El Grew

Another shit show!

In his post-match interview, Alfredsson said something about diagonal exits. I have never heard of this so I googled it to see what it meant. Here’s what I found: ”A diagonal exit is an explosive movement or pass used to escape tight spaces - such as the touchline or a corner - by shifting the ball at an angle across a defender's body. It breaks pressure and makes it harder for defenders to block the pass compared to a predictable vertical or horizontal pass. It creates passing angles by changing the axis of the attack and forcing defenders to turn and shift their weight.” Well!?! Sounds to me like somebody swallowed a coaching manual! If this is the type of thing Alfredsson is about we’ve got a problem because I doubt the players will have a clue what he’s on about, and it certainly looked that way last night. As far as last night goes it was a shit show from start to finish. The starting selection was all wrong. We have a defence that couldn’t keep hens out of a close. Our midfield is far too lightweight, too easily bullied and lacks a physicality and we possess absolutely no goal threat. Possession is fine but unlike last season, we’re far too slow and ponderous in building attacks which allows the opposition to easily get into position to nullify us. Last season we had players continuously making runs forward into dangerous areas but I don’t see too much of that this season. Possession stats are totally misleading. We have 70% while the opposition has 30% but we lose. How much of the 70% took place in and around the opposition penalty area, because that’s where it really counts. Alfredsson needs to work this out fast or we’re in for a long hard slog undoing all the good base we had built from last season.

Having thought about this again, I think maybe we are all missing the point of this debate. The review that’s been carried out has got nothing to do with league re-construction etc. it’s been aimed at asking why we as a nation are so bad in the European and International football arenas.

The genesis of the current top league set-up was season 1975/76 with a 10-club Premier Division where clubs played one another 4 times giving a 36 game league season. Prior to this, the top league (1st Division) had 18 clubs that played each other twice, giving a 34 game league season. I’m pretty sure that under the 18-club 1st Division, the away club got a percentage share of the home club’s gate receipts, but under the 10-club Premier Division this was scrapped and the home club was allowed to retain all its gate receipts and I believe this is still true today. I don’t know if it make any difference or whether it would be acceptable, but maybe if this was re-introduced it would provide clubs outwith the OF with a bigger source of income.

I know stats don’t always tell the whole story in a game but today we made a total of 571 passes but only 164 (28%) of those were forward. Despite us appearing to dominate possession, too much of it was in our own half and in areas of the pitch where we posed no threat. Rangers had possession where it counts as witnessed by 27 shots and 42 touches inside our box. Possession is all good and well but if it doesn’t produce and end product i.e. goals then it become a pointless exercise. I always view anything we get from games at Ibrox and Parkhead as a bonus and that they won’t define our season so long as we take care of business with the rest. COYW.

We’ve contrived today to make Rangers look like a good team. Pass marks for nobody I’m afraid.

Went for Lowry. He’s been on fire last 2 games. Reminds me a lot of Bobby Russell.

Celtic seemingly interested in bringing left-back Greg Taylor back from PAOK where he has seemingly fallen out of favour.

Defensive midfielder and hopefully stiffen up that area and stop us getting bullied by the SPL hammer throwers. On the Longelo rumours front, Rangers have denied interest in signing him but another rumour has surfaced that Celtic are interested in him. Unless he’s seeking a move, I hope the board reject any and all offers for him. We should absolutely not be selling our best players to any teams in Scotland.

Thanks Grizzly. By the way, I love your humorous remarks so don’t stop because it brightens up some of the tedium that’s posted on here and I include myself in that.

Agreed. I think we lack a physical ball winning midfield player to stiffen-up our midfield and who can mix it if required. I don’t mean a thuggish hammer thrower type but someone who can provide protection for our creative players.

This. 👍

There is absolutely no disgrace in losing to a club of Freiburg’s size and yes we had to play on the back foot more than we’d have liked but in both legs they were only able to subdue us after we had gone down to 10 men. That fact is worth remembering in that we had to play for just over a third of this tie with only 10 men. I do think we were really unlucky in the draw for the play-off round in getting Freiburg - Larne for example got Lincoln Red Imps from Gibraltar and our two biggest clubs got very favourable draws against clubs they were expected to beat but couldn’t. Also don’t forget that In 9 games so far this season we have only lost twice in 90 minutes and both against last season’s Europa League runners-up who brought in roughly £70 million worth of transfer fees this summer alone. Their average home gate is about 34,000 and they have access to much more TV revenue in a year than we’ll see in 10 years. All in all a lot to be proud of so far and hopefully we can build on this and have another good season in the league and maybe qualify for Europe again. The only way to improve at that level is to get more regular exposure. That will raise the club’s standing and make us an attractive option for players we might want to bring to the club. COYW. 🇪🇸

The club can and should take action to identify those responsible for causing the problems at FP. However it’s much more difficult to do this for away games. The only way to do this would be for the club to handle the ticket sales for all away games and record details of everyone who buys a ticket. On the down side this would create an extra admin burden on the club and it would need the cooperation of the away club not to sell tickets outwith this.

Have we / are we going to sign Jardell Kanga?

Aye the road out of FP isn’t paved with gold.

I’m with you on that. If that doesn’t work then close the front 2 or 3 rows of that section of the John Hunter Stand. I also think the club needs to review its stewarding and inquire of whoever is in charge why they failed to ensure that passageways weren’t kept clear.

This fixture understandably has had to be rescheduled however the revised date of Tuesday 15th September with a 7.45pm kick-off makes me wonder if our football officials are trying to destroy our game. It will be a round trip of nearly 6 hours for Aberdeen fans who choose to come down for the match. To arrive in time for kick-off, they’d have to leave around 3-4pm and wouldn’t get home until well after midnight. Now I know it’s not easy to fit-in rearranged fixtures, but would it not have been better to have arranged this game for say a Friday night? This might just as easily have been an away game for us so I’d be interested to know what others think.

Spot on. Footballers in general have very well developed thigh and calf muscles but not all of them have a good upper body strength - the central core. I’m not suggesting that players get ripped and have six-packs but they do need to do some serious gym work to build-up their core and upper body strength.

Our guys did their absolute best and gave everything last night and it’s no disgrace to lose to a side that were simply better than us. I for one am really proud of them. Freiburg are a big physical and very athletic side who are able to play at a really high tempo. Remember they are last season’s beaten UEFA League finalists and they beat current Conference League winners, Crystal Palace 3-0 in a pre-season match. The only side of our game where we fall short and did so last season was that we lack that physicality. Never the less when you look at the teams the other Scottish clubs got it’s fair to say we got the hardest. However it’s not the end of the world and we now need to try and get back in Europe again as it’s the only way to get better at this level. COYW.

St Mirren look likely to secure right-back Calvin Ramsay on loan from Liverpool. I know we can’t know about every player that’s available but this would’ve been a great defensive addition for us.

Artificial playing surfaces have no place in professional football and the clubs who have them are lower league part-time semi-professional. I think the Scottish League and the SFA need to have a complete re-think on their use in cup competitions. If a team with such a pitch is drawn at home they should have two options: 1. Find an alternative venue with a grass pitch; or 2. Forfeit home advantage. If the latter, they could be compensated financially by the home team, say based upon their average home gate.

AJ has to take a lot of the blame for this. It wasn’t just that we lost but as much in the manner of our play. He made far too many changes and needs to be reminded that for a club like ours, European football is jam but the league and both cups are our bread and butter. He has surely found out now that guys like Ross, Wilson, Booth and Vogt are not good enough to be in his 1st team squad and in all honesty need to be let go. He also has a decision to make as far as Maswanhise is concerned because wherever his head is just now it’s certainly not at FP. On top of that he really needs to try and get a couple of fit strikers in asap.

Another superb night at FP and congratulations to all of the players and the manager and his staff. A great result for the club and it takes our club’s profile up yet another notch. Games under the FP lights have always been special for us and this was a fantastic experience especially for our younger fans. I know Freiburg will be a big step up for us but you want to test yourself against big sides. It’s the only way to improve.

Said being played much deeper than normal - maybe to accommodate Lowry? I’d like to see him pushed a bit further forward.