Jimmy Thelin

[Don Julio]

So, the honeymoon is over and we?re back to the usual happy clappers v pant pishers. Worth thinking about why and how we?ve got here.

Quality on the park
The core of our team remains those that under performed pre Thelin. I think everyone recognises that he?s improved our players all over the park. And yet we?re on a downward slide. So whatever happened early doors versus now isn?t about ability (except maybe the loss of Gueye up front).

Formation/style
The way we play is now understood and we can see people setting up in a way designed to disrupt that in a way they weren?t early on. So it?s more difficult to play the way we want. Lots of people calling for changes in formation. But I don?t see that happening. This is a coach who has made his name playing a certain way and has sold that vision to the board. We might see some evolution but nothing drastic. Is it that we don?t have the quality to deal with opposition who are set up cleverly?

Confidence
We weren?t exactly world beaters during the league cup group stages or the early SPL games. But winning breeds confidence and confidence really matters. That shone through. That?s gone now and no getting it back till we get a win or two.

Performance levels
Not entirely separable from confidence but some players look tired and performances are suffering. One or two appear less motivated? Certainly we?re not battling in the way you have to in Scotland. And we?ve been playing one or two who just don?t seem to be up to standard yet. And yet Thelin keeps persevering with some players even when performance levels are low.

For me, what we?re seeing is Thelin having a very clear blueprint which has met the reality of a group of players who can?t execute it well enough against teams who are set up to nullify it. And I would argue that maybe the reason he keeps playing the same players is that he feels they?re the ones most able to execute what he wants. So even when they?re clearly exhausted he keeps playing them. Put that together and you see a drop in performance and a loss of confidence. Add in strikers who aren?t firing and a central defensive partnership that?s too inexperienced and you get what we?re seeing.

All this might be right, might be wrong. But in the short term the January window looks important and at the very minimum we need to fix the back line and the number 9 or we?re in trouble.

Sorry - far too long a post?.

[blowupsheep]

Not sure where we will go from here DJ.
I do have this bad feeling that we will continue to be in freefall and get worse before we get any better.
Yes we need to fix the central defending malarkey, should be an easy enough fix by binning Ruby and going with MacDonald and Malloy that is already an improvement before a ball is kicked.
The number 9 is a harder one, we could have the best number 9 in the league but if we are not giving him chances then even he is going to fail to score.
We have some talent for sure but we have some some real under achievers and sadly one or two who look as if they have already checked out.
Like I say I don't know what the quick fix solution is but I fear we will get worse before we see any glimmer of hope.

[Mason89]

Nothing we can do as a club changes anything. The reality of that hit me during our most recent visit to the Methadome.
Over the decades the board managers back room staff players formations and tactics have all changed but our position as a club never does. Its just different flavours of sh1te

[Red Zone]

So, the honeymoon is over and we?re back to the usual happy clappers v pant pishers. Worth thinking about why and how we?ve got here.

Quality on the park
The core of our team remains those that under performed pre Thelin. I think everyone recognises that he?s improved our players all over the park. And yet we?re on a downward slide. So whatever happened early doors versus now isn?t about ability (except maybe the loss of Gueye up front).

Formation/style
The way we play is now understood and we can see people setting up in a way designed to disrupt that in a way they weren?t early on. So it?s more difficult to play the way we want. Lots of people calling for changes in formation. But I don?t see that happening. This is a coach who has made his name playing a certain way and has sold that vision to the board. We might see some evolution but nothing drastic. Is it that we don?t have the quality to deal with opposition who are set up cleverly?

Confidence
We weren?t exactly world beaters during the league cup group stages or the early SPL games. But winning breeds confidence and confidence really matters. That shone through. That?s gone now and no getting it back till we get a win or two.

Performance levels
Not entirely separable from confidence but some players look tired and performances are suffering. One or two appear less motivated? Certainly we?re not battling in the way you have to in Scotland. And we?ve been playing one or two who just don?t seem to be up to standard yet. And yet Thelin keeps persevering with some players even when performance levels are low.

For me, what we?re seeing is Thelin having a very clear blueprint which has met the reality of a group of players who can?t execute it well enough against teams who are set up to nullify it. And I would argue that maybe the reason he keeps playing the same players is that he feels they?re the ones most able to execute what he wants. So even when they?re clearly exhausted he keeps playing them. Put that together and you see a drop in performance and a loss of confidence. Add in strikers who aren?t firing and a central defensive partnership that?s too inexperienced and you get what we?re seeing.

All this might be right, might be wrong. But in the short term the January window looks important and at the very minimum we need to fix the back line and the number 9 or we?re in trouble.

Sorry - far too long a post?.

On the contrary, an excellent well thought out post DJ.

I would add to the above that the matchday squad against United contained 13 players that were signed before JT arrived (it was 14 the match before) so we need to give JT time to build the squad that he wants before judging him. Patience is required as that will take at least the next two windows if not longer. He came with the reputation of being a steady squad builder so let's give him a chance to show that here. We have to get away from the hire and fire of the last few years and JT has shown enough already that he may well be the long term solution.

I think it's no coincidence that the majority of our league winning run came when we were playing one game a week and the majority of the drawing/losing run has come when we are playing twice a week. The engine of our team of Shinnie/Nilsen are just too old to be effective twice a week in a demanding CM position, which also applies to Devlin to an extent as well (he contributed to a lot of our early season attacking success, much less so recently). After the sevco away game most of the rest of the season for us will be Saturday to Saturday so we may get away with rolling out Shinnie/Nilsen/Devlin but in reality we either have to trust Palaversa/Polvara to start more often or sign alternatives - an alternative to Devlin is clearly needed.

I suspect our overall league record now is probably about what would have been seen as positive for most people at the start of the season given last year's record, it's just very unfortunate we got there by having such a great start to the season followed by a terrible recent run.

We just need to collectively take a breath and trust JT to put it right via both the practice pitch and the transfer window and look forward to getting back on track starting with a win on Thursday

[KincorthDon]

So, the honeymoon is over and we?re back to the usual happy clappers v pant pishers.

Formation/style
The way we play is now understood and we can see people setting up in a way designed to disrupt that in a way they weren?t early on. So it?s more difficult to play the way we want. Lots of people calling for changes in formation. But I don?t see that happening. This is a coach who has made his name playing a certain way and has sold that vision to the board. We might see some evolution but nothing drastic. Is it that we don?t have the quality to deal with opposition who are set up cleverly

Good post DJ and agree with most of everything said
Formation wise, can?t continually follow the same path if the players aren?t good enough to deploy it successfully - the midfield 2 of Nilsen and Shinnie don?t protect the back 4 especially when the full backs push on - and we are exposed with two wingers high up.
Having 2 central defenders that need guiding through games- Molloy not strong enough and Ruby not composed enough- doesn?t help.

If we are to persist with this formation then we need two mobile central midfielders that can cover. Our energy levels from the pressing side that we had when we were winning games has dropped significantly and we give too much time to the opposition
Playing Clarkson and McGrath in same team hasn?t worked either and should be one or the other- McGrath has been very poor since his op and for me should be the one that drops out.
When chips are down, don?t see many battlers in there ready to do the dirty stuff. The conditions lately haven?t made for great football- when was the last game there wasn?t a swirling wind ? And yet we continue to play triangles in our own box when not good enough to do so. I am not advocating hoof ball but need to mic it up rather than adding pressure to our defence

Ross County will be up for a battle - just hope we are

[Don Julio]

That?s a good point RZ about one game a week early on vs two games of late. Could make a real difference.

KD - I think he will persist with the formation no matter what, and I think he would say that?s what he sold the board. He makes his point about 3 years and I think he means it. Will be fascinating to see if AFC have the patience to take the rough with the smooth. As I understand it Elfsborg went through some rough times.

[GASC1980]

Excellent post by Don Julio and followed up well by Red Zone.

[TheDeeDon]

Nothing we can do as a club changes anything. The reality of that hit me during our most recent visit to the Methadome.
Over the decades the board managers back room staff players formations and tactics have all changed but our position as a club never does. Its just different flavours of sh1te

What are your expectations though Mason?

We're not going to win the league again in my lifetime, unless we get rid of both arse cheeks and they will never leave guaranteed champions league football behind to become also rans in a bigger league.

Our chairman at the time telling everyone that we needed a strong and stable Rangers, when they died, killed off any hope of any real change for our game and now the league is a bigger mess than it's ever been.

I go to games and enjoy them on the whole. Even when the chips are down, like they are at the moment.

I'm lucky enough to have limited expectations and know well come out the current slump soon enough.

I'd even go as far to say it's been more enjoyable supporting the club since Gnasher took over than anytime under the backrupt builders reign.

I just have a feeling we have the real deal manager wise and will continue to back him.

[Mason89]

My expectations are that a properly functioning well ran Aberdeen FC should be best placed to hoover up anything not won by the @rse cheeks. Qualifying for Europe should be the absolute minimum & I?d accept the odd season in the bottom six if there?s an obvious rebuild going on. I don?t think any of that is unreasonable.

The problem we have which can?t be fixed in my opinion is that we rightly wouldnt accept some of the shyte that other teams in the league are happy to. We cant afford to sign players that will make a consistent difference though. We will never be able to spend the money to be noticeably better than the shyte.

It was at St. Mirren I had this revelation so I?ll use them as an example. We wouldn?t accept Alex Gogic at AFC as we all know he?s pish. When they play us though he always plays like Franco Baresi while their triple barrel surnamed striker scores his only goal of the season against us to win. It?s infuriating. How many no mark Motherwell players down the years have turned into wonder players for 90mins?

We?ll continue to turn up in large numbers & other teams will know our players can?t handle it. We?re stuck in a shyte Goldilocks zone that we will never get out. Nothing will ever change. COYR!

[KincorthDon]

I think he will persist with the formation no matter what, and I think he would say that?s what he sold the board. He makes his point about 3 years and I think he means it. Will be fascinating to see if AFC have the patience to take the rough with the smooth. As I understand it Elfsborg went through some rough times.

I tend to agree he will stick with plan A but hopefully he gets the right recruitments in January that will go straight into first team
No winter break this year which may have helped us regroup but need to stick with the manager and the team and hopefully bad run ends Thursday