BobbyBiscuit

Ball's quality on the ball is sorely lacking and as a result the team suffers. If you're playing in that position the use of the ball has to be better when you do get it.  I also think that it's no coincidence that the defenders use Ferguson more in that role than they do Ball (not just today, but in general). 

So at times, the logic of playing a player like Ball there may well be the correct one, but Ball just isn't the guy for it.  In the past couple of seasons we've seen the likes of Jack and McLean in that role; it is a fair drop off in quality from those two to Ball, you have to say.

I know what you were saying. I'm suggesting that you might be wrong. That his unfitness was more of an issue for us than his positioning as evidenced by the times he did play centrally for us but was still poor. Unless you are saying that the times he played wide were detrimental to his confidence to the extent that it affected his performances when played centrally? If so, you could be right.

If his fitness was so much of an issue, why play him wide?  Rather than playing him in a position where he wouldn't have to do that defensive work?  Or why play him at all?

Either way, you seem to suggest that playing him in his favoured position several times from the bench (it had increased from a few from your first post, but that's being pedantic) was enough of a reason not to play him there? I think the guy deserved a decent chance in his favoured postion from the start, at least once or twice.

He played several times in the centre for us as a sub. That's what I was saying.

The vast majority of his time he was stuck wide. That's what I was saying.

He didn't fit into our system because he didn't do the work. He played a few times (mainly as sub) in the advanced role of a 4-2-3-1 centrally. I don't see that position being far off what is being asked of him at Killie now. The main thing being that he now looks fit enough to do the tracking back that he didn't really do for us.

Nah. Being stuck out on the wing isn't playing to his strengths.

I'm not disputing that he was overweight and could/should have worked harder, but to suggest that we played him in a role that suited him is just wrong.

He has admitted when he joined us he was over a stone overweight. He got about half of it off by the time he left and was starting to look like a decent acquisition. Obviously worked hard in pre-season and got the rest off. With hindsight we would have been far better off getting him in permanently instead of Forrester (and would have got him for free saving £200k into the bargain). He is only on loan at Killie for the season and will be available to sign a pre-contract in January. It's a no brainer for me.

He didn't fit into our system.  He's playing through the middle with Killie, and there was no way he was ever going to play there with us.

I'd take him in a heartbeat, but only if the aim was to use him properly.

Bernard would have achieved more if it wasn't for his horrendous injury issues.  He was a very good player, but we just didn't see it often enough.

The two Bulgarians were underachievers, given pedigree and expectation.  There are countless others from that period, although there's a lot who didn't underachieve, simply because they weren't good enough in the first place.

Always felt Gary Smith underachieved after a really promising start to his Aberdeen career. I'm not sure if he lost his way when McLeish left or what, but his performances dropped off a cliff for us.

The last bit is what it's about. How I felt about Ibrox two seasons back. Team stood up when it mattered, and DM should take plaudits for it.  More of the same please (albeit a bit more attacking threat) 

I actually think this was McInnes's biggest result. And it was an attacking lineup which was pleasing to see.  We maybe didn't hold on to the ball well enough for that to come into full effect but that's not McInnes's fault on the day.

It's also hopefully the performance and result the team needs. Gives a good amount of confidence and hopefully, with everyone playing for a cup final place, the team kicks on a bit now.

Pretty sweet for the young lad Ferguson to end up with the winner, with his dad and uncle being ex huns.

 

his dad was in the Dons end, as he has been for a lot of this season when he's not been working on Sportsound.

Lewis loved scoring that goal today, his family ties certainly didn't interfere with his enjoyment of it.

Thought McGinn's defensive work today was excellent, got Considine out of jail a couple of times in the first half. And of course his ball on to Ferguson's head won it for us 

Yaaaaasssss!!!!!

Get fucking in!!!!

He's living off everyone else being shite!

Nope. Mcginn miles better. GMS miles better. So he's struggling for a place already. Good luck to him though.

Paul Lambert being appointed Ipswich boss tomorrow.

Will be up again in two weeks then.

With the fans for sure....

 

With Milne... well he might pay attention with a few home crowds of 8k or less but I still believe the only way DM wont be in post at season's end is if he walks

Ipswich Town job up for grabs just now, possibly the sort of job he'd be looking for.

People wanting different formations again? Nearly every time McInnes has deviated from his standard it has been an absolute disaster, why on earth would we want to put us in that position in such a big game?

Scott Wright still living off his one good performance in 18 months I see, as well. Here's hoping....

Is he (his family) not a season ticket holder at Ibrox, or is that one of the other hun cunts?

That's Madden.

And probably several others, but definitely Madden.

I watched most of the huns game today - they're pretty average, we have nothing to fear.

But, we're pretty average, and they have nothing to fear.

We average just over one goal a game scored and exactly one conceded, in the league.

The huns are the same for conceding but just under 2.5 goals scored per game.

Therefore, our manager will put us out to defend, in all likelihood, because that is generally what he does against the "big" teams.

I would like to see :

          Lewis

Logan  Devlin  McKenna  Lowe

GMS  Shinnie Ferguson  McLellan

          McGinn

        Wilson

Shinnie and Ferguson can anchor the midfield and get us going forward between them, two attacking full backs with two wingers ahead of them who want to take players on.  McGinn getting space behind Wilson gives us another avenue of creativity. Look at the ball McGinn played Wilson for his goal against Motherwell; that's the sort of football we need to see more of; gives us another dimension because at the moment we are far too easy to play against.

But, I'd imagine Cosgrove and Ball will play on Sunday.

Shinnie and Ball being our current first choice centre midfield pairing is a huge part of our problems.

Shinnie plays centre midfield like a left back. As a left back, everything is in front of you and that's exactly how Shinnie plays centre mid, but in the centre of the park you have to know when to put your foot on the ball and hold the play, which he pretty much never does.

That wouldn't be too much of an issue if there was a better footballer beside him, but Ball, for all that he's ok, is just ok and that's all he's ever going to be.

The quality in the centre of the pitch is hugely lacking. Ferguson is going to be a great player I think, but he's young and he needs time and will need a rest from time to time.

When you look at the centre forward being Cosgrove, added to that centre midfield pairing, does anyone really think that is remotely good enough?

McInnes, after the Scottish Cup Semi Final last season admitted his transfer dealings for that season hadn't been good enough.  A brave thing for a manager to publicly admit. But he was correct.  I would have hoped that would have spurred him on to better this summer; Gleeson and Forester have been pretty awful, Hobban injured - not much the manager can do about that, but the player's injury history should tell us it wasn't a surprise - Ball, a player who wasn't even getting off the bench (or on it) for a huge part of last season was brought back in and is now a starter.

Ferguson and Devlin have proven to be good signings and I'm sure they will continue to do so.  But on the whole, the recruitment has been tipping on the poor side too much in the past two years and when you're bringing in poorer players there's only one way the side is going.  I don't trust McInnes with a transfer budget now, particularly given that he's signed players for cash who have been utterly root. 

Nobody, apologies, it was badly phrased. The question should have been: at what point does supporting the club become more important than actually being able to see the game? For me, it occurs when you have to sit a fucking mile away*. I think the expectation on fans just to turn up regardless is a little bit like telling them to "get behind" the move to Westhill. Rather appropriately we're asking fans to behave like sheep and eschew all thinking. That's what I pretty much do as a rule, but I'm saying that my line is drawn at about section "I" at Hampden as given it's a Sunday then I won't be boozing I want to enjoy a good game of fitba. It's about watching the game for me, not just turning up because of my faith.

 

I do agree with you.  But what I'm saying is that this isn't a new thing, Hampden hasn't all of a sudden become a crap stadium, it has been for 20+ years.  Why has it all of a sudden become an issue and an excuse/reason not to go to a semi final?  We all know that if it was a final all the tickets would have gone by now.

It's the notion that you should forego being treated fairly to provide that support. Does being a great supporter trump understanding when you're getting the piss taken out of you? It's always been shite, so we should continue going?

 

tlg, unless you were a camera man, then you weren't right behind the goal, you were about 40 metres away.

Who mentioned being a great supporter?

I was right behind the goal at the other end of the park the last time we beat oldco at hampden.  The view was absolutely fine that evening I can assure you.  In my opinion any aberdeen fan able to attend this match should do so regardless of the surrounding hyperbole.  Our team will need us.

Exactly. Hampden (seated) has always been shite. Why people are now citing it as an excuse to not support their team is fucking baffling.

But that's our support these days.

McGinn is doubtful for the game, I would hope he's not risked.

Is he supposed to be back like? Was wondering if he'd return. Happy to save him for the semi, ready to give the hun a roasting. Maybe give him 10 minutes when we're two up at the weekend.

I really hope the clamour for Scott Wright is well placed. He's been desperately disappointing in a lot of the matches he's played for us, hopefully the faith you and others are placing in him is rewarded but I can't see him starting in either match.

Good news, but still does not explain why the Scottish Football Hall of Fame committee gave the go ahead in the first place.

 

Because someone nominated him - that's all it takes, apparently.

Gazza had some sublime performances for the Hun, but over a comparitively short period of time. I thought Van Bronckhorst was a better player, Stefan Klos too. They were world class, like Laudrup and Willie Miller and thon diving Larssen cunt.

Laudrup wasn't in the same class as Miller.  Laudrup wasn't even the best player in his mum's house....

Don't actually remember Larsson as being a diver either.  Larsson was a superb player, took Celtic to a European final. Laudrup and Gascoigne did fuck all for the huns in European competition.

There were 43,000 at Red Parkhead but it sounds we may struggle to see half that for this semi.

 

I reckon the biggest factor is most of us thought we would win that final but most think we will lose this.

Yip. We are at an obvious disadvantage anyway due to distance etc, but if we were flying and the huns were struggling, we would get a substantially bigger crowd than we're going to. Most of the people who post on here will be going, all things being equal etc, but for the people who dip in and out of football supporting - a lot of the folk at ParkRed, for example - it just won't do for them.

There'll also be those who have the view; "late kick off time, everyone's going to be steaming, it'll be carnage" (and we all pray that is indeed the case), and it'll put them off.

It's been 18 years since we last played a team called R*ng*rs at Hampden.  And we certainly owe them one from that day. Bring it on.

I’ll be very happy (and surprised) if we sell 20k, but let’s be honest - how fucking good would it be to actually witness 30 thousand dejected Huns trudging towards the hampden exit with 15 minutes to go?! I’ve dreamt of that moment...

 

Hope the red army rise to the occasion.

95 LC semi final 

Stockley played in Europe for us last season.

Did he? Christ, I must have blocked that out

I see three of our strikers from last season scored today.  Rooney bags a hat-trick, Stockley gets a double and even Maynard scored for Bury!!!

Stockley had already left us last season, chief.

Great result, good performance. Good that Cosgrove finally got off the mark.

Lewis Ferguson's influence shouldn't be underestimated... we look so much better with him in there. McLennan did well too.

Gleeson however... it's painful watching him.  We lost that goal today because Saints players knew that he was going to pass the ball back the way, as he does every fucking time he gets the ball.

He's a horrible excuse of a player and Forrester looks worse, which is quite something.

But the Dons did well today, it was so important to win and we got it, played well in big chunks of the game, was very pleasing.  Just a shame it's the international break, always want to keep going after a good win, but hey ho.