League Cup final: Aberdeen v Rangers

[RicoS321]

5 hours ago, Kowalski said:

Surprised by the criticism of Duk, thought he did more to cause Sevco problems in 20 minutes than Miovski did the whole game. 

The criticism is because he could have caused even more problems by driving into the box instead of diving at the first point of (minimal) contact. Miovski put in a shift, but couldn't get in the game, he didn't shirk his responsibility - his game relies on the vision and accuracy of others. Duk decided to go down when he could have gambled on something better. I'd put him in the same category as Hayes yesterday, who just didn't take any responsibility on the ball. Playing within himself is not what we needed in a final, and that's what he did. He's capable of so much better.

[DantheDon]

22 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I think the PAOK one was actually probably a penalty though. We're really arguing here for Gartenmann to engineer us a penalty to give us parity with the Hun, which I don't think any of us actually want.

Probably was but we should gave had one too. We have to play the same game as our opponents, if we arent going to try and influence the ref but our opponents are we will keep getting screwed over. Honestly I would have been fine with Gartenmann engineering a penalty. Fair is fair and if its a penalty to the huns a few weeks ago it should be a penalty for us today. 

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, DantheDon said:

Probably was but we should gave had one too. We have to play the same game as our opponents, if we arent going to try and influence the ref but our opponents are we will keep getting screwed over. Honestly I would have been fine with Gartenmann engineering a penalty. Fair is fair and if its a penalty to the huns a few weeks ago it should be a penalty for us today. 

Then fair isn't fair though. It wasn't fair that they got a penalty and it wouldn't have been if we got one. VAR is ruining the game, but so is the number of bullshit penalties and fouls that we see given on a weekly basis (for and against us). We don't need more of the anti-sport pish, we need less of it. I'd like to have seen the club be a bit more vociferous in their complaints about the Hun penalty and the bias rather than some sort of weird evening up exercise. 

[DantheDon]

21 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Then fair isn't fair though. It wasn't fair that they got a penalty and it wouldn't have been if we got one. VAR is ruining the game, but so is the number of bullshit penalties and fouls that we see given on a weekly basis (for and against us). We don't need more of the anti-sport pish, we need less of it. I'd like to have seen the club be a bit more vociferous in their complaints about the Hun penalty and the bias rather than some sort of weird evening up exercise. 

I get what your saying Rico but I think we've got to stop being naive about this. It doesn't matter how much we complain about it fuck all is ever done. Teams have won cups leagues, qualified for major tournaments off the back of what they are calling gamesmanship and you and I might call cheating. But none of these decisions are reversed after the fact. VAR is a mess at the moment but it's here and you've got to adapt to it. If getting your shirt tugged in the box is enough to get you a penalty than players need to get there ass on the deck when it happens. Do you think Rangers players/fans give a fuck if we think they cheated for that pen. In fact I would say these issues aren't going to get sorted until its Rangers and Celtic start being on the end of them. The SFA don't give a toss about a strongly worded statement from Aberdeen. 

[RicoS321]

26 minutes ago, DantheDon said:

I get what your saying Rico but I think we've got to stop being naive about this. It doesn't matter how much we complain about it fuck all is ever done. Teams have won cups leagues, qualified for major tournaments off the back of what they are calling gamesmanship and you and I might call cheating. But none of these decisions are reversed after the fact. VAR is a mess at the moment but it's here and you've got to adapt to it. If getting your shirt tugged in the box is enough to get you a penalty than players need to get there ass on the deck when it happens. Do you think Rangers players/fans give a fuck if we think they cheated for that pen. In fact I would say these issues aren't going to get sorted until its Rangers and Celtic start being on the end of them. The SFA don't give a toss about a strongly worded statement from Aberdeen. 

I disagree. It was pathetic to listen to our chief executive give in to VAR, and even more so to hear that same preachy bullshit be repeated on off the ball too at the weekend (they asked listeners to phone in with suggestions to improve VAR, after Burrows stated that despite an unbelievably massive majority of fans saying that they wanted rid of it, it was already here and nothing we can do about it). It's pandering bollocks. Why can't the third biggest team in Scotland begin a campaign to have VAR removed? Why can't the third biggest team in Scotland make a big issue about inconsistency and bias in a non partisan way (calling out our own players when they dive, for example)? Why can't we do anything about the state of our game? There's no reason, basically, just an unwillingness to stand up against authority. An unwillingness to think about and challenge the status quo. Weakness, alongside self interest. The same the world over I guess. 

[Panda]

Interesting analysis on Sunday (click on it and read the whole thread)

 

[RicoS321]

4 hours ago, Panda said:

Interesting analysis on Sunday (click on it and read the whole thread)

 

Yep, although if you viewed those images against similar ones from the recent game at pittodrie, you'd have been highlighting a goal and one or two excellent chances playing exactly the same way. Robson eluded (in his after match interview) to the 3-4 great opportunities in the first half to create chances, and these were those. It was clear what the tactic was, but the Huns were very alert to it and we were poor at implementing those tactics. 

To add, Robson's comments about the Huns after the game have zero influence on his thoughts prior to the game, and it's very unfair to read that into them (and not indicative of how Robson has approached the big games so far as manager). Those comments were purely after-the-fact arse covering, which he took way beyond acceptable limits.