RicoS321

9 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

There is a subtle difference between someone saying we can beat anyone on our day and a headline writer using that to say we are close to the best teams in Europe and you know exactly what I mean by that.

Stitching up their own players is the sort of thing the English Press are famed for, I thought up here in fairness the press normally backed our Scotland players.  I suspect if Clarke saw that headline he would be raging.  

Agreed. Although I wouldn't even say it's subtle, it's obviously not the same thing. 

31 minutes ago, STFU_Donny said:

I am getting to the point where I don’t think keeping Leven as caretaker until end of the season would be a disaster - if it means waiting to get the right person in. Warnock’s departure has caught the FMB with their pants down.

Obviously, if the right person is available then get them in the door but I hope the club don’t rush this and do it properly. 

Doing it properly would involve employing the technical director before the new manager. For me, unless there's an outstanding candidate for manager that waiting a month to employ would cause is to miss out on him, we get that position filled in the international break and allow them to get the lay of the land before getting a manager that suits their vision.

6 hours ago, Panda said:

Which divisions have been created? Do you think half the squad aren't talking to him now? 

Division between the supporters and team perhaps? Creating unrealistic expectations, that sort of thing. It's not a big deal of course, but the whole point in a public broadcaster is that it should be able to set an example and not have to resort to clickbait. Generally, the Scottish football page isn't that bad for headlines, comparatively speaking.

6 minutes ago, Slim said:

Liked Mackenzie giving it back to Shinnie in equal measures after Shinnie’s shit pass out of play.

Aye, I'd like to think Shinnie apologised after. He seemed to be suggesting MacKenzie should have stayed wide, perhaps to waste time, but it was still a shite pass from Shinnie.

21 minutes ago, Kowalski said:

Big win for Killie in McInnes’s last game…..

Wouldn't know, given that the impartial BBC chose not to cover it. How on earth was that not on the radio? Fucking ridiculous, they don't even pretend. 

I thought we were going for Doc now?

Good victory. Probably our strongest lineup at the moment. Nothing special, but just played like a team, and worked hard all over. Should be a good confidence booster I'm time for the international break and the new manager coming in (not convinced it'll happen that quickly). Thought McKenzie had another good game, Hoilett very much brings the best out of him. 

Turned on in 27 minutes, perfectly timed for missing the first goal. Thought we looked decent on the ball at times, with Miovski looking sharp. That bicycle kick was some hit. Clarkson also looking up for it. We look frail, as always, at the back. Didn't see what happened to Devlin, but Milne doing okay (although another fullback who can't take a throw-in). Just like midweek, another absolutely nonsense VAR decision. A minor nudge and a brush on the arm. You can't help but think that they have given the foul in the full knowledge of what happened the other night and didn't think they could ignore it. 

Edit: Hoilett seemed to let the game go by him in the last fifteen. Not sure how he started, but hopefully he'll get involved.

Aye, I'd probably stick with the same lineup and hope that Barron of the Killie game turns up. It's essential that the triangle of three in that midfield perform together. The biggest problem we've got, which isn't unusual when in a rut and late in the season, is that we've got absolutely nothing on the bench to change it up when we're struggling. Duk is a lost cause until summer anyway, and Sokler hasn't really shown anything beyond one good game against the Hun. We've got no exciting young winger, or a big lad to change tactics.

6 hours ago, Panda said:

It may have been what he thought he was attempting but he went about it in a completely different way.

Robson played three at the back and punted the long balls for Miovski to chase. And no wingers (except for when Shayden Morris was thrown on as a game changer). They were aimless long balls.

Thelin appears to play a 4-2-3-1 with wingers staying high and being the main recipients of the long pass. 

 

Hopefully we would pass the ball instead of what we did on Wednesday where it lumped hopefully into the box in the hope something might fall.

But who knows, maybe Thelin doesn't have a plan B which is why he hasn't moved on from Elfsborg yet.

I think it's a little revisionist to say that Robson had Clarkson punting long balls for Miovski to chase. Firstly, Clarkson doesn't really punt, he's an extremely good passer and, secondly, it worked very well in the run in last season with two high midfielders. The two wingers point is valid to a degree, however a back three is fairly pragmatic in Scotland and the two wingers were replaced by an on fire Duk and McRorie bustling about fairly high up the park too. You take all those things out, and add in a defence that doesn't really like defending and you've got to move to plan B. For whatever reason, that took Robson up until the day he was sacked to realise. Since we've moved to a 4-2-3-1, it's been fairly obvious we don't have the personnel to play the way Thelin would like, and he couldn't just magic those attributes into the existing lot. A summer of recruitment will be very unlikely to get us from here to there either, so if we do employ the guy he has to be aware that he's probably going to have to do plan B for a while, and the fans are going to have to be patient. 

I'm certain that Cormack will "go foreign" if he can, so this guy seems as good as any other. I'm just very wary of when people say "this is how a manager likes to play football", especially when we've just sat through six months of Robson setting up the way he likes to play football in full view of the evidence that it was failing miserably. Pragmatism is going to be required for some time, something a guy like Steve Clarke understood at Killie for example. Playing it simple, to the strengths of the players available, and keeping their individual instructions simple.

1 hour ago, Panda said:

 

That's basically what Robson attempted but failed. For all the accusations of us making long ball punts under Robson, it was very clear that was never the intention. Clarkson was clearly instructed to move the ball as soon as he got it for the over the top run, or flick on when we had two up top. Shinnie and Ramadani provided the high line last season, which we couldn't replicate this one. Because that's the issue, isn't it? If we can't implement this lad's first choice strategy because the recruitment doesn't quite return the necessary players (high likelihood), what's his plan B, and will we show the required patience if he needs three windows to implement? Also, what does he do when Livingston sit inside their own box for ninety minutes? 

I'm not suggesting this lad wouldn't be a good manager, of course, just that these computer game analytics don't generally give the whole picture. 

Anyway, get him in. Even though he refuses to come because we're shitter than his current team and the myth that you need to move to a country within the UK in order to "be seen down South", is exactly that. 

55 minutes ago, STFU_Donny said:

Well they’re certainly paying the price now. 
 

It’s truly bizarre, spending hundreds of thousands on utter dross but scrimping on the management. 

It's actually not that strange, it's exactly what our supposed strategy should allow us to do. It's what data Dave talked about when he first joined as chairman, before spending the next four years making an utter cunt of it.

26 minutes ago, STFU_Donny said:

And the FMB deemed Robson the cheaper candidate. 

4 hours ago, STFU_Donny said:

Any truth to the rumour that this charlatan is on holiday while our club is on its knees and staring down the face of relegation without a manager? 

Who cares? He's not obligated to be at the club full time, and if he's farmed out his duties in picking the next manager, then that's a good sign. 

Just now, Panda said:

Who is going to break it to him we've another defeat and shite performance on Saturday to come first?

No we don't. It doesn't exist.

One thing is very clear, we don't do enough work on free kicks, defending or attacking. I'm very surprised by the return of the long throw and punting freekicks into the box. We switch off at freekicks, like the one that led to their "penalty", every game. 

I think that the new manager might have to give up on Duk this season too. Hoilett was doing okay when he came off, and we were well in the game despite being off it. 

Aye, that was all round pish, a bit like the state of the club at the moment. Players just look disillusioned. Dundee deserved to win by one of the numerous chances that they created, but no team in the world of football deserves to win by a game ruining decision like that one. In fairness to the refs and VAR, they're doing exactly as the system instructs them. Thank fuck for the international break.

That's a honking performance so far. Barron was excellent against Killie, and good against St Mirren, but he's been terrible tonight. The game just completely passing him by. I'd maybe take Polvara on there, or perhaps take Phillips back a bit and put Clarkson on. Might as well try something out for the semi! They've basically cut out anything to Phillips and Miovski with the big lad in holding midfield. MacDonald defending well, but his passing coming out on his wrong foot is an issue. Hoilett needs to do more, he just lacks pace. I don't expect changes at halftime, but they need to come quick if we start the way we finished.

2 hours ago, redordead said:

McCabe would be my choice with a couple of years to bed his philosophy in however glass had a philosophy and got hounded from day one for being Dave's mate in on the cheap.

This meant that he didn't get much goodwill when the team floundered.

Sadly I think McCabe would also be seen as a cheap option and suffer a similar fate at Aberdeen. I'm sure he will go on to do well in future but I don't think he'll get the chance with us.

If we'd set the club up properly I'm time for Glass arriving then we'd know if that was a workable option, but we didn't. For me, the idea behind having the various football departments is so that you can have young managers come through our system and retain a solid background structure ready for the next guy. You give them a bit of time and you sell them on just like you would a good player. Cormack has made too many mistakes already to try someone like McCabe unfortunately and, ironically, we'll get an experienced manager just at the point we finally sort out our backroom staff.

3 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

I think we are getting hugely above our station in the footballing world because everyone is spending too much time looking at what goes down in England.  There are certainly more add ons to running our club now than in years gone by but at the same time, we are not Real Madrid or Man Utd.  We play (usually) one game a week and if things are being done properly we need to recruit maybe half a dozen players each season.  This begs the question what on earth would a technical director, a director of football and a recruitment director do for 40 hours a week? 

It might sound simplistic but if you have a competent Chief Executive which I am assuming Burrows is, a few decent scouts plus the manager and his assistant then surely that is enough to identify who we want to sign, to complete the transfer process and to put a team out on the park at the weekend.

I would be pretty confident that you could fire the director of football, the head of recruitment, get rid of the sports science and employ a steady Eddie old school type manager who knows the Scottish game and we would be higher up the league than we are at the moment.  I just don't think you need all these people.

  

Exactly. Davie Martindale does all that and paints the stands, and shovels snow off the pitch.

No Jacob Brown*? Disgusting.

*That's his name, isn't it?

18 minutes ago, Panda said:

Why would they need to avoid each other?

Scottish football needs them to avoid each other. Or certainly that's been the narrative since I can remember. There's nothing bigger than an "old firm" final. The greatest derby in the world.

31 minutes ago, Panda said:

There's not been an Old Firm Scottish Cup final since 2002.

Since then, this is the first time they have been kept apart in the semi-final. On the previous five occasions they have been drawn against each other.

I don't think that it still exists, but there was certainly a higher than chance avoidance of one another up until about the eighties. Since the new entity, it's actually been imperative that they play each other as soon as possible before sevco got pumped out. Now that normal service has largely been resumed, they'll need a new way to ensure they avoid each other. AI or some shite.

25 minutes ago, Jute said:

Is that not his only setting.

Good point!

Shinnie being suspended makes this one extremely difficult. Phillips was good against the Tims and Killie, but he's not good enough at football to be sitting in front of the defence. Polvara doesn't have the coverage but is basically our only option. Unless we go wild and include one of the defence in midfield. Or really wild and play Rubezic there on his first game back from injury, with an instruction to "take no prisoners".

6 hours ago, Panda said:

Useless information that will do nothing for you: Since our last Hampden meeting in 1996, it is now eight times in a row that Aberdeen & Hearts have been in a semi-final draw together and have avoided each other.

In that time we've faced Celtic in (I think) four semi-finals and four finals (8).

Rangers two semi-finals and two finals (4).

Hibs in four semi-finals.

Dundee United in four semi-finals.

In fact in the entire history of Aberdeen & Hearts, two clubs who make it to semis and finals more than most, we've only played each other in two semis and one final. One of those semis was at Easter Road so it's just two Hampden meetings.

Like I said, useless information, but mildly interesting for fitba geeks.

The real question there is how often have the other two teams in the draw been the scum? For most of Scottish football history, the hot ball would have been play to keep them apart.