LA-Don

Correct, breed negativity and it doesn't inspire and develop confidence. Sorry to the younger viewers, but it's the opposite approach Ferguson took and he didn't do too badly. Interesting to note that a win tonight and we're 8-2-2, our best start in something like 20 years ago. Win our games in hand and we're only 6 points off Rangers, and we'd be level on points with Celtic having played a game more. This, to me, is all the more reason to take games against the old firm as one offs and go for it. His tactics against Rangers and Celtic over the last few years, obviously less so Rangers, have brought minimal return, why not change the approach/mentality?

"He worries about not getting beat so much that we forget how to win." That sounds like he is scared to me. If he focuses so much on not getting punished and not losing that feeds a negative mentality and fear. If that's what he tells players that's what they learn and think. If all you do is focus on the negative you become a negative culture, and that's clear with Celtic (and Rangers now.) I 100% agree Celtic aren't a shit team, but as I and others have commented, they are not Barcelona or Real Madrid. They don't win every game, they make mistakes, and they draw and lose games. But just not against us for the most part since we approach these games with the wrong mindset.

We are scared of Celtic, the manager has ingrained that in us and, for the most part, I don’t know why. One of the reasons I dislike him. He’s set fear deep inside our players that’s extremely hard to get out. It’s like he treats Celtic (and rangers to an extent) like the best team(s) in the world. He’s taken coaching courses and sets his team out like we’re a world class defensive teams playing top notch opponents. While we weren’t bad last week and it was two poor goals we lost, as naive as I sound, if we go out and play, let the players loose and have a go. DM won’t do that. We’d lose more than we win probably but it would be more inspiring with a better return, and I think we’d all be happier and more proud of our efforts.

Surprised nobody has commented yet. Hayes is apparently out for 3 more games with a groin injury picked up/worsened in training a day or two before the semi. Watkins is out 8 weeks and not even sure we'll see him again as I think we had him until the end of the year? That certainly limits our options up front to 3 guys who have all been significantly injured or beat up in recent weeks, Main, Cosgrove, and Edmondson. I cannot remember who commented, here or elsewhere, but they felt our style of play changed in the semi with Cosgrove in that we were more reliant on the direct to Cosgrove again, rather than attacking with pace and width to feet as we had done in the 3-3 league game. I'm not necessarily saying it was the painful long ball shit of the past, but I think we all agree we've been fun to watch and been successful with the attacking play of Hedges and Wright in particular, hope we don't lose that with Cosgrove back.

I’ll take it a step further, I don’t agree with your fox assessment. I bounce around the channels to try to get balance and perspective, and have done so for the last couple of days in particular to get election perspective. Fox gives some shit and some honesty, just like the majority of the networks, just with a republican perspective. It’s not zero fact like you say. Fox has their idiots like all the other channels, I’d compare Tucker Carlson to the pathetic Don Lemon in a heartbeat for example, both extreme to their side.

Do you watch American news channels? The country is pretty much split 50/50, do you see the media giving a fair assessment and representing both sides? Not that I’m defending fox but they were the only channel that said trump had a chance. CNN used to be my channel but I gave up as they became as much if not more one sided than fox.

Yeah, it's over, I fully expect Biden to take Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin. I also wouldn't be surprised if he ended up winning one or more of Georgia, North Carolina, or Pennsylvania too. The bigger the winning margin the better for a smoother transition, the closer it is the more drama and legal shit to follow. What this election has shown is the complete farce that is American media, as I've said here before. With the exception of Fox they pretty much all called a significant Biden win and have been for months. Same happened 4 years ago too if I recall. I'm sure the Trump side will argue that the one sided media and publicity also cost them the election. It also tells you how divided the country is that a complete lunatic nearly wins. Again. The left scares so many. If this country was a child's toy we'd have thrown it away long ago. Don't see how things get close to being fixed. The republicans have 4 years to find a 'normal' candidate, although an 81 year old Biden surely will not run again in 4 years so they are maybe in the same boat. Maybe that's the fresh start needed?

Fascinating stuff, amazing how a week can change an outlook to an extent. Most feel Cosgrove isn't match fit, understandably, and the player who replaced him has done well in a system that is pleasing to watch. Watkins is injured I think, and both Cosgrove and Main are not inspiring replacements to most, and we fear the change in style of play. If fit I'd certainly hope we go with Edmondson if Watkins doesn't make it. We played our best footie of the year with him in the lineup. No clue what Main brings to the team. I think it will be a dull and uninspiring performance with Cosgrove starting and the natives get more restless. 1-1, Ferguson.

I honestly wasn’t that bothered. Disappointed but it didn’t hurt. Last weeks draw hurt more because we were leading twice and I felt we could have won that game. We gave away two goals, errors, our own fault, and we were two down so early, it was over 23 minutes in and we beat ourselves. In my opinion it hurts more when we feel we’re wronged, unlucky, missed a ton of chances etc. None of that happened today.

Rubbish! On the second goal a defender should attack the ball and head that away, even over his own bar. He waits and balls watches, leaning back waiting for the ball to drop, had plenty of time to move and head it away. He waited. He then allows the ball to cross his body and tries to clear it with his favored left foot, and tries to clear it to his left back side (the right). This allows the Celtic player to play the ball and score. Had he tried correctly (obviously a header is the best option) to clear with his right and back to the side where the cross came from, which again he had time to do, his body shape would have shielded the ball and prevented the Celtic player from ever touching it. Either a headed clearance or right footed clearance and they don't score. He had no clue there was a Celtic player next to him, poor defensive awareness too. Not slating Andy, been mr reliable of late, but a killer goal today that, to me, cost us the game. At 1-0 we're still in it, 2-0 and Celtic were full of confidence, game over.

In my opinion we needed to be near perfect today and we weren’t. We made major mistakes that cost goals, and the second goal was a sucker punch. Game over from that. Celtic are decent, not great, and you can’t give them a two goal start. At 1 we’re still in it but I always felt 2-0 was game over. We weren’t bad but not as good as we needed to be. Ho hum.

I’d agree, going in only two down was his hope. But HT is where DM earns his money. The start of the second and adjustments made will be interesting but it’s a cup semi, we have to come out fighting and attacking.sitting in to protect and not lose a third, plus counter attacking, cannot happen or it’s easy for Celtic.

Wouldn't say the first, a midfielder needs to be supporting him and stepping up to Christie, but a good strike. Second is awful by Andy, attack the cross and head it away, easy stuff! Or step in and clear it with your right foot. He had no clue someone was behind him. Really poor. Big Ash is all over the place too, doesn’t help a back three when two are prone to errors, albeit Andy has been solid for a while. At 2-1 we could make it interesting but getting a goal and not conceding looks a tough ask right now.

Looks like it’s on red tv international so us foreigners get the game!

Red tv international not showing it?

Are we hoping Rico's granny lasts the 90 or does Taylor come off the bench? Certainly hope it's the former. I'd start with Rico's team too and go at them from the start. While we took the lead last week without Wright, I'd rather push up and try to get ahead, taking Wright off when we go into game management mode in the second half. We should create more with Wright and Hedges fresh and playing together, hope we're not so reliant on penalties this game. I also think Watkins coming on in the second half gives us added pace and mobility against a tiring Celtic defense which isn't a bad thing. He'll run his socks off, chase lost causes, and try to hold the ball if we're holding a lead and sitting more leaving him a bit isolated, that's not really Sam's game.

We’re due a win over Celtic, why not this weekend? Last Sunday has to have given us confidence, plus hopefully McInnes remembers that mccrorie is a central midfielder. I didn’t see last Sunday, but I thought we’d already tried and failed with mccrorie at right wing back. And an empty Hamden helps us too. A week for Sam to get fitter and he plays in a friendly tomorrow I believe, along with the others needing the run out. I expect Sam to start Sunday, especially given he gives defenders the shits and Celtics defense is their weakness. Celtic have a tough week. They have to travel and Lille are a decent side. Joint top of their league with PSG plus the only undefeated team in France. And they beat Sparta Prague 4-1 last week. Celtic do have COVID players coming back I think, but euro travel these days causes concern and anything can happen with COVID. 2-1 us, Cosgrove, and mccrorie with the winner!

Also not sure how you separate Black from McGhee, Simpson from Cooper, and on his day even Dougie Bell with those two midfielders. I will say McKimmie was the best right back in Scotland for a long time. Definitely splitting hairs, a fantastic team all around and definitely legends, plying for arguably the best team in Europe. (Was gutted to lose to Porto in the semis in 84, should have won in Europe that year too!)

I always argued with my mates that Peter Weir was better than Davie Cooper and David Provan, and was the best wide player in Scotland. Biased of course, and I think it was John Robertson who also prevented Weir from getting more caps. Given he roasted the best of England in Mick Mills, then was excellent in Europe, wonder what would have happened to his international career had he played for a 'bigger' club (although who was bigger than Aberdeen in 1983??!!)

Agree with all of that. Strachan was my boyhood hero, and no arguing Miller is top don. But who is 3? Leighton or McLeish? I’d say that’s your top 4. What about McKimmie, who was with us for the super cup and won a lot, plus the appearances. And scored the winner against Argentina for what it’s worth! Is he 5th? Where do the likes of Bobby Clark and joe Harper fit in, both just before my time?

We can certainly agree to disagree and I appreciate your thoughtful detail. I do take issue with the 'seeing it live' comment, I think it's the opposite to an extent these days - you can stop, rewind, track movement and runs off the ball, analyze the positioning of multiple players etc when seeing on tv/video which is why match analysis and video game planning/prep with players is hugely valuable now. You just don't see everything live as fans as the vast majority of us watch the ball. Additionally, my comment about being left sided is his not just with the ball but his body positioning, tackling, and movement/defending/tracking. We all favor our stronger side and he gets caught leading with the left instead of right at times, like many do. Regardless, Andy's playing well and consistent now. If we punted Taylor and replaced him with Gallagher I'd be reasonably happy with that back 3. When I look at our team these days, Taylor's the weak link that needs shipped out. Always saw Devlin as the better option but bar his first 2-3 games he's looked poor on the rare occasions he's healthy.

I'll take this a step further, and sound like a total prick in the process. I coach for a living and have done all the badges/licenses, and have written papers on this kind of stuff. When you do match analysis you track things like this, and that means you study defenders and their tendencies, specifically defending. If I was to send a scouting report on Aberdeen for say 10 years, I'd target Andy as the defensive weak link. He'd get sucked out of position, unable to get back, dives in because he can't stay with speedy wingers/forwards, over commit in his own penalty box, heavily left sided etc., and under pressure just belts it long. I'd say roughly when he turned 30, maybe 3 years ago, he finally figured it out and, as I said above, it's the opposite of what you say. He's slow and sticking tight is an all or nothing tactic. Now he sits off much more often because he's an older, wiser, smarter defender and for the most part keeps the ball and attacker in front of him. A back 3 has really helped him too as I already mentioned, it's a game changer for Andy at his age. Say what you want about McInnes, and I'm no fan, but he's the 'expert' and there's reasons he's tried to replace Andy over the years. Credit to Andy for sticking it out. But I do add, there's also a reason Andy has been with us for so long, no better offers came in, and for a reason. And I'd say he's one of our cheaper squad players now. But he's a fans favorite and a really nice guy and to many can do little or no wrong. I hate to criticize because you are right in that he's been Mr Consistency of late, the last 2-3 years, and I praise him for pretty much eliminating the silly errors. Ash hasn't got there and may never do so. And I was proud to see Andy play for Scotland, his play over the last few seasons has been rewarded. It killed me to see some other players selected to the Scotland squad before him when we've been so thin on central defenders, and I add Mikey Devlin there!

100% disagree, he was exactly like Ash, but credit to him he finally learned. Going hard up the arse of players was what was killing him. Endless fouls and getting sucked out of position, then not having the pace to recover. We started to rely on McGinn and the likes as the left mid helping him out far too often. In recent years he’s learned not to dive in/over commit because he gave away endless fouls as mentioned above. He’s been one of our best players in recent years, I’d say last 2-3 been player of the year or close to that, but prior to that he cost us. A lot. So many fans overlook his defensive limitations because he scored a good few goals, including the hat trick, but at left back (where he should never have been) he’d regularly get exposed for his lack of pace. Playing a back 3 has been a huge benefit to him because he doesn’t need to be so tight and follow his man deep, we sit mostly as a flat 3 and the mid picks up a forward dropping deep, and he doesn’t need to be so wide where he gets exposed for a lack of pace because the wing back drops. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been mr consistency of late but much like ash never gets a break from the errors he makes, Andy gets the opposite treatment and all gets forgiven for some reason.

Good for a decade? I don’t think so. Check the posts here, I’d say he’s been good the last 3 years maybe. Prior to that he was very similar to big Ash, good games, bad games, goals, but always good for a major fuck up that would cost us. I think we signed Shinnie to replace him, then Greg Leigh, but credit to Considine for eliminating the major errors that had plagued him his entire career. He’s been solid in recent years, but let’s not kid ourselves, he’s the defensive version of Darren Mackie.

Just saw the goals. Poor defending from Ash on both Celtic’s first two goals, then Hoban a little unfortunate on the penalty, although most including me would blast Ash if he gave away that penalty! Two clear penalties for us, and a nice run from Wright with Hedges getting Sam’s rebound. How did we play? Given we scored 3, was it a completely different approach to previous Celtic games, on did we sit in for much of the game? I’m assuming not?? Bbc gave hedges man of the match, but wright to this point has the highest ratings. Good for both of them, their confidence must be sky high these days, although I still feel DM doesn’t seem to manage Wright that well, knowing he’s such a confidence player. BBC also make a comment that sounds like it’s now 17 penalties in a row now. Glad Ferguson took the second one today even though Sam was on the park. He really has huge stones for such a young player. Also sounds like mccrorie had a quiet game? Should give us plenty of encouragement for the semi. Also gives Sam another week to get fitter and, yes, I start him next week. He definitely gives defenders something more to think about, which should allow more space for Wright, Hedges, Hayes etc., although were we more long ball today with Sam back?