paulinho

@quirie - Is that taking into account their performances last season as well as this season? Mulgrew hasn't been great for us bar his goals and set-pieces although he clearly has potential and is still young.

@mizer - All three should be kept to be honest, I think they're all good players who admittedly have more to offer in a settled squad and formation. If McGhee was to decide on a squad of around 20-25 players I for one would be happy if they all had a place in it. Part of the problem is the lack of competition for places.

@minijc - McGhee has to take as much blame as the players

@Azteca1903 - I'd like to see players dropped for their below par performances but the team I mentioned above is the team I think McGhee will start with. He really doesn't have much option (Duff, Young, Pawlett) although I guess he could switch a player or two around within the team. I have a sneaking suspicion that we may play 4-5-1 with Miller up front on his own but Paton has to start you'd think. I'd also have to say that I don't think a trip to Ibrox is the right time to be bringing in a flood of inexperienced players. Pawlett, Paton, Crawford and Fyvie all to start?

@quirie - With the injury to Grassi this is how I think McGhee will start (4-4-2). I don't know if Fyvie will start or not, I think he should though Langfield, Crawford (rb), Ifil & Considine (ch), Foster (lb), Maguire (rm), Kerr & McDonald (cm), Mulgrew (lm), Miller & Paton (cf)

@Madbadteacher - I wouldn't like to think that's the case, McGhee is clearly an exponent of the 4-3-3 system due to the success he had at Motherwell and also changes to the modern game (specifically the amount of teams who start their attacks at fullback, 4-3-3 is set-up to exploit that as well as defend against it as many teams revert to 4-5-1 when defending). Many managers and teams are using this system. I have to admit that I cannot remember the way he set-up his teams earlier in his management career at Reading, Wolves, Millwall and Brighton and wonder if he played 4-3-3 when in charge there.

@Reekie Red - Am I right to think that Aberdeen has a policy regarding the length of contract it gives out to players? Whilst I do not think that Scott Brown is worth the money Celtic paid Hibernian (even though my opinion contradicts this as I believe a player is worth what a club is prepared to pay for him) he is a better player than Russell Anderson, as good as Russell was.

@Reekie Red - Russell Anderson left for £1m because he was in the last year of his contract.

@minijc - I get the impression from your posts that you are happy with the current situation, I really cannot understand how you can defend the indefensible if this is the case. McGhee has made many errors in his short spell so far, although i'll be the first to acknowledge he's not the only one.

@bobbybiscuit - I did touch on the money/compensation factor in my earlier post "unless of course the compensation was paid out of the pockets of our directors which then adds to the confusion and brings up another debate." Which beggars the question, why invest money in paying someone off but not in the football club? For me, that's essentially making a business decision that makes a company go under. Someone should explain this decision as it has been disastrous when you consider the money we've lost by the early knock-outs in both the Europa league and the league cup.

@mizer - As you were at the game can you tell me if we played 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 last night?

@bobbybiscuit - I do not believe we would be in the situation we currently are if Calderwood had remained in charge and was given even a quarter of the compensation money to improve his squad. I don't want to continue the debate surrounding Calderwood as he's been and gone but the current problems at the club need to be addressed now not later. I am not suggesting that McGhee is the sole problem, I personally believe the board are to be perfectly honest, but he's not helping the situation with the errors he's continually made since he's come in. I can't think of a single thing he's done right since his appointment and that's soul-destroying. This should be an exciting time in the club's history, new manager effect, but it's the exact opposite.

@bobbybiscuit - You have to ask if the reasons for replacing Calderwood with McGhee were valid enough to warrant a large figure of compensation being paid to Calderwood, Clark, Nicholl and Motherwell (I've heard various figures so don't want to speculate the exact figure) which has in turn affected our budget for this coming season. We're led to believe that Calderwood was axed because the board had lost faith that he could take us to the next level, in other words passed the semi-finals and into a final, but a major element that was overlooked is the fact that Calderwood's hands were tied season after season with his best players leaving (Anderson, Clark, Hart, McNaughton, Heikinnen) and the financial constraints he had to work under. This doesn't excuse the unacceptable results against Dunfermline, Queens Park and Queen of the South but a sense of reality is sometimes needed. We have no right to win these games. Once Calderwood was punted the board had to then bring in a man who they felt could take us to a final under those same constraints that Calderwood worked under. That man they chose was McGhee. The board will have known what was/n't going to be available to McGhee by this point or at least what they were going to make available. It has been alluded to in interviews that McGhee knew he had next-to-nothing to work with which begs the question why he wasted time chasing players he knew we couldn't get? McGhee spent a lot of time chasing targets that were quite simply out of his price range (the Plymouth pair and Hughes at Motherwell), it's easy with hindsight for me to say that he should've made take it or leave it offers from the outset, I understand that negotiations are more complex than that, but it would have been refreshing to see a manager trying to take the power from players again. We were ultimately used as a bargaining tool by Hughes and the wages the Plymouth pair were on far exceeds our budget. I am not going to discuss the Reda Johnson situation as that is more complicated than we know by the sound of things. Ask anyone who has watched us for the last to years what we needed to bring into the squad and 99.9% will have answered, "right back, no-nonsense centre half, central midfielder and a natural poacher." McGhee signed the no-nonsense centre-half, and a left back. Yes he chased Paterson (the right back we need), Hughes (the midfielder we need) and Maclean (the goal poacher we need) but we all knew how this was going to turn out. I haven't spoken to anyone who was confident of signing these players. And that includes McGhee who admitted he wasn't hopeful when asked. McGhee has since continued playing a formation that he's admitted he doesn't have the players for, fallen out with arguably our best player in a monumental fuck-up which both player and club should be held accountable and brought in one single player that only slightly improves our set-up (Ifil has come into the side at a difficult time so it's hard to say if he's what we need). The board has claimed that the compensation figure is not affecting the footballing side of the club which I believe is nonsense because taking money out of any business that's in debt will have an effect, unless of course the compensation was paid out of the pockets of our directors which then adds to the confusion and brings up another debate. Quite simply, this was a massive and extremely difficult job. And it's looking very much like it's too big a job for McGhee. I hope he proves me wrong but judging it on what I've seen so far this is going to be a spectacular failure.

@BigAl - Jimmy Calderwood cannot be held responsible for this evening

@ minijc - Would you prefer that we played 4-3-3 when it's clear we currently don't have the players for this system (bare in mind that McGhee has also admitted this)?

manc_don - McGhee's insistence on playing 4-3-3 is even more strange when you consider that he's promoted Fraser Fyvie to the first team. A midfield four of Mcdonald on the right, Kerr holding, Fyvie in front and Aluko on the left would provide more balance and play to the strengths of the four players. Kerr is nothing more than a destructive player who is there to break-up play and provide cover for the defence, both Mcdonald and Aluko thrive on running with the ball which they will get the opportunity to do on the wings (in turn stretching teams), and Fyvie looks to have great passing potential which he'd be able to do if played behind the forward two and in front of Kerr. The 4-3-3 causes so many problems for the forward six as they are being asked to do jobs they are not suited to. Lee Miller ending up on the wings being the case in point.

The only positive that can be taken from Mark McGhee's tenure thus far is the improvement in defence, after the two games against Sigma Olomouc and the opening league game at home to Celtic, considering Diamond has been out injured. Four clean sheets against Hamilton, Falkirk, Motherwell and St Mirren is very good with huge credit due to Jamie Langfield but McGhee really needs to address the creative and goalscoring problem which is partly down to his insistence on playing 4-3-3. Aluko, Mcdonald, Miller, Mackie and Maguire are five of the better attacking and/or creative players in the side and they are players who are better suited to a 4-4-2. McGhee's already admitted that the players at his disposal aren't suited to a 4-3-3 so why doesn't he revert back to 4-4-2 until he gets those players in? Smacks of stupidity and ignorance. One or two wins in place of the draws would've had the team in third place and possibly even second. Report card reads: Must do better I also disagree with the poster above who says we should exclude the Sigma games when comparing McGhee to Calderwood (I don't see the need for comparisons). If you exclude the Dunfermline/Queen Of The South/Queens Park games from Calderwood's reign then he did a superb job at Pittodrie.

Where's my dirty protest thread disappeared to then? Get it back Admin Reekie Fair fucks to you though, I expected you to tell me to do one. You're entitled to your opinion even if it is a big pile of steaming shite. Ta for the welcome though

I see you're admin on this forum so I'm possibly playing with fire due to the fact I'm new but just thought I'd say You're a fucking plug.

Jimmy Calderwood is a better manager than Mark McGhee

On the plus side we've only conceded three goals this year and that was in the first game against Celtic.

Mulgrew just scored, 1-0, with that bag of shite Lee Mair being sent off for being a mouthy cunt. Protest is still on regardless. Dirty, dirty protest.