Feeling very nervous about this one. Arabs have the chance to go within 3 points of us and have been in some decent form of late so this is definitely going to be a tough one. Not sure how the hell we set up given so many of our players are out of form. The Jan window can’t come quick enough.

Seen someone suggest playing duk up front alone, but not sure I’d be doing that at all. It is quite the change though so maybe we should be open to it ? 🤷‍♂️

Out

Bed

hopefully try to catch it online

back home

2-0 no dons scorer

21 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Good enough game, could have gone either way. The biggest difference is that we play to try and pass the ball into the net, where they play the percentage throwing of balls into the box, with the wind being the difference between the halves. We can't defend set pieces, and I'm not sure it's the players as much as the instruction. We have a tactic of leaving one on two at all corners that regularly leads to a shot on goal and often a rebound and more often another corner. We seem to be zonal too, and the players don't seem to know what one another is doing. The commentator blamed Mitov for the goal, but the throw was going ten yards out until the wind caught it and took it towards the six yard box. There was a rake of players in that area and no chance a keeper should be going into that. What shouldn't ever happen is a player given space Butfor a free run and momentum into that area. It was Nilsen this time, but we've done it numerous times this season. 

United are a decent side, and a draw wouldn't have been a terrible result.

I don't blame Beaton for the original penalty decision, the rule is an absolute abomination. It would never have been a pen under the old rules, and so easy for the ref to call. Now he's making a split second decision on how high Devlin's hands are. It's a fucking awful rule these days, which is pot luck guessing in real time. Also, Polvara dived like a fanny. Shinnie would have been given the foul, but you're always chancing it. It didn't lead directly to the goal anyway.

It's not how high Devlin's hands are its their positioning...even in real time everyone except Beaton can see they are both placed across his chest, below his clavicles - he should not have given the penalty in the first place and allowed VAR to contradict him if necessary, instead he gave a penalty which was always going to be overturned. Nilsen shouldn't have been marking their big CH...Ruby should have been the one picking him up.  Yes, Polvara tried to buy a free-kick just as the St Mirren player did last season when their forward was chasing the ball, stood his ground and Devlin ran into him, that was a penalty and today should have been a free-kick to us, doesn't matter if he dived like a fanny (whatever that means), the point is Polvara had his body between the defender and the ball and he was pushed over.

I thought polvara was fouled, lots of lesser fouls and dives have been called for that. 
What has happened to Morris? He’d come on at half time and heavily influence games. What has happened to that tactic? Coming on with 10 mins or less, 5 mins today I think, is just not enough for a player to get involved. Morris would have had their full back too.

i like that sivert and palaversa always want on the ball, but we need a 10 like that. Don’t think we get nearly enough from McGrath or clarkson in there.  
topi is proving he’s no better than Vinny or Morris too, would love a Hayes and mcginn left and right. 

Going to go against grain here and say that we never looked like scoring today and United always looked like they would eventually get something.. Jimmy needs to get reinforcements in early in January or we could drop further down the league. 
 

Fact we cannot defend a throw in despite having all our players in the box is really concerning. 

1 hour ago, dons8321 said:

It's not how high Devlin's hands are its their positioning...even in real time everyone except Beaton can see they are both placed across his chest, below his clavicles - he should not have given the penalty in the first place and allowed VAR to contradict him if necessary, instead he gave a penalty which was always going to be overturned. Nilsen shouldn't have been marking their big CH...Ruby should have been the one picking him up.  Yes, Polvara tried to buy a free-kick just as the St Mirren player did last season when their forward was chasing the ball, stood his ground and Devlin ran into him, that was a penalty and today should have been a free-kick to us, doesn't matter if he dived like a fanny (whatever that means), the point is Polvara had his body between the defender and the ball and he was pushed over.

The point is, obviously, if you try and buy a freekick by diving, you don't always get one. Their guy had a similar one in the opposite corner of the pitch where Beaton waved play on and we got a throw. Polvara grabbed the ball with his hands to try and sway the ref further so gets a yellow and freekick for them, which is the correct decision if you think it's a dive. It's a fifty fifty call, and if you chance your luck, you have to be prepared to take the consequences. Personally, I think Polvara made an arse of the dive. I'd rather we make use of the ball in those situations rather than try to buy freekicks. They happen all over the park, it's almost impossible for a ref to be consistent when every single player is at it. 

In terms of Devlin's arms, height is a position. I don't have the ref's view, if he thought they were higher than they were or slightly further out from his body then it's a penalty. It's no different to parallax in an offside call, things look different from different angles. That's why the rule is so fucking stupid. It was clear to everyone in the world that it wasn't a deliberate handball, but when you introduce stupid shite like "unnatural position". The ref also is told to make the call he believes is correct and not leave it to VAR, so they can't really win. I think it was a shite decision, but I think that the rules make it a lottery for the refs, handball decisions have been unilaterally shite since VAR existed. Anyway VAR came to the rescue of its own creation. 

7 minutes ago, Jute said:

Fact we cannot defend a throw in despite having all our players in the box is really concerning. 

Just watched it again on the highlights, it was honking from Nilsen. The wind fairly catches the ball in flight, but he totally loses track of it and his man. He ends up nowhere near it. In saying that, I would expect somebody coming from behind the ball to throw themselves in there when it was clear Nilsen had lost his man. Molloy isn't brilliant in the air, but I've a feeling he might have read that situation. 

Thought the commentator on red tv, Steve tosh I think, was certainly pointing the finger at sivert all game. He’s making a lot of mistakes of late, today included, and isn’t half as influential as he was early season. Puts JT in a tough spot as he’s his guy, even dropping shinnie for him today. Wouldn’t mind seeing Shinnie alongside palaversa for a game or two.

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

Thought the commentator on red tv, Steve tosh I think, was certainly pointing the finger at sivert all game. He’s making a lot of mistakes of late, today included, and isn’t half as influential as he was early season. Puts JT in a tough spot as he’s his guy, even dropping shinnie for him today. Wouldn’t mind seeing Shinnie alongside palaversa for a game or two.

The commenter (on the premier stream I think) did make a good point regarding Sievert in that he hasn’t had a break over the summer so is basically at the end of his season. When you consider this and his age is it possible we are just asking too much of him? Not sure if we could rest him in favour of Palaversa or if we need to further strengthen that area.  

2 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

Thought the commentator on red tv, Steve tosh I think, was certainly pointing the finger at sivert all game. He’s making a lot of mistakes of late, today included, and isn’t half as influential as he was early season. Puts JT in a tough spot as he’s his guy, even dropping shinnie for him today. Wouldn’t mind seeing Shinnie alongside palaversa for a game or two.

Isn’t divert suspended for the next game anyway? But agree, would like to see him given a rest, he must be gassed after playing through summer and probably a good sight more games than we all expected. 
 

edit, I see Dan said the same

6 hours ago, manc_don said:

Isn’t divert suspended for the next game anyway? But agree, would like to see him given a rest, he must be gassed after playing through summer and probably a good sight more games than we all expected. 
 

edit, I see Dan said the same

Yes he is suspended for the next game against Ross County so will get a full week before Motherwell game.

Thing is Nilsen got a 10 day rest in middle of December with rest of team and seems to have come back worse. I am not sure a short rest will do him any good. He probably needs to have a longer spell out the team but cannot see Thelin doing that.