The Famous Aberdeen - Season 2022/23

[lubo_blaha]

6 hours ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

Just out of curiosity, how do you define “teams we should be beating”?

Teams who have spent specifically less than us on their playing squad.

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

23 minutes ago, lubo_blaha said:

Teams who have spent specifically less than us on their playing squad.

Spending more money does not give you the right to beat teams. Buying better players with that money is what gives you that right. Those are two very different things. 
Aberdeen’s squad might have cost more money than St. Mirren’s but I wouldn’t swap them. 
If it was as simple as having a bigger budget, Aberdeen would come third in the league every season, because you’ve consistently had the third biggest budget in Scottish football since at least the late 70s. 
I don’t care how much your squad cost to put together. I think you’ve bought some complete duffers and your results would back that up. 

[DukDukGoose]

1 hour ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

Spending more money does not give you the right to beat teams. Buying better players with that money is what gives you that right. Those are two very different things. 
Aberdeen’s squad might have cost more money than St. Mirren’s but I wouldn’t swap them. 
If it was as simple as having a bigger budget, Aberdeen would come third in the league every season, because you’ve consistently had the third biggest budget in Scottish football since at least the late 70s. 
I don’t care how much your squad cost to put together. I think you’ve bought some complete duffers and your results would back that up. 

Cool.

[Menzel]

Teams we should be beating, like St Mirren.

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

1 hour ago, DukDukGoose said:

Cool.

I think supercool would be a better description, but who am I to mess with your well thought out response.

[gannonball]

2 hours ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

Spending more money does not give you the right to beat teams. Buying better players with that money is what gives you that right. Those are two very different things. 
Aberdeen’s squad might have cost more money than St. Mirren’s but I wouldn’t swap them. 
If it was as simple as having a bigger budget, Aberdeen would come third in the league every season, because you’ve consistently had the third biggest budget in Scottish football since at least the late 70s. 
I don’t care how much your squad cost to put together. I think you’ve bought some complete duffers and your results would back that up. 

Obviously but outwith us and Sevco the likes of Aberdeen,Hearts and Hibs have budgets much bigger than the rest of the league yet seem to spending it chronically to be consistently be well off 3rd and even relegated ffs. Their fans are right to be thinking that their bigger budgets should be getting better results.

[tarapoa]

Last season was one of the few occasions that Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs finished in the 3rd to 5th spots.

That is a lot less likely to happen as often as the top two finishing where they do, as the difference in wage/level of player isn’t that stark that it can’t be overcome with a decent manager, organised team etc

There are certain pressures and expectations that come with playing for the bigger city clubs that are a bit less of an issue at other clubs.

I think we are a particularly tough club to manage and only McInnes and Calderwood this side of the millennium have managed a sustained period of consistently finishing where our budget dictates we should.

if we change manager, Robinson becomes an obvious candidate - but many think he maybe suits a Motherwell/ St Mirren size club and wouldn’t adapt at an AFC, Hearts or Hibs.

I’m not so sure, but even if results were there, fans will then have a go at the style of football.  Good luck to the football monitoring board with this one when the inevitable happens - maybe as soon as within the next week or two.

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

7 minutes ago, gannonball said:

Obviously but outwith us and Sevco the likes of Aberdeen,Hearts and Hibs have budgets much bigger than the rest of the league yet seem to spending it chronically to be consistently be well off 3rd and even relegated ffs. Their fans are right to be thinking that their bigger budgets should be getting better results.

Maybe I’m wrong but I interpreted the comment as meaning the poster felt that their current squad should be beating certain teams because they spent more money on it than other teams did on their squads 
I looked at their starting XI against Killie at the weekend and I wouldn’t swap one single player for the St. Mirren team that started against St. Johnstone. Certain players are no better than their counterpart in our team and others are a significant downgrade. For example I’m thinking Strain v Devlin, Rubezic v Gogic and Shinnie v O’Hara. 
The only player I’d say that’s technically better in their position is Miovski, but I think he’s got a big attitude problem. 

[kingjoey]

I love Duk, but when is he going to be dropped for his performances rather than when the team formation requires it. He has been a nightmare this season. Whenever he gets the ball it is a 100% certainty that he is going to lose it, with a bad touch/trying to beat a player and failing/simply falling over/running it out of play. He has to spend a few weeks out of the team to try to get himself together again. 

[kingjoey]

10 hours ago, Flammable sheep said:

We're already 9 points behind 3rd

It is only St Mirren. 

[tarapoa]

6 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

I love Duk, but when is he going to be dropped for his performances rather than when the team formation requires it. He has been a nightmare this season. Whenever he gets the ball it is a 100% certainty that he is going to lose it, with a bad touch/trying to beat a player and failing/simply falling over/running it out of play. He has to spend a few weeks out of the team to try to get himself together again. 

He’s just irritating me now.

There are a few times in recent games he maybe has merited free-kicks against him - but refs are now making a point of just ignoring everything  involving him. It’s  open season on him now for defenders, and he’s probably got no one to blame for that other than himself.

Edited October 30, 2023 by tarapoa

[DrewDon]

21 minutes ago, tarapoa said:

He’s just irritating me now.

There are a few times in recent games he maybe has merited free-kicks against him - but refs are now making a point of just ignoring everything  involving him. It’s  open season on him now for defenders, and he’s probably got no one to blame for that other than himself.

In fairness, if you are a footballer arriving from abroad it must be difficult to fully digest that the British consensus on (foreign) players exaggerating contact to win fouls in games is to consider it basically more reprehensible than first-degree murder. 

[Rodhull]

I see the guy Cifuentes that was mentioned a few times in the past when we’ve been looking for managers has been appointed by QPR. Interesting to see how he gets in but that’s obviously one less option for when Robson inevitably gets punted.

[starryfish]

44 minutes ago, tarapoa said:

He’s just irritating me now.

There are a few times in recent games he maybe has merited free-kicks against him - but refs are now making a point of just ignoring everything  involving him. It’s  open season on him now for defenders, and he’s probably got no one to blame for that other than himself.

He doesn’t seem to be getting much of a break this season but I don’t think he’s working as hard as he did at the back end of last season. He had one real chance to open his legs yesterday and it lead to Findlay passing back to his keeper who was lucky not to be penalised for picking the ball up. 

[Iminavest]

1 hour ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

The only player I’d say that’s technically better in their position is Miovski, but I think he’s got a big attitude problem. 

If you mean he looks a bit pissed off at having aimless long balls shelled in roughly his direction week after week, sure.

[lubo_blaha]

4 hours ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

Spending more money does not give you the right to beat teams. Buying better players with that money is what gives you that right. Those are two very different things. 
Aberdeen’s squad might have cost more money than St. Mirren’s but I wouldn’t swap them. 
If it was as simple as having a bigger budget, Aberdeen would come third in the league every season, because you’ve consistently had the third biggest budget in Scottish football since at least the late 70s. 
I don’t care how much your squad cost to put together. I think you’ve bought some complete duffers and your results would back that up. 

It doesn’t give us the right to beat teams but it does give an expectation to do so. There’s a strong correlation between playing budget and league position in any league.

I would disagree that St Mirren have a better set of players overall but they certainly have a better manager who knows how to get the best out of the players at his disposal. Going through your starting 11, most have been bottom six at best in Scotland, tier 3/4/5 in England or have come from Irish football. Where you are in the league is testament to Robinson and players for maximising what you’ve got.

We’ve squandered a good chunk of money but it’s hard to argue that we shouldn’t be doing better than we are with the likes of Miovski, Duk, Clarkson, Shinnie, McGrath, Barron, Jensen, Gartenmann and Roos, who either were part of the team that finished third last year or have played at a good level in Europe or internationally. 

As an aside, we’ve certainly not always had the third biggest budget in the league. You must be forgetting when we had to sell the toaster

[kingjoey]

Every single European match this season can be summed up as so near but so far. We could easily have upgraded every score in every match in Europe so far. So it's difficult to explain the totally inept performances against St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Hearts, and the below par shows against Livi, Hibs and St Johnstone. For me it's total frustration. 

[bpdon]

1 hour ago, kingjoey said:

Every single European match this season can be summed up as so near but so far. We could easily have upgraded every score in every match in Europe so far. So it's difficult to explain the totally inept performances against St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Hearts, and the below par shows against Livi, Hibs and St Johnstone. For me it's total frustration. 

The common denominator is the standard of opponent and their tactics. You could put our league games against Celtic and Der *** in the same bracket as the European ties with the Ibrox victory being the only one we came away with the desired outcome. Plucky under dogs valiantly battling their wee socks off, capitalising on set-plays and rapid transitions.

The games against the other domestic teams have found us out. The management and players are bizarrely stuck in a monotony of thoughtless tactics and sub par individual performances.

Something needs to trigger them snapping out of this soon or we are staring down the barrel of some serious trouble. The run of fixtures through to the St Johnstone game on 17th December is unforgiving.

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by bpdon

[tarapoa]

3 hours ago, kingjoey said:

Every single European match this season can be summed up as so near but so far. We could easily have upgraded every score in every match in Europe so far. So it's difficult to explain the totally inept performances against St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Hearts, and the below par shows against Livi, Hibs and St Johnstone. For me it's total frustration. 

Tactics to an extent, but also attitude.

Everyone; management, players and fans, are up for the European games. Something a bit different, colourful occasions, different opponents, live on TNT/ James Richardson highlights etc

There is then this huge comedown to the reality of domestic games, and the players just seem physically and mentally not at it.

This is where good management would have utilised 20 plus players invested in effectively and ensured those hungry to impress came in for some of the Sunday league games in particular.

Instead he just sticks to basically the same side again and again, and the predictable outcome is another insipid 90 mins of zero goal threat and a fairly easy win for the motivated and organised opponents.

You then have the ultimate insult of St Mirren fans coming on here and saying they wouldn't swap any of their jobbers for any of our players.

[coprolite]

19 hours ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

Spending more money does not give you the right to beat teams. Buying better players with that money is what gives you that right. Those are two very different things. 
Aberdeen’s squad might have cost more money than St. Mirren’s but I wouldn’t swap them. 
If it was as simple as having a bigger budget, Aberdeen would come third in the league every season, because you’ve consistently had the third biggest budget in Scottish football since at least the late 70s. 
I don’t care how much your squad cost to put together. I think you’ve bought some complete duffers and your results would back that up. 

We should be beating the likes of St Mirren more often than they beat us. 

There's a very robust correlation between budget and league position. Ours is usually bigger. 

The fifteen ish years where we didn't have the third biggest budget, say 1998 to 2013, also corresponds to our poorest league positions. 

If St Mirren have signed better players on a lower budget, then surely that's reasonable grounds for us getting annoyed at how the team is being run, and something that we can correctly say "shouldn't" happen. I don't think you have, but that's besides the point. 

There's a thought process when the team is underperforming. 

We lost a match. "Should" we have won it? If so, can we just put it down to bad luck/ dodgy decisions? The second question gets harder to answer yes to as the team continues to underperform and it starts to be more about the cause- tired because of Europe? Shit manager? Poor signings? All of the above? 

It's about benchmarking reasonable expectations, not about whether we have a god given place in a hierarchy.