sancho_panza

1 hour ago, baggy89 said:

Just assumed it would be Lambert.

The Sun were reporting he's interested. I know he'd be wildly unpopular but I wouldn't mind Lambert to be honest. People will say he has a bad record since leaving Norwich but he's also taken over a lot of terrible jobs.

Might be wrong but ever since Cormack arrived his big idea has been to develop links with the US so I can't see him abandoning that now and going for a middle of the road Goodwin/Ross type manager. Celtic have effectively done what we were trying to do with Japan and it's been successful so Cormack might think he still has the right idea by focusing on the US and just picked the wrong manager.

If we actually appointed a decent American coach I'd be all for it. Ramirez has been a success and just about every American player wants to make it to the Premier League so you could sell them on the idea we're some kind of stepping stone to England.

Meanwhile we've got eight central midfielders by my count, which is much like having eight woods in your golf bag for no reason and constantly having to use them in situations they aren't suited for. Every time we get into an area that needs a bit of finesse we end up having to use a 3-wood (an "Ojo") when what we really need is a short iron.

14 hours ago, Goldie03 said:

Remember when both us & Hibs were after Ojo and McInnes was so chuffed he signed for us and he was pretty pish (tho has been ok this season) maybe that will happen again and Glass is driving in the storm to Paisley to persuade him 

When we signed Besuijen the press statement mentioned us getting him despite interest from "other Scottish clubs". That immediately made me think we'd stolen another player from Hibs.

My garden fence already blew down so I think I'm out.

6 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Ojo, Jenks and Hedges at the same time isn't a thing, unless we're trying to be solid against the scum. They trip over each other trying to play narrow. 

If you look at that starting lineup we had arguably six players whose natural position is central midfield. We've become inured to things like Ojo playing in attacking positions because it's been happening all season but when you consistently put out unbalanced teams like that with square pegs shoved into round holes then you can't be surprised when it doesn't work.

I can happily write off this season as a transition year but the idea behind a transition is you're moving to somewhere better. To do that you need some kind of plan and I can't see anything resembling a plan at present beyond some vague belief that having loads of toothless possession is a good thing.

I look forward to playing a quiz about Aberdeen players on Sporcle in ten years and suddenly remembering Jack Gurr existed.

It was a clear foul, Hedges knocked the ball away, McGregor made contact with him and wiped him out, I don't even see why there was a debate about it. With that said we had plenty of time to get organised after the incident and the way we let them waltz up the park and score was abysmal.

53 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Not sure how that only finished 2-0

Got to say that the boy that got MOTM looks like a find for them.

Hope he doesn't turn out to be cheating fuck like his fellow countryman

Unfortunately I think they've probably hit on something with the whole appoint Postecoglou, sign a load of Japanese players, pitch Celtic as a stepping stone to play in England, boost the club's profile in Asia thing.

1 hour ago, Panda said:

But is essentially a back-up. I don't think he dislodges McCrorie or Bates when both are fit, and is probably behind Considine too. 

I don't think he would either but that's pretty damning considering he was our big signing to sort out the defence. In fact I'd argue it's exactly the type of signing that kills teams like us - high profile players on decent wages who deliver very little. We've now got a backup being paid like one of our best players until the end of next season.

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I wouldn't say at full strength our defence is unbalanced. If everyone was fit, we'd have two right backs (Ramsay/Gurr), two left-backs (Mackenzie/Hayes) and five centre halves (Considine/Gallagher/Bates/McCrorie/Devlin). 

There's no point listing Devlin when he's permanently crocked. We've clearly signed too many midfielders and not enough defenders over the last few seasons which is illustrated by the fact we've been playing the likes of Brown and Ojo in defensive positions as cover and by the fact we've converted former midfielders like McCrorie and Hayes into permanent defenders.

Not all of that was the fault of Glass as some of it predates his appointment but it was obvious at the end of last season with Taylor and Hoban leaving that we needed to sort out the defence and we haven't managed to do it yet. In the meantime we've made fairly pointless signings like bringing Matty Longstaff in on loan despite the fact we have plenty of cover in his position. The defence has been worse as a result, we've dropped down the table and we've got 12 points fewer than we had at this stage last season.

I'm actually an optimist and I think it might get better and we'll compete for third but I don't see much need to make excuses for Glass or pretend he's doing a great job. We aren't plucky underdogs, we're outspending the teams around/above us and performing far below what we should expect.

16 minutes ago, Panda said:

He's pretty much changed the entire defence.

He has, but not for the better. We lost 0.94 goals a game under McInnes last season and we're at 1.2 goals against this season. In fact I'd say one of our biggest problems at the moment is we're frequently playing midfielders in defence because our squad is unbalanced. Part of that is because Gallagher, who was a big signing for us (Scotland internationalist, Motherwell's captain, presumably on a decent wage) has been a flop.

32 minutes ago, LA-Don said:

Getting a vaccine is now being sold that it means I won't get so sick. Why am I then being selfish if it's now only about me and my level of sickness? Isn't that personal choice?

The vaccines do both - they reduce the chance of catching/spreading the virus and they reduce the severity if you do catch it. Getting vaccinated is a bit like giving your body a bunch of weapons/information to help it fight off an infection. It increases the ability of your body's defences but it doesn't make you invincible.

What you're arguing here is that there's some crucial distinction between the ability of a vaccine to prevent infection completely and the ability of a vaccine to reduce the severity of an infection but the reality is that those are both determined by the same thing (how effective your body is at fighting the infection) and that's what the vaccine improves.

"I think I am a Reading Champion because I enjoy the fact you learn things from reading." - Darren Mackie

2 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Nah, definitely not. Going by the old, proper, handball rules it was completely fine. The new, shite, rules mean it is a foul.

The new rules are complete nonsense - e.g. if Jenks had hit his shot off the post and someone else had put it in then it wouldn't have been a handball but because he scored immediately after the ball hit his arm then technically it is a handball under the rules.

2 hours ago, Jute said:

That was  a thumping in all but score. Hardly touched the ball in their half in the second. Think BBC said that they ended up with over 20 shots. 
 

Massive game coming up against Livingston. Simply must win or we are right in the shite. 

If we lose to Livingston then you have to say relegation is a possibility. We're averaging about a point a game since Glass arrived, which is pretty much right on the cusp of being relegated if you take it across a full season. There's no sign of us getting better - if anything we're getting worse.

I still don't think it will come to that as we're bound to scrap a few results out eventually with the amount of possession we're getting but we're probably a couple of losses away from panic stations.

46 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

I don't think he was ever our player really. We were clearly being used as a vehicle by our parent club.

This is the logical explanation. Maybe Atlanta get some complicated tax/salary cap benefit from loaning a player instead of buying him directly. We got to have a Venezuelan international at the club for free. You could argue it makes sense for both clubs unless it blows up in our face at some point.

Makes no sense whatsoever if he's actually our player, particularly when our starting right back is out injured, but nothing about his time here makes sense.

Getting Wales is a fantastic draw considering the other teams we could have got. No idea if Ukraine are better than the alternatives but they're not terrifying either - won just two games in qualifying, England hammered them at the Euros, etc. Can't really ask for a better draw.

Not sure what to take from the statement the club made about Ojo. It was obviously an attempt to undo the PR damage from the interview Glass gave after the game, but is that Cormack trying to stick up for Glass or is he just contradicting him? Even if it's the former, it's not a great look when the Chairman is having to issue statements to try and cover for the manager making a mess of an interview.

Similar story to many games this season, loads of possession without creating anything and rubbish defending at the other end. People will say it's unlucky but toothless possession and bad defending isn't a good combination.

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For political reasons, matches between Russia and Ukraine are considered prohibited clashes, unable to be drawn into the same play-off path.

I'd like to see the Scottish Government declare war on Italy, Portugal, Russia and Sweden until Friday evening.

I think the big thing is which of the seeded teams gets drawn in our section. The unseeded teams are all pretty similar in quality but there's a massive difference between Wales or Italy in the final.

I think you have to give Clarke some credit for finishing second in a group like this. Austria and Israel aren't great but we haven't finished second in a qualifying group since 2004.

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

You must've been watching a different game to me, because I was there and it was like watching the Dons play against a bottom six team. Lots of possession and very little of anything else. Nisbet put in one of the worst performances I've seen in a Scotland top (and I was at the Iwelumo game), and I hope we don't let him near the starting eleven (or he plays and scores).

Agree about Nisbet, but I thought Moldova were genuinely rubbish. The reason the scoreline was only 1-0 was largely because of us wasting good opportunities, poor final balls and so on rather than anything Moldova did. They looked substantially worse than the Faroes to me and I think if we put in any kind of average performance we should win.

Gerrard was a world class player, played over a hundred games for his country, won a Champions League and played under some of the best managers in the world. Other than the fact they had no real experience as managers there isn't much comparison.

The Glass appointment was a dreadful idea on paper. We're a big enough club that we can attract someone more high profile - preferably a manager with a track record but if we did have to go with an inexperienced former player then we could have at least picked someone who had achieved a bit more in the game and might have learned something from top coaches or would command a bit more respect in the dressing room. Glass would have been a punt for a side like Kilmarnock far less us. And all of that is ignoring the obvious that he's mates with the Chairman which suggests it wasn't done on merit.

With all that said, every manager deserves a chance. Glass has had six months in the job and one transfer window in which there was a pretty sizeable investment in the team. Not enough to write him off, but at least enough to be allowed an opinion on how things are going. So far we've had poor results, a relatively poor return on our investment in terms of signings, mediocre performances, some questionable decisions and to top it off he sounds completely unconvincing when speaking to the media.

Everything about his appointment looks bad to me so far. I can't see a single actual reason to think it's going to be a success beyond the fact he hasn't been in the job that long.