Aberdeen v FCSB

[TheDeeDon]

I wouldnt say FCSB are shyte but they did nothing of note to impress me last night and were there for the taking after their player got sent off.

It will be a different story over there though, I think they will play a lot better at home than they did at Pittodrie.

We probably should have beaten them at home, but their finishes were very good.

Showed the difference of having the right player(s) up front.

[RED_JOHN]

We definitely need to get decent strikers in. We are woeful in front of goal.
It was interesting that last night Jimmy Turnip subbed a lot of his new players off. The suggestion that they aren?t good enough to wear that jersey comes to mind.
Ohsh!t hides in matches. Has the odd nice touch but doesn?t properly pick up areas of space to hurt opposing teams. He puts himself onto defenders. Not a clever player.
Yengi is horrendous. What a disastrous signing.
Dante Polvara done more and looked far more dangerous in his short space of time on the pitch than both those muppets put together.
Shinnie is out of favour as is Devlin. They may well be better looking for another club. Turnip only looks to Shinnie when things are real desperate.

[rico94]

Shinnie is getting to the stage of his career where he shouldnt be playing every week. The problem is he is the only player in the squad that can drive us on.

Nilsen seems to be a favourite of Thelins but to me he slows the play down too much when we should be playing like we did after the subs came on last night.

[TheDeeDon]

Shinnie is getting to the stage of his career where he shouldnt be playing every week. The problem is he is the only player in the squad that can drive us on.

Nilsen seems to be a favourite of Thelins but to me he slows the play down too much when we should be playing like we did after the subs came on last night.

Absolutely this.

We know Shinnie is coming to the end, but he made a huge difference when he come on. You can't really buy his level of experience, especially with such a young team.
His interview after the match was good as well. Saying individual errors cost us, then quickly changed it to team errors. Individuals don't make mistakes, the team does! Straight out of the American business manuals.


Nilsen is two months younger than Shinnie and didn't have pace to lose in the first place.
I don't think he is made for the Scottish game.
Maybe if he had come over at a younger age it would have been different. All he does, in my opinion, is point a lot and give the ball away. As I said on a previous thread. I don't mind players who shout at other players, but you don't do that if you f*ck up as much as anyone else.

The two in midfield, in front of the defence are an important part of Thelinball and we need the right pairing, as much as we need more quality up front.

[swaddon2]

I saw in the highlights that some of the commentators weren't 100% sure if it was a red card.

They must be having a laugh. It was the reddest red card ever.

[The_Moog]

Didnt see it live last night as was at ACDC in Edinburgh (cracking show) but watched the whole game earlier & have to agree with a lot of the comments.

Firstly credit to all for battling back to get the draw, but fuuck me, yet again we make things incredibly hard for ourselves through our own ineptitude.

We played ok. Kept the ball pretty well but generally did fuuck all wi it as usual.

We are getting nowhere until the defence gets sorted out though - both basic mistakes & positioning.

Milnes positioning is terrible at the first goal. That said it was more on molloy and that goal showed why I just dont rate him that much. He has his attributes, but he’s just too wee, not physical enough, not good enough in the air & got beat yet again for a bread & butter defensive header.

Im done with the full backs constantly pushing on thing too. Its utter suicide.

Jensens positioning for the first goal when they are in possession and clearly going long is just ridiculous. Hes miles too far up the park.

We are getting nowhere until there is more pragmatism & common sense in the defensive setup cause its a complete clusterfuuck - Goowinesque levels.

Thelin needs to wise up on the fullbacks being pushed way way too far up the park far too often as its contributing to losing goals every week.

Polvara better get a start next week inna. He earnt it.

Games not over, but we are not keeping a clean sheet with the current defending and winning over there is going to be tough.

[rico94]

Didnt see it live last night as was at ACDC in Edinburgh (cracking show) but watched the whole game earlier & have to agree with a lot of the comments.

Firstly credit to all for battling back to get the draw, but fuuck me, yet again we make things incredibly hard for ourselves through our own ineptitude.

We played ok. Kept the ball pretty well but generally did fuuck all wi it as usual.

We are getting nowhere until the defence gets sorted out though - both basic mistakes & positioning.

Milnes positioning is terrible at the first goal. That said it was more on molloy and that goal showed why I just dont rate him that much. He has his attributes, but he’s just too wee, not physical enough, not good enough in the air & got beat yet again for a bread & butter defensive header.

Im done with the full backs constantly pushing on thing too. Its utter suicide.

Jensens positioning for the first goal when they are in possession and clearly going long is just ridiculous. Hes miles too far up the park.

We are getting nowhere until there is more pragmatism & common sense in the defensive setup cause its a complete clusterfuuck - Goowinesque levels.

Thelin needs to wise up on the fullbacks being pushed way way too far up the park far too often as its contributing to losing goals every week.

Polvara better get a start next week inna. He earnt it.

Games not over, but we are not keeping a clean sheet with the current defending and winning over there is going to be tough.

I stuck up for Thelin through that terrible run last season when others were wanting him gone but I just get the feeling that its only going to end one way.

Hes not going to change his philosophy of having our fullbacks pushing up so high and its going to continue to cost us conceding avoidable goals.

Thelin still has a lot of credit in the bank from the fans after winning the Scottish Cup and Cormack definitely wont want to sack him anytime soon.

Unfortunately if we continue to lose or draw games that we should be winning because of our defensive mishaps I can see the fans turning on Thelin and giving Cormack no option other than bin him.

[Don Julio]

I?m no footballing expert, but having listened to a fair few podcasts and read the Gavin McPhee stuff, isn?t the point that when we attack the two central midfielders are supposed to cover the centre, leaving the actual centre backs to move out to cover the full back positions.

Isn?t that why the midfield two tend to sit in. Because if they don?t then the actual centre backs are left massively exposed. It?s also presumably partly why he wants mobile centre backs with ball playing ability?

So is it the theory that?s wrong or the execution?

[rico94]

I?m no footballing expert, but having listened to a fair few podcasts and read the Gavin McPhee stuff, isn?t the point that when we attack the two central midfielders are supposed to cover the centre, leaving the actual centre backs to move out to cover the full back positions.

Isn?t that why the midfield two tend to sit in. Because if they don?t then the actual centre backs are left massively exposed. It?s also presumably partly why he wants mobile centre backs with ball playing ability?

So is it the theory that?s wrong or the execution?

That would make sense to me but from what I have seen it doesnt seem to be happening.

Palaversa and Nilsen were usually on the edge of the opponents box passing the ball out to the wingers and fullbacks, I cant recall many times where they slotted in to the fullbacks position to cover them and I dont think I have seen any of our holding midfielders doing that much in any other game.

When Jensen signed we were told he was a player who could play in a number of different positions, maybe have him as one of the holding midfielders so he can cover the fullbacks when they are high up the pitch.

[TheDeeDon]

I?m no footballing expert, but having listened to a fair few podcasts and read the Gavin McPhee stuff, isn?t the point that when we attack the two central midfielders are supposed to cover the centre, leaving the actual centre backs to move out to cover the full back positions.

Isn?t that why the midfield two tend to sit in. Because if they don?t then the actual centre backs are left massively exposed. It?s also presumably partly why he wants mobile centre backs with ball playing ability?

So is it the theory that?s wrong or the execution?

I think that was part of the success of our winning run at the start of last season.
Nilsen and Shinnie sat in more and it sort of worked, until opponents sussed us out after the first run of games, with injuries and fatigued players playing their part too.

I think I have posted on this thread already about how important the midfield pairing is, for this system Thelin prefers.

Then again, the same applies to all other areas of it.