BCFCGav

Safe flight lads. Dickie, McCrorie and Roberts will all be present, pros of early business.

2 hours ago, phantom said:

Correct 

No, only a handful of fixtures 

Lunchtime, afternoon and evening but all will be live 

No massive change to the current system then, barring introducing an evening game.

Am I understanding this right? All 10 prem games on the Sunday and all available to watch live? 

I hope one day we find out why he pulled out of coming back this summer. Leaves a bad taste. Best way to show him is finishing above Millwall. 

3 minutes ago, Betty Swallocks said:

As Pearson said the other day, last season is done, it’s forgotten about. Tanner wouldn’t have been ‘dropped’ if he doesn’t start against Preston.

All that matters now is what happens between Monday just gone and the first game. 

And McCrorie is our biggest outlay in a very long time. A good few years. We obviously really rate him as a player. 

As we are:

                                            Max

McCrorie        Dickie                           Naismith       Pring

                        James                        Scott

                                      Weimann

         Sykes                      Conway                   Mehmeti         

Subs: Bajic, Vyner, Tanner, Roberts, Williams, Wells, Bell.

Just outside MD18: Wiles-Richards, Wilson, Atkinson (+), Taylor-Clarke, Benarous (+), Cornick.

I think McCrorie and Tanner will have the RB spot to lose. L1 loan, SPL loan might work well for us here. There's talent there and it keeps him on the books while sparing us a portion of his wages for a year. 

Not at all bothered about the training wear to be honest, but they need to get the away kit right. I actually quite like the look of the home (haven’t seen one up close so can’t speak to its physical quality) and the third would be fine if it weren’t for splat. Need to nail the away kit and a lot of the bad press will dissipate.

Stef Bajic on the bench for the France unders. Hope we get a proper look at him in the Cups this year.

I have a feeling Coventry will go backwards. Can’t see them holding on to Hamer and Gyokeres.

Bit disappointing but some easy profit to offset some of our spent money. Might not be an awful idea to insert a buy-back if Bolton are open to it?

Might be the best England goal I’ve watched live (well, telly). That pass and that finish in the same move… damn. 

Wow - shocking decision. And his replacement has the most difficult job in football, replace a popular manager who achieved safety comfortably and as a minimum match that achievement. I bet the replacement has them bottom 3 and loses their job by February. 

Diet Coke. Sod a hangover in this heat!

4 minutes ago, Fuber said:

As long as his hamstring stays in one peace. Rolls' team crocked him big time.

Yea no arguments here. Dave Rennie is different gravy.

5 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

King is finished, McCrorie will play RB, Williams is rubbish and in the last year of his time as a City player. Scott will probably leave.

We're not top heavy at all! 

Williams is tidy! Hit and miss I grant you, but a capable Championship midfielder. On his day a very good one, when he’s in ‘destroyer’ mode breaking up opposition play.

And Scott’s staying because he loves us… 

3 minutes ago, Finley_Smith10 said:

Keeper, striker and a 10 next if all goes well. But yeah, really positive start to the window

We currently play with one central striker, with Conway and Wells in the building, and Bell and Cornick able to lead the line I’m not sure we’ll look at strikers. Agree 10 and keeper are worth a look, but what we have in those positions is solid enough should we be unable. 

16 minutes ago, Derby_Ram said:

Been a while since I've been round these parts. Just thought I'd stick my head in to say you've got a good one here.

Predominantly played LB for us but the left of the centre backs in a back 3 and didn't look out of place in either. Excellent engine, good on the ball, decent pace, can move well with the ball, just his end ball was lacking too frequently when playing out wide.

Based on what we saw I think he may struggle at CB in a back 4 but wouldn't put it past him.

Probably the biggest compliments are you never thought he was a 20yr old learning the game last season and hard to pinpoint any goals as being obviously down to him. Good player.

Thanks for the input pal

Some early rumours our end we’ve bid for Jason Knight - how would your profile him as a central midfielder? Does he think more forwards or backwards? And what price do you think you’d hold out for?

All the best with the upcoming League 1 season. Sure you’re getting plenty of stick from rivals but it’s no secret you won’t be down there long.

Interesting one. We’re pretty heavy in central midfield (James, Williams, Scott, Naismith, King, McCrorie able to play there). I wonder if this is in anticipation of Scott leaving. Or maybe we intend for him to play in the 10? 
 

I know he’s highly rated, perhaps he’s simply viewed as an improvement on what we do have. Let’s see.

Still crossing fingers he sticks around. The books are balanced with our reduced wage bill and the £10+m we got for Antoine (plus another potential outgoing I don’t want to think about), offer him a respectable amount and let’s keep a promotion quality player in our ranks.

Welcome Haydon. Can’t go too far wrong on a young, free acquisition! Sounds like he’s impressed in L1 and will be a good understudy/competitor to Pringy ️

15 minutes ago, Percy Pig said:

No, he didn't. And even if he did, which he didn't, He gained us more than he cost us from the position he was signed to play and was player of the year playing in a play off team the season before.

Naismith is at his best when he has an extra second to pick his pass and movement in front of him. The further forward he plays the less time he has on the ball. 

The other aspect of Kal that is strangely ignored is that his leadership of the back line is exemplary. He's not a ball winning centre half but we win more balls with him as part of the back line because of his leadership, positioning and management of the defenders either side of him. 

The deeper of a 3 man midfield is also Matty James' best position and both players should be in the team when fit, for me. 

6 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

A number of other Aberdeen fans, say it’s (CB) his best position.

I agree about settled pairings though.

I’d quite happily see a back 4 of:

McCrorie Dickie Naismith Pring if it were deemed to be the best for the way we want to play.  I think Naismith’s passing is a benefit in either position, CB or DM.  The ability to break the opposition forward’s press if he plays CM is as advantageous as breaking a midfield block when he plays in midfield.

My motto: get our best players on the pitch.

Not necessarily in any positions, even I don’t subscribe to square regs / round holes, but when you have truly versatile players I don’t think that applies.  Naismith appears to be truly versatile, hell, he started as a winger!  So does McCrorie.  I think less “Jack of all trades”, more bloody decent in more than one position!

(Percy - he’s played a few more times in “midfield”)

Fair farts chaps. I’m sure we all agree that we don’t want to be having to improvise at the back again ie King or signing free-agents mid season, and I do hope you’re both right and we see a settled and functional back line with able cover throughout the season. I’ll reiterate, I REALLY like Naismith, and I hope he proves to be as beneficial to the team as he has shown he can be next season. 

3 minutes ago, Percy Pig said:

Naismith has played 3 league games at Central midfield in his career. 

He's a centre half. 

Injured as soon as he moved into the role, he looked excellent there. I rate him a lot but he cost us a glut of points when he was in the back-line with errors. His incisive passing and ability to spring counter attacks should be the attributes we utilise most, imo from dm.

13 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Just playing Devil’s advocate - just because Naismith might be competing for a place in midfield doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be considered as a centre-back.  He’s more than good enough to play there.  We now appear to have four fit (Vyner, Dickie, McCrorie and Naismith) with one impending signing (Roberts).  You could argue Pring makes a 6th, but I’d rather we didn’t go to that length.

What we have is flexibility….that hopefully stops us having to sign extra players.

Thats how I see it anyway.

I do see your point and having flexible players can certainly be useful. With Naismith, I've liked what I've seen of him far more in midfield, for me personally that's where we should be using him. From what I've read on McCrorie, he's versatile but his weakest position is central defense (granted that's from Aberdeen supporters, perhaps some bitterness). CB is such a crucial position to a team and a season, I'd like to see enough devoted CB's that it's rare we need to be moving players into the role from dm, full back. But that's just me (and I hope Nige)  

JB wasn't too complimentary of the club after leaving iirc and it sounds as though he may have stitched us up a bit this Summer. Of course we don't know the whole story but something seems off. Shame this seems dead, would have been so nice to have one of our academy boys whose left for the PL dream choose to come home. Maybe there's more to it, but sad regardless.