OrlandoDon

He will praise their efforts, say we were tired, and say the luck is not going our way. We were punished for mistakes and that’s not going our way right now. I’ve yet to hear him say a single thing that suggests he knows how to get us to play better.

Yet another god awful watch, less interested by the week. Good results paper over the shit, plus the fact a win today (even though we won’t) would put us 4th shows how shit our league is. What if we had a tactically astute manager? I really think we have some good players and we should see much better. I’ll also add I don’t give a fuck about plucky losers, strong in Germany and unlucky during the week, means nothing. I also can’t stand watching duk, dribble flop repeat, and he’s arguably the main reason for our tactics. The long ball stuff is destroying my enjoyment of dons football. robson shows nothing to suggest he’s the right guy for the job. Last season he motivated us to 3rd but as I stated in the spring, being a full time manager with long term goals is totally different. I said give Robson time but time is worrying based on the weekly performances that continue. And I’ve been one of the few saying faith and time. Do you give him the January window to help fix things, or do you give a new guy the opportunity to sign a couple to start building a team? not really watching today and what I see wants me to watch less. Have we had a shot on goal?? last part, the club have certainly backed the manager financially, how much patience do they have??

How do you play a winger in the formation we play??? We’re more or less married to the 352 with wing backs. I’d say two center midfielders. Shinnie is going to get burned out, maybe even injured. The imbalance of our team is awful, we were successful with shinnie and Rama, I’d say we need two more of that! Baccus at st mirren any good? I wondered in the summer given how badly we needed to replace Rama, that st mirren asked for too much and we can get him on a pre contract in January, maybe permanent at a much more reasonable price??

Easy to give an opinion in the moment when var has gone against you, but can we honestly say var has made the game better? More enjoyable? It seems that every week we’re discuss var in a negative light. woukd be happy for the var experiment to end. Has caused more drama and frustration than clarity in my eyes.

Didn’t see the game and obviously see the biased reporting. Was it offside or a foul? And what was it called during the game? Keeper made no attempt at the ball whatsoever, and made no contact with hendry to try to get the ball. I don’t see a foul so assume it’s offside?

I am engaging in debate - you’re saying players aren’t good enough in roles, I responded with opinion. I’m saying give them time because they are new or being given new roles with very little practice and alongside new players. Playing a team sport in a new role alongside new players and potentially in a new formation is a little more challenging than doing a DIY project. (And yea, I know, you can get complicated DIY) It’s complex teamwork involving knowledge of team tactics, team mates, habits, abilities etc…….plus you have to factor in opponents. you’re saying it’s 3 months of consistent attempts. It has not been. We’ve had this squad for just over a month. Rama left just over 2 months ago. It’s still all very raw and very new. It may seem like it’s 3 months because we’ve played quite a lot of games in a short time. But that has also meant very limited legit practice to work on formation and personnel. what may work against Ross county may not work against rangers. Or st Johnstone. Or it may work, we’ll never know right now. But I don’t think changing formation and personnel at the same time regularly is the right approach, there has to be some form of consistency, now he’s trying to find the right players. Where we do agree is that we don’t have the midfield of last year and that’s killing us. We have such a poorly constructed squad that I dont think we have a solution, hence Robson trying players in roles that they initially aren’t strong in. He’s hoping to grow someone into a role but you have to give someone a good few games to learn and see what they grasp and can do. I’ve also said twice now, two huge players for us this season were meant to be duk and clarkson and both have struggled. That makes it even harder to build a team when your close to best two should be dropped. When you can’t build around and rely on these guys it clearly is another factor in all of this.

Robson said McGrath can play in multiple central midfield positions. Yet to see if that’s true but I recall Robson saying that. Robson sees more than we do, knows them more that we do, and is hired in that job (because he’s a professional coach), that counts for something. For now. We’re fans. Just because we have hair and scissors doesn’t mean we can cut hair. there’s every reason to experiment during the season. We didn’t have the squad in place preseason and with two games a week are having little serious practice. How else do you expect us to learn and improve….they have no choice but to learn on the job. I don’t think it’s crystal clear to the players what they are being asked to do, I think some is trial and error. we don’t have the players to play the 352 like last year. We don’t have the players to really play 433/442. He’s fucked in a way trying to figure shit out on the fly. But at least we have or dadia, Rhys Williams, Morris, and have we seen anything to suggest gueye has ability? I actually rate Vinny! I didn’t want Robson, said that many times. He doesn’t sound creative or overly intelligent. Lovely guy, a don, super player, but is he any different to Yogi Hughes or the likes? He hasn’t shown much creativity or tactical talents, but he won some games in the spring. He’s been given a really tough job, we did a really poor summer job after saying we’d get players in early, and we’re seeing the results. If we’re to be fair to the guy, as much as I don’t think we’ll be overly successful, give him a chance to develop something. You didn’t ask for him to be replaced, but you’re overly and I think unfairly critical. I just don’t want a new manager in every season. I know I don’t rate him but weirdly want to give him time, plus it also gets in my nerves when the fans think the know more than the guys who do the job 24/7.

There’s plenty I agree with in your post but I still think us armchair fans think things quite often are easy to see and easy to fix. Having played and coached (not to that level) it’s not as easy as it sounds. Don’t know your experience but quite often things don’t go as planned. You don’t scrap things after minimal practice and very limited results. Robson implements tactics based on his knowledge and experience, particularly of the players and their abilities, which I’m sure he’s still learning for some/many. He’s also planning and implementing for the long term, with minimal practice sessions, not just to scrap if we play poorly. Your comments about McGrath for example, you sound like you know him well but I’m willing to give him time. Willie Miller was a forward, don’t think he became the defender he became overnight. We’re stuck with the squad we have and he’s figuring out a lot on the fly with little practice. I also criticized the make up of our squad and Robson is having to figure out and deal with the imbalance. saying all that, we’re god awful to watch and it’s poor. But he’s obviously building something and that’s my point on time. I hear you on throwing away points but we canned glass and Goodwin quickly, while I made my comments clear about wanting an experienced manager, give Robson time. Win yesterday and we were 4th an not doing too badly despite minimal practice and a new patchwork team learning to play together in the moment for the most part. I also added, two of his ’star’ players in duk and clarkson aren’t performing, that’s a tough spot to be in given they are clear factors in our tactics and style of play.

I think we have to give Robson a break to an extent. He’s had this squad for about six weeks. We’ve had two games a week and an international break. Not a lot of training going on. I’m more critical of recruitment and an imbalanced squad, but Robson has to be given the opportunity to try to create a team. He has to either develop a Rama replacement or adapt the formation, and that takes time. Throw in duk being off form, clarkson too, and those are players he planned to build around. Playing players for one or two games and expecting a performance is a lot to ask, especially on a team who didn’t start the league well and aren’t exactly oozing confidence and understanding. I think it’s very easy for us armchair fans to be critical, but coaching is hard. I think the first thing we have to see is a style of play. Rightly or wrongly, we saw what glass was trying to do building out from the back. I’m still not clear if we’re meant to be a kick and run long ball team relying on duk’s pace . As others have said, I’d like to see us build through midfield, but we’ve got to figure out who plays in there and in what role.

Roos has always looked dodgy with high balls and crosses close to goal. We just defended higher up as the year went on last year so he wasn’t exposed quite so much. But he’s not good with crosses and high balls, he’s a shot stopper.

So much brutal long ball. My eyes hurt. and so much of that is to utilize duk who, from what I saw first half, was poor. Again. The 352 was the go to in order to accommodate duk, and now we’re a long ball team for him. All or nothing it seems.

That squad rotation sounds appealing!

I don’t know the rules….looked in line to me??

Bollocks

Duk has zero intelligence, how many times the wrong decision. good goal from big Andy, much needed!

Interesting to see vinnie there. He offers something different, width higher up the field that nobody else can do (Hayes did but the pace isn’t there any more.) Not a bad option to have, provided he’s not expected to be a wing back. Do not like seeing others shoehorned wide. happy with Barron in, clarkson is off form, Barron has been a positive this season. still shooting for 3-1, although in all honestly would prefer a win and a shutout, need to be defensively solid and consistent.

Very true, didn’t consider that! Doesn’t mean he won’t tire, especially with heavy ground today. win and assuming the Huns go on and win we’re 4 points off third. If we can be third or fourth by Xmas and ideally fix the squad/midfield in that window we certainly cannot complain. Hopefully that’s our bad run out the way and we maintain consistency as we appear to have found.

Tend to agree this may be the game to rest shinnie. Barron clarkson and McGrath is a little lightweight, and while polvara is bigger he’s not got the battling qualities. When we getting introduced to or dadia? I’d even consider Hayes in there for an hour then bring on fresh legs. 3-1 - miovski sokler and ruby!

Didn’t see it but sounds like another game duk fails to take his scoring chances??

I see very little of us these days, sadly, my 4 and 7 year olds and two jobs ruin everything! we looked really poor when we got significantly exposed earlier in the season, and looked really weak defensively. I think the extra midfielder has helped, obviously to the expense of duk. I also think domestically teams know duk now, shut down his speed and he’s limited. I hear you regarding Ross country, I just don’t know enough about Helsinki to know if they’ll sit in like a Ross county or try to come out and play like hacken. I’ve said this before, unlikely we stray from the 352 this squad was built around, but a 3-4-2-1, with McGrath and clarkson attacking behind miovski is an option, with Barron and shinnie deeper. Obviously Barron and clarkson can switch as I think both are better deeper.

As Elgin don said, not sure what to expect. They have a squad of mostly Finnish players, and while they are top of their league, how good is that?? Don’t see any Brazilian or Eastern European studs, even a top player like hacken had. Let’s have a go and get a win! Confidence is high from the weekend, looking forward to this. I honestly think we’re a better team without duk, felt this was at this point last year too. Duk went on a tear hence we built a team around him, but I think we play the same formation as the Huns game but be more attack minded. Get Mackenzie and devlin to push up and give us width, and play McGrath close to miovski. 3-1, miovski, McGrath, Jensen.

Do you resent scales doing well then? Or do you dislike that Celtic benefit? But do they really?? My like is he’s a decent lad doing well, good on him. Despise the tic, but that’s not his fault.

So is gartenmann on a loan with a buying option? Started well but obviously still time to prove he’s pish. While nice to see scales doing well, would rather not develop another loanee, would be nice to develop a group of defenders who can play together for more than one season.

Not nonsense at all, we cannot afford to juggle and rotate, we need to find form and that means playing together. One or two changes is not squad rotation. As mentioned already, if it ain’t broke roll it back out. Especially when it went well against the same opponent we play tomorrow.

Wow! Just read this, hope you are doing well and recovering!!! I hit 50 this year and have had a few health issues, has really put life into perspective. Take care. Stress is a big health factor too, which makes being a dons fan a serious health risk! Be well!