- 2 days ago
Mark Atkinson and Graham Falk discuss Aberdeen's poor form and the state of play at Hibs.
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman Football Show. My name is Graham Falk and I'll be your
00:07host today. I'm joined by Scotsman Sports Editor Mark Atkinson. Mark, busy weekend as
00:12always. How are we doing? You alright? Yeah, good. Enjoyed the weekend football. Probably
00:16not quite as much as you though. What a result for your team, Sunderland, at the weekend.
00:21I'm a very happy man. That's why I'm always smiling continuously on these videos. A big
00:26draw with Tiger against Aston. I'll take it. I'll take it. I think we caught up on Friday
00:32to discuss the quarter-finals as it was, which was the action at the weekend. I think most
00:37of the headlines are going to go to Russell Martin finally getting a win. Obviously Celtic
00:40Corson passed part of Thistle, but I think one of the huge talking points which we've
00:44been discussing off-air is the fact that another defeat, another game without a goal for Aberdeen.
00:50We said on Friday we fancied Aberdeen to maybe break that duck and beat him with a well, but
00:54they didn't. They lost 1-0 in the Premier Sports Cup. That's, I think, no domestic
00:59goal in five games. A fourth defeat in five domestic games. How concerned are you for
01:04Aberdeen after that quite dismal result at the weekend?
01:07Yeah, it was a poor performance by Aberdeen. I watched them for only the second time. I'd
01:13seen them play hearts on the opening day and they looked a bit undercooked that day.
01:16They thought they probably had enough to improve, but you could argue that actually that performance
01:22was better than what they showed against Motherwell. Really worrying signs for this Aberdeen
01:27team and that they just can't score a goal. And I think it's exacerbated by the fact that
01:32they've signed so many, on paper, really strong options in the front line. They've got Kevin
01:39Nisbet, a Scotland internationalist. They've got Marco Lazatic, a survey of Macy Milan.
01:44Kusini Yengi, an Australian internationalist. And then behind them, they've got an array of talent,
01:49including, yes, from Bologna, who was a £10 million player a couple of years ago.
01:55Some very, very good wingers and some creative players. But it just doesn't seem to be happening
02:00for them. And I felt like Aberdeen just weren't going to score. They came close to a couple
02:04of chances that hit the post and the bar, but ultimately they've not scored a goal against
02:10a top flight team this season. In fact, they had to go back to May 17, the last time they
02:16scored a goal against a top flight team. Somebody might argue, oh, well, they've got
02:21a goal at Celtic, but that was scored by Kasper Schmeichel. So let me rephrase that.
02:25No Aberdeen player has scored a goal at a top flight team since May 17. And that was against
02:31the team they play tomorrow night, Dundee United. Yep, Ockel scored that goal. And you feel
02:36that Jimmy Tallinn's Aberdeen tenure is about to hit a really critical moment. They've lost
02:41that game. And now they go into the league, they're bottom of the league, against not probably
02:46Mobile Dundee United side. You feel they've got to turn the corner sooner rather than later.
02:52Yeah, because it's been, in many ways, it felt like last season started fantastically well.
02:59And then they had the complete opposite for months and then kind of inconsistent a little
03:04bit towards the end. But then you win a cup and it's all fine. It's all good. It's ended
03:07up well. But then you have this other, this other dip in form where they're not winning
03:12again. And look, the season's long. I suppose it's maybe a little too early to panic unless
03:16you're an Aberdeen fan, which naturally we're both football fans ourselves. Your mood is dictated
03:21by the weekend results. Some will be panicking. But the end of last season was the Scottish
03:25Cup. There was optimism and bound. Yumi Tallinn was rated really highly, really praised for
03:30what was a good first season because he'd won a trophy and he had a lot of bright sparks.
03:34At the start of the season and sort of a little bit towards the end, really good signings on
03:37paper. You mentioned loads of them just there. Adil Oshish, we mentioned Sullen before, a
03:42player that I liked at Sullen in the Championship last season. I thought he did that really, really
03:45well. He's not been able to create too much. But the bottom of the table, they're without
03:50a goal. They're out of the Premier Sports Cup, not in Europe. Why has it
03:55gone this wrong so far? Well, I suppose they are still in Europe
03:59to the Conference League. Oh, of course, yes. They lost in the Europa League against a team
04:03that I think some people fancy them to beat in FCSB. I think that the issue that Aberdeen
04:10fans will probably be wrestling with right now is that you talk about the run of form this
04:15season. This is not isolated to this season. If you look at their run in the Premiership,
04:19it's five wins in 31 games. That's relegation form. I think someone, I saw people speaking
04:27in the weekend that Johnston got relegated last season with better form in that period as
04:34did Ross County. So this is not good form that Aberdeen have shown over a consistent period
04:39of time. In fact, pretty much the whole of 2025 is a malaise at Aberdeen right now. And that
04:45Cup final victory is a complete anomaly when you look at what they've done over the past,
04:50I would say, almost 11 months. Atres Aberdeen's kind of poor fortunes in the league right back
04:56to when they played Hibs at the end of November. Everyone talks about Rocky Boucheri's goal,
05:01which was a big moment for Hibs in their season. But it was a big moment for Aberdeen too,
05:05because it stopped their momentum. And it was part of, I think it was a 14-game run
05:10where they couldn't buy a win. So this is not an issue that has cropped up recently.
05:18Aberdeen have had problems now for some time. And the big question I would ask Aberdeen fans
05:22is how much credit does a Scottish Cup victory give you in the bank when you're Jimmy Tilleen?
05:28At some point, you've got to go, well, wow, you won the Scottish Cup. That was brilliant.
05:33But the form has been really poor. And most Aberdeen fans that I know are quite content to let
05:38Tilleen have a bit of time this season. But it feels like on the back of what happened against
05:42Motherwell and the fact they can't score goals, there is a certain element of concern and
05:47disgruntlement seeping out of the Aberdeen fan base now. And the only way that Aberdeen
05:52can stop that is by winning football matches. But Dundee United away from home is tough.
05:58And then they go to Motherwell on Saturday as well. These are not easy matches for Aberdeen.
06:03And you wonder how fragile confidence is. There were clear-the-air talks between Jimmy
06:09Tilleen and the players in the dressing room after the Motherwell defeat. Tilleen wanted
06:12to see what the thought was from the dressing room. Dimitar Mitov, the goalkeeper, has
06:16some very strong words afterwards, basically saying that they know they're not being good
06:20enough and needs to turn. That Aberdeen squad's got too much quality to be languishing at the
06:26bottom of the table.
06:28Apologies to all the Aberdeen fans. I panicked there by telling them they're out of Europe.
06:32Yeah, you've already ejected them from the conference about playing a game. I suppose
06:37when you're not scoring goals, it's easy to do. But yeah, that's a tough group. You talk
06:44about Europe, tough games they've got in Europe as well. Some really difficult teams. It wasn't
06:48a kind draw. They played Shakhtar Donetsk in a couple of weeks' time to kick that all off.
06:53So they need to start performing. And it's that age-old debate, Grave. And we talk about
06:58football fans all the time. How much time do you give a manager? Remember, we talked
07:03about Hibbs last year and David Gray. And they eventually turned the corner after sticking
07:07by him. I wonder if Aberdeen and Dave Cormack and the board were thinking the same. Let's
07:13give this a bit longer.
07:14Yeah. I mean, it is still early in the season. It is time to turn it around. But as you said
07:19before, Dundee United isn't an easy place to go to. You know, Jim Goodwin's done a really
07:24good job of his own. Got them in Europe as well last season. He did a really good job
07:28on the kind of debut season back after promotion. But they probably go in tomorrow as underdogs
07:34because of the form and because of like Dundee United is a hard place to go to. So like
07:39how much pressure is on the game for Jimmy to lean? Because we're talking about giving
07:42him more time. But say that the same thing happens tomorrow. Lack of goals, that clear
07:47the air talk doesn't happen. Like at what point do you start saying, well, hang on a minute,
07:51this is only going to go one way. And there is far too much quality in the Aberdeen team
07:55for where they are in the league at the moment.
07:57Yeah. I mean, there's a fighting talk on Dundee United today. Their winger, Amar Fatah,
08:02came out and said that Aberdeen should be worried about killing the Tannadix. That shows
08:06how confident they are about taking on Aberdeen. And that game, the Aberdeen-United game,
08:12it's always been a historic fixture in Scottish football. But you felt like last season they
08:17met obviously on four occasions and they were all quite spicy matches. I think there's
08:22a rivalry developing now, again, between these two teams, especially with Goodwin being a
08:27former Aberdeen manager. So I make United favourites too, Graeme. I think Bundee United,
08:33having watched them this season, they look far better equipped than Aberdeen to win this
08:37football match. They've got confidence, they've got goals. They've signed 14 new players this
08:42summer, yet Goodwin has done what Taleen hasn't managed to do yet and actually put them together
08:46into a cohesive unit. To go back to how much time do you give Taleen? I think when you win
08:53the Scottish Cup at Aberdeen and you deliver an incredible moment, I think you deserve a bit
09:00of leeway. You probably deserve more credit than, say, Barry Robson or Stephen Glass,
09:05his predecessors got. I don't think Aberdeen are going to be cut adrift by Christmas, even
09:10if they continue this pretty limp form. So I'd be almost inclined to say, look, see how it
09:16goes, certainly for the rest of this month, and then probably to the next international
09:21break. I don't see what good it would do to change the manager between now and the European
09:26matches. International breaks are always worrying times for club football managers, especially
09:31October and November. That's when owners tend to sort of take stock and go, this isn't really
09:36working. So I'd imagine that within the corridors of power of the Tawdry, they probably identified
09:42October as a time to pause and reflect. They're just, as you said, there's too much quality in
09:48that Aberdeen team. At some point, it's got to click. And you look at some of the games
09:52against Livingston, where they drew nil-nil, and then even against the, in the Muller Hall
09:57game, they hit the woodwork on multiple occasions. They're creating chances. My biggest concern
10:04has been, at times, Aberdeen, how easy they are to play through. I still have the right
10:09blend in midfield, and they've got so many central midfield options, but they keep flitting
10:13between whether it's Shinney and Nielsen, or Palaversa and Paul Barra, or Stuart Armstrong
10:19come in. There's Leighton Clarkson drop back in. I think Tallinn hasn't discovered
10:23his best 11 yet, and that's possibly part of the issue. There's an enormous period for
10:29him. I think we all would like him to succeed, because you're seeing so much pressure being
10:34put on managers so early across all leagues in Europe and beyond. But ultimately, a results-driven
10:41game, and five wins out of 31 in the league is not good enough.
10:44Yeah, I think the big thing tomorrow as well, talk about cutting teams open. No-one scored
10:49more goals in Dundee United, apart from Hearts. I think they've got nine in four games, which
10:53is, look, they've conceded eight. I'm sure fans will attest to that as well, but there's
10:56a firepower within the Dundee United team, and that's not something you necessarily want
11:01if you're an Aberdeen fan. You'd rather maybe not be scoring as that many goals. But it always
11:06has to turn at some point. Jimmy Teane will just be hoping it's sooner rather than later.
11:10We touched on Rangers a little bit earlier, but there's maybe another team that was involved
11:14in that game, which is Hibs, of course. And I said Hibs, I thought, would beat Rangers.
11:18You felt Rangers would win. You were right on this occasion. I was wrong. But they're back
11:23in action as well tomorrow. They go to Falkirk. I think it's a little bit of a different situation.
11:28I'm not going to say the Rangers makes it must win, but they'll want to bounce back from
11:31that. They're third in the league. They've had a good start, haven't they?
11:35See, I'm not sure Hibs have had that good a start domestically. I think you go third
11:39in the league. Yeah, that's great. But it's so tight in there. If you look at what Hibs
11:42did last season, to have won one game and drawn three out of four in the league, given
11:47that they were playing Dundee United, Kilmarnock and Sydney at home, I think they would have
11:55liked to have had more from those games. I feel Hibs are suffering a little bit of a European
12:01hangover, given that they were so close to getting to the Conference League. They were, what,
12:07four minutes away from knocking out Lecce at Warsaw and getting into that kind of, that's
12:12taking Hibs to a level they haven't been before. I think it's only natural when you get so close
12:17as a group of football players that it takes a bit of time to recalibrate. I also think
12:22David Gray, a little bit like Jimmy Tallinn, hasn't quite worked out what to do with the
12:25squad this season. They've got a lot of good options in midfield. They put Josh Mulligan
12:30wide right on Saturday. I think Josh Mulligan's better in the centre. He's played very well
12:35there. So David Gray will be looking to get themselves, get Hibs back in the winning groove.
12:40I think this is a very winnable match for Hibs. Falkirk have come up and they've done
12:45really well and they got a great win themselves a few weeks ago against Aberdeen. But Falkirk
12:50are quite an open football team. They like to pass the football. They're attack-minded
12:53and that might play into Hibs' strengths a little bit. Hibs are good on the counter and
12:58they like a game being a bit more open. I look at this game for Hibs and I go, well,
13:03if you don't win this game, your next two matches are Celtic away and Hearts away before
13:08the international break. I think David Gray will be mindful of that and he'll be going,
13:12I need to go into those two matches with a bit of positive momentum. They haven't lost
13:16in the league and they've only lost four times in 2025 to Scottish teams. So it's by far,
13:21we don't panic stations. But given the pretty high standards have set recently under David
13:26Gray, I think they have to go to Falkirk and win tomorrow night. And that, if they can win
13:32that, that will ease a little bit of, not tension, it's probably the wrong word, just
13:36start to put them back on the front foot again. And it's an important night for a lot of teams
13:42tomorrow. Falkirk themselves will want to try and get points at home so that they can alleviate
13:47any doubts about getting drawn into the validation battle. It's so tight down there,
13:51five games in, six points at Hibs are on. I think there's only five points between them
13:56and Aberdeen. So a win can do wonders for you in a season that's been littered with draws.
14:01I think depending on the result tomorrow, it'll probably determine whether it's been a good
14:05or bad start to Hibs' seed. And that's kind of what tomorrow is in many ways.
14:08Great way of putting it, Graeme. I think tomorrow night's result will, you either go, yeah,
14:13five games in, two wins, three draws, sitting third, great start. If they lose, then they
14:20tumble down the table, they will drop places. And so, yeah, it is an important game for Hibs
14:25tomorrow night, no question about that.
14:26Before we move on completely, you were at the game on Saturday, I believe, the Hibs Rangers
14:31game. What was the mood with David Gray afterwards? Because I think he's very measured. I think
14:36when he went through that difficult period at the start when some people were going to
14:38he's one defeat away from maybe getting the boot and Hibs were going to have that merry-go-round.
14:43And even when he was in that really good runner form where people were heralding him as the
14:47king of Hibs and he's done such an amazing job, he stayed quite level. I think in many ways,
14:54as bad as Rangers have been, it's not a shock result that Rangers beat Hibs at home because
14:58of the quality and the amount of depth that Rangers have in their team, despite the fact
15:04it wasn't playing very well. Will have been disappointed, but it sounded like he was quite
15:07level-headed and he'll not be panicking going into tomorrow night's game at all, will he?
15:11I think he was just disappointed. I think he felt it didn't live up to the standards that
15:16they set themselves. I think he was also very quick to state that Rangers are a very, very good
15:23team by Scottish football standards. Look at their best 11. I think what David Gray probably
15:28really didn't want was Nicola Raskin playing because that galvanised the team, it galvanised
15:34the Ibrox fan base and Raskin, we all know, is a very, very good player and I think he had
15:39struggled to deal with him, as they have done on multiple occasions. He's a player that often
15:43does play well against Hibs. I think Gray would have hoped his team could have replicated
15:49what they did earlier in the year by winning at Ibrox. And if Martin Boyle's goal stands,
15:58it's a handball, no question, it's not deliberate, but it's a handball, then we could be talking
16:01about another big win for Hibs. It wasn't to be... I got the impression that he knows that
16:08they need to get a win in the league sooner rather than later because their only win came
16:12on the first day of the season away at Dundee. And he'll be aware of what's to come. So no
16:20panic from David Gray, far from it. It's probably the first time in a while that he's left the
16:24game probably feeling a bit like his team didn't give what he expected from them. But what I
16:30will say about this Hibs team is they tend to bounce back from adversity quite well.
16:34Under David Gray, in recent times when they've had a blip, I remember they lost to Aberdeen
16:38at the start of the post-split fixtures. And they went on a one to the United States and
16:44finished third. So we know they've got it in them. And he'll be fully aware of that.
16:50He knows the big game tomorrow.
16:52Yeah. I feel I'm going to push you for another score prediction, but I feel Hibs have enough
16:57to win tomorrow. Are you with me on that at all?
17:00Yeah, I do. I think they do have enough to win tomorrow. I think it could be an awkward
17:04match and there could be goals, but I think they do have enough to take care of it.
17:08business. I think Aberdeen have got it tougher than Hibs tomorrow night. And that's an even
17:15tougher game for them. I just think Falkirk this season, there's a maturation process
17:23potentially Falkirk have to go through where they work out. They've got two promotions in
17:27a row where they've been the big dog in both leagues. It's different now. So they have to
17:31kind of recalibrate and work out when to maybe sit off teams and maybe be a little bit more
17:36compact. They've got a very good manager in John McGlynn, very experienced, who will
17:42probably try and work that one out. But I think Hibs will have enough to win at Falkirk.
17:47All calms down and there's just a small matter of the Europa League for the
17:51Selig and Rangers. I'm sure it'll be quiet and calm.
17:53Never stops. Never stops.
17:55Thanks for joining Mark. Cheers.
17:57Cheers. All the best.
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