Panda

In the past few weeks we've appointed Jimmy Thelin, taken Celtic to penalties, thumped Hibs 4-0 on their own patch, won the youth league and unleashed a fine strip on Scottish football.

The good times are here again.

Livi have nothing to lose which means they might come out and play a bit tomorrow. Us to underestimate them, lose the first goal, but fight back to win 3-1. McGrath, Miovski and Sokler.

Was gonna buy it but £68 is a bit steep isn't it?

I was gonna buy a pair of shorts for the gym and even they're £40.

I'll pass. But lovely design all the same.

If I ever have kids, I expect this is how I will feel when I hold it in my arms for the first time.

8 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

but I’d expect at least 50% possession against all teams in the league except the old firm, maybe hearts. I like that we’ve also gone back to a more possession/ passing style of play than just mindless long ball

We had less possession than Hibs yesterday and won 4-0, which is an interesting thing. 

Likewise, the best performance we had under Robson was the 3-0 win over Hearts last season where we had 38% possession.

A few stats from yesterday:-

Hibs actually won more challenges than us. They also dominated us in the air.

All their passing, whether it was short, long, lateral, forward or back, were more accurate than Aberdeen's.

Their xg was 0.9 compared to 1.17 for Aberdeen, so not a huge difference. We both had the same shots on target.

They had more corners, but only 12% of them led to a shot at goal. It was 33% for us.

Our crosses had just under a 40% accuracy compared to 20% for Hibs.

Basically, we were more clinical. Our first two goals, lovely finishes as they are, were free hits. Third and fourth we've overloaded them on their six yard line. 

It wasn't actually counter attacking football by Aberdeen though. We played a team who are powderpuff, who did have opportunities to hurt us but didn't take them, and we've shown them how it's done.

Elfsborg's mini run of form is ended by a 2-0 defeat to Djurgårdens, who are currently second in the table.

At 39% possession Elfsborg had far too much of the ball, that clearly was their first mistake.

Five games left for Thelin, four of them against teams higher than Elfsborg, and they appear to be facing Malmo again so soon after beating them.

3 hours ago, Kowalski said:

Looking like we’re a better team without Shinnie. 

But are we?

Would we have played any worse today with Shinnie on the park for the first 67 minutes, considering I don't think the performance dropped when he did come on.

Not a bad start to the Jimmy Thelin era...

Lovely finish that by Clarkson.

Hoilett, even though he'll be 34 next season, surely worth a contract. He's getting better and better the more games he plays.

Edit: As soon as I say that Hoilett cuts inside and thumps an awful cross wide. I've jinxed him now. Was good while it lasted.

Two thoughts.

One, after a poor run, Jimmy Thelin has just handed the Swedish league leaders their arse.

Two, how the hell did he manage to hand them their arse with just 19% possession? What is this sorcery?

2 minutes ago, manc_don said:

What an absolute disaster of a season.

Mad thing is, if you told us before the campaign we'd beat Frankfurt, win at Ibrox, get to Hampden three times including a cup final, take Celtic to a penalty shoot-out, and Miovski would score 25 goals, we'd be thinking we're in for a no-bad season.

I guess the old question of "would you accept bottom six but make a cup final" has been answered.

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

What do you mean by this? There are women (I assume) that think, say, Dons' fans should actively support both men and women? 

Not quite because I didn't point the finger specifically at women. But, yes, though I don't really hear it levelled at Aberdeen fans to be fair.

One example - and I have massive respect for her and she's also a Dons fan - but I disagree with this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/crgy9m7epkeo.amp

Essentially, it's "Rangers and Celtic sell out for men's games, they should be getting bigger crowds at women's games." But, they aren't stay at home women's football fans, they are men's football fans who pay their money to follow their team, and you're now placing an expectation on them to go and watch women's football too.

I go to a lot of women's football, have done for over a decade. What many can't accept is there isn't a massive untapped women's football support in Scotland just waiting to be enticed along. There's a bit of an entitlement in this debate that fans who are spending fortunes following men's football should now be obliged to go to women's football too.

Crowds rise when there's a bit of a novelty - cup final, league deciders, playing in a decent stadium. 

The women's national team will likely see bigger crowds should they be more successful because it has that novelty aspect to it, in the same way Murrayfield sells out for the Six Nations but club rugby isn't close to being as popular.

A lot of fans went over to France for the World Cup and everyone wrongly thought they would now be hooked for life. However, the "stars" aren't playing club football in Scotland like they are in England. Going to Paris for a World Cup game isn't the same as the Balmoral Stadium in November.

So what stadium they play in makes little difference. My only criticism would be they don't need Hampden's capacity so should move the national games about a bit to give young girls around the country more chance to go. They're limited in that UEFA rules dictate the away team must be a certain distance from an airport to save on unnecessary travel to & from the venue, but the national team should be playing at Pittodrie at least once a campaign.

Gonna take a lot of getting used to for many Aberdeen fans, this giving up possession but being able to counter and be clinical (although our average possession this season has been about 46%).

Won 2-0 with 33% possession. 

Won 2-0 tonight. That'll shut up the weegie press.

DUK v Motherwell

Minutes played: 29 

Shots on target: 50%

Accurate passes: 67%

Successful dribbles: 43%

Losses own half: None

Recoveries opposition half: 100%

Offensive duels won: 50%

Touches in penalty area: 7

Progressive runs: 4

Accurate through balls: 100%

Passes to final third: 100%

Accurate forward passes: 100%

Back passes: 100%

A warrior. I will not hear criticism of him this weekend or even this year.

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

You say duk terrorized them, I say he was typical duk, dribble until he loses it and waste possession. He had a couple of decent runs but it’s the end product that matters.

He wasn't losing possession that much though (I'll check the stats properly later). Usually he was either getting shots off (granted, should have been more clinical), winning corners (we had 16, we scored from one of them) or was drawing defenders out of position then passing to Devlin in space to put in a cross unmarked (although Devlin wasted many of them). 

All this playing in an unfamiliar position as he's not really been played on the right much.

46 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Red won us the game but we still looked pretty shit. 

Very harsh. Red certainly helped us, but think the switch of Duk on for Barron was a big factor too. Gave us good width, Hoilett & Duk terrorised them in the second half, and we should have finished off far more than the one chance that we did. A 4-0 win wouldn't have flattered us.

I wouldn't say we missed Shinnie v Celtic, but have read some nonsense about the game proving we're a better team without him in it.

If Shinnie plays and Barron and Clarkson play to the level they did v Celtic, Motherwell won't be able to live with us.

12 hours ago, BigAl said:

In fairness Panda he quite possibly is, but in this instance we're not comparing apples with apples 

I'm just spreading some positivity in this dark, negative world you and Rico are creating.

If either of you ever fancy coming on Sportsound we'd love to have you on. 

12 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

A perpetuating cycle if that's how you design your system. The BBC's very reason is to not unfairly bias one or other because they have more money, more supporters etc etc. They are incredibly biased, sadly. Not as biased as the daily record (or whoever) isn't a barometer of anything and, if anything, the BBC should actively counteract it, as it would, say, gender bias. The problem of bias in our game is the leading cause of it going through its worst period in its history and the BBC perpetuates, refusing to even recognise, it. It's a real shame that our clubs don't do more to call it out but, as you say, clubs like our own benefit from getting slightly more coverage than St Mirren and so on. 

Is not bias though, it's understanding our audience and what content they're digesting and what they're not. You could argue we're more of a football department than a sports department for example. Glasgow Clan ice hockey team gets more fans through the door than a lot of Scottish championship teams. 

10 hours ago, BigAl said:

Completely agree with the last sentence.

Not a fan of Kenny McIntyre to be honest.

This will shock you, but I like Kenny. He's actually a good c**t.

4 hours ago, manc_don said:

Think as Dan said, it would be good for continuity and bedding in the new management team. He also has the benefit of not being tarnished by negativity as Robson now does. Be an interesting move for him if he does take it.

Well, I dunno about that. I think we're allowing the draw with Celtic to gloss over the previous weeks, namely dour 0-0 draws with Dundee & Livi.

He gets a bit of a free pass as they aren't his players, but the problems this season have extended beyond Robson.

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

Anyone rate Glenn Middleton?

Far too inconsistent and that's in the Championship 

4 hours ago, BigAl said:

Are we seriously suggesting that others, BBC included, do ?

All Scottish media feeds from the same trough unfortunately 

There is content from all 12 Premiership teams and beyond on all the BBC output (tv, radio, online & social). You may even have enjoyed a special feature on the highland league title conclusion.

Is there more coverage to the old firm than others. Yes, that's because we don't have as many Livingston fans as we do Celtic fans. Likewise, Aberdeen get more coverage than most too. Our dedicated team pages - the stats are eye opening.

However, great coverage is given to every team within a limited budget. You can't say the BBC don't care about Aberdeen, go see the tranche of coverage Jimmy Thelin was getting on all the output. We had a commentary team, reporters & pundits out at every Aberdeen European away game plus live TV coverage of the qualifiers.

So no, you can't compare it to Viaplay/Premier.

1 minute ago, manc_don said:

Oh I know that, but the commentary claimed his hand had no where else to be which is fucking laughable. Premier sports were much more realistic about the event.

Well done premier sports for their commentary on that incident.

That makes up for them literally only giving a fuck about two teams.

3 hours ago, BigAl said:

Incredibly this is the most recent thread with his name in the title 

Hopefully this is a crock of shite and given the source it potentially is, but this is something I think we could do without

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/peter-leven-barnsley-next-manager-32653435

Would he be that big a loss? 

Would he be any bigger loss than Barry Robson was to the coaching team?

He's done okay for an inexperienced manager. He still takes his share of the blame for whatever the players were being coached all season.