Aberdeen V The Rangers

[KennyFuckinPowers]

Your post got me thinking Kenny as I reckon it is more likely to be McGinn who is up against Tavernier.  What has turned our team from a free flowing attacking team a couple of years ago to a more rigid defensive team which struggles to create chances?

 

Part of it I'm certain is that our wide players no longer play as orthodox wingers.  When we had Hayes on one side and McGinn on the other we had a left footed player on the left and a right footer on the right.  The crosses were being bombed in and Rooney was in his element.

 

What I cannot fathom is why we play GMS predominantly on the right and McGinn on the left.  It is counterproductive, we narrow the pitch plus any time they want to cross the ball they need to stop and cut back.  It is a gripe of modern day football for me as a number of managers seem to play their wide players in the same way.

 

We are still free flowing Kiriakov, just not against certain teams, the 2 performances against St Mirren was the Dons I remember in McInnes' first few seasons, there's a number of reasons why it's not the case now, mainly Jonny Hayes, no full back looked forward to a 90 minutes against him and we miss him terribly.

 

The other reason is, Hearts, Hibs & Rangers are back now and stronger, he's too afraid to go toe to toe with them, we have evidenced that now, on several occasions, he is basically admitting it by his tactics.

 

Also, see if you were a neutral watching Scottish Football this season for the first time, would you think that Aberdeen were the 2nd best team in the division for several years? No, you wouldn't.

[LA-Don]

We are still free flowing Kiriakov, just not against certain teams, the 2 performances against St Mirren was the Dons I remember in McInnes' first few seasons, there's a number of reasons why it's not the case now, mainly Jonny Hayes, no full back looked forward to a 90 minutes against him and we miss him terribly.

 

The other reason is, Hearts, Hibs & Rangers are back now and stronger, he's too afraid to go toe to toe with them, we have evidenced that now, on several occasions, he is basically admitting it by his tactics.

 

Also, see if you were a neutral watching Scottish Football this season for the first time, would you think that Aberdeen were the 2nd best team in the division for several years? No, you wouldn't.

 

 

Sorry, I don't think we are really free flowing much at all these days. Two good games against an awful St Mirren but when else? When we play Cosgrove, which is most games, we revert to long ball and it becomes pretty painful. When we play, and I think it's expanding, say both Glasgow and Edinburgh clubs, we'll see a very defensive absorb pressure and counter attack, although even that becomes a challenge with Cosgrove and May who struggle to hold the ball up and link with support - a criticism of the supporting players too.

 

This has been the frustration for over a year now with me, it's not that pretty and free flowing any more......and more often than not it's pretty brutal to watch.

[Guest kiriakovisthenewstrachan]

Got to agree with you there LA.

 

The way we play against three quarters of the teams in our league reminds me of the Arsenal team of the early 90s in that we are looking to sneak the game by one goal.  May be partly to do with the defensive unit of Lewis, Logan, Devlin, McKenna and a n other being as good as we have had for a while.

 

Also agree with your point that when Cosgrove plays that it becomes particularly predictable.

 

A lot of criticism has been directed at Cosgrove and May for their lack of goals but I think the way this team plays is night and day between the team of two years ago.  The chances are just not being created in the the way that they were.  It seemed to start in the last have a dozen games of last season where we were grinding out results and has continued into this season.  The loss of Kenny McLean is also becoming more and more noticeable.

[Ten Caat]

Got to agree with you there LA.

 

The way we play against three quarters of the teams in our league reminds me of the Arsenal team of the early 90s in that we are looking to sneak the game by one goal.  May be partly to do with the defensive unit of Lewis, Logan, Devlin, McKenna and a n other being as good as we have had for a while.

 

A defensive unit which is coughing up an average of a goal a game this season (admittely the back line has been ravaged up till now with a combination of injuries and utterly ludicrous suspensions). Thus we need to score to take anything from games, and at least twice to get a win. Our scoring average is just over 1 a game and that was boosted hugely by the 2 St Mirren horsings that we dished out. Fans are bored to tears with our dreadful style of play and crowds will inevitably drop as we continue to lose ground on teams at the top of the league.

 

Sunday is a chance for DM to at least try something different. Playing it cagey against a team shorn of their 2 best attackers would be madness.......and likely result in defeat anyway. Sevco's weakness is their defence. Get Wright running at them in the channels and we have a chance.

 

 

[KennyFuckinPowers]

It was tongue in cheeks gents ( or ladies ) and a slight dig at McInnes. My point was if you look at the line up and subsequent performances in those games, they were both positive and show we are probably still capable of playing good stuff if our manager stopped being a negative shitebag. 

 

Hard to believe we're only 9 games in, haven't even played everyone once yet, and that's usually where I judge us to get a feel of things, but this has been pretty awful stuff to date and if even the most blinkered fan is honest with themselves, it shows no signs of improving.

 

This is a chance for us to restart this season, a positive result and into a final, despite a piss poor start to the season, should fire a rocket up everyone's arse and kick start our season.

 

Also, everyone keeps forgetting our very own version of Sergio Busquets, Casimero, Andrea Pirlo, Radja Nainggolan etc... is due back to the squad.....Greg Tansey! He's our saviour this season, ANY team would miss him.

 

 

 

 

[Lencarl]

John Beaton has been tasked with reffing Aberdeen vs The Rangers at Hampden Park.

 

Does he have any affiliation with the huns ?

[BigAl]

John Beaton has been tasked with reffing Aberdeen vs The Rangers at Hampden Park.

 

Does he have any affiliation with the huns ?

 

You bet he does

He was the fourth official that Gollum ignored when as fourth official against The Tims as he shouted foul, foul, foul in the lead up to Rasellic scoring.

Also refereed a Scottish Cup tie v Hamilton who claimed afterwards he should never referee another top flight match in Scotland ever again.

[RicoS321]

Is he (his family) not a season ticket holder at Ibrox, or is that one of the other hun cunts?

[BobbyBiscuit]

Is he (his family) not a season ticket holder at Ibrox, or is that one of the other hun cunts?

 

That's Madden.

 

And probably several others, but definitely Madden.

[RicoS321]

That's Madden.

 

And probably several others, but definitely Madden.

 

Ayyyyye, that's the fucker. Sorry Beaton, you're probably a different type of cunt.

[Lencarl]

The officials for our game on Sunday:

 

Referee: John Beaton

AR1: Douglas "Red Hand of Ulster" Ross

AR2: Dougie Potter

Fourth Official: Steven McLean

 

Four Sevco fans on offical duty at Hampden.

 

Any tackles in the box will result as a penalty for the huns.

 

Any 50/50 tackles on the pitch will result in a free kick for the huns.

 

Almost guaranteed an Aberdeen player will be sent off.

 

Apart from that we should be okay.

 

Ps.....Lets hope that there are no serious injuries for any Sevco players from their game against Spartak Moscow tonight which keeps them out of the semi-final.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jute]

Tickets arrived yesterday which I had hoped would get me up for this but still not looking forward to this at all. Even with the Tribute Act being without their best two strikers I still think they will carry more of a goal threat than we do. Our strikers just simply do not look like scoring. Of the 4 goals they have between them 3 have been against St Mirren and none against a team inside the top 6. Excluding Anderson from this as McInnes clearly will not play him unless everyone else is injured. Even if we do manage to keep it tight we all know the Tribute Act will get their obligatory “soft” penalty. Not even any decent pubs at our side of the ground.

 

Scaring from last few Hampden visits showing in the above.

 

In

Train then pub somewhere in weeg

East Stand

Train back to Capital

2-0 Tribute Act no Dons scorer.

 

[manc_don]

I don't envy anyone going, I tip my hat to them, but I'm glad I'm too far away to make it. I really fear a pumping, not because they're that good, but it's because we're going to be set up negatively and invite pressure we can't handle.  Hope for a few broken legs (for Rangers) tonight.

 

Newco 4 - Dons 0

[Dunty]

The officials for our game on Sunday:

 

Referee: John Beaton

AR1: Douglas "Red Hand of Ulster" Ross

AR2: Dougie Potter

Fourth Official: Steven McLean

 

Four Sevco fans on offical duty at Hampden.

 

Any tackles in the box will result as a penalty for the huns.

 

Any 50/50 tackles on the pitch will result in a free kick for the huns.

 

Almost guaranteed an Aberdeen player will be sent off.

 

Apart from that we should be okay.

 

Ps.....Lets hope that there are no serious injuries for any Sevco players from their game against Spartak Moscow tonight which keeps them out of the semi-final.

 

You see, this is just paranoid shite, the sort of thing we used to laugh at Celtic fans for.

 

John Beaton has only ever refereed two Aberdeen/Rangers games before - one at Pittodrie, one at Ibrox - and Aberdeen won them both.

 

This "Rangers always get penalties against us, we'll definitely get red cards". We've both had one penalty each in the last two Dons/Rangers game. Rangers have also had two players sent off against us in the last three Dons/Rangers games at Pitttodrie.

[Dunty]

Watched a few old Rangers v Aberdeen highlights from Hampden on YouTube. That fairly fired me up for Sunday.

 

What was noticeable is that the ticket split on Sunday is no-where near as bad as it used to be. The 1988 LC final for example, in a crowd of 72,000, Rangers seem to have 60,000 of it, going right round to half of the east terracing. Though a year later for the Mason final we appear to have brought a lot more down for that.

 

A small part of me glad we're outnumbered on Sunday. Siege mentality and all that. Bring them on, have no fear whatsoever, reckon we'll burst Gerrard's bubble.

[Lencarl]

You see, this is just paranoid shite, the sort of thing we used to laugh at Celtic fans for.

 

John Beaton has only ever refereed two Aberdeen/Rangers games before - one at Pittodrie, one at Ibrox - and Aberdeen won them both.

 

This "Rangers always get penalties against us, we'll definitely get red cards". We've both had one penalty each in the last two Dons/Rangers game. Rangers have also had two players sent off against us in the last three Dons/Rangers games at Pitttodrie.

 

My post was tongue in cheek but on saying that let's hope that Beaton officiates over a hat trick of wins for the Famous. 

 

P.s Will be interesting to see the BT pundit for the coverage of the game. My bet would be Ally (the hun) McCoist.

[KennyFuckinPowers]

Obviously as the dust has settled after a very disappointing result on Saturday, starting to feel a bit better about our chances.

 

I watched them last night on BT Sport, and took away a few things from it. Firstly, Morelos will be a huge miss for them, as much of a petty cunt as he is, he's a handful and a threat & seems to be pretty good at holding the ball up etc...whilst being a goal threat. Pretty big plus for us that he's missing.

 

Also, Tavernier was kept very quiet and had little to no impact for them. I don't remember him getting his customary number of crosses in from wide right, something they score goals from domestically, obviously their coach worked on that.

 

Goldson, judging by the highlights against Hamilton there and from watching him last night, this guy is a shitebag, he doesn't do too well when he's been ran at, he panics and for me, looks prone to errors if we can get at him. They've been raving about him, but from what I have seen, he's been less than impressive, Spartak offered nothing up front in the 1st half, but upped their game in the 2nd and he looked like their weak link to me.

 

Lastly, the 2 on loan from Liverpool, Ejaria & Kent, look pretty decent it has to be said, Kent appears to be their main threat now, I thought it was Tavernier, and whilst he'll still need watched, Kent is naturally more of an attacker and they might play him up front instead of that Sadiq, although my Hun mate reckons it'll be Grezda, whoever the fuck that is.

 

Anyway, slightly more confident but I still think it depends on how McInnes approaches this, if we are positive from the outset, I think we'll win in 90 minutes. If it's a back to the walls job and we offer the square root of fuck all in the final 3rd, much like the Hibs Cup Game, we will get comfortably beaten.

 

 

[donsdaft]

Hun mate?

 

How does that work?

[KennyFuckinPowers]

Unfortunately DD, where I come from, I am the minority in being a Dandy, I only know of a handful of fellow Aberdeen supporters here. 90% of my mates are Huns/Tims and I have the odd Kilmarnock, Dundee United and Ayr United fan.

 

It's a fucking horrific experience whenever we play either of the Cheeks, let me tell you. 

[donsdaft]

Hopefully they're all avoiding you on Monday.

[RicoS321]

Any injury news then, or are we all fit bar the long-termers?

 

This game is going to be won or lost in midfield I reckon. We've struggled to find our best midfield this season and it's the area of the pitch where we're not dominating enough to help the forwards or defence (striker is another issue!).

 

What's everyone's preferred formation for the game?

 

4-4-2 doesn't work in modern (scottish) fitba unless you play direct with two hoofers up front, because the opposition just play an extra man in midfield and you end up having to pull back an inadequate forward to compensate - it's too easy to play against.

 

We've got the personnel for a 3-5-2. Unfortunately that means we lost out by playing Lowe and Logan as wing backs and sacrifice the width and pace of GMS and McGinn, or play McGinn and GMS and sacrifice defending. If we had two great strikers to make it worthwhile, then I'd be tempted, but we gain little having an extra mediocre striker.

 

3-4-3 would be acceptable. However, it would mean dropping McGinn most likely, and he played well against Hearts.

 

4-1-4-1 was roughly how we lined up against Burnley with eitehr Hoban or Ball playing the deep role. It's probably our best combination when we choose to play Shinnie, Ball and Ferguson.

 

I'm going 4-2-3-1. It's been our most succesful setup under McInnes and retains the extra body in midfield where we'll need it when we don't have the ball. The difference between that and 4-1-4-1 for me is playing the middle 1 of the 3 permanently high up the pitch. I think we've got a couple of options in that role, but I'd go Wright. That means one of either Ferguson or Ball drops to the bench (perhaps unfairly) and I'd go with Ferguson from the start. He can create things from deep but retain position to protect the defence. He'll just move the ball more quickly from midfield to attack and I think we'll need that more than Ball's defensive capabilities. Especially if we have Shinnie also sitting alongside him keeping it reasonably tight but both supporting when required.

 

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

Logan--Devlin---McKenna--Lowe

--------Ferguson--Shinnie--------

--GMS-------Wright------McGinn-

-------------Wilson----------------

 

It's bloody difficult to pick our best 11 this season, but that team should have us 3 up by half time.

[BigAl]

Unfortunately DD, where I come from, I am the minority in being a Dandy, I only know of a handful of fellow Aberdeen supporters here. 90% of my mates are Huns/Tims and I have the odd Kilmarnock, Dundee United and Ayr United fan.

 

It's a fucking horrific experience whenever we play either of the Cheeks, let me tell you. 

 

So where about do you bide then KFP ?

[Ten Caat]

So where about do you bide then KFP ?

 

If it's New Farm Loch there is a very good chance he is related to me 

[Lencarl]

Hun mate?

 

How does that work?

 

just ask Graeme Shinnie.

 

He is in today's E.E speaking about his great mate Ryan ( The Rat ) Jack before they meet each other on Sunday

[CtS]

Big weekend ahead. I’ve been accused of being over optimistic in the past but I won’t change my attitude for this one.

 

Yes we’re the underdogs on the pitch. Yes we’ll be hugely outnumbered off the pitch. But we’ve overcome these odds before and we can do it again on Sunday. It’ll be a long and painful journey home if we lose of course, but I think the pressure is off the players to a certain extent because of the opposition....as we all know losing to lower league opponents at this stage is utterly devastating as well as humiliating. All we can do is get stuck in on Sunday and give it our best shot - nothing to fear, nothing to lose.

 

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. COYR!