing Venezuelan though.

It's fairly hilarious that we waited right up until the last few hours of the window and still nae cunt wanted gleeson. I'm just glad he's finally over. It's been a long 18 months.

Yasss, welcome aboard comrade.

I'm guessing that we maybe got the choice of 6 month loan or a clause perhaps. We'd have been a lot shitter that season had McLean not stayed. To be fair to the dons, they seem to be a lot better at these types of deal in recent times, but there is always a no-win situation when a player wants to leave and doesn't have much left on a contract. Wilson is a disgraceful signing. A charlatan. He was given lots of time last season and proved he couldn't hack it. I disagree that he's a footballer that wasn't allowed to play, he was another goodwillie who has lost all match playing ability he may once have had and will have to go down several levels to try and get it back. But that was obvious from day one. As most of us were saying in the summer, the money for main and Wilson (and May) should have been pooled to get one striker instead. Awful signings. Greg Leigh has been the only decent signing this season (and I don't actually think he's that good). Taylor hasn't been bad maybe. That's another atrocious return.

I'd rather he got another 6 months of weekly championship fitba over sitting on our bench. We need to do what's in the player's best interest at this stage. I think we'll have a far better young player next season with a good season of fitba behind him.

The player himself has addressed it on numerous occasions, he simply wasn't working hard enough and needed to understand that for himself. He was turned down by numerous teams after leaving us. It happens. That said, I still don't see a guy who'd score significant goals down south. He doesn't have the physique or pace. Reminds me of a Kris Boyd type. At present, I'd rather have an improving Cosgrove (assuming he continues to improve).

Is that not pretty much standard in all transfers with a fee these days? Since the days of Fraser leaving, we've always had one in. It's kind of what you need to do in order to sign a young player in contract. Probably the way it should work too. Carlisle deserve something in the same way as we would have if Fraser moved. No big deal.

Agreed. It's akin to gambling. The club would never allow it. Not even for the player's health, but the club's image. The first thing they'd do is get him help to stop, then he'd stop. If it's on a chat site, then the club would know about it and would have dealt with it. If it was on AFC chat then the club would likely know it's someone posting a wind up and would dismiss it. It's clearly not true. Kids vape these days anyway.

I'd probably go along with that. I trust the sports scientist guys to get it - for the most part - correct. We're a fit team as far as I can see. Ferguson looks absolutely fine for a young loon too, and I think McGinn just has a different body shape rather than a weight issue. Very difficult to tell without seeing them with their tops off, which I don't think is necessary! McGinn also works his arse off in games, including St Mirren, but often with little return. The midfield have been in and out through injury, so it's difficult to tell. For me, the biggest thing is the amount of wasted energy in a game. We have players moving up and down, but we're too slow to move the ball. Ferguson covered a huge amount of ground at the weekend coming back into his preferred position and back up the pitch again. We're making the wrong runs in the wrong areas, and taking a first "possession" touch backwards where a turn would be more efficient. Furthermore, we keep players that aren't performing on for far too long, expending more fruitless energy. McInnes loves this type of shite, there's no way on earth he won't be monitoring players' distance travelled, heart rates, diets etc., he just misses the tactical basics all too often. That results in wasted energy, and also lethargy as our own players [must] see that things are not working.

At the same time, there are probably quite a few who have no wish to tell our most succesful manager in a long time to get to fuck either. That's the problem with fitba songs though, they're all or nothing. "Derek, don't play 3 fucking holding midfielders at once" doesn't really fit into a tune. "Derek, make a sub! Derek, Derek, make a sub!" would have been quite nice at around the 50-55th minute mark (or the 2nd minute mark given the obviously shite starting line up). He's bringing it on himself like, although - again - I'd question why the fuck he thinks that his job is safe enough to play three holding midfielders in an entertainment sport against a poorer opponent. What is happening above him that he is comfortable in that flawed decision? The knives didn't need to be out, there were very simple changes he could have made to prevent that.

Agreed. It's almost like he couldn't face missing out on mcgeouch and see him go elsewhere so he signed him. It's a dilemma for a club like Aberdeen because we're not used to having 3 players of similar standard in that position. Normally we'd have a Ball or Vyner type to provide cover in a few positions so they generally got 25-30 games a season anyway. Everyone was reasonably happy. McInnes has left himself short in other positions in order to strengthen an already reasonably strong area. He's going to have to tell a half decent midfielder that they're now cover whilst playing an arguably worse player in another role unless he picks up a good attacking midfielder this week. Thing is, today's midfield would be entirely acceptable next week against the hun when we need possession and to be solid. Just not in 90% of other matches.

That happens all the time. It's not a huge issue. The fact that he was given 18 minutes to change an entire team's approach to the game was the problem. With Anderson being hung out to dry with 8 minutes to be the hero or not feature for another 3 weeks. I don't understand what McInnes saw in the first 45 minutes that he thought would lead to a goal? What did he see in the next ten minutes, and the ten after that? Is he just simply too frightened to drop one of the three players he's got that are too similar in style? It's certainly a difficult decision, as neither is really much worse than the other, but it's having a hugely detrimental effect on the team.

Think so, Ojo near the end there. In fairness, there were several times when we should have shot and plenty of times when our shooting was shite, but our terrible approach to the game was only every going to end in speculative efforts being the closest we came, or set-pieces. Hedges should have been on from the start, but how the fuck can an actual football manager wait until 70 minutes to make that change? What the fuck did he think he was watching. We deserved to lose that game for playing so negative. Somebody at board level has to be holding that shite to account. Anti-entertainment.

At least McGinn is making the effort, trying to get into positions. He's not completing the passes however, although that's not helped by our entirely predictable setup and systemic lack of movement up front. Ferguson spent the entire half dropping deep to take the ball rather than stretching them wide and giving the other two midfielders some space. Basic knowledge of fitba would have told anyone this would happen, but if McInnes was struggling to spot it, then re-watch the fucking Motherwell game. I await the 65th-minute-subTM

McInnes sticks with 3 similar centre midfielders because he doesn't want to drop one again. Expect a win, but another shitefest. Kennedy starts, which can only be an improvement on playing Gallagher there. Strikes me as very similar to hedges and mcginn. Can beat a man but doesn't quite have the pace to hit the byline like Hayes or even gms could. Expect a lot of cutting back and back again before crossing like mcginn does. Might suit Cosgrove if the crosses are good enough