Derek McInnes is sure to get a warm reception at the Cathedral of Football on Sunday 30th August when he brings his all-powerful, all-conquering Rangers side up. The Bears have been irresistible all season, winning almost all of their league matches so far.

It kicks off at high noon. Maybe it's misplaced optimism on my part after the 3-0 win over Dundee, but I fancy a 2-0 home win.

20 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Have we checked the team for a pulse?

That Lyons quote has the potential to be his Goodwin “the defence is the easy bit to sort out” moment.

That lot are absolutely there for the taking this weekend. Fragile as fuck. Get properly wired in they’ll fold like a cheap suit.

Apart from the usual “god knows what Dons team will turn up” concerns, I’m also a bit worried we just don’t have enough guys in this team who get what this game means & what we expect.

Where’s the Shinnie, Anderson or Considine to set the expectations?

Still, lets just go get fuckin stuck right into them eh lads…

Edited August 28Aug 28 by The.Moog

40 minutes ago, The.Moog said:

I’m also a bit worried we just don’t have enough guys in this team who get what this game means & what we expect.

Where’s the Shinnie, Anderson or Considine to set the expectations?

Still, lets just go get fuckin stuck right into them eh lads…

Yep, so expect Devlin not to feature then.

4 hours ago, The.Moog said:

That Lyons quote has the potential to be his Goodwin “the defence is the easy bit to sort out” moment.

That lot are absolutely there for the taking this weekend. Fragile as fuck. Get properly wired in they’ll fold like a cheap suit.

Apart from the usual “god knows what Dons team will turn up” concerns, I’m also a bit worried we just don’t have enough guys in this team who get what this game means & what we expect.

Where’s the Shinnie, Anderson or Considine to set the expectations?

Still, lets just go get fuckin stuck right into them eh lads…

Agreed. Although we have to be realistic about how poor our midfield is. It's not just that we don't have a guy that knows what the fixture means, we don't have a guy that will get right in their faces either. To take advantage of this Hun side, at this particular moment, we need to be able to press them high and aggressively. Currently we've only got Olusanya that can do that, and he'll likely be playing wide. For all the chat about whether or not Phillips is good enough for the Dons, he really would have suited a game like Sunday. I don't know what the best setup is, but we're an average side at the moment and I'm not sure we'll have enough to beat their average side.

5 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

. I don't know what the best setup is, but we're an average side at the moment and I'm not sure we'll have enough to beat their average side.

Yeah, in these match threads I like to post a wee formation graphic of how I either want us to line-up, or think we'll line-up. I actually made one and thought the team looked that poor I deleted it.

I think to play Robinson's style we need to be 4-2-3-1, however we don't have wingers. We could play our wider guys narrower - that suits a few players - but you need wing backs overlapping and the only time I've saw an Aberdeen player do that regularly this season was Lobban for Dunfermline against Raith Rovers.

This 4-3-3 he hinted at playing seems to have been ditched. If you sign 13 players but feel you don't have the players to play your favoured formation, then something has gone wrong.

I'm really keen to see what Robinson's plan this season actually is. If he actually has it all mapped out how the team will set up, then great. A game plan on Sunday is all I ask for.

4 hours ago, Panda said:

Yeah, in these match threads I like to post a wee formation graphic of how I either want us to line-up, or think we'll line-up. I actually made one and thought the team looked that poor I deleted it.

I think to play Robinson's style we need to be 4-2-3-1, however we don't have wingers. We could play our wider guys narrower - that suits a few players - but you need wing backs overlapping and the only time I've saw an Aberdeen player do that regularly this season was Lobban for Dunfermline against Raith Rovers.

This 4-3-3 he hinted at playing seems to have been ditched. If you sign 13 players but feel you don't have the players to play your favoured formation, then something has gone wrong.

I'm really keen to see what Robinson's plan this season actually is. If he actually has it all mapped out how the team will set up, then great. A game plan on Sunday is all I ask for.

I think it'll be either a 4-4-2, or a 4-2-3-1. I'd like to see Olusanya through the middle and running his arse off for 60 minutes. Maybe play Armstrong on the left ahead of Yogane, and Smith on the right, with both helping out in a flat four off the ball. I don't think we've quite got the personnel for a 4-3-3, and Olusanya is fairly key in games like these, and isn't a wide player. We're really ropey at the back, so he might be tempted by a back three, but I don't think he should at home to the Huns (save that for the Tims away).

5 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I think it'll be either a 4-4-2, or a 4-2-3-1. I'd like to see Olusanya through the middle and running his arse off for 60 minutes. Maybe play Armstrong on the left ahead of Yogane, and Smith on the right, with both helping out in a flat four off the ball. I don't think we've quite got the personnel for a 4-3-3, and Olusanya is fairly key in games like these, and isn't a wide player. We're really ropey at the back, so he might be tempted by a back three, but I don't think he should at home to the Huns (save that for the Tims away).

Wait, you would drop Yogane on the back of what was easily his best performance where for the first time he actually showed he could provide a good final ball? Why? I don't understand that, especially when advocating playing Armstrong out of position instead. Would be happy to see Smith in the side who I think has been underused but I suspect if it's a 442 Toy will be wide right with Ntelo through the middle.

14 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

Wait, you would drop Yogane on the back of what was easily his best performance where for the first time he actually showed he could provide a good final ball? Why? I don't understand that, especially when advocating playing Armstrong out of position instead. Would be happy to see Smith in the side who I think has been underused but I suspect if it's a 442 Toy will be wide right with Ntelo through the middle.

Yes. Based on the fact that I wasn't at the Dundee game! But mainly because I think that our midfield two is very weak, and so having Armstrong playing a bit narrower and giving support to our, also very weak, left side of defence will be beneficial. It's not a slight on Yogane, I think his final ball has been very good all season, but he's a guy that offers zero support going back the way. If he was better at being aggressive in the press, then I'd absolutely advocate him starting, but he doesn't pressure the opponent much at all. The Huns are having a difficult time, but there's no way that they're as pish as people are making our, so we're going to need discipline and strength, as well as the experience that Armstrong offers, in a role that he's played a lot for club and country (not so much the Dons for some reason).

Although all of the above is just my thoughts, I haven't run it past a large language model to get it's take.

20 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Yes. Based on the fact that I wasn't at the Dundee game! But mainly because I think that our midfield two is very weak, and so having Armstrong playing a bit narrower and giving support to our, also very weak, left side of defence will be beneficial. It's not a slight on Yogane, I think his final ball has been very good all season, but he's a guy that offers zero support going back the way. If he was better at being aggressive in the press, then I'd absolutely advocate him starting, but he doesn't pressure the opponent much at all. The Huns are having a difficult time, but there's no way that they're as pish as people are making our, so we're going to need discipline and strength, as well as the experience that Armstrong offers, in a role that he's played a lot for club and country (not so much the Dons for some reason).

Although all of the above is just my thoughts, I haven't run it past a large language model to get it's take.

Fair enough, thanks for explaining

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Although all of the above is just my thoughts, I haven't run it past a large language model to get its take.

Well @RicoS321 and @tlg1903 - I did. And here's what ChatGPT made of it... 😆

---

I actually think Rico’s argument is more defensible than TLG gives it credit for, but I also think TLG has identified the biggest weakness in Rico’s proposed XI.

The key issue is that they’re approaching the game from two slightly different perspectives:

* TLG: pick your best players and make Rangers deal with them.

* Rico: pick the XI that best protects Aberdeen against Rangers’ strengths.

And for me, against Rangers at Pittodrie, the second approach has some merit.

Where I agree with Rico

The strongest part of his argument is Armstrong rather than Yogane isn’t really about Yogane being bad. It’s about what happens when Aberdeen don’t have the ball.

Rico’s basically saying: if our central midfield is going to struggle, don’t leave our left-back exposed as well. Armstrong can start nominally wide but tuck in and give you something closer to a midfield three/extra midfielder when defending.

That’s a pretty sensible tactical idea.

And there is some evidence that Armstrong has been used in precisely this sort of flexible role. Against Dundee, Aberdeen played 4-4-2 and Armstrong came on for Ntelo in the 66th minute.

More importantly, Rico is right that Olusanya is valuable in this particular game. Stephen Robinson himself has been talking him up ahead of Rangers, describing him as an “absolute handful” and emphasising how difficult he is to play against.

I’d therefore be very reluctant to sacrifice Olusanya for a more orthodox winger.

But TLG has a very good point about Yogane

This is where I think Rico’s argument becomes slightly too defensive.

If Yogane really did have his best Aberdeen performance against Dundee, why remove him immediately afterwards? Especially when the improvement TLG identifies — actually producing a quality final ball — is precisely the sort of thing Aberdeen are going to need against Rangers.

The Dundee game is particularly relevant because Yogane wasn’t merely surviving on the flank. He produced the low cross for Nisbet’s third goal.

And there’s a danger in saying:

“Rangers are dangerous, therefore let’s remove one of our attacking players to make us more solid.”

You can end up conceding the initiative anyway, while simultaneously making it harder for yourself to punish Rangers.

That’s especially relevant because this Rangers side isn’t exactly an irresistible force right now. They’ve yet to win a league game, and they’ve just gone out of Europe. Aberdeen, meanwhile, have started the season reasonably well.

So I wouldn’t approach this as though Aberdeen are playing peak Rangers at Ibrox.

The bit I really disagree with Rico on

It’s the implication that Yogane offers “zero support” defensively.

If that’s literally what he means, I’d disagree. He may not be a particularly aggressive presser, but there’s a difference between not being good at pressing and providing zero defensive support.

And if Armstrong starts instead, you’re also sacrificing something offensively. You’re asking a midfielder to perform a winger’s job rather than simply selecting the winger.

That’s a significant opportunity cost.

I’d rather solve the defensive problem through the structure around Yogane than remove Yogane.

What I’d actually do

I’d probably go something like:

Müller

Cadden – Mayo – Happe – Guinness-Walker

Armstrong – Aremu – Ronan/Briedl

Yogane – Nisbet – Olusanya

That’s effectively a 4-3-3 that can become a 4-5-1/4-1-4-1 without the ball.

And I think that addresses Rico’s underlying concern without accepting his solution.

You’ve got:

* Aremu providing the physicality.

* Armstrong providing experience and defensive intelligence.

* Yogane still available as an outlet.

* Olusanya causing problems physically.

* Nisbet occupying the centre-backs.

* Enough pace/width to make Rangers worry about Aberdeen rather than simply camping in Aberdeen’s half.

Interestingly, one current prediction has Aberdeen in essentially that shape, with Armstrong, Briedl and Aremu behind Olusanya, Yogane and Nisbet.

And I think there’s an interesting middle ground

If Robinson wants the Rico game plan, I actually wouldn’t necessarily drop Yogane.

I’d play Armstrong on the left and Yogane on the right, with Armstrong having licence to narrow when Aberdeen defend.

That gives you Rico’s extra defensive security without dropping the player TLG is rightly keen to see rewarded for his Dundee performance.

The really interesting question is then Smith vs Yogane.

I’m with TLG that Smith has probably been underused. He was particularly lively when he came on against Dundee, and his delivery contributed to an Olusanya chance. But I wouldn’t use Rangers as the game to make a big change simply because Smith deserves minutes.

⸻

So, if I were judging the debate rather than just picking a team:

TLG wins the argument about Yogane. I wouldn’t drop him after his best performance.

Rico wins the argument about the tactical problem. Aberdeen’s midfield/left-side defensive protection genuinely needs consideration, and simply throwing three forwards and two midfielders out there could leave them badly exposed.

But I think the best answer is to change the shape/roles rather than replace Yogane.

And there’s one thing I’d absolutely agree with Rico on: Olusanya through the middle is very appealing. Robinson’s comments about how much of a nuisance he is, combined with the fact Rangers are hardly arriving in Aberdeen brimming with confidence, makes me want him running directly at those centre-backs for as long as his legs will let him.

In other words: don’t set up as though Rangers are unbeatable — but do set up as though they’re dangerous. That’s probably the sweet spot.

I'm yet to be convinced that Olusanya is best through the middle. As I've said prior IMO his biggest strength is winning/receiving the ball in the opposition half and then bringing other players into the game. On that basis it shouldn't really matter if he's playing central or wide but what should be and what actually are not always the same in football. He certainly did pretty well wide right when he set up Ntelo 2bf, he almost lost it and did well to spin and take it forward before playing the through ball. That said he would up against Penrice who has hit the ground running at der hun whilst their CB's have looked all over the place so tactically it could be argued through the middle is the better option. Then again Toy does do a lot of defensive work and could give Penrice a really hard time. Especially after he played 120 minutes on Thursday.

All that said I'm 99.99% convinced that he will not be playing through the middle tomorrow. I think we can all agree the back 5 will be unchanged unless there is injury. 2bh the only player I think who is at risk of being dropped is Ntelo as I can't see Robinson dropping Yogane. If Robinson keeps the 442 I suspect it will be an unchanged team though Ntelo through the middle and Olusanya at right midfield as Ntelo looked like a make wish player in the first half against Dundee when on the right. If it's 433 I would guess Ntelo drops out for either Armstrong or Briedl and Olusanaya plays RW.

4 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

I'm yet to be convinced that Olusanya is best through the middle. As I've said prior IMO his biggest strength is winning/receiving the ball in the opposition half and then bringing other players into the game. On that basis it shouldn't really matter if he's playing central or wide but what should be and what actually are not always the same in football. He certainly did pretty well wide right when he set up Ntelo 2bf, he almost lost it and did well to spin and take it forward before playing the through ball. That said he would up against Penrice who has hit the ground running at der hun whilst their CB's have looked all over the place so tactically it could be argued through the middle is the better option. Then again Toy does do a lot of defensive work and could give Penrice a really hard time. Especially after he played 120 minutes on Thursday.

All that said I'm 99.99% convinced that he will not be playing through the middle tomorrow. I think we can all agree the back 5 will be unchanged unless there is injury. 2bh the only player I think who is at risk of being dropped is Ntelo as I can't see Robinson dropping Yogane. If Robinson keeps the 442 I suspect it will be an unchanged team though Ntelo through the middle and Olusanya at right midfield as Ntelo looked like a make wish player in the first half against Dundee when on the right. If it's 433 I would guess Ntelo drops out for either Armstrong or Briedl and Olusanaya plays RW.

Pfft. That reads like AI 😉

The last Aberdeen team to beat Rangers, 22 months ago. Only three players remain and chances are none of them will play in this one.

We won this, then three days later went to Glasgow and lost 6-0 to Celtic. We play Celtic in Glasgow three days after this..

Interesting to look at that team nearly two years on though and think if we've improved. I guess time will tell, beginning with an overdue win over Rangers today.

7 hours ago, Panda said:

The last Aberdeen team to beat Rangers, 22 months ago. Only three players remain and chances are none of them will play in this one.

We won this, then three days later went to Glasgow and lost 6-0 to Celtic. We play Celtic in Glasgow three days after this..

Interesting to look at that team nearly two years on though and think if we've improved. I guess time will tell, beginning with an overdue win over Rangers today.

Please don’t ask chat GPT to compare them- I’ll miss the start of the game by the time I read the response😁

Sorry, not an AI post, but just a quick...

Heid first in tae these cunts!

COYFR

1 hour ago, TheDonbytheDee said:

Sorry, not an AI post, but just a quick...

Heid first in tae these cunts!

COYFR

AI Bot IMO

Probably what we expected. Glad to see Ntelo and Nisbet together, but... well let's see if Yogane, Guinness-Walker and Olusanya in particular can step up.

Edited August 30Aug 30 by Panda

Min. By accident have Sky for a month and just tuned in. The pundits? Chris Sutton, Kris Boyd and the rat. FFS, which of them is there to represent Dons fans??

12 hours ago, Panda said:

Pfft. That reads like AI 😉

Too much text for BigAl.

25 minutes ago, Jute said:

I would really like to see Smith starting. Hopefully he gets on a bit earlier than usual.

Smith and Fasanya in on the hour at 3-0 to get the humiliation over the line?

Edited August 30Aug 30 by Ajja

My mother has pointed out that our line-up looks like a shopping list:

Muller

Mayo

Guinness

Nutella (Ntelo)

Lasagne (Olusanya)

Breid

36 minutes ago, Don Julio said:

Min. By accident have Sky for a month and just tuned in. The pundits? Chris Sutton, Kris Boyd and the rat. FFS, which of them is there to represent Dons fans??

It truly is a brutal line up. Hoping this is on redtv international and swap over to that.

18 hours ago, Panda said:

Well @RicoS321 and @tlg1903 - I did. And here's what ChatGPT made of it... 😆

---

I actually think Rico’s argument is more defensible than TLG gives it credit for, but I also think TLG has identified the biggest weakness in Rico’s proposed XI.

The key issue is that they’re approaching the game from two slightly different perspectives:

* TLG: pick your best players and make Rangers deal with them.

* Rico: pick the XI that best protects Aberdeen against Rangers’ strengths.

And for me, against Rangers at Pittodrie, the second approach has some merit.

Where I agree with Rico

The strongest part of his argument is Armstrong rather than Yogane isn’t really about Yogane being bad. It’s about what happens when Aberdeen don’t have the ball.

Rico’s basically saying: if our central midfield is going to struggle, don’t leave our left-back exposed as well. Armstrong can start nominally wide but tuck in and give you something closer to a midfield three/extra midfielder when defending.

That’s a pretty sensible tactical idea.

And there is some evidence that Armstrong has been used in precisely this sort of flexible role. Against Dundee, Aberdeen played 4-4-2 and Armstrong came on for Ntelo in the 66th minute.

More importantly, Rico is right that Olusanya is valuable in this particular game. Stephen Robinson himself has been talking him up ahead of Rangers, describing him as an “absolute handful” and emphasising how difficult he is to play against.

I’d therefore be very reluctant to sacrifice Olusanya for a more orthodox winger.

But TLG has a very good point about Yogane

This is where I think Rico’s argument becomes slightly too defensive.

If Yogane really did have his best Aberdeen performance against Dundee, why remove him immediately afterwards? Especially when the improvement TLG identifies — actually producing a quality final ball — is precisely the sort of thing Aberdeen are going to need against Rangers.

The Dundee game is particularly relevant because Yogane wasn’t merely surviving on the flank. He produced the low cross for Nisbet’s third goal.

And there’s a danger in saying:

“Rangers are dangerous, therefore let’s remove one of our attacking players to make us more solid.”

You can end up conceding the initiative anyway, while simultaneously making it harder for yourself to punish Rangers.

That’s especially relevant because this Rangers side isn’t exactly an irresistible force right now. They’ve yet to win a league game, and they’ve just gone out of Europe. Aberdeen, meanwhile, have started the season reasonably well.

So I wouldn’t approach this as though Aberdeen are playing peak Rangers at Ibrox.

The bit I really disagree with Rico on

It’s the implication that Yogane offers “zero support” defensively.

If that’s literally what he means, I’d disagree. He may not be a particularly aggressive presser, but there’s a difference between not being good at pressing and providing zero defensive support.

And if Armstrong starts instead, you’re also sacrificing something offensively. You’re asking a midfielder to perform a winger’s job rather than simply selecting the winger.

That’s a significant opportunity cost.

I’d rather solve the defensive problem through the structure around Yogane than remove Yogane.

What I’d actually do

I’d probably go something like:

Müller

Cadden – Mayo – Happe – Guinness-Walker

Armstrong – Aremu – Ronan/Briedl

Yogane – Nisbet – Olusanya

That’s effectively a 4-3-3 that can become a 4-5-1/4-1-4-1 without the ball.

And I think that addresses Rico’s underlying concern without accepting his solution.

You’ve got:

* Aremu providing the physicality.

* Armstrong providing experience and defensive intelligence.

* Yogane still available as an outlet.

* Olusanya causing problems physically.

* Nisbet occupying the centre-backs.

* Enough pace/width to make Rangers worry about Aberdeen rather than simply camping in Aberdeen’s half.

Interestingly, one current prediction has Aberdeen in essentially that shape, with Armstrong, Briedl and Aremu behind Olusanya, Yogane and Nisbet.

And I think there’s an interesting middle ground

If Robinson wants the Rico game plan, I actually wouldn’t necessarily drop Yogane.

I’d play Armstrong on the left and Yogane on the right, with Armstrong having licence to narrow when Aberdeen defend.

That gives you Rico’s extra defensive security without dropping the player TLG is rightly keen to see rewarded for his Dundee performance.

The really interesting question is then Smith vs Yogane.

I’m with TLG that Smith has probably been underused. He was particularly lively when he came on against Dundee, and his delivery contributed to an Olusanya chance. But I wouldn’t use Rangers as the game to make a big change simply because Smith deserves minutes.

⸻

So, if I were judging the debate rather than just picking a team:

TLG wins the argument about Yogane. I wouldn’t drop him after his best performance.

Rico wins the argument about the tactical problem. Aberdeen’s midfield/left-side defensive protection genuinely needs consideration, and simply throwing three forwards and two midfielders out there could leave them badly exposed.

But I think the best answer is to change the shape/roles rather than replace Yogane.

And there’s one thing I’d absolutely agree with Rico on: Olusanya through the middle is very appealing. Robinson’s comments about how much of a nuisance he is, combined with the fact Rangers are hardly arriving in Aberdeen brimming with confidence, makes me want him running directly at those centre-backs for as long as his legs will let him.

In other words: don’t set up as though Rangers are unbeatable — but do set up as though they’re dangerous. That’s probably the sweet spot.

Thanks Panda. This reminds me, can we have a forum-wide ban on the use of AI?

(no, I don't mean BigAl)

38 minutes ago, Kowalski said:

Too much text for BigAl.

Expect much slavering of shite from me today as four beers in already here 😉