Dons vs Well

[RicoS321]

On the plus side, our goal yesterday came from Shinnie having to mop up when Polvara took an age on the ball and got caught in possession. One of the many glaring signs that he was struggling, that the manager missed. 

[STFU_Donny]

The lack of subs yesterday was baffling. You could see they were knackered.
I also thought we’d have made more changes to the starting lineup. 
 

Motherwell were passing it about well and playing around us for fun but I don’t remember Mitov having much to do. Fully expected us to see out the win until we were caught napping at the corner. Very frustrating! 

[TheDonbytheDee]

4 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

But, have you seen our squad? 

 

I have. That's my point though. The money we spend now isn't really improving us on the pitch. 

I don't think we have a bad squad, but I honestly believe the manager is responsible for the consistent shite shows we are served up most weeks. 

I like the bloke and really want him to succeed, but I have huge doubts these past few weeks.

I'm not overly convinced this Lutz bloke will change much, but hopefully he does.  

 

[Elgindon]

10 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

But, have you seen our squad? I don't think it's very good. We've maybe had one good signing in the summer, in Lazetic. Armstrong probably a downgrade on the younger and fitter McGrath. Karlsson not being nearly as effective as Morris. The rest being completely replaceable by a number of serviceable SPFL players. Players like Palaversa, Polvara and Keskinen simply haven't kicked on from not being good enough in the first place, with Shinnie and Nilsen being a year older, and it showing. There's just not a lot to work with, and other than the new manager bounce, I don't see us being in a better place. We could probably, maybe, improve the performances of Nisbet by playing him correctly in a two, playing Clarkson, keeping Armstrong further forward etc, but I think the issues are largely personnel based rather than tactics. 

For me, getting rid of Thelin is basically blaming him for the poor squad building. The entire point in getting rid of McInnes, and employing the following four (and a half) managers, was that we were no longer letting the manager do the squad building (at least not unchallenged). We've done exactly that, whilst having a stupid "strategy" of signing project players that seems to force the manager to build unbalanced squads. I don't think we'll ever get the opportunity to see if Thelin can do it for us as a manager, because the new sporting director will likely need more than two windows to sort the mess that he's walked into.

Agree with a lot of what youre saying,but as already mentioned its also the way other sides have been moving the ball quicker,tidier,and getting forward in numbers earlier.If we're supposed to be a quick on the break side,why do we look like were playing with the handbrake on,and disjointed and less assured going forward..

    Guessing much of that may be non consistency of team selection,which, goes back to the issue of not having the right mix of squad,isnt helping Thelin.But even then,should we not be able to get more out of what weve got?

Edited 7 hours ago by Elgindon

[RicoS321]

2 hours ago, Elgindon said:

Agree with a lot of what youre saying,but as already mentioned its also the way other sides have been moving the ball quicker,tidier,and getting forward in numbers earlier.If we're supposed to be a quick on the break side,why do we look like were playing with the handbrake on,and disjointed and less assured going forward..

    Guessing much of that may be non consistency of team selection,which, goes back to the issue of not having the right mix of squad,isnt helping Thelin.But even then,should we not be able to get more out of what weve got?

That's because they've got better players, and a balanced squad. We've signed badly. I don't think Thelin could be getting significantly better out of what we have got because what we have got isn't very good. It was really a response to the budget comments, as if spending more money means that we should be being better whilst ignoring how we've actually spent that money. 

I'm not saying that he couldn't get slightly better out of them, just not a huge amount. There's a ceiling to the sum total of that squad, and to me it looks about fifth best in the league, maybe sixth. We've ended up with some individual players who would get into any team outside the scum, but as a squad it's not better than Motherwell. Key areas of the park are missing good players, and we've got zero options to throw on as a wildcard that could get us a few points to push us higher than the quality in the squad merits. 

[tlg1903]

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

That's because they've got better players, and a balanced squad. We've signed badly. I don't think Thelin could be getting significantly better out of what we have got because what we have got isn't very good. It was really a response to the budget comments, as if spending more money means that we should be being better whilst ignoring how we've actually spent that money. 

I'm not saying that he couldn't get slightly better out of them, just not a huge amount. There's a ceiling to the sum total of that squad, and to me it looks about fifth best in the league, maybe sixth. We've ended up with some individual players who would get into any team outside the scum, but as a squad it's not better than Motherwell. Key areas of the park are missing good players, and we've got zero options to throw on as a wildcard that could get us a few points to push us higher than the quality in the squad merits. 

I don't necessarily agree we have zero options, I would like to see Clarkie, Milanovic, kjartensson and belalovic given more/any opportunity. Especially in games where we are clearly knackered and we look out of ideas.