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I'm not convinced it's "5"s we need. The goals we are conceding are not towering headers. The Falkirk guy was a big lad but he had to stoop. We need a defender that attacks the ball a McKimmie or a Mabbut? Showing my age but big slow centre halves are exactly that. Reading the game shouldn't need to be taught and, by the time they are pro's, it's too late anyway.

It varies. When I moved to the states I started coaching here, I was god because I had an accent and talked a good game. I had a coaching license, very rare here. I coached how I wanted, where I wanted, any formation, signed any players, created game schedules etc. I did team budget, I did everything. when I ‘retired’ from coaching 2 years ago my last gig was an academy. The club signed the players and I was given players, the club dictated my squad size and make up, I was told formations to play, style to play, my league and tournament was scheduled for me. I had very little say. My top players were quite often taken from my team to play with older/better teams, and I didn’t have a say. It was positional too, when the ball goes to x position he should be doing this etc. I was just the coach implementing their plan. The only job I’ve ever been fired from was a coaching gig, my team were state champions, u16 boys, and the club hired a Director of Coaching, fired me because he didn’t like how I coached (despite behind heavily licensed an more qualified than him), I didn’t follow his Brazilian methods and coach his way. I had Brazilians, English kids, a Scottish kid, a German, and some Central Americans, as well as eastern European Americans. I argued we were a mix of cultures so my style would reflect that. Not what he wanted, an not what many pro teams want. They want you to implement their system. I understand where the game is going, but it certainly takes away creativity and individuality to an extent. Is it easy to play against, maybe, scout maybe, but if you are a well oiled machine you’ll be hard to beat. Arsenal have/had such a passing reputation, that was/is taught at all levels. Most top clubs dictate from the top down, teams at all play the same or similar style, same or similar formations, same positional coaching so that players can move seamlessly from team and age group. Very much how many pro clubs operate. Lobban should join the first team and things shouldn’t be much different and he adapts easily to fit the system. think lutz will go this way, the manager has to fit the club philosophy and identity. I don’t think the club hired well in Thelin or recruitment folks given the lack of Scots and what lutz said, I do believe lutz and cormack want that aggressive passion and Scottish blood in the team and have seem what the lack of that can do. im rambling but think i understand what we are doing. We’re def hiring a coach to implement a system, not giving a manager a lot of power.

Barry Nicholson was such a good player.

Wearing a black armband today….

Very normal with any team, shit defense is more pressure on the keeper, and he comes off his line more since he knows defenders won’t win headers. As a result he makes poor choices. You’ll see him in no man’s land and not get to crosses. Was the case with Lewis, when we had a shit defense he got worse.

I don't think so. We've just built a squad in which it is difficult to accommodate him. I'd play a 3-1-4-2, with Clarkson behind Shinnie and Aouchiche (if fit), but that leaves Armstrong out. Any midfield that includes Clarkson and Armstrong will be necessarily weak. Ideally Clarkson plays with two ball winners (or players that cover a lot of ground). It's not as simple as just playing him.

My take on it, is it could have been one helluva lot worse and I was expecting a royal scelpin what never happened, becaue they are nothing more than a mediocre team. We had our chances and with bit more composure things might have been different. I don't go along with all the slagging that NIsbet gets from a large percentage of our support, I think it's pretty harsh on him to be fair. He is by no stretch of the imagination our biggest problem. He works his sox off all the time he is on the pitch and with better service to him and playing him in his correct and strongest position he will deliver, he was unlucky with a very clever header that was well saved by huns keeper. He was right to square to Bilalovic when the two of them were through on goal and there is where Bilalovic just needs to show a bitty more composure and it's 1-1 (different game) Karlsson needs to be returned to sender (big let down) and not a team player, have been saying that since the first time I saw him play for "us" he always appears to be playing for Jesper Karlsson and not the Dons Clarkson needs to be starting every week, but it might be too late if his mind is already switched off and made up (huge fuk up by Jimmy Thelin with regards to dropping Clarkson) Anyway it could have been a lot worse last night, we are nae great but either were they. Onwards and upwards

Why is that news over here? If it happened here, it wouldn't be news over there. Our media numpties are obsessed with stuff that happens in America.

We missed a trick not taking Scott Bain back if you ask me. Whilst not the most glamorous sigining he was available on a free, would have been handy for the euro squad as he came through the dons youth system, and would have been genuine competition for Mitov. Is he at good at pens as Mitov? No, but hes defo far more solid in pretty much every other regard and I feel safe saying we would have more points on the board if he was our Goalie.

We did, there has been some successes in terms of player sales etc so at least some of our recruitment hasn't been awful. Some of Dereks recruitment could still net us tidy fee's too 2bf, Bristol have just triggered Mcrories year extension apparantly in the anticipation of bids for him and Ferguson could be off from Bologna this window as well with Inter being linked in December if memory serves. At best I would say we have made a cunt of it far more than we haven't.

I think he would have done better too (not because we made the wrong call, but because we did it so badly), but it'd have been a complete rebuild when he left, rather than a seamless transition. As it turns out, because we half arsed everything since he left, each manager has had to rip things up and start again anyway. We made a cunt of it.

God has proclaimed that he doesn't want any more "three year projects" at Aberdeen. Hopefully Cormack listens to Him.

Ike &Tina Turner - River Deep, Mountain (Mountain) High

Patti Griffin - Up to the monutain

^^^^^^This, absolutely. Dealing with corner kicks is primary school stuff. Again, all the new age laptop boffins will try to convince you that you need some set piece coach with a PhD in fitba tactics. Jist heed the ba awa. Nay difficult.

Re Mitov - Think he's still a good keeper,the leaky defence may be giving him the jitters.Cant remember him flapping as much last season as he is this

We may have to agree to disagree. Strachan or Harper could have won that ball. Leaving a space 8 yards from the centre of goal for someone to run into is the issue. I'll concede the boy at Dundee gives our lot a torrid time but I don't remember too many hanging headers it's poor fckg defending that's the issue.

Armstrong and Aouchiche are both candidates for being dropped. These are two of the players that have been playing most weeks and we have been pish.

More to do with some of us AbMad refugees, that took refuge here, as don't really know the politics of the existing Donstalk posters. I think when we vote for a party, or a leader/president. We believe they will do good, whether for yourself individually or your country. How you interpret good is another matter.

Chucking Clarkson in just because he's "good" is exactly the type of thing Lutz meant when he said we've got lots of good individual players but they don't fit together as a team. It would be super if we had a squad set up to accommodate a player of Clarkson's style and ability but I'm not sure that we do, hence why he's being left out a lot.

Need a moment like this please.

Information source not specific but there are articles flying around suggesting DJT informed the Oil companies before congress of the Venezuelan soirée. I could care less but Chevron shares did jump $5 the same day.......

20 years ago today, a cup game against the Jute, at Tannadice. The Don's fought back from being 2-0 down, at half time, to win the game 2-3. A rare away trip for myself and a fair old bounce at our third goal. https://www.afcheritage.org/matches/match-report?id=4703

Firstly, what a shit kick off time. Hopefully lessons learned from last night, but considering that soft goals were our downfall again, then maybe not. A team doesn't have to be good to beat us, just have to take the inevitable chances that will come their way. In South Stand Home Home 2-1 Armstrong & Lazetic

That's 12 players min, and that's before you shoehorn Allan Campbell in there.

Didn’t see much and didn’t expect much, but I suppose I expected a poorer result. It did seem we appeared to be livelier and more energetic, plus I did think Kjarten has potential. As has been said, very much a holding mid, but I think he has ability. We also created and missed chances. as has been said, we have such a squad imbalance there’s only so much you can change. Surprised lobban didn’t play, I wonder if we consider dropping Milne and playing devlin and polvara with knoester. Lobban an Jensen as wing backs, I just don’t rate gyamfi. Kjarten and shinnie with Clarkson at 10. Maybe adil and Armstrong with a forward, does it matter who? No width so no real point in going away from the back 3 at present, a very limited 9, signings def needed.

But harsh that, he found a few Dons players. And his corners are much better than Karlsson’s!

Half time. Terrible goals to give away. Could've scored a couple too. Still a bit soft and disjointed. Young boys look like the occasion is a bit much for them especially with the added pressure of a new coach. Defensively I'll give them time to work on better tactics but mitov totally undermines any good work. Easily cost us a dozen points this season already.

Our defence and defending is just a disgrace. Our coaching of set pieces and basic defending is a disgrace. Our lack of ability to do absolute basics is a disgrace. Complete reset required - again. We need to clean house, clear the decks all over the park and start again. Depressing stuff, again…

I think we are seeing why him and Bilalovic have had limited game time so far.

I wouldn't have given McInnes the same budget (not directly to him I mean), but I said at the time that he should have been given the full setup of sporting director, proper recruitment team etc (that he now has at Hearts). He was clearly a decent coach, with weaknesses in recruitment and youth development. The separation of those areas would have given him a huge boost in my opinion. I just don't believe that a manager can make good judgement calls on players when they're spending most of their days coaching. It's easyish for the first couple of seasons when you can call on talent that you have seen previously or contacts that you have, but the longer you are at a club then these avenues become a little less useful. A contact might change club or role. A player who was good two years ago might not be quite the same. McInnes obviously had the one off bonanza of being able to pick the best of the rest too, with the other challengers liquidated, administered or Butchered.

I think the philosophy thing is just a framework with room to manoeuvre. The idea is that you adopt a system from youth to first team, and you coach attributes that fit into that. If a particular manager chooses to be a zealot then that usually ends badly. On the other hand, if a manager chooses to play pragmatic, stuffy shite in perpetuity then they also get the boot. It sort of makes sense, it means that you're signing for a system and when you change manager you know the type of manager to look for. Most of what I just said applied to managers without the framework too of course, McInnes had a style very clearly. If it's clearly defined, then at least it can be subject to review within. It's something that is a nice to have though and should be subject to regular review and change. It's easy to say that it's modern fitba pish, but then in the same breath suggest that we shouldn't sign Robinson (for example) because of his style of play. I can't remember the last time we ever just needed 3 or 4 players in a window. It doesn't work like that. If you need 4 players then you sign between 6 and 8. You also need to make sure there's a constant stream going out the way. Contracts don't work to suit one in one out, players get injured long term, players leave for money etc. The biggest problem, though, is the transition between managers. All the knowledge, contacts etc go with them. That should be the property of the club. That's why the change has taken place. As I said previously, McInnes gave us the ceiling in that model. It was clear when he began to struggle that he didn't have any way to recover it. One shite window spiralled into many, and he was signing guys based on their games against us. There are so many examples of atrocious signings where someone in house should have had a veto (Storey, Tansey, Main a quick sample). In reality, a club of our size should have a collaborative model that allows the manager to pick two or three, and the recruitment team to do all the legwork. However, both sides should be open to scrutiny, with the final say going to someone with the authority and responsibility. Hence the sporting director.

One thing I don't think get's mentioned enough with McInnes is how underfunded he was by Cormack compared to every other hire under his regime. Clearly Cormack wanted his own manager in which, given his investment, is fair enough. I can't be the only Dons fan to have wondered how unstale things might have become under Derek if he was given the same budget to play with though.

Thoughts and prayers OD

Yep, Cormack has been ably assisted by the idiot BBC pundit in this regard, who constantly go on about Thelin "been backed". He hasn't. Backing either comes in the form of giving him the keys and the money, or having a structure in place to allow him to do his job. It doesn't come in the form of £X expenditure. Just shelling out cash isn't backing anymore than giving someone a hundred lottery tickets and telling them to buy a hoose with it is. It's the fourth manager in a row who can leave saying that the club didn't allow them to fulfill their potential. I don't think any of them would have made for the perfect manager, but under no circumstances should Dons fans buy into the nonsense narrative that they were "backed".

Obviously I couldn't give a fuck about the English pish, but agree with this. You can see how well McInnes is doing with the recruitment largely taken away from him. The problem is that if every other club has a team of analysts doing the recruitment then they're likely to see a better return over time - probably. You're also not going to get a good manager who'll want to spend days trawling data too. There's a ceiling to it, and we reached that with McInnes, who was spread far too thin with us. The sporting director is just the guy that pins together the recruitment, the sports science, youth team and the manager. He makes sure that the high level goals are being met and everything is staying in balance. Clearly what happened in the summer should never happen under a competent sporting director. He'd have questioned the recruitment of too many similar players, the lack of athletic midfielder, as well as insisting on space for youth. He holds all departments to account.

I wonder if the Killie board were looking at their pitch thinking "we could probably get another couple of years out of that"?

Once more we gid rid of the boss, on the back of an embarrassing loss Can the next in the job, make a fist of this mob? Or subject us to more dismal dross?

Going to jump to the defense of Dave Cormack here. Few out there blaming him for yet another bad hire/quick sacking. The club were not in a great financial shape when he joined the club, no training facility, a failing stadium, and other than Mcinnes (which coincided with significant financial issues in Scottish football and all of our league opponents except Celtic being relegated, and obviously rangers dying), we’ve arguably had 2 somewhat successful managers in smith/scott and calderwood since fergie. The rest have been poor. since Willie was manager (could argue he was successful I suppose) we’ve had (not including interim) - Aitken - 2 years 9 months Alex miller - 13 months Heggarty - 5 months (may have been intern) ebbe - 3 years 4 months (nearly relegated) Paterson - 1 yr 5 months Calderwood - 4 yrs 11 months mcghee - 1 yr 5 months brown - 2 yrs 4 months mcinnes - 7 yrs 11 months Glass - 11 months goodwin - 11 months robson - 1 yr Thelin - 1 yr 7 months Since cormack took over the game day experience seems to be excellent (based on what I see on red tv), the team are more connected with the fans (maybe a Thelin thing), and in current modern football he’s given managers time then pulled the plug when it’s not worked out. He’s made significant investment with the training ground, and we now have a director of football. He’s invested in the playing staff. Look at the sackings of Martin and now Nancy, cormack hasn’t been that heartless. I don’t particularly understand the hiring of glass, and while Goodwin, Robson, and even warnock weren’t my preferred choice,s, I understood the logic. He’s also been strategic in the firings, giving time to qualify for Europe and assess squads. Many wanted Robson as manager, an inside man and fans favorite, an he was willing to hire internally and give him a chance. curious to know what potential owners out there would come to Aberdeen and give more and do a better job. Rangers and Celtic appear a mess behind the scenes, I dont think we have it too badly and should maybe appreciate what we do have. Not an easy job finding quality owners and successful managers.

Just like that? The Maga's have missed a trick the margins are way higher with drugs

Probably but cannae mind a thing. Spent the entire couple of days on a bender

Binge watched the first The Night Manager series last night Although I watched it when originally released (2016 ?? ), I was surprised just how little of it I remembered. Excellent evening's viewing. Series 2 will have to go some to surpass it.

I would genuinely recommend kiwi chocolate brand Whittakers. Proper chocolate and I can’t touch Cadbury anymore, just doesn’t come anywhere near close. Not made with any of the palm oil shite either.