Panda

Agreed. I think the board, like the fans, will be disappointed with some (a lot of) the performances and results. However, he's had enough good performances to show that maybe there is something there and they should hang fire. You can't argue he's useless when he's won at Ibrox, stuck four past Ross County and Motherwell, was close to results against Frankfurt and PAOK, and this time tomorrow night could be in a cup final. And add to that leading the club to third after the Goodwin shambles last season. And the board don't want to be accused of being trigger happy anyway, and as poor as it's been under Robson at times, it hasn't reached the critical levels it did under Glass and Goodwin yet. I think we're all just bemused at this long ball football when we've actually managed decent results when we've passed the ball. The Hat and Twitter? Aye. The Dons support can be a cesspit at times. There's a large percentage of Aberdeen fans who never wanted Robson and will refuse to accept he'll ever be the right man. Winning the league cup won't change that, because it didn't for McInnes who suffered the same (not from the majority, but a very vocal minority) and even at his peak was still receiving ridiculous criticism. Yes and no. To be fair, everyone in the Championship is playing the same number of games, and they all have similar sized squads, so therefore there's no real advantage. That's not the case with us - we're playing more games than everyone bar the two clubs with massive resources and bigger squads. However, don't complain the players are tired when you're essentially picking the same team every week bar two changes. And stop launching long balls that gift the ball to the opposition meaning we're always chasing and having to press to get it back, then claim the players look leggy.

Great thread. Saturday will actually be a bit surreal for me because it'll be the first Aberdeen game at Hampden where I'm not in the Dons end. Even the 'neutral' ticket I've got I think is more towards the Hibs end, and the fella I'm sitting next to is a Hibee. Going to be awkward when I go mental at Miovski's winner. All the betting sites have Aberdeen as the underdogs, understandable I guess since the last three Hibs-Aberdeen games are an 8-0 aggregate in favour of Hibs, and two of those were at Pittodrie. Interesting to note is how the team have just stayed down in Glasgow following the Motherwell game rather than heading back up. Think they're training at Lesser Hampden today.

Semi-final on Saturday. Hopefully no-one is reckless enough to start a new thread for it and ruin our cup hopes.

This sums it up for me. We should be raising the bar higher for the Aberdeen job. Has had a good three months. But it's November, let's see what he achieves over the season. Jack Ross Jim Goodwin Robbie Neilson Paul Hartley All managers who had decent spells, were hailed as impressive young managers, made a step up and got found out. You could of course add Barry Robson to the above group. But he's about to win the League Cup..

Pass the ball look good. Punt it long look bad. We now await Hampden to see what version of Aberdeen Robson brings with him.

FIFY Surely the penny will drop eventually. If not, I fear Robson is broken and needs sent away and returned in 7-10 days with new parts. I want the return of the version of Robson that took over in February. Interim Robson > permanent Robson.

Nah I'm gonna defend Robson here, I'd say he is tactically more aware than Goodwin, who was hopeless. Goodwin just articulated himself better in interviews.

I'd say, considering the turnover of players and the likelihood that every signing is not going to a good one, that our summer recruitment was good. It's certainly capable of being third, and if we were to change Robson the new man wouldn't be coming into a shitshow like previous new managers.

Considering Robson was caretaker for three months before being given it permanently, you'd like to think the club in that time were looking at suitable candidates, and therefore still have a list of potentials to move for should Robson not work out. Or am I just being naive?

Oh I wasn't saying we should stick with Robson, I'm saying I can't see Cormack or Burrows making a change. I'm genuinely bemused at how Robson isn't connecting the dots every week. I don't know how he and Gunn can put together a good squad, and then with that squad play such turgid tactics.

Well I think the general consensus on this thread was that it was the right choice to appoint him, and most were prepared for some inconsistency and erratic performances as Robson's new signings settled in. I think it's fair to say we've fallen short of even that. Being 10th isn't the worst thing, it's the fact we deserve to be 10th. I tend to think Cormack, because he won't want to be known as a trigger happy chairman, the bar will rise now for what deems to be a sackable offence. For McInnes it was the football being boring and Aberdeen struggling to finish third, for Glass it was bottom six and out of the cup, then Goodwin survived a horrendous run of results and a cup exit to Darvel - pretty much quitting himself after the Hibs thumping. Therefore I don't think Robson is in any danger, even if we lose the next two games.

Robson post-match has just said he should have freshened things up today. If that's all he thinks didn't work today then what hope is there?

Well I for one am shocked that our tactics of lumping it forward didn't produce a positive result, considering the enormous success it's had this season.

Long ball football again. The tactics are reliant on the defence mistiming a long ball so Miovski or Duk can get in behind them. If that doesn't work, then hope something comes from a set-piece. As for the goal, Mackenzie (who has been one of our better players to be fair) has to be stronger there. Don't worry though, if we don't score in the next 25 minutes of the second half, the triple change of Sokler, Clarkson and Hayes I'n sure will change the game.

Robson has two teams. His league team and his European team. Wouldn't have taken much thought to predict the above. Don't want to hear any excuses about tiredness today.

Contact sport doesn't mean you can kick someone's leg out from under them.

Robson said in his post-match presser that Miovski and Barron were struggling and had to come off, and Polvara had cramp, and they actually wanted to make the subs earlier but the fourth official wouldn't let them.

Think Hampden is only getting something like £15m, so wouldn't expect much. We should really be proposing that the draw is open so there's a chance we end up in a group that doesn't have Hampden in it. From an Aberdeen point of view, potential to rent our training ground out to someone for the tournament.

He kicks his leg out of the way. It's a granitewall penalty. IMG_3010.mov another angle:

As far as I'm aware, someone who was listening in to the VAR said it wasn't checked. There was no dialogue to suggest they were even looking at a replay.

Ajax now second bottom of the league with just one win. A lot of Ajax fans also not happy with Jay Gorter (remember him?), who is now injured, but has been their goalkeeper for most of the season after their first choice was injured.

He's the captain now as well ain't he?

One of the BBC reporters who was at the game asked and was told they didn't check it. I believe him. And so should you. The BBC would never lie about such important matters.

As for VAR, how can Fifa not see it's destroying football? They apparently didn't even check the penalty, yet they checked PAOK's. The more it goes on the less enthused I am about football. That said, Aberdeen chucking it tonight wasn't all down to VAR. Let's also not forget the terrible first half performance, which consisted of two passes then a punt up the park every time we had possession. I've, bizarrely, been at all three of Celtic's Champions League games this season. I'd give you everything I have to get Scales back. I apologise for ever saying he was average (that said, he never reached those levels at Aberdeen).

The last 20 minutes I was missing large chunks of it, so although saw the goals and what should have been a penalty, didn't see much else. So someone explain to me, what did Robson's changes actually do, and why were they so shit (besides taking off Barron).