Dons vs saints

[Elgindon]

Rubezic was a donkey again,though felt a bit sorry for him like,running up the track.Cant see him being played again going down too well with the natives.

  Beeb described St Mirren as excellent,I thought they were pish,....we gifted them the game first half,and never recovered. Better second half,unlucky not to score,but more often than not,too predictable in attack.Nilsen was awful first half,definitely in the play either Shinnie or Nilsen camp,not both against the St mirrens etc.Clarkson tried hard, played the occasional nice ball,but he's not the type of player for this type of game,....maybe thats where Cameron might come into play with McGrath out,Polvara underwhelming.

  To be fair,were still bedding in players,trying different options.Tobers looks good,Okkels better this week,Jensen busy enough if he'd cut out the turning back at the half way line.Gueye ok in glimpses,not a lot to work with

Edited January 25 by Elgindon

[RicoS321]

52 minutes ago, Slim said:

I hope all this money we’re spending on transfer fees is coming out of Cormack’s pocket rather than us betting the house on Thelin.

Yep, I've been very supportive up until today, but these are basic management errors. I mentioned when Dorrington signed that I thought it was a terrible idea to sign a 19 year old right footer when we had no recognised left centre back. I was wrong, it wasn't terrible, it was fucking criminal. One left footer in the team, and he was in midfield. Seriously? Every player playing on his wrong foot, turning back in to trouble or slowing things down, because that is what fucking happens. This is basic stuff. We e don't have the budget to be buying players who, on their wrong foot, are still better than the opposition. The margins are too fine in this league and any coach with slightest knowledge simply tells his forward to press the centre half and then the fullback. I accept that we get injuries, but we're in the middle of a fucking window! Don't sign a right back and play him at left back, and don't sign a trainee and play him on his wrong foot when we've already got guys who struggle on that side. Dorrington was fine, okay at best, it's not him, himself, that is the issue. Centre halves on loan are ten a penny, we could easily have picked up one who is left footed. 

Fucking annoying like, they didn't actually have to create any chances to score. 

Okkels was okay, Gueye tried. The sun's were unnecessarily bad. At least give Nisbet a chance to play alongside the big lad. Keskinen, Jensen, Rubi, Doohan, Duk, Nilsen all garbage.

[RicoS321]

43 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

sun's

That would be subs 

[Jute]

That was a disgrace today. We offered very little going forward and getting beat defensively the same way every week with long ball over the top. For first time I am seriously questioning the manager. He needs to adjust his systems to players he has rather than keep trying to fit square pegs into round holes. 

[BigAl]

50 minutes ago, Elgindon said:

Rubezic was a donkey again,though felt a bit sorry for him like,running up the track.Cant see him being played again going down too well with the natives.

  Beeb described St Mirren as excellent,I thought they were pish,....we gifted them the game first half,and never recovered. Better second half,unlucky not to score,but more often than not,too predictable in attack.Nilsen was awful first half,definitely in the play either Shinnie or Nilsen camp,not both against the St mirrens etc.Clarkson tried hard, played the occasional nice ball,but he's not the type of player for this type of game,....maybe thats where Cameron might come into play with McGrath out,Polvara underwhelming.

  To be fair,were still bedding in players,trying different options.Tobers looks good,Okkels better this week,Jensen busy enough if he'd cut out the turning back at the half way line.Gueye ok in glimpses,not a lot to work with

The BBC report was by Billy Dodds who reported at both half time and full time by saying Keskinen on our left hand side was our most dangerous player.

Surely that in itself is grounds to totally disregard anything he has to say 

[RicoS321]

21 minutes ago, BigAl said:

The BBC report was by Billy Dodds who reported at both half time and full time by saying Keskinen on our left hand side was our most dangerous player.

Surely that in itself is grounds to totally disregard anything he has to say 

Exactly. Dodds has seen us enough this season to know that Jimmy would never play him in the only position he seems to be able to play in.

Just saw the highlights just now, and as I thought at the game, Doohan was poor for the first. He's been very good at coming off his line and judging on the ball over the top, but he should have been nowhere near that one. In fairness to Rubi, I think he spots Doohan late and gets caught in two minds. The second is very clearly his fault. What was strange is that Tobers started on the left, but they switched. I think Tobers would have dealt with it. Once the player is beyond Rubi, we're screwed, as Nilsen has been poor at getting back for months now. The third was another masterclass in shite defending by Tobers. Dorrington came across, correctly and ran the ball up the park. I noticed during the game that Tobers didn't seem to know what to do. Instead of just dropping into left centre back with an eye on the ball over the top, he hovered around in no-man's land before belatedly stepping up after the ball was kicked, playing everyone on. Dorrington was very slow to get back in too. These things should be basic, especially for Tobers 

[Reekie_Red]

WTF is going on? Is the defence (GK included) really as honking as these comments suggest? Or isn't all down to a lack of confidence from the rest of the team in 1 or 2 players abilities under pressure?

[BigAl]

Playing at home 

Over 70% possession

Zero goals

Opposition play three punts forward over the top have three shots on target and score three times

Problems, up front and at the back

Nae real surprise there .

Worryingly, this is increasingly becoming Jimmy Thelin's team

The acceptable excuses are fast becoming a thing of the past.

[RicoS321]

11 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Playing at home 

Over 70% possession

Thing is, we were all very quick to point out here that this would always be the case. I think @Panda is no longer posting, but he put up some stats about thelin's previous side and how they surrendered possession and still won games. We were never going to be able to do that as that's what others do to us. We've not found a way to win when folk sit in against us in years. Playing a high line is fun, but very risky. It simply can't be done with a makeshift defence, it has to be very well coached. Any tiredness in the team and we crumble. Pragmatism would see us sitting a little deeper for a bit and try and ground our some victories. Shite as our results have been, we've still got some good players capable of creating chances from nothing. 

[OrlandoDon]

2 hours ago, BigAl said:

Playing at home 

Over 70% possession

Zero goals

Opposition play three punts forward over the top have three shots on target and score three times

Problems, up front and at the back

Nae real surprise there .

Worryingly, this is increasingly becoming Jimmy Thelin's team

The acceptable excuses are fast becoming a thing of the past.

This is becoming jimmy’s team but jimmy didn’t sign doohan or ruby, and until he’s had players for six months or more, he’s got to learn everything about the players we sign. We have a recruitment department, that it’s not just jimmy signing his targets.

give this team a season. Add players before the window closes and build. We’re signing players mid season now with no preseason or friendlies to experiment, train, get match fit etc, and learning and gelling a team on the fly. Not willing to be critical. Yet.

[OrlandoDon]

6 hours ago, Elgindon said:

Rubezic was a donkey again,though felt a bit sorry for him like,running up the track.Cant see him being played again going down too well with the natives.

  Beeb described St Mirren as excellent,I thought they were pish,....we gifted them the game first half,and never recovered. Better second half,unlucky not to score,but more often than not,too predictable in attack.Nilsen was awful first half,definitely in the play either Shinnie or Nilsen camp,not both against the St mirrens etc.Clarkson tried hard, played the occasional nice ball,but he's not the type of player for this type of game,....maybe thats where Cameron might come into play with McGrath out,Polvara underwhelming.

  To be fair,were still bedding in players,trying different options.Tobers looks good,Okkels better this week,Jensen busy enough if he'd cut out the turning back at the half way line.Gueye ok in glimpses,not a lot to work with

Totally agree on the shinnie or nilsen, was never a fan of two 33 yr olds in there. Not sure what has happened to Nilsen, but he’s not the player of 3-4 months ago. He was always a little lose in possession, but he makes too many mistakes and is not dictating in midfield. And not overly mobile to recover. Maybe he’s gassed from not having a summer but I wonder if that’s an excuse. That is a jimmy signing I am now questioning, and it makes me wonder about jimmy’s knowledge of Scottish football and the pace of the game when he offered him a 3 yr deal.

I think palaversa and shinnie are our best two in there given the current squad. still feel gueye is our 10 with this group, if only we had a 9 ahead of him. Signing Cameron isn’t a solution to our problems as much as I’d prefer him over gueye or clarkson. We must get a 9 asap.

[OrlandoDon]

4 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Exactly. Dodds has seen us enough this season to know that Jimmy would never play him in the only position he seems to be able to play in.

Just saw the highlights just now, and as I thought at the game, Doohan was poor for the first. He's been very good at coming off his line and judging on the ball over the top, but he should have been nowhere near that one. In fairness to Rubi, I think he spots Doohan late and gets caught in two minds. The second is very clearly his fault. What was strange is that Tobers started on the left, but they switched. I think Tobers would have dealt with it. Once the player is beyond Rubi, we're screwed, as Nilsen has been poor at getting back for months now. The third was another masterclass in shite defending by Tobers. Dorrington came across, correctly and ran the ball up the park. I noticed during the game that Tobers didn't seem to know what to do. Instead of just dropping into left centre back with an eye on the ball over the top, he hovered around in no-man's land before belatedly stepping up after the ball was kicked, playing everyone on. Dorrington was very slow to get back in too. These things should be basic, especially for Tobers 

Harsh on tobers, baptism of fire coming to a team who are shit at the back. And start with a back up keeper who is back up for a reason. And down two today when your partner in the middle is awful. Back up keeper and three new signings at the back, with shinnie palaversa and sivert not consistent ahead of him. So much chopping and changing, who is left or right central defense too. Much like the earlier post, give tobers time, and especially it’s easier for him with a stable group around him which isn’t the current situation. So many changes, hard to be comfortable, but I’ve been impressed with him so far.

as for the third goal. I could be wrong and haven’t watched since I saw it live, I think it was a quick counter when we were pushing up to get a goal back. Always vulnerable to the counter and an excellent finish. He doesn’t score those every time.

think Jensen looks decent but he cut inside every time. Think he’d be a good right back, devlin any good on the left? At the same time, first time I think he’s played with okkels, they have to develop a relationship and Jensen cutting inside with okkels outside is good tactics from what I see for them both, unlike McGrath cutting in with Mackenzie outside. Just different players with different abilities.

we aren’t getting any breaks. Unlike early season when we got the breaks and the goals, teams are scoring very good goals against us that they don’t score every week. Our luck will change.

[RicoS321]

7 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

Harsh on tobers, baptism of fire coming to a team who are shit at the back. And start with a back up keeper who is back up for a reason. And down two today when your partner in the middle is awful. Back up keeper and three new signings at the back, with shinnie palaversa and sivert not consistent ahead of him. So much chopping and changing, who is left or right central defense too. Much like the earlier post, give tobers time, and especially it’s easier for him with a stable group around him which isn’t the current situation. So many changes, hard to be comfortable, but I’ve been impressed with him so far.

as for the third goal. I could be wrong and haven’t watched since I saw it live, I think it was a quick counter when we were pushing up to get a goal back. Always vulnerable to the counter and an excellent finish. He doesn’t score those every time.

think Jensen looks decent but he cut inside every time. Think he’d be a good right back, devlin any good on the left? At the same time, first time I think he’s played with okkels, they have to develop a relationship and Jensen cutting inside with okkels outside is good tactics from what I see for them both, unlike McGrath cutting in with Mackenzie outside. Just different players with different abilities.

we aren’t getting any breaks. Unlike early season when we got the breaks and the goals, teams are scoring very good goals against us that they don’t score every week. Our luck will change.

Apologies, I didn't word that very well. I meant to say "another masterclass in shite defending, this time by Tobers". I think he's looked very good so far, but completely switched off for the third. It wasn't really that quick a break, he had several seconds to deal with it. In real time, I could see that he was dithering, he just needed a couple of steps forward. Basically, when Dorrington went for a run at right centre back, he just needed to be the left centre back and stand where the left centre back would have, but he stood in the right centre back position and then moved when Gogic got the ball. It was poor defending, but he'd had a lot to deal with as you mention. It's clear that he's going to need a left centre back alongside him, and it's extremely frustrating that we haven't got one in this window (and it would be very unbalancing to the squad to go and get one now).

I don't like the idea of the reverse MacKenzie and McGrath, I don't think it works. Jensen is cutting inside, at which point he's an inch away from the midfielder and it plays into the tactics of every single team in the league. The fact that Okkels also wants to cut inside just compounds the issue. Overlapping fullbacks are always the way to go, unless they're doing what Devlin does with Morris and charge straight into the box. Really the issue is the point at which he cuts inside, which is way back on the halfway line or in our half. It automatically congests everything. Obviously it's okay to do that now and again, when the defender is expecting him to go down the line, but not every time. If MacKenzie doesn't leave this week, then he needs to be starting every week. 

[RicoS321]

Also, yesterday was the first time I've ever heard our own player be booed when he got the ball. It's fairly fucking rank behaviour from a home support.

[Elgindon]

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Also, yesterday was the first time I've ever heard our own player be booed when he got the ball. It's fairly fucking rank behaviour from a home support.

Maybe Morris v 'Well last year,but aye that was fairly stinking behaviour.You wonder what Thelin and the newbies are thinking when they hear that

Edited January 26 by Elgindon

[BigAl]

4 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Also, yesterday was the first time I've ever heard our own player be booed when he got the ball. It's fairly fucking rank behaviour from a home support.

Aye the fuckwits on The Hat have a lot to answer for