RicoS321

It's a fitba forum, where we discuss fitba, nobody needs to do anything. I'm not actually Derek McInnes looking for advice. I'm simply intrigued why people think it's a mental thing (against the huns) and not just the fact that on the day this season, they've had the better players. I don't think "it's a mental thing" holds water and isn't backed up by the evidence (we beat them twice last season). I'm wondering how people would have set up in our last game against the huns that would have got us the win, because as far as I good see we played our best team, but were deficient in the striker area and in centre midfield. All people seem to say is "press them high up the park", which is all very good, but we have Adam Rooney doing the pressing which means you just take a few steps to the side and you have 3 seconds advantage, and now your pressing midfielder is way out of position. They simply change to 3 at the back and play Tavernier high up the park doubling up on Considine. Which is what happened, and was always going to happen. If I was a manager of any team from Hearts upward just now and we play the team that we did against the huns (even with McGinn in for Stewart), I'd be confident of getting a win against us. Not because of the "mental" side, but because there are very obvious ways to play against us that - if you have good enough players - you'll get the win. Rocket's formation/style would work a treat, but we don't have the personnel to do it and certainly didn't the last time we played the huns. I agree, I think that with Celtic we'd have to ride our luck a little, hope that they have injuries and that we have our best team out. I wouldn't put them in the same category as the hun, although I think we should be aiming for 4 points off them in a season (one win at home and a draw in the remaining 3 fixtures). Again, our deficiencies in midfield and striker are going to mean we struggle - we played Stockley against them in the cup final last season, which at least allowed us to try and hit the long pass at a target an they kept a couple of guys back because of this. As for other teams, they generally play either a big striker or a quick striker up front, which allows them to be either direct, or to press. Usually they play a midfield 5 and a back 3 which counteracts the width of the hun/tim and if they get brutal enough in midfield they can pick up the point on the day. We've seen how bad our defence are with a back 3 as we don't have the discipline at left wing back (we did with Hayes), and if we take Shinnie out of midfield there is no adequate replacement there either. There are very obvious ways for other teams to play against the hun/tim which gives them a slight chance to win. They still need a hell of a lot of luck, determination and hope that the other team take their eye off it - which I'd say happens more against other teams than us.

That's a 4-2-3-1, which is what we went with. The "fuck knows who else" and "May if he's fit" is what I'm getting at here. I'll say it again, I'm not excluding McInnes from blame here, I'm saying it is his fault for making poor signings; that we're not good enough on the park rather than something more mental (the two wins last season would back that up I'd have thought). However, I've yet to hear someone - including you above - present a system that we could have used against the huns in the last game that would have beaten them. Rooney largely prevents the pressing game that other teams have used successfully and the lack of centre mid means we can't nullify and attack them on the left with Shinnie at fullback. I just think we're over-playing the "not up for it", when the evidence points to us being fairly deficient in key areas of the pitch.

I'm not asking whether you agree/disagree, you've not answered the question. What team and setup do we deploy to beat them? I'm not talking about games in previous seasons. I'm talking this season (we took 6 out of 12 points off them last season so it's largely irrelevant anyway).

I think St Johnstone will be in the playoff with Hamilton straight doon. St J are pap this season. Seriously pap. They have zero players of any recognisable value.

Again, I'm not hearing you/anyone explain what setup and personnel you'd play against the huns that would get the edge over them at Ibrox? We were up for it at Ibrox, we were just beaten by a better side. I accept that the circus surrounding McInnes in the previous couple meant we were very much out of sorts, but I can't believe anyone can't see that the deficiencies in our team are more pronounced against better teams and that has way more impact on results than belief or being up for it. Our weaknesses are way too easy to pinpoint if you have the players that can do it (something the other teams in the league don't). I'm not absolving McInnes of blame here, I'm simply pointing to the fact that its more to do with his signings (lack of signings) in key areas rather than his ability to motivate.

It's like the McInnes situation all over again. Churning out the forming Scotland players. Naismith describing him as the "safe" option. Aye, that's what we need. The absurdity being that McLeish was a better Scotland manager who's clearly also available if you wanted to go down the easy appointment route. Strangely (not really of course), they're not touting Craig Brown who also had a better record than Smith as Scotland manager. Walter Smith looks after Walter Smith, and so he'd definitely take the job. It'll be the easiest qualification for a tournament he's likely to get, and those are the conditions that Smith loves. Huns when they could buy the league (and announced he'd leave when they couldn't), Scotland after Vogts, Huns after Le Guen - Smith is shrewd enough to know when to take a job to serve himself best. I think he'll take us to the Euros like, but I believe anyone from McLeish, Strachan, Clark, McInnes and even Malky would be able to too.

I think McInnes is very aware of how much we detest them, he's not an idiot. He's a very methodical and structured manager. He looks at teams and works out how to beat them - preferably if we can do that within our own preferred formation. He looks at the Tims (especially) and the huns and doesn't see a way to set our personnel up to beat them (most definitely not with our preferred line up v the rest) - hence the tinkering. It was the same against Apollon, who are roughly in the same league as us and those two. For what it's worth, I can actually see where his issue is. Other teams can gamble on the high pressing for 20 minutes and hope to get a goal and then sit in and catch them - they'll get lucky at least once a season. We don't have that, and we don't have a forward capable of providing it (perhaps May one day) in Rooney. McInnes has failed to address that and I think he struggles to see other ways of breaking the better teams down. Given that Nwakali looks like a black Willow Flood, it might offer us a little more coming midfield in this regard. Both Flood and - to an extent - Pawlett offered us that running around and hassling option in that top area of the pitch that got us success against the Tims a couple of years back. Otherwise, I'm struggling to see what formation and personnel we could currently use against the Tims (and away to the hun anyway) that would get us the win, and I've yet to see any suggestion of one on any of the forums aboot the place. It's not enough to just be "up for it", you need an actual workable strategy too.

It wasn't heart or mindset, he doesn't have the attributes to play at a higher level. The heart and mindset might have almost got him to our standard, but he was clearly never good enough to play in a McInnes dons side. It was a bazaar signing. Did anyone raise the following question: "Nicky Maynard?"

Fuck that. No one should be endorsing (which is what I meant to say, rather than suggesting) thon cunt Smith on an Aberdeen message board. I reserve the right to be a cunt on this occasion without apologising. I'd like to apologise for not being able to apologise on this occasion tlg. I should be in politics. I semantic'd the fuck oot of that one.

I did read your post. It was specifically the stuff you just repeated above. His ability to do the job is non-existent and he wasn't as good as McLeish directly after him, nor even Strachan more recently (and that's not to compliment either of those two). He's a self interested cunt who has the knack of coming in and leaving at the right time for himself. Jute points out his dire attempt in the Belarus game, not to mention the Ukraine game and Italy away too, when he produced a formation and set of tactics more embarrassing than Levein's 4-6-0. His CV is riddled with situations where he had resources and left as those resources were dwindling - and thus beginning to show up his huge managerial deficiencies. He's Jimmy Calderwood with more money to spend and the ability to read an employment situation. He can fuck off.

They're just after you for yer money.

Darryl Broadcunt made a good point about this on the radio last night. He said that the 7/8th board still existed that made the decision to go for O'Neill so they should be perfectly capable of going for another manager. Also, that a new chief exec - if currently employed - could feasibly have a 6-12 month notice period, by which point we'd be playing competitive matches again. In an ideal world you'd still be able to involve them in the decision process and so the CEO should be the logical first appointment, however he was correct in that we should have enough competence within the SFA to make a decent appointment without a CEO in place.

What in the world of fuck? He's a fucking dirty hun cunt that plays the most dire football known to man. He's a total fucking dick. If we were guessing: "name the biggest hun fuck ever who should never be considered for another job in management", then the answer "Walter Smith" would be taking the joke to far. He's a fucking despicable fucker. He's so much of a hun that he even took money from Charles Green when he as blatantly screwing over the huns. He's in the David Murray league of utter hun fucks. What the fuck are you even on suggesting such a fucker for the Scotland job? Seriously?

Are you sure your source wasn't referring to McCoist's current salary at the huns?

Exactly DD. It's a gamble - and probably a decent one - that if we finish second, we'll not only cover the costs of that pay-rise for the next two seasons, but also add double the difference in his salary if someone else comes calling. I wouldn't be surprised if there were conditions in there with regard to league position. Coupled with the fact that Milne could never ever be expected to get two solid appointments in a row.

Similar to what SdG mentions above, you could easily have applied this statement to Hayes. Just that Hayes managed it more consistently than GMS.

It's not irrational at all. I'm just paranoid now that I come across on forums like a barbour-jaicket-cunt. It definitely wisnae me (I was a couple of hours earlier).

He looked gash against County, I'm not surprised he was dropped. Good move getting Devlin in, as neither Arnason or O'Connor (who did alright today) have impressed this season. Decent performances by McGinn, Considine, McKenna and McLean today. Logan alright too. Rest were average. Despite having another poor game, we'll struggle in the next two without Shinnie. The boy Nwakali looked pretty suspect when he came on - like a 8 year old playing fitba in a man's body. I think he'd have to be coached through the entire game. Might turn out okay. Nae sure about Woodman either, was strangely (for a modern 'keeper) pap with the ball at his feet. He had one good save today, where he stood up well in a good position. It was similar to the County second the other day that Rogers had a mare with, letting it through his legs in entirely the wrong position. Hopefully Lewis makes a good recovery.

Yesterday morning? I was also at said cafe. I try not to make eye contact with those suspicious types that sit outside. They're there to be seen.

Surely population is a larger factor here? If you compared America with Europe, that'd be fairer. Ironically, the Scandi's brought us the first mass-produced machine gun, which the yanks love so much. So they owe all their child-murdering to the Swedes. I could be wrong of course.

Indeed. I am a total racist.

Regan oot! Edit: Wonder what Gordon Smith is up to?

Depends on yer use of the word "need". I'd say we only really "needed" a striker and wide player (McGinn) to get us through to the end of the season. The rest of the team can hobble through until the summer with a very good chance of finishing second. Devlin is a bonus if we get some games out of him this season. Hopefully the striker will solve some of the glaring deficiencies up front. Hopefully Nwakali will allow Shinnie to play left back in certain games (though I doubt it, I think he'll be pap). January is about scrabbling by and hoping to pick up a few players for next season; it's the same every year. We've done okay (apart from Maynard still hanging about).

Understood. I'm a total racist.

He's white....