Hearts vs Aberdeen - Saturday 20th May

[MacDonald Jardine]

1 minute ago, Frank Grimes said:

You want to peak at the thread on Kickback on by the subject 

Apparently the only reason we were successful in the 1980’s was because we had really good players and our manager was Alex Ferguson 

They might be onto something 

I'm sure they are but the fact is you were lucky.

[Frank Grimes]

2 minutes ago, MacDonald Jardine said:

I'm sure they are but the fact is you were lucky.

I would’ve rather have been lucky than shite 

 

[Dons_1988]

3 minutes ago, MacDonald Jardine said:

I'm sure they are but the fact is you were lucky.

[kingjoey]

2 minutes ago, Frank Grimes said:

I would’ve rather have been lucky than shite 

 

I'm interested in his comeback to this. " It was St Mirren's fault."

Edited May 20, 2023 by kingjoey

[Bogbrush1903]

3 hours ago, Insert Amusing Pseudonym said:

If you ignore it was offside, yes

Ah right apologies, I didn't realise he had been flagged offside 

[lubo_blaha]

1 hour ago, DaveMackay56 said:

Rangers . Should have been about 3 down before scoring from cross

Ross county. Absolutely atrocious 

hibs last week battered you at least as much as we did. 
 

Aberdeen are defensively very solid.  And rely on Duk who I like a lot.. top player . Beyond that? 
 

ps I didn’t watch any more but given you’ve scored 13 goals away all season I’m guessing similar .

What more do you really need in football than a good defence and brilliant striker?

It’s amazing that we’re ahead of both the Edinburgh yo-yos with such a lucky, limited team.

[The Other Foot]

Came online to see how many of the incel mob had suddenly come back online after a few weeks’ recess. Surprisingly few. I legitimately think a few might be dead and/or dying, folks. 

[Unleash The Nade]

6 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

Considering we were missing our captain, McCrorie and Duk I thought we played well. Watkins played really well for us.

It took a wonder strike on the stroke of half time and a defence error (not getting the line right) that beat us today.

Robson changed half the team (he took MacDonald off) around the 60 minute mark. He clearly had one eye on the St Mirren match on Wednesday. Duk, McCrorie and Shinnie will be back for that one.

Everyone (Aberdeen fans) are emotional right now and will say Richardson, Barron and Morris are mince etc but they did fine today and the team played well considering.

I didn't expect us to win which is why the 5 point gap was so important for us going into todays match. We got thumped 5-0 last time at Tynecastle so it was a marked improvement.

We win on Wednesday and the chase for third is over.

Everyone seems to forget we finished third bottom last season and had a massive overhaul of players last summer. All things considered, to be one win away against St Mirren at home it's an incredible turn around. 

We’ve been missing half our starting 11 most of the season.

2-1 absolutely flattered Aberdeen, it could / should have been an absolute pumping.

 

[VincentGuerin]

59 minutes ago, Unleash The Nade said:

We’ve been missing half our starting 11 most of the season.

2-1 absolutely flattered Aberdeen, it could / should have been an absolute pumping.

 

Aye, I think our injuries have been so bad that people have basically just forgotten when it comes to analysing games.

If we'd been at full strength all season but then suddenly announced on Friday that we were coming into this game missing Gordon, Halkett, Beni, and Boyce, there would have been a lot of fuss about us being weakened etc and Aberdeen fans would have been saying "f**k me, they're missing half their team". They've all missed the entire season or, in Gordon's case, half of it. So, it's a bit rich to excuse Aberdeen for today on that score, given they've never faced anything like our full-strength side this season (we've still taken six points off them) and have themselves done pretty well with injuries all season.

That said, Duk was a glaring miss for them today and Shinnie would have made a huge difference to the middle of the park. We all look at things from the point of view of our own team, so I can see why Aberdeen fans would focus on that. But if we could have played our full team as well (for any of the season, never mind today)...

A good performance today. Much better than I'd expected and generally we've been good since the County game.

Just need to plug on now. Go to Ibrox and have a pop at it. All we could do today was send Aberdeen into midweek with a bit of pressure on them, and it's job done.

Edited May 20, 2023 by VincentGuerin

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

This thread's gone well.  

I thought we were very good bar a shaky start.  Roos is a very good goalie.  I've no seen the Watkins penalty shout back, but i was convinced it was going to be given at the time.  Not had he should have been still on the park to get it right enough.

2 Great goals and Atkinson's besr game for us.  Still think Aberdeen are big favourites for third though

[VincentGuerin]

4 minutes ago, Insert Amusing Pseudonym said:

This thread's gone well.  

I thought we were very good bar a shaky start.  Roos is a very good goalie.  I've no seen the Watkins penalty shout back, but i was convinced it was going to be given at the time.  Not had he should have been still on the park to get it right enough.

2 Great goals and Atkinson's besr game for us.  Still think Aberdeen are big favourites for third though

Aye, I've not seen the highlights yet but I thought Watkins was a wee bit lucky. If it had been one of our players I'd have been abusing f**k out him for being stupid on a booking. No idea if it was a penalty or not. I think Mijovski's dive the second before maybe put the ref off giving it right away. Maybe one of these that wouldn't have been over-turned either way.

[lubo_blaha]

1 hour ago, Unleash The Nade said:

We’ve been missing half our starting 11 most of the season.

2-1 absolutely flattered Aberdeen, it could / should have been an absolute pumping.

 

 

32 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Aye, I think our injuries have been so bad that people have basically just forgotten when it comes to analysing games.

If we'd been at full strength all season but then suddenly announced on Friday that we were coming into this game missing Gordon, Halkett, Beni, and Boyce, there would have been a lot of fuss about us being weakened etc and Aberdeen fans would have been saying "f**k me, they're missing half their team". They've all missed the entire season or, in Gordon's case, half of it. So, it's a bit rich to excuse Aberdeen for today on that score, given they've never faced anything like our full-strength side this season (we've still taken six points off them) and have themselves done pretty well with injuries all season.

That said, Duk was a glaring miss for them today and Shinnie would have made a huge difference to the middle of the park. We all look at things from the point of view of our own team, so I can see why Aberdeen fans would focus on that. But if we could have played our full team as well (for any of the season, never mind today)...

A good performance today. Much better than I'd expected and generally we've been good since the County game.

Just need to plug on now. Go to Ibrox and have a pop at it. All we could do today was send Aberdeen into midweek with a bit of pressure on them, and it's job done.

Hearts have depth in their squad though. They’ve signed more players to account for Europe and injuries and have been able to build their squad over the last three seasons. 

We’re suffering after five years of horrendous recruitment pre-Mowbray (who’s now leaving) and even then, some of his signings have been poor. Today we had Barron, Watkins and Richardson starting for the first time in months. The drop off from our best 11 to the rest is staggering. Robson has largely stuck with the same team but now we’re left with a combination of guys who are knackered/carrying injuries and others who are untested or just not up to it.

 

[VincentGuerin]

28 minutes ago, lubo_blaha said:

 

Hearts have depth in their squad though. They’ve signed more players to account for Europe and injuries and have been able to build their squad over the last three seasons. 

We’re suffering after five years of horrendous recruitment pre-Mowbray (who’s now leaving) and even then, some of his signings have been poor. Today we had Barron, Watkins and Richardson starting for the first time in months. The drop off from our best 11 to the rest is staggering. Robson has largely stuck with the same team but now we’re left with a combination of guys who are knackered/carrying injuries and others who are untested or just not up to it.

 

We can point to poor recruitment as well. We've signed players who are not good enough and we've had to play them a lot this season. Look at the game time given to the likes of Kio, Halliday, Grant. In a season where Beni, Haring, Devlin, Halkett, Rowles, Kingsley, and Boyce are consistenly (or ever) fit, guys like the three I mentioned are merely peripheral. Not to mention the likes of young Neilson, who featured heavily earlier in the season through necessity but isn't ready. We have played fucking Ross Stewart in goals.

We've been able to build our squad over the last three seasons? We got relegated, for f**k's sake.

And when a squad is built, it's not much use if you can't get the key components on the pitch. That's simply been a fact of life for Hearts this season.

It's a bold take to say Hearts have had better squad-building conditions than Aberdeen over the last few years. And Aberdeen went out and spent heavily last summer. That's their right, but you look a bit silly bemoaning injuries when beaten by a side that has been miles from full-strength all season.

You were missing three important players today. That's unfortunate. But, I'll reiterate, we've been missing more than that every single time we've taken to the field this season, against you or anyone else.

Edited May 20, 2023 by VincentGuerin

[lubo_blaha]

11 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

We can point to poor recruitment as well. We've signed players who are not good enough and we've had to play them a lot this season. Look at the game time given to the likes of Kio, Halliday, Grant. We have played fucking Ross Stewart in goals.

We've been able to build our squad over the last three seasons? We got relegated, for f**k's sake.

And when a squad is built, it's not much use if you can't get the key components on the pitch. That's simply been a fact of life for Hearts this season.

It's a bold take to say Hearts have had better squad-building conditions than Aberdeen over the last few years. And Aberdeen went out and spent heavily last summer. That's their right, but you look a bit silly bemoaning injuries when beaten by a side that has been miles from full-strength all season.

You were missing three important players today. That's unfortunate. But, I'll reiterate, we've been missing more than that every single time we've taken to the field this season, against you or anyone else.

Hearts had a solid squad before and were able to significantly strengthen because of the European money. Boyce is out but you have Ginnelly. Gordon is out but you have Clark. We’re going from Duk to Marley Watkins

We spent heavily, on the back of selling £7million worth of talent. McInnes signing the likes of Stevie May for 400k and Glass signing 30 year olds duds has set us back majorly. Then we had Goodwin brining in Stewart, Richardson, Morris, Roberts etc. Hearts have decent quality to rely on when key players are out whereas we have kids and English league 2 cast-offs. That’s the point I was making.

[VincentGuerin]

14 minutes ago, lubo_blaha said:

Hearts had a solid squad before and were able to significantly strengthen because of the European money. Boyce is out but you have Ginnelly. Gordon is out but you have Clark. We’re going from Duk to Marley Watkins

We spent heavily, on the back of selling £7million worth of talent. McInnes signing the likes of Stevie May for 400k and Glass signing 30 year olds duds has set us back majorly. Then we had Goodwin brining in Stewart, Richardson, Morris, Roberts etc. Hearts have decent quality to rely on when key players are out whereas we have kids and English league 2 cast-offs. That’s the point I was making.

Where the money came from to strengthen is irrelevant to the discussion. If anything, the fact that Aberdeen had been able to build a squad with saleable assets shows the advantage they've had over the last decade or so. Much of that self-inflicted on Hearts' part, of course. Aberdeen were able to go out and spend pretty big last summer, and the players they brought in have broadly been fit and available to play weekend to weekend.

Hearts' injuries have been off the charts while negotiating a heavy first half of the season, and ultimately the weakness of a number of the replacements has been obvious. Unless you've been impressed with the likes of Halliday, Grant, and Kio, who have made almost 100 appearances between them this season.

You could also point out that we've somehow still been playing Michael Smith at right back for the majority of the season. And Lewis Neilson featured heavily in the first half of the season as we had nobody else. He may come good, but he's nowhere near ready.

Like I said, people see it through the prism of their own side, and it's natural you focus on Aberdeen. But you're just arguing in the face of the facts. It must be frustrating to be missing three important players. But the side with the bigger selection problems today wasn't Aberdeen. And over the season it's not even worth a discussion. Aberdeen have lived a relatively charmed life this season. You have never faced our strongest line-up, or anything like it.

Edited May 20, 2023 by VincentGuerin

[AJF]

4 hours ago, Dons_1988 said:

Do they teach ‘Aberdeen got lucky with the greatest manager ever’ in Edinburgh schools? 

Seems unlikely but it would explain a few things. 

Not just Edinburgh, mate. The whole central belt.

[Lionel Logue]

Was quite surprised how many long balls over the top Aberdeen tried today. For a team who won that many games in a row, it's clear that percentage football with some "combative" players can get you quite far in this league.

In complete contrast, we were entertaining, attacking, completed tons of passes, and were extremely productive with our dominant possession. Very entertaining match in which we scored two superb goals  and Aberdeen's dogged industrial style  made it tighter than it had any right to be, giving the match a bit of bite. 

I kinda hope we give Naismith the gig - he can sign some actual fecking defenders and sort that out. We'll definitely be a far more entertaining and enjoyable watch than this Aberdeen outfit if he does get the job. 

[Craigie Jambo]

[Craigie Jambo]

Need a VPN:

 

 

[VincentGuerin]

I think today's Aberdeen line-up is an interesting starting point for considering what their summer recruitment strategy will be.

What happened to them today is a similar experience to what Hearts had going to Pittodrie back in October, where there's an important core of players missing for a strategically important game.

Aberdeen spent a bit of cash last summer, but did so with a smallish squad in mind as they had no European games to be distracted by. That's been a successful approach, as they've generally avoided important injuries and the quality over quantity approach works in that situation with a light schedule. George Burley's Hearts side was a similar strategy.

Next season, they'll have a much more congested season and will need more in reserve. As they are, I don't think they'd be much of a threat to third next season. The question is how many resources they can chuck at having the necessary back-up to prepare them for the additional fatigue and inevitable injuries that come from congestion.

The issue with a small squad in that scenario can be seen from what happened to Hearts. Hearts' injuries basically made a big squad into a small squad, and that brought the problem of not being able to rest the players available. Halliday, for example, was playing with an injury for about two months but couldn't really be rested. That game at Pittodrie came on the heels of Fiorentina away, and Halliday only lasted five minutes at Pittodrie before the schedule finally caught up with him and he went off injured, leaving an already stretched line-up really struggling.

I don't doubt Aberdeen will have been looking at Hearts' struggles this season and learning from them. But, finance aside, how many good players can a Scottish Premiership side keep happy in a squad if they're not playing all the time? Finding the balance between that and being prepared for any kind of injury crisis is a tough one for clubs with our budgets.

Like I said, Aberdeen have been lucky with injuries this year. But next year may well be a different story. It'll be interesting to see how they approach this.

Edited May 20, 2023 by VincentGuerin