tlg1903

I suppose he was to an extent, yes, in the games where he thought we would be under the cosh anyway. Robson was very big on transitions as well but you got me curious so i had a look at some of stats from the first half of the season and we only ever had low possession stats like that against the sides much bigger than us. If Robson was really going for that strategy there's games he would have had great opportunity to use it in and he didn't. Eg the semi against hibs we had 52%, hearts at tynecastle in september 47%. Obviously I've only seen Elfsborg for 60 minutes at home against the top team in the league but my feeling is that he doesn't change it around much. Looking at Elfsborgs fixtures so far they haven't had one match where they have had more possession than their opponent. The closest they came was 48% and their average for all the games they have played so far this season is 38%. In other words I don't think you are wrong to draw the comparison with Robson but it was more of a part time strategy when up against it for him imo. I don't think this is the case with Thelin, I think he's fully committed to it. How he makes that work with teams that want to sit in I don't know as I've not seen enough of them but given Elfsborg are one of the bigger clubs in Sweden you would think this is a problem he has encountered before. He has five more games in charge and if I can find streams I'm defo watching them but they are all against teams in the current top 6 so we are not likely to gain much insight into the sitting in issue sadly.

Dunno like, all three were/are amazing players

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cd13p97znw4o On yourself Fergie . I've watched loads of serie a this season and this is a hell of an achievement given the midfielders in the league. There's a lot of chat that Motta is going to Juve in the summer to replace allegri, i can see him taking ferguson with him and winning this just added a few mill to the price.

This was the most interesting thing, I watched all of the second half and Elfsborg were well worth their win. I would go as far as to say that despite their low possession there wasn't many points that they didn't look completely in control of the game. Malmo are clearly used to having lots of the ball and Elfsborg would let them have it in their own half (unless trying to regain just lost possession) but once into Elfsborgs half they kinda herd them into specific areas then pounce on them and invariably take the ball. Then they break. And every time they break with purpose, players flood forward and within a few seconds a lot of the time the defenders are facing their goal and panicking. One of the most notable things was there was a couple of passages of play where they had just taken the ball and they had be very tidy with it not to lose it again straight away. In other words don't let the low possession stat make you think Elfsborg can't pass the ball and keep it, they absolutely can and I'm sure could play a possession strategy if they so wished. The fact they don't wish to is what makes this such a very interesting setup and I genuinely can't recall seeing anything quite like it before. After watching that game I am now quite glad Thelin isn't coming till June, you could not come into a team midseason and try and implement this way of playing. It could also be argued the league cup group stage could provide a useful testing ground to what is going to be a drastic change in strategy for the first team.

Forgot they were playing Malmo today but managed to find a stream. Currently 1 up at home at HT. My very early impressions after watching the ten minutes before half time are as follows. Elfsborg are a very direct side, not in a long ball merchant way, just when they get possession they don't fanny about. I Initially thought they were playing a 433 but it was just because the camera was cutting out the right winger. They actually look to be playing a 442 that turns into a 424 the moment they get possession. Couldn't tell you what the goal was like as h/t analysis is about 2 minutes long (they like their ads in Sweden) and i missed the one replay they showed. Edit, just saw it there. Decent turn and ping from the edge of the box Stats are interesting as well and similar to the above post by panda. Safe to say Jimmy T ain't a fan of Tika Taka. As for how well such an approach will be appreciated by the pittodrie faithful? If he wins enough I'm sure it will be fine but i would add high possession stats and entertaining football are not mutually exclusive.

I would be surprised to see Hoilett stay given Thelin's reported playing style. 33 yo's are not known for their pressing abilities after all. It does feel like we are in a wee bit of a limbo until Thelin comes in with the distractions of the cup semi and fear of relegation going away. Hopefully we aren't though and Thelin will come in with a good knowledge of the squad and who he wants to bring in. He does sound the type that will be putting in the prep work 2bf so I have some optimism the transfer window will be more focused and less scattergun than the previous summers. The only thing I think we can say for certain is we will see a few players come in from the Swedish league and the rest of Scandinavia as well perhaps.

A new keeper is a must imo, Roos is ooc at the end of the season anyway

If polvara could just inject a wee bit more aggression into his game I think he could be some player. As for Shinnie? I think there's a fair chance he will adapt reasonably well to losing pace. You could see him playing a holding midfielder role where he doesn't have to move much quite successfully. Win the ball, move it on, jobs a good un. I'm not saying that will defo be for us as I'm far from convinced Thelin is going to be too interested in holding midfielders but he could play top flight football in Scotland for a few seasons yet. I think we will get a really good performance at the weekend, the weekends performance gave the team it's mojo back and they are clearly enjoying playing for Leven. 4-0 dons Miovski, sokler, Duk and Gartenmann

I couldn't find a stream of this one in the end on Kodi, hopefully can find one Tom eve

I'm probably going to watch a fair few of these (well, have on my second screen whilst I play football manager anyway) and given some of you might be interested I thought I would post my thoughts on them here. home to Kalmar this eve, 6pm KO.

I wonder what sort of markets we will be looking at this summer. It seems very likely to me at least a couple of the new bodies coming in will be from scandanavia. I wonder Thelin will raid his old club

All I will to what has been posted before is how proud I am of my team and pleased I am that leven is going to be involved going forward. We have taken so many proverbial kickings this season I honestly didn't think so much fight was still in us. Anyone else think Morris did alright in the brief time he was on?

Oh dear lord . We say "there is a consistently shown inherent bias towards the two biggest clubs in the country and the governing bodies refuse to give us the same opportunities as they do to them". All of this is clearly, and easily, provable and quite frankly previous ticket sales are utterly irrelevant. It's about fair opportunity not how briefs you have sold in the past (but not hard for us to show plenty occasions when we have sold huge numbers of tickets, parkred for example). If you think the CAS would "laugh us out of the place" for putting that case to them i honestly don't know what to say to you. Cases like this are literally what it exists to mitigate.

Actually, I don't agree with that. I think it just needs taken to the court of arbitration for sport by hearts, hibs and Aberdeen. It would get sorted out very quickly and the precedent would then be set.

Mal Panton?