Hearts - Dons - Friday - 7:45PM

[manc_don]

Ffs. After the first 20 mins alone we should have won it. They didn't, they bottled it. Shite. Fucking. Shite.

[Graeme_S]

It's probably fitting that our 2 biggest liabilities played a big part in losing the game that ended our chances.

[BobbyBiscuit]

If we had 11 shay logans we would win the league

 

In fairness, Shay is probably a better keeper than Brown.

 

The whole McGinn thing is a fucking nonsense. He's not been at his best but that's what happens with guys of his style at our level. Look at the goal he scored at Tynie earlier this season - that's the talent the guy has. We don't always see it because if he performed like that he wouldn't be at Aberdeen.  I can understand people being frustrated with him - I am, and I'm a big fan of his - but come on, this Celtic garbage is exactly that.

[ayrshire_don74]

Problem is bobby due to our shite squad he rarely gets dropped so knows he can put in sub standard performances

[BobbyBiscuit]

Well here's one for you then... why are the chances falling to McGinn and not Church?

 

[ayrshire_don74]

One fell to church and he scored

[BobbyBiscuit]

One fell to church and he scored

 

Yip, but the emphasis is on the plural. What other chance did Church have? Where's the movement? Why is a wide player the one making the movements of a centre forward?  Genuine questions, we're slating McGinn for missing chances and rightly because he should be scoring them, but why is Church not getting himself on the end of more than one chance in a match?

[BobbyBiscuit]

did he score any?  Or just miss

 

Why don't you - for once - attempt a meaningful, intelligent offering to the debate?

[ayrshire_don74]

Aye mcginn sneaks in at back post church draws the other defender in centre position , mcginn has completely lost his goalscoring prowess

[BobbyBiscuit]

Aye mcginn sneaks in at back post church draws the other defender in centre position , mcginn has completely lost his goalscoring prowess

 

So what about the chance that McGinn missed at the front post?  I'm not sticking up for McGinn's performance tonight, please don't get me wrong, but other than the 3rd minute did our centre forward actually touch the ball?

[ayrshire_don74]

Am exonerating church , mcginns overall play has been sub standard since the hearts game in sept, tonight was the icing on the take

[BobbyBiscuit]

Am exonerating church , mcginns overall play has been sub standard since the hearts game in sept

 

So why does Church get a free ride then? Brilliant that he scored, but you don't think he could offer more or is it just 'let's hammer McGinn night because we don't like his face'?

[ayrshire_don74]

Read what i posted if this was a one off for mcginn fine , it isnt

[BobbyBiscuit]

Read what i posted if this was a one off for mcginn fine , it isnt

 

but why does Church get a free ride?

[ayrshire_don74]

Free ride ? I think he is a big lump, its all relative mcginn vis a vis levels he can produce was beyond comprehension and this has been case for a while

[BobbyBiscuit]

Free ride ? I think he is a big lump, its all relative mcginn vis a vis levels he can produce was beyond comprehension and this has been case for a while

 

Yeah, fine - as has already been said. But we have a striker who is offering nothing outwith the six yard box - when you're playing one up that isn't good enough. Rooney roughs defenders up, will contribute to link up play even though it's hardly his forte, is capable of making chances for himself and others more than a bawhair off the goal line.  Church has hampered our play and even though his goals have been great we should be expecting more and if DM isn't expecting more I'd be saddened and disappointed. We need more from the focal point of our attack and we're not getting it.

[ayrshire_don74]

Devils advocate here , would goodwillie have made a difference , different option , mcinnes transfer window shocker is haunting us

[BobbyBiscuit]

Devils advocate here , would goodwillie have made a difference , different option , mcinnes transfer window shocker is haunting us

 

Goodwillie - I don't know if we'd have fared better but similarly, not sure we'd have fared worse. Much of a muchness as they say. DG's link up play was so much better than Church's which is non-existent. But Church is a poacher and scores goals DG would never be in place to score.

 

DM seems absolutely set on a big(ish) man up front and so far his signings for that position have been utterly chronic. Zola. Parker. Goodwillie (wide rather than tall). Church.  Church has got goals which is ace, but then the team play falls down because he just does not contribute in terms of link up play or closing down.

[Jute]

Well that was shite the first 20 minutes aside. Knew as soon as they scored the first we were fucked. Tonight can be squarely laid at the door of McInnes. His failure to replace Ward was criminal as he knew how pish Brown was. His constant reliance on Taylor despite the fact he is a fucking bomb scare. Failure to properly strengthen the squad in January all his fault. Again Church scores but then contributes the square root of fuck all the rest of the game. Another big game where McLean looked busy but produced square root of fuck all positive. As for the substitutions everyone was was so predictable. I do not know why he even bothers naming more than 3 subs.

 

With us having to go to Tynecastle again allegedly and Parkhead it is not inconceivable we will finish third. That combined with our abismal cup performances would be completely unacceptable.

[BobbyBiscuit]

Well that was shite the first 20 minutes aside. Knew as soon as they scored the first we were fucked. Tonight can be squarely laid at the door of McInnes. His failure to replace Ward was criminal as he knew how pish Brown was. His constant reliance on Taylor despite the fact he is a fucking bomb scare. Failure to properly strengthen the squad in January all his fault. Again Church scores but then contributes the square root of fuck all the rest of the game. Another big game where McLean looked busy but produced square root of fuck all positive. As for the substitutions everyone was was so predictable. I do not know why he even bothers naming more than 3 subs.

 

With us having to go to Tynecastle again allegedly and Parkhead it is not inconceivable we will finish third. That combined with our abismal cup performances would be completely unacceptable.

 

100% agree Jute. This has been a shite season, all things considered.

 

We've blown our own chances.

[Edinburghdon]

The only thing more predictable than the result is the comments from the fans. We got beaten, doesn't mean anyone bottled it, just that we weren't good enough.

 

The fact McGinn is getting stick is laughable, he's got the most assists in the SPL (unless I'm mistaken) and contributed more to this season than just about any player in the squad. He had a reasonably poor night but Jesus cut the boy some slack. Far too many people use the fact he used to play for Celtic as an excuse to criticise him when he has an off night and it's tragic.

 

At the end of the day we aren't and never were good enough to win the league this season. That doesn't mean we can't improve and get closer next year. All this best best/only chance to beat Celtic theory is bollocks... If we concentrate on improving that's all we need to do.

 

Ward has consistently made the same mistake as brown did for the first all season too so to think he could have changed things is optimistic in the extreme. All season he's parried shots back into the strikers and never seemed to learn... But he's gone so it's a pointless argument anyway. That's not to say brown is good enough, he's not. But we should be aiming higher than ward.

 

Task one over the summer has to be sorting the defence, until then (and a new keeper) we won't progress.

[Andrew]

We are good enough to win the league. Aberdeen's budget is high enough and with a perfect storm of Hearts being financially crippled and hibs and rangers being out of the top league this was our chance. I don't particularly understand how one can support Aberdeen and not think the same. Are people happy to be with the St mirrens, Killie's, Ross county's etc. and win the league cup every twenty years.

 

Just look at the sides in the league. If we beat Celtic three times this season and still lose the league I think questions have to be asked somewhere.

 

I can understand the love of Mcinnes after years of a chain smoking Dane, a drunk, etc. being in charge but I think as fans we should be more pragmatic. If we had someone like Griffiths up front or Gordon in goal would we be top of the league now? And whose fault is this? Past failures shouldn't lead to an acceptance of mediocrity. I'll admit my knowledge of what is going on tactically during games is piss poor but when you look at Aberdeen's budget compared to our competitors it's clear we have been at best performing below par with Mcinnes. A good media presence may be papering over the cracks of a poor managerial record.

 

[ayrshire_don74]

Dont conflate assists with playing well mcginn regularly goes for shots etc when playing in team mates , he needs a fucking rocket up his arse

[RicoS321]

Jesus, glad I didn't come on here last night. Fucking melt down. We got beaten by the team in third place at their ground - it really wasn't beyond the realms of possibility. Given that the goals came from two stupid errors, and we created several very good chances, it's not as disastrous as some are making out. We've not spent the amount of money that can guarantee us beating every other team in the league - it's unrealistic to expect so - we need to rely on luck, and 0 errors. The difference between our performance last night and the one earlier in the season was two converted chances. If we'd been 2 or 3 up in that first 20 minutes we'd have walked it. It was a very fine line.

 

The goals were very bad. The first was classic Brown. I still don't believe he's an improvement on Langfield, he's pish, but we all knew that as did McInnes. I think it was a gamble worth taking, which hasn't paid off (although not getting more outfield cover was very poor - Souttar for example would have been an obvious signing). The second was entirely avoidable, and absolutely wouldn't have happened to Hearts. Their players would have been screaming at the ref to stop the game and their centre half would have been rolling about like he'd been shot. Taylor was injured, and our players should have the nouse to get that game stopped (look at their player going down to waste time when Souttar was off). What the fuck Shinnie was doing going over to help him when the ball was in play, I've no idea. It perfectly highlighted the difference between Jack and Flood for me too. Flood was so unaware of what was going on around him because he was staring at the ball and getting dragged toward it. Jack would have looked up, realised his defender was down and dropped in to cover, he wouldn't have made a challenge, but slowed the play down and allowed players to get back in. As it was, Reynolds was left with a 50-50 split-second choice and in the end probably made the wrong decision to go with the winger rather than stay central. Finally, a better keeper would have noticed that no one was tracking Juanma, that he was going to get a free header and so would have hedged their bets by being a few yards off their line in order to be right in Juanma's face when he got the header. Brown was clinging to his post. He had to gamble.

 

We lost our shape a bit after that second goal, and we never looked like getting back in it. But it was a game we definitely could have won had luck gone with us. There is plenty of evidence in other games of us getting lucky and getting the win, we're just not good enough (read: don't spend enough money) to be able to win games with that many individual errors. The tims can afford a few mistakes in games. We only had one usable attacking sub on the bench yesterday.

[Edinburghdon]

Edinburghdon,

 

the fact i am really fucking angry like everyone else was MGinn is up there with the CHANCES to get us level etc.

 

Every player misses chances, especially at this level. He should score more but it's hardly worth the level of anger... It's not like there's a massive lack of effort on his part. He's one of our best players and it's tragic that he's turned on the minute results don't go our way.

 

Edinburghdon,

 

the fact i am really fucking angry like everyone else was MGinn is up there with the CHANCES to get us level etc.

 

It was only (feels like it to me) yesterday MGinn was CAUGHT at celtic matches with Stokes Celebrating wins etc. and watching this guy over the course of the season MISS and not perform constantly in the big matches infuriates me.

Was he caught celebrating? Or was he just seen at a Celtic game with a friend/ex team mate?... I'm almost certain it was the latter and if that is the case it's a total non issue but yet again it's something brought up any time someone wants to have a go at one of our best players. It's tiresome...

 

 

We needed to beat hearts last night and again tactics and players NOT performing cost us 3 points. Where is the apology from the Captain, Manager for that performance to all the fans turning up last night.

 

Do you expect an apology every time we drop points? Do you not think that's a slight over exaggeration after a narrow away loss against a one of the better teams in the league? It was a poor result but it's not really a disastrous upset, losses like last night will happen throughout the season and it doesn't automatically mean we're shite or have no bottle.

 

 

This team really needs a new core group of players. Mcinnes must in the summer be giving all £££ required to get 2 centre backs, 2 midfielders, (Tansey) 2 proper goal scorers.

 

Agree there, I do think we've got a good core squad but a couple of quality additions in midfield and defence will get us closer to where we want to be, major changes aren't required though just a few of the right signings.