FC Chikhura Sachkhere

[RedStarTorphins]

Are we just judging Wilson on this season’s games?
Ojo did not do well in his first match. Was fortunate to stay on the park, gave away a penalty and offered little in the way of producing passes that our forward players would love to run onto. Just because he made a few passes across the pitch and backwards doesn’t mean I should be easily pleased with his performance. If that is his ability I would rather give Campbell or Wright his place in the team.

The fact you’d play Wright instead of Ojo kinda shows your lack of understanding, John.
No disrespect, but that’s nonsense.
Ojo’s role is similar to Ryan Jack’s was.
Be neat & tidy in possession and link the play.
He hasn’t played for 2 & a half months & not trained much.
FFS. Be fair.

[RedStarTorphins]

Just watched it again and it was a good honest hard robust tackle, played the ball off the Chikhura player.
His left trailing leg was bent so no way two footed and not over the ball.
He did go in fully committed and I can see why continental refs would pull up for a foul and give a yellow.

Attachment 13330

WTF is that?!
You think that fuzz clears it up?!

[BogBrush1903]

The fact you’d play Wright instead of Ojo kinda shows your lack of understanding, John.
No disrespect, but that’s nonsense.
Ojo’s role is similar to Ryan Jack’s was.
Be neat & tidy in possession and link the play.
He hasn’t played for 2 & a half months & not trained much.
FFS. Be fair.

I'm going to wait until I call Ojo effectively neat & tidy, he didn't do enough tonight in possession of the ball for me tonight. Remember, being neat & tidy isn't always a compliment if there's never an end product...

[AiberdonianAce]

Bit of a worry agreeing with RJ but will put it down to post-match drinks and a spot of viral pneumonia but spot on with Wilson.

Disagree with the can't have Ojo, Ferguson and Bryson together: we simply don't know yet. Given the states of fitness I thought Bryson was ok and Ojo was excellent.
.

The playing together comment I made is my opinion on how I saw them play. The one defensive midfield and the other 2, let's say, box to box they all want to come deep to collect the ball.
Now this I expect from Ojo as that link from defense and attack and that was the role fergie played last season with Shinnie so that's what he is used to (especially since that's the role he has played in the first two game and the role he started the game in).
The issue being that Bryson seems to want to play that way as well which is not a bad thing as he has loads of experience to take hold of the game but at times we had all three in our half and then the ball gets hoofed up to cosgrove, and went to them naturally but if he did wins the ball nobody was up there to pick it up.
If all three play we have to have one pushing up a lot further and/or have a lot more rotation which tbh could come with fitness.

It was a limp performance tonight but got a result, not the one we wanted or the one that was achievable, and I will look forward to see how they play at home to see if it was similar to the first game, when they won't have the excuse of travel or conditions to blame.
If we play well I then I think McInnes really needs to look at the travel the day before intinery as not acclimatising seems to affect us badly, especially if it's still to be hot in Croatia.

[afc1903mad]

WTF is that?!
You think that fuzz clears it up?!

Yeah, it’s not the best quality still taken from RedTv, but it shows it wasn’t over the top and you can make out his left leg is bent.

If you can’t, give Donsdaft a shout

[64syrupofjarvie]

I cannot. ****ing. Stand. Watching Cosgrove. He’s just awful. An anti-football footballer.

3 goals from 3 games.....means he's doing what he's paid for.....unlike many others tonight!

[RED_JOHN]

The fact you’d play Wright instead of Ojo kinda shows your lack of understanding, John.
No disrespect, but that’s nonsense.
Ojo’s role is similar to Ryan Jack’s was.
Be neat & tidy in possession and link the play.
He hasn’t played for 2 & a half months & not trained much.
FFS. Be fair.

Why throw him in then? Bad management. Dean Campbell and Scott Wright are getting easily dropped to make way for players who certainly aren’t any better. Give the young lads a fair crack at the whip. Campbell especially as he played the role occupied by Ojo was very harshly dropped. McInnes will kill a young players momentum easily.
As for my understanding of football, no point moaning about how we play as a team when you yourself seem to praise Ojo for a very mediocre performance at best playing alongside Bryson and Ferguson. We will not be much of a threat from the middle of the park with the 3 of them together. A big booooooh to negative football.

[ragnarok]

If we play well I then I think McInnes really needs to look at the travel the day before intinery as not acclimatising seems to affect us badly, especially if it's still to be hot in Croatia.

Does a day of acclimatisation help much? Not really sure that the body's physiology can adapt in a meaningful way in one day. An extra training session in the heat might be a hindrance more than anything else.

[The_Moog]

Well that was simply brutal to watch.

Yes, 1-1 is a decent result normally in Europe but that lot were gash, we just didn’t have the positivity or ambition to impose ourselves on them.

We should be beating teams like that without doubt.

That’s down to the manager. He’s simply too cautious, too safety first minded & too worried about what the opposition will do.

Early second half a good example. We finally got forward quickly, got in behind them & hedges (I think) just squared it to nobody in the middle of the box.

I was giving him dogs abuse for not cutting it back but then saw the replay & we had nobody, not one player, getting forward into the box from midfield. Why, cause they were all too deep to get up there in support in time.

I lost count of the amount of times a bit of bravery & ambition on the ball might have got us into an attacking position but instead it was the usual easy, safety first sideways or backwards pass.

The team just reflects the manager.

Cosgrove actually did very well defensively - tracking back and clearing danger a few times - but again it shows DM’s approach when your one attacker is back in his own box regularly.

If he is going to be the lone target man though his touch & awareness has to improve greatly. As said elsewhere, he lacks composure, touch & game awareness.

The point re Wilson & the way he controlled and laid off that high ball is a good one as a comparison. Without wishing to be overly dramatic, It was sublime. That’s what a proper footballer can do. Cosgrove would give himself a hernia trying that. If we want to play any football at all this year we’ve got to get Wilson in the team. I want to see him get a decent run like May got so we can judge him properly.

I liked Ojo. Did well for his first game. He’ll be good in that holding role once up and running. The rat but with more dig & mobility.

We should get through here, but we need to be a hell of a lot better against Rijeka & in the league.

[Redbull666]

RJ you need to watch Ojo's interview again, his job was never going to be about putting through balls for the strikers. He said he is there to win the ball and give it to better players, he sits in front of the defence and often I saw him drop into cover gaps which he did pretty well. It's unfortunate that those 'better' or rather more creative midfielders weren't up to much today. His general play was excellent. He was composed and didn't waste many passes. He made one rash tackle that looked to me risking a red card and was naive for the pen, though that was possibly more down to clever play from their striker. He is what we need in that position but Ferguson/Bryson/McGinn and others will have to do more with it when he does give them the ball.