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Airdrieonians Off Season Thread 2016

JimListersRightFoot

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Cooper81

Cooper81

Posted
Posted

Think im warming to you TBM.

Watching back the highlights the first goal if boetang keeps running i believe he can stop the cross and im sorry but fitz your caught in 2 minds to go for the ball or the man and end up doing neither mcdonald isnt far from the play and i feel he could have helped out.

The 2nd goal im looking for daniel to put in more of a stronger challange for the header.

The 3rd goal baltoni has made a good run across stewart.

I have been critical of daniel however watching back the highlights i have been over critical of daniel based on the goals we lost and some others are every bit as much to blame fitz being one and also russell who missed a couple of good chances.

Russell needs to get his finger out hes apolgised on twitter. The way to make it up to airdrie fans is on the pitch by keeping his head down and working even harder. I genuinely believe all this arguing with the ref and oppisition players is affecting his game. He has to forget the  arguing with the ref and opposition players and concentrate on scoring and helping his team mates. We all know he is good enough but its time for him concentrate sorely on the football.

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touchedbymadness

touchedbymadness

Posted
Posted

We're now 5 games into the season and we're looking distinctly more like middle to lower half rubbish than promotion contenders.   10 goals lost already in the league and to highlight our fragile nature we allowed Stenny their only point so far last game out and the Rovers have subsequently thrashed Stenny this weekend.

Yet it all started off looking quite rosy and promising.   

At the start of the season I was looking forwards.   The defence looked very raw but we could see room for improvement.   The midfield looked like it  could pass a ball and the forwards clearly had a goal in them.   But we could also see that Faria was a waste of a wage and Fitz didnt Fit.

Since then it's all gone Pete Tong.  Panic to wipe out the young midfielders McLaughlin and Daly,  then the young central defence.   Yet neither unit was the issue.   It was everything around them.  

We did make a signing to improve things in Leitch, credit there, he is a touch of class.  But the subsequent signing of Boateng, and the relocation of Fitz to central defence has been a disaster.

Our best shape in those early games was the league opener at QP.   We had Stewart, McIntosh, Gorman, McDonald at the back, Fitz as the holding midfielder,  Leitch and Conroy as the playmakers, Brown on the wing  and Russell played beside Schidt up top in Ryan's absence.    We lost one goal from a poorly conceded corner,  I highlighted Fitz's closed stance as a key point that still needs addressed.

Nothing major wrong there that day and it looked promising.   I went away thinking, "if Ryan plays we score 5,  we still look a bit poor at full back and need to work on the CDM position".

Those are still our weak areas.   And it's not helped by our tactics.    Unlike most, I don't think you need to play industrial route 1 garbage to win this league.   You just need to be good at your job.   We already have the best starting forwards in the league and 2 of the finest midfielders in Conroy and Leitch.   Literally all we need to do is shut up shop and defend properly.   

Some of the defensive mistakes are from elementary blunders trying to overplay from the back.    We need to keep opponents in check by occassionally varying our build up, ie., if we constantly play it short they'll press us high.   But the long ball game is awful in general, all you do is concede possession.  We can't go back to that.    Other regular fatal mistakes is coming from loose marking and too many players ballwatching (ie. taking a closed stance and losing runners) both in the box at set plays and from open play (not tracking midfield runners).   The last one for now is defending in fb areas.  We're particularly weak in there.    Often they're not keeping the defence balanced and out of position regularly.   This is basic coaching.   

IMO we need to urgently ditch EWB's flawed ideological blueprint and let McBride manage the players in a style and manner that better suits them.  

And don't be scared to press the reset button.  

We could actually do with signing a right fullback from somewhere, even on loan.   That would release Stewart to a position he could be even more effective.

Does the team shape work?   I'd give their 433 from the QP league opener another go tbh having worked during the week on our obvious flaws.   Ryan replacing Schidt.

Ferguson

Stewart McIntosh Gorman McDonald

Leitch Fitz Conroy

Brown Ryan Russell

If that didnt steady the ship though I'd be looking to make that move for a right back to release Stewart and maybe look to invert the shape of our 3 man midfield to have 2 holding and a no. 10 (also known as 4231);

Rohan

RBack  McIntosh Gorman Fitz

Stewart Conroy

Brown Leitch Russell

Ryan

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Moon

Moon

Posted
Posted

Decent shout actually. I was gutted yesterday, and the manager needs to look at how he can change it. McDonald is going back the way anf bringing on Scullion just increases the pressure on him.

Boateng takes some stick on here but tbf to him , he times a challenge well and digs us out of a hole at times.

We need to look at our midfield passing - we need to learn when the extra pass is needed and when it isn't. Some moves broke down yesterday because of it.

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