RicoS321

Not a bad result in the end. We did quite well in stages. Defence was fairly solid. Cosgrove breathing out his airse for the last 20, it's a shame we don't have anyone we can bring on for him in these types of games (Anderson not really going to hold the ball up). Didn't really look like sneaking one in the second half, but they didn't cause us too many problems either. Edit, to add: Lewis was fantastic. Brilliant at one-on-ones.

Not a bad game so far. Cosgrove will be kicking himself with that one on one, he did so well to get on to it. We just need to be a little bit better in pressing, as their defenders aren't great. Their midfield is decent. The pitch is a fucking disaster. Huns spent all their groundsmen funds. Hopefully get a goal in the second half. Kennedy and McGinn playing well.

I agree, although there's no way he can continue playing those three against poorer opposition and creating nothing. By the time Wright is back you'd have expected the horrendous experiment to be over. Although Wright has a very long way to go to prove himself of course, but he's definitely the type of player we need in there.

No problem playing the three away at Ibrox (or timland). Similar worked in the recent past. Not for all other games though. I definitely think Wright would have been playing there a number of times had he been fit. However, 6 minutes in, he'd have switched him to left wing, then right then back again, so he wouldn't have had a run of games in the no 10, which is an obvious place for him.

Really? He looks distinctly average to me. Although I've only properly seen him on the telly.

I'm guessing Stewart fae county. The right height for getting on the end of a Taylor punt. Overall, not a great window. Strengthened areas that didn't really need strengthening with players that are similar to what we've got with two of them, and an exciting one that could be the next chidi or the next [insert successful recent foreign import here], but in a role that probably won't change the team on it's own. Good that we have a right wing Venezuelan though.

It's fairly hilarious that we waited right up until the last few hours of the window and still nae cunt wanted gleeson. I'm just glad he's finally over. It's been a long 18 months.

Yasss, welcome aboard comrade.

I'm guessing that we maybe got the choice of 6 month loan or a clause perhaps. We'd have been a lot shitter that season had McLean not stayed. To be fair to the dons, they seem to be a lot better at these types of deal in recent times, but there is always a no-win situation when a player wants to leave and doesn't have much left on a contract. Wilson is a disgraceful signing. A charlatan. He was given lots of time last season and proved he couldn't hack it. I disagree that he's a footballer that wasn't allowed to play, he was another goodwillie who has lost all match playing ability he may once have had and will have to go down several levels to try and get it back. But that was obvious from day one. As most of us were saying in the summer, the money for main and Wilson (and May) should have been pooled to get one striker instead. Awful signings. Greg Leigh has been the only decent signing this season (and I don't actually think he's that good). Taylor hasn't been bad maybe. That's another atrocious return.

I'd rather he got another 6 months of weekly championship fitba over sitting on our bench. We need to do what's in the player's best interest at this stage. I think we'll have a far better young player next season with a good season of fitba behind him.

The player himself has addressed it on numerous occasions, he simply wasn't working hard enough and needed to understand that for himself. He was turned down by numerous teams after leaving us. It happens. That said, I still don't see a guy who'd score significant goals down south. He doesn't have the physique or pace. Reminds me of a Kris Boyd type. At present, I'd rather have an improving Cosgrove (assuming he continues to improve).

Is that not pretty much standard in all transfers with a fee these days? Since the days of Fraser leaving, we've always had one in. It's kind of what you need to do in order to sign a young player in contract. Probably the way it should work too. Carlisle deserve something in the same way as we would have if Fraser moved. No big deal.

Agreed. It's akin to gambling. The club would never allow it. Not even for the player's health, but the club's image. The first thing they'd do is get him help to stop, then he'd stop. If it's on a chat site, then the club would know about it and would have dealt with it. If it was on AFC chat then the club would likely know it's someone posting a wind up and would dismiss it. It's clearly not true. Kids vape these days anyway.

I'd probably go along with that. I trust the sports scientist guys to get it - for the most part - correct. We're a fit team as far as I can see. Ferguson looks absolutely fine for a young loon too, and I think McGinn just has a different body shape rather than a weight issue. Very difficult to tell without seeing them with their tops off, which I don't think is necessary! McGinn also works his arse off in games, including St Mirren, but often with little return. The midfield have been in and out through injury, so it's difficult to tell. For me, the biggest thing is the amount of wasted energy in a game. We have players moving up and down, but we're too slow to move the ball. Ferguson covered a huge amount of ground at the weekend coming back into his preferred position and back up the pitch again. We're making the wrong runs in the wrong areas, and taking a first "possession" touch backwards where a turn would be more efficient. Furthermore, we keep players that aren't performing on for far too long, expending more fruitless energy. McInnes loves this type of shite, there's no way on earth he won't be monitoring players' distance travelled, heart rates, diets etc., he just misses the tactical basics all too often. That results in wasted energy, and also lethargy as our own players [must] see that things are not working.

At the same time, there are probably quite a few who have no wish to tell our most succesful manager in a long time to get to fuck either. That's the problem with fitba songs though, they're all or nothing. "Derek, don't play 3 fucking holding midfielders at once" doesn't really fit into a tune. "Derek, make a sub! Derek, Derek, make a sub!" would have been quite nice at around the 50-55th minute mark (or the 2nd minute mark given the obviously shite starting line up). He's bringing it on himself like, although - again - I'd question why the fuck he thinks that his job is safe enough to play three holding midfielders in an entertainment sport against a poorer opponent. What is happening above him that he is comfortable in that flawed decision? The knives didn't need to be out, there were very simple changes he could have made to prevent that.

Agreed. It's almost like he couldn't face missing out on mcgeouch and see him go elsewhere so he signed him. It's a dilemma for a club like Aberdeen because we're not used to having 3 players of similar standard in that position. Normally we'd have a Ball or Vyner type to provide cover in a few positions so they generally got 25-30 games a season anyway. Everyone was reasonably happy. McInnes has left himself short in other positions in order to strengthen an already reasonably strong area. He's going to have to tell a half decent midfielder that they're now cover whilst playing an arguably worse player in another role unless he picks up a good attacking midfielder this week. Thing is, today's midfield would be entirely acceptable next week against the hun when we need possession and to be solid. Just not in 90% of other matches.

That happens all the time. It's not a huge issue. The fact that he was given 18 minutes to change an entire team's approach to the game was the problem. With Anderson being hung out to dry with 8 minutes to be the hero or not feature for another 3 weeks. I don't understand what McInnes saw in the first 45 minutes that he thought would lead to a goal? What did he see in the next ten minutes, and the ten after that? Is he just simply too frightened to drop one of the three players he's got that are too similar in style? It's certainly a difficult decision, as neither is really much worse than the other, but it's having a hugely detrimental effect on the team.

Think so, Ojo near the end there. In fairness, there were several times when we should have shot and plenty of times when our shooting was shite, but our terrible approach to the game was only every going to end in speculative efforts being the closest we came, or set-pieces. Hedges should have been on from the start, but how the fuck can an actual football manager wait until 70 minutes to make that change? What the fuck did he think he was watching. We deserved to lose that game for playing so negative. Somebody at board level has to be holding that shite to account. Anti-entertainment.

At least McGinn is making the effort, trying to get into positions. He's not completing the passes however, although that's not helped by our entirely predictable setup and systemic lack of movement up front. Ferguson spent the entire half dropping deep to take the ball rather than stretching them wide and giving the other two midfielders some space. Basic knowledge of fitba would have told anyone this would happen, but if McInnes was struggling to spot it, then re-watch the fucking Motherwell game. I await the 65th-minute-subTM

McInnes sticks with 3 similar centre midfielders because he doesn't want to drop one again. Expect a win, but another shitefest. Kennedy starts, which can only be an improvement on playing Gallagher there. Strikes me as very similar to hedges and mcginn. Can beat a man but doesn't quite have the pace to hit the byline like Hayes or even gms could. Expect a lot of cutting back and back again before crossing like mcginn does. Might suit Cosgrove if the crosses are good enough

I don't think McInnes is a bullshitter. In fact, I think he'd come across pretty well in an interview. He just makes mistakes as a manager. The problem is that Cormack is there just now and there appears to be no accountability on the footballing side. What mandate did McInnes have after the Dumbarton game to go out and play in such a negative fashion? Who was there, above him, to hold him accountable for that lack of entertainment? I don't see that such a person exists, Cormack included. Given the names at the time (Derek Adams etc.), I have no doubt that Cormack would have picked similarly to Milne. McInnes is knowledgeable, and really understands the management side of the game in terms of fitness, training, general coaching etc. He struggles with the tactical side, specifically erring toward caution in every instance. How does that come across at an interview? To me, without a structure above McInnes that holds him to account for performances, we'll fail with every appointment. I also believe that if McInnes was being held accountable that we wouldn't have gone into last night's game with three holding midfielders, he would have felt pressured to entertain as well as get a result. The point being, is that we saw a few years back that McInnes is completely capable of putting an entertaining team on the pitch. The season we were banging in 7 goals in a couple of games, 6 etc. We need to be able to force it out of him again. Or ditch him, obviously. But I think we need to bring in the culture of questioning and challenging the manager and setting goals and so on first. I'm not sure it exists currently.

It's Calderwood for me. Whatever you think about McInnes, he's far more intelligent than Calderwood and should possess the skills to analyse himself and his own decisions. It appears that he doesn't understand his own team and it's attributes and strengths (for the reasons you state). Ferguson did start in an advanced position. The problem is that he always wants to come deep for the ball. Much like McLean did when he was here, he is far more comfortable picking up the ball facing forward. He doesn't drop the shoulder and turn and run like a proper forward-thinking central mid, his first touch is always back the way, before a slow turn and give it to the now-marked wide player. The steady, non-committal play that keeps getting rewarded with a starting place for too many of our players. Ferguson is not an advanced midfielder. The only caveat to that is that when we're playing a better team and we have significantly less of the ball, he can play there as he's less likely to give away much-needed possession trying something adventurous (and he does occasionally get on the end of stuff or put in a decent shot). I have no problem with Gallagher coming off the bench to play high up the park, or against the Hun or Tim high up the park for his overall coverage and closing down abilities. He's Darren Mackie. His attributes are pace and workrate, chasing lost causes and making space for other players. Mackie, criminally, played half his games for the dons in a wide role which nullified every single useful attribute he had (and there weren't many). Gallagher is exactly the same. Either don't play him at all, or use his attributes to perform simple functions within a game where required. It's so obvious it's barely worth talking about. The talking point is obviously that the manager can't see it, in the same vein as Jimmy Calderwood. Logan was unlucky, was playing well and actually providing some attacking from fullback for a change. All our defence were cuplable of stupid mistakes yesterday, it's just that Logan's happened to end in a goal. As you say, Lewis could have got closer to it too. At no point, given how average Motherwell were, should we have been clinging on to the hope that our defender might not make a mistake. At home, we should be able to afford a bit of breathing space. Logan is a useful scapegoat for a terrible team performance. We were bound to make a mistake yesterday based on the way we played, it's unfair to try and create nothing and then point the finger at the defence for not being error-free (none of the team were error-free). Agreed, they're looking good at the minute. I want the cunt to understand what he's doing wrong first, I want him to be held accountable by someone at the club. Otherwise we invite a situation where the next guy does more of the same. No manager should ever turn up at home to a team like Motherwell with such a negative team. I just have no faith in the club to get rid of the manager and not be in the same position in 18 months time. He's got way more failing to do before we can get rid of him.

What a disgusting performance. Fucking awful. Who the fuck stands there watching that shite for over 20 minutes (second half) without making a sub? What the fuck is he playing at? Curtis fucking Main should never appear on a football pitch. Turgid, turgid stuff. Motherwell did what they needed to. Matched up to our pathetic 3 man midfield. McGeouch, Ojo and Ferguson all absolutely pap. Great at running three metres from our centre half pairing to pick up the ball before moving it ten yards to the one who didn't come back before lumping it speculatively forward. Fucking terrible. Sackably bad. Clueless stuff.

Was just about to say that Logan had been our best player too. Poor game again like. Gallagher offers nothing out wide, there's no need for him to exist there. That midfield is just dire. McGinn constantly coming way off the touchline narrowing the setup further. Anderson should have started this one. Shoe-horning 3 similar centre midfielders in there is just fucking pap.

Kiss of death min. Pulling out of the leadership race. Shame. It'd have been good to hear more from her.