tlg1903

Aye precarious indeed. The rumour mill suggests the administrators are coming in on Monday as the sponsors are pulling out.

This. The only team I have seen in the top flight that I didn't feel belonged was the farce that was Gretna. I have respect for Livingston, sure they don't have the most fans but fair play to the ones that show. Their pitch can get in the bin though, hopefully we can now ban them from the top flight.

Right? First time I saw him play was away to inverness and he was tearing Considine a new one. I wanted to sign him within about 2 minutes of kick off. Defo one of my favourite dons players of all time. Just noticed we wore the new kit last night. Never seen a team wear next seasons before the current season is complete before

And now the board is flat out trolling rhe hibs fanbase by appointing malky mackay as sporting director

Thelin coming early?

From Portsoy as well I believe. There's precedent for him to do well from that POV......

Also it's just common courtesy to explain yourself a bit when making such a request

Why do you want to know this?

Not sure 2bh, the 60 minutes I watched I was too busy trying to figure out the system to be noticing players.

It seems silly to speculate on players coming in at the moment 2bh. We have absolutely no idea what Thelin is going to make of the squad and what he feels it needs. I would not be at all surprised if he raids his old club for a couple though.

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.