Jump to content

The Airdrieonians Off Season Thread 2015


Recommended Posts

If there's a problem with the supplier, which there obviously is, the club should ditch them and work with someone who's reliable. I think the club can do better too though. It's the same problem every year so they should order the strips a lot earlier than they do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 3.9k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

If there's a problem with the supplier, which there obviously is, the club should ditch them and work with someone who's reliable. I think the club can do better too though. It's the same problem every year so they should order the strips a lot earlier than they do.

Its not quite as easy as that, we'll be bound contractually to UKSoccershop, hopefully not for much longer, would be much better going through Genesis Sports or someone like that.

Loss of containers is also something which happens very rarely, wouldn't buy that for a second.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thoughts on Luca Gasparotto? Signed with us until January.

He's strong defensively, but not the best with the ball at his feet. Liam Lindsay from Thistle was both when we had him last year but he seems to be making the breakthrough at Partick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thoughts on Luca Gasparotto? Signed with us until January.

An excellent defender who is very assured on the ball and wins most things in the air. His positional sense is good and he's got decent pace for a centre half too. He's also a threat at set pieces.

He played a massive part in how well we defended in the second half of the season and even made Ben Richards-Everton more solid. His partnership with Liam Lindsay was the best in the league by the end of the campaign last year in my honest view.

He is more than capable of cutting it at Championship level - I'm actually really surprised that Rangers aren't giving him a shot at their first team squad.

You will lose him to international duty a few times a season though!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Touchedbymadness the only one talking knowledgeably on the strip design and manufacture problems the club face due to it being bespoke. Retailers are planning and buying 6 months in advance, so it's not insurmountable....just needs ordered a lot earlier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or they could have done it before now.

I think any other season that would be valid but due to the boardroom changes this year its understandable that some things have been left a bit too late.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well there's no doubt that yesterday was extremely disappointing.

Hopefully this will make a few people's expectations more realistic. Any notion that we would challenge for or win the league were ridiculous even before yesterday.

Despite that though, I still think we have a squad that can at least challenge for the play - offs, perhaps with one or two more quality additions also. Despite how awful we were we could have got something from the game had a poorer keeper been in goals for them.

One of our problems yesterday was our lack of creativity throughout the team. McBride and Gilfillan are both decent players but aren't creative and I don't think a standard 442 works with them both playing in it. I'd prefer it if they sat deeper and played as two holding midfielders. This would help the defence too as it would give them someone to pass the ball to and link the defence, midfield and attack and not aimlessly punt it up the park like they did yesterday. It can work when Lister is playing but it led to nothing almost every time.

We're clearly struggling upfront too. Morgan doesn't even look like he knows what football is and Cox doesn't do it for me either. Cox runs around a lot and tries hard, which he is popular for, but that's not enough for me and his end product is non - existent. He also has an abysmal scoring record too. I think he could be a useful squad player but for me he's not in our strongest XI in any position. I know I've never been the biggest advocate of playing U20s players but surely Richford deserves a go? He can't be any worse than those two. I'd like to think a striker would be brought in on loan and ideally Morgan would be punted back to Sweden.

I thought the back 4, with the exception of Bain was solid yesterday. Ideally we'd have a proper left - back but I really like O'Neil and he'll do the job there if no one else is brought in. Lithgow and Crighton were solid, if slow, and while they're obviously not as good as the excellent Gasparotto and Lindsay, they're a decent centre - half pairing at this level. As noted their distribution was poor but hopefully this will be something that is worked on in training and improved by team selection and tactics. What worries me though is our lack of cover there. There's no one apart from Gilfillan and Fitzpatrick and as we saw last season that didn't work. Interestingly, while I have no idea if it's true, I heard at the game yesterday that Gasparotto was offered to us by Rangers but Bollan declined and he was subsequently sent to Morton. While I can understand that Bollan had obviously set out with the idea of Lithgow and Crighton being his first choice centre - halves, turning down Gasparotto seems like a disastrous move if true. He was probably the best centre - half in the league last year and if nothing else, we need an extra body in there. As for Bain, he is a good player at this level but almost every time he comes up against an old - fashioned, speed merchant winger, he gets done. I know Van Zanten hasn't exactly caught the eye yet this season but TBF to him he hasn't played in his best or most natural position yet and was bizarrely played in centre - mid. I'm not saying he'd necessarily be any better than Bain but I'd like to see him at right - back first before we consign him to a past it, has - been.

Also, what's the score with McAleer? That game yesterday was crying out for a bit of spark or creativity which he could have provided yet he was nowhere to be seen. Is he not fully fit? If not, then he shouldn't be appearing on the bench and if he's just not rated by Bollan then he shouldn't have been signed in the first place.

Next week against Stenny is a good game to try and get back on track and start the season proper.

I'd line up along the lines of:

Parry

Van Zanten Crighton Lithgow O'Neil

McBride Gilfillan

Sumsky

McAleer Prunty Morton

Or, to accomodate Watt/Fitzpatrick:

Parry

Van Zanten Crighton Lithgow O'Neil

McBride Gilfillan Watt/Fitzpatrick

Sumsky/Morton

Prunty Morton/Richford

I'd like to see Sumsky start to properly see what he can do and what he can offer in terms of creativity.

I think it may take a few games for us to work out our best team. I was critical of Bollan yesterday, probably overly, but I have faith in him being able to do so. The question is how long it will take and whether we can still pick up points in the process.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...