Aberdeen v Celtic - League Cup Final

[DrewDon]

I would have retained the Logan-O'Connor-Considine-Shinnie defensive line, resisting the temptation to shoehorn in Taylor (although I thought that he transpired to be one of our better defensive players on the day); but, apart from that, there wasn't too much wrong with the line-up, IMO. However, whilst it wasn't the only problem, the killer was just how passive we were from start to finish, especially in the middle of the park. This is a problem that has been flagged up numerous times before, mind. Brown must quite enjoy playing against us. 

[RussellAnderson]

I would have retained the Logan-O'Connor-Considine-Shinnie defensive line, resisting the temptation to shoehorn in Taylor (although I thought that he transpired to be one of our better defensive players on the day); but, apart from that, there wasn't too much wrong with the line-up, IMO. However, whilst it wasn't the only problem, the killer was just how passive we were from start to finish, especially in the middle of the park. This is a problem that has been flagged up numerous times before, mind. Brown must quite enjoy playing against us. 

There were a number of options that may have been better but as one poster mentions above, they may have been much much worse.
My only gripe is that, in such a mismatch, one off game, we didn't roll the dice. He played it as safe as he could and for that we the fans were punished by barely creating a chance to speak of.

[coprolite]

Being a Dandy builds character.

I wouldn't trade the ups and downs for a hundred trophies.

especially if i had to be one of those dicks.

come awa the dandy dons.

[Davie Bhoy]

Enjoy your beer Davie, I've had mine already. And congratulations! 

Thank you mate, in from the pub now. Very decent of you to be so kind in defeat. Good luck for the rest of the season...except against us of course lol.

You have the makings of a good side there but today they didn't do themselves justice. I think if you work on the defence and can bulk up the squad then you could progress. If you can keep The Rangers away from 2nd spot for a few seasons, that in itself would be an achievement.

Anyway mate, take care.

[Davie Bhoy]

You think that's bad ? I was at Somerset Park in August when your money-bags team just about managed to sneak a 2-1 win. Most of us at Ayr United  have the guts to support a team that's never won a thing in more than 100 years. The reason for that is that we don't have the kind of money that Aberdeen can splash on players. We probably don't greet as much as you do as we still hope ( forlornly ?) that one day, maybe one day...

Stop complaining ! You were beaten by the better team. Now, away and polish your silverware and think yourself privileged to support a big team.

It's all relative. 

 

ooooh I like this guy. Cutty, take a bow son!

[Davie Bhoy]

Congratulations to Celtic on winning their 100th trophy, is this a record number or have Rangers or any other Scottish Club achieved more than this total?

If you mean untainted trophies then yes, ours were paid for without any facepainters taking a hit. Although I think the old Rangers tainted trophies outnumbered ours.

[DrewDon]

6 minutes ago, RussellAnderson said:

There were a number of options that may have been better but as one poster mentions above, they may have been much much worse.
My only gripe is that, in such a mismatch, one off game, we didn't roll the dice. He played it as safe as he could and for that we the fans were punished by barely creating a chance to speak of.

Indeed. I don't believe anybody is seriously suggesting that we go all out, guns blazing against Celtic from the first whistle. On the other hand, though, it has to be acknowledged that the approaches we have adopted against Celtic in Glasgow so far this season - which have been pretty similar all told - have a 0% success record; they have resulted in heavy defeats without too much resistance. I'm still not convinced, especially in the middle, that we quite have the dynamism or playing options to successfully execute what McInnes has set up to achieve on either of these occasions. Hopefully we play to our strengths at Ibrox and compete on our own terms from the start.

[Davie Bhoy]

You forget where we came from. Nineteen years of no trophies, consistently poor teams finishing 11th, 9th, 8th, a few good years with JC, but a failure to build on that led to McGhee: the worst manager in our history. McInnes has rebuilt this club to a place where we are favourites to finish second, attendances have risen and the players are committed to the club. 

To ditch McInnes now would be idiotic. Losing in finals is tough at the time but at least we're getting there. The players can learn from this experience and next time they'll be better. We went 14 years without a final between 2000 and 2014. 

And McInnes is still a young manager. He'll learn too. I've got every faith that McInnes will win another trophy at the Dons, and I'll be there when he does. 

A little perspective goes a long way. Sometimes it takes ages to get to this point but for me it took a couple of hours, a cup of tea and my dinner. xx

Ah f**k, this hurts but...well...I agree with you. There I said it.

I actually think Craig Brown started the rebuild of Aberdeen. He put the foundations in place & McInnes took it on to the next level. You & yer fellow fans can whinge about me going on about the crowds if you want but they provide a big source of income & I think unless your fans get off their arses & turn up to pack out Pittodrie then this will be as good as it gets for Aberdeen. If you can't increase his budget through ticket revenue, then you will stand still. Worse than that, but the car crash that is The Rangers will at some point get their act together and you will slip further still & you will dream of getting to cup finals again even if you are turning up to get gubbed like today.

I would stick with McInnes though.

[Davie Bhoy]

I am just home. Decent weekend but terrible journey home, bloody roadworks.

Celtic emptied us today.

DM picked the right team and used the right tactics. He set up to shitefest it and we conceded two in the first half. Had he played a more attacking line up, we would have shipped 5. They are a class above our team and it showed. McInnes is a good manager but he is not a fucking magician.

Our pre match fans display was a real disappointment. It was very expensive and there was much work put into it by a lot of people. So fair play to them, but I wont be so fast to throw in my £25 contribution in the future. It was just a bigger version of one done before at Tannadice. Celtics was much better.  

We didn't sell out our allocation. Looked to be 2 or 300 seats empty. We took a big support a long way and its nothing to be ashamed of. However, claiming to have sold out when we clearly didn't is a bit of a minter.We were a few hundred day trippers short of a full load and should not have claimed otherwise. 

I'm pretty down about the whole thing. It's the AGM tomorrow, so hopefully there will be some good news announced. It's no shame to lose to this Celtic team and I hope we can push on and finish second. If Celtic have an off day in the Scottish Cup, perhaps someone will stop them clearing the board. Other than that, it looks like a long period of Celtic dominance ahead.

There is one thing from today that is cheering me up a wee bit though. 

" What committee would that be?"

There is just no coming back from that one. Ever.

Chin up Dandies, there will be other days.

 

I would say it was more than 2-300 empty seats and apart from the committee dig ya fucker, I just want to say fair play for your post. Pretty accurate and honest so credit where it's due.

[banana]

Eihburdeen lying down to the Old Firm again, shocking.

[Contra]

What are Aberdeen's strengths? I'm genuinely curious. I would say the only problems you've caused us this season are from long balls into the box. So if I was to judge your strengths it would be playing psychical and hitting the ball long.

[RadgerTheBadger]

2 out of three trophies in the bag already.

Magic 

 

What about the Europa League? Talk about Aberdeen being negative

Show some ambition min

[The DA]

3 hours ago, HairyBawz said:

 

What about the Europa League? Talk about Aberdeen being negative

Show some ambition min

 

Assuming you mean the Champions League, then you're right - it's only 2 out of 4 so far.

That's better.  Nae clean sweeps this season, Bhoys. 

[Alex_14]

5.5 hours to get home, the journey was arguably shiter than the game.

Negative tactics cost us, concentrate on ourselves next time McInnes. If we lose having a semblance of a go then I'd be happy

[Romeo]

On 26/11/2016 at 18:56, Dons_1988 said:

Is my team. Get Hayes really tearing into their fullbacks and see what we can get out of it.

 

On 26/11/2016 at 19:08, Illgresi said:

 Hayes and McGinn. Izaguirre's like the roller coaster at Codona's, rusty and well ridden. Boom boom.

 

On 26/11/2016 at 19:23, Dons_1988 said:

 

Aye I do agree with that re Hayes and izaguirre although I 

 

Just having a wee look back; it's always fun.  especially when you consider how the "rusty and well ridden" izaguirre had to let Hayes out of his back pocket so he could be subbed.

Hayes 

[Carl Cort's Hamstring]

I can understand why McInnes chose the tactics he did, but I do think they were a mistake. Domestically, this season Celtic have shown that they will always score eventually, and if you set out to play negatively you're a bit screwed once that happens.

My main criticism is that the midfield didn't seem know what they were doing defensively. We had to either sit very deep and make it hard for them to play through us, or charge around like maniacs to close them down and deny them space, but we did neither.

Celtic are a very very good team this season, and I was expecting a defeat, but we didn't make them work hard to beat us. 

[shootingboots]

8 minutes ago, Romeo said:

 

 

Just having a wee look back; it's always fun.  especially when you consider how the "rusty and well ridden" izaguirre had to let Hayes out of his back pocket so he could be subbed.

Hayes 

Hayes was terrible yesterday. Couldn't trap a bag of cement never mind run at a defender with the ball under his control.

Hindsight and all that.

We were well beaten yesterday. Even if we turned up we would have probably got beat. I'm not going to get upset about it, life goes on. C'est la vie. 

Enjoy your victory.

Edit: T*ms is blocked? I thought even Celtic fans referred to themselves as that? Bizarre.  

[Dons_1988]

It's not so much negative tactics yesterday it was the lack of any clear tactic that got me. We didn't press high, we didn't really 'shitfest' it or park the bus. We were just...passive.

It reminded me of andy Murray from a few years ago when he played nadal or Djokovic, he would sit at the baseline returning shots but never really do anything.

He was doing 'ok' but you knew that eventually Djokovic would pull out that piece of quality to put him to the sword.

The players need to take some responsibility for that, i can't imagine that was how they were told to set up.

[Dons_1988]

Just having a wee look back; it's always fun.  especially when you consider how the "rusty and well ridden" izaguirre had to let Hayes out of his back pocket so he could be subbed.

Hayes 

Yeah you can go back to those fair enough but I don't think I was wrong to suggest Hayes running at izaguirre would be one of our best chances to win the game or at least score.

As it happened Hayes was very poor and izaguirre wasn't. Simples.

[Ross.]

4 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

It's not so much negative tactics yesterday it was the lack of any clear tactic that got me. We didn't press high, we didn't really 'shitfest' it or park the bus. We were just...passive.

It reminded me of andy Murray from a few years ago when he played nadal or Djokovic, he would sit at the baseline returning shots but never really do anything.

He was doing 'ok' but you knew that eventually Djokovic would pull out that piece of quality to put him to the sword.

The players need to take some responsibility for that, i can't imagine that was how they were told to set up.
 

Probably a pretty good summation of the game. It was as one sided a cup final as I can remember in a while. The opening 10-15 minutes Celtic must have had 80% of the ball and Aberdeen didn't go near them when they should have been laying in a few early markers and putting in a few heavy challenges early enough that they would probably escape booking free. Apart from a 10 minute period just after the start of the second half, they offered almost nothing at all. Celtic strolled it.