RicoS321

Could be finance related? Maybe he's over budget. Especially if we're missing crowds beyond that time. I didn't think he was that good first time around, just okay. Allows a back four with Hayes further forward though, which would be a benefit. I never thought he was that good positionally, so I'm not convinced he'd cut it as part of a back three. He could just be cover for various positions (we're really short in centre mid, so he can play there). We maybe just couldn't find a centre half so we're using up the budget.

Good luck to him, he definitely needs game time. Although I'm not sure Ayr is a great move for him. I can't think of a single player that has moved there and come back a success.

Agreed, Campbell going out on loan should be a priority. In terms of Ojo, I reckon McInnes knows the writing is on the wall for him and he's probably just trying to walk the fine line between not having a player unsettling the squad whilst at the same time paying him for the privilege. It's a shame, he had a decent spell of 6-7 games post January this year, but he started this season way off the pace, just like he did last season. It's a difficult one, he should have turned out to be a decent signing, I can see why a scout would look at him and think he was a prospect - unlike a Gleeson or Forrester or Tansey who clearly didn't have any of the requirements. Ojo has the attributes to be a decent player, but his application has been terrible. I don't think it's a laziness thing either, it looks entirely like confidence and a lack of belief in his own ability. He's not afraid of a tackle, but arrives late and gets booked stupidly too often and at times he appears like he can hold the ball really well without being daunted under pressure from an opponent and then suddenly he'll just panic and pass it straight to an opponent before panicking further in an attempt to get back in position. He's like a guy that's playing at 70% fitness. He reminds me of Hartley approaching the end of his time; knows what he wants to do, but just can't do it anymore. I don't see where it goes for him in his career, I think he'll be a wasted talent. He's now another, like the many before him, who are taking a place in the squad that a youngster should be filling. It's not healthy to have guys at his stage of his career littering our bench, and every minute he gets on the pitch is now a minute that Campbell doesn't. It's been a problem throughout McInnes' time here, and I think it stems from the fact that he's been fairly well supported by the board. He realised that Bryson and Ojo weren't up to it and the signing of McGeouch was sanctioned. Now McGeouch is getting 20-30 minutes here and there where Campbell could be and Ojo is further complicating it. The board should have told McInnes to make do in January and forced his hand in playing Campbell. McGeouch, after a very poor start with only one good performance prior to the pandemic, is an expensive player to have on our bench.

Which particular policies? Seems fairly normal, centre right, stuff. Maybe a few tokens thrown in for the left. Surely you don't see Biden as someone who's going to stray too far from the donor class' wishes? He's just a slightly shitter Obama.

One thing that is very much noticeable is the lack of passing it across the defence and back again, and then playing it long. When we did play it long, it was nice and early and into the channels. It's just so much more watchable and entertaining. I also think it's important that players like Wright are allowed to make an arse of things. Trying little flicks and clever passes is completely fine, and probably a lot easier with a crowd-free ground. They didn't come off for him at all last night, but they can be exactly the type of thing that makes the difference between scoring and not. For too many years we've been drilled into taking the extra touch, turning and passing or taking a first touch backwards before laying off, so it's great to see a bit more directness. McGinn is very much in the latter, where he always takes an extra touch, which he largely makes up for by being excellent at crossing, but he is very culpable for slowing down a fast break. I think that if we're going to get the best out of Wright, then he needs Hedges close by rather than McGinn (it also gets the best out of Hedges), but I don't think McInnes will see it that way and we might see Wright dropped for the next fixture.

With Hoban playing as an auxiliary winger at the moment, I think we'll need one. To be honest though, Ash did okay last season and I think we'd survive until January with him there if necessary. If there's a decent centre half available on a pre-contract that we could maybe do a deal on in January then that'd be okay. Hoban's new deal has to be a priority.

Leave doddsy alone, he was referring to his potential when he was at Raith before joining Dunfermline. He was wrong about a lot of other stuff though, like joining the fucking Hun and ebts. Anyway, a rather good win in the end. Thought Ferguson had a decent game, with McRorie poor alongside him. Thought McInnes got the setup wrong tonight. Hedges and Wright had formed a decent partnership, they should be the front two with Watkins. McGinn getting on a bit but he's a fairly reliable tracker back and would be far better at the wing back role. Watkins was very good, but he's nae a striker. So many times he needed to go across his man but didn't. Hayes been great since he came back, a fantastic signing. Hoban very good too. Good changes by McInnes. Not sure about Edmondson yet. McLennan played well.

Young loon. Left back I think.

Same team it is then. Good stuff. 4-0, Considine, Watkins, Wright and hedges

Yeah, but I've never heard of them.

Fantastic article "Behold the raw museum loveliness of Dens Park and the bold handshake of a Pittodrie welcome (and what lout would demolish either?)" Spot on.

But it's far more systemic than that. Even if the democrats had put up a more credible candidate, it would have made no difference. The childish football match of left vs right, Dems Vs republicans, good Vs evil or whatever the bullshit representation is has to go. It's not democracy, it's a charade. Political systems should be regularly changed and improved. Especially when the future potential of the human race is at stake. We can just do better. Why does a political or economic system have to be so sacrosanct that it can't improve over time? Look at all the pompous archaic shite we still do in the UK in the Westminster crèche. Time for a revolution. And nae from some cunts who think wearing a mask is curtailing their freedom.

It was tragic. Is this the best democracy has to offer? There needs to be a massive systemic change both sides of the Atlantic. That isn't a choice. The US and the world can do much better than this, time for a long hard look at it.

Actually, I think you're right. I think Campbell would be a cracking bit of business on a pre contract for those reasons. This is a make or break year for Ferguson. He has to be good enough to get a move at the end of the season. Jack staying with us as long as he did was a failure on his (and our) part and I think Ferguson should feel the same. If he doesn't get a move then Campbell comes in ahead of him and he's left to battle it out with McGeouch for the first sub spot, or McGeouch moves on. I think the issue with Campbell is just timing though. I think it would be really unsettling to get him in now as it would result in Wright being dropped or McRorie moving to centre half. Any agent worth their salt would be telling Campbell to hold on for another few months, as continued performances will get him a more lucrative move south. Unless Motherwell are keen to get some money for him now, then I think they might hold out. We could do a buy then loan back type deal I suppose? That might be the only way we can get him. There will be an element of us wanting him so Hibs don't get him, but I think that is a dangerous way to do business.

I don't think what you describe would be good competition for places, it would be overloading. One that results in shoe horning (by McInnes). The problem we have is that in the centre of the park, McInnes always has guy(s) that play the ninety minutes unless injured or at risk of red card. Jack, McLean, Shinnie, Ferguson, now McRorie are guys that aren't coming off that pitch. McGeouch is now the perennial "Wright-replacement" on or around the 70th minute (and McGeouch would walk into most teams in our league). Our Campbell now demoted to an appearance every 6-10 games, and a sprinkling of ten-minuters here and there. To his detriment. I just don't see Alan Campbell as anything other than an all or nothing signing, one in, one out, or a change to a flat three in the middle. All whilst leaving us short for cover in other areas.

I think that at some point you'd have to stop buying midfielders and accept that we can't have all the midfielders available in the league. Campbell is a fantastic player, reminds me of Shinnie, but we simply don't need him. A midfield three of Ferguson, McRorie and Campbell would mean ditching Wright or nullifying him out on the wing. It would be exactly the same as signing McGeouch in January just because he was available, overloading us in one area with little added benefit/improvement at the time. If we signed Campbell, then it'd have to be in place of Ferguson or McRorie, not as well as, but that wouldn't happen under McInnes. In reality, we'd see Ferguson shunted further up the pitch and revert back to the uninspiring, but hard-working, approach to games that we were looking like we'd finally got beyond. I'm guessing it's just agent talk to get a better offer from Motherwell or to try and stir up interest down South anyway. I think that we should be taking Ferguson to one side and having a word with him though. In my mind, Campbell is working harder and imposing himself on games more regularly than Ferguson and he needs to step up his game if he is to remain the "number one" midfield prospect in Scotland to build on his young player of the year from last year (McRorie also looks to be having more of an impact too). He's playing wthin himself at the moment in my opinion as Jack did for about 18 months around about Ferguson's age, and he needs to step out of that and start dominating games and opponents (instead of just winning "clever" free kicks). The game against Motherwell the other week should be the kick up the arse he needs and if he wants a big move down South then he needs to be better than the rest. Scoring penalties won't hide the lack of influence he's having too often in games. Like Jack, he's a very capable lad and projecting his/Jack's potential at his age, he can do better than the huns if he applies himself. I think Jack is a great footballer, but I think he should see going to the hun as a failure, as it would be for Ferguson.

Legend. 10 games to go to make the top five appearances of all time. Proper dandy.

You've got the rest correct. Well done!

I actually think that a quicker player would tear him apart in the big leagues. He's good like, and I like him, but he has a little bit missing from his game. He's nae Anderson with his positioning. Definitely get him on a contract with a sell on though, as he'll get better and better.

Agreed. I would add that it was very obvious up front in that regard. A poor signing, never good enough at the basics of fitba.

I imagine some brexity fucks in the mail will be calling them out for world war two neutrality this week in response.

Nobody is judging after the match, most would have said it during the game. I mentioned it on here as a prediction of our approach and suggested the changes at halftime. It's the manager's responsibility to act within the game too, not after. I completely agree that they could have picked us off, but that's exactly the risk that you have to take when you're one behind in an all or nothing game. That's the whole point in football. 1 or 3 for them produces exactly the same outcome. There's no could about it, a manager reading that game effectively would have had Wright on sooner, it was obvious and is an error. It significantly reduced our chances of getting a result, as we prioritised attacking for one third less time. It's quite straight forward. For me, it's a flaw in McInnes' management and one he should address as we see it repeatedly. It's the managerial equivalent of a keeper not being good with crosses and it should be identified and addressed in exactly the same fashion.

It was a weird one because he was absolutely pish at fitba

We weren't favourites, but during the game there were opportunities missed, glaring ones I'd say, to affect the result. From the 55-65th minutes they absolutely battered us and should have been two up. That was before we made any attempt to attack them. As soon as we started to wobble around 55 minutes, the changes should have begun, starting with a change in midfield to get our three away from our back five (4-1-4-1), with all attacking subs being introduced 10 minutes earlier than they were to give us the most amount of time to create opportunities. This procrastination from McInnes is evident on multiple previous occasions and rarely serves us well. Nobody is suggesting the initial setup was wrong and that we were terrible, but we had a huge amount of time being 1-0 down without creating a single opportunity, so we knew that we had to change and it took far too long to do it, which possibly cost us. We'll never know that of course, but if you don't try etc. McInnes played the second half, tactically, like it was a league game versus the tims where there's a psychological risk associated with a tanking, or an away game in Europe where we still had a home game. This was a cup semi final against a very good team. The only risk was that the game would be over after 70 minutes rather than 90. There's a fine line in these games, a really small window of opportunity and McInnes didn't recognise it or act on it. As I said earlier Panda, against Burnley (a similar fixture) we were unlucky, but last night we didn't get to the point of being unlucky. We actually played in the hope we might get lucky. Defeat is acceptable, the manner wasn't great. I'm probably classed as a "McInnes defender" on here, so certainly not one of the hysterical ones, but I don't think you've addressed what were serious mistakes in the approach given that we were 1-0 down with no fallback if we didn't score. Tup's right, we did try to win, but we made tactical mistakes that meant we significantly reduced those chances.

I just explained in fairly logical detail. Against Burnley we played with a chance of winning, which is why nobody complained after that game. Also the tims game I mentioned. I think the team played well tonight. There's no ferocious criticism, just an honest assessment. McInnes made an error, and it's one he's made on several occasions now and shouldn't be making that mistake (a player would be crucified for repeated errors). He's also done the opposite on numerous occasions such as the Burnley and tims games which I was exceptionally praising of. If you don't see the difference between Burnley and tonight's game then your missing something. Burnley we were unlucky, tonight we never gave ourselves the opportunity to be unlucky. I didn't come away from tonight's game disappointed, because at no point were my expectations raised enough to warrant that. We all know we're capable of playing better than we did tonight and that there were better ways to approach it (certainly the second half). It's a tactical approach that has a zero percent success rate for the dons under McInnes (when a goal behind), it's pretty straight forward.