Preseason Friendlies

[BigAl]

Ambrose hat trick incoming 

[BigAl]

Just now, BigAl said:

Ambrose hat trick incoming 

And there is his first inside a minute 

[OxfordDon]

What parallel universe is this?  Just tuned in to see Ambrose score against Ipswich with his first touch of the ball.

 

[OrlandoDon]

Like a new signing……

[BigAl]

4 minutes ago, OxfordDon said:

What parallel universe is this?  Just tuned in to see Ambrose score against Ipswich with his first touch of the ball.

 

Told you 

[BigAl]

Who the fuck is Molly 

[redordead]

It was a bit meh.

Liked kjartanson, for what he did he did well. Total unit and looks mobile. Thought Nilsen brought a bit of composure too. 

I've often been negative about him but I thought keskinen had a really decent game tonight. Much better decision making. 

Milanovic looked decent when he got involved, otherwise not a lot of note.

We need a fit left back quickly as we can't rely on shinnie there. Wasn't blown away by the French lad but we didn't have a lot of the ball. 

Last word for polvara, little time but looked good again in what he did. Problem is we have far too many players in the middle.

[OrlandoDon]

Good preseason game but not great for a last preseason game. Wouldn’t be surprised to see us do something Tuesday night.

clearly we need a 9 and another winger. Morris the Morris of last year, and Ambrose outshine yengi!

[RicoS321]

Aye, that was gash, glad I didn't go. Only watched from 38 minutes, so large pinch of salt required with my opinions (which is the case anyway). I didn't really warm to any of the new signings. Thought Aouchiche wanted far too much time on the ball, Yengi looked very slow, and positionally not that great (Ambrose looked better when he came on...) - a big drop off in that role from Nisbet. Milanovic looked okay, but seemed to be way out of position defensively for the most part. Thought Polvara and Boyd were a big upgrade when they came on, and great to see Polvara tick Left Winger off his list of positions played for us. We were very weak in midfield, as expected. I think if you're playing Aouchiche in number ten, you need something stronger in behind. I suspect we'll see Dorrington back in for Milne against Hearts. Molloy at left back didn't quite work for me, he looked too conservative, but if the new lad isn't available then it's an option I guess. 

I was going to suggest in the transfers thread that I didn't think that we'd strengthened our first eleven from last season, and until we get a number 9, I think that is the case. However, players like Polvara, Boyd, hopefully Keskinen having another year of improvements under their belts will certainly progress us. 

It's just a pre-season. Will make a full initial assessment over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully the defence will be a little less leaky against the Jambo scum.

[Panda]

Really hope there's one more friendly in us before we go to Tynecastle, even if it's just a closed-door bounce game among the squad.

I don't think we were that bad though considering the quality of opposition and our lack of games and sharpness.

Ipswich had a 25-minute spell where they roasted us, other than that we competed well without ever looking overly impressive.

However, doesn't help that already we're having to shoehorn Molloy at left-back and Ambrose up front (granted, he scored) because of injuries, albeit it from the bench.

Yengi, he's exactly the player to fit Thelin's model - which looks like a target man with pace to run in behind on the counter, and the link up man to bring Milanovic and Keskinen into play. Unfortunately he showed none of that tonight, but hopefully there's more to come from him. He hasn't played a lot of football and I fear he's a guy that we might not see the best of until December/January, a bit like Kevin Nisbet.

Polvara - if only he had pace, he could play that roll nicely, and I'd actually like to see Polvara alongside Keskinen, Aouchiche and Milanovic. But we're crying out for either one of our guys stepping up or a new striker arriving in the next week.

 

[RicoS321]

2 minutes ago, Panda said:

Yengi, he's exactly the player to fit Thelin's model - which looks like a target man with pace to run in behind on the counter, and the link up man to bring Milanovic and Keskinen into play. Unfortunately he showed none of that tonight, but hopefully there's more to come from him. He hasn't played a lot of football and I fear he's a guy that we might not see the best of until December/January, a bit like Kevin Nisbet.

He looks very slow.

2 minutes ago, Panda said:

Polvara - if only he had pace, he could play that roll nicely, and I'd actually like to see Polvara alongside Keskinen, Aouchiche and Milanovic. But we're crying out for either one of our guys stepping up or a new striker arriving in the next week.

Agreed, Polvara in if nobody arrives

[Panda]

8 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

was going to suggest in the transfers thread that I didn't think that we'd strengthened our first eleven from last season, and until we get a number 9, I think that is the case

Was thinking about this the other day too.

I thought we began last season weaker than the previous season, due to Miovski and Hoilett leaving.

This season, with Mackenzie and Nisbet leaving I think we're weaker again. But, haven't seen Gyamfi yet so we may well be okay there, but yeah a striker is imperative.

[Slim]

Kjartansson looks like a bit of a unit, I can see him being first choice defensive midfielder after a couple of weeks/months. 

I don’t know what it is with Palaversa, whether he loses concentration too easily or he’s just shite at passing. Or both. So frustrating to watch sometimes.

Sat in the Merkland Stand/“Red Shed” for the first time in about 25 years. Didn’t see the 3 goals scored there because of the big fucking flag being waved for the whole match.

[OrlandoDon]

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

Aye, that was gash, glad I didn't go. Only watched from 38 minutes, so large pinch of salt required with my opinions (which is the case anyway). I didn't really warm to any of the new signings. Thought Aouchiche wanted far too much time on the ball, Yengi looked very slow, and positionally not that great (Ambrose looked better when he came on...) - a big drop off in that role from Nisbet. Milanovic looked okay, but seemed to be way out of position defensively for the most part. Thought Polvara and Boyd were a big upgrade when they came on, and great to see Polvara tick Left Winger off his list of positions played for us. We were very weak in midfield, as expected. I think if you're playing Aouchiche in number ten, you need something stronger in behind. I suspect we'll see Dorrington back in for Milne against Hearts. Molloy at left back didn't quite work for me, he looked too conservative, but if the new lad isn't available then it's an option I guess. 

I was going to suggest in the transfers thread that I didn't think that we'd strengthened our first eleven from last season, and until we get a number 9, I think that is the case. However, players like Polvara, Boyd, hopefully Keskinen having another year of improvements under their belts will certainly progress us. 

It's just a pre-season. Will make a full initial assessment over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully the defence will be a little less leaky against the Jambo scum.

Mr glass is half empty, get out the wrong side of the bed?!??

it was preseason, good experience to learn from, but not the best if it’s our final preseason game. Think we gave Ipswich far too much respect for 3/4 of the game, never really got going until mid/late second half.

think milanovic is an upgrade on okkels, probably better than morris who again does little when he starts.

think adil is capable, once he gets up to speed could be a very good creative signing, something we did not have last season, and have lacked a 10 for a long time.

though palaversa and clarkson were poor, sivert had a positive impact, and kjartenson didn’t see the ball much but looked tidy. I’d consider starting those two next week had we been playing at home. 

don’t recall Boyd touching the ball, not sure how he was an upgrade. Polvara was better than him, he always looks tidy, just don’t know where we play him from the start of a game.

just throwing it out there, what’s stopping Milne being our starting right sided central defender? He only improves with game time now at this stage of his career, why develop dorrington by starting him when Milne appears talented and good enough.

id start devlin over shinnie at left back, although thought we weren’t great on the right in the second half, and it’s where they scored from.

as I said before, we need another preseason game Tuesday, plus very clearly need two more players. Topi played well but when he went off we had no left mid. Plus yengi up top could not have played much worse today and I don’t see many/any enthusiastic about him after that.

Edited Friday at 21:48 by OrlandoDon

[Reekie_Red]

https://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/49912/hirst-i-thought-we-played-really-well-but-aberdeen-gave-us-a-massive-challenge

Haven't seen the game yet, am just catching up on the various reports and social commentary. 

Interview with Hirst, the Ipswich striker. He says the Dons were good until Ipswich figured out our system. A bitnof a worry going into Europa League that its only taken a half-decent team 20-odd minutes to figure us out and adapt. 

Thoughts from those who saw the game? Are we heavily reliant on one system?

[Panda]

13 minutes ago, Reekie_Red said:

https://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/49912/hirst-i-thought-we-played-really-well-but-aberdeen-gave-us-a-massive-challenge

Haven't seen the game yet, am just catching up on the various reports and social commentary. 

Interview with Hirst, the Ipswich striker. He says the Dons were good until Ipswich figured out our system. A bitnof a worry going into Europa League that its only taken a half-decent team 20-odd minutes to figure us out and adapt. 

Thoughts from those who saw the game? Are we heavily reliant on one system?

No complaints about the result as Ipswich were clearly a level above us, but we did gift them their goals.

First, Shinnie loses possession and Milne appeared to be having to mark three blue shirts.

Second, Aouchiche gives it away and Mitov spills the initial shot.

Third, can't really remember it but did think at the time Mitov could have done better.

On the flip side, you could say after half-time we had figured them out, as their third was very much against the run of play.

But, basically Ipswich just pressed us high and overloaded us. We couldn't get out because we couldn't hold onto the ball.

[OrlandoDon]

47 minutes ago, Reekie_Red said:

https://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/49912/hirst-i-thought-we-played-really-well-but-aberdeen-gave-us-a-massive-challenge

Haven't seen the game yet, am just catching up on the various reports and social commentary. 

Interview with Hirst, the Ipswich striker. He says the Dons were good until Ipswich figured out our system. A bitnof a worry going into Europa League that its only taken a half-decent team 20-odd minutes to figure us out and adapt. 

Thoughts from those who saw the game? Are we heavily reliant on one system?

Were weren’t great and we weren’t bad. Ipswich are a decent side playing at a decent level, no shame in the game today. I do think we showed them a little too much respect first half and that cost us. Both first half goals on a good day don’t happen, 3-4 mistakes and they score two. They missed a very good chance second minute, but Jensen should have scored early too. One up would have made it interesting, but I do think they can play at a higher level.
Shinnie isn’t the most technical and got caught in possession. Ideally he’s not our left back and that kind of thing doesn’t happen. Wonder even if devlin should start on the left instead of shinnie.
second from the throw, drives me nuts when we cannot keep possession from throws, but I’d like to think with practice we  improve from things like throws. It went to adil who was trying to knock it on when adil also shouldn’t be that deep. Mitov was also poor on the shot. On a different day we don’t lose either goal.

third happens when you are two down and chasing a game, don’t really blame us for that goal. At the same time, I thought devlin looked poor in the second half and the goal came from that side, made me wonder if he wasn’t comfortable with milanovic ahead of him, something that should improve over time.

a legit center forward is massive. Give topi (who I thought played well) adil and milanovic someone to link with and i think we could be good. Today we had no forward, almost playing w 10 as he gave us so little. Reminded me of playing with cosgrove where we just couldn’t get up the park at times because we had no outlet. Worries me that the plan maybe is to play like we did with Cosgrove, I hope not. Another winger is key too, once topi and morris went off we had no wide sub, molloy actually got into good attacking positions but has no attacking ability and opportunities were lost. 

Morris was the disappointing Morris we see a lot. If we’re offered 800k I’d def take that. I think kjartenson looks decent and may play more than we maybe planned.

we played a team who played in the premiership last season and while we weren’t great, we weren’t bad and I thought it was a good learning experience. While they weren’t great, we won’t play teams that good every week.

[tlg1903]

 

3 hours ago, Slim said:

Kjartansson looks like a bit of a unit, I can see him being first choice defensive midfielder after a couple of weeks/months. 

I don’t know what it is with Palaversa, whether he loses concentration too easily or he’s just shite at passing. Or both. So frustrating to watch sometimes.

Sat in the Merkland Stand/“Red Shed” for the first time in about 25 years. Didn’t see the 3 goals scored there because of the big fucking flag being waved for the whole match.

For 18 Kjartansson is incredibly well developed physically. It's going to be really interesting to see how he develops longer term. 

Good points.  Solid enough debuts for Milanovic and Aouchiche, Keskinen looked really lively (some cracking backheels) and good to see Nilsen and his shithousery back in the side. I thought in spells we looked pretty handy, I was encouraged to see us winning the ball a few times by swarming the player and breaking quickly.  Elfsborg did that a lot when I was watching them before JT moved but we have yet to really see it.  

 

Bad points.  No 1 has to be the way we kept conceding possession in our own half.  If we turn up at Tynecastle being so slack it's not going to go well for us.  Mitov had a poor game, no two ways about it and should have done better with all 3.  Gavin Molloy reminded me of Considine when he first got moved to lb and didn't look even remotely comfortable there, I really hope we are not planning on playing him there regularly.  Yengi tried to put himself about but we didn't really have enough possession in their half for him to get involved really.  

 All in not great, not terrible.  Biggest question mark is if this is going to be the game that marks the beginning of the Peter Ambrose redemption arc .  Couldn't help have a wee wry smile to myself when he scored with his first touch given the feelings of a large section of the support.  

[OrlandoDon]

12 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

 

For 18 Kjartansson is incredibly well developed physically. It's going to be really interesting to see how he develops longer term. 

Good points.  Solid enough debuts for Milanovic and Aouchiche, Keskinen looked really lively (some cracking backheels) and good to see Nilsen and his shithousery back in the side. I thought in spells we looked pretty handy, I was encouraged to see us winning the ball a few times by swarming the player and breaking quickly.  Elfsborg did that a lot when I was watching them before JT moved but we have yet to really see it.  

 

Bad points.  No 1 has to be the way we kept conceding possession in our own half.  If we turn up at Tynecastle being so slack it's not going to go well for us.  Mitov had a poor game, no two ways about it and should have done better with all 3.  Gavin Molloy reminded me of Considine when he first got moved to lb and didn't look even remotely comfortable there, I really hope we are not planning on playing him there regularly.  Yengi tried to put himself about but we didn't really have enough possession in their half for him to get involved really.  

 All in not great, not terrible.  Biggest question mark is if this is going to be the game that marks the beginning of the Peter Ambrose redemption arc .  Couldn't help have a wee wry smile to myself when he scored with his first touch given the feelings of a large section of the support.  

Really interesting few minutes from Ambrose, did his chances no harm, although after a year of proving he’s not good enough, he has to be on his way out. Offered as much as yengi if not more. Not sure what the issue is with sokler?IF, and that’s a big IF, we sign a forward this week, he has to start against hearts. If we don’t sign anyone, no clue who we start at 9!

[Jute]

Thought Milanovic looked better than he did at Cove but really one footed. Aouchiche again impressed with touches and passing but do wonder if he will cope with pace and physicality of Scottish game. Kjartansson looked  decent again and no reckless tackles this time. Yengi did not impress at all and managed to make Ambrose look like a player (he’s not and needs moved on ASAP) when he replaced him. Think we need to be urgently looking at getting a striker in. 
 

Don’t think we can play a midfield 3 off Aouchiche, Clarkson and Palaversa often as they offered very little protection to the back 4 last night. I would expect one of them to drop out for Nilsen or Kjartansson.

Thought Keskinen looked good again tonight can see him kicking on this season. 

[tlg1903]

10 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

Really interesting few minutes from Ambrose, did his chances no harm, although after a year of proving he’s not good enough, he has to be on his way out. Offered as much as yengi if not more. Not sure what the issue is with sokler?IF, and that’s a big IF, we sign a forward this week, he has to start against hearts. If we don’t sign anyone, no clue who we start at 9!

Sokler is surely away.  Why do you feel it's a big if though?  It's 9 days until we play hearts so that seems like a reasonable window given we will have been working on targerts since the last window.  

[tlg1903]

4 hours ago, Jute said:

Thought Milanovic looked better than he did at Cove but really one footed. Aouchiche again impressed with touches and passing but do wonder if he will cope with pace and physicality of Scottish game. Kjartansson looked  decent again and no reckless tackles this time. Yengi did not impress at all and managed to make Ambrose look like a player (he’s not and needs moved on ASAP) when he replaced him. Think we need to be urgently looking at getting a striker in. 
 

Don’t think we can play a midfield 3 off Aouchiche, Clarkson and Palaversa often as they offered very little protection to the back 4 last night. I would expect one of them to drop out for Nilsen or Kjartansson.

Thought Keskinen looked good again tonight can see him kicking on this season. 

Personally, and I'm well aware most will disagree, I'm prepared to give Ambrose a little more time.  He was signed as a project player and there looks to be a some improvement after pre season.  Don't get me wrong,  I still supect it's probably not going to work out, but it wouldn't be the first time I've seen a player go from no hoper to handy player in a reasonable amount of time).  I still think he should be put out on loan though, he would have been a very good contender for the new loan scheme thingy but sadly he's not Scottish. 

I think it would depend on who we are playing re your second paragraph.  At home against teams  that are parking the bus I would be fine with those three but anyone that's actually looking to take a swing at us it's probably not going to work.  

Big agree, I think Topi is going to have a real breakout season and this time next season he'll be getting sniffed around a lot.  

[RicoS321]

24 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

Personally, and I'm well aware most will disagree, I'm prepared to give Ambrose a little more time.  He was signed as a project player and there looks to be a some improvement after pre season.  Don't get me wrong,  I still supect it's probably not going to work out, but it wouldn't be the first time I've seen a player go from no hoper to handy player in a reasonable amount of time).  I still think he should be put out on loan though, he would have been a very good contender for the new loan scheme thingy but sadly he's not Scottish.

We won't get a choice on whether or not to give him more time, we spent a decent wedge on him and I doubt we'll get anyone willing to take him off our hands. As you mention, the loan option would have been best. You say he was signed as a project player, but I don't remember that being mentioned. He was 22, and I expected him to be in the first team, given that we were very skeptical of both Gueye and Sokler. In fact, I remember saying that we needed to immediately sign another striker after seeing Ambrose play, and not long after we were forced to get Nisbet in on loan. Similarly, if Yengi turns out not to be great, we'll have to get another in the door before the end of the window. Which is the biggest issue with retaining Ambrose, for me. It's okay if he was just last summer's error in the transfer market, just as Yengi might be this season's (too early to tell etc etc). What we can't afford to do, though, is have players piling up, rather than offload when we believe we've made mistakes. Gueye, Ambrose, Yengi and Sokler creates a fair backlog in the one position (or two). I don't think I could make a good case for giving Ambrose a chance ahead of Sokler or Yengi. The loan would certainly solve the problem. 

[tlg1903]

21 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

We won't get a choice on whether or not to give him more time, we spent a decent wedge on him and I doubt we'll get anyone willing to take him off our hands. As you mention, the loan option would have been best. You say he was signed as a project player, but I don't remember that being mentioned. He was 22, and I expected him to be in the first team, given that we were very skeptical of both Gueye and Sokler. In fact, I remember saying that we needed to immediately sign another striker after seeing Ambrose play, and not long after we were forced to get Nisbet in on loan. Similarly, if Yengi turns out not to be great, we'll have to get another in the door before the end of the window. Which is the biggest issue with retaining Ambrose, for me. It's okay if he was just last summer's error in the transfer market, just as Yengi might be this season's (too early to tell etc etc). What we can't afford to do, though, is have players piling up, rather than offload when we believe we've made mistakes. Gueye, Ambrose, Yengi and Sokler creates a fair backlog in the one position (or two). I don't think I could make a good case for giving Ambrose a chance ahead of Sokler or Yengi. The loan would certainly solve the problem. 

My memory is far from infallible, I'm mid 40's now and the mind defo plays more tricks than it used to from that pov.  I could have sworn I heard Tyrone (I think) say words to the effect that he was signed as a project at the time though but I easily could be wrong.  

Agree on all the rest.  I think Gueye and Sokler will defo be off after not even making the bench last night 

[RicoS321]

39 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

I think Gueye and Sokler will defo be off after not even making the bench last night

Ah, I must've missed that, I assumed Gueye was injured?