The.Moog

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…

Nah, just nowhere near good enough. Canna beat a bunch of Armenian goat herders, at home. Pish Frankly, we are just not a good team and not a good watch. I really don’t enjoy watching us at all, its painful stuff. We’re slow, ponderous, disjointed, we have no clear style or pattern of play. Too many players are just played in the wrong place or not capable of playing the formation he wants. Almost every time we break forward we end up checking back and losing any attacking momentum. We dont ever get the ball in the box quickly enough. Its frankly a mess. We’re pretty much halfway through the 3 year project that’s supposed to make us “competitive in Europe”. Your having a laugh, we’re absolutely miles off it. Motherwell have put an attractive footballing side together with basically no cash. They have a clear style, shape and football philosophy - plus players capable of playing in that setup, so our current situation is pretty embarrassing. Lutz has a fair job on his hands & lets hope Mowbray can work his magic again cause this team just isnt ever going to cut it.

Sorry but that Milanovic is absolutely gash. Aussie player of the year? That league must be Sunday Welfare level…

Midfield all over the shop. Acres of room in the middle. Then Devlin just lets their boy run away from him. Just honking stuff…

Nice goal, well done Topi (first time I think Ive ever seen him body someone) and a very tidy finish fae Nisbet - hopefully that’s him up and running. Outside that it’s been pretty dismal though, it’s genuinely incredible how few chances we create in so many games, I really don’t get what JT’s setting up to do a lot of the time. Still, a good goal and something to build on second half…

Excellent win, the effort and application were spot on so credit for that to all. Real shades of the Killie game there today though. First half we were decent, second half was a bit of a no show - again. The defence is much more solid than earlier in the season, but fuck me, we’re still massively vulnerable to balls over the top and set pieces into the box. saw this scenario several tines. Mitov goal kick goes straight to their defender, no challenge, free header back over the top we didn’t deal with well and they had a chance & attempt on goal. Happened 3 or 4 times. Rode our luck there. Mitov coming for that ball and getting nowhere near it again - he needs to cut that crap out. Midfield put in a shift, Aouchiche especially, though Polvara and especially Armstrong were decent. Lazetic did ok, would like to see a bit more from him though. I get we’re trying to be hard to beat, but this sitting back stuff (like Killie) does my head in. We should not be getting dominated at home like we were second half. JT goes on about transitions and how important they are, well Jimmy, yer nae gonna do much in transition if your players are just gonna constantly hoof it back to the opposition every time they pick it up in our half. Need to sort that out. Still, it’s always great to beat that mob and their deluded minker fans, so very happy tonight, though lots of work still to be done…

We’ll miss Karlsson. A genuine goal threat (we don’t have many) & creative spark. They’ll miss Shankland and Halkett so that balances out tbf. Not sure where the goals will come from here tbh, & the diets could really bully that midfield (where the game will be won). I’ve said for a long time we lack physicality and aggression - that midfield is a good example of why. Prove me wrong Dons but I’m not feeling good about this one…

Even if we don’t get him, like Lyall Cameron (going well for him at snake mountain so far) these are the types of players we absolutely should be going for. Young, proven Scottish talent with definite sell on value. Got to be in it to win it so good stuff AFC…

Got some talent, but wholly unsuited to Scottish football as he lacks physicality & needs time & space on the ball you don’t get here in order to be effective. If he leaves (& personally I wouldn’t offer him a new deal for the reasons stated above) he’d be absolutely mental to stay in Scotland (again for the reasons stated above). He would go with my best wishes though, primarily for that utterly class cup final penalty (fair play, showed a level of bottle I didn’t think he had) and also for his brilliant reaction when the winning penalty went in…

He’s actually worse - the John Brown, Ian Ferguson, Durrant types are born & (in)bred into it - they can’t help themselves. Novo is a Spanish Catholic ffs. Someone who, just like the likes of Goram, has absolutely no family or cultural links to that disgusting embarrassment of an organisation but sold their souls and bought into the whole bigotry schtick just to make some coin. Utterly repulsive vermin, the lot of them…

Agree 100% with this. Our squad is just not very good. We were absolutely played off the park by Motherwell - again. There are fundamental basic issues. Too many players not suited to the rigours of Scottish football Too many players not suited to the style the manager wants to play Too many players who lack basic tactical nouse and technical ability. Too many “project players” and reclaim projects - guys who only see us as a stepping stone to bigger things. Of course they miss the point that “bigger things” only come if they deliver here, but fundamentally most don’t really give a fuck. A manager struggling to implement any sort of style of play & who doesn’t react well to in game issues. We sit too deep, don’t press high or aggressive enough & as such our forwards are totally isolated and out numbered. Key squad issues for me: We are too small and lack physicality at the back. See ridiculous amount of goals we lose from set plays and balls into the box for evidence. We are too old and/or too weak physically in midfield for Scottish football. Means we don’t get forward quickly or often enough (hence lack of goals) & lose out on far too many second balls (overrun in the middle) We sold our only genuine physical presence (Gueye - not replaced), & our only genuine pacey wing threat (Morris - not replaced) though Karlsson is a real talent, but not the same type of player. The wingers in general just don’t create enough - its all Karlsson who mostly has to create for himself. Our forwards either aren’t suited to one up front (Nisbet) or aren’t getting supported well enough (Lazetic) all for reasons mentioned above. Frankly, its all a bit of a mess so hopefully Lutz will be the spark and missing piece to start sorting it out because frankly, the current incumbents have proven incapable of doing so…

Well lets start with the positives: We didnt lose. Cracking finish fae Karlsson Young Lobban was decent again. Er, that’s about it. Motherwell, like us, have absolutely nothing up front. Good job, cause they are a significantly better football team than us. All with a squad constructed for probably less money than we paid for Keskinen alone. Let that sink in for a minute. The 3 at the back has worked well and been a necessity recently, but we had 3 defenders on 1 ineffective striker all day today - basically two players wasted. Combine that with the lack of forward threat from midfield (who were also outnumbered often - see 3 at the back for that) and it seems obvious why we create basically fuck all. If we can see it, Jimmy can see it, yet he changes nothing, baffling. As for 3 subs in the 90th minute, WTF is that? Yet ANOTHER comedy goal conceded from a corner, though this one was an absolute doozy. Honestly, just embarrassing stuff. So another disappointing, predictable and fairly tedious performance - to be followed by exactly the same in Thelin’s post match interview no doubt…