Cut and paste

[Handsome_Devil]

0-0 against stuffy opponents, take off defensive midfielder for striker, lose 0-1.

I can't even get into all the other guff about today - no doubt later - but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY DO WE KEEP MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE? TAKE THE BLOODY POINT. How did Robinson think going 4-2-4 was going to end?

There's no bigger crime than losing 0-1 at home to a team playing for 0-0 and we do it time and time again, half the time in the exact same way we did today.

[Gowboy]

That was dreadful. You are correct HD - schoolboy tactics of chucking on forwards and hoping for something to happen. Then the inevitable happens because we were short of midfield nouse with the removal of Alan Campbell. It’s possible he may have been carrying an injury because he was not as prominent in the second half but even operating at 60% taking him off allowed Accies to push forward while we had Long, Hastie, Watt and Hylton floundering to make any impression whatsoever. Lose to Glentoran and we will be looking for a new manager.

[LawSteelman]

You could write the script with this team and manager. We are going nowhere under Robinson.

[Wellup4it]

As the game wore on you sensed it was only a matter of time before Accies scored with a sucker punch.

[Handsome_Devil]

You could write the script with this team and manager. We are going nowhere under Robinson.

The comparison to McCall's last season is frightening. Robinson has done well for us overall and he has turned it round when looking doomed on several occasions. So I'm not writing him off completely. But the total collapse of Long, Watt and Polworth suggests something behind the scenes, you wonder if the deification of Turnbull has caused annoyance or if there's a split between those in the dressing too openly taking the club at their word of being a 'stepping stone' and those who know this is their level.

If that's right, Robinson is done and until a new broom sweeps clean we're in bother. If it's wrong, we'll be fine...

Because for all the defence looks shaky at times, five goals conceded in five games with a patched up back four is hardly a disgrace (especially as two of them were penalties). The midfield of Campbell and Turnbull would walk into most other sides and since DT has got sharper has been playing well. Hylton was excellent September-December 2019 and hasn't kicked a ball since. Long was on course for 15 goals last season which as striker not on penalty duty would have been a superb return regardless of his flaws. Lang did well in England and was highly rated, Watt impressed in his cameo last season. The attack - despite mediocrity so far - is not no goals from five bad. Or shouldn't be.

Bizarrely I still feel the problem is Turnbull and getting the best out of him. We have pace in the side but don't use it because everything goes through the playmaker. This gives time for the opposition to get settled and even if he picks out nice passes, he doesn't have the team-mates with the movement and control to thread our way through packed defences. Turnbull was also at his best when he could support Main being a ball to chest/feet target man who could feed him or Hastie/Aryibi out wide. None of our forwards are capable of doing that so in effect Turnbull is playing a different game to before which also serves to make life harder for the wingers.

Robinson's flaws are well known but he has also changed it when needed. Binning the wingers - and presumably going to some kind of midfield diamond or a 4-2-2-2 shape to include two defensive and two attacking folk in the centre behind two up top - would an admission of catastrophic failure.

If we lose on Thursday I think he'll go voluntarily (and if not the board should seriously consider pushing him). Win, escape humiliation at Celtic and we have the international break to lick our wounds and consider the future. That will be easier said than done without key players in training obviously but it will take the heat off for a fortnight which is no bad thing.

[LawSteelman]

I agree but I don't see him walking anytime soon even if we do lose on Thursday.

A trait of Robinson over the past couple if years is that we'll have a run of wretched results and then we'll pick up a decent result out of nowhere when the pressure is really on him, usually against a Hibs, Aberdeen or St.Johnstone which then buys him a bit more time before we inevitably revert to type. The two cup runs of 2017/18 have and continue to afford him alot of grace into the bargain.

The reality is though that we have been rank rotten for two years now, bar a brief spell from January to April 2019 and Robinson has failed miserably to address the problem areas of the team. He hasn't signed a forward worthy of the name, preferring to acquire sub standard wingers who "are comfortable playing anywhere across the front three" and carthorses like White and Sammon and as a result we struggle to create anything. Folk will point to last season and "finishing third" but we were crap then as well and only "finished third" because that's where we found ourselves when the season was abandoned in mid March. Since the turn of the year our form has been awful and to date we have won TWO games in the league. That's simply not good enough and certainly grounds for calling the managers position into question.

[Handsome_Devil]

Don't disagree with your main point but after a slow start last season we lost only three non-OF games August to December. We were close to matching Celtic for points over the calendar year and the fact we ended up third at the postpone after our collapse in 2020 proves we had been anything but crap before.

Robinson does have a useful knack of digging out a result. I think unless we lose to Glentoran he'll be given the first round of fixtures to turn it round.

[dazlhigh]

The comparison to McCall's last season is frightening. Robinson has done well for us overall and he has turned it round when looking doomed on several occasions. So I'm not writing him off completely. But the total collapse of Long, Watt and Polworth suggests something behind the scenes, you wonder if the deification of Turnbull has caused annoyance or if there's a split between those in the dressing too openly taking the club at their word of being a 'stepping stone' and those who know this is their level.

If that's right, Robinson is done and until a new broom sweeps clean we're in bother. If it's wrong, we'll be fine...

Because for all the defence looks shaky at times, five goals conceded in five games with a patched up back four is hardly a disgrace (especially as two of them were penalties). The midfield of Campbell and Turnbull would walk into most other sides and since DT has got sharper has been playing well. Hylton was excellent September-December 2019 and hasn't kicked a ball since. Long was on course for 15 goals last season which as striker not on penalty duty would have been a superb return regardless of his flaws. Lang did well in England and was highly rated, Watt impressed in his cameo last season. The attack - despite mediocrity so far - is not no goals from five bad. Or shouldn't be.

Bizarrely I still feel the problem is Turnbull and getting the best out of him. We have pace in the side but don't use it because everything goes through the playmaker. This gives time for the opposition to get settled and even if he picks out nice passes, he doesn't have the team-mates with the movement and control to thread our way through packed defences. Turnbull was also at his best when he could support Main being a ball to chest/feet target man who could feed him or Hastie/Aryibi out wide. None of our forwards are capable of doing that so in effect Turnbull is playing a different game to before which also serves to make life harder for the wingers.

Robinson's flaws are well known but he has also changed it when needed. Binning the wingers - and presumably going to some kind of midfield diamond or a 4-2-2-2 shape to include two defensive and two attacking folk in the centre behind two up top - would an admission of catastrophic failure.

If we lose on Thursday I think he'll go voluntarily (and if not the board should seriously consider pushing him). Win, escape humiliation at Celtic and we have the international break to lick our wounds and consider the future. That will be easier said than done without key players in training obviously but it will take the heat off for a fortnight which is no bad thing.

I feel that you're right about David; just as a few more Dons fans are finding some merit in Curtis Main, I think we're missing him. He was better at holding the ball up than anyone we've got now, and, as one Aberdeen fan posted, he tries hard all the time. We have enough players who are more than capable in our league but we need to find a system which recognises that packed defences will be the order of the day. Outside the OF, this must surely be the lowest - scoring start to the season ever. David has to pause and look around too often before he passes - usually to someone standing still, and with his back to goal. They need to sit down and sort this out.

[LawSteelman]

Don't disagree with your main point but after a slow start last season we lost only three non-OF games August to December. We were close to matching Celtic for points over the calendar year and the fact we ended up third at the postpone after our collapse in 2020 proves we had been anything but crap before.

Robinson does have a useful knack of digging out a result. I think unless we lose to Glentoran he'll be given the first round of fixtures to turn it round.

We were dismal over the piece last season and despite as you say only losing three non OF games between August and December we showed no real consistently apart from a brief spell at the end of August/start of September. The football we played was awful to watch as it always has been under Robinson and that was before our collapse after the turn of the year.

We have no creativity, no threat up front and that's been an issue now for three years almost since Moult left. That this has not been addressed in that time is criminal and results and performances like yesterday are all too common. But as I said we usually get that decent result from somewhere that 'kicks the can down the road' and keeps the serious heat off Robinson. Rinse, repeat.

[Handsome_Devil]

Surely losing only losing only three non-OF games in over four months is the definition of consistency? We put three past Hibs, Hearts, St Mirren, Hamilton,St Johnstone off the top of my head, several of the goals we scored were brilliant.

We weren't Brazil but if you aren't happy with us in that run you will never, ever, be content.