redordead

Did you not find it weird that there was no criticism of aberdeen or McInnes on sportscene when we were clearly outplayed by the worst team in the league?

Deserved hearts lead, we are awful. Hoofing it all over the place. What the hell are they doing in the new training complex. P.s Campbell, fergie and Ojo may be the least inspiring midfield trio I've ever watched.

Was out yesterday and missed the game. Just seen the highlights and looked like we offered little. Score line really flattered us in the end. Match stats were pretty embarrassing. Scoreline papers over the cracks for me. That said, I never sent he whole game. am I reading it wrong?

Don't fuck with cats on Netflix, crime documentary, 3 parts telling a true story. Phenomenal story, really enjoyed it.

Seems like a lovely kid who loves the club, but he's everything wrong with academy football these days. A midfielder who moves the ball sideways, lacks initiative and plays like a drilled robot. I hope he goes on to prove me wrong, however I think he'd struggle to get a game at ICT or saints etc.

Did a bit of googling and they look to have been very successful in a short space of time. Let's hope it rubs off.

With then announcement tonight about the American link, it made me think of my favourite podcast, " the offensive" about a fake premiership team and the back room wheeling and dealing. David tennant plays the Scottish director of football brilliantly. the language is colourful and some of the player/club slatings are immense. Well worth a listen. As I spend a lot of time in my car during the week, what other podcast gems do you have?

Does anybody know the kind of sums they spend on players? Is it possible that they could pick up these Eastern Europeans and loan them to us ?

I'm with kenny, bummed up by the glasgow press. Solid player but has no star quality. I think that we'd take £1m if offered. That said James Mcarthur has made quite a career out of being a solid midfielder with no exceptional talents. So we might get more down south.

It's all gone awfully quiet in the DMC debate. Yes the team have had a couple of reasonable results and sit 4th behind the might of Motherwell. However we have also been spanked by both sides of the old firm and despite what he says, I don't think fergie would have made any difference and we bottled it twice tactically. The question is, have we decided that finishing ( hopefully) 3rd and maybe a cup semi if we avoid the OF is our goal from here on in? For me nothing has changed, the team/management still lack the belief that they can match the OF on the day and we will continue to see these maulings going forward. God knows I've seen enough at the hands of celtic over the last few years. im not naive enough to think that we should win the league but I have no interest in watching us in cup games v the OF (I know now dead) turning up and hoping not to lose rather than setting up to have a go. It's a horrible pattern of events. We've all seen it, camped on the 18yd line as they run 70yds at us and then were 2 down before we start playing. I think that the new facilities etc have come at a good time for him but surely if we take another 2 beatings in the next round of games, wins at Hamilton etc aren't going to cut it. Just my view but i just find it hard to see why everyone is positive again when in my view the eternal issue with DMC has been brutally highlighted over the last couple of weeks.

Cracking guy, really struggled at Stenny. Shouldn't be in the picture.

Does anybody think that Fergie will/should have to fight his way back in?

The international break made no difference the last time because the players were allowed to go on holiday living it up in Europe for a week instead of working on correcting the teams clear issues this season. Del is running a holiday camp where players treat football like a 9-5.

Stale and ugly today. Need a leader on the field to kick backsides and Joe isn't that man. Season could have been in real jeopardy today and they should have gone out to send a message.

Whilst McGinn scored a good goal in that game I think the set up of the team afforded him a lot of space to play in. Truth is that with all that possession, he failed to deliver good balls every time he sailed past his man. I thought that wright and Gallagher in the middle gave us real energy and movement allowing the wide men to play. I also think that we won't see this midfield again and that's a real shame. Genuinely the best I've seen us in a long time playing proper football albeit against weak opposition. #endhoofball

Are mcginn and hedges automatic choices? Seems so but I’m not sure that they have proven themselves ahead of Mclennan and Wright this season and I’d like to see the latter two given a fair crack. If I had a pound for every ball mcginn has put over the top of the box this season already, I’d be watching Thursday for free.

I’m sitting today debating whether to sort work in a way that will let me attend on Thursday. I want to go but there’s a massive part of me telling me that this game is tight and we won’t have a go at them. It’s got 1-0 via penalty written all over it. Any thoughts ? Does anyone think that DMC will play a team similar to first leg vs ROPs or has that ship sailed with ojo and Bryson now in the squad. I know, I’m a bad fan, but I’m also busy as hell and don’t want to work around a game that I suspect could frustrate me for the next week.

Once this season we’ve played well. The only time we haven’t played Derek’s favoured 4/2/3/1 . Too many holding players, no threat. Play ojo or fergie and get that extra attacker back for the love of god. He’ll blame the attackers at the end if we don’t turn this around. Not himself for setting us up not to lose again.

Spot on, exactly what I expected from DMC, we had plenty of firepower as shown in first leg, but he went a bit more cautious just to make it exciting. I’d love to see us play with 4 attacking midfielders this year ( like last week )but I can’t see him dropping Ferguson or Ojo. To be honest I’m not that excited about Bryson playing in front of those 2. Think it’d be pretty flat. I’d prefer one sitting with four of mcginn, gallagher,hedges, Wright, McLennan and Bryson in front of them. I’m nit sure we’ll be brave enough. P.s will Wilson get a chance to play striker this year?

I don't disagree with a lot of the above. However wright for me is the player with real guile in our squad and last weeks system really suited him. If we play with 4 attacking midfielders it'd be crazy to lose him. Sadly I think that once Ojo is clear to play, we'll go back to 4-2-3-1 and serve up last sessions fayre. Yes he loses the ball, but he also creates and has vision. The best players lose the ball. Messi doesn't score every time he dribbles. Wright should be given games to grow.

I think we'll set up 4-1-4-1 like last week. No changes at the start as we could have scored 6. If we don't score by half time I think main will come in. One thing for sure is that we'll find out if free flowing football is here for the season or if Del resorts to type if it's tight.

Thanks guys, I’ll head for the Foundry.

I'm in aberdeen on Thursday. Best pub to catch the game?

McGeouch really doesn't excite me. I'm thinking that fergie and Bryson will play Defensive centre. Surely we have enough options to play behind the striker if DMC would make up his mind. Wright could play there, as could ean ever slowing McGinn, or Gallagher or God forbid we play Wilson off the striker where he can make runs. What we need is a back up defensive CM. I thought that when bigrimana was released, that he was ideal and had given us a hard time in the past. Don't know why he never pushed on last season. Face didn't fit possibly.

What is our system is a great question. Last season I'm not even sure that the players knew. So far it looks like much of the same with new personnel. I'm hoping that wright finally gets a run as he is for me the most creative player we have. I've also thought that Gallagher looks good from what I've seen. For me the big issue is, do we bench Sam and try to play on the ground and create more with Wilson , wright, Gallagher and McLennan? All very mobile.Or do we hope that Sam will start winning long balls and rely on him to score all our goals again. A tactic that seen some of the worst football that I can remember last season. No slight to Sam as he hit the newel for a period. Derek also clearly rates Main, I don't see where he fits in unless we go 2 up front. Does anybody else have an idea of how we will line up? You'd expect Thursday to be an indicator.