I never finished work in time, so I couldn't make it. Apparently missed a cracking goal.
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Going by your username, I will presume you were not there yesterday KR. That performance yesterday from start to finish was as lethargic and dis-jointed a performance I have seen for the past 4/5 years from an Aberdeen team. Good players on paper and a very strong bench, however absolutely no spark.
Stewart & Maynard in particular bring nothing at all to the team and with two passengers like that we will always struggle.
Pants! Just Pants!
First 15 minutes and it was rock and roll, 5-0 coming up here. Kenny MacLean was excellent and running the show. The rest of the first half was a slow-motion car crash. The Kilmarnock players were out for the second half a good 5 minutes before Aberdeen. It showed they were ready and we were god-awful and complacent.
Fully expected the situation to be rectified and we'd get a winner but too much damage had been done. By this stage Kenny MacLean's game had died a death.
McInnes rolled the tombola to see who he could trust in future matches. I think he got a few answers. For Nicky Maynard read Josh Parker. Maynard will be gone in January. I've liked the look of Greg Stewart in spells of matches this season but he was truly awful yesterday. Mackay-Steven got pass marks for his time on the pitch and it's worth giving him an extended run. With time I reckon he'll fill the Jonny Hayes role.
So disappointing dropping points against a team we usually own. Killie boy that scored was lively and deserved the goal - even though it took a wild deflection off Arnason's @rse.
Maybe now arry has got the sack at Birmingham the new manager will recall Stewart to have a look at him.
I very much doubt it but you never know.
So that's Stewart written off already? Fair enough. I'm halfway across the globe but I'll make sure I shout "Get that slow useless sh*te tae f*ck" at the laptop screen every time he touches the ball.
I thought GMS played well when he came on though he didn’t see enough of the ball. In previous seasons much of Considine’s attacking play was just to get the ball to Hayes asap. Probably a question of building an understanding but Considine seemed to spend a lot of time coming inside to then get the ball out to GMS who by then was closed down.
What I can’t understand is bringing GMS on with no one to meet his crosses on the edge of the 6 yard box. Rooney was brought on far too late. Before Rooney’s arrival, GMS played two perfect crosses from the left across the face of the goal. Had Rooney been there I think there would have been a different result.
Saturday was worrying for a number of reasons. It highlighted several failings with the team, most notably with the balance (or lack of) in the side.
For me, it's just not clear yet what the purpose is to our play - previously we were quite set on getting the ball wide and getting the crosses into the box - generally through McGinn and Hayes, although Logan and Considine did this too. A simple game plan, but an effective one which played into the strengths of the team and to Rooney in particular.
On Saturday, we scored a goal by working the ball well down the left side and getting the ball over to May to stick away. It's really not rocket science.
But to able to exploit this, you need to have a certain level of control of the ball and feed the wide players early enough so that they can turn and square up the full backs.
On Saturday, however, after the first 20-odd minutes, we were completely powderpuff in the middle of the park. Shinnie had his poorest game for a while, and McLean began to try to force the play too often. We did not pick up the 2nd balls often enough.
The Shinnie / McLean combination isn't working in my view. People criticise Jack, and he is a judas c-nt, but he was an effective screen for the defence by intercepting the play and retaining possession with simple passes. You absolutely need someone to do that in your side to get a base from which to play. Shinnie and McLean are not as good in that role. Tansey was not great at it either when I saw him v Siroki. I though Ball did OK at it last week, and with his additional height and physicality I thought he'd be a useful keep-it-simple type defensive midfielder for the side.
Even when we got decent possession we were pedestrian with it. The movement that existed in the first 20 minutes disappeared, and we ended up lumping the ball up to May and others who were unsurprisingly ineffective in competing with the centre backs for Killie as a result.
We were trying to play through the middle too much. The players did not show the required close control and precision of passing to make a success of this approach. All the while GMS and Wright, who had a poor game, were starved of the ball or given it when tightly marked.
There was a lack of urgency to go and kill the game at 1-0 when we were well on top.
Stewart isn't a winger. He can't cross the ball with his right foot, so he's easy to defend against.
Maynard is not as good as Rooney - he's a poor man's Goodwillie in terms of showing decent touches now and then and an ability to hold it in back to goal, but he's no target man and has zero pace to run in behind. At least with Rooney, as one dimensional as he can be, you know he'll sniff out a goal if given a regular run in the team.
A rethink is required to stiffen up the midfield to give us a better platform to play and to reorder the forwards to play to their strengths.
Personally, I'd go with Wright and GMS out wide, and May through the middle with Christie in behind. You rotate Rooney for May and Stewart or McLean for Christie. You don't shoe-horn those players into wide areas.
Behind that I'd try Shinnie and Ball for a while. I like McLean and reckon he's unfairly getting a hard time at the moment, but he's not in his best form, is increasingly trying to force the play and is not best suited as a deep lying midfield. He would be an able deputy for Shinnie though.
If we persist with things as they've been going, we'll come a cropper at Motherwell, let alone v Rangers, Celtic and Hibs in the games to come.
We do have a decent squad, and we are fortunate that we have good options, but the balance of the team simply is wrong just now. We can get away with it in the odd game because they are good players and are capable of each producing things, but our lack of structure and purpose to the play is worrying, as are our limitations when our opponents work our tactics out.
I'm not a fan of McLean & dont believe that Ryan Christie should be playing for us but does anyone other than the manager, think that McLeans the better player out the two?
No he`s nowhere near the player Christie is at the No 10 ( ? ) role. Christie makes things happen , and scores goals from all over the place . McLean is yet to be as decisive at scoring / heading / free kicks.
But he is our player , and can play against Celtic. So maybe we should alternate /
Moving him back and expecting him to become a ball winner doesn`t work either. There have been a couple of games where he looked like he could turn into a bit of a McMaster. Spraying the ball about and dictating play from deep. But you need the ball for that. And "his" ballwinners, like Shinnie have tended to push on and attack rther than just/only sit in, win the ball and then give it to him.
SO, maybe having a Jack replacement who doesn`t bottle it , and can go forwards a wee bit rather than sideways would help. Ball ? " Young " Craig Storie looked like he would be the one a few years ago, before his Disco moment.
So I dunno. We probably need to put Wright on the right, GMS on the left and let them play themselves in for a few games. While they build up an understanding of th movements of May. Maynard ? Hmm. We appear to be back to last year where Deek was chopping and changing every game expecting them to adapt , before he settled on his best eleven and we went off the long unbeaten run. Problem this yeaar is none ofo know our bestt eeleleven as yet. But it certainly isn`t with mcLean an Christie i the same team ?