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A countdown clock would be a very easy way to make VAR significantly better. If you can't tell if it's an error within ten seconds of seeing replays then it's not clear and obvious, play on.

Whether fans blame him or not my feeling was when seeing him at ft on wed that I think he defo blames himself. What's most frustrating for me is I thought he looked far more like himself against Livi. If he has a poor game against Dundee then you could argue he should probably be dropped for a few games as his confidence will be shot.

As I said earlier in this thread Sweden implement VAR best. They simply don't recognise it

Just saw the goals and I think Mitov's getting a bit of a hard time. I'd have the second and third firmly in the "could've done better" category and on a good day you'd have hoped he'd save them both but they weren't exactly clangers - like the St Mirren keeper's for Lazetic's first (and Mitov's attempt at the disallowed goal). The defending around both the open play goals was way more of an issue than the goalkeeping but players have off-nights so what can you do? Lobban, Devlin, Milne and Knoester all need to - and will be - better in other games. I just wonder if it's a coincidence that in the game we score three we also leak like a sieve...

That's what VAR does, and always has, done. It removes context via still shots and slow motion replay and asks the referee "can you see a foul here?". The reason that the ref is given a still shot is because the VAR lads will have deemed (correctly) that there was no foul on Knoester, and so the decision left to be made is whether or not it strikes his hand. Which is obviously ridiculous. The context of why his hand is in that position in the first place being completely omitted is unsurprising. It's fairly simple. The player wasn't being unsporting, wasn't trying to gain an advantage, had no reason to handle the ball, and didn't attempt to handle it. All of this can easily be determined in real time by the referee, and could easily be determined by the VAR lads too, but with context removed it becomes a "does ball hit hand" call, with a frantic discussion over how to interpret the rules that are only there in the first place because of VAR. The worst thing to happen to football, ever. Including Mark Hateley.

That's just as shite as VAR itself and solves nothing. Clear and obvious isn't defined by a time limit (because it cannot be defined by boundary). The first time the VAR cunts missed an incident that one of the scum was adamant was clear and obvious, but they couldn't get the camera angles in time, they'd change your arbitrary 20 seconds to 30 seconds, and so on. They'd rush to make a decision like last night's handball and just say it was handball because it hit the player's hand, and it's much, much quicker to spot handball, or "contact" rather than attempt to determine whether a foul has actually been committed. To be honest, it's one of the most cringey versions of VAR anyone could possibly think of. Imagine us all, sitting on the edge of our seats after every goal, perhaps counting down the 20 seconds with big grins on our faces, awaiting the result of our newly manufactured excitement. The players might do a huddle, Sky will give us a quick word from the VAR sponsors. As for most VAR calls, last night I sat in my seat with any excitement draining by the second. I genuinely couldn't have given a fuck what the outcome of any of the calls was by the time they were made. I don't need, or want, a manufactured "second cheer" after hearing the decision. I instantly assumed Lazetic was offside - as did the player - and didn't celebrate his first. None of this is removed by the 20 second rule. VAR is shite. It will always be shite. It is shite by definition. It cannot operate on subjective calls, and there aren't enough offsides in the world that could make it worthwhile for that either. I wish people would stop suggesting "ways to make VAR better". It's a completely flawed concept, which everyone knew in advance.

Your clutching at straws if you think the clowns that run the game in Scotland could possibly approve something so sensible

Nice to see this one selling well. As Ajja says, just hope we somehow find that balance between attacking and defensively sound football. They’re a bit hard to predict at the moment, but there isn’t a reason why we shouldn’t get a result if we play any sort of logical system and line up. I know some feel mitov is getting undue stick, but he really needs to cut this flapping out. Hes been like this all season and it has cost us.

Typically in the end, it probably helped us, which is a dirty thing to say, but it’s still nice to have the caravan dwellers below us. Where they belong.

How the fuck can an inquiry into a “clear and obvious error” (VAR’s declaration of purpose) go on for the business end of four minutes if the hun with the playback screen interprets it as “clear and obvious”? Do these arseholes understand the language? The fucking fuckers.

Agreed. The second goal, Devlin has offered the guy the whole goal to aim for, whilst at the same time being close enough to the player that Mitov can't come off his line to narrow the angle like he normally would. The player angles to put it in the far corner, and just wraps his foot round it a bit to fool the keeper. It's an easy save with only the near post to aim for. The second is just a case of throwing your body towards the ball and 9 out of 10 times it hits you. It was a very good header, right into the ground. It was his all round play that wasn't at it last night. He was struggling to hold onto it on the first attempt. I noticed their keeper was the same, but the conditions weren't particularly bad. I don't think it's a coincidence that we lose goals the way we attacked last night. Nisbet and Lazetic both gave the ball away trying to do too much around our box late on, and Karlsson generally isn't a reliable defender. I think it's a combination of the attacking setup and the tiredness of our players. Quite a few looked spent around 80 minutes, and that leads to raggedness. The sort of thing you might get away with if you'd chosen a stuffy, narrow approach to the game.

Just watched the highlights. I think St Mirren are right to be aggrieved about their first goal being chalked off, didn't look right to me seeing it back, not sure it was a penalty though, so I suppose one cancels out the other. Their second, Milne slips, (wasn't the only one to slip during the match last night), I had forgotten Devlin was supposed to be covering, I had a recollection of their striker being one one one with Mitov. Their third, fuck me, it was a poor one and so late. Still not going to grumble too much, it was an entertaining game, not something we have been able to say of late. Was nice seeing one of our strikers score a poachers goal, with our second. 18 shots with 8 on target I think the stats said. if only Nisbet hadn't used the sharp edge of his head with thon header. We rode our luck on Sunday and came away with three points, we played much better last night and got a draw. That's fitba.

It's the wind! Agreed, we do get caught under the ball a lot. Rubi was really bad for it in the early Thelin period, but Milne has more than his fair share. It is his job to be the aggressive one, so I suppose he is going to make more errors in the air (because he headers it more). I don't think it's down to tactics or anything, just consistent individual errors. Knoester usually lets it bounce, Milne misses it, and Devlin doesn't get distance on them. It's why we need three defenders and not two.

There’s two fundamental issues with the defending of the ball in the air at the back. For set plays, long throws & crosses into the box, we just get out jumped and out muscled far, far more often than CH’s should. For long balls over the top from the opposition half, we get caught out being in the wrong place to deal with it far, far more often than we should. The amount of times the ball sails over our guys heads, or bounces in front of them is ridiculous. It’s the absolute meat and drink basics of defending and we are constantly, consistently, absolutely shite at it…

Aye, just home, good game. Very entertaining. A few costly mistakes from all over the park, and off it with the subs. Some really good performances, with Aouchiche probably the only one really off it tonight. Our legs had thoroughly gone by the end, and it showed. Polvara looked knackered, as did the three defenders. I can understand the five subs because of that, but I think Keskinen could have managed to see the game out, with Armstrong looking a little knackered so understandably taken off. A bit unlucky for Thelin I guess, you probably don't expect your sub to go off. VAR does nothing for football. It's making calls that don't matter, and taking fucking ages to do so. It needs to be binned. It's not the operators, as has been seen in Europe, it's anti-sport shite in every single country.

Took var about 10 minutes to check two goals, then Malloy got injured, which meant more time added on. VAR really is an abomination.

Not sure how you can claim Surman is decent, based on what, last season with Cove? He might actually be alright, but I don't think we can really tell yet. Do we risk it to find out or hope Mitov finds a bit of form.

Molloy got injured just after coming on, lengthy stoppage and had to go off which put us down to 10 for the rest of the game.

How can it take that long to check offside?

Bit of funk now and again

For me anyway, a stadium outside Aberdeen means, we're not Aberdeen anymore. If the economic benefits of a new stadium are so good and obvious, then why don't the great and the good of the City, many of whom have made a fortune from the oil and gas industry, not step up and chip in a few quid to build it. Be much more of a legacy than a car park at the hospital. Cormack is a shark and we have a few more than him involved at the club with very deep pockets (and short arms). I do agree that our Council is poor, has been for years, but not a unique problem to Aberdeen. Look at the limited gene pools in Westminster, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. Not a ringing endorsement of UK politics and it gets even worse at local government level. The last thing we need as a city, is for the stadium debate to become politicised. I trust Cormack about as much as I trust the council.