The Famous Aberdeen - Season 2022/23

[Raidernation]

I haven’t had a rowie in 11 years now [emoji22]

[Melanius Mullarkey]

6 minutes ago, Raidernation said:

I haven’t had a rowie in 11 years now

Thoughts and prayers.

[CHOW87]

I wish I shared your enthusiasm. I can't see us getting past Livingston.

Their new manager bounce has been and gone and ours is just about to begin.

[Don exotic]

23 minutes ago, HarleyQuinn said:

I wish I shared your enthusiasm. I can't see us getting past Livingston.

I'm a Glass half full man! Our players are better than theirs, even if their not playing like they are at the moment. I would hope by then there will be some sort of resurgence with the new management in place.

[highland_mechanic]

11 minutes ago, Don exotic said:

I'm a Glass half full man! Our players are better than theirs, even if their not playing like they are at the moment. I would hope by then there will be some sort of resurgence with the new management in place.

I think the fact most of our players know their time at Aberdeen is up is why I would make Livingston favourites for this one.

[A96]

45 minutes ago, Don exotic said:

I'm a Glass half full man Our players are better than their’s, even if their not playing like they are at the moment. I would hope by then there will be some sort of resurgence with the new management in place.

Debatable. 

The more games we go with our players performing poorly and the opponents being fairly comfortable against us , the more I’m thinking McInnes was actually a miracle worker getting this group to fourth place in the league.

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, Raidernation said:

I haven’t had a rowie in 11 years now

It's longer than that for me! 

[Dons_1988]

Should really be buzzing about two home ties in the cup to take us to a semi with a guarantee of an OF team going out but this season has fairly broken me. 

[HarleyQuinn]

A lot of rumours of Leigh Griffiths being in talks with us. However I've recently been told he isn't one of the 3 (not 2) internationalists MainStandMoan was talking about that has given his word to Scott Brown. Players that haven't been mentioned as of yet. Declan Gallagher has agreed to sign on but he's not one of the 3 players. I'm excited about next season.

 

Edited April 4, 2021 by HarleyQuinn

[Golden Gordon]

15 minutes ago, HarleyQuinn said:

A lot of rumours of Leigh Griffiths being in talks with us. However I've recently been told he isn't one of the 3 (not 2) internationalists MainStandMoan was talking about that has given his word to Scott Brown. Players that haven't been mentioned as of yet. I'm excited about next season.

 

 

Have you superimposed Scott Brown's face onto Carlos Valderrama?

[HarleyQuinn]

3 minutes ago, Golden Gordon said:

Have you superimposed Scott Brown's face onto Carlos Valderrama?

There were a few options when I googled searched Scott Brown with Hair (some truly magnificent hairdos) for my new avatar.

 

[highland_mechanic]

1 hour ago, HarleyQuinn said:

A lot of rumours of Leigh Griffiths being in talks with us. However I've recently been told he isn't one of the 3 (not 2) internationalists MainStandMoan was talking about that has given his word to Scott Brown. Players that haven't been mentioned as of yet. Declan Gallagher has agreed to sign on but he's not one of the 3 players. I'm excited about next season.

 

Are they Scottish internationalists or foreign internationalists?

[d31]

2 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

A lot of rumours of Leigh Griffiths being in talks with us. However I've recently been told he isn't one of the 3 (not 2) internationalists MainStandMoan was talking about that has given his word to Scott Brown. Players that haven't been mentioned as of yet. Declan Gallagher has agreed to sign on but he's not one of the 3 players. I'm excited about next season.

 

We certainly need some excitement

[kingjoey]

17 hours ago, highland_mechanic said:

I think the fact most of our players know their time at Aberdeen is up is why I would make Livingston favourites for this one.

I can understand that train of thought, but another view is that there are going to be an awful lot of players out of work throughout the football world come summer, and players need to get themselves noticed so that some club or other will want to sign them. And what player doesn’t like to play at Hampden at a Cup Final? 

[Dons_1988]

12 minutes ago, CCB19035 said:

No. 
 

They were playing like this before he departed. He's recruited poorly again, in my opinion, these players don't have the metal to become motivated when the chips are down. 
 

They've been told how good they are and how good it is to "compete" at the right end of the table, or to reach the "latter stages" of the cup competitions. 
 

It's the low standard that has been set. They don't seem to respond to criticism very well, we've been a car crash since the turn of the year. 

Mcinnes wasn't a miracle worker to get us into 2nd, we just had Watkins, Wright and Hedges playing every week plus McCrorie and Ferguson both in form, and to a lesser extent Hayes.

There is a clear point the season turned sour and it's the international break after we beat Hibs at home 2-0. We have struggled to look anything like a proper team since then and much of that is due to personnel.

The low standard comment is quite unfair, IMO.

[tarapoa]

On 03/04/2021 at 15:06, DrewDon said:

Hoban was a big concern for me today. I can see the case for having him ahead of Taylor because his distribution is better when playing out from the back, but even that was rubbish today. 

With Hedges long out of the picture, Taylor is still arguably last man standing in the POTY candidates.

If he sticks to meat and potatoes defending, he's fine and was missed on Saturday, as Dumbarton were winning far too many 'first contact' heiders and created a few chances as a result.

In this new strategy of fast, exciting, attacking football - my biggest fear is we lose sight of basic defending.  Watching Cove last night try and constantly Beckenbauer it out of their own third was very admirable for football aesthetics, but Sevco just pinched if off them for three of their goals.  Obviously we should have a higher quality of player than them, but it was a reminder of how vulnerable teams can become when they overdo the passing it out of defence thing.

As Jack Charlton reminded us on that documentary last week, "I prefer defenders that stop others playing".  Not that I'm advocating Ireland's agricultural style, but defensive solidity is something that served us well under McInnes, after several regimes where we were far too easy to score against.  Hopefully the balance can be struck.....

 

Edited April 5, 2021 by tarapoa

[betting competition]

Its been awhile since we have discussed McInnes

[G51]

Is there an argument to be made that McInnes and Aberdeen’s post-sacking struggles are proof of the long-held analytics viewpoint: There are some truly great football managers (e.g. Ferguson, Mourinho that make a tangible difference to their teams results, and there are some truly bad ones (e.g. Lennon this season) that can tank a good team. Talent is real, and that applies to football management too! But 99% of managers are somewhat competent, therefore ultimately... managers don’t actually matter that much? Recruitment and budget matters - higher wage budgets buy better players, and players win games so you have to spend that money well. Injuries matter - having players unavailable means that money is wasted. But do managers, tactics etc. actually make that much of a difference?

McInnes’s man-marking system was a punchline by the end, because Rangers and Celtic ripped it apart with ease. But it worked against other teams, and basically meant Aberdeen beat the teams they were better than, and lost against teams better than them. The primary driver of Aberdeen’s league position therefore wasn’t tactics, but budget. And the primary driver of their current woes isn’t tactics, it’s not recruiting well and having lost players in the final third?

Maybe McInnes could have been kept on, but with a sporting director above him to run the recruitment?

Edited April 5, 2021 by G51

[RandomGuy.]

IMO bad managers drag teams downwards, excellent players drag teams upwards. Good managers get players performing at their best.

McInnes was stuck in a rut where he was too good to have Aberdeen drop out the top 4, but couldn't get the players good enough to run away with 3rd.

[Dons_1988]

33 minutes ago, CCB19035 said:

Why has it fallen apart so badly? It's mostly the same players, still. 
 

How has it fallen apart so badly we've got 2 goals in 12 games, one to a team bottom of League 1 and another to the worst team in the premiership at that time.

 

McInnes is partly to blame, as are the players. It is just my opinion, that the ethos of the club, and the entirety of the football operation being ran by a guy who could decide what success was on his own. He routinely listed non achievements as barometers for success. 
 

The scariest thing about McInnes being sacked wasn't the uncertainty for me, it was the fact the players appeared to be genuinely surprised he lost his job, having played as badly as they have this season. 
 

That told me everything I needed to know about what the contrast between what the players are told, and what the fans expect. 
 

 

Of course Mcinnes is partly to blame but that's pretty much where my agreement with your post ends.

3 minutes ago, G51 said:

Is there an argument to be made that McInnes and Aberdeen’s post-sacking struggles are proof of the long-held analytics viewpoint: There are some truly great football managers (e.g. Ferguson, Mourinho that make a tangible difference to their teams results, and there are some truly bad ones (e.g. Lennon this season) that can tank a good team. Talent is real, and that applies to football management too! But 99% of managers are somewhat competent, therefore ultimately... managers don’t actually matter that much? Recruitment and budget matters - higher wage budgets buy better players, and players win games so you have to spend that money well. Injuries matter - having players unavailable means that money is wasted. But do managers, tactics etc. actually make that much of a difference?

McInnes’s man-marking system was a punchline by the end, because Rangers and Celtic ripped it apart with ease. But it worked against other teams, and basically meant Aberdeen beat the teams they were better than, and lost against teams better than them. The primary driver of Aberdeen’s league position therefore wasn’t tactics, but budget. And the primary driver of their current woes isn’t tactics, it’s not recruiting well and having lost players in the final third?

Maybe McInnes could have been kept on, but with a sporting director above him to run the recruitment?

There's elements of truth to this but maybe a little simplistic. The start of Mcinnes' reign would suggest manager's definitely do have an impact.

The impact of managers in football is most likely overstated by the media, I'd say there's very little doubt about that. However, Mcinnes maybe isn't a great example as he had more control over the football department than the average modern club. He has to own his failings as well as his successes.

He has never had the tactical nous to regularly achieve unlikely results, but he's good at getting a group of players to achieve the least they're capable of, and maybe a bit more give or take certain variables.

As you allude to, recruitment is key and it stuttered badly after the 2017 cup final when we had to throw together a team every summer in a short window of time. He chased his tail ever since from a recruitment perspective until it eventually unravelled.