RicoS321

Don't think they have all gone, although it seems difficult to tell. Appears that Truss is being so hapless that the Tories can then suggest putting Johnson back in charge. They're all over the place, but they have enough self preservationists in the team that a general election seems unlikely.

It's unfairly polite, he's fucking honking and shouldn't be anywhere near this league. Decent result, but a worrying second half. Barron and Ramirez weren't the worst introductions on paper but Barron had a poor game and their changes really upset our flow. Once the goal went in we were terrible and the decision to bring on Morris for Duk was a sackable offence. Horrendous management that could have lost us the game. I don't know what he's trying to prove. Morris coming on is bad enough, a struggling Kennedy into midfield doubles the effect. Besuijen was terrible most of the game too, and the introduction of Duncan - eventually - turned the game back in our favour. He's a fantastic player who should be getting far more minutes. He's not lightweight, and is very direct. Morris needs to go to the championship immediately and stop taking minutes away from players like Duncan. It was amazing to see our transformation from playing well to being pish in such a short space of time with such a comfortable lead. McRorie, Stewart and Scales (and probably Roos) just turned to a panicky embarrassment in a flash. McRorie especially, was just turgid. He's really not that good at fitba. Stewart average and Scales just looked completely shaken by the rest of his defence's performance. Coulson was decent.

Interesting lineup. Kennedy can feel a little hard done by not getting a look in after a decent game against killie, so fine to play him. I'm guessing it's a 4-4-2, with McRorie at right back. Weirdly, this is the sort of game I'd have played Richardson in, against poorer opposition, but he does deserved to be dropped. Besuijen earned his place and if Barron is being rested then that's fine.

We're way off knowing what our best 11 is, so I think we need continuity in the side. If Goodwin now thinks that 3-5-2 is our strongest formation, then we persist with it for a few games. I didn't like the midfield yesterday for large parts. I'm not sure Ramadani is strong enough in the tackle to play that flat 3 that we did in the second half, but it was certainly better for Barron and, to a lesser extent, Clarkson. McRorie gives me the fear at the back, and I'd still like to see us try him out at right back ahead of Richardson. McKenzie as wing back didn't really work despite his best efforts either. I've no problem with Miovski starting again, even though he was poor again, but Ramirez does deserve plenty of game time when Miovski isn't cutting it. I think 3-5-2 is our only real option if we want to play the two up front (Duk definitely deserves that place, and he doesn't really work on his own), as our midfield isn't strong enough to play a two. A 4-3-3 would be the only other option, with a tight line of three. That would allow Besuijen deserved game time alongside Miovski and Duk. One of those two it is. I'd go: ------------------Roos------------------- McRorie---Stewart---Scales---McKenzie -----Barron---Ramadani---Clarkson----- -----Besuijen-----Miovski-------Duk----- but I think Goodwin may just maintain the same starting eleven for consistency. Ramadani the weak link in the above for me.

Perversely, despite it being violent and malicious, the fact that it was aimed and deliberate probably makes it less likely that Barron would have got serious injury I reckon. If you've ever kicked someone while playing fitba, which of course I would never do, you sort of know what you're doing with the stiff booting that you dish out in frustration. Those ones are the sort that give a nasty bruis or a dead leg or whatever, but not the breaks that come with a clumsy studs up or "out of control" slide. He knew what he was doing. "Left one on him" I think the dinosaur pundit would describe it.

From the RDL, looked like Roos won ball and man at the same time. Again, from RDL, Duk didn't look like he was going down until the guy's trailing leg caught him and sort of shunted him sideways before he went down. It wasn't anything like Sibbald's for Utd in my opinion. I don't think it was a clear and obvious error of course. There was also a definite clumsy handball (I think by the same player) a few minutes later that the ref was in no position to give, but had VAR a camera behind the goal, which I don't think they will, it would have been spotted and perhaps given. It would have been a shitey penalty to get though.

Yes. He had two shots off target, which is approximately 43 less than in each of his last 30 appearances for the dons.

Worse than Clarkson's. Clarkson didn't even have his eye on the player, he just threw out a leg. His was just a really shite attempt at a tackle. Grant's was deliberate and malicious. You'd probably class Clarkson's as out of control and endangering an opponent, with Grant's classed as violent conduct. Much as I love a Dons player hoofing some Hun up in the air (Clark on Hutton for example), I'd also happily take a retrospective/VAR red for it. I can also see why the ref just gave the yellow in fairness.

What would their pen be for? Duk was definitely clipped in their box in the first half (a camera behind the goal would have spotted it), but I don't remember them even having a claim. Obviously they had that sitter, but for me the next best chance before the goal was Duk's one on one. With the balance of play in the first half, going in a goal down would have been fair, but it'd be rare that a team scores every single opportunity they get.

Great win, well played the dons. Deserved it in the second half after a poor first. A little tweak in midfield, pushing Ramadani into the three, as opposed to sitting gave us a lot more of the ball. That three (including Barron and Clarkson) was okay today, they seemed to stop getting in each other's way with the change in the second. McKenzie was honking in the first and much better in the second, but isn't a wing back. He didn't give up on that ball for the goal when others would have. Duk was great. He's frustrating but people seem unable to get the ball off him, so he ends up carrying it far up the pitch making for an excellent out ball. Thought he should have had a pen in the first half too.

But at no point did they say that they wouldn't turn the country into world's biggest bin fire. I'd have said that was fairly implicit in choosing Johnson.

They had a manifesto?

It isn't though, is it? Not until the Tories say so is what England voted for.

Fuck sake Goodwin, can't even get the right match day.

My preference would be this Sunday.

It'll be a long drive back up the road for Ross McRorie tonight.

They're cutting the VAR ribbon in a game involving Porteous and Martin Boyle, so that'll likely highlight 90% of its problems. Anyone booking transport home from fir park should consider rescheduling on the assumption of a two hour delay.

It's already a fuck up. Even if they got the best possible implementation it would still be honking.

I'd think that McRorie to right back is the best move. I said at the start of the season that it'd probably be his best position given his lack of football ability for midfield and positioning for defence. Stewart needs the support too that McRorie's work rate (it's the lack of work rate that has been the most disappointing aspect of Richardson's game) will provide. Clarkson has to come back in, and I'd probably have Barron too (as you say, injury allowing). Maybe bench Vinny. Miovski I'd keep in the team at this stage. He had a terrible game at the weekend, but that was clear from the fifth minute and the time to deal with that was around 50 minutes into that game. Strikers should be allowed an off day and he's generally been good, especially at home. Ramirez should have been given 40 minutes to prove himself, but wasn't, so let Miovski start with a view to replacing at halftime if he's not at it. It has to be one of those two for me, as Duk has serious positional issues. He's like the ball-chasing primary kid. The opponents just drift away from him, and I don't think you can afford that against a half decent team. For me, that rules him out playing alongside another striker (unless as a sub when required), and when he's played up front on his own he rarely seems available to receive the ball. He's like a guy with lots of talent that has only ever played in his back garden against some chairs. I'm not sure how he's ever going to work.

For me, it's more the fact that they've reused it rather than just kept it to one player. Rooooooos seems fine, and it'd have the added benefit of sounding like we're trying to put him off his kicking. Thus when the away fans are actually attempting that, as they were in the utd game, he might not be distracted by it. Duk just needs a new song. He came from Cape Verde To pittodrie street Where he shat on the jambos With his lightening quick feet He pished on the Arabs And jizzed on the Huns Luis Lopez is our Duk Keep making the runs Needs work.

One Celtic goal, there was only one blame for the second. There's no sentimentality, just pragmatism. It doesn't matter anyway, it's clear that Stewart is worse than him and Scales has missed several games and been inconsistent otherwise. We were promised exciting signings in that area and the opposite has occurred.

He's good at covering the fullbacks and moving the ball on. Sitting in front of the defence basically. He's a very poor version of Ryan Jack basically, and at 26 I'm not convinced we're going to see a huge improvement in the time he's here. We've basically had to change the formation in order to fit him in, and I don't think we can continue with that. Barron can sit and cover the fullbacks as well as bringing the ball forward, sliding through a pass and being strong in the tackle, there's very little need for a guy who can only do the basics. This was to be expected though, the recruitment of an entire team was never really going to work. With the best will in the world, recruitment is always going to be a bit pot luck. Guys like Ramadani would be fine any other season, because we could work with him and incorporate into our squad, but when every other player is a new signing you're kind of burdened with them. It's why I was extremely surprised that we didn't get a single player with proven SPFL experience. Whilst it seems to have taken McGrath a while to perform, you could see yesterday what he offers in this league. Having that relative safety net in a signing counts for a lot, especially with the magnitude of our turnover. Likewise, having Considine for another year or two would have saved a lot of headaches in our team selections and he definitely wouldn't have been bullied by Tony fucking Watt in the way that Scales and Stewart were (I think Scales will turn out to be a very good player, just inconsistent with us so far and lacking a little experience). There are a couple of glaring errors in our recruitment though. It's criminal that Stewart's pace didn't come up in our scouting. Strikes me that he was very much a Goodwin signing, I think he mentioned having watched him previously. Stewart would be fantastic for St Mirren or Livingston, where they often sit in with little gap between midfield and defence. He's like Obileye (but perhaps worse) in that regard. We're asking him to come out with the ball and also cover that large gap as we pile forward with our attacking football. He's completely unsuitable for the way we're asking him to play. That's where I'd expect our recruitment team to be able to talk some sense into our manager (the same problem occurred time and time again under McInnes), and use "the data" to explain that just because Goodwin saw a guy when St Mirren manager, that doesn't mean he's good enough for Aberdeen, or a particular style of football. Thing is, we can't afford to do the same again in January and the summer, recruitment has to be incremental (which is why Cormack's neglecting of it for three consecutive windows was so destructive). That means a back to basics approach with some of the team. Ramadani can stick to his one track covering, Richardson concentrate on just running up and back again (he often forgets the latter) and Stewart sticks to heading and short passing or punting it. It's going to take us at least another two windows to fix the mess we've created. Hopefully Cormack can now see that throwing money at his problems doesn't really work either. There's a lot of expensive dross in those signings.

I mean, Richardson was absolutely honking. Fannied out of everything and is just terrible at football. Stewart exactly the same, just too slow for this league. We need to be dropping our captain. Unfortunately, you'd then have to replace him with McRorie who isn't good enough either. It was like they were having a competition to see who could provide the worst distribution. Miovski should have been replaced by Ramirez not long after halftime, it was clearly not working for him. Coulson's defending for those first two was criminal. Like he thought it was too easy so ended up not bothering. They shitfested just enough to see them through the first 30 minutes or so, breaking up play and fouling constantly, and then we gave up. It's annoying that there's a penalty to gripe about, because we deserve those decisions going against us when we play like that. McGrath was very good for them. Clarkson decent for us.

Scales in for Kennedy, McRorie back into midfield. Makes sense for an away game.

I would have set one up if we'd moved to Westhill.