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The Famous Aberdeen European Tour 17/18


NorthernLights

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Massive queues pre-match, missed about the first 5 minutes or so. To speed things up they set the turnstiles so that you didn't need to scan your ticket to get through so the actual crowd may have been even bigger than what was reported.

We started brightly and deserved our goal when it came. 2nd half was poor and we looked outnumbered in midfield for long spells. They moved it around well and we didn't seem to get near to them a lot of the time. We came close twice before their goal but were caught on the break with a decent strike under no pressure from the defence. Any possibility of a late rally was denied by their play acting which was a common feature throughout the game. All in all, can't say we deserved the win though.

Christie was MOTM, ran the show in midfield and took his goal well after a brilliant assist from Lewis.

GMS didn't have a great game, gave the ball away too often and was brushed off the ball too easily. He will improve though. Stewart was pretty good when he came on.

Hate to say it but a Ryan Jack type midfielder in front of the back four may have been useful tonight. Wasn't the usual fluency between defence and midfield and we aimlessly hoofed in forward too often for my liking. Might've worked if Stockley was on, as it did vs Maribor at home last year.

Poor result and an average performance but we should have enough to do it over there. First competitive game of the season and it will take a bit of time for the new signings to bed in and for the existing players to get used to the new guys. I think we played better when they sat in early on in the game so for them to be going through as it stands may suit us (as bizarre as that sounds).

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Went along as a neutral and was pretty disappointed in the whole. The atmosphere was absolutely flat for a side in Europe. Expected it to be a bit better with there being such a big crowd.

Thought Christie, Tansey and Logan looked decent with McLean being the biggest disappointment of the night. After his reviews and near Scotland call ups I expected a lot more from him. Obviously won't judge him on one performance but he was anonymous for a lot of tonight. 

Rooney kept dropping far too deep leaving no natural target man or out ball in the second half. Slightly improved with Maynard up top as well but he was still isolated. 

Overall, plenty of encouraging signs from the side but will need to be a whole lot better next week. Good luck, I certainly hope you pull it off!

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Whilst that result does keep Aberdeen in the tie it means a very tricky away leg in the heat next week. A lot of work to do to progress.

Aberdeen are comfortably our second best side and that was the 7th best side from Bosnia.

I think the lack of competitive games from Q1 is a factor but as has been said there is the risk of fucking it up and doing a rangers/st Johnstone.

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Rooney did nothing but Stockley will get sent off if he plays next week. These guys will go down clutching their faces at every oportunity and foreign refs will lap it up like the Maribor game.

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Disappointing result but, there's a brilliant team in there somewhere. Ryan Christie was head, shoulders, knees and toes above everyone else on the park, only v mild criticism is he tried to do too much and kind of got in the way of himself at times, if you see what I mean.

GMS had a good first half, think he'll be superb for us when he gets going and I was sorry to see him go off.  Tansey looked good, so did Shay and pass marks (just) for Shinnie. A'body else had a bit of first day back at school nightmare. Communication at the back was poor, we were constantly caught out on the wings and while I'm not in the business of slagging players off after their first competitive game, Maynard did not impress and all 40 stone of Greg Stewart needs to be running up and down the beach carrying rocks until he can fit into an xxl pair of shorts. Maclean was anonymous, Rooney isn't a wide player and O'Connor, Reynolds and big Andy just didn't talk to each other. Much work to be done and hopefully a big Icelandic hero might come in to shore them up for the season.

Siroki are no mugs, they were neat, moved the ball quickly and really stretched us in the second half.  They were good for at least one goal, we could have scored more too but, they're a significant step up from our usual euro opener and it showed. Ref was weak but, not sure what you can do about players feigning a head injury, pretty scummy behaviour IMO. However, thems the rules and teams will exploit them.

We're still well in this tie though, need a great performance next week and this team is definitely capable of great things if they get their shit together. Hopefully they manage that in about a weeks time.

In McInnes we trust.

COYR

 

ps That away strip is fucking honking close up, still too blue and a no from me.

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Thought it was a really disjointed performance, to be expected I guess but I'd have hoped for the back four at least to be a bit more in sync.

There was also constantly a huge fucking gap between defence and midfield, and unfortunately Siroki were good at getting numbers forward. I've never thought Tansey would be the naturally deep sitting type and I still don't. We were crying out for Arnason tonight.

Christie was very good, but we're going to need to work out how we're working things in the final third - once GMS went off especially we were very one paced and we lacked an outball.

I'd start Stockley next week but then again he's a potential liability, especially with the standard of refereeing we see in these early rounds.

Not particularly confident about the return leg based on that.

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Interesting to hear differing views on GMS. I can't say I was impressed, he seemed to have good pace but not much else, his final ball was woeful. He seemed to cross in hope rather than actually trying to pick anyone out. However his pace was useful and it's something we missed when he was off. If he can improve his final ball then he good be a decent player, and to give him the benefit of the doubt he isn't used to playing with these players.

On the midfield issue I thought when we were playing well we didn't miss
Jack and that not having him slowing down the play actually helped us, in the second half his presence really was missed and that link between attack and defence wasn't really there. You start to really appreciate how much defending Hayes did and how vital his presence was for Consi.

I don't quite share the optimism of 1-1 being an OK result. A loss of an away goal and a drawing position isn't great. I think we can progress but think it will be tough, they looked like an alright team and if they can dominate the midfield like they did in the second half I think we may struggle to get a foothold on the game.

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I thought GMS gave us width but overall pretty poor. Gave the ball away needlessly a few times.

Christie head and shoulders above anyone else.

Second half performance was really poor but I'll put it down to lack of fitness.

The Bosnians are a good side make no mistake, well do well to get through but we're certainly capable of it if we box clever over there.

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Yeah after witnessing results like 1-5 against Sigma, last night was hardly a disaster 

We've gone to tougher places and won comfortably 

Thought Reynolds was poor 

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Guest Bob Mahelp

Good players that GMS and Stewart are, take away Hayes and McGinn and we looked like most of the team were dragging tractors. The only pace we had in the side came from Christie and Shinnie.

No wonder McInnes wants Maloney, and now I see why we're so determined to sign Moult or May....Rooney was as slow as a week in jail and without 30 crosses a game coming his way from the wings he'll be lucky to score 10 goals this season.

The Bosnians were as expected, organised and tidy, and they reminded me of the type of St Johnstone/ICT/Ross County sides that we often find so hard to break down at Pittodrie (although they attacked more than St Johnstone).

I think we'll be better next week, but that lack of pace may be what kills us in the end I fear.

I f*cking hate these early rounds of Europe.

 

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