Edwards best game for us, thought he was excellent
Benji performance excepted, will make a million on him next summer
Butcher and harkes are killing us, hate to say it, love them before especially butcher but powers HAS to play, said it for last 2/3 weeks, why Mellon hasn’t done this is baffling tbh
Three at the back has to be gone, it’s killing us not having wingers

442 next gem

Snacks94 wrote:

SuperMario wrote:

Edwards best game for us, thought he was excellent
Benji performance excepted, will make a million on him next summer
Butcher and harkes are killing us, hate to say it, love them before especially butcher but powers HAS to play, said it for last 2/3 weeks, why Mellon hasn’t done this is baffling tbh
Three at the back has to be gone, it’s killing us not having wingers

442 next gem

 
Agree with all that, hope Fuchs can make a difference in midfield and start creating chances for McNulty and shankland

 
Yeah I'm really hoping Fuchs is the real deal, could make a big difference to how we Play. Butcher was one of my favourite players last season so I'm not gonna turn on him just yet, but Powers definitely does offer more composure. I think once we get our best team settled, fit and on the pitch together we should pick up enough points to be safe.

Some good posts and takes on today's game.

My thoughts on today were -

I would have taken a point before kick-off, so i am relatively happy that we registered a point finally against one of the recognised top 4 sides in Scotland. Delighted with the clean sheet and i thought the defence (and all the players) fought very hard for that clean sheet.

Benji, excellent. The boy has really matured in to a top Keeper and i don't think we will have him much longer. I can only hope we get a good fee for him when the time comes.

I could see Mellon and Frail's thinking behind starting the back three of Edwards, Connolly and Reynolds. We have been leaking goals and perhaps the thinking is let's stop conceding goals first and foremost. And tbf it not only worked but i also felt all three had a good game playing together in the backline. Edwards had his best game for Utd (by a distance). So, happy for them and MM that that tactic worked.

But here is the thing we sat so deep in that first hour that it was for all intents and purposes a back FIVE and we surrendered so much possession as a consequence, that we just constantly invited Aberdeen on to us. I would have to say that although Benji had a fine game i was quite surprised just how poor Aberdeen were. They seemed to run out of ideas in our last 3rd quite often and that was probably the poorest Dons side i've seen under McIness. Nonetheless, that first hour Benji undoubtedly kept us in it.

All of our hard work could have been undone if it weren't for the pivotal moment of the match (going in our favour). Shankland handling the ball on the goal line. We have undoubtedly gotten a 'get out of Jail FREE' card with that one. It was a stonewall penalty and should also have resulted in a straight red for Shankland. If that had happened you'd have been as well turning the telly off. The ref must have known he'd fucked up deep down because he let Aberdeen off with a similiarly obvious handball right in front of him on the edge of their penalty box near the end of the game.

So, was relieved and slightly shocked we held out till half time 0-0. Given the fact it had been one way traffic the entire first 45.

About 10 minutes into the 2nd half though it became evident that Aberdeen were running out of ideas and i was shouting at the telly for Mellon to stop showing them so much respect and make a positive tactical change, And to my surprise, he did!

Bringing Liam Smith on and going 4-4-2 resulted in us finally moving up the pitch. Two other things happened that were fortutious for us and resulted in us getting into the match. Butcher and Pawlett going off injured. Now i would never wish injury on a Utd player and i hope they are both fine but bringing Powers and Chalmers on for them gave us for the first time all season a better looking shape to the team. We at long last kept the ball, passed it better and slowed the game down. Previous games i've watched we have treated the ball like a hot potato. That last 25 minutes was an improvement in terms of shape, possession and tempo. We actually started to control and dictate play a bit.

Chalmers probably should have scored but it fell on his weaker foot so we will let him off. Lewis also spread himself well and made a good stop.

Harkes and Butcher isn't working. Powers deserves a chance and we can only hope Jeando Fuchs is a naturally fit laddie and after a good week of training is ready to feature next weekend.

One other thing. Our Forwards. Now they are being starved of service, no doubt. But they are also such similiar players that they are part of the problem. I said for months we need a different type of Centre Forward and i stand by it. We need either a Jon Daly type who when we don't have a lot of possession we can hit it long and he can make it stick up top. Or even a Ciftci type who could drop 20 yards off the box and his strength and skill linked the midfield and helped get us into offensive areas.

Shankland and Clark are very much penalty box forwards and i get the feeling McNulty will be too. I'm not sure how we remedy this problem in the short-term tbqh. On the latter, i have seen a few saying online they felt he (McNulty) looked good. Personally i felt he looked poor. He got in good areas of the pitch but didn't look alert to possibilities when we had the ball (albeit his pass for Chalmers was good). His corner near the end was so disappointing, never even beat first man, when we had a chance to get the ball in the mixer and try and score a late winner.

Still don't understand why we never used the 3 Betfred games to help get him up to speed. He does look a wee bit overweight to me.

All in all a good point today but we need to start being a bit more attacking in our intent. Time for Mellon to take the shackles off a wee bit. Still only had two shots on target all day. We're a hard watch.

Fell asleep after 15 minutes and woke up in the 87th minute pleasantly surprised. Couldn't help but noticed that, the few minutes I did see, of the 6 passes Powers played, 5 of them were forward and in to the strikers. Of which 4 of them were successful and took us 15 yards up the pitch.

Been saying it for a while now but Powers MUST start for me. You can't create chances with Butcher and Harkes playing it sideways and backwards, and that's less of a slight on Butcher as ultimately that is his game. Harkes I think has been very poor all season.

The other main reflection from the game, that probably got somewhat glossed over because of the point in the end, the midfield and attack were hiding constantly. Confidence is low, opposition were decent - very hard thing to do to show for the ball and use it positively so it's to be expected somewhat. If you ask for the ball it's a thankless task as you're getting it with the reality being no one is going to show for you for it. you then lose it and get the blame/frustration. 

​Likewise, if we're playing a back 5 with 3 midfielders also compact, the options are automatically limited when the ball does got forward. That said, our hold up ball/possession was ansolutely woeful. 

​This is the key attribute I hope Fuchs has. that said, if I was Mellon, i'd be looking at the combinations to get Powers in the team and try and play through the low confidence 

Shakey Isles Arab wrote:

Was watching Liam Smith interview which replayed ball across fae wing and cleared at back post.
Connolly turns and bollocks everybody.
Take a look at yourself mate.

 
I'm sure he does. But his leadership of those around him is an important part of his game.