Sparta Prague v Aberdeen

[BigAl]

Still in the ground

 

 Whilst we didn't play that great, can I just say that Sparta were probably the poorest team we have played in Europe this season 

[Slim]

[OrlandoDon]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

I get tonight is a tough watch, but overall Europe has been good for us. Four games where we have played relatively well in, we've banked £6m, and by qualifying we've attracted a few players.

But, for those who don't enjoy it, be encouraged that if we do qualify next season, it'll likely all be done and dusted by the end of August.

I don’t know if I’d say it’s been good for us. It’s been a learning experience during a time we’ve played pretty pish, and realized many of our summer signings are not good enough, plus players like Topi palaversa and clarkson have not kicked on as we’d hoped. Maybe Europe has helped us figure all that out earlier and we approach January a little differently, rather than less games in the autumn, less rotation, and more change would come next summer. 

[Don Julio]

44 minutes ago, The.Moog said:

Well thank fuck that’s over- a total waste of everyones time.

We’ll get all the usual guff about learning from the experience, but there’s no learning that can bridge the gap in basic technical ability & game intelligence with this lot.

Only positive, no serious injuries on that horrific surface. Crocked two of their own players.

Yes it was a tough draw, but we finished behind 2 Irish teams & Lincoln fuckin Red Imps. I bet theres a few others in there with smaller budgets than us too.

We’re absolutely miles off it at this level, miles.

Jesus wept…

But that’s not really true, is it, because they’ve played almost completely different teams to us. Which is not to say we’ve covered ourselves in glory, clearly we haven’t. But you can’t even take anything meaningful from the table.

[TheDonbytheDee]

I know it was Aberdeen, but I couldn't have cared any less about tonight and got exactly what I expected, nothing.

I hope those over in Prague had a great time, barring the football. It's a great place.

Thank goodness it is all over and we get back to winning ways at Parkhead on Sunday.

 

 

[The.Moog]

18 minutes ago, Don Julio said:

But that’s not really true, is it, because they’ve played almost completely different teams to us. Which is not to say we’ve covered ourselves in glory, clearly we haven’t. But you can’t even take anything meaningful from the table.

True, they say the league doesn’t lie, but that’s definitely not the case here with the ridiculous format.

Doesn’t change the fact we’ve performed poorly overall again and are absolutely miles off it at European level.

I’d also suggest that tonight showed exactly why Polvara and Clarkson are deemed surplus to requirements - though they’re not the only ones tbf…

[OneBrianIrvine.]

Harsh to judge Clarkson on tonight - he was out of position in a wide open midfield.

 

[The.Moog]

19 minutes ago, OneBrianIrvine. said:

Harsh to judge Clarkson on tonight - he was out of position in a wide open midfield.

 

True, but nobody can say he remotely did anything to change anyone at the clubs view of him.

Poor attitude all round…

[Mason89]

9 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

So we played 6 teams and 5 finish in the top 8. Not a great experience but we were not outplayed/beaten by shit teams.

They only finished that high because they played us 

[RicoS321]

6 hours ago, The.Moog said:

True, but nobody can say he remotely did anything to change anyone at the clubs view of him.

Poor attitude all round…

I didn't think he was great, but the role plays to none of his strengths, and all of his weaknesses. Yet, when you compare to Karlsson on the opposite side, there wasn't a significant difference between the two performances.

[TheDonbytheDee]

6 hours ago, The.Moog said:

True, but nobody can say he remotely did anything to change anyone at the clubs view of him.

Poor attitude all round…

To take a player, with an alleged poor attitude, in from being out in the cold, then not play him correctly, reflects more badly on the manager rather than the player.

He (Clarkson) might be a petulant dick, who wants out of the club, but last night was more on Thelin than Clarkson.

 

[Don Julio]

One of the few highlights of last night for me was the way Lobban stuck manfully to his task against what I thought was their best player. He didn’t always come out on top but you couldn’t question his attitude.

[BigAl]

Anyone flying home today

Be warned get to the airport early as at least two hours to get through passport control and bizarrely that is actually before security 

[The.Moog]

7 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I didn't think he was great, but the role plays to none of his strengths, and all of his weaknesses. Yet, when you compare to Karlsson on the opposite side, there wasn't a significant difference between the two performances.

Karlsson will be away after this season too…

[The.Moog]

6 hours ago, TheDonbytheDee said:

To take a player, with an alleged poor attitude, in from being out in the cold, then not play him correctly, reflects more badly on the manager rather than the player.

He (Clarkson) might be a petulant dick, who wants out of the club, but last night was more on Thelin than Clarkson.

 

Personally, last night I’d have just played everyone who was out in the cold, on the way out or not likely to start on Sunday - Yengi, Ambrose, Nilsen, Palaversa, Milanovic etc.

Sunday is way more important than that game last night.

The fact he went for a bit of a half way house is what I don’t like, not the fact he played a lad he doesn’t want out of position.

He does that to players he does like too…

[TheDonbytheDee]

27 minutes ago, The.Moog said:

Personally, last night I’d have just played everyone who was out in the cold, on the way out or not likely to start on Sunday - Yengi, Ambrose, Nilsen, Palaversa, Milanovic etc.

Sunday is way more important than that game last night.

The fact he went for a bit of a half way house is what I don’t like, not the fact he played a lad he doesn’t want out of position.

He does that to players he does like too…

I couldn't agree more with the points you make.

What Thelin has done to unite the fanbase, is frustrate the hell out of us. The players must equally feel the frustration too.

I am sure it will all become clearer when we reach the end of this three year 'project'.

[The.Moog]

We’re supposed to be “competitive in Europe” at the end of the 3 years.

He’s gonna have to have 3 unbelievably good transfer windows between now and May 27 to achieve that like…

[Panda]

2 hours ago, The.Moog said:

Personally, last night I’d have just played everyone who was out in the cold, on the way out or not likely to start on Sunday - Yengi, Ambrose, Nilsen, Palaversa, Milanovic etc.

Sunday is way more important than that game last night.

The fact he went for a bit of a half way house is what I don’t like, not the fact he played a lad he doesn’t want out of position.

He does that to players he does like too…

If the team was even weaker than it was last night, then that 3-0 could have been another 6-0.

Thelin had to balance it with giving some players minutes and still being relatively competitive.

That said, not sure playing Karlsson for the full 90 minutes was helpful if you plan to play him on Sunday, while Shinnie's 86 minutes suggests he won't play either at a venue where you would quite like your captain being in the face of the referee arguing against every shit decision we're likely to get against us.

[TheDonbytheDee]

21 minutes ago, Panda said:

If the team was even weaker than it was last night, then that 3-0 could have been another 6-0.

Thelin had to balance it with giving some players minutes and still being relatively competitive.

That said, not sure playing Karlsson for the full 90 minutes was helpful if you plan to play him on Sunday, while Shinnie's 86 minutes suggests he won't play either at a venue where you would quite like your captain being in the face of the referee arguing against every shit decision we're likely to get against us.

Maybe Nilsen wrote JT a really ace poem on the plane back and will find himself back in contention for Sunday, to replace Shinnie.

Joking aside, nothing should surprise us about a Thelin team.

 

 

[Elgindon]

If our recruitment is trying to  make us competitive in Scotland and Europe,it seems to be dulling our effectiveness in coping with Scottish fitba,and chasing a standard of football in Europe that I'd say is beyond our means.

   I'd rather we built a side to win,and be attractive in Scotland,ie non St Mirreny,and who knows it might be more effective in Europe than our current efforts

Edited 7 hours ago by Elgindon

[dons8321]

11 hours ago, TheDonbytheDee said:

To take a player, with an alleged poor attitude, in from being out in the cold, then not play him correctly, reflects more badly on the manager rather than the player.

He (Clarkson) might be a petulant dick, who wants out of the club, but last night was more on Thelin than Clarkson.

 

True, but it was an opportunity for Clarkson so say "Despite barely playing this season and being hung out to dry I'll show you what I'm capable of".  Instead, to me, his attitude was summed up for their 2nd goal...he was in a lot of space and, with his ability, could have controlled the ball with his chest and belted it upfield, giving us time to reorganize. Instead he made a really dreadful headed "clearance"  straight to their player who set up the goalscorer.

Edited 5 hours ago by dons8321

[The.Moog]

3 hours ago, Panda said:

If the team was even weaker than it was last night, then that 3-0 could have been another 6-0.

Thelin had to balance it with giving some players minutes and still being relatively competitive.

That said, not sure playing Karlsson for the full 90 minutes was helpful if you plan to play him on Sunday, while Shinnie's 86 minutes suggests he won't play either at a venue where you would quite like your captain being in the face of the referee arguing against every shit decision we're likely to get against us.

If it was 6-0 so be it. Would just prove the duds are exactly that. If they can’t get up to “put themselves in the shop window” that’s on them.
 

Also absolutely no harm done to the actual first team. We got away with one last night injury wise as that pitch was absolutely dreadful.

Bigger picture / pick yer battles and all that - let’s see what happens Sunday.

Can’t help thinking that selection last night won’t do us any favours, though the tactics I expect JT to employ are likely to do more harm to our chances IMO…

Edited 4 hours ago by The.Moog

[Panda]

2 hours ago, Elgindon said:

If our recruitment is trying to  make us competitive in Scotland and Europe,it seems to be dulling our effectiveness in coping with Scottish fitba,and chasing a standard of football in Europe that I'd say is beyond our means.

   I'd rather we built a side to win,and be attractive in Scotland,ie non St Mirreny,and who knows it might be more effective in Europe than our current efforts

Yeah, it was one of the reasons why I wanted Thelin, because I thought his "long pass" style of play would actually suit Scottish football. Elfsborg usually played a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, quick transitions, outpaced defences, and their inside forwards were generally the goal scorers. The striker was a mere link up man.

But Thelin has moved away from that.

When we have been at our best under Thelin, it's been a 4-2-3-1 with a second striker. M**** in the few games he played under Thelin was in that number 10 role, Nisbet did it last season when he had Gueye with him, and together they'd find space for Duk and Morris to run into.

Now we have Karlsson on the edge of the box. He waits for an overlap, or cuts inside and takes on three players. Armstrong has to do the same on the right. Whoever is the striker barely touches the ball.

I know it wasn't working at the start of the season, and we leaked too many goals and didn't score, so moving to a back three shored things up.

However, it'll be interesting to see who he signs in January and what our "style" is in the second half of the season and whether the system changes again.

[Panda]

7 minutes ago, The.Moog said:

If it was 6-0 so be it. Would just prove the duds are exactly that. If they can’t get up to “put themselves in the shop window” that’s on them.
 

But would Thelin survive another 6-0 within two months?

 

[Brochred]

On 18/12/2025 at 22:16, The.Moog said:

Well thank fuck that’s over- a total waste of everyones time.

We’ll get all the usual guff about learning from the experience, but there’s no learning that can bridge the gap in basic technical ability & game intelligence with this lot.

Only positive, no serious injuries on that horrific surface. Crocked two of their own players.

Yes it was a tough draw, but we finished behind 2 Irish teams & Lincoln fuckin Red Imps. I bet theres a few others in there with smaller budgets than us too.

We’re absolutely miles off it at this level, miles.

Jesus wept…

Dinna agree Moog,

 If all the other shite teams had had to play our schedule and we had 6 easier teams to play, then we would have finished with more than 2 points and well above the likes of red imps etc. It was an unlucky draw not us being shite. We aren't good enough to win the thing but our position was purely down to the luck of the draw.