lubo_blaha
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Posts posted by lubo_blaha
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This season was significantly worse than last IMO, especially our form against teams other than Celtic. Last season we went on a run losing just one out of 28 games against the other 10 teams from our 3rd game of the season to when Celtic won the league. Since our good run at the start of the season we've won 13 of our 26 games. We've managed to beat a poorer Celtic team twice which is an improvement on last term but our results against the rest have been very poor.
Chopping and changing our team hasn't helped. Last season we had a largely settled back 4 from game to game and had extended runs of clean sheets. We then signed the best left back in the league and it resulted in constant alterations to the side as he moved between defence and midfield and I believe this has affected the performances of Considine, Reynolds and Taylor.
People have mentioned Jack should doing more to lead the team but I don't particularly blame him (unless he only stayed because he was given the armband). He should never have been made captain as he had previously displayed little to suggest that he had the ability to do so. He's still a good player but giving him the captaincy has ramped up the expectations surrounding him and his personality, and even playing style, don't match this. People picture a good captain as being hard as nails, flying into challenges, shouting at teammates etc. and Jack has never been that type of player. He does his job quietly in midfield and previously did it well. I wouldn't remove it before the end of the season but it is clear that Shinnie is a much better candidate.
At least McInnes has identified what we need in the summer window. We need a b*****d in the middle of the park who had win the ball and physically assert himself on the opposition. Someone who the opposition's fans hate. Goalkeeper is another key area; signing a keeper who had spent 10 years in league 2 was never going to work and we need to look outwith our usual scouting area to find what we need as I don't think there's a suitable keeper in the SPFL. Another centre back would also be welcome to play alongside Taylor and another option up front would be welcome, although Shankland has done well recently for St Mirren.
Definite areas for improvement next season. We have been unlucky in losing Ward and Rooney at important times and I dare say if Celtic had lost Gordon and Griffiths at similar times they would have suffered. We can't let ourselves fall behind Celtic, Hearts and the Rangers next season so some changes are needed.
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People may disagree but I think putting Shinnie in midfield could be a solution to our problems at the moment. He's obviously naturally a left back but he excelled in a midfield role in 3 of our biggest wins this season: Rijeka away and the first games against Celtic at home and Hearts away. He's great at winning the ball in the middle of the park and likes to carry it forward into attack as well. He doesn't get bullied in the middle as well and takes some of the load off of Jack as well. Having those two at the base of the midfield gives McLean more opportunities to attack in front of them.
It could make a difference to our defence as well. I think a big reason for our defensive frailties is the fact that we're constantly chopping and changing the back 4. Our defence thrived last season with pretty much the same settled back four every week and Considine was one of our better performers at LB. Shinnie is good enough to play pretty much anywhere on the pitch and he is able to influence games more in the middle of the park.
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Not spent a lot of time on this but just got an email saying I will no longer qualify for bonuses with BetVictor. Does this affect open bonus bets? I used my £25 welcome bonus and they gave me the same offer again, maybe should have been more careful but can't complain too much after getting £50 worth of free bets.
Also will this affect my McBookie account? I believe they are linked in some way and I've been getting £5 free bets pretty much every weekend from them.
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How many pint glasses should they be expected to carry up? Likewise if the bar is really crowded, 3 deep etc then it's not practical in the slightest to be juggling loads of glasses for however long it's going to take you to get served. Best thing to do is to pile the glasses appropriately, cutting down the space they're taking up and making it easier for whenever the bar staff come out to collect.
If there's two/three then fair enough.
Likewise, if the bar is crowded then it's not practical for bar staff to leave all those thirsty customers to collect the glasses from your table.
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Absolutely, there's no doubt he's a star in the making and, along with Robertson, will be Scotland's best player very soon.
Moving to a new country, new language, culture, climate, style of football and even new role in the team was always going to take a long time.
Also to a league significantly better than the Scottish Premiership and a team miles better than Celtic.
Add to that Sporting have changed manager and are currently leading the table with the chance to win the league for the first time in over a decade he was hardly going to get a look-in this season.
He is playing every week for the B team (30 appearances so far this season - only one as substitute) which is competitive football against men, very like our championship in standard.
He is also first choice for Scotland under 21's now and Sporting have knocked back several offers to take him on loan. He is progressing fine and much as you'd expect given he was a teenager less than six months ago.
Those doubting his progress simply don't know anything about football, one cursory look tells you he is progressing very well. He even is listed as 'both' footed now when you look him up on a site I use to check his progress, previously it was left, so he must be working hard on his bad foot.
Zoomers over here with no clue should just shut their mouths and leave him alone for a wee while, we will have a hell of a player on our hands very soon.
One thing I would say is if Sporting are going to loan him out at any stage, they'd be mental to send him anywhere but Portugal. He needs to keep adapting to Portugese football, life and most of all the language, so to send him to Brighton or something for a year would be mega-stupid.
But they know what they're doing with young players so he will be fine.
Strange that their top division is significantly better than ours yet their second tier is very like the Scottish Championship.
Also, using the fact that a website now lists him as two-footed as being a sign of his progress
It's obvious that he needs to be playing for Sporting's first team as soon as possible in order to aid his development and I think most people would have expected him to feature more by now. If he wanted to play in a league similar to the Scottish Championship he would have been better off staying at Dundee United.
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I see the singing section has moved into the Merkland stand for next season. I wonder if they'll be told to keep the list of songs to family safe versions.
Adam Rooney's having a party
Bring your fruit shoot and your Smarties
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Scottish football needs an NFL-style commissioner to control it. Any decisions made by the SPFL are going to be influenced by self interest by clubs. Decisions should be made independent from this bias and should be made for the good of the league overall.
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I seriously doubt Shetland will ever play in a mainland league. Travel is obviously the main issue with the need to sail to either Aberdeen or Thurso via Orkney and even then, these routes are notorious for disruptions, particularly in winter. For Orkney, one away game takes up a day, for Shetland it would be a weekend. Cost is not so much of an issue as I believe the Shetland rugby team get reduced rates of around £20 return for the ferries to away games. The big difference is that the rugby team have often travelled down with around 10 players, having to rely on mainland-based islanders, favours from other clubs or just playing with less than 15 players. There would be a much bigger playing pool for football but there aren't the same leniencies in terms of registrations that exist in rugby and form would really suffer if the team was changing every week.
Another key problem would be that a Shetland side would essentially be a league select team. I'm not sure how you would work around this if a big squad was needed but players also weren't allowed to play in the island league.
Standard is definitely not an issue with Shetland recently holding their own against Highland League sides and performing well in the Island Games. They also won the Jock Mackay cup last season, only to pull out this season due to numerous call-offs which resulted in turning up at Thurso with no game to play. It's mainly time that is the issue and without a hell of a lot of leeway from the league/SFA (or significant private funding to enable the team to fly to games) it won't happen unfortunately.
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I and other Celtic fans have no issue with his race, I do however have an issue with him being a c***.
If this is the case, why was Logan booed by the Celtic support in the first game between the sides following the incident? There had been no interaction or incidents between himself and the Celtic support up to this point apart from him outing racist posts made to him by Celtic fans via social media, so what reason was there for booing him, other than speaking out against racial abuse?
I agree that his conduct towards Celtic fans since then has been a bit unprofessional, (although it has generally been funny as f*ck) but this has purely been in response to them and their club vilifying him for speaking out against racial abuse directed towards him.
Celtic fans can claim Logan is a c*nt all they like, but the only initial grievance that they had with him was that he had the cheek to speak out against racist behaviour from one of their players. That is an unavoidable fact.
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Knew this would happen ever since he blew kisses to their away support back in September.
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Anyone know when Rooney is meant to be back from injury?
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Pretty sure that was the game that the players had to pay for the team bus to travel up. You could do an interesting "where are they now" with that Gretna team.
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Also noticed our game vs Hamilton is now £15 for adults and £5 for under 18's. Hamilton fans also being moved to Section A of the Main Stand which I haven't seen for a league game before.
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I don't completely blame the season ticket holders in the RDL. It's a much better stand than the Merkland in terms of facilities and view and a lot of people will have had their seat their for several years. I can also understand why the club doesn't want to upset a block of fans which is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds every season.
I do think that some kind of "best of both worlds" solution could have been found with a family section in the main stand side of the RDL with "normal" season ticket holders in the side towards the away end with those who have had ST's the longest there being given priority. Keeps the kids away from the big bad away fans and lets them see the players up close as they come out the tunnel. One side of the Merkland could be the singing section, with plenty of space for expansion, and season ticket holders from the RDL can get the pick of the seats with plenty available for general sale tickets.
The solution they chose will end in tears when mums and dads complain about the singing sections boys saying a few bad words. I don't think there is an ideal scenario for the numbers they are getting but I don't think this is the answer.
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A family stand with a singing section section inside it, this won't end well.
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Positive move from the club. Some of the comments on facebook/chat/mad about this highlight exactly why such a group is needed. Homophobia is still a major issue in football and it's good to see we're taking steps to address this.
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Also worth noting that the original fixtures had Hearts at home at 3pm on a Saturday and Thistle at home at 7:45pm on a weekday.
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F*cked up my bet on Shakhtar vs Schalke and ended up an extra £55 up! Had my £20 free bet on the draw and £14.29 laid against Schalke winning. Benefited this time but need to be more careful in future.
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There is absolutely no chance the away section will move at Pittodrie. The ground is set up so away fans exiting the ground have no interaction with the home support and it also lead out to where the away buses are. Even if we wanted to, the police would never allow it.
As for the RDS and Merkland switch, I see the obvious advantages but I sympathise with RDS season ticket holders who don't want to move to an area of the ground with a poorer view and facilities. Given the fact that the Merkland is rarely full on most match-days, I'd say it could be possible to have a family section on the main stand side of the RDS and let regular fans who were unwilling to move sit on the other side. This would also aid the problem of having the away support right next to the family section. The club could also consider opening part of the upper tier for STH who aren't keen on the Merkland.
Pricing is another issue that will have to be resolved. Currently the Merkland is much cheaper than the RDS due to the fact it is a poorer stand and also to attract families. Could the club justify charging these low prices for families in the RDS and charge £25 a ticket for adults in the Merkland? Personally I would charge a bit less for the Merkland in order to give a more affordable option for fans, help fill the stand and create a better atmosphere by attracting younger fans (ie. those too old for the family stand).
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Dare I say it - the outcry from Aberdeen over Collums performance - McInnes publicly criticising, captain criticising, prominent Aberdeen supporting pundits harping on about it, petition signing and a full day of local radio talking about said decisions and the petition.
Very, very OF-esque.
Singing "Hello, Hello" is very, very OF-esque IMO.
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Brown's level of performance has been very impressive since he came back into the side but he probably should have saved their first goal. Taylor was obviously more at fault though.
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Do you not get the feeling, given the last minute nature of it, that it was Tansey that was the back up?
We should have a list of targets and if one isn't possible, we move down to the next one. We seemed to be in for Cowie but dropped out interest to go after Tansey. While we're in negotiations with Caley, Hearts sign Cowie and we end up with neither. We should have someone else lined up for if this fell through.
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And also:
"Willo and Ryan still out. Jonny has been bitten by a dog but will play."
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McInnes on twitter:"I spoke to John Hughes this morning and he agrees we acted in a right and proper manner throughout.I think there has to be guidance in these matters as we triggered the clause in his contract."
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The Famous Aberdeen - Season 2022/23
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted
Celtic have dropped 19 points against the other 10 clubs this season, last season they dropped 22.
This season we have dropped 31 points against the other 10 clubs, last season we dropped 27. Up to the split we had dropped 28 points compared to just 19 points last season.
If we had the same record against the other 10 as last season, alongside our record against Celtic this season, we would be in the driving seat for the league. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.