RicoS321

Meh, end of the season see how the land lies. Our baseline expectation is 3rd place and two semi-finals, or one final with a good draw, or one cup win with an even better draw. A good draw being if we don't get either of the two teams who pay more in wages than us. On one of the other threads recently I attached the study done in Engurland between 2001 and 2012 (and there's no reason to suggest Scotland is different in this regard - in fact probably worse given 4 games a season) that there is a 90% correlation between player salaries (total) and league position. That is quite staggering. It means that we have a 90% chance of finishing third place this season. It also means that only 10% of that positioning can be affected by improved (or shite opposition = -10%) management. I don't believe McInnes does/can get that additional 10% (or even close - very few managers do), and think he's pretty much bang on that baseline expectation. Similarly, I don't think he'll get us below that baseline either. He's steady. For me, most of his issues lie in the transfer market and I think a lot of his tactical decisions would be covered up if he'd got that part right. I'd argue that's the case for both Rodgers and Murty - and in general is supported by the evidence of salary versus league position. In Murty's case, the introduction of Murphy, Goss, Martin and so on will be the buffer they require. Out of our season's signings, zero have been successful apart from loanee Christie and known quantity McGinn. Had we got, say, Moult instead of May and GMS then we'd be having an entirely different season with some of the losses turned into draws/wins and a better league cup and european performance. Had we got an actual central midfielder instead of Tansey then we'd also be better off. Our poor transfer showing has meant that we've had absolutely zero leeway in terms of tactics and that's totally evident when we play better teams. The problem for me is that transfers are season specific and we could get lucky next season (I think Devlin is a good start FWIW) and that could improve McInnes' return and belief in his squad. I think that if we don't replace McInnes, then we should at least look to beef up the player scouting/acquisition team as it's clearly an area he is pap in and needs support. We can't afford another season of very bad value in the transfer market. We have a lot of key purchases to make again too. As ayrshire points out, there have only been a handful of successes.

Did Trump not poof out of 'Nam, citing piles or something? I think I might have made that up.

Hmmm, the word "can" doesn't mean "did".

Holy pishflaps.

Scotfree ----->Jesus---->Adam and Eve

Fuck that. 3-0 the dons. Considine hat-trick in the first 20 minutes.

Nope, it's because we're in the UK. This is bigger than just Rangers not paying their taxes. Pheonix companies are useful to donors who wish them to remain available. Rangers are just fucking it up for everyone else by making such a public shambles of their corruption, which should really stay behind doors.

Very interesting, cheers. You can see, over the years, the splatterings of their shady deals going through where everything was bought on credit and leased back to the them. It's safe to assume that was the other way in which the spivs took them to the cleaners on their way back by purchasing each individual asset and leasing it back to the club. Safe to say that what they are doing now is trading insolvently.

Far are ye getting yer quotes?

To be fair, I think that shows a level of self awareness/deprecation and he comes across as quite a down to earth guy on his youtube (I've just watched a few in the last couple of games). He doesn't strike me as the brightest guy, but he looks like he's trying to improve himself off the park and that can only bode well. Good luck to him.

On this one, he just says what 50% of Americans want. He didn't say anything that would have made voters think otherwise in the election, he's standing by his promises. If Americans aren't willing to give up their automatic weapons, then clearly more guns is the only answer. If they're too stupid to understand their circular argument then they should just continue to arm up.

Hunglasses?

Really? It'd be interesting to find out for certain. Could someone email him to ask? twatt@afc.co.uk

You should write the text for the BBC coverage Rocket.

Emmm... Devlin? We've got our centre back pairing in Devlin and McKenna for next season. The glaring holes in our first 11 are in midfield and up front. The only question we need to be asking is: is this useless cunt any worse than the Maynard useless cunt? If not, get him on the bench and throw Maynard in the sea. At one point he was a decent player. He hasn't been for some time. At least he's young enough that we might get something out of him at some point and he's got the right attributes that would do a job for us. He'll be pish, obviously, and probably won't even sign.

To be honest, it's pretty hilarious. Jingoism abound in the commentary too - Balding is a fud. It's the English approach to sporting events through and through - completely hype a person out of all proportion and then blame everyone else - or make pathetic comments that allude to the refs being wrong - when the inevitable happens. The actual people in the studio who play/skate in the sport were quite in agreement with the refs.

It's an interesting dilemma. More importantly, can anyone pick a team and tactics from our available squad that they think can beat the Tims this wikend? Belief isn't enough, we're way off them, and the midfield is a huge problem for Sunday. Do we have the personnel to press them? If so, who? I think that the only tactic could be to overload the midfield and kick them off the park and hope for a goal from a set-piece. The only bonus is their to trip to Russki in the week, but with Shinnie and Christie out and Nwakali being horse we've got a problem on our hands. That said, if we can utilise Nwakali's headless chickening higher up the park - out of the way - then we might manage to force some errors from their defence. If he sits deeper like he did against Hibs, we'll be utterly fucked. We could play Ball and hoof them about the place. I don't think Stewart is the answer and Wright seems to have died or something so we can't play McGinn centrally either. I'll go for: -----------------Freddie----------------------- Logan----Arnason----McKenna----Considine -----------O'Connor-----McLean-------------- McGinn----------Nwakali/Ball------------GMS ---------------------May----------------------- I expect McInnes to shoe-horn Rooney and May in, in some fucked up manner that will allow them just to play the ball around is with ease.

I think he'll walk away one or two seasons into Kingsford. It'll be interesting to see if he accepts the money from the sale of Pittodrie that he is entitled to as part of his preference shareholding. Can't remember from the last accounts, but there's a fair whack due on sale to both SMG (or maybe Milne individually) and AAM as far as I recall.

Did I? I'm pretty certain I said that it was very difficult to get good players in January (although at that point I thought he'd bought the young striker lad to replace Maynard on the bench and give us an option). I certainly didn't defend the previous window, which is when the damage was done. If he'd recruited a proper midfielder instead of Tansey then we wouldn't be having an issue when Shinnie is out. If he'd recruited a proper striker instead of Maynard (or even, god forbid, kept Stockley) then we wouldn't be having this issue. I've said on hunners of occasions that we're short in the centre forward role and everyone knows we haven't had a decent holding midfielder in ages. Chidi shows that going out and just loaning/buying a player to fill a gap in the squad is no use.

I don't believe it was a defensive setup Manc. It seemed to me like the same approach he took in the home game against hibs but with a glaring deficit in midfield and Rooney up front doing the chasing where May was previously (McGinn seemed to be very central today where May would have been at times in the last game. Chidi was asked to play a central midfield role, which is his position, but he was tanking about like a shite Flood. McLean's booking was taking one for the team after another player's fuck up, Chidi's was because he was chasing the ball around like a 5 year old in the playground. The reason we're struggling to score against the top six isn't just tactical, it's because we're not that good in key areas of the park and that's made worse if we have one or two missing. With that midfield today and Rooney up front, we're a worse team than hibs. I genuinely don't know how I would have set up differently today with those players. I'm surprised more folk don't see it, I think it's bloody obvious. If anything, we're doing better than we should be with some of the players in that squad. Look at the bench today too, it was dire. We'll get a doing against the Tims unless we load up on the defence and midfield with May up front to at least put pressure on the defence in some way (he wasn't great either today like). Arnason is pish, O'Connor, Ball and Chidi too so fuck knows who's going to play right centre half and in midfield.

Nwakali was pish, all over the place as expected. McLean was our only midfielder today, we were completely over-run without Shinnie. If anything O'Connor should have been in there earlier as at least he can hold his position. Hibs were good like. It wasn't tactics that made us sit deep, they were just far stronger through the centre and pushed us back. Christie was fairly gash again too. We don't have the squad to finish second I don't think. We're pish without our best 11. Look at the bench when we went a goal down. You wouldn't have played any of those willingly. We're way short in midfield.

Jizzy Yarnold tanked the sledging, with Christie spazzing it big style again.

Sly fae McInnes. Chidi in for Shinnie. Unexpected like, Ball must've been a decoy. Otherwise the same team. Good move hopefully, l rumble in aboot them like a heedless chicken. I'm going for a red card.

Make sure you get written agreement afore biffing her like, just in case.

Was it on that mong-fest, Peter and Roughie? Fucking hell, thon's a program.