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Aye, I agree. I actually found it more frustrating that we played two up front and yet we never give Nisbet the opportunity of playing with a partner. Not sure what player Thelin was watching last season, but he was almost always better with Gueye alongside him. I said before we resigned him that unless we were playing a two then we might as well not bother with the transfer. It's frustrating that we can apply the available evidence, but a manager can't. I remember watching Bruce Anderson break through for us, and McInnes would almost always take the striker off for him, leaving him as a lone striker which he inevitably couldn't do. It'd be like a form of torture, which it's like watching Nisbet lead the line. It leads directly to comments about him being lazy, or shite, when neither are particularly true.

Back when Fergie was manager, if a player asked for a day off he'd chain them to the side of the pier. After high tide, he'd untie them, and if they weren't dead he'd fine them a week's wages.

Got some talent, but wholly unsuited to Scottish football as he lacks physicality & needs time & space on the ball you don’t get here in order to be effective. If he leaves (& personally I wouldn’t offer him a new deal for the reasons stated above) he’d be absolutely mental to stay in Scotland (again for the reasons stated above). He would go with my best wishes though, primarily for that utterly class cup final penalty (fair play, showed a level of bottle I didn’t think he had) and also for his brilliant reaction when the winning penalty went in…

Players in the auld days used to do a 16 hour shift down the pit every day and still turn out for their team on a Saturday afternoon. Modern footballers don't know they're born.

️ Warning: Really boring answer coming up. ️ There's been a few articles on this. Typically, a player is entitled to five weeks paid holiday a year. They can't always get those five weeks in pre-season. And I think they get public holidays added to that too as they work Christmas etc. If Aberdeen had lost the cup final, the early European fixtures would have meant we'd probably have started back 19 June like most clubs did. Can't be arsed working out how many paid holidays days that is, but it would fall well short of their entitlement. And then you had Keskinen playing at the U21 Euros and, I can't remember, but Mitov probably playing for Bulgaria etc. The holiday allowance actually starts 1 July, so the longer summer break we had this season doesn't actually count towards this season. So basically, in short, without a winter break, we need to use the international breaks to give them their days off. Woke nonsense etc.

Agree 100% with this. Our squad is just not very good. We were absolutely played off the park by Motherwell - again. There are fundamental basic issues. Too many players not suited to the rigours of Scottish football Too many players not suited to the style the manager wants to play Too many players who lack basic tactical nouse and technical ability. Too many “project players” and reclaim projects - guys who only see us as a stepping stone to bigger things. Of course they miss the point that “bigger things” only come if they deliver here, but fundamentally most don’t really give a fuck. A manager struggling to implement any sort of style of play & who doesn’t react well to in game issues. We sit too deep, don’t press high or aggressive enough & as such our forwards are totally isolated and out numbered. Key squad issues for me: We are too small and lack physicality at the back. See ridiculous amount of goals we lose from set plays and balls into the box for evidence. We are too old and/or too weak physically in midfield for Scottish football. Means we don’t get forward quickly or often enough (hence lack of goals) & lose out on far too many second balls (overrun in the middle) We sold our only genuine physical presence (Gueye - not replaced), & our only genuine pacey wing threat (Morris - not replaced) though Karlsson is a real talent, but not the same type of player. The wingers in general just don’t create enough - its all Karlsson who mostly has to create for himself. Our forwards either aren’t suited to one up front (Nisbet) or aren’t getting supported well enough (Lazetic) all for reasons mentioned above. Frankly, its all a bit of a mess so hopefully Lutz will be the spark and missing piece to start sorting it out because frankly, the current incumbents have proven incapable of doing so…

Just when you think you can’t hate Darvel any more, they appoint Nacho Novo as manager

It is. Currently 2-0 up with Ross getting 2nd.

'You cant expect a professional, paid to do nothing but play football all day to achieve the same level of physical fitness as a man who works in a chip shop all week and only plays football on saturdays'

He’s actually worse - the John Brown, Ian Ferguson, Durrant types are born & (in)bred into it - they can’t help themselves. Novo is a Spanish Catholic ffs. Someone who, just like the likes of Goram, has absolutely no family or cultural links to that disgusting embarrassment of an organisation but sold their souls and bought into the whole bigotry schtick just to make some coin. Utterly repulsive vermin, the lot of them…

Karlsson is a fantastic player, unfortunately he is wasted in our current set up. I can't help but feel sorry for Clarkson at the moment. Probably our best midfielder, just getting occasional minutes in the second half is frustrating for him and the team The lad is a joy to watch. He must have done something wrong to be so out of the picture, whilst we struggle create.

Michael McPervo - You rock my world

Interesting comments from Karlsson after the game - "There’s a different way of managing the game now. We think it’s working. We are doing better – but I still want us to do more offensively than we have been until now. “How are we going to create more chances? It’s a good question because from my point of view we come quite low, our block is low and you don’t get the press. “We are running around so when we win the ball, it’s still too far to the goal. “We have to work on our build-up and find better alternatives, because we have dropped down and only two up front. “It has been Marko (Lazetic) and myself against how many players, I don’t know? “We are trying to find ways to come out of their press, so it’s something we have to work on."

Thanks for the explanation- 5 weeks seems excessive given the work day sometimes comprises of an hour and a half of “training” i understand that players deserve downtime like everyone else and need to physically recover given more games being played, but feel we could be be doing more with some of the downtime when it becomes available modern fitba is p1sh

Perhaps I was not exactly clear, as when I said start with two up front Lazetic and Nisbet is exactly what I meant. I honestly believe if we play them two up front regularly we will win far more games than we will lose. I am not so sure who we "sacrifice" to play both Lazetic and Nesbit but going by the last few games there are plenty fkn choices as with the exception of Dylan Lobban they have all been mince.

We did go with two up front from the start though. We played a 3-5-2, with Karlsson next to Lazetic, changing half way through the first half as they were overrunning us in midfield. If we're playing two up front, it has to be Nisbet and Lazetic, at the expense of Karlsson in my opinion, but it seems that Karlsson will play every game. Also, Shinnie and Armstrong (mainly the latter) struggled with being stretched between wing back and midfielder when playing either side of Polvara, and we were much better when they reverted to Shinnie and Polvara sitting, with Armstrong breathing out his arse out of the way a bit. I think we'd have to address the midfield three if playing two up front. I would suggest a 3-4-1-2, to allow the sitting midfield with one in front, that will sort of match most teams.

He's not finished, he's only 42

Agree with a lot of what youre saying,but as already mentioned its also the way other sides have been moving the ball quicker,tidier,and getting forward in numbers earlier.If we're supposed to be a quick on the break side,why do we look like were playing with the handbrake on,and disjointed and less assured going forward.. Guessing much of that may be non consistency of team selection,which, goes back to the issue of not having the right mix of squad,isnt helping Thelin.But even then,should we not be able to get more out of what weve got?

But, have you seen our squad? I don't think it's very good. We've maybe had one good signing in the summer, in Lazetic. Armstrong probably a downgrade on the younger and fitter McGrath. Karlsson not being nearly as effective as Morris. The rest being completely replaceable by a number of serviceable SPFL players. Players like Palaversa, Polvara and Keskinen simply haven't kicked on from not being good enough in the first place, with Shinnie and Nilsen being a year older, and it showing. There's just not a lot to work with, and other than the new manager bounce, I don't see us being in a better place. We could probably, maybe, improve the performances of Nisbet by playing him correctly in a two, playing Clarkson, keeping Armstrong further forward etc, but I think the issues are largely personnel based rather than tactics. For me, getting rid of Thelin is basically blaming him for the poor squad building. The entire point in getting rid of McInnes, and employing the following four (and a half) managers, was that we were no longer letting the manager do the squad building (at least not unchallenged). We've done exactly that, whilst having a stupid "strategy" of signing project players that seems to force the manager to build unbalanced squads. I don't think we'll ever get the opportunity to see if Thelin can do it for us as a manager, because the new sporting director will likely need more than two windows to sort the mess that he's walked into.

Noooooooooooooo. It's nae fitba. Note the shape not Another thing to add to my list of preferences of here over AbMad - this topic lives in the right place Edit: This would wind me up way more than it should have

Never stopped Toni Kombuare

If he has any sense Polvara will return to US as I just don’t think he is cut out for Scottish football. Not concerned about him joining another Scottish club.

Another window, though, where I think that the first priority has to be shipping players. I'd like to see us go full clear out, and get rid of Clarkson*, Polvara, Palaversa, Nilsen, Ambrose and Yengi. We won't have Europe, and that clear out will set us up nicely for the summer. *I think Clarkson is our best player, but I hate seeing him on the bench. Just get rid of he's not happy, or the manager is unhappy with him.