RicoS321

Apart from the many, many games where he's done just that. When he's on it, he lifts everyone around him. Through his work rate and tenacity. He has done it numerous times this season. It's no surprise that as Nilsen has dropped off, Shinnie has not managed to cope with the extra burden. He ran himself into the ground. See Devlin and McGrath for exactly the same. Guys like MacKenzie just picked up injuries instead. Shinnie is far from done. Just as he wasn't when everyone said he was last season. Thelin's system requires a squad. That takes time. In the meantime we have to expect that guys playing it every week in the demanding positions, such as midfield and fullback are going to be feeling it, and that's going to have a knock on effect in terms of quality on the park.

Yep. The only argument we could make against that is that same logic should have applied to Glass, Goodwin and Robson. Not really an argument against, just a point! It does seem a little strange that the technical director role is still sitting empty, after our urgent review identified that weak point. More concerning is that we seem to be ceding control slightly to Thelin, although I'm prepared to accept it was both coincidence and pragmatism that our new recruitment lead is someone who has worked with him before. Things will likely get worse before they get better too. I don't imagine we're going to get a perfect strike rate overnight, so I'd expect a few duds out of the existing bunch. Concerning is the speed of dud replacement currently, I mentioned in the summer that we needed to shift a few out the door, but we never did, and our squad looks worse for it. We've had several missed windows over the years, including McInnes' final January, which should be an absolute sin. Regardless of managerial situation, the club should have the confidence and ability to be able to shift players in and out to keep the churn of players going. They don't have to do much, just a couple in and out can freshen things nicely and not allow us to stagnate. Guys like Vinnie and Jensen etc should be happily shifted on, confident that they could improve but aren't going to turn into world beaters that we suddenly regret letting go. It seems like every new manager has come in with the "I'll give everyone a chance" attitude, which has meant average squad players not being turned over. Hopefully a couple of years of a consistent manager should finally get us back to parity.

He's also been there in our biggest successes. Pretty much every win we've had against the Huns has involved Shinnie for example. The biggest points total for any team outside the scum was with Shinnie. He's still a very good player. He's one of the only ones who doesn't hide during games, ever. Unfortunately, his passing can be a let down at times, especially when he's knackered. His other attributes outweigh that though, and we're probably better calling for the other players to try and develop some of those attributes rather than asking Shinnie to improve.

Doohan was good again last night. However, he does struggle with the ball at his feet. I don't think it can be overstated how important that is to the way Thelin plays. Doohan is good at coming off his line, but he's very slow to distribute the ball, and that has a cumulative effect going upfield and has a lot to do with us having nothing on when we reach the final third. In terms of it being his team, I don't really think that'll be the case for a good year. Six players is still only half a team, and that would assume that we had 100% success in any window. On the flip side, there are players already there who I'm certain Thelin would want to keep too. Overall, I'm not seeing anything we didn't understand Glass. Both try the playing out from the back at all cost, with zero pragmatism thrown in. The biggest difference is that Thelin has already earned the right to give it significantly longer to try and get right than Glass did. It remains to be seen whether it's possible to get a team capable of playing that way on our budget, despite its increase. I'm not convinced it is. It just takes one or two in the team who can't use the ball well, or they can when fully fit but not when at 90%, and we lose careless goals. I think we're going to have to see some pragmatism at some point. Maybe when Gueye is back, that'll offer us the option of mixing it up a little.

I'd like to see evidence of this bandwagon.

Aye, it didn't flatter them. Very comfortable. Not many positives to take. Tobers looked good again (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the last goal, he wasn't expecting Dorrington to get shot and never had his position nailed to push the attacker wide). Jensen looked decent too. All the attacking players were poor, with Clarkson probably doing the most to make something happen. My Hibee mate asked if Okkels has something on Thelin, and I'd tend to agree - he just didn't involve himself at all, and I don't think we should be playing him into fitness. Biggest issue at the back was Nilsen on his wrong side. I mentioned it at the weekend, it was so obvious it would lead to error. It appears we've signed another right sided player to replace him, who looks no more able to carry the ball out without making a cunt of it (just the body shape, again). There must have been an available left footed defender somewhere in the world? Obviously we've now got a right footed left back if McGarry is injured just to compound things. Anyway, Gueye's back soon.

Because Okkels has been shite, and is probably now tired.

McGarry played well.

I've got the world's worst stream in fawa. Any decent ones out there? Okkels still on the pitch. Mental.

Not a strong side. No McGrath on the bench either. Could be a doing.

@OrlandoDon

Good luck to the lad, he's done well for us in the last couple of seasons and deserves a move. Those fans that spread vicious rumours about him joining the scum should apologise immediately, and send a letter to his family thanking them for instilling self respect into their loon.

He's also a winger, striker and midfielder apparently.

Jimmy been on this forum it seems. He's been expressing the need to have a Scottish core to the team as a Scottish side. He's not been in Aberdeen long enough IMO, should be emphasising the need for players born North of Stonehaven.

Didn't Wright leave while McInnes was here? Swap for McRorie.

I think that the McKenna thing was overplayed to criticise him to be honest. McKenna got in because we were shite at the back and he continued with him after he performed. McKenna himself was very complimentary on McInnes' input and the confidence he showed in him.

Big Alfie on board. Not many nineteen year olds come in and manage at centre half, so it'll be interesting. I'm hoping he could be the next Rhys Williams.

Aye, it was more from the point of view of having someone who can win the ball higher up. He played at 10 and out left. I had a glimmer of hope that he might be able to bring something out in Nisbet. I have a feeling that because the other strikers have been shite, that he might just try and shoehorn him into number 9, like has been done with Duk (with some justification).

We don't want to bring him down to our level, we could still make money off the lad if he resurrects his career! To be honest, if we're looking at a right back, I think it needs to be one that we might get permanently rather than a loanee. I'd hate to think we were giving Ramsay game time ahead of Devlin for him to fuck off back down South at the end of the season. That wouldn't sit right for me given Devlin's form and effort this season. I don't think it's a priority area that we need to rock the boat in during this window. I wonder if Tobers will be seen as cover for right back if Devlin needs rested until Milne returns (with Polvara going into centre back)? I'd like to see a couple more: a striker and a left centre back. Nilsen was okay yesterday, but he was surprisingly uncomfortable with playing the ball out on his left foot. He hesitated so many times, and missed one or two easy opportunities to give it to Okkels, as if he didn't have the confidence to make the slide ball between two players on his wrong side. Polvara looked far more comfortable on his left side against Motherwell. I'd certainly be looking for a permanent left centre half. I have a feeling that Nilsen will get absolutely rinsed by the Hun if he plays there in that fixture. Whilst Okkels was poor, he did help out defensively, and his overall positioning was good. It would have been really nice to have had Gueye back a couple of weeks ago so we could assess in this window before bulking the squad up with another striker.

Aye, Hegarty had a shite record, but I remember thinking some of the fitba we played under him was okay and I was surprised that he didn't do much in management beyond that. McInnes talked about Ramsay on a few occasions as Dons manager, he was clearly very aware of him but had [justified] loyalty to Logan. I think he would have featured in the Dumbarton game at least if McInnes had stayed on, but he was fairly conservative with the young lads for the Dons more generally, which was frustrating at times. Did we only have two young players (Wright and McKenna) come through under McInnes (obviously Ferguson was young, but was bought in)? I'm struggling to think of another. I guess Campbell got plenty of minutes, but I always felt that we clogged our squad with average journeymen that required placating before the youngsters. I'd say that even Wright was given a fairly raw deal under McInnes.

Aye, only around quarter of a century out with the caretaker manager. Not too bad.

I think that might have been a different black player.

That's the wrong type of fitba. Non-yank studies show opposite results: Proper fitba Although I think there's no significant differences either way. Badly maintained AG pitches are likely worse, but then a heavy grass pitch would likely be terrible on the hamstrings too.

That's certainly an area of his game that could improve with a bit of coaching. You're right, he definitely got forward more, but it was almost always after a little stutter of uncertainty, that both allowed the marker to get back, and confused our own players as to whether he was coming or going. A little injection of confidence from the manager and more game time would likely solve this. We'll just have to cope with the switching off until we get a replacement for MacKenzie.