Aberdeen v Livingston

[OrlandoDon]

My only gripe today is why we saw Jensen and not lobban.

if we can add a solid holding/center mid before the window closes, replace Armstrong with him, I’m ok with that 11 until summer. Shinnie was very good today but he’s not a holding mid. We need that anchor protecting the back 4, alongside shinnie and Cameron.

Clear emphasis on wide play today, obviously left side better  than right. Another week of  developing that and killie gives us another great opportunity to improve and 3 points.

[Elgindon]

Never saw that one coming,looked like we were about to Dons it once again.Started off brightly enough,they then score twice and we look defensively all over the shop.Did surprisingly well to get back 3 - 2 and would have been happy to cling onto that.

    Folk saying it was only Livingston,but nobodys stuck 6 past them this season.A unit to partner either Milne or Knoester could make this an interesting second half of the season...

[The.Moog]

Well that was much more like it - going forward anyway.

Brilliant attacking display, especially down the left. Topi & Frame worked really well with each other, very promising. Frame MOTM for me, great performance for a first league start.

Bilalovic was not quite as effective on the right, but played well and scored so a bit more work (maybe with Lobban?) and we could get the same down that side.

That’s why you have Nisbet, get the service into the box he’ll score. Great shift today.

Same with Shinnie, was everywhere. Midfield was much more balanced today too.

We had width, good press, good link play through the lines, runners into the box and good deliveries in there too.

Pretty much everything we’ve been missing. Certainly didn’t miss the Swedish show pony at all.

Not a good look for Thelin that either. He couldn’t get that performance out of them going forward, or set them up to give them the chance to play like that. He’s just not a good manager, bottom line.

Those CH’s though, my god. I’m not in the slightest bit bothered if Milne misses 3 games, he needs replacing entirely in there (maybe that holding mid role, but no more at CH, he just doesn’t have it).

Knoester can go too. Better than Milne but cannot dominate the box and win headers, which is zero use up here. Molloy is absolutely not the answer either.

That ref was an embarrassment to both teams as well. Completely clueless and never got a grip of the game at all.

Anyway, good stuff today overall. Keep that attacking formation and intent and get two actual CH’s and we might just start going somewhere…

[OrlandoDon]

24 minutes ago, The.Moog said:

Well that was much more like it - going forward anyway.

Brilliant attacking display, especially down the left. Topi & Frame worked really well with each other, very promising. Frame MOTM for me, great performance for a first league start.

Bilalovic was not quite as effective on the right, but played well and scored so a bit more work (maybe with Lobban?) and we could get the same down that side.

That’s why you have Nisbet, get the service into the box he’ll score. Great shift today.

Same with Shinnie, was everywhere. Midfield was much more balanced today too.

We had width, good press, good link play through the lines, runners into the box and good deliveries in there too.

Pretty much everything we’ve been missing. Certainly didn’t miss the Swedish show pony at all.

Not a good look for Thelin that either. He couldn’t get that performance out of them going forward, or set them up to give them the chance to play like that. He’s just not a good manager, bottom line.

Those CH’s though, my god. I’m not in the slightest bit bothered if Milne misses 3 games, he needs replacing entirely in there (maybe that holding mid role, but no more at CH, he just doesn’t have it).

Knoester can go too. Better than Milne but cannot dominate the box and win headers, which is zero use up here. Molloy is absolutely not the answer either.

That ref was an embarrassment to both teams as well. Completely clueless and never got a grip of the game at all.

Anyway, good stuff today overall. Keep that attacking formation and intent and get two actual CH’s and we might just start going somewhere…

I don’t think we need two dominant central defenders. Add a mcleish/yogi type alongside knoester and that may be good balance. Different era and game, but miller complimented mcleish and all that. I think it’s just as important to have a dominant defensive midfielder to take some of the pressure off the central defenders.

didnt realize Morrison was injured, anyone know the extent? With Milne suspended, polvara potentially away, dorrington gone, and tobers injured, youre probably looking at sivert or devlin filling to the middle of the back 4.

[manc_don]

Looking forward to watching the highlights, definitely did not see this result coming given the way we’ve been playing this season. Do we think it was a case of frame not being ready previously? I know jute wasn’t impressed by him previously but LB was a serious issue for JT that he just didn’t appear willing to try be great if this solves our immediate problems though!

Nice to see Nisbet on the scoresheet too, we know what he’s needed (exactly this), and it’s a sad indictment on JT that he couldn’t get it to work, but guess the system didn’t suit whatever we were trying to achieve. 

[The.Moog]

35 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

I don’t think we need two dominant central defenders. Add a mcleish/yogi type alongside knoester and that may be good balance. Different era and game, but miller complimented mcleish and all that. I think it’s just as important to have a dominant defensive midfielder to take some of the pressure off the central defenders.

didnt realize Morrison was injured, anyone know the extent? With Milne suspended, polvara potentially away, dorrington gone, and tobers injured, youre probably looking at sivert or devlin filling to the middle of the back 4.

Miller could defend the box though despite being short for a defender. Neither of these two can. Knoester just doesn’t have the physicality or aggression for this league and Milne is frankly dreadful in the air for a boy his height.

We need two CH’s who can do the basics of defending the box and clearing their lines. At present that’s two new CH’s (one is hopefully Morrison).

Agree completely about the defensive midfielder. That doesn’t address the basic glaring long term deficiency of defending set plays and long balls into the box though…

Edited 33 minutes ago by The.Moog

[OrlandoDon]

3 minutes ago, The.Moog said:

Miller could defend the box though despite being short for a defender. Neither of these two can. Knoester just doesn’t have the physicality or aggression for this league and Milne is frankly dreadful in the air for a boy his height.

We need two CH’s who can do the vasics of defending the box and clearing their lines. At present that’s two new CH’s (one is hopefully Morrison).

Agree completely about the defensive midfielder. That doesn’t address the basic glaring long term deficiency of defending set plays and long balls into the box though…

Trust me, miller was special, fully agree. But we do need one dominant central defender, finding one is hard. Two would be great but unlikely.

[Kowalski]

Martindale claiming something unsavoury (racist?) said to Jeremy Bokila by one of our players. 

[swaddon]

5 minutes ago, Kowalski said:

Martindale claiming something unsavoury (racist?) said to Jeremy Bokila by one of our players. 

I hope he's talking shite, but that's a serious allegation to make.

[OrlandoDon]

1 minute ago, swaddon said:

I hope he's talking shite, but that's a serious allegation to make.

Based on the reactions at the time, hate to say it, I wondered that.

[BigAl]

6 minutes ago, Kowalski said:

Martindale claiming something unsavoury (racist?) said to Jeremy Bokila by one of our players. 

To make claims like that you need to lay if out there and not make random comments like that without facts 

 

[RicoS321]

Aye, that was entertaining today. I don't know if we responded more impressively to going behind or to the referee being an absolute mess. Starting with the ref, that's the second time I've seen him, and both times he's been the worst ref I've seen in Scottish football. He shouldn't be there. Another product of VAR of course, with half the refs watching on a telly somewhere. Onto VAR, that offside call was a fucking disgrace. It wasn't the ref's call to go to the monitor, it's not even the guys in the video room, it's the fucking rules. If you can't draw lines, it's the onfield decision, that has to be written in. They just changed the decision from a factual one to a subjective call and then used an inappropriately positioned camera to decide on it. It completely goes against everything we've been told about it, it's a fucking disgrace. The arrogance of any cunt in a video room suggesting that they know better than an official who is in line is staggering. The whole reason we got VAR in the first place was because ignorant pundit fuckers questioned offside calls from a TV a mile away, and if VAR has taught us anything it's that there are exceedingly few incorrect offside calls that are more than marginal. Terrible decision, regardless of what they think the telly showed them.

Anyway, we played some great stuff today. Frame, Keskinen, Shinnie, Nisbet (probably equal with Keskinen for motm) and Armstrong all very good. We defended very well in open play, but Jesus Christ we can't defend set pieces. I don't think it's necessarily about winning headers either, it's more fundamental than that. Our organisation, following the man etc is terrible. It needs a lot of work, I don't think a change of a defender will cut it. 

Our goals were fantastic, the crosses from Frame and Keskinen just class. Frame worked well with Topi and played well overall. Nisbet's link up play and movement was excellent. Bilalovic tried to take on his man regularly on the other wing too, and his determination for the goal was ace to see. Armstrong seemed to have chucked it at 1-2, for about ten minutes, but then he woke up and started putting in the passes he was doing at the start of the season. The one for Nisbet's nae goal was especially class. 

The subs from Leven were well timed and effective. Taking Devlin off on a booking the right call, Bilalovic was knackered too. Don't think we can be risking Frame and Lobban at the same time just yet, and Jensen was good when he came on. Clarkson steadied things nicely in midfield and Olusanya is indeed rapid (although he should have gone for it in the last seconds). 

Great fun.