So first meaningful game of the season and claiming the honour of starting the thread. Far too early too discuss potential starting line up BUT who else is joining me in person in being at the match ?

Will be back closer to the game day with predictions but in the meantime COYR 👍

 

Surely must be time for Tom Widdows to start the predictor thread 😉

Back three the only concern today. Hopefully they come together. I'd assume that once we get another CB in Devlin will move to wing back or dadia well play there with the other moving to CB. 

Strong squad, if have liked to see sokler given the nod but otherwise it's about as strong as we can be.

Ah well,here goes. Hoping our attacking strengths cover our defensive weaknesses,though just hearing Rubezic is in ,good news.

Prediction - will take a scrappy 1 - 0 win. COYR

Early thoughts.

Polvara is fucking amazing and shame on all of you who doubted him.

Rubezic thumping Guthrie after he had spent half an hour going after every Aberdeen player has just earned him a place in the Aberdeen hall of fame.

All we need now is a shot on target.

BBC say 4300 Dons fans have turned up.

Memories of August 2002 when Hibs were caught out by a large away support in the days before you had to buy your ticket in advance.

Good god brutal watch.

John Beaton losing control of the game as usual. 

There's been three bookings and yet none of them has been Kurtis Guthrie which is astonishing. 

Towards the end of the half we looked more threatening, a few more overlaps and getting into their box. Morris again though seeing plenty of the ball but doing nothing with it.

Polvara is playing very well in midfield. Using his physicality and passing it well. Ylber who?

3 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Good god brutal watch.

Yep, the unwatered plastic pitch is a fucking scam. They seem to have loaded it with double the volume of rubber pellets too, making sure the ball can't move along the ground. The number of passes that have held up from both teams on what should be a true running pitch is a joke. We're not getting battered about though, a Robson side definitely harder than a Goodwin one. Rubezic looks good, and Devlin and Shinnie also playing well. Miovski is putting in a shift too. Polvara good on the ball, but he's not mobile enough for the role and Clarkson appears to be struggling with the pitch. Morris getting the ball too deep to have any impact.

3 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Yep, the unwatered plastic pitch is a fucking scam. They seem to have loaded it with double the volume of rubber pellets too, making sure the ball can't move along the ground. The number of passes that have held up from both teams on what should be a true running pitch is a joke. We're not getting battered about though, a Robson side definitely harder than a Goodwin one. Rubezic looks good, and Devlin and Shinnie also playing well. Miovski is putting in a shift too. Polvara good on the ball, but he's not mobile enough for the role and Clarkson appears to be struggling with the pitch. Morris getting the ball too deep to have any impact.

Morris has had the ball in the final third a few times. Done nothing and yet to see this lightening pace he supposedly possesses.

2 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Morris has had the ball in the final third a few times. Done nothing and yet to see this lightening pace he supposedly possesses.

Agreed, but in his defence, their back three is sitting deep and if he gets beyond the wing back the defender is always there. He's not received a pass in front of him yet (until Polvara just now!).

Not key but polvara has played some very impressive technical passes. Give him time to relax and get confidence, maybe a player there.

Robson been to the McInnes school of substitutes. How on earth is he watching this without making a change? 

Absolutely fucking brutal stuff.

Played tight into Livi's hands

No plan b 

The guts of eighty minutes to make a sub.

Serious quality signings required.

McKenzie probably out best on the day 

Long drive home.

Brutal game. Polvara was decent but I definitely think a signing to replace Rama is needed. Thought the big slob was very good although they played to his strengths I’d say. Morris looks very much the player we had last year and hayes doesn’t have the dangerous pace to beat most players any more. Minimal width today which will make every game tough. Teams will lose there, could have been better, could have been worse. 

I will add, love the away kit!

A honking opener against a brutal side. Positives were that the defence played well, Rubezic looks good and so does Devlin. Negatives are that we're probably a worse side than last season. Morris isn't good enough, but it was clear that there's nobody to replace him at wing back. Hopefully Devlin moves forward as Macdonald returns, moving Rubezic right. I'm guessing Dadia is pish before he wasn't trusted today (moving Devlin forward). Polvara was decent but doesn't balance the midfield in the way that Ramadani does. I'd definitely push Clarkson forward if we're continuing with him. Moving Polvara to right midfield was a very poor decision. To only make one sub in that game is ridiculous. Sokler needs to be coming on for Miovski or Duk, just throwing on all the strikers is idiotic. It's almost like he's afraid to take either of those two off, again very reminiscent of McInnes (Rooney and McGinn). Duk was poor. 

Anyway, honking pitch and a spoiled game.

That was absolute murder to watch, we need to learn not to get dragged down to the opponent's level of anti-football tactics in games like these.  About the only positive I can think of is that we miraculously didn't pick up any injuries.

3 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

A honking opener against a brutal side. Positives were that the defence played well, Rubezic looks good and so does Devlin. Negatives are that we're probably a worse side than last season. Morris isn't good enough, but it was clear that there's nobody to replace him at wing back. Hopefully Devlin moves forward as Macdonald returns, moving Rubezic right. I'm guessing Dadia is pish before he wasn't trusted today (moving Devlin forward). Polvara was decent but doesn't balance the midfield in the way that Ramadani does. I'd definitely push Clarkson forward if we're continuing with him. Moving Polvara to right midfield was a very poor decision. To only make one sub in that game is ridiculous. Sokler needs to be coming on for Miovski or Duk, just throwing on all the strikers is idiotic. It's almost like he's afraid to take either of those two off, again very reminiscent of McInnes (Rooney and McGinn). Duk was poor. 

Anyway, honking pitch and a spoiled game.

I’d say that’s Barry Robson tactics. Didn’t go all out to win the game, played not to lose it and pick up an away point. First to last minute we didn’t play pretty but played hard not to lose.
I’d rather have seen or Dadia come on and move devlin forward, polvara gave nothing on the right, did no more than morris there. Would rather ester came on for Duk, he was poor today.

That was awful. Why did we try to punt the ball long for 90 minutes against a team of giants. Zero width. Morris was rotten. Cannot believe it took 80 minutes for him to be hooked. I am guessing Robson has no faith in most of bench today as that’s only reason I can think of for not making changes they were clearly needed. 
 

Next week could be very painful. 

We've had an unsettled pre-season, not playing what will be our starting defence, Devlin playing out of position, Miovski and Duk not quite 100% fit, Polvara playing in defence then today into midfield.

That all told today. Looked like a side not quite ready for the start of the season, as if they were all still trying to get to know each other.

We at least still look solid at the back. Pleasing also to see that Guthrie and Montano - who were both throwing themselves about and trying to bully* our lot - both got nailed separately. Shows we have a team who won't roll over.

*Montano seemed to take a disliking very early on to Morris and went after him the entire time he was on the park.

Need the wing backs to offer more though. Both Hayes and Morris got into good positions but crossing and finishing was really poor.

Edited August 5, 20233 yr by Panda

28 minutes ago, Panda said:

We've had an unsettled pre-season, not playing what will be our starting defence, Devlin playing out of position, Miovski and Duk not quite 100% fit, Polvara playing in defence then today into midfield.

That all told today. Looked like a side not quite ready for the start of the season, as if they were all still trying to get to know each other.

We at least still look solid at the back. Pleasing also to see that Guthrie and Montano - who were both throwing themselves about and trying to bully* our lot - both got nailed separately. Shows we have a team who won't roll over.

*Montano seemed to take a disliking very early on to Morris and went after him the entire time he was on the park.

Need the wing backs to offer more though. Both Hayes and Morris got into good positions but crossing and finishing was really poor.

I thought Hayes looked 35 today, couldn’t beat his man for pace, his bread and butter. Think Richardson is better than Morris, hopefully his loan gets him better. Morris is a back up. What’s the deal with Vinny?? We have to have attacking width and neither Hayes or Morris gave us much at all. Cormack said 4-5 signings, hopefully 5 with Rama leaving. Think we need right and left mid, plus a rama’s replacement.

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

I thought Hayes looked 35 today, couldn’t beat his man for pace, his bread and butter. Think Richardson is better than Morris, hopefully his loan gets him better. Morris is a back up. What’s the deal with Vinny?? We have to have attacking width and neither Hayes or Morris gave us much at all. Cormack said 4-5 signings, hopefully 5 with Rama leaving. Think we need right and left mid, plus a rama’s replacement.

Vinny doesn't have much pace though (not that I've noticed) so dunno where you play him in a 3-5-2, as he's not gonna get up the pitch as a wing back,  and if you changed the middle three to incorporate a number 10 you'd rather have Clarkson or, dare I say it, Polvara there.

 

Never been to Livi,and no intention of going either.And today sums up why.Shit location,to watch whats usually a shite game of fitba.Wasnt overly filled with confidence before the game,but thought we would deal with them better than we did,though I think their size and physicality caught us a bit by surprise.

    Going to take us a few more weeks to cobble a full side together,and then allow time for them to gel,so if we can avoid a tanking next week and elswhere, keep a run going in Europe,ill take a defeat or two meantime if were seeing definite signs of progress

Martindale described it as a great game of football?!

Certainly wasn't worth the 4 hour drive to watch the ball sail over the midfield for the majority of the game.

It's been said countless times but that pitch is a fucking disgrace. Look at the patch Clarkson is standing on.

14 minutes ago, Stewart said:

It's been said countless times but that pitch is a fucking disgrace. Look at the patch Clarkson is standing on

That's a brand new piece of plastic. One of the best bits of the whole pitch.

Plastic pitches in general are absolutely fine. However, it's possible to make them absolutely shite by not adding moisture and doubling up the rubber pellets, which is clearly what happened. It was gamed to be extra shite. On numerous occasions the ball held up in the rubber pellets and you could see the pellets flying in the air when the ball bounced on them. Both teams played several passes that didn't run true and held up short (our best chance, that Polvara fucked up came from such a pass). Whilst we made little attempt to pass anyway, if we had we'd have seen just how poor the surface was. Quick passing football would have been extremely difficult. Obviously, this isn't particular to plastic pitches, the equivalent on grass is to let it grow long and narrow the pitch dimensions. I suppose it's no less unsporting than us having three times Livingston's budget.