Summer 2025 Transfer Window

[RicoS321]

30 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Scott Burns writing in The Retard saying that we have opened contract extension talks with Polvara who apparently is happy in Aberdeen and didn't feature against Morton on Saturday as he had been sick during the week

Good news if so. Hopefully we're just being dicks by not playing him until he signs a four year extension. He's a good footballer who is versatile and comfortable on both feet. Missing a yard of pace and running power. 

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

Again, it's still using Morris in a different way and position than normal.

The front three does switch around. The wide players are different types of players (Morris different from Milanovic, Bilalovic different from Keskinen).

I don't think we're doing to see huge changes to how Thelin wants to set up, but there clearly is a plan B there.

I don't know about Bilalovic as I haven't seen him play, but there isn't significant difference in the approach of Milanovic, Keskinen and Morris cutting in and not something anyone would class as plan B. Plan B usually involves switching system, which really only happens to a minor degree when Morris comes on (on the right). If you started with Keskinen on the left for example, and replaced with Morris on the left, you wouldn't see any change in approach from our players or there's. It's basically fresh legs. Just as plan B wouldn't refer to replacing Aouchiche with Boyd, or Palaversa with Nilsen. 

Edited August 19 by RicoS321

[Panda]

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I don't know about Bilalovic as I haven't seen him play, but there isn't significant difference in the approach of Milanovic, Keskinen and Morris cutting in and not something anyone would class as plan B. 

When Morris plays you expect him to go wide, hit the byline and send in crosses toward the striker. Bilalovic - the in-depth tactical analysis I did of him (twitter video ) - appears to be the same.

With Milanovic and Keskinen they're more like inside forwards with the striker essentially creating for them.

Thats two different approaches. A plan A and a plan B.

Significant difference - no, and Thelin explained why in his Q&A the other week - but alone example of changes Thelin can make with different personnel.

[RicoS321]

39 minutes ago, Panda said:

When Morris plays you expect him to go wide, hit the byline and send in crosses toward the striker. Bilalovic - the in-depth tactical analysis I did of him (twitter video ) - appears to be the same.

With Milanovic and Keskinen they're more like inside forwards with the striker essentially creating for them.

Thats two different approaches. A plan A and a plan B.

Significant difference - no, and Thelin explained why in his Q&A the other week - but alone example of changes Thelin can make with different personnel.

Aye, I'd call that plan A and plan A.5

 

[manc_don]

4 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Aye, I'd call that plan A and plan A.5

 

Agreed, not sufficient to be classed as an entirely different option. Definitely a derivative.

[OxfordDon]

15 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Aye, I'd call that plan A and plan A.5

 

plan Aa and Ab

[Panda]

And that is that.

[RicoS321]

Good luck laddy. 

[BigAl]

43 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Good luck laddy. 

What Rico said

Sad that it just didn't work for him here. He looked initially like someone that could have been a cult hero for us.

[manc_don]

A few folk on twitter wondering whether Shady Mo is actually offski, hence his "knock". He was in the clips issued by the club so I remain sceptical about that.

[OrlandoDon]

Well, one week to go in the window, what’s that chatter? A left back? A Rama type in midfield? One more forward?

still think devlin and shinnie can fill in for now, we’ve got an overload of center mids including polvara but still haven’t replaced Rama, and up no clue what we have exactly but one non big lad up top is needed as a different look.

 

[Panda]

Kevin Nisbet was an 85th minute sub today for Millwall.

I did wonder if we signed Lazetic if that would be it for forwards, but I think we're still keeping an eye on the situation. Would rate our chances 50/50; we'll take him if he's going, but can see Alex Neil wanting to give him until January to prove himself.

[Jute]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

Kevin Nisbet was an 85th minute sub today for Millwall.

I did wonder if we signed Lazetic if that would be it for forwards, but I think we're still keeping an eye on the situation. Would rate our chances 50/50; we'll take him if he's going, but can see Alex Neil wanting to give him until January to prove himself.

Sure club mentioned still wanting another striker in after Lazetic signed. 

[Panda]

6 hours ago, Jute said:

Sure club mentioned still wanting another striker in after Lazetic signed. 

We absolutely need another striker.

At the moment we have three unproven forwards in Yengi, Lazetic and Ambrose, and it's arguably four unproven because if we were signing Sokler with his record and game time, we'd be judging him the same as the other three.

I rate Sokler, and have high hopes for Lazetic, but at the moment neither of them you would hang your hat on as our main striker, and Yengi and Ambrose have a lot to do to prove they are even bench warmers.

I suspect if Nisbet doesn't sign we might have another lined up, but he's not going to be first choice (from what I've heard, Lazetic wasn't first choice either) and therefore we wouldn't necessarily be signing someone of his ilk.

[RicoS321]

8 hours ago, Panda said:

We absolutely need another striker.

At the moment we have three unproven forwards in Yengi, Lazetic and Ambrose, and it's arguably four unproven because if we were signing Sokler with his record and game time, we'd be judging him the same as the other three.

I rate Sokler, and have high hopes for Lazetic, but at the moment neither of them you would hang your hat on as our main striker, and Yengi and Ambrose have a lot to do to prove they are even bench warmers.

I suspect if Nisbet doesn't sign we might have another lined up, but he's not going to be first choice (from what I've heard, Lazetic wasn't first choice either) and therefore we wouldn't necessarily be signing someone of his ilk.

Ambrose can be discounted from any discussion I'd think. If he's not away by the end of the window, I'd expect him to be let go now or in January. The mistake we made with Ambrose is that we didn't immediately send him out on loan when we completed the emergency loan of Nisbet. We shouldn't make that same mistake with Yengi. Get him out on loan. He did a lot of half decent pressing against FCSB, he just needs game time and confidence to see if he can actually play football and he's not getting that with us. You've then got Sokler and Lazetic for one spot, and space for another. To be honest, unless we've got a youth player coming through, most seasons I'd be happy with just two for one spot. By the time a team of our budget gets to their third choice striker, you'd be as well playing a versatile player like Polvara there. I think we'd all have him over Yengi at present. It's not unusual for a team like us to be going into the season with an unproven striker, it's not necessarily a reason in itself to be getting another. 

[wokinginashearerwonderland]

23 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

We shouldn't make that same mistake with Yengi. Get him out on loan. He did a lot of half decent pressing against FCSB, he just needs game time and confidence to see if he can actually play football and he's not getting that with us. 

Realistically, never going to happen.  We have just signed the guy and he is our main striker at the moment, why are they going to put him out on loan 5 minutes later? 

Lazetic's goal record is shite so I don't think we can 100% hang our hat on him being the answer.  My cynical nature tells me we have only signed this guy because AC Milan paid a few quid for him therefore he "must" have something about him.  If you look at his goal record, you are never paying €5M for the lad.

[RicoS321]

2 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

Realistically, never going to happen.  We have just signed the guy and he is our main striker at the moment, why are they going to put him out on loan 5 minutes later? 

Lazetic's goal record is shite so I don't think we can 100% hang our hat on him being the answer.  My cynical nature tells me we have only signed this guy because AC Milan paid a few quid for him therefore he "must" have something about him.  If you look at his goal record, you are never paying €5M for the lad.

I think Lazetic looks like a player, but await his fitness catching up (which could be a massive thing that takes until January, akin to Nisbet last season). We don't really seem to look at goals as a priority in our number nines under Thelin, more an all round link player that gets the team goals rather than themselves. 

I don't think Yengi will go out on loan either, but we can look at the evidence from both Ambrose and Gueye that shows we will have a player rotting for a season without improvement unless they get game time. Of course, the idea would be that we get a player in at the same time as Yengi goes out, but I'd argue that would only be because Lazetic is injured and unproven rather than a numbers thing. I don't see a world in which Yengi gets a game if we get another striker in. He'd be down to fourth choice. For a guy who's biggest issue is confidence (I'm being generous, he could just be horse), letting him sit on the sidelines is extremely poor management. Although it could significantly improve the confidence of Sokler to know that the guy behind him is significantly worse. Not a position he's been in.

[wokinginashearerwonderland]

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

We don't really seem to look at goals as a priority in our number nines under Thelin, more an all round link player that gets the team goals rather than themselves. 

Aye, sounds about right in the current climate.  Probably why we only scored 48 league goals last season mind.

I would revolutionise the whole strategy if I was involved in our coaching set up.  I would sign goalies who are good at saving shots rather than good with their feet, holding midfielders that can tackle, wingers who actually cross the ball and strikers that are hungry for goals.  It's cutting edge stuff like. 

 

 

[RicoS321]

4 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

Aye, sounds about right in the current climate.  Probably why we only scored 48 league goals last season mind.

I would revolutionise the whole strategy if I was involved in our coaching set up.  I would sign goalies who are good at saving shots rather than good with their feet, holding midfielders that can tackle, wingers who actually cross the ball and strikers that are hungry for goals.  It's cutting edge stuff like. 

 

 

Settle down Derek McInnes