RicoS321

Surely we can move Shinnie back into midfield now?

I think we're given option of 50-50 but the club has to pay for them up front. Thus AFC don't want to be left with 5K unsold tickets.

It's always a 50/50 split for finals, so unless AFC state otherwise it will be

Aye, okay, that makes sense. Apologies TC, wasn't obvious enough for me. I'd like to think that Wilson won't be on that type of deal given it's the final year of his contract. Nae like he'll be earning them a fee at the end of it, so in reality will just be punting part of a wage off their books. Will be interesting to see if he's still here at the end of Jan either way,

Is there any evidence that has ever happened in the history of fitba? One club forcing another to play their player on loan? I can't imagine any fitba manager ever agreeing to that. Nor could I imagine Man U every putting a clause like that in the contract of a guy who's leaving for free at the end of the season anyway.

I thought Anderson - goal against the hun aside - looked a little bit lost at times with a lot of running but little direction. I think he'll come good but not sure he's ready to be our first choice this season. I actually thought that McLennan looked the more finished of the two. That said, I'd have said the same about Wilson yesterday, he looked like he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing or where he was supposed to be running. I thought May looked better than him when he came on and that was despite falling over the ball constantly. May actually looked like he knew what he should be doing but just had a severe lack of confidence/nerves and so tripped over the ball each time he got it. Of the two, I think we'd be more likely to play the nerves out of May than get Wilson to play the lone striker role, but it's a shite choice. Perhaps go with Wilson with McLennan in behind on Wednesday to see if McLennan is going to be up to the task this season. It'd be nice to persevere a bit longer with Wright, but he was gash also. Edit: Is it best just to accept that we've only got shite strikers until January and we take the pressure of them and see how it goes? We can complain all we want about each individual, but the alternatives are also pap.

The big one on Wednesday. Hopefully yesterday will give us a bit more belief and we'll give these cunts a tanking. Not that winning against poorer teams has ever been an issue mind. Hopefully we'll start to see some consistency in team selection in the lead up to the final. I've nae idea what that consistency will entail, but I hope there is some. One thing about yesterday that was clear is that we really haven't sorted our striker problem with Wilson. Less useful than Cosgrove has been in recent weeks and arguably worse than May too - looked totally disinterested in the first half and his movement was terrible. Improved in the second, but not sure it was enough for a start. May came on and held his position well, worked hard, made the right runs and then fell over the ball or just missed it. Anderson wasn't on the bench yesterday and I'm not convinced he's there yet either. I'd be tempted to give McLennan a run out, but I honestly don't know. Similarly with Wright in attacking midfield who was gash. With that in mind, I'd go: ----------------Lewis--------------- Logan---Devlin--McKenna---Lowe --------Ferguson---Shinnie-------- --GMS-------Blank--------McGinn- ---------------TBC------------------ I think the set up is the one that's going to get the best out of those 9, and I think that they are our best in those positions. I think we should just draw lots for the other two positions. Most importantly, I think we should stick with whatever option we choose there for the next few games and try and force it to work.

That's McInnes clawed back some of the £750K. I'm reckoning Milne will be thinking it was worth it this morning.

Aye, it was a'rite like. I'm looking forward to the big one on Wednesday though, it's the dream fixture. McKenna started poorly, but finished well, Devlin excellent too. No stand outs otherwise, but special mentions to McGinn and GMS who put in a huge amount of work (McGinn especially, who's defensive cover was top drawer at times). It was just a good all round team hard-fought performance with the tactics spot-on from McInnes. He's got to take a lot of credit for getting that team up for it and believing they could win. Other than a hairy couple of moments from Logan at the end (who otherwise was good) we didn't look in any danger of conceding or letting it get to us. We're not a great team this season, we've got some glaring deficiencies through poor signings and so it's a credit to the perparation, setup and belief that we won yesterday. Well done lads.

He's living off everyone else being shite! The way I see it, we need someone in that role that is going to stay advanced and give them something to consider at the back, otherwise we'll get too disconnected from the lone striker. 4-2-3-1 has been our go to, and it's worked, but 4-1-4-1 isn't exactly a huge deviation from LA-Don. The main difference being that I think the 2 sitting (and they won't be just sitting of course, but it'll give them a point to focus on when we don't have the ball) will allow Wright to largely forget about the defending part, where he has obvious issues. I'm suggesting Wright mainly cause he's our last hope, with the rest proving that goals aren't really their thing (GMS aside). I'd happily see McLennan given a chance instead.

Aye, Old Portlethen has the Neuk, but it's a boozer and nae view of the sea which seems a little short-sighted (literally). Nae tried Lou Lous as it's not quite walkable (it is, but it's nae a nice walk) for me, but I might take my bike up one day though as my wife's family is up that way. I go to the sitting room most weekends with the daughter, which does a good coffee and a nae bad breakfast and the guy that works there is an excellent host; very friendly. It's not amazing like, but it's decent and good for Portlethen which has very little else.

We are all Dave from Cumbernauld.

Maybe Huntly, or Formartine or someone?

Any injury news then, or are we all fit bar the long-termers? This game is going to be won or lost in midfield I reckon. We've struggled to find our best midfield this season and it's the area of the pitch where we're not dominating enough to help the forwards or defence (striker is another issue!). What's everyone's preferred formation for the game? 4-4-2 doesn't work in modern (scottish) fitba unless you play direct with two hoofers up front, because the opposition just play an extra man in midfield and you end up having to pull back an inadequate forward to compensate - it's too easy to play against. We've got the personnel for a 3-5-2. Unfortunately that means we lost out by playing Lowe and Logan as wing backs and sacrifice the width and pace of GMS and McGinn, or play McGinn and GMS and sacrifice defending. If we had two great strikers to make it worthwhile, then I'd be tempted, but we gain little having an extra mediocre striker. 3-4-3 would be acceptable. However, it would mean dropping McGinn most likely, and he played well against Hearts. 4-1-4-1 was roughly how we lined up against Burnley with eitehr Hoban or Ball playing the deep role. It's probably our best combination when we choose to play Shinnie, Ball and Ferguson. I'm going 4-2-3-1. It's been our most succesful setup under McInnes and retains the extra body in midfield where we'll need it when we don't have the ball. The difference between that and 4-1-4-1 for me is playing the middle 1 of the 3 permanently high up the pitch. I think we've got a couple of options in that role, but I'd go Wright. That means one of either Ferguson or Ball drops to the bench (perhaps unfairly) and I'd go with Ferguson from the start. He can create things from deep but retain position to protect the defence. He'll just move the ball more quickly from midfield to attack and I think we'll need that more than Ball's defensive capabilities. Especially if we have Shinnie also sitting alongside him keeping it reasonably tight but both supporting when required. --------------Lewis---------------- Logan--Devlin---McKenna--Lowe --------Ferguson--Shinnie-------- --GMS-------Wright------McGinn- -------------Wilson---------------- It's bloody difficult to pick our best 11 this season, but that team should have us 3 up by half time.

Teacake is good. Food decent too, had a nice meal there.

It's good. No rushed plots or anything so far and some decent characters. Enjoying it.

I like Stewart too, but I don't think he got his point across particularly well and he kept having a go at Tom English instead of letting the non-argument go for the betterment of the debate. When English said that he criticised the Robertson/Tierney combo Stewart should have taken his word for that rather than accuse him of saying otherwise. It doesn't help that he has a ridiculously flimsy argument with regard to playing Robertson at left wing. I actually thought McFadden came across a lot better than expected in the face of difficult questioning. I just assumed he'd be thick as shite and unable to put any point across, but he was okay.

Ayyyyye, that's the fucker. Sorry Beaton, you're probably a different type of cunt.

You'll get parked in the North stand after 16:30, just drive straight through the stand from the West side and park at the far end and you'll be fine.

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

I think McKenna's citing was a disgrace, but if either of those two players were cited that'd be worse.

That's the team I'd go with KFP. I wouldn't be averse to seeing Considine ahead of Lowe depending on how they set up. Lowe has been a great asset going forward, but he's seriously lacking in defence. If McGinn's on his side of the pitch though, he'll have decent support so I'd go with him. That midfield is weak though. Ferguson is a great prospect, but his workrate isn't close to what we got from KM. Shinnie's workrate has been phenomenal so far this season, but he's doing the work of two players (Ball not got the coverage either) and that's meant that at times he's playing like someone who's just played 45 minutes in a kick about before the game has begun, with tired passing and poor decision making. It's like he's playing purely on adrenaline constantly. Get Wright on the ball quickly and early and hope to fuck he turns up. Similarly GMS. We're way off the pace this season, we just couldn't afford the mistakes made in the transfer window. We're relying on a solid back 4, but Devlin was honking against Hearts, so he needs to get his head back in it again too. We need a massive performance as this is one of the few opportunities we're going to get this season.

Avoid the fitba threads on here then, they'll send you into freefall. Make sure you're eating well and getting some fresh air and all that. Could indeed be the change in seasons.

You're missing the point. Nobody is greeting about it. They're just simply saying that they're not going. That is our current position as a club. We've got 10-12K or so supporters who will go because that's what they always do, whether at Pittodrie or away. The things I listed aren't people's complaints or excuses, they are just little things that add up to ensure people aren't attracted to the fixture. We're (on this thread) making the mistake of assuming that all people that class themselves as dons fans want to go to the game as a default but are being persuaded not to by various factors. That's not what's happening. Those who go as a default (me!) are all going. Those that can take it or leave it simply aren't going - no excuses required. The point being that if we want more people going, we actually have to attract them to it not just assume that it's their duty as AFC supporters to attend because we get tickets. All of the above reasons I gave (I missed the major factor of cost too, which is exhorbitant at £30 - plus seven fucking quid for recorded delivery) make the fixture more and more unattractive. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it's a pretty unattractive fixture all in. My "blood red line" for non-attendance would simply have been having a shite seat. I'm there to watch the game, won't be getting pished as I have work the next day, so it's a no brainer that I wouldn't attend had I got a better view at home. No greeting, no excuses, just simply saying "I'm not buying the shite you're selling".

That has to come from the club though, surely?