Dundee United v The Scottish Cup holders

[Kowalski]

Armstrong had an okay game tonight. Not sure about any of the rest of them. 

[RicoS321]

Just now, Kowalski said:

 

That’s the line up from what I believe was the last time we won a league game (Hibs in April) and yet Jimmy won’t start Clarkson and Palaversa together anymore. 

Palaversa has been dogshite every time he's played this season. It's like he's pregnant or something, as he seems unable to run. The key there was Nisbet and Gueye. Nisbet can only play when someone is occupying the other defenders. Also, Morris, of course. 

[RicoS321]

5 minutes ago, Kowalski said:

Armstrong had an okay game tonight. Not sure about any of the rest of them. 

Bilalovic looks like he might be worth a shot. Karlsson wasn't terrible. Knoester decent. I'm assuming Clarkson has just given up because he keeps getting dropped for players that are significantly shiter than him. We're basically ruining our best player so that we can remain faithful to Nilsen and bedding in crap new players.

[redordead]

Fair play to yengi. He's crap but he did more than nisbet and actually upset their defence. 

Bilalovic done well when he came on as did aochice but otherwise hard to give much praise. Armstrong was good but not sure holding midfielder is his role.

Polvara offered little, full backs were pish, Nilsen gets stick but genuinely never misplaced a pass in the time he was on the pitch. Problem is we moved sideways and backwards far too much. 

United are bullies but they have a plan. Get it wide, whip it in and attack it. Simple and effective. Unsure why we can't manage that. 

I've given him the benefit but Jimmy isn't getting the best from the squad. I think it's now an inevitability that he has to go.

 

[OrlandoDon]

Didn’t see the game. Better or worse than the motherwell game? Any positives other than not all players being crap?

no clue how we turn this around…

[RicoS321]

1 minute ago, redordead said:

Jimmy isn't getting the best from the squad

This squad isn't the best 

[manc_don]

Just now, RicoS321 said:

This squad isn't the best 

But crucially, it is his.

[RicoS321]

2 minutes ago, manc_don said:

But crucially, it is his.

Scandalously, I'd say. Four years of not learning our lesson on giving a manager carte blanche (after saying that we were doing the exact opposite). It's a serious lesson in shite squad building.

[Kowalski]

12 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Palaversa has been dogshite every time he's played this season. It's like he's pregnant or something, as he seems unable to run. The key there was Nisbet and Gueye. Nisbet can only play when someone is occupying the other defenders. Also, Morris, of course. 

I like the Clarkson/Palaversa combo. I hope Clarkson was injured and he wasn’t just dropped from the whole squad for tonight.  

I would stick Armstrong in the number 10 role. 

Anyway just win the next game or fuck off Jimmy. 

[redordead]

Armstrong in the number 10 role

Wouldn't disagree with that. Although he can play wide and replace milanovic tonight to get Clarkson in at ten

[RicoS321]

12 minutes ago, redordead said:

Clarkson in at ten

Clarkson hasn't played well there since his first season though. He's better than Aouchiche, but neither are suited to playing that role alongside Nisbet. Much as I think Yengi is shite, we should have been keeping Nisbet on the park with him to see if they could do anything together. We will not get anywhere with Nisbet without a second striker. Armstrong could perhaps perform the McGrath role quite well. 

[Panda]

1 hour ago, Kowalski said:

 

Jimmy is a stubborn cunt, it’s like Amorin - refusing to change formation when it’s not working. 

Except he did change the formation tonight and changed it again in the second half.

30 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Clarkson has just given up because he keeps getting dropped for players that are significantly shiter than him.

He's not fit and has been carrying an injury for most of the season.

28 minutes ago, redordead said:

Fair play to yengi. He's crap but he did more than nisbet and actually upset their defence. 

Did he? What did he say to them?

He certainly didn't upset them from his play. 

28 minutes ago, redordead said:

Nilsen gets stick but genuinely never misplaced a pass in the time he was on the pitch.

 

Yeah it was a nonsense that some fans booed Nilsen off as he got subbed. Didn't really see what happened for the second goal (he was adamant he was fouled) but generally he did the job he was asked.

Others due a lot more stick than him.

Edited September 23 by Panda

[RicoS321]

21 minutes ago, Kowalski said:

I hope Clarkson was injured and he wasn’t just dropped from the whole squad for tonight

There were certainly rumours that he'd had enough and wants away. Internet though. 

[RicoS321]

1 minute ago, Panda said:

Yeah it was a nonsense that some fans booed Nilsen off as he got subbed. Didn't really see what happened for his second goal (he was adamant he was fouled) but generally he did the job he was asked

He was very slow on numerous occasions, and he regularly loses his man at set pieces, and did so a couple of times tonight before the goals.

[Panda]

The only positives were the team that finished the game (minus Yengi, obviously) looked like it is at least capable of creating some chances. 

But too slow and passive for most of the game.

Thelin called Aouchiche up to the bench, got him stripped, then changed his mind and left it for 10 minutes. Aouchiche responded by being stroppy little child on the touch line, spending 20 minutes throwing his hands in the air and shaking his head at the dugout, doing it right in front of the fans hoping for some support for it. Then at the end stayed extra long to 'applaud' the Aberdeen fans, standing himself, letting everyone know how much it hurt him and that, you know, if only he had been on earlier.

Listen pal, you've done fuck all in an Aberdeen shirt so far. You can maybe act up to the fans when you actually do.

[dons8321]

2 hours ago, Slim said:

Yengi has made more suplexes than shots or passes.

One attempt to control the ball bounced off his shins and travelled back towards our defence... he's got the first touch of a rapist.

[OrlandoDon]

Don’t really know where to start, tried to watch some while driving. Looked like we did have more width, were the fullbacks attacking? Anyone actually get to the line and put crosses in? Seems like we also played at more pace, or was that just in the last 20 or so when chasing the game? What I did see was we were very poor at keeping the ball, looked like we really struggled to string passes together, especially in the first half?

no clue what strong characters we have that drag us out of this. Armstrong seemed involved, if you ask me I’d be playing devlin shinnie Armstrong, maybe frame?

[Panda]

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

Don’t really know where to start, tried to watch some while driving.
 

Don't Dons and drive.

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

Looked like we did have more width, were the fullbacks attacking?

They were in the first half. In the second, Gyamfi (who had a poor second half anyway) appeared to just shell balls down the wing and stay in his own half, losing every 50/50.

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

Seems like we also played at more pace, or was that just in the last 20 or so when chasing the game?
 

Only after Thelin's charges, when Aouchiche and Bilalovic came on (so did Yengi but he doesn't count).

Bilalovic actually faced up to the defenders which we appeared scared to do before then.

Before that, Karlsson was actually too wide I thought, because he was too far away from Nisbet and because he's not a winger he couldn't slip by players. A lot of attacks stopped with him.  I thought he was far better when Bilalovic came on and he went more centrally.

 

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

no clue what strong characters we have that drag us out of this. Armstrong seemed involved, if you ask me I’d be playing devlin shinnie Armstrong, maybe frame?

Despite my criticism of Gyamfi above, he needs a run of games. 

Interestingly, one of the coaches ran down to Shinnie (who was warming up but never came on) and spoke at length with him about what was happening on the pitch, and Shinnie was pointing out various things.

[tlg1903]

Well that was no fun at all.  You've all covered any point I would make nicely so I'll save parroting them.  Biggest frustration for me was the delay in making changes.  We looked far more spritely going forward when we did and were making the utd defence uneasy.  10 more minutes of that could have made a difference. Biggest positive was Armstrong who got better and better as the game went on and he was unlucky with his effort that hit the bar. 

Fir park on saturday and let's just hope Tam Cowan is right again about it being the place to go when you're struggling. 

Edited September 24 by tlg1903

[Slim]

Good thing we had everyone back for the corner so we didn’t risk leaving anyone unmarked.

[Panda]

1 hour ago, Slim said:

Good thing we had everyone back for the corner so we didn’t risk leaving anyone unmarked.

Nilsen was 'marking' him, but fell on his arse, lost him, then spent two minutes demanding the ball because he was convinced it was a free-kick.

Watched the replay. It's never a free-kick. 

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, Slim said:

Good thing we had everyone back for the corner so we didn’t risk leaving anyone unmarked.

We should have learned our lesson last season and kept Nilsen forward at corners, given how very, very bad he is at marking his man.

[OrlandoDon]

5 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

We should have learned our lesson last season and kept Nilsen forward at corners, given how very, very bad he is at marking his man.

I have noticed a few times he’s a poor marker, loses his man a lot. For a so called hard man that’s pretty lame, he’s got the size, what’s the issue??

[RicoS321]

7 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

I have noticed a few times he’s a poor marker, loses his man a lot. For a so called hard man that’s pretty lame, he’s got the size, what’s the issue??

He's just easy to get the run on. Over five yards, he's just too slow for this league. In open play, that's usually okay, because he's got good awareness and positioning, which buys him the yards. On the ball, he's got good feet and drops the shoulder well, which means he doesn't usually get caught either (no more than anyone else). It's just these standing starts he struggles with. Whilst he's got size, he's not a centre half size, and in a one-on-one there's usually only one winner. The answer is fairly straightforward though, the coaching staff just need to make sure he's not marking anyone that is good at attacking corners. There are a limited number in each side, and we have players that are quicker than Nilsen that will cause more hassle to put the attacker off (not necessarily winning the headers). Nilsen almost never wins a header in either box, but he does sometimes get a good block in, it just isn't consistent enough. It's a coaching issue in my opinion, it should be obvious the regularity with which he loses his man. It's easy for pundits to say "he's got to be stronger" or similar, but if we're continually blaming the player then it becomes a coaching issue where they recognise his weakness and ensure he's marking the correct "type" of player. As far as I can tell, the guy that scores lots from corners was being marked by the guy who lets people score from corners.