Farts v Dons @ Murrayfield

[BobbyBiscuit]

Good on McInnes for trying something different. I've been critical of DM over the years for being too rigid with the 4-5-1 formation but he took a brave decision today.

 

It didn't quite work, but we got away with it thanks to Joe Lewis turning in a fantastic performance.

 

One thing i'd criticise DM for was his choice of subs - Maynard I just don't get. I don't see what it is that he's supposed to bring to us. GMS I've never been a fan of and today didn't do anything to challenge that opinion.

 

Would liked to have seen Tansey playing as he's done well for us, and it was a surprise to see Ball in there instead.  Tansey would have contributed a lot more today than Ball - tough game for his debut, he looked ok, but no more than that.

 

Thought O'Connor played very well. Logan was very wasteful, maybe due to being uncomfortable in his position.

 

Some amount of tourists in the Dons support today and saw 5 different fights/scraps/arguments in the Dons end, never good to see.

[Madbadteacher]

Still no Arnason 

[BobbyBiscuit]

Still no Arnason 

 

Not doing it in training apparently.

[Nips_and_Tatties]

Not doing it in training apparently.

 

No wonder he was delighted to come back to us then.

[KennyFuckinPowers]

Well, not sure what possessed me, but just watched it on Alba there. It was actually more painful watching than it was listening to on the radio, which I thought impossible.

 

We certainly had the bulk of the ball in opening 20-25 minutes, but generally did nothing with it.

 

I thought Hearts reverted to the old fashioned Hearts, in terms of being physical and pressing quickly, they battled harder for the 50-50's and made it uncomfortable any time we got possession, something they lacked under Cathro, and I actually thought they looked fitter than us  Also, the majority of their opportunities came from our left hand side, at times we looked like we had our LB sent off as the gaps were criminal.

 

Can't say too many got pass marks, Lewis obviously, some fantastic goalkeeping. Anthony O'Connor absolutely strolled it and genuinely wish the rest of the defenders had his composure and awareness to pick a pass rather than aimless punts ( Arnason, but he's not getting a look in for whatever reason ) & Christie showed flashes but was too inconsistent. Dom Ball was relatively comfortable, made one poor decision that led to Isma Goncalves hitting the bar for them, but generally, he'll be a good addition.

 

Stevie May was blowing out of his arse after roughly 65 minutes and should have been replaced, must say also, Shinnie was rather ineffective & Kenny McLean needs dropped. He is a good player, he's shown he can be a good player, but he's not really delivering of late. Unfortunately Considine, who I truly like due to the fact the guy has worked harder than anybody season upon season to improve, was rather pish too and I thought he was pish VS Partick also.

 

I think we need to maintain a flat back 4, we also need to have that width that Hayes & McGinn brought us game after game, it was our strongest asset and we are missing it, more noticeably Hayes.

 

For what it's worth, we have the players to facilitate it, and I reckon McInnes will revert to it eventually.

 

              Lewis

 

Logan O'Connor Reynolds Shinnie

 

          Tansey  Ball

 

 

Wright    Christie      Mackay-Steven

 

 

                May

 

 

We can rotate formation and players at will with that, but most importantly, we get the width with Wright & GMS and Christie is playing where he is most dangerous and creative. Tansey is as technically good as McLean is so can do what McLean is meant to do and by that I mean pick a pass and get us up the pitch, as well as have the ability to shoot from distance and has a good set-piece delivery. Ball is comfortable and just needs to do the basics, dare I say it like snake cunt Ryan Jack did. Don't bomb forward, just protect the back 4 and keep the ball ticking over, plus he's a good height.

 

I appreciate not everyone will agree, most probably think Shinnie is a CM now too and not a LB, but the fact is, he IS a Left Back and he can still drive the team on and battle in that position. Some will be perplexed at putting Ball in beside Tansey, but I think we've proved that we are getting cut open against every team we have played so far and we need to stabilise the defensive side of it. I know I said in a previous post that Reynolds wouldn't be in my 11 in 2 separate back 4's. but this is taking into account the form of others just now.

 

Fuck this is a long post but today really disappointed me and whilst I am obviously chuffed we haven't lost yet, I fear we may struggle against better sides, after Kilmarnock next week, a game I fully expect us to win due to the fact that Killie are dire and could very well be relegated this season, we have 2 games away to Motherwell who have improved quite well under this Robinson, make no mistake they will be our hardest games yet this season, until October, in where we go to Easter Road, followed by Ibrox then entertain Celtic.

 

Anyway, if you've got this far down my post, you're a cockwomble ( You're not really, I just want to see if anyone's actually still reading  )

[Madbadteacher]

Womblecock yersel.

 

Not seen the game obviously but this is the sort of post I come to DT for. Thank you

[RicoS321]

Ach, to be fair, Murrayfield is always a difficult place to go and get points.

 

Anyway, the radio was saying we were playing 3 at the back with Ball sitting in front? How the fuck did that work? Back 3 of Logan, O'Connor and Considine. Nae wonder Considine and Logan struggled.

 

Was it:

------------------Lewis-----------------

-----Logan----OConnor----Consi------

-------------------Ball-------------------

Christie---McLean---Shinnie---Wright

------------Rooney----May-------------

 

Jebus, nae wonder we struggled. Stewart was saying on the radio that he couldn't believe that we didn't switch formation when we made the changes. We clearly had the personnel to revert to a back four and get some width that wasn't required to track back as wing backs all day. But we made a like for like switch (if Maynard is like for like with anything). Lucky we didn't lose. Nevermind though, hopefully he'll learn.

[tom_widdows]

As I see it Levein actually did the Dons a favour by taking off Goncalves and sticking on Lafferty.

Goncalves always looked dangerous and was prepared to shoot.

Lafferty once again failed to provide me with any evidence for the previous transfer fees some have paid for him.

 

Not sure about hearts organisation of the away end. I don't remember seeing a single steward in the stand and a fair few folk were just stood in the aisle in front of me. Wonder if that was a factor in the number of arguments/ fights Bobby witnessed?

[Ten Caat]

As I said in the matchday chat, couldnt see why Tansey was dropped unless he was either copping the blame for us losing 3 goals at Thistle ( I actually thought he was our m.o.m in that game) or Deek (correctly) thought that Levein would revert to type and play a team of huge cloggers. Even so I think he would have been better dropping McLean to the bench.

 

AOC, Logan and Consi didn't really work as a back 3, though from the 30th minute onwards the pressure was so incessant that it was obvious at half time we needed to revert to a back 4 yet Deek persisted with a tactic that was failing badly. I think he's too stubborn at times.

 

As the season progresses Hearts will improve and take points at home certainly against the bigger sides so escaping with a point, especially when we were so god awful won't seem a bad result at all. Killie at home next week should be a banker 3 points and I'd hope we improve our goal difference in that game too, 3 goal victory minimum.

[KennyFuckinPowers]

Ach, to be fair, Murrayfield is always a difficult place to go and get points.

 

Anyway, the radio was saying we were playing 3 at the back with Ball sitting in front? How the fuck did that work? Back 3 of Logan, O'Connor and Considine. Nae wonder Considine and Logan struggled.

 

Was it:

------------------Lewis-----------------

-----Logan----OConnor----Consi------

-------------------Ball-------------------

Christie---McLean---Shinnie---Wright

------------Rooney----May-------------

 

Jebus, nae wonder we struggled. Stewart was saying on the radio that he couldn't believe that we didn't switch formation when we made the changes. We clearly had the personnel to revert to a back four and get some width that wasn't required to track back as wing backs all day. But we made a like for like switch (if Maynard is like for like with anything). Lucky we didn't lose. Nevermind though, hopefully he'll learn.

 

Maynard was brought on purely to chase down their defenders while we were camped in our own half. He actually won the ball at one point, held it up against 3 of their players and literally had zero support, by the time 2 of our players got up to support him, he'd laid it off to Shinnie, who put in a decent cross, maybe too close to the keeper, but one Rooney would have been there or thereabouts for.

 

We had 9 players in our own half and Maynard running around like a headless chicken whilst they played it between their back 4. I get that Hearts were always going to be a different opposition yesterday, but their own fans were unhappy with their starting 11, saying Levein was setting up not to lose rather than go for a win, and at the end of the day, it turned out to be the other way around. We are so much better than yesterday and we usually score a goal or two, but we never even looked like doing so.

 

It's only one game, we need to take it out on a very poor Kilmarnock team next week to take confidence into the Motherwell double header.

[rocket_scientist]

Good on McInnes for trying something different. I've been critical of DM over the years for being too rigid with the 4-5-1 formation but he took a brave decision today.

 

It didn't quite work, but we got away with it thanks to Joe Lewis turning in a fantastic performance.

 

The obvious argument against is that when it's working, don't fix it and max points was working.

 

I wasn't there so not qualified to debate this point but during a very long drive home was able to listen to the match and all the pre and post match comments and analysis. The consensus was that we set up badly and we never adapted and adjusted to the game in progress. You and me both are critical of McInnes at times. He got slated by implication on Sportsound yesterday.

 

Firstly, I didn't realise how excellent an analyst Michael Stewart actually is. I've seen Aberdeen infinitely more times than he has but every observation he had during the game rang big bells with me. I was deeply impressed at how quickly he could read the situation and I also love the courage of his convictions. He didn't actually say that McInnes doesn't have a clue but where it was obvious to the commentator, once again our manager failed to react.

 

He also made a great point about Hearts under Cathro that his fellow analysts didn't understand, touching on the relationship between the mechanics and the mind in high performance sport. It was a syndrome I knew existed but it manifests itself in different ways in other sports but I never thought about it in football like this before.

 

You said it was a fantastic performance by Lewis. The commentators went a whole lot further and one said it was the best GK performance he had ever seen, in decades of watching the game. That same analyst reckoned that AFC were due to "hand out a hiding" to somebody real soon. That comment interested me too. I know most of the SPFL is shit but we're not so much better ourselves. It sounded like we were pretty appalling yesterday and that Levein totally wiped the floor with McInnes.

[donsdaft]

Why we ever bother with the three at the back shite is totally beyond me.

 

Wuilie Miller got sacked pissing about with this bloody awful system and it never has worked for the Dons.

 

McInnes goes back and tries it over and over again, never with even the slightest glimmer of success.

 

442 is the way to play football, stick to it, be good at it and forget pissing about with imaginary complicated shite systems that don't bloody work.

[RicoS321]

3 at the back definitely has its uses. We beat the tims a couple of seasons ago with Quinn added to the back four. It worked perfectly. It just isn't required against Hertz. To me, it should only have been used with Logan as wing back though, and Shinnie rather than Wright. Wright doesn't have the engine of someone like Hayes, and it's unfair to ask him to play that role and then hook him when it's not going well. Although, it won't do him any harm either to teach him the hard-working aspect of the game that made Hayes such a good professional. To me, 3 at the back is for games where we have defend, rather than as a weird way of shoe-horning two strikers in (I agree with you, 4-4-2 was the only option there).

 

KFP, I wasn't really having a go at Maynard there (I was..), I was more commenting on not changing the formation. Maynard wasn't the guy to bring on for Rooney, a change in setup was required as Stewart pointed out several times (I agree with you Rocket, Stewart is very good). That doesn't do Maynard any good either as you say. 

[KennyFuckinPowers]

3 at the back definitely has its uses. We beat the tims a couple of seasons ago with Quinn added to the back four. It worked perfectly. It just isn't required against Hertz. To me, it should only have been used with Logan as wing back though, and Shinnie rather than Wright. Wright doesn't have the engine of someone like Hayes, and it's unfair to ask him to play that role and then hook him when it's not going well. Although, it won't do him any harm either to teach him the hard-working aspect of the game that made Hayes such a good professional. To me, 3 at the back is for games where we have defend, rather than as a weird way of shoe-horning two strikers in (I agree with you, 4-4-2 was the only option there).

 

KFP, I wasn't really having a go at Maynard there (I was..), I was more commenting on not changing the formation. Maynard wasn't the guy to bring on for Rooney, a change in setup was required as Stewart pointed out several times (I agree with you Rocket, Stewart is very good). That doesn't do Maynard any good either as you say.

 

I am agreeing Rico, I just perhaps went in to too much detail, making it look like I was defending him, I was not. We should have reverted to a familiar formation and replaced May with Stewart and kept Rooney poaching.

[TheDeeDon]

My biggest gripe was Tansey being dropped. I thought he looked the best of our summer signings so far.

 

JUst a weird day. I knew Hearts would be a different prospect under Levein, that is a fucker who has been behind teams giving us some doings over the years with his horrible brand of football and although not pretty it is fairly effective. It also is more suited to rugby than football.

 

PLus points can only be a clean sheet and a point which we have to thank Joe Lewis who gave a masterclass in goalkeeping. Deek showed once again he is no tactical genius and his selection policy does baffle me, but we are still unbeaten, but will have to play a lot better in the coming weeks, which I am sure we will.

 

for a 3-5-2 line up, I would have had...

 

                                            Lewis

 

                            Consi - O'Connor - Ball

              Logan                                            Shinnie

                        Christie - Tansey -  Mclean

                                     

                                        Stewart

                                          May

 

7000 away fans was a fair old gathering of dandies and deserved a better performance.

 

 

[LA-Don]

I dont buy into this tinkering with the team...formation..players iut of position too much.

 

If you have a good team they should still be able to play well.

 

If messi was played say left back, i bet he would still have a geeat game.

 

Pish excuses for a bunch of players playing bad.

 

Its why we were put out of europe against a slightly decent team we shouldve beaten.

That wasnt fitness we were just shite.

 

We need much much better.

 

 

So at left back you think Messi would know and do his defensive duties?? Don't know what you're smoking. We've added multiple players and have a new squad, tinkering is necessary. We won't know our best line up for a while and as I said yesterday, we had little preseason to experiment due to Europe. The league is a marathon, not a sprint.

[Garlogie_Granite]

The obvious argument against is that when it's working, don't fix it and max points was working.

 

I wasn't there so not qualified to debate this point but during a very long drive home was able to listen to the match and all the pre and post match comments and analysis. The consensus was that we set up badly and we never adapted and adjusted to the game in progress. You and me both are critical of McInnes at times. He got slated by implication on Sportsound yesterday.

 

Firstly, I didn't realise how excellent an analyst Michael Stewart actually is. I've seen Aberdeen infinitely more times than he has but every observation he had during the game rang big bells with me. I was deeply impressed at how quickly he could read the situation and I also love the courage of his convictions. He didn't actually say that McInnes doesn't have a clue but where it was obvious to the commentator, once again our manager failed to react.

 

He also made a great point about Hearts under Cathro that his fellow analysts didn't understand, touching on the relationship between the mechanics and the mind in high performance sport. It was a syndrome I knew existed but it manifests itself in different ways in other sports but I never thought about it in football like this before.

 

You said it was a fantastic performance by Lewis. The commentators went a whole lot further and one said it was the best GK performance he had ever seen, in decades of watching the game. That same analyst reckoned that AFC were due to "hand out a hiding" to somebody real soon. That comment interested me too. I know most of the SPFL is shit but we're not so much better ourselves. It sounded like we were pretty appalling yesterday and that Levein totally wiped the floor with McInnes.

Michael Stewart is the best pundit in the UK, he'd be on megabucks if he was in guffland, the poor cunt.

 

It has to be said as well, that since BBC got rid of jabba, their fitba coverage has come on superbly, from kicking off with the always fair Cosgrove & fat well cunt, thru Richard Gordon, to their punditry of Stewart, Willie, yes even Steven Thompson and Tom English. And the continual digs at chiko is always worth a chuckle, I bet he is fucking beelin most of the time the little baldy ginger prick.

[tlg1903]

Young is a fanny no question but there's plenty of times be argues points he doesn't really believe to play devils advocate and stimulate debate.  I bet he would be an interesting man to have a few beers with.

[Garlogie_Granite]

Young is a fanny no question but there's plenty of times be argues points he doesn't really believe to play devils advocate and stimulate debate.

Well he shouldn't. I'm not sure I agree that he even does, but he just comes across as a clueless twat when he gets 'controversial'

 

 

  I bet he would be an interesting man to have a few beers with.

I would however agree with this totally.

[BobbyBiscuit]

As I see it Levein actually did the Dons a favour by taking off Goncalves and sticking on Lafferty.

Goncalves always looked dangerous and was prepared to shoot.

Lafferty once again failed to provide me with any evidence for the previous transfer fees some have paid for him.

 

Completely agree. I was amazed but delighted when I saw it was Goncalves going off.  He caused us huge problems, we didn't handle him well.  Lafferty is a poor excuse of a footballer.

 

Not sure about hearts organisation of the away end. I don't remember seeing a single steward in the stand and a fair few folk were just stood in the aisle in front of me. Wonder if that was a factor in the number of arguments/ fights Bobby witnessed?

 

That seemed to be the cause of a couple - folk in wrong seats etc.  One of the others was due to someone criticising the Dons support and a few guys really losing the plot with him.

Also saw a Dons fan give the Dons players the finger as they came to applaud the fans at the end.  The guy was about 10 rows up from us and seemed really angry at the players - we hadn't played well but still managed a point away to Hearts, not really a disaster but maybe his reaction is a result of where we've come from over the years.

 

It'll either be that or the drink.

[Tyrant]

Good on McInnes for trying something different. I've been critical of DM over the years for being too rigid with the 4-5-1 formation but he took a brave decision today.

 

It didn't quite work, but we got away with it thanks to Joe Lewis turning in a fantastic performance.

 

One thing i'd criticise DM for was his choice of subs - Maynard I just don't get. I don't see what it is that he's supposed to bring to us. GMS I've never been a fan of and today didn't do anything to challenge that opinion.

 

Would liked to have seen Tansey playing as he's done well for us, and it was a surprise to see Ball in there instead.  Tansey would have contributed a lot more today than Ball - tough game for his debut, he looked ok, but no more than that.

 

Thought O'Connor played very well. Logan was very wasteful, maybe due to being uncomfortable in his position.

 

Some amount of tourists in the Dons support today and saw 5 different fights/scraps/arguments in the Dons end, never good to see.

 

There was some fucking neanderthal prick a few rows behind me screaming himself hoarse at Kenny MacLean calling him a hun cunt over and over again. Fucking wanker. One of these cretins with under developed brains who are unable to handle the emotion of not getting the result they want in a football match. Ironically I don't think I've ever been closer to losing control myself and lamping the fat cunt.

[Nips_and_Tatties]

So at left back you think Messi would know and do his defensive duties?? Don't know what you're smoking. We've added multiple players and have a new squad, tinkering is necessary. We won't know our best line up for a while and as I said yesterday, we had little preseason to experiment due to Europe. The league is a marathon, not a sprint.

 

I'm saying the tinkering shouldn't affect the team as badly as it does and fans making excuses for DM doing exactly this.

 

If you are good enough with a ball then yes, you should be able to play anywhere with some success no?

 

I was making the point about Messi since I've seen him play out of defence and be magnificent.

 

It's an OTT point of course but remains true to an extent.

 

We played badly against Hearts and Apollo and it wasn't cos guys were out of their positions

[donsdaft]

There was some fucking neanderthal prick a few rows behind me screaming himself hoarse at Kenny MacLean calling him a hun cunt over and over again. Fucking wanker. One of these cretins with under developed brains who are unable to handle the emotion of not getting the result they want in a football match. Ironically I don't think I've ever been closer to losing control myself and lamping the fat cunt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fuck sake, here's me convinced I was working on Saturday afternoon.

Turns out I was at Murrayfield after all.

[DollyLongstaffe]

I always feel it's unlucky if you get drawn to play a team just after a change of manager.  Managerial changes are very often followed by a significant, often short term, lift in performance and results.  Hearts away is rarely an easy fixture and in the circs I think a draw is not a bad result.

 

Like others though, I'm a bit worried by what I see in terms of a manager who doesn't seem to know what he wants from his players or how he wants to set up his team.  McInnes seems to do best with a team that practically picks itself.  Give him a load of options and he never seems to know whether to stick or twist.  On paper we've more options this season than ever but none of the new guys really seem to have hit the ground running.

 

Somebody mentioned Michael Stewart as a gifted analyst and I'm inclined to agree.  What bothers me is that he's criticised our persistent tactical naivety a few times now and each time he's struck me as being right.  I know it's an easier gig being smart into a microphone than it is putting yourself on the line as a manager: Deek can point to putting a successful a team on the park as opposed to just talking a good game.  But it's concerning: if Stewart can see what we're doing wrong, so will some other managers.

 

We can't complain about top of the league after 5 games, but the feelgood I'd expect from that isn't quite there.

[1903_Redz]

Well, the fitba ruined a good day out imo. 7000 traveling Reds, a few amber nectars, beautiful sunny day, a stadium i'd never visited before then that game of football.

 

I'm glad i read through this thread to get an idea of DM's tactics / line up as i still didn't have a clue what he was doing prior to coming on here. I don't think DM has a clue about what he wants to do just now. He's brought all these new players into the club and he's desperately trying to give them all game time, which i can understand but Sat was abysmal. I defo don't agree with messing with the defence.

 

And why is it we always throw in a stinker of a performance when we've got a lot of fans onboard to impress. Seems to happen every time.

 

Murrayfield is obviously a class stadium but i've no idea how Edinburgh copes when they've got a big rugby international on with almost 3 times the attendance. The pubs were 5/6 deep at the bar and food waiting times were ridiculous. Then at the stadium i went for something to eat 5 mins before halftime. Queues were massive and it was the 53rd minute when i got back to my seat. And there was no drinks to be had even though it was roasting.

 

The team KennyFuckingPowers posted is bang on for me. Left sided players on the left and right sided players on the right... DM should try that, might find it works. Was not impressed by that team line up on Sat at all!

 

One last thing, that O'Connor song needs to stop. I like AO'C but that song is cringe x 1000!