RicoS321

Aye, heard that. Shame. Might just be a guy that we never see the best of. It'll be interesting to see if we replace him. Maybe an ideal chance for a loanee later in the windae.

A mental case in the midfield, that'll please the fans. Just what we've been lacking, they'll say. "I've been saying it for years". In a year's time, they'll be moaning about lack of discipline. I do like a strong midfielder, but I think it's less important these days than being able to cover a lot of ground, or being able to control the tempo of the game. Quite a few on that twitter feed suggesting he's a Ramadani replacement, but seems a different player altogether. Ramadani wasn't a defensive midfielder, in the sense that you couldn't have him sitting on his own in a 4-1-4-1 type formation (Goodwin tried it and it was terrible). Ramadani defending - like Shinnie - on the front foot, by playing high up (or deeper) in people's faces. His game - like Shinnie - involved covering lots of ground and being fit. He could sit in a two also - like Shinnie - but I still don't think you'd call him a defensive midfielder. Ramadani is basically just a less aggressive version of Shinnie, which, when added together, was very potent. It'll be really interesting to see what Thelin has in mind for him. From the lineup last night, it looked like it could be a 4-3-3, but I don't see us going with that if this guy is in the team alongside Shinnie, which I assume will be the case. I don't think we'll need two sitting midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 for most games (at home, anyway), so this guy might sit in while Shinnie bombs about and Clarkson does his thing, both pressing high off the ball. I can see Clarkson being the weak link in that press, but hopefully the preseason will have battered it into him. It does suggest that we have the option of completely changing the way we play by bringing Polvara off the bench. He finished the season very strongly and has a good bit of headroom to improve if he's given the opportunity. McGrath will be, I assume, out wide and probably cover several roles. We really need something creative from the wings.

It's fine, VAR will clear it up.

I think I'd need four thousand and twenty four others before resorting to Morris.

Good signing that. Does what he can do well and keeps himself fit. Hibs will likely think they can do better, before signing someone shiter.

Should be playing at Peterhead tonight

At least our only friendly is still going ahead......

Job-share with Shinnie?

McInnes signs McRorie. Classic McInnes.

It's every player's dream to play in the league cup group stages. The Sun have picked up the bait too, and they've never been wrong about a transfer story, they only ever print stuff when they've checked with at least five reliable sources I believe.

Massive dandy apparently.

That drop of the shoulder was just immense. I can only assume that he grew up watching videos of Niall McGinn.

We'll be fine. Miovski with a hat trick in each group game, before leaving for £8M.

Standing? At a football game? Are we animals?

Never have I seen a case of a manager not reading the room as much as when Goodwin punted him (in fairness to Goodwin, he did admit his error). Given the absolute dross we replaced Considine with, he'd have easily had another 30-40 games under his belt. Instead, we chose to develop a Tim. A complete professional throughout his career, and massively underrated by our own fans - many were never able to let go his performances as a youngster in his first few years, despite defenders almost always taking longer to mature. His work ethic and fitness were top notch, he covered a lot of ground in games (especially at left back), which was never really recognised. Also more than happy with the ball at his feet. Hopefully Molloy, Milne, MacKenzie etc can emulate him in the coming seasons.

Not a great game. Like a lot of these, tired and cagey seems to be the order of the day. Didn't think the Swiss would hold on. What is it with professional managers watching their team play absolute dross and then wait until a goal is scored before making subs? Is it taught?

Some game like. The Germans better team, but the Spaniards great on the break. Olmo some player. Could probably do it on a Tuesday night in Dundee if Thelin wants to take a punt.

Spain v Germany a great game so far. Spain dominated, then dropped off after the subs. The Germans going full tilt and got the deserved goal. Germany probably favourite.

Yep, a proper football match, with a ref that didn't give freekicks every time someone fell down. Great game. Turks deserved winners.

Are Spain the only team that isn't absolutely fucked in this tournament? Everyone seems to be out on their arses. Maybe reduce the games to eighty minutes for the remainder of the tournament.

Yamal's a mattress

VAR needs those decisions though. If it didn't have the make believe handballs and the offsides to a tenth of a millimetre then it'd be in the same boat as goal-line technology, in that it'd only be affecting five decisions a season so nobody would buy it outside the big leagues. There are very few clear and obvious errors. The Porteous decision is the only one I can think of so far in the tournament. Previously there would have been a red administered after the game for that - not the end of the world.

Shame it didn't take out VAR.

Deal as good as done.

Bayley is one of the best strikers in the league, and the Dons aren't a proper full time team yet. Hearts are probably 2-3 seasons ahead of where the Dons are, so definitely a better club for progressing. The jambo scum were allowing her time to finish her studies, while being full time. She'll end up playing for Scotland in time I expect. Eilidh Shore is also a good player, still young and needs a full time club to progress. I expect it'll be the way of things until they establish themselves as a full time team if that's what they want to do. Other than loanees and a small number of signings, pretty much every Dons player comes through their youth setup, and the quality seems to be better each year. They'll probably struggle this season with those two gone though, it'll be interesting to see how they cope, or if other players might look elsewhere too.