tlg1903

You're such a part timer Manc This is arguably the biggest game of the season so far imo. A convincing win and we can maybe turn the relative positivity of the past few performances into genuine confidence that we have turned a corner and start looking up the table. Not a minute too soon either. Al was saying in the Shaktar thread that Thelin sounded far more positive and upbeat in his post match presser and I think that bodes well. It's understandable too, at times in that second half we actually looked like a football team again and long may that continue. Not that this is going to be a walkover. Pressley for all his eccentricity has done better than I thought he would and I'm expecting him to go with a tough nut to crack setup for this one. Defo start Jensen over Devlin just purely on the grounds that Nicky ran himself into the ground last night. Lazetic is an interesting dilemma as he also ran himself into the ground but he's only 21 so should handle it better from a fitness pov. Wouldn't be surprised to see Nisbet get the nod though and save Marco for the last 20 mins. Other than that I have no clue how we will line up or even if we will keep the 343. Fingers crossed 3-0 dons, Nisbet, Polvara and Lazetic

Gondor and Rohans new beacon system sounds a bit shit I have to say....... It is starting to develop into a "the curios case of Topi Keskinen" scenario, I think he looks far more effective playing a bit deeper, he seems to get a bit more space to run into which suits him. Mitov has a mistake in him, mostly he's a solid goalie but he does give me a the fear a bit at times. So much so if he doesn't have a nice long spell of consistent solid displays it may be we should give Suman a run out and see what he's got about him.

I think it was a very important night for JT (despite the loss) in terms of restoring a little faith that he knows what he's doing amongst the more sceptical. At times tonight not only did we look like a football team (and wasn't that nice to see) but one that was actually quite decent. As long as we follow this up with a win against the fun (please let them be fun) then, fingers crossed, we will hopefully see the start of a second season renaissance for Jimmy Thelin after the international break.

The thing I don't get is why some fans passionately hate him so much. He did fine when he came on tonight I thought, I know his form has dipped a bit from the player we had this time last season but he's certainly not been booed onto the pitch bad.

Yeah I would agree with that and go further and say he's contributing far more and more effectively from this position.

I'll take that, that's easily the best team we have played so far this season and we had them nervous and time wasting the last ten minutes. We defo could have done better on their goals but there were some spells in the second half I liked what I saw going forward. Especially when you consider at one point we were staring down the barrel of a gubbing. Lazetic is incredibly unfortunate not to have his first goal (but a hell of save it has to be said) but delighted it was Devlin to tuck it in. Agree it's his best game as dandy, my biggest take on him from tonight (spin and volley aside) is for a big lad he much prefers taking high balls down than getting his head on it much like Marouane Fellaini used to. He had some really nice wee touches too and he certainly puts a shift in...... a few more perfomances like that maybe our 9 worry will ease a bit. It was good to hear the fans singing and not booing at full time though shame on anyone who booed Nilsen on the park as far as I'm concerned.

Anyone else feel like we've just flicked a great big fuck off Ukrainian bear in the nuts then run off flicking it the V's?

Maybe we should break out the arrows

It's hard to see anything other than a loss. We can but hope it's not a doing

Ryan Duncan away to county on loan. I would be amazed if we see him in red again 2bh

I dare say you won't be the only dandy out there without a ticket either.

Great post. The biggest criticism I think that can be levelled at Thelin is I don't think he has a clue what his best cm pairing is 2bh. At this stage in the 'project' at best that's highly questionable and at worst you could argue it's verging on negligent.

Go. It's a cracking city and you never know, you might end up up finding someone with a spare

Agreed. No-one is pretending it ain't shit at the moment but as far as I'm concerned this is the time to hold our nerve and stand tall behind Thelin. There is more than enough evidence from his time at Aberdeen and how things went in his first two seasons at Elfsborg to warrant giving him the two seasons we were told we needed to give him by those in Sweden when we appointed him.

Still raging I didn't get into the arm slicing off business when it was in it's infancy.

Let's be honest, if he had used his hand to push him over we wouldn't be having this conversation. I don't see why it's any different because he used the top of his arm instead of the bottom to take Aouchiche out. Regardless though, Adil should have done better in the first place imo but it is what it is.

The game has changed significantly since we were kids Rico.

That depends on the context. You can still make a foul from a shoulder to shoulder contact and knocking someone over when they are in possession of the ball without making any attempt to actually win the ball because the player is in the way is usually a foul. If he had used his shoulder to come across Aouchiche whilst making a legitimate attempt for the ball I would have no complaints as long as he's not fouling in the process. He's not though, he just takes Aouchiche out. Pen all day long for me.

Just because you're using your shoulder doesn't mean you get to push over opponents because you're not in a position to use your feet to make a challenge without going through the player. Aouchiche was in full control of the ball and the defender is still behind him when he makes challenge. With how the game is now on contact that was a pen all day long imo. All that said though you're not wrong about Aouchiche needing to do a lot better with the chance.

I actually thought we played pretty well against a good team all things considered. Their goalie pulls off 2 great saves and I thought we should have had a pen as well for the shoulder charge in the box. Thelin was not the problem yesterday.

Well that was no fun at all. You've all covered any point I would make nicely so I'll save parroting them. Biggest frustration for me was the delay in making changes. We looked far more spritely going forward when we did and were making the utd defence uneasy. 10 more minutes of that could have made a difference. Biggest positive was Armstrong who got better and better as the game went on and he was unlucky with his effort that hit the bar. Fir park on saturday and let's just hope Tam Cowan is right again about it being the place to go when you're struggling.

I was at peace with him going 2bh, I found him very inconsistent.

I'm prepared to give the system more time, I think I can see what he's trying to do and if he can get it to work I think we will be rosy. Gegenpress is all about the transitions, well to my lehman eye anyway, and coaching the players to be in the right place on those moments as second nature seems to be the trick to getting it to work. If you need to think about it you're already playing catch up. That takes time to coach but there are some encouraging signs, defensively we look far better than we did for large parts last season. Basically, if we are sticking with Thelin we need to trust the process. The upside is though we have a lot of games coming up and that's exactly what this team needs. My hope is once we get a win and few goals we will start being a bit more relaxed in the final third and the ample attacking talent that we have can show us what they can actually do. Time will tell.

Utd are a team of giants so I'm expecting Milanovic, Lazetic and possible Palaversa start. Strangely I'm feeling semi optimistic about this one, defensively we have sharpened up a lot compared to last season so I expect another tight game. First goal will be crucial but if we can get it I think it would do us the world of good. out Home RTV Home 2-1 dons Karlsson and Milanovic

Defo stay. I don't actually think he's in any danger at the moment anyway as my feeling is Cormack is committed to the project. He will know this exact scenario happened at Elfsborg and have far better data on the full in's and outs of this period, indeed a sticky spell like this was probably expected from the off. All the chat from Sweden when we hired him was "you need to give this guy 2 years before you see what one of his teams is really all about" and, when you consider the investment we have made with him, I think it would be crazy not to see it out. FWIW I think we will come good under Thelin and I'm happy to give him the season. For me the team at the moment is like an engine running with little to no oil, particularly when we get to the final third. Confidence is clearly becoming an issue now as well to compound things but that would go away if we could just fucking start scoring.