RicoS321

It's already a fuck up. Even if they got the best possible implementation it would still be honking.

I'd think that McRorie to right back is the best move. I said at the start of the season that it'd probably be his best position given his lack of football ability for midfield and positioning for defence. Stewart needs the support too that McRorie's work rate (it's the lack of work rate that has been the most disappointing aspect of Richardson's game) will provide. Clarkson has to come back in, and I'd probably have Barron too (as you say, injury allowing). Maybe bench Vinny. Miovski I'd keep in the team at this stage. He had a terrible game at the weekend, but that was clear from the fifth minute and the time to deal with that was around 50 minutes into that game. Strikers should be allowed an off day and he's generally been good, especially at home. Ramirez should have been given 40 minutes to prove himself, but wasn't, so let Miovski start with a view to replacing at halftime if he's not at it. It has to be one of those two for me, as Duk has serious positional issues. He's like the ball-chasing primary kid. The opponents just drift away from him, and I don't think you can afford that against a half decent team. For me, that rules him out playing alongside another striker (unless as a sub when required), and when he's played up front on his own he rarely seems available to receive the ball. He's like a guy with lots of talent that has only ever played in his back garden against some chairs. I'm not sure how he's ever going to work.

For me, it's more the fact that they've reused it rather than just kept it to one player. Rooooooos seems fine, and it'd have the added benefit of sounding like we're trying to put him off his kicking. Thus when the away fans are actually attempting that, as they were in the utd game, he might not be distracted by it. Duk just needs a new song. He came from Cape Verde To pittodrie street Where he shat on the jambos With his lightening quick feet He pished on the Arabs And jizzed on the Huns Luis Lopez is our Duk Keep making the runs Needs work.

One Celtic goal, there was only one blame for the second. There's no sentimentality, just pragmatism. It doesn't matter anyway, it's clear that Stewart is worse than him and Scales has missed several games and been inconsistent otherwise. We were promised exciting signings in that area and the opposite has occurred.

He's good at covering the fullbacks and moving the ball on. Sitting in front of the defence basically. He's a very poor version of Ryan Jack basically, and at 26 I'm not convinced we're going to see a huge improvement in the time he's here. We've basically had to change the formation in order to fit him in, and I don't think we can continue with that. Barron can sit and cover the fullbacks as well as bringing the ball forward, sliding through a pass and being strong in the tackle, there's very little need for a guy who can only do the basics. This was to be expected though, the recruitment of an entire team was never really going to work. With the best will in the world, recruitment is always going to be a bit pot luck. Guys like Ramadani would be fine any other season, because we could work with him and incorporate into our squad, but when every other player is a new signing you're kind of burdened with them. It's why I was extremely surprised that we didn't get a single player with proven SPFL experience. Whilst it seems to have taken McGrath a while to perform, you could see yesterday what he offers in this league. Having that relative safety net in a signing counts for a lot, especially with the magnitude of our turnover. Likewise, having Considine for another year or two would have saved a lot of headaches in our team selections and he definitely wouldn't have been bullied by Tony fucking Watt in the way that Scales and Stewart were (I think Scales will turn out to be a very good player, just inconsistent with us so far and lacking a little experience). There are a couple of glaring errors in our recruitment though. It's criminal that Stewart's pace didn't come up in our scouting. Strikes me that he was very much a Goodwin signing, I think he mentioned having watched him previously. Stewart would be fantastic for St Mirren or Livingston, where they often sit in with little gap between midfield and defence. He's like Obileye (but perhaps worse) in that regard. We're asking him to come out with the ball and also cover that large gap as we pile forward with our attacking football. He's completely unsuitable for the way we're asking him to play. That's where I'd expect our recruitment team to be able to talk some sense into our manager (the same problem occurred time and time again under McInnes), and use "the data" to explain that just because Goodwin saw a guy when St Mirren manager, that doesn't mean he's good enough for Aberdeen, or a particular style of football. Thing is, we can't afford to do the same again in January and the summer, recruitment has to be incremental (which is why Cormack's neglecting of it for three consecutive windows was so destructive). That means a back to basics approach with some of the team. Ramadani can stick to his one track covering, Richardson concentrate on just running up and back again (he often forgets the latter) and Stewart sticks to heading and short passing or punting it. It's going to take us at least another two windows to fix the mess we've created. Hopefully Cormack can now see that throwing money at his problems doesn't really work either. There's a lot of expensive dross in those signings.

I mean, Richardson was absolutely honking. Fannied out of everything and is just terrible at football. Stewart exactly the same, just too slow for this league. We need to be dropping our captain. Unfortunately, you'd then have to replace him with McRorie who isn't good enough either. It was like they were having a competition to see who could provide the worst distribution. Miovski should have been replaced by Ramirez not long after halftime, it was clearly not working for him. Coulson's defending for those first two was criminal. Like he thought it was too easy so ended up not bothering. They shitfested just enough to see them through the first 30 minutes or so, breaking up play and fouling constantly, and then we gave up. It's annoying that there's a penalty to gripe about, because we deserve those decisions going against us when we play like that. McGrath was very good for them. Clarkson decent for us.

Scales in for Kennedy, McRorie back into midfield. Makes sense for an away game.

I would have set one up if we'd moved to Westhill.

Considine scores against the Tims.

0-3 the dons. Ojo hat trick.

Messi or Messiah?

They need to take into account any potential postponements given that there is still an elderly royal in place.

The Goodwin incident isn't the same as Neilson, not even close. Goodwin has admitted to trying to influence a ref prior to a game (happens, of course, but not openly!), as well as calling a player a cheat (Neilson described an incident as blatant cheating, rather than a player, there is a clear difference). It was a ridiculous overreaction from Goodwin to a match where he got the tactics wrong, tried to see it through until half time and failed. The blame for the game lay squarely at his door, and it was just a pathetic deflection taken too far. The punishment is absolutely ridiculous though and the Dons should appeal. I don't think the Neilson example should be highlighted in defence, but I'm certain that Lennon or some cunt has done similar over the years and others. As Al points out, a lesser punishment for Tonev is a good barometer. I'd love to see the thought process behind the 8 games.

Excessive punishment in response to excessive post-match reaction. Both as bad as each other.

In the squad last night against the Huns. You'd think they'd have allowed him a cameo appearance to nail Jack, even if not fully fit. I'm guessing he gave the pre match talk on why everyone should hate the Huns.

Realised that with ever increasing numbers of these, we should really have a thread dedicated to them. There's enough continents covered in the forum that one of us will have first hand experience. Was wondering if anyone had heard from Orlando don after the recent hurricane Ian in Florida?

Why does your house need sitting? Worried it might get lonely?

There was no story. Just a suggestion that McInnes must've been sleeping with Taylor's wife before we'd ever have considered re-signing him. A joke mainly. Did anyone see the lad flying down the steps in the lower deck after the third goal? Classic.

Apologies, I was struggling to decipher the club's message. I thought we'd signed a player now, that we were then going to execute in January. I thought it was some form of sacrificial thing being introduced by our American friends to increase the zealotry within the club.

Was trying to embed a twatter link on here, but not sure of the process. Anyway, dons have signed Aaron Reid fae Turra whilst simultaneously entering the worst sentence in history competition: "The Club can confirm it has reached agreement with @TurriffUnitedFC to transfer rising talent, Aaron Reid, who has signed a contract with the Dons which will officially be executed in January."

You appear to be forgetting Sam Cosgrove.

The only other reason I can think of is that we're limiting his minutes until he agrees to sign a new contract. It needs to happen soon, and obviously Barron too, but at some point we'll likely have to cut our losses with perhaps both of them I think. I was disappointed when we signed Morris (or Roberts, can't remember which!), as it was clear that this could be a break through season for Duncan and he was always going to hinder that. I assumed that he was a hidden gem that they couldn't pass up, but he looks like the result of a really drunk night out with the scouting laptop. There are basic parts of his game that lend to being shite that should have been spotted. Duncan runs with the ball at his feet, Morris kicks it then chases it. The latter approach always comes up against the limitations of your own pace, and Morris doesn't appear to have anything special in that regard (unlike Richardson). He appears to be a monumental fanny too, and doesn't track back effectively. He'll join Samuels at ICT, who was very similar and found his level. It's frustrating because it's a signing that didn't need to happen. If we'd recognised that Duncan was on his way up, a simple Jenks-like loan deal for 6-12 months to bolster the squad and ensure that Duncan isn't playing too many minutes would have been fine (and exactly how we should be using the loan system). We have Besuijen, Watkins, Duk, Hayes, Kennedy, maybe Roberts (and Coulson if stretched) who can all play wide while still allowing plenty of minutes for Duncan. Morris doesn't deserve the time he is getting on the pitch, he shouldn't be allowed back on until others are given their opportunity.

Aye, Hayes excellent again today, as was Coulson. That 4-1-4-1 setup definitely the key to this side. Ramadani just sitting in front keeping things moving and not involving himself further forward too often is perfect. It made us relatively comfortable with a pairing of Vinny and Kennedy (who both played well today too) in front. I think it'd be harsh to drop either of them, but a bit of a different game away from home and maybe not the best idea. Credit to Goodwin for the brave tactics, which we wouldn't have seen under his opposite number today. 18 goals for is a phenomenal return so far this season and bodes well. Generally it's the team with the better goal difference that rises to the top (of the rest, anyway).

Interesting side, McKenzie in and McRorie into midfield has to be the obvious move. I remember us playing against killie (or St Mirren) ages ago and Hayes played central midfield for us and he was immense. The player he destroyed that day? Jim Goodwin. I wonder if he's thinking that might be repeatable. Watkins in is good to see. Duk could have only taken the place of Miovski so it's no surprise to see him dropped. His all round play against Hibs wasn't great. A great option from the bench

Just heading off for this one. Looking forward to it, but very apprehensive about the suspensions and how that affects the team. I think it has to be McKenzie or Milne at the back. Ramadani in front and then McRorie and another behind Miovski. That 4-1-4-1 is definitely the best shape I've seen this season. With Clarkson out, I'd be tempted to play either Kennedy or Hayes in the other midfield position. We simply couldn't cope with Duk playing with Miovski, he doesn't have the game intelligence.