LA-Don

Stockley was a young loon with raw potential never given time to develop. And was written off by referees immediately. Scored a peach against thistle. I’m far from convinced about cosgrove, so many are quick to praise a forward who has not looked remotely like scoring. Hope he proves to be a hit.

I didn’t think stockley was too bad but he was a marked man up here and had no future in Scottish football. Refs gave him nothing.

And if it was Ryan Jack we know what would have happened.

I’d say Gascoigne, Ray Wilkins, and Souness were all bigger signings for them. Even Terry Butcher, captain of England at the time I think. How about Charlie Nicholas for us? Bottom line Gerrard had never coached or managed any pro team, and has never even played in Scotland. Name yes but biggest signing, no chance. Waiting for someone to say Willem Van Der Ark was a bigger signing....

You can look at it that way but Rangers spent way more money than us and we finished above them, and only 9 points behind Celtic. Couple of seasons ago pre Rogers there was talk of us winning the league. Do we really need a massive amount of cash or simply 4-5 strong players to add?

And for what it’s worth, didn’t DM call out his players/squad for not being good enough after we lost the semi? He doesn’t do that, he’s very protective of his players. After that we go on a run and have the best post split record of the top 6 teams. That’s a guy who knows his players mentally and has trust, and that sparked a response. Nothing to do with tactics but DM being DM and playing to his strengths.

According to Wikipedia Baldwin is a central defender/right back/midfielder, and at 18 our own Neale Cooper called him a young Alan Hansen. Forrester has been in the Republic of Ireland squad and has been compared to Michael Carrick. By the sound of this we could do with both!

I think you’re correct in highlighting more of DMs strengths. His professionalism, clearly highlighted by Arneson when he re signed. He said it was like a different place. DMs professionalism and approach is excellent and has rubbed off on players and all at pittodrie. His performances in the media is good too. And yes, I think he’s embraced modern technology and his pre game preparation is very strong. All good points but I still think his actual coaching, his x’s and o’s, his tactical adjustments during games is average. The whole DM package has to be considered and I think he does a good job overall but I still think he’s not a great coach.

So what you are saying is the tactics were gash and he couldn't do what he was asked to do because they didn't match his ability and strengths. Same argument for Rooney playing wide left? Or expect Stewart to play wide and track back? Tactics should match and exploit the strengths of our players. We clearly didn't do that this year and I feel that was the reason we juggled the starting line up for the entire year. The tactics didn't match the players abilities......don't your players talents determine how you play?

What makes you think he's stronger than Calderwood and Levein? I'm not saying he's not, but why say that? I'd put it down to having better players and team chemistry, due to man management. All season we've not had a settled team, formation, and consistent style of play. Are we winning games because of tactics or even despite tactics? We've not been pretty to watch but we grind out results.....is that tactics or simply because we have better players motivated to play? I'd go with the latter. DMs go to tactic is to get it to the wide guys to create and stretch the field to give the central attacking mid space, pretty basic, or to go route one. We've struggled because the wide guys weren't as strong as previous years and plan B is close to hit and hope - he did have plan B but it was poor. I'd say occasionally DMs tactics won us games but plenty of times - most of the old firm and Edinburgh teams - our tactics have been weak. Post split we were much better, not quite sure what changed. Celtics points total has nothing to do with DMs tactics. He's done a very good job of grinding out results but that, to me, is having better players than the other teams and motivating them to play together and compete. That's motivation and man management, not tactics. That's DMs strength and he's done well to get us to 2nd again. But not because of tactics. You've seen posts of the guys singing on the bus, messing around in the dressing room, even Shay and Shinnie posting pics. Pretty clear it's a very tight group and DM and Doc certainly deserve credit for that. They work for each other more than most. Lastly, did he really recognize the issue or was it simply that May was gash, Rooney no better, that he went to cheap as chips Cosgrove? Was that tactics or desperation?

Tactically I think he’s an average coach, we’ve seen that over time with our tactics and way we play. Our team relies very heavily on individual talent and a piece of magic from a player. It’s his man management that is his strength. Very clear with the closeness of our players, and they work for him. There’s been many a successful coach who are actually not a great x and o coach who have done well. What would you say are his strengths and weaknesses?

Anyone know where online i can buy a 17-18 home top? (Size large)

Definitely been an interesting year for DM, certainly has fans split on whether he’s at the point he should move on. He’ll not get the sack but I certainly expect a club or two to express an interest this summer. I think DM is a likeable guy and definitely a players coach. I’d say we’ve signed players - Christie McGinn May GMS to list a few - who may not have come here if it wasn’t for DM. We do not have the facilities nor the funds but DM seems to attract players and keep them happy. I think he’s an average coach at best but I think his man management is what seems to make him good for us. Very different from Fergie, disciplinarian and feared, and an excellent coach/tactician. Dare I say DM is more in the Ally McLeod mold? This summer is huge. I’d argue last summer he got the players he wanted - May Stewart GMS - be interesting what comes our way in the next 3 months.

Scott Allan? Jordan Jones? Can we afford either?

Considine’s weaknesses have been highlighted and exploited many a time over the last couple of years. A hat trick against Dundee blinded many last year and a goal against Celtic doesn’t change the fact. Shinnie is more effective in midfield and it will be much harder to replace Shinnie in midfield than replace considine.

Surprised Danny Rogers signed a new deal. Still, that’s the back up keeper sorted. Now I realize why we weren’t giving Harvie time at left back. OConnor can go, you can count his good games on one hand, maybe one finger??

I think the Huns may be glad just to get them off the books. They signed a pile of shit earring a ton last summer, maybe a GMS type fee just to get him off their books?

Who would you take next year, Stewart returning or Michael O’Holloran? Pretty much disappeared since going back to Ibrox after his loan spell but there’s a decent player there. Got a point to prove for being shunned at the Huns and I thought did pretty well at st Johnstone.

Well, what an interesting season. Many a time I’d have been happy to see DM move on, but now we finish the season 2nd, only 9 behind Celtic and 3 points less than our total of last year. That’s not bad at all. Cups were certainly a disappointment though, and I hope Celtic win the Scottish cup and we get two weeks more of a summer before the European run begins again (if that is indeed correct.) Certainly disappointed to take 4 points out of 24 from the old firm. Hopefully DM has learned how to play those games as the first 6 were pretty depressing stuff. I expect a stronger Rangers next year, but I highly doubt they’ll get too much money and I think at worst second should be the aim. Hearts will be the same and I think we’ll see a weaker Hibs. We have a major rebuild on our hands but I’m good with that and feel better than I did last summer. I’m not bothered to see Woodman, Ball, Stewart, Christie, and Chidi return to their clubs. Christie fell away but will be missed and we need quality to replace him, the rest were squad fillers who should be easy to replace, preferably with mainly youth. I’d take Stewart back but he’s just not quick or athletic enough for DMs system, or consistent enough for me. OConnor, Maynard, Arneson, and Rogers are no blow to lose either. Devlin will pair up with McKenna with Reynolds, Considine and hopefully a young loon as back up. McLean will be missed, although I couldn’t give two shits about him until recently when he started performing. Would like to see him replaced with McGeough and I haven’t seen the boy flat out say he’s going south. We need back up to Lewis, need a starting left back to add to Logan, and the two boys in the middle. Need a back up to Shay too, possibly a replacement but we have so many other positions to fill perhaps next summer. We need a quality guy to push McGinn, GMS, and Wright, although it’s probably best to see Wright go out on loan. Two center mids to combine with Shinnie, and fuck knows what we do up top. We paid a chunk of money for May and I was happy to get him, but he just doesn’t look good enough for the way DM plays. Opponents don’t fear our center forward and that’s a position that must worry defenders. I’d say we have Lewis Logan-Devlin-McKenna-signing Signing-Shinnie Signing-signing-McGinn Signing Our bench should include Considine, Reynolds, Wright, Tansey, GMS, May, Cosgrove, and Ferguson. Then we pad out with youth. So, at worst we definitely need a starting left back and two center mids and a wide mid (Cadden from Motherwell?) so that’s four proven quality guys needed to start for us. I’d really say a quality forward too. We took a risk in signing players who could be good because they were good once but none of Stewart, May, or GMS, our big summer signings, were consistently good enough to be key players for us. I see Tony Watt in that mold. Will be an interesting summer. Stand free.

Would you try to re sign Dominic Ball? Over the last 5 games I thought he played well - although I didn’t see the game today. Not a starter, but useful squad player? I think so.

Honestly, don't think we could have done much better. 11 from 15 when you consider we hadn't taken a point from either of the old firm, we had struggled against Hearts, and His were on form. Hopefully DM learns from the approach these last 5 games, particularly from the old firm matches.

I don’t get that argument about what you do to the people left to deal. It’s absolutely awful that someone is in such a bad/messed up place that they take their own life, kill the self, end it all. And people wonder why they didn’t think of others??? Someone about to kill the self is in the darkest place, they’re not on a place where they can consider others. It’s that bad. It’s certainly bad for those left to deal but the argument for suicide being selfish or not considering others isn’t valid.

I honestly think we’ll give it a go. We did in the last game of last season, I know it was a final, but this year why not, nothing to lose. I’m be fucking stupid and go for a 2-1 win, McLean and Shinnie.

Or he follows the McInnes or Lennon route, does well here, fails in England, and back north in a year or two.

What McInnes does well is take the points off the diddy teams. We've done that again this year. We didn't score as many though because we're not as good as we were last year. Post split we've done well. Good wins over Killie and Hearts (a team we hadn't scored against), a draw with the inform Hibs, plus a point against the huns who we've been awful against. Many predicted we wouldn't win a post split game, we've done better than I expected.