From The Dung Heap
An analytical look at The Dons & our opponents
Chikhura - 1st Leg Europa League Qualifiers
Well I missed the last een, but nobody’s perfect. So here goes the start of my analytical season! Style of play They piss around with the ball a lot at the back and their defensive 5 (in their 4-1-4-1) do the tippy tappy stuff that seems to drive a section of our fanbase absolutely bat shit insane. Maybe the “atmosphere” their player was talking about was the Georgian version of people going aff their tits screaming “GIT IH BA FORWARD!!!”. Goals Their goals against Fola in the home game were through balls past gaps in the back 4. Thankfully the gadgie that was their top scorer (9 in 17) has been punted to Lokomotivi Tbilisi. Their left winger Mikheil Sardalishvili (yes, it was a copy and paste job) is next on the list. He can pick a pass, can time a run behind a back line and seems to have a bosker of a shot on him. If we can get a defensive mid on him then I think we’ll nullify a huge amount of their threat. In terms of giving goals away… Fuck me their goalie is dodgy. Just fucking shoot. He literally dove out of the way of a shot from 5 yards or so from him. If Cosgrove can get anywhere near his usual amount of shots on target then we should piss this. He was around 31% shot accuracy in the last 2 games compared to the 42% he was hitting last season. He likes coming for crosses and if we can get a big physical presence around him then we might just be able to pick something up there. What he appears good at is releasing the ball quickly when he does come and claim it. They’re a much stronger team at home than away. Their home xG totals of 1.27 for and 0.96 away is encouraging in that we could get an away goal but they keep it tight compared to away from home. 1.2 for and 1.5 against means that if we want to win the tie we’ll need to score at least one over there. A 2-2 wouldn’t be a disaster and anything better than that would be a huge success. I assume we’ll beat them at Pittodrie but a 3-2 isn’t out of the question so leaving Georgia with nae ba’s in the ingin bug would be hugely detrimental. Another danger, and their biggest threat in terms of both assists and expected assists is their baldy right back. Takes set pieces and has a brilliant delivery on him. If he’s given space then we’ll pay for it. Hopefully Leigh is fit or else I think Considine will struggle. He doesn’t seem to be one for taking on his man and if he gets a yard or two he’ll get a decent ball in. I’ve got horrible flashbacks of the cross Olly Lee put in at Tynecastle when he was granted the freedom of Edinburgh from almost everyone in our team. Prediction 2-1 us with a Cosgrove header and a Ferguson drive. Another defensive switch off from us will let them score one from the edge of the box.
Well I missed the last een, but nobody’s perfect. So here goes the start of my analytical season! Style of play They piss around with the ball a lot at the back and their defensive 5 (in their 4-1-4-1) do the tippy tappy stuff that seems to drive a section of our fanbase absolutely bat shit insane. Maybe the “atmosphere” their player was talking about was the Georgian version of people going aff their tits screaming “GIT IH BA FORWARD!!!”. Goals Their goals against Fola in the home game were through balls past gaps in the back 4. Thankfully the gadgie that was their top scorer (9 in 17) has been punted to Lokomotivi Tbilisi. Their left winger Mikheil Sardalishvili (yes, it was a copy and paste job) is next on the list. He can pick a pass, can time a run behind a back line and seems to have a bosker of a shot on him. If we can get a defensive mid on him then I think we’ll nullify a huge amount of their threat. In terms of giving goals away… Fuck me their goalie is dodgy. Just fucking shoot. He literally dove out of the way of a shot from 5 yards or so from him. If Cosgrove can get anywhere near his usual amount of shots on target then we should piss this. He was around 31% shot accuracy in the last 2 games compared to the 42% he was hitting last season. He likes coming for crosses and if we can get a big physical presence around him then we might just be able to pick something up there. What he appears good at is releasing the ball quickly when he does come and claim it. They’re a much stronger team at home than away. Their home xG totals of 1.27 for and 0.96 away is encouraging in that we could get an away goal but they keep it tight compared to away from home. 1.2 for and 1.5 against means that if we want to win the tie we’ll need to score at least one over there. A 2-2 wouldn’t be a disaster and anything better than that would be a huge success. I assume we’ll beat them at Pittodrie but a 3-2 isn’t out of the question so leaving Georgia with nae ba’s in the ingin bug would be hugely detrimental. Another danger, and their biggest threat in terms of both assists and expected assists is their baldy right back. Takes set pieces and has a brilliant delivery on him. If he’s given space then we’ll pay for it. Hopefully Leigh is fit or else I think Considine will struggle. He doesn’t seem to be one for taking on his man and if he gets a yard or two he’ll get a decent ball in. I’ve got horrible flashbacks of the cross Olly Lee put in at Tynecastle when he was granted the freedom of Edinburgh from almost everyone in our team. Prediction 2-1 us with a Cosgrove header and a Ferguson drive. Another defensive switch off from us will let them score one from the edge of the box.
