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Mr November

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Posts posted by Mr November

    Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted

    26 minutes ago, thediamonddude said:

    Yeah, I think that’s a pretty fair assessment of Frizz’s season - I was more referring to the fact he had a spell of games there where he looked like the Frizz of last season but I’d agree that he’s been poor, on the whole.

    I think of our core starters last season, for me, the ones that have struggled to make the step up and perform on a consistent basis would be ATS (although was never totally sold on him last season and you could say he’s a bit-part player anyway), Frizz, and Gal. 

    I accept that some might say the jury would be out on Gabby but what he offers in terms of his work rate and running the channels more than makes up for the fact he’s arguably not as prolific in front of goal as Gal is. Plus he has had injury problems again this season, which has undoubtedly had an impact.

    A lot of the other guys are still just kids, so that inconsistency is to be expected but I will be honest and say I had hoped for a bit more from Frizz/Gal on the whole.

    I think the biggest surprise for me has been Watson. I was happy to keep him but more as a backup, he was a very good League One right back but often struggled when playing in the middle and I worried his lack of pace would be exposed at a higher level. He’s had a few poor games (Ayr stands out in recent memory) but he’s largely been very solid this season, even when playing at centre back.

    3

    Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, thediamonddude said:

    Also got to say, I know there’s been a lot of clamour for him in here and I was one of his staunchest defenders when he was criticised in years gone by, but I do think that Gal has hit his ceiling. He’ll still grab you the odd goal at this level and has been a tremendous servant of that there is no doubt, but he should be no more than a bit-part player for me for the rest of the season, as he just doesn’t quite offer enough.

    I think if we stay up then this will be his last season. I’ll always stick up for him I think he’s the only part-time player remaining at the club these days and if he’s not starting every week it probably feels like a natural end point, where we go completely full-time and Gallagher has his pick of the part-time clubs. I’ve said it before but I think it has to be him or Fordyce for the greatest modern day Airdrieonian. 

    On that theme, nice to see that last night was McCabe’s 100th game. He had a slightly nomadic career in the five or so years before he came to Airdrie and I remember him talking in an interview (possibly when he became manager) about wanting a settled club close to home with a young family, so hopefully he’s happy to stick with that for a while yet. It’s great having a core of players who’ve played 100 or so games form the spine of this team (Watson, Fordyce, Frizzell, McCabe, Gallagher and even McGill isn’t far away). 

    3

    Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted

    Interesting team tonight. I can’t work out whether it’s a back five again with a fairly attacking midfield or a diamond with Hancock/Ballantyne at centre back.

    Pleased to see Gallagher and McGill back in, with McGregor out we need a runner up top and Todorov doesn’t offer anywhere near enough when he’s not scoring, so Gallagher deserves another chance, especially in a game where we might need his hold up play. 

    3

    Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted

    30 minutes ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said:

    For me when a team gets in a rut the most important thing is to get back to the basics of what you do well and work from there. Don’t overcomplicate things. Questionable whether or not we can call this a rut yet but it’s three losses in a row (including Hearts game in the cup) and while I generally like to remain positive it is most likely going to become four losses on Tuesday night when we go away to the league leaders.

    Three of our best players are full backs, that leaves two options: leave one on the bench or play one out of position. You could argue that a back 5 means playing all three out of position, and it’s also a change away from the system we’ve been most successful with. I think we’ve either got to have Hancock partner Fordyce at centre back in a 4, or potentially Megwa although he’s not the tallest, or push one of them into midfield. I was surprised to see McGregor dropped yesterday as I think he’s been doing well but we’re now left with very few options out wide with him picking up an injury. I think Gallagher deserves a run in the team over Toddy as well.

    Rae

    Megwa Fordyce Hancock Ballantyne

    Telfer McCabe Frizzell

    McGill Gallagher Lyall

     

    I think something like that could work. Not entirely keen on limiting Hancock since he’s been so effective down the wing but Fordyce needs a centre back partner and he might be the player best-suited to that. Could try Megwa at centre back but I’ve no idea how that would go. McCabe could drop back to let Ballantyne come inside and Hancock overlap in theory, but that might be overcomplicating things (especially considering since I’m trying to emphasise not doing that and instead getting the basics right). I thought Lyall looked good taking a man on when he came off the bench against Ayr so a wide role could work, but could just as easily drop him into a midfield diamond and play a front two to maintain the shape we’d been using recently.

    I’d stick with the diamond for the next few games. I thought we played pretty well against Ayr going forward, just very poor defensive mistakes. Happy to accept that as a particularly bad day and hopefully it sorts itself out with Fordyce back in there.

    If we do play a back three I think Ballantyne is the weirdest choice to move in. Megwa is very good defensively but lacking going forward, Hancock our best attacking outlet but also the most comfortable in the middle while Ballantyne is probably better at driving forward than Megwa.

    2

    Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, Passionate said:

    Thank you,  it is quite confusing,  are emergency 7 day loans only available for keepers

    I think so yeah, though not sure if that’s a specified rule or just what is generally allowed. Was wondering yesterday actually about if Murray Johnston would be allowed to join us on an emergency loan the next time Rae is unavailable even though we already have three Hibs loanees. As you say, it can get a bit confusing.

    0

    Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted

    Our poor away from and struggles in the final third are both well documented but I was having a look at our record in games after scoring v conceding the first goal. Excluding the 0-0 against Morton, the difference between them is quite stark:

    Scored Opening Goal
    P9 W6 D2 L1 (Dunfermline away)

    Conceded Opening Goal
    P13 W2 (Partick Thistle, Queen’s Park) D1 L10

    Pretty much every game this season has been tight, even games like today where we’re miles off it for the first period of the game we end up only losing by a goal. The frustrating trend is in games, particularly away from home (Dundee United, Arbroath, Inverness, Partick Thistle, Ayr, Morton), where we concede in the first half and then struggle to get back into the game. I certainly don’t expect us to win most of those games but even so, with plenty of away games left that’s definitely something we need to improve on.

    1

    Morton v Airdrie

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted · Edited by Mr November

    Once again a very frustrating performance away from home. Far too soft in the opening half hour, concede an early goal (or two in this case) and by that point the game is done. I thought Morton were very impressive in the first half, they have a real identity in the way they press from the front aggressively, move the ball quickly and always have players on the move when they win possession. I’ve liked Oakley for a while but he bullied our entire defence today, he uses his size so much better than Todorov. 

    The referee and cowshed side linesmen were absolutely useless all game for both teams. I didn’t think there was too much in the ATS challenge early on so will need to see a replay of that but the Morton fans seem evident he should’ve seen red. After that we had Garrity being at least a couple of yards offside for his goal, I think Airdrie should have had at least a free-kick when Mullen flattened McGregor and then the linesman completely missed what looked like Megwa hitting Waters near the end. 

    1

    Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted

    14 minutes ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said:

    Looks like it's a back 5 and interesting to see both McCabe and Watson dropping to the bench. My guess would be something like

                                 Rae

                 Fordyce ATS Hancock

    Megwa          McMaster      Ballantyne

                Telfer    Frizzell     Lyall

                            Todorov

    Had a feeling McCabe would drop himself after a poor performance last week. I think this will be it too, the same setup we had in the 1-1 draw at Kirkcaldy with McMaster and Telfer a bit deeper and Frizzell and Lyall playing off Todorov. 

    0

    Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted

    Delighted to have Megwa back. We certainly lack in other areas but I’m not sure there’s many teams in this league where I’d swap our full-back options.

    I’m not advocating for changing the shape from a diamond, which has worked so well recently, but we did start a defence of almost entirely full-backs in the first half hour at Kirkcaldy in the 1-1 draw. It looked oddly defensive on paper but we played something like this until Hancock went off injured and looked excellent for that short spell:

    Rae
    Watson - ATS - Hancock
    Megwa - McMaster - McCabe - Ballantyne
    Telfer - Frizzell
    Todorov

    Any word on Murray Aiken? That’s been almost four months now so fingers crossed he can play a part during the last quarter. It’s a shame his season has turned out like this as I think he’d be a great fit in one of the wider diamond positions that Telfer and McStravick have played recently.

    4

    Morton v Airdrie

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted

    Hopefully Fordyce is back for this, if not I’d be tempted to bring ATS back in as I don’t fancy a combination of Watson and McCabe against Oakley. We have a good record of bouncing back from defensive disasters under McCabe, if another boring game here gives us a point then I’d be happy enough with that.

    0

    Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted · Edited by Mr November

    I think that’s the closest performance to last season that we’ve seen. We looked dangerous going forward in the first half, using the width well and getting lots of balls across goal. Unfortunately we were also a shambles at the other end. Three really soft goals. As others have said, was impressed with Hancock, McMaster and McGregor today but McCabe, Donnell and Watson were miles off it. Badly missed Fordyce, particularly in the air as Dowds bullied McCabe all game. We even had Rae trying to catch the ball outside the box like last season and then not paying attention.

    I did worry that Ayr, Morton and Dundee United would be a tricky run but hopefully we can bounce back next week. The league table is very tight and I’m still aiming for survival rather than 4th, as much as that would be a nice bonus.

    5

    Airdrie v Hearts

    in Domestic Cup Football

    Posted · Edited by Mr November

    19 minutes ago, Tony Wonder said:

    It was 3-0 after 20 minutes. 

    What were you actually expecting?

    Not really sure what your point is. Both teams started pretty well going forward and had chances during that time. Airdrie hit the bar and Gordon had a good save from Todorov, Hearts scored three really good goals and were deservedly ahead as a result. That’s what can happen when you’re up against a much better team.

    1

    Airdrie v Hearts

    in Domestic Cup Football

    Posted

    30 minutes ago, Insert Amusing Pseudonym said:

    Thought we played well though ww did look unusually vulnerable defensively.  Nowt bringing big Frankie back won't sort.  Lots of good performancrs but Nieuwenhof was outstanding

    Airdrie play some neat stuff but it was a bit naive trying to outplay us.  I expect Morton will be a lot more direct and physical so probably more of a battle there.  We should still beat them right enough.

    We don't really have another way of playing. We have a fairly small team full of technically good players who work hard but can lack physicality and have very little quality out wide, so playing the way that's been successful recently was a better option than trying something completely new in such a big game. It was always going to be a tough ask though. 

    As you say, Morton will be a very different proposition. They can play some decent stuff too but will be much more aggressive and direct than Airdrie. 

    1

    Airdrie v Hearts

    in Domestic Cup Football

    Posted

    I thought we played fairly well there, just up against a much better team. We've played a lot of top flight teams recently, admittedly mostly earlier in the season in the League Cup, but that Hearts team are the best I've seen come to Airdrie in a long time. I didn't think there was too much between the teams in the opening 15-20 but the difference in quality at each end of the park was evident. Airdrie are a good technical side in the Championship but the  speed Hearts moved the ball was ridiculous, it felt like they always had a man in space. Shankland will take the headlines but I thought Baningime and Nieuwenhof ran the game, so composed on the ball and we rarely got near them, the latter in particular was the best player on the park. A good learning experience for our younger players for what it takes to play at a higher level. It's been a decent cup run for us though and the club have hopefully made a fair bit of money from it, so can't complain.

    8
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