Aberdeen v St Mirren, farewell to 2023.

[Insaintee]

15 hours ago, pozbaird said:

At the risk of being shot down, reading many posts, it appears that the main cause of you being absolutely hopeless, is the tactics employed by your manager. He stubbornly sticks to a formation that doesn’t work, doesn’t suit the players you have, yet he just keeps sending Aberdeen out to play the same way, despite it not working. Isn’t there a saying about the ‘definition of madness is…’?

You don’t appear to have an absolutely hopeless squad, but I maintain, there really isn’t much difference in quality at all between the current St Mirren and Aberdeen squads on paper. Or Hibs, for example. Wafer-thin differences between many clubs squads in this league.

Nah, I 'd take Miovski or DUK in a heart beat. Would the dons take Ayunga, Grieve or Mandron? Ultimately this league is about having a top class striker and we don't have one. We're where we are inspite of that. 

 

PS Ayunga I think is close to being the striker we need. 

[pozbaird]

4 minutes ago, Insaintee said:

Nah, I 'd take Miovski or DUK in a heart beat. Would the dons take Ayunga, Grieve or Mandron? Ultimately this league is about having a top class striker and we don't have one. We're where we are inspite of that. 

 

PS Ayunga I think is close to being the striker we need. 

Would take Miovski, wouldn’t take FukFukGoosed.

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

31 minutes ago, Molotov said:

Absolutely agree. But SAF holds grudges against many people. It’s just part of his personality unfortunately.

Tony Fitzpatrick regularly meets him and has tried many times to get him to come back to the club but SAF refuses point blank. 
 

Such a shame as he had such an important impact on our club and me personally. 

It’s an absolute piece of nonsense. How can any rational human being hold a grudge against a club. Fergie’s beef was with individuals running the club at the time. To hold a grudge against the entire club forever is childish in the extreme.

Out of curiosity though, if Fergie is supposed to hold a grudge against the club, why would he have agreed to appear in the Marching In video in the early 90s?

[pozbaird]

30 minutes ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

It’s an absolute piece of nonsense. How can any rational human being hold a grudge against a club. Fergie’s beef was with individuals running the club at the time. To hold a grudge against the entire club forever is childish in the extreme.

Out of curiosity though, if Fergie is supposed to hold a grudge against the club, why would he have agreed to appear in the Marching In video in the early 90s?

He certainly doesn’t hold a grudge against St Mirren supporters. I believe CK, down the years, tried to offer an olive branch but was politely declined. I have no idea if the club, at Chairman level, have tried to contact him at any time following his health issue and subsequent recovery. Life’s too short, you’d hope something could be done to kiss snd make up a bit before it’s too late. The Dallas Cowboys did it this week with owner Jerry Jones and 1990s head coach Jimmy Johnson. Cowboys 1990s quarterback Troy Aikman acting as some sort of UN peacekeeper to help broker the deal that saw Johnson inducted into the Cowboys HoF ring.

Maybe we should call Aikman.

[GAD]

16 hours ago, Dons_1988 said:

Hearing from good sources that rangers can’t get their VAR audio from yesterday because we were in front of them in the queue. 

I thought it was probably a pen, but you could argue mcgarry was looking for it too. In all honesty even if we’d equalised then you’d still likely have gone onto win. We were absolutely hopeless. 

Nah, I think an equaliser at that point would have been huge given St Mirren's confidence was on a knife edge. That, coupled with the earlier penalty miss I think would have sent the heads down massively and Aberdeen would have won.

In terms of Aberdeen having good players, they definitely do, but I think the issue, looking in from the outside is that guys like Clarkson, Shinnie and McGrath would individually walk into the St Mirren team, or most other non OF teams, but not all three of them at the same time. It leaves Shinnie with so much to do. I really like McGrath, but he's shown in multiple teams at this level that he is a bit of a luxury and you have to find a way to make sure he can do the good stuff whilst covering the gaps. I'd say his best form in this league was playing as a straight 10 in Goodwin's 4-5-1 with guys like Doyle Hayes, Erhahon, Flynn or Foley doing the hard work behind him.

[houston_bud]

1 hour ago, pozbaird said:

Would take Miovski, wouldn’t take FukFukGoosed.

I've never been particularly impressed with Duk either. He's had rave reviews after some games but I can't think of a game I've seen him where he didn't just throw himself to the ground constantly and become quite petulant.

[Dons_1988]

36 minutes ago, GAD said:

Nah, I think an equaliser at that point would have been huge given St Mirren's confidence was on a knife edge. That, coupled with the earlier penalty miss I think would have sent the heads down massively and Aberdeen would have won.

In terms of Aberdeen having good players, they definitely do, but I think the issue, looking in from the outside is that guys like Clarkson, Shinnie and McGrath would individually walk into the St Mirren team, or most other non OF teams, but not all three of them at the same time. It leaves Shinnie with so much to do. I really like McGrath, but he's shown in multiple teams at this level that he is a bit of a luxury and you have to find a way to make sure he can do the good stuff whilst covering the gaps. I'd say his best form in this league was playing as a straight 10 in Goodwin's 4-5-1 with guys like Doyle Hayes, Erhahon, Flynn or Foley doing the hard work behind him.

Yeah you’re right the midfield 3 balance is all wrong and shinnie has suffered because of it. 

McGrath has been at his best when we’ve played the 5-4-1 with a sort of box midfield 4 where polvara/barron help shinnie out with the running. Worked in Europe obviously but we did that at fir park too and McGrath was great. 

This has been obvious for a while tbh but robson still plays that midfield 3 pretty much every game. 

[btb]

Had to check on SAF but he was appointed manager in October 1974 so the club should be trying to mend the bridges for this date.

 

As for the Marching On video it was narrated by ex Brain of Britain Bob Crampsey and featured a cameo by Dennis "The Lawman" Law so my guess is these segments were filmed down in Madchester and wouldn't have involved him personally having to meet any club representatives.

 

Anyway we've got 9 and a bit months to get some sort of reconciliation sorted - if he needs it I'll go down to give him a lift up if someone is willing to drive him back down.

[GAD]

14 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

Yeah you’re right the midfield 3 balance is all wrong and shinnie has suffered because of it. 

McGrath has been at his best when we’ve played the 5-4-1 with a sort of box midfield 4 where polvara/barron help shinnie out with the running. Worked in Europe obviously but we did that at fir park too and McGrath was great. 

This has been obvious for a while tbh but robson still plays that midfield 3 pretty much every game. 

Yeah, anytime I saw Aberdeen in Europe this season McGrath looked good. I guess it's a bit of a problem when you have a lot of decent players in forward positions, you try and fit them all in, when it would probably be a bit of a better system if one of Duk/McGrath were on the bench instead.

Btw, I don't think McGrath is a lazy player, I think he works and he tries to do the defensive side, he's just really crap at it.

[djchapsticks]

Duk is a streaky, frustrating player and a bit (a lot) of a diving shit but I just can't wear the line that he wouldn't improve us to a significant degree.

He'd be on the team sheet every week.

Losing Ramadani for £1m is in hindsight, an awful bit of business for Aberdeen, particularly as they didn't even look like they were making any realistic moves to replace him. Even Baccus when he was briefly linked, isn't a traditional destroyer in midfield so he wouldn't have been effective stepping into the role Ramadani performed so well in. A million quid for probably one of the three best in his role in the division definitely looks like it might hurt Aberdeen this season and it will be interesting to see what they do to plug what to me looks like an obvious gap, this month.

[Jacksgranda]

51 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Duk is a streaky, frustrating player and a bit (a lot) of a diving shit but I just can't wear the line that he wouldn't improve us to a significant degree.

He'd be on the team sheet every week.

Losing Ramadani for £1m is in hindsight, an awful bit of business for Aberdeen, particularly as they didn't even look like they were making any realistic moves to replace him. Even Baccus when he was briefly linked, isn't a traditional destroyer in midfield so he wouldn't have been effective stepping into the role Ramadani performed so well in. A million quid for probably one of the three best in his role in the division definitely looks like it might hurt Aberdeen this season and it will be interesting to see what they do to plug what to me looks like an obvious gap, this month.

I would hazard a guess at "nothing".

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

8 hours ago, btb said:

Had to check on SAF but he was appointed manager in October 1974 so the club should be trying to mend the bridges for this date.

 

As for the Marching On video it was narrated by ex Brain of Britain Bob Crampsey and featured a cameo by Dennis "The Lawman" Law so my guess is these segments were filmed down in Madchester and wouldn't have involved him personally having to meet any club representatives.

 

Anyway we've got 9 and a bit months to get some sort of reconciliation sorted - if he needs it I'll go down to give him a lift up if someone is willing to drive him back down.

I couldn’t give a shit to be honest.

Despite the fact that Fergie’s Furies were my introduction to supporting St. Mirren, they gave me arguably the most sustained football pleasure I’ve had in my life and that I was absolutely devastated when Ferguson left, if he still wants to bear some childish grudge after 40 odd years, that’s his prerogative. I wouldn’t be trying to coax or convince him to do anything.

 

[jimmy boo]

8 minutes ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

I couldn’t give a shit to be honest.

Despite the fact that Fergie’s Furies were my introduction to supporting St. Mirren, they gave me arguably the most sustained football pleasure I’ve had in my life and that I was absolutely devastated when Ferguson left, if he still wants to bear some childish grudge after 40 odd years, that’s his prerogative. I wouldn’t be trying to coax or convince him to do anything.

 

That is of course your prerogative but I'd love to see him back before it's too late.

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

2 minutes ago, jimmy boo said:

That is of course your prerogative but I'd love to see him back before it's too late.

Don’t get me wrong, so would I, I just don’t think anyone should be begging him to do so. 

[pozbaird]

11 hours ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

Don’t get me wrong, so would I, I just don’t think anyone should be begging him to do so. 

I definitely think a combination of the St Mirren BoD and an orchestrated SMiSA effort (arrange for folk to gather signatures from rank & file fans at a home game), should absolutely be done ahead of October 2024. If an approach was made to Sir Alex Ferguson through Man Utd and it was from both club and fans, with a thousands-strong petition of signatures…. and he politely declines again, then that should be the end of it. We still have the great memories of what happened in the town and with the team, but if he passes away after spurning that approach, without kissing and making up, being inducted into the HoF, perhaps being able to attend a game and so on? Personally, while my attitude wouldn’t be ‘fcuk him then’, it would be something like it. When he passes, he will deservedly get the flowers and messages placed outside our main entrance, but there will only be a handful, compared to Pittodrie and Old Trafford. The flowers and messages laid at all three stadiums may, or may not, contain contributions from Roy Keane and Jim Leighton.

It’s a shame, sad situation etc, but fcuk it if the grumpy auld kunt still holds out in his eighties, and after surviving a huge health scare, then what can you do?

Edited January 2 by pozbaird

[VincentGuerin]

23 hours ago, Insaintee said:

Nah, I 'd take Miovski or DUK in a heart beat. Would the dons take Ayunga, Grieve or Mandron? Ultimately this league is about having a top class striker and we don't have one. We're where we are inspite of that. 

 

PS Ayunga I think is close to being the striker we need. 

Nah. Hearts are third but have scored fewer goals than almost everybody outside the bottom four.

Being organised and keeping clean sheets gets you up the table. Hearts and Killie have significantly better defensive records than the other non-OF teams.

Strikers get the attention, and they're obviously important, but they're not the main thing. For all Shankland's goals, we wouldn't be third if we didn't keep clean sheets. You could argue that our improvement in defending cross balls has been the single most important change in our team this season.

St Mirren are where they are because they've conceded 50% more goals than Hearts and 25% more than Killie, but fewer than everyone below them. Aberdeen are pushing having conceded double what Hearts have in three fewer games. They've got a top class (SPFL) striker, but have only kept three clean sheets so are struggling.

That's where the difference is.

Edited January 2 by VincentGuerin

[pozbaird]

40 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Nah. Hearts are third but have scored fewer goals than almost everybody outside the bottom four.

Being organised and keeping clean sheets gets you up the table. Hearts and Killie have significantly better defensive records than the other non-OF teams.

Strikers get the attention, and they're obviously important, but they're not the main thing. For all Shankland's goals, we wouldn't be third if we didn't keep clean sheets. You could argue that our improvement in defending cross balls has been the single most important change in our team this season.

St Mirren are where they are because they've conceded 50% more goals than Hearts and 25% more than Killie, but fewer than everyone below them. Aberdeen are pushing having conceded double what Hearts have in three fewer games. They've got a top class (SPFL) striker, but have only kept three clean sheets so are struggling.

That's where the difference is.

Bugger off with your sensible observations. This is no place for it.

[tam the bud]

13 hours ago, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

I couldn’t give a shit to be honest.

Despite the fact that Fergie’s Furies were my introduction to supporting St. Mirren, they gave me arguably the most sustained football pleasure I’ve had in my life and that I was absolutely devastated when Ferguson left, if he still wants to bear some childish grudge after 40 odd years, that’s his prerogative. I wouldn’t be trying to coax or convince him to do anything.

 

I agree with you. I also have a 45 yrs grudge against him, not for working his ticket to get the sack so he could join the Dons, but for having the nerve to sue the club for unfair dismissal. 

Plenty of times he took a Man U team to Aberdeen for different reasons, but not once did he bring a Man U team to Love St even when we were skint.

I actually had an invite to meet him when he came to Paisley to award Tony Fitzpatrick an investing in people award, when he was running Total Soccer around 20 yrs ago. 

Decided he wasn't worth me wasting a holiday to take a day of work