The.Moog

Fuckin Mitov AGAIN. Decent start undone by yet another shambolic self destruct. Honest to god…

I’d agree Palaversa has done nothing to deserve being kept over Polvara - but he’s not out of contract this year. As for Clarkson, not many workplaces you’ll get away with publicly telling your boss to GTF (apart fae OBI’s obviously ). Poor attitude was cited as the reason, so I’m guessing the alleged outburst got him in the doghouse & then his ongoing poor attitude and petted lip has got him going out the door. If we can get some half decent cash, then I’ll take it…

While I get your point, I don’t find it strange they’d let him go. He’s out of contract (Palaversa isnt), he’s way too inconsistent (as his performance vs Killie showed yet again) which is the reason the clubs not bothered about keeping him. Polvara is just not suited to Scottish football. Now, whether that’s an indictment of him or our league is up for debate, but he’d be much better off getting out of this league altogether. Wonder where Sean Connery’s granddaughter bides…

No idea tbh - was there even a fee involved? He’s got the physical attributes to be a player no doubt, I just think he’s another with a poor attitude that thinks he’s way better than he actually is. A £7m transfer fee (however unjustifiable) can tend to do that I guess…

Agree, quite why Palaversa would stay over the other two (unless nobody wants him) is beyond me. Offers very little (good pen & celebration at the cup final mind so I’ll always have a soft spot for him for that).

They did - posted on the transfer window thread earlier, allegedly….

So a bit of gossip from sources I trust: We’ve been chatting up Watson at Killie for quite some time. Hopeful of getting him but no guarantees. Some changes to personnel coming up: Polvara, out, not consistent enough Clarkson, poor attitude, so out Palaversa, stays Leven isn’t likely to leave, new manager identified for after JT but no one at the club wants JT to go so he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Ties in with what I heard about the original Clarkson fallout Allegedly, so I heard, at the last joot game at Tannadice, when Clarkson was taken down, but then he wasnt named in the final squad, and was then told to go out and do his warm up routine (which is fairly common with JT’s squad apparently) there was shall we say, a full and frank exchange of views which may have involved JT being advised to go and reproduce with himself, or words to that effect. That’ll end yer career with any club PDQ tbf.

I’ve heard something about what happened behind the scenes wi Clarkson (at the joot game at Tannadice), but I’m nae sure fit the rules are on here about spreading club gossip, even from a decent source, so dinna want to overstep. Nae idea wi Palaversa, probably just the fact he’s actually not very good…

Well fair play to the lads, I had a go at HT so only right to give them praise for that second half. Great stuff from Shinnie, injected all the drive & urgency that was missing first half pretty much by himself. Dragged a performance out of them all. Missed a sitter, but I’ll let him aff - MOTM. Bilalovic looked good, he’s a unit, rapid, direct & took his goal very well. Did more in 30 mins than Milanovic has ever done. Lets see more. Adil is really growing on me. Boy can play a bit & while guys like him are often lazy sods, he fair puts in a shift every week. Keep this up & he’ll justify the £1.5m. Nisbet was/is a different player in a two. Lovely run & cross for the goal though so he still contributed despite not being at his best. So, lots to praise, lots to improve still as well, but the results are coming so lets keep it up. I do want a proper mannies CH, a left wing back and a box to box midfielder for xmas though - as a minimum…

Brutal - no other word for it. At least VAR did the job its supposed to do for once - about the only positive. Massive squad so lets just pretty much go with the same team as Thursday. Though tbh if you can’t handle two games a week then you shouldn’t be at AFC. He’d better just play all the reserves and Ambrose types in Prague is all I can say. YET ANOTHER absolutely shambolic goal given away, its becoming beyond tiresome. Polvara and Nisbet have been a waste of a shirt, Topi is just not a wing back, changes needed at HT. Poor, poor stuff so far…

Well we made much harder work of that than needed, but a good 3 points and good performance in the main. Thats a quality finish fae Nesbit, top notch. That’s what we bought him for. If both he and Lazetic can keep up the recent scoring form we’re in good shape up front. Aouchiche excellent today, though he was done midway through second half (as was the whole midfield tbf) so should have come off. Put in another great shift though. Polvara and Armstrong similar, did well but tired second half. The set piece defending just has to be sorted out though, we’ve not scored once from a set piece ourselves this season, but have let in a barrowload. Not good enough and I don’t know what (if anything) they are doing in training, but they need to work on it much harder. Overall though a pleasing performance and great result. As others have said though, it would be nice to see a 90 minute performance…

Yet another set piece holocaust - honest to fuck we’re just abysmal at these…

Well that’s much more like it. Formation, shape, discipline and press has been excellent. Dundee struggling to break us down. we’ve broken forward much better, midfield and wing back overlaps and players getting in the box - just what you want. Lazetic has been excellent in the lone striker role. Held it up, put himself about and linked the play. His first touch before the first goal was sublime. Jensen is actually offering a good outball on the left, he’s just not got a left foot to take proper advantage of it. More of the same second half please lads, cause this is what we want to see…

Just watched the highlights - aye Milne was poor at the second but fuck me Devlin, that’s appalling defending. Didn’t close down, shut the angle or try to force him wide, just let the boy run by him. Very poor…

There’s two fundamental issues with the defending of the ball in the air at the back. For set plays, long throws & crosses into the box, we just get out jumped and out muscled far, far more often than CH’s should. For long balls over the top from the opposition half, we get caught out being in the wrong place to deal with it far, far more often than we should. The amount of times the ball sails over our guys heads, or bounces in front of them is ridiculous. It’s the absolute meat and drink basics of defending and we are constantly, consistently, absolutely shite at it…

Defending 101 - you don’t let the ball bounce. You teach primary school kids that. Yet we do it ALL THE TIME…

Honest to fuck. Best we’ve played overall in ages and this is the game the defence decides to revert to type. We MUST sign a big hairy arsed centre half that wins everything in the air and can clear his lines, cause that shower are just too weak and get beaten far too often and easily in the air. Positives, Topi very good again, we showed much more attacking intent and creativity, we moved it much better and we even saw two up front - after which we scored two goals so hopefully JT remembers that. You just can’t trust that defence and keeper though, they’re just far too weak and lack the required physicality. It’s been said we’re supposed to be looking for a CH in January - we better be, and he better be a beast cause we need a Pollock & MacDonald type addition to sort this out…

Its not a pen, just ridiculous, but YET AGAIN, our complete inability to just get a fuckin head on the ball and clear our lines from a simple ball into the box bites us on the arse. Honestly, its embarrassing how weak we are at set pieces at the back…

Better first half than many we’ve seen, & created a few good chances. Mitov totally dodged a bullet there. See these high balls in the box min - just fuckin punch it clear eh. We need to build our attacks much more down the right as the left is way too much of a bottleneck with not one player on that side able to hit the byline. Lobban is offering much more attacking threat down the right - use it. Lets see what the second half brings - given its AFC, fuck knows what we’ll get tbh…

Miovski getting absolute dogs abuse all over social media fae the Orcs - again. How incredibly, unbelievably pleasing…

First and foremost, congrats and well done to all for absolutely shitfesting another 3 points. The new found ability to grind out wins is very welcome, but it’s obviously not sustainable long term. Second half much better and the subs had a positive impact this time so credit for that. Defence very good again today, they are becoming a pretty solid unit. Aouchiche was excellent today. Worked really hard and used the ball well. Didn’t deserve to come off at all. Credit to Shinnie for the goal, excellent work and didn’t give up on it. Good ball in fae Topi and nice header fae Devlin. Lots of the old failings still there though, especially the complete failure to be able to pass and retain the ball - honestly its just ridiculous how often and how easily we give it away. Got to be happy with another 3 points though, but we all know this team needs a lot of work on it yet…

Well absolutely no surprise there. Defence has been solid - so far. we’ve had a couple of decent counter attacks, but as usual the execution in the final third completely lacking. Outside that, second best everywhere. Lazetic absolutely anonymous. Watch their Yenghi son, thats what you’re supposed to be doing ffs. Yet another 45 minutes with not one shot on target - seriously how can Thelin watch this same movie week after week and do absolutely nothing about it. We are just a very poorly constructed and coached football team, that’s pretty much the long and the short of it. But hey, maybe this is the week we turn it on in the second half…

Lot of legs in that midfield. Let’s hope Livi don’t try anything fancy - like running about a lot…

Guaranteed this one is gonna be an absolutely eye bleeding shitfest, which will remind us all of why we want Livi nowhere near this league. If we’re gonna get a win, and it’s a big if as we always struggle there, its gonna be a repeat of the Killie & St Mirren wins - sneak a goal and backs to the wall for certainly most of the second half at least. Which for me is absolutely unacceptable against teams like these with a fraction of our budget - but we are where we are. 0-0, 1-1, 0-1, something like that. What a time to be alive as a Dons fan…

Basically, Thelin doesn’t seem to know how to setup a team to get the best out of the players he’s got. He doesn’t seem to know how to use his players, or play to their strengths (those that have any strengths that is) There is no style, substance or identity to our team, tactics, formation & approach to games (what are the tactics?) His substitutions usually make us worse, they are absolutely baffling. He never makes in game adjustments to reflect the nature of the game or what’s going on. He won’t (or can’t) change his starting formation no matter what. This is not a knee jerk reaction to another poor performance. None of this is new, its been the case for a year now. In summary, I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that he’s just not a very good manager, and just hasn’t got the ability to get us to where we are supposed to be going…