Panda

By all accounts, the players liked him, but thought he was too soft on those who stepped out of line, and ultimately that loses you a bit of respect in the dressing room. Yesterday raised alarm bells. It's been poor for a while, but I kinda still felt he was slowly getting his head around things, but it was such a calamity at Falkirk that it was hard to make a case for him beyond the weekend. But I'm glad he left before I started to get so rattled by performances I began to dislike him. A throughly decent man who led us to the Scottish Cup, but hopefully we've made the right decision.

No. When I get to Florida in June, me and you are going to sit down and have a very serious chat about some of your decision making.

Harsh on Keskinen. Works his arse off, and would say when he came on at Hibs he showed how he can make an impact (most similar player we have to Morris). There's a player there, but like others is arguably mismanaged - in and out of the team, given various different roles, not given much help from more experienced teammates. Would also say it's a bit early to give up on Gyamfi. Hasn't ever had a run of injury free games.

I really don't know where I stand on Thelin anymore. A few weeks ago I was confident he was getting January to make signings, and then at least until the split. And, I do kinda feel he deserves to defend the Scottish Cup. The Falkirk game for me though was one where the spotlight was really being shone on Thelin. Yes he went four at the back, but 4-2-4 didn't work. Then 4-2-3-1 with Armstrong at No.10 looked fairly promising as Armstrong began to look a threat. He kept that for 24 minutes before switching it again with Nisbet playing off Lazetic. That lasted six minutes before another change. That's just flinging darts and hoping for something. What now for Ibrox? Go five at the back again? Start Karlsson but haul him off like he does every game when he's doing little? Keep starting one of Nisbet and Lazetic despite neither working as a lone striker? Shinnie benched again with Devlin shoehorned in somewhere to take the armband? I've got no confidence in this team anymore, and I struggle to see Thelin having a really clear plan of what to do. My guess is the first half will be one game plan and it'll be ripped up at half-time.

But, you won't find that out until summer. He's not moving to us in January. IF Thelin leaves, would we wait until summer for Askou, with the chance there'll be offers from elsewhere? More chance of getting your dream of Allan Campbell signing.

Eleven games you say? Jimmy's first 11 league games were:- Played 11 Won 10 Drew 1 Lost 0 Goal difference +14

Do you honestly think he's coming to us? He's two points off second. Honestly, apart from a bigger wage packet, what are we offering him? By the time he sorts Aberdeen out, the Old Firm will have belted themselves out too. His chance to do something amazing is now.

I don't know how heavily involved Leven is on the training pitch, but a lot of our issues are coming from the training pitch. The goal we conceded today was failing to defend a set piece with the defence all over the place. That's the sort of thing a manager delegates to his coaches. And Leven has been part of a few failed management teams now. That would be my view ahead of any clamour to appoint him. But, again, like I said in my first line, I don't know how much power he has on the training ground or if he's being directed by the other coaches Thelin brought with him.

And it lasted six minutes. We have changed the front four a total of four times today. Stuart Armstrong has played four different positions.

Nisbet playing off Lazetic. That's great, but you're 75 minutes too late with that Jimmy.

You can hear "Thelin get to fuck" being sang by the away support

It's not actually our middle two that's the biggest problem. It's that Falkirk ping it wide and not enough players in red are stopping the cross. It means, in a weird way, we would be better with three at the back, as the three could deal with the crosses. But really, our wingers need to track back more, while one of Karlsson or Nisbet need to drop a bit deeper too to be an outlet. I would say Falkirk have shown us their best. A few adjustments and we can still win this.

It's not the 80s, unrealistic expectations again from the Aberdeen support.

Update: Have discussed the issue with tonight's Sportscene commentator, and I am assured it will be Lob-ban on the highlights. We can all settle down and enjoy the game now. Looks to me like a 4-2-4 by the way...

Before this game goes any further.. Dylan Lobban. I'd go with the Lob-ban pronunciation, but it's Low-ban in commentary. Until this matter is resolved, it's hard to see us holding onto the ball for more than five fucking seconds.

FOUR AT THE BACK!!??

Well, here's one for you. Thelin hasn't ruled out cutting Ester Sokler's loan short. I wouldn't be against it in all honesty, because I did say when he left I thought he was better than Yengi and Ambrose, so him taking their place on the bench while we move them on makes sense. And to be honest, is he really much worse than what we've seen from Lazetic and Nisbet? He has six goals in 12 appearances for the team sitting eighth in Serbia. Maybe he's finally found his shooting boots. Of course, we'd all like to see another striker signed that is better than all the names above, but it's likely we'll struggle to find one in a notoriously difficult transfer window. It may well be our marquee signing is someone struggling for game time elsewhere who we hope can rediscover the form that once had [Enter club with too much money] to pay [enter transfer fee player was never going to be worth] five years ago.

Important that we don't give Falkirk too much respect. They've won three games since October; two against a really poor Kilmarnock team, and at home to Dundee, who just avenged that result in midweek. They couldn't beat Livingston at home. "Tough away game", only if we make it hard for ourselves - it's a very winnable game. Our biggest opponent here is us playing slow ponderous football and adding to our recent list of schoolboy errors. I just don't want to see us passing it along a back five, going back the way any time someone closes us down, and then when we do break we have just one guy waiting in the box.

He wasn't rejected as such, more that Barry Robson went on such a good run of results the club opted to give it to him full-time. There's an argument that the club should have been looking at the bigger picture and should have appointed Thelin regardless. However, that's a tough argument to make when football fans generally look at results. Example - Wilfried Nancy's current results at Celtic compared to the interim Martin O'Neill.

I don't criticise him at all for appointing Thelin. It's the sort of appointment the club should be trying to make; a manager whose stock was on the rise and was held in high regard. And it delivered a Scottish Cup and £6m from Europe, so in terms of success it's still above most Aberdeen managerial appointments over the past 30 years. Probably only McInnes ranks above him in that time - he's the only* Aberdeen manager since Smith/Scott to have had consistently good seasons, and even then it finished on a sour note. *Some might say Calderwood too but that's a debate in itself. There's an argument the structure hasn't been in place properly for Thelin, the sporting director is only just in the door for example, and there's been failures at the club that aren't all on Thelin. But likewise, they're not all on Cormack, and there's a few at the club who like to hide away at times like these.

I absolutely would not want Askou. Because, if he even considered a move to Aberdeen, rather than back himself to chase down Hearts and the Old Firm when he's only eight, five and two points behind the three of them, then what the hell is wrong with him? Also, keep this going until the end of the season, and a bigger job than Aberdeen will be on the table for him.

Sorry @swaddon min, have too much to rant tonight to wait for the match thread to appear. Just how significant is the Falkirk game now? If we lose to Falkirk, they will leapfrog us and we'll fall to eighth. Since we'll be in January, that's sackable territory. A reminder of Dave Cormack's statement on 31 January 2024 when he sacked Barry Robson: "There is a talented squad of players at the Club which makes our current league position unacceptable." We were eighth, after three wins in 11. Robson's final game was a draw. Jim Goodwin was sacked on 28 January 2023 with the club in seventh, with two wins in 11. Stephen Glass made it all the way to 13 February, with the club in ninth, with four wins from 11 (two from nine). Unlike two of the above, Thelin is still in the Scottish Cup, and unlike all three has won a trophy within the last eight months. The sporting director's recent arrival also buys him time as he unlikely doesn't want a sacking on his record too soon. And, Thelin also hasn't had the January transfer window. So all these things to me would suggest even defeat at Falkirk wouldn't mean Thelin is in any immediate danger. However, fail to win on Saturday, and that would be three wins in his last 11 (four in 14). And a double header with Rangers is after that. Lose the cup game to Raith Rovers and you know what, that might be when the club did need to act to stave off angry fans. Jimmy, I don't want to read in two years about your first league title at some Scandinavian club where everyone is raving about your 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 hybrid. For the love of fuck, FOUR AT THE BACK ON SATURDAY!

One point from nine, and we didn't at any point tonight look better than Hibs despite the players they had missing. We're probably fortunate they weren't at full strength. Now we've got Falkirk away - lose and they leapfrog us, and they've had a free week to prepare. Rangers home and away - I don't see us getting anything at Ibrox if we play the same way we did tonight. And the Raith Rovers cup game, that's a season saving game because it's looking increasingly likely top five may in a month or two be realistically out of reach.

Not sure what our formation was at the end, it looked like a 4-1-4-1, but it appeared Devlin was one of the attacking midfielders, Keskinen was a very attack minded left back, and Milanovic, Aouchiche and Bilalovic all had free roles which caused Hibs some distress, but also meant three players went (and missed) the same cutback because no-one really knew where to be. Lazetic gets worse by the game. Too busy wrestling with defenders and trying to win cheap free-kicks. One example: Chance towards the end of the first half, Karlsson is the only one on his toes trying to be an option, Lazetic stays stationary. Very little hunger from him, which likely explains why he has so few in his career.

As it stands we're currently dropping back into the bottom six, which let's be honest is where this team belongs.