Likes: 
Dislikes: 
Well. here we are for my shot.
On a day where we lost 1-0 to Aberdeen and a day where I have absolutely no idea what happened at their goal. So bearing that in mind. Here we go.
We lined up in somewhat of a 4231 with Slivka sorta playing inside right and Boyle out wide on the left, McGeouch in the advanced position through the middle. I feel like Neil knew this would be a physical affair and this is how we ended up this way.
To the players.
Ross Laidlaw - As I said, I missed their goal but felt like he was comfortable throughout, made a really good save from an offside at one of their freekicks, kicking it long to Stokes isn't good enough but that's a team thing not his fault. I think he should stay as number one for the foreseeable as Marciano was looking a touch off pace before.
Stevenson - Up against Mackay Steven today and was booked for a very strong challenge on him in the first half, but that came from one of many, many terrible passes throughout this game. Outside of that I thought he was strong and defensively done almost everything we needed from him, GMS scored so I dunno what happened there. Going forward he was lacking a bit today, not a bad day though imo.
Hanlon - Sponsors MoM and one of my candidates too, coped very well with the presence of Rooney and May, matched them physically and played with a good mature head, won a lot of headers and challenges along with some decent passes to try and send us on our way, looks like him and Efe are forming a decent pairing.
Ambrose - Also pretty solid today, a bit less of his scary antics today but still some crackers, including a wee nutmeg. Won his headers and challenges and looks to be in good shape going forward.
Whittaker - Started off looking like he was up for the physicality of the game but completely faded in the second half, a couple good moments going up that right wing but there was one occasion where he completely fluffed it receiving his return pass and didn't even come close to chasing it back, gave up and trodded back, all the while Aberdeen went forward with 5 on 3. Looked $#@!ed after 63 minutes.
Bartley - My other contender for MoM, I thought he won most of his midfield battles and in the second half he done a lot of cleaning up when other players were caught out, today is the type of day we needed him on there, wasn't sure about taking him off with half an hour to go, considering 2 minutes earlier he saved us twice in about 5 minutes.
McGinn - Really tried to get us moving time and time again. Chopped down each and every chance they got. It was clear to see what the tactics from Aberdeen were and they worked, they targeted him and got away with it all game long. Can't fault John too much today, kept his head on a day where I probably wouldn't have.
Boyle - Started on the left and didn't really get much going, him and Stokes didn't click at all and it really caused us trouble trying to create something, much better when he went to the right later on in the game and did try to give the Aberdeen as many problems as he could. Very unlucky not to get on the end of a cross late on in the game, could've have had something there.
McGeouch - Doesn't look right in the advanced role, like others misplaced a lot of his passes but saw a lot of the ball. Looked a bit off the pace in the beginning and once we dropped him deeper later in the game he looked a bit more like himself. Not an attacking midfielder, think that was shown today, much prefer him in the center circle dictating.
Slivka - Not a great day for him for me, looked like someone who had played and traveled with his national team and I think it should be taken into account, another with many misplaced passes and didn't even look too strong up against Christie at times, he'll have better days, he made an effort and put one or two crosses in. Rightfully subbed, but should've been off before Bartley.
Stokes - Not his best day at all. Seemed to be blaming everyone around him for things that he got wrong and didn't really try to make up for other things that were going on around him, clever player, capable of a lot of really nice stuff, but just needs to do the basics sometimes. Rightly subbed but much too late.
Subs,
Barker came on first, for Bartley, which I disagreed with, didn't really do too much when he was playing on the left, moved central when Swanson came on and saw alot of the ball, good with it at his feet but when it was time to release the ball he didn't do great for me.
Swanson came on second for Slivka and went to the left midfield spot, saw a bit of the ball, twisted and turned but didn't quite make it, he still needs some time to settle in and now that all the outside factors will calm down I hope we'll get to see more of him, potentially a good player for us. Would rather have seen him take the central role over Barker though.
Murray came on much too late for Stokes and caused Aberdeen problems, chasing and rushing them but by that points they had all their men lined up in the box and he couldn't impact enough.
Lennon, I understand his thinking for his team, not that I agree, but he knew what he was up against and I think he tried to counter that instead of trusting us to go and play our own game.
Subs weren't rightly timed or ordered from my perspective but had we managed to steal a goal late on I might not have said too much
Referee, was incredibly inconsistent, 7/8 times when McGinn turned and tried to drive us forward he was fouled, resulting in 1 booking. The one and only time John makes the exact same foul as he's been hit with all game, booked.
Stevie May 100% should've been off for that tackle on Boyle from where I was sitting, there was a tackle seconds before that I thought was a bit much then that second one was a shocker, nowhere near the ball, no chance of getting near the ball and completely took him out. Could've done damage, lucky he didn't.
He allowed them to waste time the whole second half and even thought he gave us 5 minutes added time, he let them away with it.
He did however make 2 good decision, one not to award a foul for a diving sheep and another calling play back for a foul against us that was well before any normal advantage would have went.
Aberdeen, came out with a game plan and executed, they look like a team who know what they're doing and used every man very well, didn't really deserve to beat us and a draw probably would have been fair on the day.
But I left feeling like they were dirty $#@!s happy to kill time from the 47th minute onwards.
Crowd, 19003 I think he said? 13000 season tickets sold. Good signs. Why did we leave that upper section empty in the south?
Man of the match from me still eventually goes to Bartley, he does alot of the unseen or unappreciated jobs and he is reliable in those jobs.
All in all, I thought it started as a good game of football, hoped it would stay that way but Aberdeen soon started putting the boot in, taking the professional fouls and it really did stop us building any sort of momentum. We only really showed our urgency in the last 12/15 minutes and by then it was already too late.
We'll need to be much, much better over our next 2 games to get anything from them.
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Originally Posted by 1875
it was very much a tired strikers tackle highlighted by the fact he was taken off minutes later. Have seen a picture of the tackle happening and it looks even worse.
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