Aberdeen v Dundee United

[Panda]

Wish I was going to this, but have to pick and choose the games I get to and I'm going to the following two after it.

Going to be another sell out. Dundee United also sold all their tickets in two hours apparently. Evening kick-off under the lights, a wee derby feel to it, two in-form teams, Goodwin's return to Pittodrie to add some extra spice.

To be fair to Goodwin he's doing well. I think he's learned his lesson from what he tried to do at Aberdeen and is managing United the way he managed St Mirren, but now with a bit more experience. Only Rangers have beaten them in the league.

We're now at the point where we likely need to rotate the squad, would be a big ask to play the same starting XI for three games in a week, especially with two against Rangers and Celtic.

I was suggesting even before Celtic that MacDonald should replace Molloy, who has had three poor games now. Have Duk and Sokler played their way in after Celtic Park - Nisbet just been off it a little in the past two games. Palaversa likely starts one of the upcoming games. Don't think Thelin will go wild though, probably two changes at most, so I'll guess Palaversa for Shinnie or Nilsen, and Duk for Keskinen.

[Elgindon]

Nae sure about dropping Molloy.Though still not 100% convinced about the Rubi/Molloy combo,If Jimmy thinks he appears to be learning as he goes,and the confidence hasnt dropped,I'd allow him to carry on with the odd mistake,...til otherwise.Maybe swap Clarkson for McGrath too?

   Looking forward to it,love a night game

In - Y

Will take a scrappy 1 - 0.   Duk

[OrlandoDon]

A biggie here, and as I posited yesterday, a must win. These are the games Celtic win, and having not won yesterday, a legit team gets back to winning ways, especially at home.

we have a starting 11 that is settled, and guys that make an impact off the bench. Injuries and suspensions will come and rotation will occur, but one game a week does not require rotation. No reason to force it, this is how it should be. Unless we have injuries I see the same starting 11.

I won’t lie though, doubts creeping in a little about molloy. We average losing a goal per game in the league which needs to be better, and molloy tends to be involved when we lose goals. Not all but more than he should. But is Macdonald any better, I don’t think so. Perhaps Molloy edges it plus is young and a long term project, and, like ruby, one we can sell on.

second doubt is our number 9. Long term, I don’t think Nisbet or sokler are the answer, we need more. If we have a strong season that’s our money buy next summer.

2-1 us. Nisbet and topi.

Edited October 20 by OrlandoDon

[Panda]

Molloy - to be fair to him, he improved a lot in the second half (as did many). But it's big errors. Penalty v Dundee, Vargas of Hearts (although he missed), second goal yesterday.

I get the whole "he's young, let him learn from mistakes" etc but soon it's going to really cost us. Maybe I just quite like MacDonald and want to see the fella get a game now and then.

[RicoS321]

6 minutes ago, Panda said:

Molloy - to be fair to him, he improved a lot in the second half (as did many). But it's big errors. Penalty v Dundee, Vargas of Hearts (although he missed), second goal yesterday.

I get the whole "he's young, let him learn from mistakes" etc but soon it's going to really cost us. Maybe I just quite like MacDonald and want to see the fella get a game now and then.

I like MacDonald too, but he's very prone to error also, and especially when played on his wrong foot. I'd be open to him playing, but switching Rubi across to the left. The biggest issue with MacDonald is that he slows the game down quite a bit, and that worsens on his wrong foot. Rubi doesn't really concern himself with feet whilst putting in another face-block on a shot. Molloy's errors are a worry, his hearts performance was poor, but in the other two games he didn't put a foot wrong outside the mistakes. Either way, I don't think Thelin will drop him because he allows us to play out of defence in a quicker fashion than MacDonald, which is vital to our entire setup.

[Panda]

19 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Molloy's errors are a worry, his hearts performance was poor, but in the other two games he didn't put a foot wrong outside the mistakes.

I thought he was really poor in the second half against Dundee, a lot of poor clearances, struggled physically that game against whoever it was he was up against.

Agree though Thelin clearly thinks MacDonald isn't quick enough for how he wants to play.

[Panda]

 

Not entirely sure what they think these "increased tensions" would lead to, but unusual to see an official club account have to clarify their allocation in order to quell an uprising.

In addition, Rangers tweeted that 13,500 fans applied for tickets to see them play at Pittodrie (1,674 the allocation).

Everyone wants to see Jimmy Thelin's red machine.

[BigAl]

43 minutes ago, Panda said:

In addition, Rangers tweeted that 13,500 fans applied for tickets to see them play at Pittodrie (1,674 the allocation).

 

C'mon min, you don't seriously believe that do you 

[Nellie The Don]

5 hours ago, Panda said:

In addition, Rangers tweeted that 13,500 fans applied for tickets to see them play at Pittodrie (1,674 the allocation).

There were maybe 13500 in a queue to apply for tickets, but more than half of those would have left early to get subway tickets instead.

Edited October 20 by Nellie The Don

[Reekie_Red]

MacDonald hasn't been the same since he was paired with Pollock. Unsure what is required for us to see him back to his best. 

Great to see the two Dundee teams putting up good fights. I much prefer them to the Jambos. Still, I think we will be too good for the Arabs, and Goodwin still isn't quite sure what to do when his teams are behind. 

4-2 to the Reds

McGrath, Nesbit, Duk, MacKenzie 

[redordead]

Will be another testing game. Seen them pre season playing my other team and they weren't particularly good but recent results suggest they've improved. 

A bit like hearts, I expect them to try and physically dominate us playing pretty directly. 

If we can get it down and use the width, there should only be one outcome. 

I hope so because I don't think I could watch Goodwin celebrating.

 

[OrlandoDon]

While I predicted 2-1, I would certainly like to see a shutout this weekend. We average losing a goal a game and our defense must be better. If we have high expectations we have to improve defensively. We lose pretty crappy goals too, hope we can clean this up!

[tlg1903]

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

While I predicted 2-1, I would certainly like to see a shutout this weekend. We average losing a goal a game and our defense must be better. If we have high expectations we have to improve defensively. We lose pretty crappy goals too, hope we can clean this up

For me the Hearts game was a huge reminder of just how far from a finished article we actually are, particularly at the back. Hearts had our number for the majority of the game though In fairness Mitov had a mare which no-one saw coming and on another day we don't concede either goal. They caused us loads of problems at the back goals aside though. 

I thought we were much better at the back at the weekend but the second goal was multiple fuck ups, not just Molloys awful first touch.  Overall though, bar the kitchen sink chucking at the end of the game when we were dead on our feet, I thought we kept the celtic front line pretty quiet all things considered.  They certainly weren't carving us open at will.  

Utd is a very different test though and I think Goodwin will go thuggish 2bh.  That Van De Sande looks a handful and Ruby in particular will need to be careful with him.   He's improved immensely since last season but his position and decision making are still lacking at times (2nd goal on Sat is a prime example). 

 

I think we should get back to winning ways here but I think utd are going to make it a very scrappy game.  2-1 Aberdeen, Duk and Nisbet 

 

[manc_don]

2-1 would feel like a reasonable score. They’ll know they can go all the way and score late so we’ll have to be on it (as I’m sure we will be). Both teams will be buoyed by recent performances and you’re probably right about the thuggish tactics from Goodwin. Just hope it doesn’t triumph. Haven’t watched any of their games yet, are they actually playing well? They haven’t won at pittodrie since 2914 I don’t think, so I’d hope that stat doesn’t change.
 

This does feel like it has the duk second coming about it. Would be great to see sokler get another and try and build some consistency. 
 

2-1 dons, sokler and Duk.

hoping to catch this one, nice and early on a Sunday morning

[Panda]

3 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

Utd is a very different test though and I think Goodwin will go thuggish 2bh. 

 

You never know, he might take the same approach he did when he was Aberdeen manager and be soft as shite.

3 hours ago, manc_don said:

They haven’t won at pittodrie since 2914 I don’t think, so I’d hope that stat doesn’t change.

I knew there was something different about you. You don't live in New Zealand, you live in the year 3000, with Busted.

Sad to hear that means the new stadium hasn't been built though.

Edited October 23 by Panda

[manc_don]

7 hours ago, Panda said:

You never know, he might take the same approach he did when he was Aberdeen manager and be soft as shite.

I knew there was something different about you. You don't live in New Zealand, you live in the year 3000, with Busted.

Sad to hear that means the new stadium hasn't been built though.

Ffs, caught red handed. Spoiler alert, we won the league in 2025

[Jute]

Not keen on making changes just to give players game time. While I am still not convinced by Molloy and Rubi as a partnership I don’t think they have done enough wrong to be dropped so would continue with them just now. As long as everyone is fit I would expect the same starting 11 as last Saturday. Duk and Sokler did well off the bench on Saturday but not sure they did enough to get a start. 
 

Arabs been getting some decent results but don’t think they are particularly good at the back and can be got at. Even Hibs were beating them until reduced to 10 men. This is a game I expect us to win.
 

Unlike others kick off time is not one I like as makes getting back home on public transport difficult and expensive. State of public transport in Scotland is not the clubs fault but really should be taken into account when setting kick off times. 

In

train then pub

Y

pub then train 

2-0 Nisbet and McGrath
 

 

[tlg1903]

2 hours ago, Jute said:

Not keen on making changes just to give players game time. While I am still not convinced by Molloy and Rubi as a partnership I don’t think they have done enough wrong to be dropped so would continue with them just now. As long as everyone is fit I would expect the same starting 11 as last Saturday. Duk and Sokler did well off the bench on Saturday but not sure they did enough to get a start. 
 

Arabs been getting some decent results but don’t think they are particularly good at the back and can be got at. Even Hibs were beating them until reduced to 10 men. This is a game I expect us to win.
 

Unlike others kick off time is not one I like as makes getting back home on public transport difficult and expensive. State of public transport in Scotland is not the clubs fault but really should be taken into account when setting kick off times. 

In

train then pub

Y

pub then train 

2-0 Nisbet and McGrath
 

 

I thought Ruby and Molloy did well overall bar a few mistakes on Saturday but agree they are not the finished article by any stretch.  It's easy to get a bit carried away at how good we actually are at the moment but we still have a long way to go as a team imo. 

I would defo start Nisbet for this one as I think he's much more effective when he have teams pinned back.  He will find that half a yard of space inside a box and utd will defo not be coming out all guns blazing.  Duk though?  Yeah I would start him.... Clarkson has had a couple of poor games on the bounce and I would prefer mcgrath in the middle.  In Jimmy we trust though. 

[Panda]

Sold out. Club now have opened their season ticket exchange so some single tickets are up for grabs.

That's 3,000-4,000 fans who are going who would be locked out if we build a 16,000 capacity stadium. 

[tlg1903]

41 minutes ago, Panda said:

Sold out. Club now have opened their season ticket exchange so some single tickets are up for grabs.

That's 3,000-4,000 fans who are going who would be locked out if we build a 16,000 capacity stadium. 

I was thinking about that in the build up to the hearts game.  

[RicoS321]

2 hours ago, Panda said:

That's 3,000-4,000 fans who are going who would be locked out if we build a 16,000 capacity stadium. 

If you didn't sit through Alex Miller, Steve Paterson, Mark McGhee and Craig Brown then you're not eligible for a ticket in the new pie-in-the-sky arena. Straight forward enough.

[Jute]

1 minute ago, RicoS321 said:

If you didn't sit through Alex Miller, Steve Paterson, Mark McGhee and Craig Brown then you're not eligible for a ticket in the new pie-in-the-sky arena. Straight forward enough.

Bastard.

You have just triggered memories I have spent years drinking to repress so will now need to go to the pub at lunch time to try and drown them in drink again. 

[tlg1903]

At least he left out Calderwood Jute 

Edited October 25 by tlg1903

[Jute]

4 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

At least he left out Calderwood Jute 

Oh FFS back to the pub I go. 

[Elgindon]

7 hours ago, Panda said:

Sold out. Club now have opened their season ticket exchange so some single tickets are up for grabs.

That's 3,000-4,000 fans who are going who would be locked out if we build a 16,000 capacity stadium. 

Some of the crowds we get nowadays are better than peak Fergie era,...ie post ECWC in 83/84 our average gate was 17'500 when the capacity was 24'000.Three of the first 4 home games of that season were were only 13/14'000. Funny how crowds have gone up,not only us,but across the board in Scotland, when competition in the top league is less than back then

   Come to think of it,the first home game of the season after we won the league in 1980,I think there was only around 8000 there,v Morton?    

Edited October 25 by Elgindon