RicoS321

I think you've misunderstood his point. He didn't mean pressure by getting in their faces, he meant pressure from their fans the longer the game went on without them scoring. He was playing to frustrate them, hence the 6 defenders.

Nonsense. Our formation was designed to let them come to us. We had 6 defenders on the pitch, and didn't play a pressing game. McInnes clearly thought we could absorb pressure and then pick them off later in the game. That is how both Dundee and Hamilton beat them recently. However, we don't have the personnel to do this as we're too weak in midfield.

Considine is clearly not shite. He's a good SPL player. Not afraid to take the ball. However, he should never ever be playing left of a back 5 especially not as a wing back. He has been consistently decent at left back in recent years defensively, and puts in a shift every week. He's been hung out to dry on numerous occasions this season due to obviously shite tactics not just not suited to his strengths, but actively targeting his weakness (pace). Agree regarding Logan though. He hasn't offered anything going forward for about a season now. He checks back all the time, and never hits the touchline when he clearly has the pace and ability to. Compare that to Tavernier today, and it's night and day. That said, Tavernier was quickly covered by Jack and the ither cunt every time he fucked off up the park. I wonder if McInnes tells Logan to take no risks on the ball? I don't think it's that, I think it's his own caution, but it's really stifling his game.

Yes, but I have to admit I was thinking it when he was taken off and O'Connor kept on. At least he can kick the ball with his left foot.

Exactly. McInnes has absolute form against the hun for this shite setup. He did it in the game here last season and was bailed out by a Maddison free-kick. He also tried it against Motherwell and the Tims with the same fucking awful effect. And against a really shite Hertz team and got a draw. It's nothing to do with the speculation and everything to do with McInnes' absolute cautious approach to management as shown over the last few years. He sets his teams up to manage the opposition (or attempt to) rather than playing to our own strengths in the most important games. He didn't shitebag it against the hun at Ibrox the last time, and we won convincingly. We're good enough to beat them, but we're not good enough to beat them by not playing our most potent formation and style. Especially when our personnel - Tansey, O'Connor, Considine - cannot play in the roles they're being selected for. Fucking fuming. When's thon Black and Gold night so I can give McInnes a right good earful?

^^^^This. His performances shouldn't even be on our radar a the moment, easily in the top 5-6 players, no point in even mentioning him - especially not in every fucking match thread. McKenna the only one who didn't disgrace himself tonight, with a decent performance (Lewis was a'rtie I suppose). But, as everyone has already mentioned, shite-bagged it before the match started. No one on earth would have picked a back 5 with our personnel. Awful management. We're way short in centre mid. I was given abuse for suggesting that Tansey was nowhere near good enough to replace Jack, tonight showed that he's barely on the same park. It's blatantly obvious that he doesn't have the pace and positional ability to play the role that McInnes expects of that midfielder, I can't believe he looked at Tansey and saw something there. It's like his Storey signing. Visibly not good enough. Unfortunately, O'Connor is proving inept in that role too against any above-average opposition. As expected, cause he's clearly a fucking defender. What made it worse was, because we started with such a fucking awful formation, we effectively needed two subs to restore any form of game plan, and McInnes was never going to do that. If we'd started with the team that began the second half, we wouldn't have been chasing the game and, if we had lost a goal, we could have made positive changes to alter it instead of having to rip up our entire game "plan" and start again with little room for error. Christie now missing for the weekend, so looks like we'll have to start two of Stewart, Wright and GMS. Although I expect to see Reynolds in midfield with Considine on the wing.

I don't believe that Pardew is a better football manager than McInnes.

Meh, bit cuntish. Raise some decent points, in among their blatant pathetic Christian yank bullshit. Wouldn't get tired of punching them in the cocks. Populism for the hard of thinking.

Or at least it would be a paper exercise if we weren't actively trying to sell it. Revaluing the property downwards just before selling it to our property developing chairman on the cheap for him to build hooses on Pittodrie....... it's a conspiracy.

He certainly wasn't keen last time out. As far as I'm aware, he doesn't need the work desperately. I think he'd have been keeping a keen eye on McInnes' reaction to it all and weighing up the likelihood of being hung out to dry by another club (as he was in Egypt recently). I hope he doesn't join them, I quite like him and thought he was ace as a player and was good as Scotland manager too. I think it'd be a terrible move for him, and possibly last if it all goes wrong.

^^This. Also, on Moult, we've clearly missed the boat. I, and others, mentioned at the time that the summer was the time where we had to buy Moult. He was clearly a player on the rise and the chance had to be taken then to capitalise on that rise. If we'd gone for it with our bid in the summer, we'd have probably qualified for the europa, perhaps the league cup final (definitely the semi) and would have had a player worth more than when we bought him. I really can't get over how poor a decision it was not to match Motherwell's asking price given the timing of the approach.

Nope. He's the top scorer this season and the best proven striker at the club. I think May is an all round better player and provides us with something that Rooney doesn't and so should start more often than not, but Rooney still has a huge role to play; certainly this season. The only time we should consider getting rid of Rooney is when we have two strikers that are clearly better than him. That's a long way off at the minute, and if that ever happens within Rooney's contract, then he should be allowed to leave. I doubt that'll happen in January though. If we do get a striker in January (which I think we should) then we'd need to give the new guy at least 6 months before even considering letting Rooney go. Could you imagine we signed someone like Maynard and let Rooney go thinking we had his position covered? Don't think McInnes would make that error. To add, we started the game with the same formation that has been an absolute success with Rooney at the front of it. It's been a long time since we've had that formation with Rooney up front (I don't think it's happened this season? Perhaps early europe before he got injured). We've been dicking around with two up front and 3 at the back with no support from midfield and so on, and it has been exhaustively shown that it doesn't work unless against poorer opposition. It has to be Rooney or May starting each game, not both. That'll get us a return from both players. If we're going defensive, with 3 at the back or whatever, then it has to be the more mobile May. If we're starting both then it has to be in 4-4-2 and they have to be closer together and get the ball to them quicker.

Aye, it was a fucking shocker like. It was the ref to blame though, there was nothing in that at all that could be considered worthy of a pen. It wasn't like he was fooled by the dive, he could clearly see the faint touch that he gave the pen for and chose to give it. Awful decision, ruining another cup final. Tims support, doing their glorious phone light bullshite again like the best fans in the world that they are. Fucking pathetic cunts, lapping up yet another vacuous hollow victory bought and paid for 100 times over.

Good win, some decent performances. Shakey spell, well cancelled out by an excellent May goal. Terrible linesmanning for the disallowed goal - really bad. In a closer game that could have been costly. Whilst Reynolds was calming and decent when he came on, it was a worrying move ahead of Wednesday's game. McInnes likes to try out formations ahead of "bigger" games that he intends using. It was clear that moving back to our normal set-up today made a big difference, especially allowing McLean to play further forward and maybe getting man of the match (him or May or Shinnie or McKenna). Whilst I prefer Shinnie at left back, Considine played quite well and Shinnie did well in midfield. Based on recent evidence, I don't think Tansey and McLean or O'Connor and McLean or Tansey and O'Connor as a combo in the midfield will cut it, and the 4-2-3-1 is by far our best shape. I'd start the same team against the hun, but consider Wright or Stewart in for GMS who was fairly gash after the first ten minutes and maybe Arneson back in for O'Connor. As an aside, I thought the pitch was quite decent today. Killie's seems to be far truer and with a lot more give than Hamilton's for some reason. Whilst the SPFL pitches haven't started to cut up yet, it'll be happening shortly if this weather continues and that pitch is significantly better than Pittodrie has been for large spells in recent years. Arneson didn't feel he could play on it for whatever reason, but I don't think it's nearly as bad as some other surfaces - including grass pitches - in our league.

Chris Frae Killie nae gan to Killie? That'd be like Garlogie_Granite nae gan to an away game in Westhill.

It's a steaming pile of absolute cunt. It's a fucking wind tunnel that entirely ruins the area. A glass box of fuckery that nae cunt will rent so the public foots the bill.

Aye, it was overly sensible. Tommy Wright's a good example though. I made up my mind in the first second of seeing that fairmer taking to the pitch that he was a fucking awful fitba'r, so I never really got the chance to not hate him. Stockley fits the bill perfectly though, I knew there'd be one. I thought he could be an asset, especially in the winter games with rutted pitches, and he looked okay(ish) in a couple of games early doors. Whilst I couldn't really hate the guy, I very much wanted him to leave because we needed to be doing much better. Although Magennis would also fit that description, despite us not having replaced him with anyone better to date.

His brother Jimi was a better musician.

I have to admit, I rarely "turn against" a dons player. I make up my mind pretty quickly if I don't like them and usually either stick to it or start to like them despite their shiteness (Ash Taylor the most recent of those). I also try and see the circumstances that they're in and not try and see everything in black and white. Aluko was a good example, I just didn't get the hate for the guy. He was inconsistent like many in his position (see McGinn) and looked like he was permanently unhappy (see McGinn), but he was still a great player on his day, or if you could at all get the ball to him quickly. He was playing under the fucking drain that is McGhee and was often just given the ball and expected to do something without the support of his teammates. We made no attempt whatsoever to play to his strengths. Moreover, these guys are loons in their 20s and early 30s. I don't expect them to be mature, committed or consistently good. I canna hold a grudge, I'm a fucking adult (when I choose to be) and I try and give them the benefit of the doubt in every game for as long as possible (two minutes in Maynard's case). You never know a player's mental capacity, what's happening behind the scenes or even the instructions he's given on the pitch, so I tend to reserve my thoughts for the manager, who's responsible for the cunts. Even then it's difficult to hate that much, such is the up-and-downness of fitba. I didnae dislike Flood, and thought he was very professional, but I thought we could have done without him in his last 6 months with the dons and was glad when he left. That's the most recent one I can think of.

Played less than 50 games after leaving the dons. Staggering really. That'll teach the cunt. Mine he scored against Partick fae the half way line for us. Was a fantastic player.

Interesting, fit was the answer? Surely talent is just a function of hard work? Just whether that hard work was front loaded in the early years as part of development, it would be classed as innate talent? In other words, there's no such thing as "talent" per say, it's just an accumulation of experience and physical/biological traits over a period of time? Nobody is born an amazing passer, like Kenny McLean or John Inglis, they just spent many an hour in their younger years perfecting those skills. I've nae idea like, I'm just guessing, you've done the research. In terms of money though, it is obvious. In the modern game, both hard-work and "talent" are bought and paid for. From the highlights, it was noticeable that the players were chasing that ball down all over the park. I don't believe that those players were doing that because of a huge amount of managerial input, rather they were bought and paid for because they had that work-ethic attribute in abundance hence their existing stature in the game. Given the "measurability" of player attributes these days and the amount of money available to certain teams, it's easier to buy success in yer respective pool of teams. Buying Neymar at that level is no different to buying someone like Armstrong at SPL level. Armstrong was bought with his existing attributes of skill and obvious work ethic that were greater than the rest at his level. It's why Rodgers has such an easy job. Which, for some reason, bought him the space to say "we'll maybe lose 5-0" before getting absolutely tanked in McGhee-esque fashion. If money allows you to buy a player that has that strong work ethic and pre-developed talent, then it'll take a particularly shite manager to remove that. The obvious marginal gain from surrounding a player with better players is also guaranteed if you can buy better players. The question from the above pish is, I suppose, does the biggest amount of marginal gain a manager can achieve occur at purchase time? Buy well, play well as it were.

I'm not buying that. Why would a football club tell a player he was "too small" when aged 14? That doesn't make sense. As ignorant as Jimmy was (although could it have been 2003 he was released; before Jimmy?), I'm pretty certain he wouldn't just ignore the fact that boys don't stop growing until around 16. Although, Jimmy being a dick, it wouldn't surprise me if he just told Templeton that it was his size that was the issue to make him feel better. Probably called him a wierdo too like O'Leary and Lovell.

I stand corrected. Released in 2004, so must have been Jimmy. Good shout. Although he's not exactly been amazing so far and now only just playing at a very good level. Also, he has less caps than Ryan Jack, Seve, Nicholson etc. so he'd have really only benefited us for a couple of years in the McGhee era. I put him in the same boat as someone like Don Cowie. Good player, but not a minimal improvement on what we have got/had at best. Interesting, Slim, I had forgotten about Nuttall. I think that's where those youngsters have really missed out under McInnes. In his effort to "build a squad", we've had some seriously shite filler that is no better than the youth prospects we had/have coming through at the time. You could replace Maynard with Stockley and Storey in yer point and the effect would be the same. I'd rather have seen Nuttall coming on for us than one of those two last season. However, Blackburn are fairly pap, and Stockley is "banging them in" for Exeter or some shite too.

I'm not having Coutts. He spent many years as an average midfielder in the lower leagues of England, so it's taken him a long time to come good (not to say he wouldn't have with us). We've had players like Seve and Nicholson in that time who were easily as good, if not better. Also, I don't remember him ever being on our books (I suspect if he was it may have even been before Calderwood), he was just at Cove where he was seen as a good prospect from what I remember? Was never particularly small there either. The good thing about our youth system is that it hasn't produced many talents that "got away". Mostly they were all pish. A handful came through to the first team and lasted the course or went elsewhere for a fee. Really you'd have to look back to a player like Maloney for any sort of example of a player that was let go that we didn't want to keep. In itself, I think that shows that we've got a reasonable record for retaining the correct players. Guys like Anderson, Hart, Clark etc we kept and made money from. Guys like Grimmer, Fraser, Maguire we tried to keep but they didn't want to stay. I can't think of any other than Maloney, and even he had a number of shite years in between a good start and a good end to his career. Then there's Dennis Law of course. That's the thing, there's always a shout fae the taxi driver/man in the pub that we let hunners of players go because they're too small, but actually that's a very rare occurrence and they generally can't name one if asked. Our main problem is not producing good players in the first place. I could name about 100 who've gone on to do nothing.

Those percentages don't ring a bell, I don't remember the Donalds being given that shareholding. If they had, I think it would have had to been offered to other investors, as it would surely have diluted their holding? I don't suppose it matters, just interesting. I agree with you about Milne's tenure, it has been disappointing. Although I suspect Ian Donald would have done a far worse job. Not that they were the only two possibilities of course. The worst decision of his spell being the RDS. How a developer could look at that stand and think that it was a good idea is staggering - a complete lack of foresight. At some point there must have been a plan in place for the remaining 3 stands, so what happened to it? It has - potentially - meant that we have to vacate our actual home and move outside the city to which the club belongs. That's staggeringly incompetent and wildly negligent in terms of a responsible fitba team chairmanship. If you'd said that, that would be our future, to a dons fan 30 years ago they'd think you were a fucking idiot. Nobody could possibly make such a shite move for the club? But it's happened. However, from a business perspective, it probably doesn't look too bad. The relevant major shareholders haven't really lost out over the years and there's still a valuable land asset retained.