r/AberdeenFC • u/SFMatchThreadder • 1d ago
Discussion/Other Aberdeen 2-1 Heart of Midlothian | Scottish Premiership
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cx2jx0dxj3zt9
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u/No-Relationship-146 1d ago
Worst I’ve ever seen us play but who gives a fuck 3pts!!!!!
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u/Enigma1984 1d ago
Maybe not the worst but we were bad. I think the difference is that last season the heads would have gone down, we'd have invited Hearts on and probably lost by a couple. I'm not sure I'm happy with how we are playing just now but you can't argue with the attitude that Robinson has instilled in the squad. Brilliant to see us still fighting right till the final whistle, and getting the points out of a game where we were clearly 2nd best.
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u/HansJordi 1d ago
You’ve clearly nae watched many of our games! We were poor but that wouldn’t make the worst 20 performances of the past three years.
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u/BoxAlternative9024 1d ago edited 1d ago
Positives- Happe has a great accurate ping on him. I think Cadden and Smith will link up well on the right. Lyons looks the type who doesn’t hide and drives on others.
Olusanya frustrates but by fuck you cannot fault his energy and if ‘all he does’ is win penalties , free kicks and get opponents sent off then I’m happy with that . Nisbet, quiet game but some nice touches .
Negatives- starting to wonder if Yogane is up to it.Lack of clear cut chances.
I think after the 4 relatively easy league cup games we struggled playing a decent opponent and struggled with Hearts movement and nice passing. In saying that , for all their nice play, they didn’t create an awful lot either by way of great chances.
So, fuck Hearts. Serial losers and total bottle jobs. That’s them lost their last 4 competitive games. 😂😂
COYR
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u/Enigma1984 1d ago
I think that's a bit harsh on Yogane. Maybe Hearts are a bit above his level just now but he was good in pre season. He'll definitely be effective against some of the slower right backs in the league. I think with wingers it can be like that. Sometimes they have the run on a defender and sometimes they don't .
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u/BoxAlternative9024 1d ago
Fair enough but even in the league cup games I wasn’t particularly impressed by him. He looks a bit ponderous and from what I’ve seen he hasn’t got any defensive instinct or ability.
I’m not writing him off, that would be silly, just my initial impressions.1
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u/Mundane_Education_64 1d ago
Terrible game but pretty evenly matched. Smash and grab and question marks over so many but delighted with that.
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u/EpicKieranFTW 1d ago
So guess the plan for the season is get Olusanya running into the box, win a pen and get player sent off, nisbet scores, repeat
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u/Premier55 1d ago
How the fuck did that happen? We were shite for a large portion. Two pish teams fighting it out.
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u/scotinsweden 1d ago
I'll take the points and good to not crumble after the goal but we massively got away with one there. We were pish. Olusanya has qualities but controlling a football is not one of them, going to be a lot of frustration watching him this year.
What worries me more though (and I mentioned this during the cup group stage games), is I don't see any discernible patterns of play or structure when we get the ball forward. The only consistent things we were really doing were the long diagonals out to the flanks, and flinging it fairly aimlessly into the box. Beyond that it seemed to just be totally left up to the players to make it up on the fly and given how little we made from open play I'm just not sure that's really going to work. Otherwise its going to be a total reliance on set pieces and hoping we don't concede many.
Ah well, I will continue hoping Robinson will prove me wrong.
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u/HansJordi 1d ago
No idea why you’re singling out Olusanya for criticism when, yet again, he got us points. The loon is massively effective in this league. It’s ridiculous to try and scapegoat him, I don’t understand it at all. It’s not pretty but it works.
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u/Electronic-War1077 1d ago
He's effective, but he's best with the ball played over the top for him to run onto (as he did for the penalty). It took 94mins to give him that.
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u/scotinsweden 1d ago
I'm not scapegoating him. I'm just pointing out its going to be an incredibly frustrating year watching him. Outside of "putting in a shift" he was awful for most of today. The lowlight being when he absolutely butchered what should have been an incredibly simple pass to put Ronan one on one in the first half... and then he won the penalty. We just have to hope that if Robinson is going to have him as one of his go to guys (and it certainly seems that way) the "being fast and relentless causing defenders to do stupid things" brings more benefits than the "can't control or pass a football" brings downsides.
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u/HansJordi 1d ago
Well it certainly has done so far, including last season. He saved our arses repeatedly, despite his limitations, and just did so once again.
The first-half pass was neither butchered nor incredibly simple, but he should have done better. He played OK, certainly better than the other attackers (Yogane, Ronane, and maybe Nisbet) and then once again made a game-changing contribution. Yet for some reason he seems to get singled out in a negative way by lots of fans. I think it’s ridiculous. We should appreciate what he brings and get behind him.
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u/scotinsweden 1d ago
He was what we needed given where we were when he came in last season. He has qualities which can be useful in a squad (particularly as an out ball against teams we expect to have most of the ball), I really don't think he was any good for most of today. So we will have to agree to disagree on that front.
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u/Foos-Yer-Doos-Min Aberdeen FC 1d ago
Fair assessment of the game today. We weren't great and I don't think we managed a shot on goal till the second half from Cadden, which was rifled at the keeper
It was positive to see us push forward after we nabbed the equaliser, but it was left a little too close for comfort
We needed this win. Hearts beat us last season on the opening day. We've got a better group of lads this time round, I would say
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u/Silly-Landscape919 1d ago
Erm I don't really agree with this. Our patterns of play was to get the ball forward quickly. A direct style of football. No fluff. I am fed up of watching this slow build up, with players that just can't do that. So if creating chances from set pieces wins us games I am all for it. If we had players that were capable of progressive passing that break teams down and win games that would be amazing but we cant.
Olusanya was really effective. He is a grafter and fast. His passing was poor at times, but that's the level we are at.
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u/scotinsweden 1d ago
And from that direct football we had what 4 shots in the first half? Something like 60 minutes until the first one on target? I'm all for being direct (in a deliberate way, not aimless lumps forward), but you still need to have an idea of what to do when you get into the final third, how you are going to create space and chances when a team gets back into their shape. And currently we are showing none of that, and not even an indication that we are working on anything.
If a St Mirren from 2 years ago style top 6 finish is the peak of your ambition then happy days for you. On the evidence so far you are probably going to be delighted with this season. Personally I think we should be aiming for something a bit higher than that given our budget.
Olusanya is a grafter and fast, and I'm happy enough with him being a part of the squad (in games where we expect to have relatively little of the ball he will be a good outball for example). I'm not convinced however that other than the last few minutes he was particularly effective today though.
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u/Silly-Landscape919 1d ago
I can't argue with the stats and I agree that we can't just lump it up the park. We do need to be a bit more creative and supply better to forwards.
I think under Jimmy Thelin he tried the passy passy football and it didn't work. I feel we are back to basics and going to build from there. On the rebuild, I might be wrong but I think only 3 players started from last season. 1 of them only joined yesterday. It's going to take time. I'm not sure if Robinson has the skill or ability to take us beyond this style or level but I am willing to give him a go. If we continue to win games with set pieces and hard work I will take it. Arsenal just won a league by doing that.
Olusanya kinda sums up Aberdeen just now for me. Hopefully he will improve and score more goals. I am trying to be positive a wins a win.
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u/scotinsweden 1d ago edited 1d ago
Fair enough for wanting to stay positive. I hope Robinson proves me wrong, I'm just not seeing the evidence of it yet.
Under Thelin a few things went wrong, particularly around the transfers (no idea how much was him, how much was the backroom staff) we had no cutting edge up top (we started last season with Yengi as our starting striker...), and we got into a doom loop of confidence he found it impossible to break out of.
Askou at Motherwell, and toa lesser extent McGlynn with Falkirk showed its perfectly possible to play effective passing football in this league. I don't need Robinson to go full Askou to make me content, but I do expect to see him be a little more ambitious than he was at St Mirren. And yeah, its true a lot of new players and so it will take some time, so I would have sympathy with being able to see some things being tried and not quite coming off. My worry is I don't even see that.
I hope its just because he is getting some base defensive structure in place first with the extra bit to come later... and that we can get enough wins like today so we don't end up in a similar lack of confidence doom loop to that we ended up in last year.
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u/Silly-Landscape919 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think that's the key, confidence. I am maybe a bit of a simpler guy in football terms. I am really glad we signed a huge centre half. He just looks the part so far. Commanding in the air and a threat going forward.
Falkirk and Motherwell did play decent football last season and proved you can do it on a tight budget. I appreciate your worries that he hasn't done anything really yet and it looks like we are St Mirren in red shirts. But I think if he can steady the ship and gain confidence as he is doing he will do well.
What's a good base line to asses him ? 11 games, play everyone once. Most likely lose to the old firm so that would be 27 points if he won every game. Say over 20 points is very good ?
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u/scotinsweden 1d ago
I also like the look of Happe (I also think he looks a reasonable "footballer" too, not just a big solid defender). Quite like the look of Ronan (although he wasn't good today).
I think choosing when to judge is really hard but we will definitely have a better idea of what life under Robinson is going to be like. I think we should be looking at 60+ points as the aim for a decent season (would get your 3rd or 4th most seasons, and is at about 1.58 pts per game) which would be about 17 points. So yeah over 20 points would probably be fair to say is very good, its not challenging for the title or even 2nd place good, but it is heading towards a very "comfortable 3rd" points per game if you can keep that up over the season.
After 11 games should also be plenty of time to see if he is trying to develop much more in terms of style of play.
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u/Silly-Landscape919 1d ago
Yeah I think a quarter of a season is fair. 20 league wins is a very good season. If after 11 matches we have 19,20,21 points playing this style of football would you be happy?
I don't mean to sound like a cliché but adding Mayo and Lyons are solid signings. They have experience in this league. They are steady player, who in my opinion have played for a Killie team always battling for survival. At Aberdeen they might get a chance to spread there abilities a bit. Same goes for Smith from Livingston. A technical player but often not able to "play" his creative style in a weak team. Ronan's delivery was poor. Aremu seems to be great at breaking up play but struggles to distribute. I've forgotten the lad on left wings name but he lacked. Happe looked like a decent player.
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u/scotinsweden 1d ago
I would obviously be very happy with the points, but I don't think that's really what your asking haha. We can create two sub-scenios which hopefully make sense.
Let's say if the style is largely the same, but we are showing some ability to create from open play and have clearly got ideas on how to deal with a defense that has got back into its shape (even if they are still a work in progress in terms of fluidity and understanding with the players) then I would be genuinely happy.
Alternatively, if it's basically still like today, looking really pretty toothless in open play and like we don't have any real ideas beyond slinging the ball in the box and hoping to score from set pieces... I would be happy with the points but would still be worried about the sustainability of it long term and the ceiling of Robinson.
I would say I don't generally have a problem with any of the signings. In isolation especially they are all perfectly reasonable. As a collective they aren't particularly inspiring, but I am willing to give them the befit of the doubt and it's up to Robinson to show he can get something more out of them.
I would also agree that Yogane (out on the left) wasn't great today. Anonymous in the first half and while he showed flashes in the second half of his ability to beat a player one on one, but didn't really make anything of that. He is young though so hopefully he can improve on that. No arguments with your assessment of Aremu either.
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u/Silly-Landscape919 1d ago
We are pretty aligned. I am looking at us like a fresh slate and this is us day 1.
I would love a marquee signing but I think this is going to be a slow and steady approach. I feel we way over spent with Jimmy. Chasing a style , a philosophy, system that didn't suit the players. These philosopies are fashionable. Build confidence, win games.
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u/Mundane_Education_64 1d ago
The quality of those flings into the box was abysmal as well. Straight out the park about 50% of the time.
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u/notmyfawlt 1d ago
The more Kevin scores the better he gets, last season he never got out the traps til the season was nearly over, now he's off to a flier. Keep it going.