RicoS321

I should turn it on late more often. Looks like a good conventional 4-2-3-1, which is nice to see. Jensen at left back is probably better than Jensen at centre half. Not sure about Philips in terms of ability, but simple instructions to stay high and press and he'll be fine. A good start.

No we don't. Close thread. Nothing to see here. The season ended, we finished a respectable eighth.

Nice work seabass. Very good.

Because he was pish.

That was a fucking disgrace tonight. Once again the clueless fud dicks about with the formation and approach (I'm assuming he recently watched the "the one where Barry plays Milne at right wing back" video and thought that that'd be the repeat mistake he'd go for tonight). After hanging our only striker out to dry at the weekend, he decides a back three should be a laugh to raise the confidence of those lads. Congest our midfield? Why not. Pass marks for Shinnie tonight, the rest were, to a man, absolutely dogshite. We're regressing at a phenomenal pace. As @wee toon red says, this is Butcheresque. We're in serious danger here. We have to pull the trigger on the manager. I'll drive the cunt to the station (and by that, I mean into the sea).

The charlatan has to go now. He's not up to it and we'll end up relegated if we don't act. He's not taking it seriously, and shouldn't be here. He obviously thought he could just turn up and wing it. What a fucking embarrassment. He's taking the piss out of our club and every Dons fan.

We neither have the option to not give Warnock a chance, nor the time to give him a chance. The entire point in Warnock is the immediate reaction, that's what he does. That's what Robson did last season. If we don't get the bounce, then we have nothing with Warnock, as he very much said himself with his "not my type of team" comment. The way we beat St Johnstone is by being better at football than them. Moving the ball quickly, getting it through the midfield quickly, drawing them out and dragging them around. In other words, avoid the majority of the physical battle, apart from in the one or two areas that those things matter, where we've got enough between Shinnie, Devlin, MacKenzie, Gartenmann that we can be aggressive in winning the ball back. It's about not playing to the strengths of a more physical team by fucking about with long throws, long punts, free kicks punted into the box from our own half and running away from the goalie with your back to him so he's got nobody to release. The exact opposite of the Kilmarnock game. If Warnock's experience doesn't lead him towards a different way of winning football games, then he's clearly not good enough, and his comments were bordering on unforgivable. We're missing the presence of Rubezic a lot more than expected it has to be said. Is there any suggestion as to when he might return?

This only furthers my belief that gyms are for weirdos.

This sounds very good (apart from the Clement bit), but what does building a legacy actually mean? Is it attainable in Scottish football, with its small, tight, league and trigger happy chairmen? Is there a single example of it in Scottish football? Surely, if legacy is our goal, then the manager is only a small part of that, and what happens behind the scenes is far more important (any really good manager will leave within a couple of seasons)? For me, Cormack was right to identify strong, independent, roles for recruitment, youth development, sports science etc, all under the handle of a knowledgeable director with a clear strategy. The execution was massively flawed of course. Incompetent, I'd say. As for the Scandinavian coaches, what specifically is it they're offering that coaches in Scotland aren't? Is it just timing, in that there happen to be a few good ones whilst there's slim pickings here just now? More specifically, what is it with regard to legacy building that they're doing? Are they making sustained progress (or not significantly regressing), or are they just flavour of the Scandi moment, in the same way Robinson might get binned for a poor start next season? Is it the managers' approach that's making the difference or are the clubs themselves the ones creating the environment for success? In other words, is there any evidence that those clubs will continue to be successful once giants like the Dons swoop in and steal their manager (legacy)? McInnes' relative success at Killie has been down to a sustained team over the past few seasons, simply swapping in and out known quantities (Findlay, for example, was a far better signing than any of our centre backs) to gradually improve them season by season. We've had three seasons of 10+ transfers in the summer and January loanees, resulting in our errors just being carried forward. McInnes has been backed by his club, basically.

We've certainly got the chairman to make that happen.

A direct conduit to and from Cormack, aka a yes man. I think he's there to form a barrier, and not to have ideas of his own. Or, he has ideas and is heavily involved, but is simply pish at his job. It's fairly clear that the director of football was a really important role for the way we structured the club post McInnes. It's failed to assist three inexperienced managers and has overseen a total mess in recruitment.

Aye, heard his fucking atrocious interview. "Not really his kind of team"? That's Derek Adams shite that is. Didn't do his research, he should leave now before he fucks off the whole team and drags us (further) into a relegation battle. If he can't get a team to play actual football, rather than kick people then he's not suitable.

Which city?

Just as you say, I expect him to come in and either do his homework or, instead, speak to those already there and run things by them (such as: have we ever created a single chance from a long throw or massive punt free kick). Cormack has been sold on the idea that he's some managerial giant that will bring the entire team together and inspire them to battle, without regard to tactics (95% man management apparently). He's the wrong guy at the wrong time. Robson didn't struggle with motivation, it was tactical ineptitude, so to get a pure motivation guy in was ridiculous.

It's the sign of a guy who has come in and not done his fucking homework. Long punts for every free kick and tactics that have proven not to work all season. I think we (Cormack, specifically) has been sold a charlatan with Warnock like.

Shouldn't have turned it on! Fuck is Warnock watching?

Missed the first half. Questioning whether I should watch the second. Is it a 4-3-3 he's playing? Utter dogshit if so, this midfield needs a sitting two.

I agree. If we point him at just the right angle and tell him to keep running, he should end up at Prestwick airport.

What sort of joke club employs a 76 year old manager anyway?

Again, it goes down to another missed window. January should have been used to carry forward the work of the recruitment team, building on what was done in the summer and further offloading the dead wood. That didn't happen, and we start again, again. That's now Glass, Goodwin and Robson who've had to do major re-builds (maybe Goodwin didn't have to, but he had pissed off most of the squad!), all of which have ended in their sacking. The board should have been managing expectations in each of those situations, and providing significant support to the young management teams that were in place. Expectations should also begin to be managed for next season, with an understanding that building a team takes time. That won't happen, that much is clear. The club have allowed the myth that "backing the manager" is simply a case of spunking cash in a single window - shit-throwing to see what sticks. The fans have largely bought into it too, helped along by ignorant pundits, which is extremely frustrating. We were constantly told that Robson "was backed in the summer" and talk of player budgets and other such shite. The transfer window is a lottery, where 50% at least are going to be shite or require work (Rubezic!). Against any established side, you're always going to struggle. We still haven't found a left centre half that's performed to the level of Considine since he left, for example, and we got rid of the deadwood of likes of Watkins and Kennedy to replace them with much worse players. That's not a reason to retain any of the above, just to highlight what "backing the manager" actually entails much of the time. @OrlandoDon's original post highlights perfectly the problem we have. We're already pragmatically looking at retaining guys that are not very good because of the volume of turnover of players, instead of looking to replace those areas. That always happens to an extent of course, but it's a fairly large extent for us! We've got guys like Richardson and Besuijen still kicking around on long term contracts that are dogshit. Morris and Gueye are two others that we'll have to deal with too. Rubezic, Jensen, MacDonald, Polvara are all guys that in another world we'd be culling back and attempting to sign better players. Instead we're relying on them to form key parts of our team for another season. It's going to be incredibly difficult for the new manager, and I suspect that it'll be someone from outwith Scottish football and thus the signings might be even more erratic. Our best signings this season have been McGrath and Devlin, who were both known quantities with plenty SPFL experience (probably the only two that Robson had any real input to), without those two we'd have been significantly worse (imagine a McGarry equivalent at right back, or another Polvara or Philliips ahead of McGrath).

Oh, sorry, forgot to complain about the earliness of this thread appearing. Disgusting. Makes me sick.

A lot will depend on whether MacDonald will be happy spending another year on the bench. I don't think he's good enough to start in a back four, like Jensen he's too slow to move the ball. In that regard, Gartenmann has the most about him. I don't really think any of the centre backs are that good.

Forgot to mention VAR. Two games in a row completely spoiled by it. Ten minutes of stoppage time is a nonsense. We're at three minutes per offside decision now. It's completely unacceptable. The refereeing is definitely getting worse because of it too. The linesman flagged half heartedly for their second goal (which didn't look remotely offside), it was almost like he was trying to second guess VAR rather than thinking there was an offside.

Forgot about Hoilett. He was okay when he came on. Nice first touch. Not particularly quick.

Just back. Wasn't the worst game in the world, although completely indiscernible from Robson's tactics. Very direct and trying to catch out the opposition with quick balls over the top. Free kicks always lumped in, and long throws (after dicking about for five minutes) the norm. We played some alright football at times and it was an open game that was reasonably entertaining. McGrath was good today, Shinnie too. Defending for both goals fairly unforgivable. Roos with a honking kick, but we just let them walk straight through, we still had plenty cover. Devlin pish for the second. Duk was okay on the ball, but he's bloody frustrating. When you evaluate Mackenzie's performance, you always have to caveat with the fact he's playing behind the most unpredictable player in the league, who makes zero good runs and simply reacts to the game. Anyway, coasting towards bottom six. I think we needed to win this one to have a chance.