RicoS321

It has been Devlin a lot too, but he didn't seem to do that against Utd, with Milne taking over. It didn't work. A lot of our goals (or opportunities given away) are caused by us giving simple ball away in midfield (see Aouchiche against Utd) when one of our back three is advanced. They get caught on the turn and make an arse of a simple clearance they would normally deal with, and the other two lose their bearings and fail to cover. It seems to happen most weeks, punished or unpunished. It should be easy to coach the cover though. When one steps up, the other two form a central two, and only return when the player is back in position. That would be at the cost of giving space wide left or right, but you'd fancy our chances against a winger running from deep rather than a one on one with a striker in behind. Maybe the option of the midfielder dropping in is better though, if they have the discipline.

Think we'll stick with the back three, at least until the windae opens. Probably a good idea away to a team that also plays a three. Kjartansson and Aouchiche for me, with Gyamfi and Lobban wide, Keskinen, Nisbet and Bilalovic the front three. 2-7. McGrath with two goals to put them 2-0 up at half time. Boyle with a second booking for diving, and us to get seven quick goals in the last ten minutes.

This. Kjartansson immediately looks like he'll read the game better than Dante. He is already in position, covering fullbacks, sitting in or pushing up as required. He doesn't need to have a lot of strength, he can just slow the game down until we're back in position. Polvara generally has to put in a challenge because he's a yard or two behind where he needs to be, and puts himself in the position to be out-muscled, which he's going to be 50% of the time. I think Polvara is better with the long raking pass, and is very good with both feet. In a "better the devil you know" sense, I hope he stays. He's a fantastic utility player (Dom Ball, but much better). He'll play 20 games at least for us every season. If he can be taught to be more aggressive he'd be very good. Also, as an argument against my own suggestion of moving to a back three, it is important to factor in that most teams in the league are playing a back three at the moment, and it's often pragmatic to match up. It just seems that we're asking a defender (either Devlin or Knoester) to be an auxiliary midfielder for a lot of the games at Pittodrie, and it might be better having a midfielder being an auxiliary defender. I think Kjartansson might be the only one capable though (Nilsen five years ago).

I'm wondering if we might change back to a back four soon, which might change my mind on a midfielder requirement. Aouchiche, in my opinion, is now fulfilling the Ramadani role. He covers a shite tonne of ground in a game, and is technically decent, if not brilliant. Not immensely strong in the tackle but doesn't shirk a challenge either. Secondly, I think Kjartansson looks like he might be a player. He reads the game very well, that much is obvious, and he reminds me very much of Jack (rat Hun cunt etc) in that midfield - positionally very good and so doesn't need to fly into challenges, and also covers the fullbacks. I'm thinking a 4-1-4-1, with Aouchiche and Armstrong in front of Kjartansson, who drops in to help the defence when necessary. A striker, then, might be the priority. Plus a fast as fuck wide player. Done. We could also have the back three, of course, in a 3-1-4-1-1, but that feels like too many numbers.

I thought it was a little bit 2006ish if I'm honest. You'll learn. English prick likely isn't acceptable either, and I expect it to be gone from acceptable lexicon by the end of the decade. Hun bastard, and Tim cunt, are eternally merited, and should be used in a balanced way that conveys the correct amount of hate without being so overused that they lose their spitefulness. Hopefully @BigAl can keep tally and moderate if either of those two terms borders on light-heartedness.

2 pens?

Someone wrote a poem instead of a limerick, which must've broken the thread.

It's not that interesting. How many songs has Karlsson got to his name? None Because he's a dick.

Nah, you're thinking of the queen. Easy mistake.

Well, aye, but then we're possibly back to square one and should have kept McInnes. The entire point of the "three year project" was to allow the manager time to bed in his system, or variant thereof, and give us some "identity" and whatever else. That means we need recruitment to match the manager's requirements, and that hasn't happened. Although Polvara, Palaversa, Ambrose etc should have been shown the door prior to the season beginning given we knew they couldn't meet the requirements (maybe Polvara could have stayed for utility). I don't think it's a coincidence that Glass, Goodwin and Robson (see McInnes' 3-4-3 too) all had systems that were kept in place for too long when everyone could see they weren't working (Robson when he didn't replace Ramadani in his system for example). The instruction from above is that we develop a system and get really good at doing it to the point that we have an "Aberdeen way" from youth to first team. Seems like utter pish to me, but again I don't think it's a coincidence that pragmatism has essentially been binned since Cormack took over

Ditch Karlsson, he's pish. Best for both parties that he leaves. Hasn't managed to take on a single player since joining. He has got an ace touch, a great shot and his dead balls can be sublime, but he's basically a dick.

Looks like AI to me. Those aren't real clouds, and naebidy is oot walking before 9am at this time of year.

We shouldn't be trusting Jimmy, or any other manager, with another transfer window. There's no chance Thelin signed Milanovic, he'll be a product of our scouting system, which is the way it should be. To date, he's been given very poor value for money from that system, which is hopefully something Pfannenstiel will help address. Milanovic is an interesting case in point. He's clearly a decent footballer who a scout would take a look at and would understandably decide was worth a look at. He clearly has some great attributes. The issue is the transition from that league to ours. It turns out that being very strong down under doesn't transfer to the SPFL, it's that shade below, and without game time he won't develop (I think he'd benefit from six months at someone like Livi). We had a similar situation with McGarry, and we should have used the data from his signing as a guage to measure Milanovic. That's how it's supposed to work, but maybe it just needs more data! Similarly, any signings JT is making off his own back from Scandinavia need to go through that system so that we have something to compare league to league for future signings. Thelin will have run his known targets dry in that part of the world I expect, and might be more likely to look to players he's seen in the SPFL. At present, we're not getting a better return from our expensive European based signings than McInnes was picking up players from down south. We're definitely not getting a better return than those he picked up from the SPFL, although his good ones were either really obvious or his mate's son (when actually having to dig around we got shite like Morris, Quinn, Tansey, Storey and so on). As we all pointed out, the balance of signings was ridiculous, with a million project players and some old guys. That stems from the fucking awful decision not to have the sporting director position filled at the time JT was hired (or as soon as McInnes left as we all suggested). He needed someone experienced in the building reviewing age profiles, balance of positions etc and perhaps vetoing certain targets. I can imagine it's very difficult to maintain a view of the macro strategy when you're stuck in the weeds of the micro level looking at videos of players and so on - we see it a lot, with even the Tims forgetting that they might need a striker at some point. Pfannenstiel can hopefully provide the high level view to ensure we stay on strategy and in balance, he shouldn't be there to provide his favourite contacts or any of the other stuff I've heard suggested. Thelin suffered a little because he didn't come into the job with a good set of targets with SPFL experience (McInnes immediately had Robson and Flood, Brown had McGinn, Hayes etc, Goodwin had fucking Anthony fucking Stewart for some bizarre reason), and his Scandi lads just haven't made the transition with any great degree of success. That's where a sporting director would hopefully have directed a portion of signings to this country to help bed him in. Whilst I'd say that we are only a midfielder and perhaps a winger away from having something that might work for the next six months, I have little faith in our structure, with Pfannenstiel just in the door, to be able to make those two important signings.

It boils my pish. It's noticeably better on sky etc than the red TV coverage it has to be said, and foreign football is largely unwatchable. Every dead space filled with a close up of someone's face. Why on earth do we need to see close ups of a player's reaction? We want to see their actual reaction on the pitch, whether they chase down an opponent, get back into position or whatever. I want to see who's moving where when we get a throw-in or goal kick, not a replay of a nothing event, or a fucking close up of the fourth official holding up a stoppage time fucking board! Fuck the casual watcher, it's always somebody's team that's playing.

Nae 3pm English games maybe? Can't be arsed to check.