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[idol_wild]

Yesterday was unacceptable in my view. Although firstly, I'm going to do the seemingly unbelievable and stick up for Darren Mackie. Yes, he had a poor game. This was always going to be the case when, after 67 seconds, he couldn't control a slowly paced pass straight to his feet. But the crowd's reaction everytime Mackie got the ball was as unacceptable as Aberdeen's performance. This guy was our top scorer last season. He got us off our seats 13 times to celebrate last season. Without his goals, we would not have finished in a European qualifying place. If, even, the top six (I've not looked at the table from last season to work that out, mind).

Mackie is, undoubtedly, a confidence player. Yes, you could argue that at this level there ought to be no room for confidence players at any club. But he's a human being. Every human performs better at whatever they do if they are confident. You could see that everytime he touched the ball yesterday, he knew he was going to get pelters from the crowd regardless of what he did - so he always chose the easy pass and, often, hid from areas where he would normally risk to take up if he was more confident.

As for taking Lovell of before Mackie, I was also disappointed - it'd be nice to see him play 90 minutes more frequently. However, I felt Calderwood showed major balls for doing this. He knew that if he hooked Mackie, the fans would have cheered the fact that Mackie was coming off - this would have shattered Mackie's confidence even further. Thus, he'd take longer to refind the confidence he requires to operate at his dangerous best. Calderwood took the stick from the fickle fans, so that Mackie didn't have to. Good move, in my opinion.

Mackie will be our top scorer again this season. Let's get behind him and bring the literal meaning back to the phrase "supporter".

Secondly, Calderwood's tactics were misguided to say the least. Yes, he'd done his homework by starting with Lee Mair at left-back (who had a good half, I felt), so that he could snuff out the diagonal balls into that wide-right area, which Hearts always love to do. And right enough, little got past Mair. However, as an attacking unit, we were lacking in any real ideas. Jamie Smith produced one bit of sheer magic to set up the goal, but was largely toothless for the remainder of the game. Another player who perhaps lacks a bit of confidence to take risks. Although at least if he tries something, the fans cheer, unlike Mackie, who'll just get fucking stick.

As everyone seems to have highlighted, we should have started with Miller or Brewster up-top, with either Lovell or Mackie directly alongside him. None of this faux 4-3-3 nonsense. Two people upfront together will always yield results if the long ball is preferred.

But agreed: Severin, Diamond, and Hart all had excellent games at the back. We're already missing Severin in midfield, but he'll be at centre-half all season, I feel.

Bring on the Celtic

[Jake Wifebeater]

Dunfermline 0-1 Morton

Fucking radge.

[Jim Stax]

Originally Posted by idol_wild

Yesterday was unacceptable in my view. Although firstly, I'm going to do the seemingly unbelievable and stick up for Darren Mackie. Yes, he had a poor game. This was always going to be the case when, after 67 seconds, he couldn't control a slowly paced pass straight to his feet. But the crowd's reaction everytime Mackie got the ball was as unacceptable as Aberdeen's performance. This guy was our top scorer last season. He got us off our seats 13 times to celebrate last season. Without his goals, we would not have finished in a European qualifying place. If, even, the top six (I've not looked at the table from last season to work that out, mind).

Mackie is, undoubtedly, a confidence player. Yes, you could argue that at this level there ought to be no room for confidence players at any club. But he's a human being. Every human performs better at whatever they do if they are confident. You could see that everytime he touched the ball yesterday, he knew he was going to get pelters from the crowd regardless of what he did - so he always chose the easy pass and, often, hid from areas where he would normally risk to take up if he was more confident.

As for taking Lovell of before Mackie, I was also disappointed - it'd be nice to see him play 90 minutes more frequently. However, I felt Calderwood showed major balls for doing this. He knew that if he hooked Mackie, the fans would have cheered the fact that Mackie was coming off - this would have shattered Mackie's confidence even further. Thus, he'd take longer to refind the confidence he requires to operate at his dangerous best. Calderwood took the stick from the fickle fans, so that Mackie didn't have to. Good move, in my opinion.

Mackie will be our top scorer again this season. Let's get behind him and bring the literal meaning back to the phrase "supporter".

Secondly, Calderwood's tactics were misguided to say the least. Yes, he'd done his homework by starting with Lee Mair at left-back (who had a good half, I felt), so that he could snuff out the diagonal balls into that wide-right area, which Hearts always love to do. And right enough, little got past Mair. However, as an attacking unit, we were lacking in any real ideas. Jamie Smith produced one bit of sheer magic to set up the goal, but was largely toothless for the remainder of the game. Another player who perhaps lacks a bit of confidence to take risks. Although at least if he tries something, the fans cheer, unlike Mackie, who'll just get fucking stick.

As everyone seems to have highlighted, we should have started with Miller or Brewster up-top, with either Lovell or Mackie directly alongside him. None of this faux 4-3-3 nonsense. Two people upfront together will always yield results if the long ball is preferred.

But agreed: Severin, Diamond, and Hart all had excellent games at the back. We're already missing Severin in midfield, but he'll be at centre-half all season, I feel.

Bring on the Celtic

My 10yr old didn't want to wear his Aberdeen top today as they didn't win (were poor) at the weekend. We had a wee chat about supporting your team is important, if not more so, when things aren't going so well.

I have said that Mackie was a bit useless this weekend. He did this last season though and his performance and ability grew as the goals started coming. Hope the same happens again.

And I'm not a big fan of the boo boys. Booing a teams overall (continued) poor performance is one thing but to boo an individual players that may have an off day now and again is just not awfully sporting and will make them feel like poop.

Can see them pulling it of the bag for the Celtic match. Raisingg their game against a better team (he hopes). Don't know what my loon will do with his Dons kits if they are crap again.

See Calderwood is kinda suggesting that the change of tactics early in the game 'was' a good idea. Dafty

Mon the Dons...

[Paranoid Android]

Lee Mair was our best player in the first half.

putting Foster on for him was absurd. To top it off Foster produced one of his worst performances.

Lovell deserved to come off. I couldn't understand the RDS' reaction to the substitution.

Overall it was a terrible game. No team deserced to win.

[idol_wild]

Originally Posted by Paranoid Android

Lee Mair was our best player in the first half.

putting Foster on for him was absurd. To top it off Foster produced one of his worst performances.

I'm pretty certain Mair was injured in the build-up to the Hearts goal - he was holding his head/face immediately afterwards. And not in despair. That's the only explanation I can offer, because Foster didn't seem interested in getting forward too often in the second half.

[Shaki]

Originally Posted by Murrr

To top it off, I ended up getting stuck in front of a couple of absolute neeps... "BREWSTER MIN! YER SLOW AS FUCK!"... what you expect you fucking idiot? He's 41...

You're never further than 3 seats away from a feeble mind with a loud voice at Pittodrie! I had such an unbearable imbecile behind me I had to move at half time. It's the shouts of "half the cunt!" "Brak his fucking legs min!" that amuse me the most. Good advice.

Mair is out for 6 weeks I think. That's why he got hooked at half time. Wasn't Foster's day exemplified by letting the ball run under his foot and out in the 90th minute.

[Mr.Mike]

Originally Posted by calum

Speaking as a fan, I'd rather see my team be negative and well organised and grind out results than see them lose 4-3 every week for the sake of neutrals watching at home, most of whom seem to have no appreciation of the fact that it takes a hell of a lot of skill, commitment and organisation to pull of something like what Reading did today.

each to their own but personally I'd prefer to watch football than an excercise in man marking (Regardless of how much skill and organisation is involved) and trying to force a nil nil when reading have a team perfectly capable of beating united. It's dull but I do see your point.

[Murrr]

Originally Posted by Shaki

You're never further than 3 seats away from a feeble mind with a loud voice at Pittodrie! I had such an unbearable imbecile behind me I had to move at half time. It's the shouts of "half the cunt!" "Brak his fucking legs min!" that amuse me the most. Good advice.

Yeah tell me about it; learned all about such twats after holding a season ticket for three years. Still, some of the stuff your typical Aberdeen casual barks is dimwitted to the point where it's fucking hilarious.

Is anyone else a Brewster fan, or am I the only one? A lot of the chimps on various AFC fansites seem to have a completely irrational hatred for the man (I assume it's because he's old). Alright, he's slow but he's one of very few Dons players that actually knows how to use his brain. Decent hold-up play and he's good at bringing others into the game... brings a lot more to the table than Mackie & co. in my opinion.

We need Seve in midfield and someone to add a little more creativity I think (hopefully De Visscher can fill this role). I'm not the biggest Chris Clark fan to be honest... he'll run all day for you and work his balls off, but his positional sense is dreadful and every time he got anywhere near the box yesterday it looked like he didn't have a clue what to do with the ball.

Can't believe the amount of kneejerkers that have popped up over the past two weeks as well; have Aberdeen fans always been this fickle? Two bad performances (alright, so "bad" is a bit of an understatement) and people are calling for Jimmy's head? Ridiculous.

I saw some pleb bigging up Archie Knox for the job as I was walking from Pittodrie yesterday. Jesus wept.

[calum]

Originally Posted by Mr.Mike

each to their own but personally I'd prefer to watch football than an excercise in man marking (Regardless of how much skill and organisation is involved) and trying to force a nil nil when reading have a team perfectly capable of beating united. It's dull but I do see your point.

You can't say "each to their own" then say that man-marking isn't football. Make up your mind.

[calum]

Originally Posted by Murrr

Can't believe the amount of kneejerkers that have popped up over the past two weeks as well; have Aberdeen fans always been this fickle? Two bad performances (alright, so "bad" is a bit of an understatement) and people are calling for Jimmy's head? Ridiculous.

Granted, some of them are just being pricks about it, but there's a lot of people have been very critical for a long time. Very rarely has he got the best out of the side.