RicoS321

And, in other news, Joe Kinnear has distanced himself from any speculation surrounding the Dons' job.

Now that Peterborough have won the English challenge cup, it'll be time for Cormack's masterstroke of bringing in Ferguson minor. Its setup perfectly for him. Holding the scarf aloft as he stands next to his old man's statue. It'd be peak Dave.

I should have said, it's fairly obvious why offside can't be subject to the "clear and obvious" error rule. Because it can be measured, and with a good degree of precision, you'd get a call that was 29cm off being let go one week and another that was 20cm off being disallowed the next. Unless the camera was directly in line (it wasn't today, making it seem more in Macdonald's favour), then any "quick check" by someone just looking at the footage could be wildly out. That means, in order to check offsides, you absolutely have to draw the lines (by that, I mean perform the calculation, the machine doesn't draw lines to decide), there is no other option. As soon as you involve the computer, then it can only produce an exact yes or no call. You could allow a leeway of 30cm for an attacker if you like, but the system would still have to go through the same process. To be honest, I'm staggered that people don't get this by now, there's been toenails offside in world football for years now. It's why there's no good version of VAR or any of the other bollocks we keep getting told. The only option is to remove it, or get more and more technical (and expensive) and change the rules of the game to fit what the computer can do. It clearly should never have been implemented in football, it's fucking pish.

That's not how it works, and it's frustrating that they don't know their job. It's never too close to call, the software will always produce a definitive result, yes or no (with leeway for the frame rate and benefiting the attacker). Although, I think what McFadden and McCann were actually saying is that they don't think calls as close as that should be subjected to VAR checks (although that in itself makes no sense for obvious reasons). Also, the lines are just for illustrative purposes, a visual representation for the fan. They are not required to provide that illustration, apparently, but it's very much the done thing. The club should complain to the SPFL and force them to release that, it just leads to conspiracy otherwise.

Yes, you have. Offside is not subjective, so is not subject to the clear and obvious condition, it either is or isn't. The only subjective part is whether a player is interfering or not, and so a ref will be sent to the monitor for those (Shankland the other week was deemed to have been deliberately blocking the keeper's view of a freekick from an offside position for example), in today's incident MacDonald received the ball and so it isn't subjective as to whether he was interfering. Ours was almost certainly offside today. However, the done thing (because there's not thousands of these incidents in a day of Scottish top flight) is to compile the results of the software and provide the illustration of the offside call with the shitey lines overlaid so that fans can at least understand the basis of the decision (despite many not getting the whole parallax effect). They've said that it was such a clear call (not clear to the linesman directly in line) that there was no need to provide this. They said that they're "not required to", which is cuntspeak of the highest order. I'm assuming that they've fucked up part of the admin, deleted the scene from their software or some shite, and we'll never know because it's not remotely transparent.

Aye, he's looked good in the short bits I've seen, and my mate said he played well against Cove Huns earlier in the season. However, Ryan Duncan also looked physically strong and a good first team prospect with his performances at Peterhead, so it's probably not a barometer of much. I think he'll be ready for a go next season, and I'd have him in the squad.

According to sportscene, the VAR room didn't release the lines they used for our offside decision because it was obviously offside! Mental. I think it was offside. McCann and McFadden didn't. Either way, it was a close call, that took three and a half minutes to decide. What the fuck are they playing at? Trying their hardest to fuel conspiracy theories? It's fucking outrageously stupid, and incompetent, adding to the tediousness of the actual experience.

Yep, unless it magically isn't, like last week. I guess it's difficult for any sub coming on, but you feel with Duk that you're equally as likely to lose a goal because of him as you are to score one. Dribbling out of his own box again today, makes him almost impossible to start in games as he's such a liability.

Another vital VAR stoppage.

Just turned it on before Duk came on. Terrible watch, glad I'm only enduring a small part of it. Martindale clearly telling his player to go down next opportunity in order to make a sub. Surely they need to be trying to win this one? They've looked the better team in fairness.

I get your point, but nothing justifies inequality and unfairness in our game (I realise that's probably why you put it in quotes). The reason that it exists is because clubs like ours allow it to exist.

It's forty fucking quid. I've had my football ruined by VAR for a long time, and I refuse to pay forty quid to have a goal disallowed or a pen given (for or against) for something I don't even get to witness. If you design football so it's better to watch on TV, then that's what people will do given the opportunity. That's what I'll be telling the club too.

Swedish Jim Goodwin in my opinion.

We did play two up for the majority of the last twelve months. All of Robson's run in, and the start of this season, basically a 3-5-2. That said, your initial point about having only one up front against County is kind of irrelevant, it's easy to be more attacking (or less) with just one striker, if you get midfielders close to them. A 4-2-3-1 is almost certainly our best formation against most opponents.

No, my point was that Milne should have been playing, I probably didn't write that properly.

Just back. A fairly dogshit performance, but a good result. Not many stand out performers today, with the back two just a total bombscare. Jensen nowhere near good enough for this level, and Gartenmann looks good when things are going well and honking when not. Devlin much improved when he removed the stupid mask. There are very few positions where you don't require a peripheral vision, fullback certainly isn't one of them, and we shouldn't be starting players with masks on unless absolutely forced, or the player is miles better than the replacement (Milne). McGrath was also terrible today, up until scoring, and Clarkson missed every pass, with Hoilett pish too. We were just extremely nervous, and we got lucky that County decided not to bother continuing their domination from the first half. Then Duk came on and gave one of his enigmatic performances. A wonderful turn and cut back for the second goal, the first touch was just class under pressure. We'd be sorted if he was in any way reliable.

In fairness, Cormack has asked the press to sound them out as he's too embarrassed to ask himself.

Wow, we were quite the team in 1935. What was it like watching those guys play @BigAl?

So not Michael O'Neill then. Never mind. He'll still be a hero as a former player..... He's probably done well enough out of the whole situation, using Aberdeen to let everyone know he'd be willing to return to club management, teeing himself up for his next championship job. We're left with Alex Neil who, strangely, won't answer his phone, and John Hughes, who won't stop phoning.

I actually like Leven. I'd be happy for him to see out the season until we get a technical director in place. He seems like quite a calm head, and a nice chap.

We're in the final stages of the final stages of maybe signing Leven until the end of the season.

I could have won five league titles with the Tims during that period. I wouldn't read anything into that achievement of Lennon's at all, I'd say that it's indicative of very little. Lennon's career should probably only be guaged by his success elsewhere, and especially when it comes to potentially managing Aberdeen. Edit: to add, that's not criticism of Lennon, he did the job asked of him. What I would say is that it's clear that he's not a better manager in Scottish football terms than Derek McInnes, and that should probably be our benchmark. We need to be looking at guys who might already be better than McInnes was, which O'Neill might be (I'm assuming skeptical as you), or guys who have the potential to be in the right circumstances and we get them at the right time, before anyone else does. Lennon is just a known quantity, as the others you mention are, O'Neill not so much. If the figures quoted for getting him in are true then I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole.

Yep, reasonable switches. Although resting McTominay or McGinn and giving Ferguson a shot might have been useful. I find the friendlies aren't doing the fringe players much good. Clarke tends to start with his strongest available team and then subs half of them off and things get messy. It then becomes difficult to see if those fringe players would compliment the starting eleven and perhaps change games for us. Ferguson, specifically, doesn't really seem to fit into our system unless in place of one of the above. He's wasted further back.

Did they? I thought it was just the P&J that ran with the "done by the weekend" line? Were there quotes, or named sources?

I am too, but I'm not going. Only the second time I've missed Hampden this century, the other was Morton in protest at the shite kick off time. VAR, ridiculous pricing, just make it not worth the hassle. I actually have a strong feeling we'll win this one, which I've not felt against the Tim in a long time, but I'm just getting a bit tired of it all. To be honest, the extra fixtures for Europe really killed things for me this year. Football saturation. It wasn't that enjoyable.