TheBuckfastTriangle
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Posts posted by TheBuckfastTriangle
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1 hour ago, Diamonds are Forever said:
Putting aside the managerial stuff for a second, what exactly is McCabe meant to be offering in the middle of the park?
He doesn't have the legs that we need in there with Frizzell and Telfer, doesn't have the physicality either, and offers very little on the ball. He was great last year at the back but I was always unconvinced by the shouts to get him back in midfield. His career trajectory in that position already suggested he wasn't a good option there, and what I've seen this season confirms that. McMaster was much better when he came on at what we need in there, someone to nip in front of players and win second balls. Him sitting out a few games might not only fix the problem of having no-one on the sidelines, but might also improve the midfield.
For various reasons I’d have him at CB personally, but he obviously doesn’t see himself there.
Defensively, we’ve now conceded as many goals as last season having played 13 fewer games and are frequently putting ourselves in the position where scoring 2 or 3 goals isn’t even enough to get us a point.
The midfield isn’t right either. I don’t think Telfer does enough at either end of the park - for me we don’t score more goals or concede fewer because of him - and McCabe isn’t leading the team as well from midfield as well as he did last season from defence. That said, I can’t see it changing now.
If 15 points a quarter is what’s needed for the playoffs then we’re currently 5 points behind schedule, and with Alloa playing Edinburgh next week we could either be back in the playoff spots or 5 points adrift. No better time to get the defensive side of it fixed, but far from straightforward from here to get into that top 4.
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I'd rather keep waiting than sign filler - we need the players signed to make a contribution. We've got a squad of 16, not including Murray Johnson.
It looks like we're going match by match at the minute to buy time until either the right (loan?) players become available or until McCabe's hand is forced by an injury/suspension.
We're probably only a couple of bodies short of where we'd want to be to avoid having players signed just to pad out the squad (see Ritchie, Pyott for example) and McCabe clearly doesn't want to go down that road.
There's a chance we could have a disaster (say Fordyce and McCabe both injured in the same game or something) but given we've started the season relatively well, and have a fair degree of consistency in the starting 11 anyway I'd rather hold on for a McInroy than rush out for a Caves.
On an unrelated note, I see Call Gall is 7 away from 50 Airdrie goals, and 2 off the Prunty/McLaren post-liquidation record - only a matter of time now surely? If he keeps up the current 1 goal a game record in the league he'll have topped them by Halloween!
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I was looking to see if Scott McGill was involved (he wasn’t), but I noticed Connor Smith played for Hearts B team in the lowland league this week.
It’d be a coup, but a player like him would be ideal for us, and it’d be an utter waste for him to play at that level. Hopefully his brother can have a word in his ear!4 -
1 hour ago, Maxismydog said:
Season ticket news....
https://www.airdriefc.com/2122-news/210713/2021%2F22-season-ticket-launch
Prices bumped by £20, goal posts moved for older fans with concessions going from +65 to +75 (which isn't necessarily dreadful but is snuck in there without further mention) and online purchase only - that'll get folk back!
By all means give the option for purchasing online, but surely the priority should be making it as easy as possible for as many people as possible to make the games in the coming months. Zero communication from the board into the bargain. Poor stuff.
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Injury wise, it's been a bit of a disaster for us. We've lost 6 of the starting 11 from the first leg of the Cove semi final, and at most levels if you lose more than half your team it's going to be an uphill task.
I think Murray has done a really good job since the restart (and especially since the Dumbarton game which sparked this great run), but you got the feeling yesterday that whenever someone went down injured it was just his "next pick" off the bench rather than who was the best positional replacement (Ritchie as a straight CM switch for Carrick, for example, seems more sensible).
With that said we're not out of it by any means and things are pretty simple now - we have to win against a bang average Morton side. I didn't think they offered a great deal of threat really, so Currie, Crighton and Fordyce at the back can keep things simple and tight there. Callum Gallagher is in good form and if we make a decent chance or two he can fire us to the win. The key then is freeing up Turner. If the sitting/shielding midfield options (Paton/Kerr/McKay) are out then we have to find some way to do it because we lose so much when he has to sit deep. If we can do that we've got every chance.
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12 hours ago, Mr November said:
What a team! We were very poor in the 90 minutes, didn't show the same urgency we have in recent weeks but fair play to the team, they showed up in the big moments tonight. It would have been very easy to go missing after both Cove goals, the latter particularly, but both times we equalised very shortly after and then went on to get the winner in extra time. I don't think this team had the character to do that six weeks ago but there's certainly a belief there now that even when we're playing poorly we can still dig out a result.
We were very unfortunate with injuries tonight. Losing Paton so early on was a massive blow, he's been excellent since he came back from injury and we really missed his composure in front of the back three. Having to reshuffle things and move Turner and Carrick made us a bit disjointed and we never really got going after that. We had the same thing in the second half too, losing Kerr at half-time and then Connell seemed to pick up a few knocks in quick succession before going off. Hopefully Kerr, Paton and Connell are back for next week as all three have been excellent recently but I fear that's the last we'll see of the latter two this season.
I thought Calum Gallagher was immense tonight. He didn't get particularly great service as usual but he never stopped chasing down balls or running the channels and gave the Cove defence a tough night. He did what he does best too, being in the right place at the right time to score vital goals.
Also shout out to Ian Murray. I've been critical of his use of subs this season but bringing on Thomson in extra-time changed the game. I'd be hesitant to start Thomson next week, his best performances have been as an impact sub, but he's been much improved over the last few weeks. The injuries didn't help us in terms of substitutions and we had to take Dean Ritchie off as he looked lost but McKay came on to get the equaliser and Thomson set up the winner, can't ask for much more than that.
I'm glad we have a week before the next game, the players must be exhausted with the amount of games we've played recently, especially with most of them being hugely important for us. Hopefully we can continue our good Tuesday night home form, ideally with fans in the stadium!
Agree with a lot of this Mr N, although I don't actually think we were that bad - and I think a lot of it can be blamed on the two first half injuries - I think 30 seconds before half time the idea would have been to put either Kerr or McKay into midfield to properly replace Paton, but Kerr's own injury stopped that. Barring the scramble in extra time where they hit the bar I can't think of any especially nervous moments.
Agree about Murray as well - he was dealt a fairly poor hand with Kerr and Paton both being injured (and no Sabatini on the bench) and adapted us well. Young Walker in what must only be his 7th or 8th senior appearance moving to play centre mid coped very well - credit to Murray for being brave enough to play a relatively untested player over the last few weeks - and his final two subs in Thomson and McKay really came up with the big moments. I saw it mentioned on the match thread that it was a big test for him personally, and if it was he certainly passed. We seem to have a great fighting spirit and while we're capable of playing good stuff we're getting the results even when we don't play all that well. Bring on Morton!
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Not sure what the situation is with Crighton, but I'd be happy to see Kerr stay at CB for the next two (even if only to give McKay and Fordyce a rest as they've been more or less ever-present since the restart. I think Kerr does well when he's given time - his range of passing is excellent - but has struggled more when under pressure (which may be the reason for putting him into midfield to see how he copes with less time on the ball to pick a pass). With this in mind I'd be interested to see how he copes with big diddies who'll harass him like McIntosh and Sammon - and if we have to revert to a defence that's only conceded more than 1 goal in one of the last 7 that's not a bad position to be in.
I suspect that Paton was signed when it looked like Kerr could be out for the season @airdrieman, but agree he's made a big difference in front of the defence.
5 hours ago, AndyDD said:Great result, decent performance, really pleasing response to the defeat and hopefully Connell is okay; he could make a massive difference in the remaining two fixtures and the playoffs themselves, which are looking all but secure.
Agree with this Andy, Connell has been an excellent find - I'd be wrapping him (and anyone else carrying a knock) in cotton wool for the next two games to be honest. The league's away so with the playoffs looking reasonably certain it's a good opportunity to rest the squad up and get minutes into the legs for one or two of the guys who've found themselves on the fringes.
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In Murrays shoes I'd be keeping it the same. Having Kerr back is a bonus - if we're needing to shore things up then adding him in as a 3rd central midfielder to sit next to Paton then great, and he's flexible enough that he can be an able replacement for 4 or 5 starters if we get an injury, but we grew into the game against East Fife well and the 2 up top seems to be working well for us. I thought Connell looked sharp when he came on, but prior to the goal I actually thought Ally Roy was having a better game than Gall and I'm sure he'd love to get one over on Thistle, so hopefully all 3 can make an impact at the weekend.
It's nice to be in the position of trying to work out who to leave out instead of who "has" to start.
Worth noting too that in the 5 games since this wee run started against Dumbarton we've had 3 goals from a substitute compared to 2 in 18 from subs prior to that this season. Some difference.
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I felt a few weeks ago that Murray had a big job on his hands to turn the tide following the 3 consecutive defeats after the restart but fair play to both him and the team - they've been very strong since then. I think 4th place is probably the best set of fixtures as its Saturday - Tuesday - Saturday - Tuesday so it's all to play for.
The first half was cagey and it looked like neither side wanted to make a mistake but prior to our opener Currie really only had one save to make (and made it well). We looked transformed after the goal and actually played some good stuff rather than the usual Airdrie way of retreating back towards our own goal line, with Connell and Turner both looking excellent for me. On Turner, he's made a huge difference, but credit also to some of those who've been here a bit longer - I thought Leon McCann was a far greater threat going forward than he's been over the last year or so and Fordyce won everything tonight, he never lets the side down.
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2 hours ago, CapitalDiamond said:
Very kind thanks
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Good listen as always, would encourage anyone who hasn't yet to give it a shot.
Well done on getting this out "on time" as well - with the games coming thick and fast it'd be easy to be a game or two behind, must be a lot of effort going into putting it together.
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There'll be a few of our group feeling a lot better after the last 2 games. I was reluctant (and still am!) to say we've turned a corner, but even in terms of confidence the dressing room must be a much different place to a week ago. Roy has found some form, O'Reilly and Thomson have started contributing in terms of assists and at the back Currie has managed a clean sheet and a penalty save in his last two - all of which will do them the world of good. It helps Murray out too as, like @airdrieman has mentioned, there's been long periods where we've not looked too clever in terms of depth and suddenly there's a number of in form options.
We were the big winners last night but we really do need to carry it forward over the next few with only 3 points separating 7th and 3rd. Top half before the "split" is going to be extremely tight but with the top half still to play again and Cove to play Falkirk before then it really could be anyone's for the taking - so it really is vital we make the cut. Some momentum from Montrose and Forfar would be great as the East Fife game could well be a "winner takes all" for the top half.
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19 minutes ago, She who dares gins said:
People can only guess what is going on behind the scenes BUT another loss or even a draw tomorrow night must be addressed. We are in publicly back the manager now or sack him territory . You need someone that is the public face to front up to this stuff, like SM used to do - you cannot take money from the fans for streams, merchandise, the lottery and season tickets and hide away. They’re accountable here and fans need to hear something. You have to fill the silence or others will do it for you.
Wholeheartedly agree. With the games coming thick and fast and our lack of structure around Murray it's a difficult situation - it's not like we can bin the manager and appoint his assistant as caretaker!
That said we're the only team in the division with 0 points from 9 since the restart, we're all over the shop defensively (you don't tend to win games if you concede 2 and we've done that 8 times in 18 this season) and aren't scoring enough goals. We've also only kept the same starting eleven back-to-back once all season and I'd expect that to continue with Crighton/Turner returning.
I've generally backed the manager, I think he's been dealt a difficult hand since the start of last season for various reasons and now looks very isolated with a team that doesn't seem to be his own - but he's got a hell of a job on his hands now. A win tomorrow is a must.
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Really pleased with Turner, who I remember being excellent for Stranraer, albeit it's a shame MacDonald's away.
It'll be interesting to see how Murray reshuffles, whether it'll be a straightforward switch to RB for Paul McKay, or maybe Kerr to drop into defence next to Crighton and Fordyce moved out to right back.
Can only see Turner adding to us middle to front, hopefully he gives us greater balance and attacking threat from the middle of the park.
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17 minutes ago, Roger Thornhill said:
You are spot on, especially if we go one down. We haven't got an individual or individuals that can come off of the bench and change the game for us - or at least do something a bit different to influence it. As it stands, if we go one down, games a bogey - irrespective who comes on
It's absolutely a sprint from here on. Defence has generally been okay, but we've been lacking middle to front. If we can get Callum Gallagher fit and firing, or even Ally Roy in his pre-season form, it could give us a real chance.
With 1st v 3rd and 2nd v 5th this weekend we've got a real opportunity to rein in the teams above us, and being closer to the top with a game in hand will make things look much brighter. All to play for.
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9 hours ago, Spanish Armada said:
Tbh I think your constant abuse of sean crighton is out of order,I've met him a few times and he really cares about airdrie same way Hutton did,he wouldn't have left the first time if it wasn't for airdrie going full time,so just cut the hard man behind the keyboard pish,PH and the rest of the club are trying to achieve us promotion and they want to do it with the fans so stop being so negative or go sit in a huff with the trust
I don't know about the Trust either, maybe they're the "missing link", but communication from the board could be far better - when the takeover was completed there was an excellent piece done for the website detailing the structure of the club and how we'd operate, but it's been extremely quiet from them, especially over the last year.
The first team has clearly had decent backing, and the league positions have reflected that (they'd suggested steady year on year improvement was their plan and we've spent the vast majority of the last 2 seasons in the playoff spots) but I think the quieter things are the more fans, rightly or wrongly, tend to worry. On the first team management side we've lost Cameron and Miller who were presumably there to support Murray but there's been no comment on how those gaps are being filled. Is this a downsizing of ambition, a temporary thing because of COVID or a rethink at board level? You shouldn't have to be one of the ITK crowd to have some idea of this stuff.
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9 minutes ago, Spanish Armada said:
Mark kerr ffs,Slower than half the folk on here
I think the shouts are mainly as an assistant manager to help out Murray, but I was thinking the same thing - a 38 year old defensive midfielder who's completed 90 minutes once in the last year. Good grief.
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On 16/02/2021 at 13:32, Diamonds are Forever said:
Totally agree, how many players do we even have on the books? I have no idea what it is exactly they are directing that the manager couldn't do. We aren't some top level side with 100 signed professionals on multi-year contracts where the head coach gets sacked every 6-12 months. We are a small club with a small group of players on yearly contracts. It probably sounds like a dinosaur attitude but at this level surely you employ the best manager and he signs the guys he wants for the year to play in his style. If they are hopeless then you release the players and/or the manager. To me a position like director of football at this level is putting the cart before the horse, it's playing at being a big club while we kick about in League One. Every penny we have should be put into attracting the best players we can get, if we get promoted and need to expand our reserve and youth setup etc then start looking at directors of football to try and grow the club, I just don't think it is necessary at this point - whatever salary he was on would be far better used getting a proper assistant for Murray and some better players.
Scratch teams don't tend to get promoted out of this league (they certainly don't win it) and lurching from one season to the next with a brand new set of personnel doesn't help us build year on year. I've said this before on here but I think the constant turnover has worked against us and if the way to give us more stability is a DoF then I'd be in favour of it.
I expect the Ballantynes played a more active role in the football side than our current owners so there was an owner-manager link in their time, and since then we've had a DoF or chief exec (mind him? That was a fucking grim episode) to provide that link. To me, if the manager leaves we want to bring a manager in to build on the work done, not tear it up and start again.
Had a wee look back and Jimmy Boyle, Gary Bollan, Kevin McBride and Stevie Findlay all got around 15-20 games into the season they were sacked. That means whoever comes in gets the rest of that season to steady the ship then inevitably punts the majority, signs his own bunch of diddies and gets binned after 15-20 games - and the cycle continues.
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12 minutes ago, Jack Reed said:
Murray doing alright job, the level we are at any half decent team would walk the league, to get beat by a lower division team can be excused once but for a manager to let a carbon copy happen the next time they meet, there is no excuse ,
Well, last season Murray had us in 3rd place with 14 wins (48 points). In the 6 seasons before that in this division we finished 5th, 7th, 3rd, 5th, 5th and 6th.
The season we matched Murrays 3rd place from last year we won 16 games and finished with 52 points, so short of a massive collapse in the last 8 games, Murray was on course to take us to our "best" season in 6 years.
It's a low bar, and there's plenty to improve on, but given that those last 7 years I've given above takes in 3 ownership regimes, about 10 different folk picking the team and at least 150 players I'd be inclined to go for playoff level stability at the minute.
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1 hour ago, Jack Reed said:
Could be the reason Murray still has a job, he has to play players others are signing, You would think Murray who played at a good level would have the knowledge not to sign most of the players we have their track record must be ringing warning bells a mile away,
I suspect he's still got a job because, objectively, he's done an alright job. We finished 5th in his first (part) season and the message then was that we wanted to improve every year so playoffs was the minimum expectation. We finished 3rd last year and while I don't think we were realistically in the title race towards the end we were in the top 4 all year. This season we've generally been a bit underwhelming but, if the season is to resume, we're a game in hand away from 2nd. Sacking Murray based purely on the results he's had would be ridiculous.
That said, I'm aware that I'm sounding like a Murray fanboy. I'm not. The "style" of football has been fairly grim a lot of the time, the middle of the park has never looked right (which as a former central midfielder I'd have expected Murray to rectify) and we don't score enough goals, particularly from non-strikers. Overall I'd keep him, we've chopped and changed far too much on and off the park over the last few years, but a more attack-minded approach and sorting out the middle of the park really are needed.
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29 minutes ago, airdrieman said:
How was last season's signing policy anymore successful than this season's? We're in exactly the same position as we were in last shutdown - 3rd and 5 points off the top of the league with a team who are as inconsistent, terrible at home and who get pretty much the same results/put in the same mixed performances as last season's. It's also almost exactly the same team except swap Currie for Hutton, Robert for Smith and Kerr for Millar. The main issues this season are the same as last season's and they are to do with Murray's management and inability to know his best team (especially in midfield) or get the best out of his players. I don't think this season or last season's team are world beaters or ultimately good enough to go up, but I think they are capable of more than Murray gets out of them. I would rather sign guys like Robert and Sabatini and potentially make a bit of money out of them than perennial jobbers like Kieran Millar and Kurtis Roberts. What's hurt us more this season has been retaining muck like Craig Thomson, Ally Roy and Euan O'Reilly and Murray picking a an unbalanced and disjointed midfield of almost exactly the same player, but again that's down to his baffling team selections more than anything else.
I think the frustration from my perspective would be that while last seasons signing policy was more or less a full rebuild (Hutton, Crighton, Millar and Carrick being the only regulars kept on) and was seen as generally positive and a platform to build from, this seasons should have been about fine tuning and/or correcting errors. When was the last time we went from the end of one season to the start of the next with the same back 4? We also retained our top two scorers, who both hit double figures.
I fully understand the mentality from yourself and @CapitalDiamond that we're not going to sign superstars for peanuts and looking at "outside the box" options is well worth doing despite being inherently riskier, but I think it's left us with zero drive or energy in the middle of the park and as a result Murray doesn't have the type of player(s) needed in the middle of the park. For me, that's because in too many cases the players being offered aren't actually what we need/want. We've got two entirely different recruitment models operating in a squad of 20. Without a much clearer idea of what we actually want it's never going to work.
I don't know if that's the fault of Millar as DoF, the McKay link (which as I've said I don't think has helped because there doesn't seem to be an overall "plan") or of Murray not being clear about - or not knowing! - what he wants/needs, but while there's always going to be flops when we make signings, we haven't helped ourselves over the last year.
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16 minutes ago, airdrieman said:
TBH I don't think we're really any worse (or better) than last season in terms of the squad we have. The spine of the team is more or less the same with the exception of Currie and Robert replacing Hutton and Smith respectively who are both just as good if not better than those they've replaced, and Josh Kerr starting in midfield, which is obviously a management decision more than anything else.
But is Sabatini worse than Millar? I don't think so - Millar is a more limited player IMO. Is Ritchie worse than Wedderburn? Difficult to say but Wedderburn was not good enough to play in the midfield of a promotion chasing side and was rightly let go. Thomson, O'Reilly and Roy are not good enough either but were all here last season as well. The only differences really are sticking with Kerr in midfield (which does make us worse off) and Mbayo and Stokes being poor signings though both of them hardly ever play so they don't make much tangible difference really.
I also don't think we had a clear idea of what formation, tactics or style of play we wanted to play last season. Murray stumbled upon a winning combination that worked for half a dozen games but before and after that he changed his team and formation just about every week, leading to the same inconsistent performances and results we've seen this season.
I'm not saying this season's team is better or good enough to get us promoted or that being no better or worse than last season's squad is some sort of benchmark to aim for. But ultimately, both squads have been okayish and good enough to have us challenging for/in a play-off spot but not good enough and missing that little bit extra in midfield (and upfront) to actually get us promoted. They have also both suffered from a manager who doesn't ever know his best team or how to get the best out of them.
Whatever happens this season, it will be a big summer for Murray and Millar. Can they finally make it work in the middle of the park? Can they find that little of quality and 'streetwiseness' that we need? Will we ever win a home game?
I'm not sure we're much worse either (lack of goals aside, and Gallagher not being available hasn't helped there), but we're far less balanced and more disjointed, which to me is a result of muddled recruitment. We've lost an absolute ton of experience (Ryan/Hutton/Millar/Wedderburn) and replaced it with U23 jobbers kidding on they're footballers - mainly courtesy of McKay. We must be hundreds of league appearances shorter than we were this time last year, and that contributes to a lack of 'streetwiseness' and consistency.
You've asked if Sabatini is worse than Millar - I don't think he's worse technically, but I don't think he actually does much. If he's not an upgrade, why change it? Millar was fine, I'm not rewriting his time with us and pretending he's a world beater, but after building a team essentially from scratch in 2019/20 we were generally in a position (Smith and apparently Ryan aside) to keep whoever we wanted from that squad and improve from a solid enough foundation. We haven't.
Again, the recruitment is a cause for concern. Did Murray ask for a certain type of player and not get it? Who actually decides on players coming in? I can't see literally any reason to bring in Jack McKay from the manager or clubs point of view. A relationship with an agent is fine if there's more hits than misses and if it supplements the existing/longer term recruitment - this seems to be the opposite of what we're getting.
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Quite aside from Jack McKay (who I assume we've signed because his agency decided he needed a club to the end of the season, rather than because he's here to have any meaningful impact on the first team) our recruitment is a mess. We've got the McKay link which has given us Robert - who they've done nothing but oversell in the press since the minute he got here - and a load of dross.
Last year (2019/20) we seemed to have a really clear idea of what we wanted*, I assume with Stuart Millar dealing with all recruitment. The morale in the squad was by all accounts excellent, we had a fairly balanced squad and we gave ourselves a platform to build from. It hasn't happened and we look far more muddled. We seem to have a combination of Millar and the McKay link providing players and a manager who wants to be seen very clearly to be saying he's a head coach not manager. Depressing stuff to have various factions rather than unity and have everyone on the same page.
*Not saying we were brilliant by any means, but we had a clear 433, with players in their natural positions and decent cover for each of those positions, particularly from what was effectively a blank slate.
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18 minutes ago, willis said:
Potential annihilation in favor of Reps developing in Florida in relative terms.
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Easy to say with hindsight, but Kerr/McKay in a midfield up against a stodgy Dumbarton always felt suspect to me, not nearly enough movement in there.
As @Diamonds are Forever points out, 4 attacking players (at most) is always going to make it difficult to score goals. Our full backs don't tend to spend enough time high enough up the park to provide an extra threat and the midfield certainly lacks a cutting edge. Our best spell under Murray was when Kurtis Roberts filled this role and linked things up/was prepared to go beyond the strikers. Maybe this is the equivalent of Forfar away last year where Murray realised that the mindset had to be more forward thinking - we can only hope.
My concern now would be that a "passable" season would still be around the 15 points per round of fixtures and with only 3 from 9 so far, only 4 home games in each of the remaining "thirds" and the last 4 games of this quarter suddenly looking very awkward (Cove and Montrose at home, East Fife and Falkirk away) I'm not sure where those points are coming from. The next 2 league games do seem like important fixtures in terms of our season.
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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond
in Scottish Championship General Chatter
Posted
I’m a wee bit surprised at McCabe/Fordyce confirming they’re planning to rest players - I’d expected us to start with a pretty “normal” team and make changes after an hour or so. We’ve blown so hot and cold this season that a heavy-ish defeat could knock us a bit again. We’ve never beaten Edinburgh and they’ve more than had our number this season, but 3 draws is the sum total of our last 9 games vs QoS too, and those are 2 monkeys we can get off our backs going into the playoffs.
That said, in the last couple of seasons we’ve ended up heavily reliant on squad players with relatively little game time when it really matters. Dean Ritchie playing vs Cove 2 years back sticks out, Jack McKay scoring in the first leg of that match too. Last season Afolabi scored and assisted in that Montrose game, so getting game time into the guys around the edges is sensible.
I’ve a gut feeling Salim has a role to play. For a guy who’s not really played much in the 2 years he’s been with us, he’s been involved in some big moments at key times.