Airdrieonians Off Season Thread 2016

[carlukediamond]

What proof is their that EWB is pulling the strings. I am not saying your wrong but their is no evidence to back it up that I know off.

 

For the fact that McBride isn't allowed to deviate from the football that is being played the same back four every week. A blind man can see it's not working that's 9 weeks now and its not working. We don't have the players to play this way. If McBride wanted the the gig and he had any integrity he would have insisted on it being his way. He doesn't show any emotion it's as though he's waiting for instructions before it can be changed.

[waysider]

Just because McBride doesn't make changes doesn't mean that Black is making the decisions. Maybe McBride doesn't see the need to change the way we're playing. To be honest I think he's out of his depth at this stage of his career. He's inexperienced.

[carlukediamond]

Just because McBride doesn't make changes doesn't mean that Black is making the decisions. Maybe McBride doesn't see the need to change the way we're playing. To be honest I think he's out of his depth at this stage of his career. He's inexperienced.

In my opinion he's being told who to play at the back. Inexperienced or not surely to God he can see where shit at the centre half position.

[el Gringo]

In his post-match interview (which will be on the site tomorrow), McBride said he'll be changing things at the back next week. He said it in answer to a question about Gorman, so I'd assume Gorman will start next week.

I thought Joe deserved motm (out of our players anyway), and I thought the whole back four were better with him in there.

[waysider]

Carluke Diamond, I don't think you know any better than me who is making the decisions. It looks obvious to you and me that we are rotten at the back. Surely the same great thought must have occurred to Black? 

[David_86]

I dont think black has anything to do with how we play are playing. I think its all down to mcbride, who buys into this playing out from the back pish. I have nothing to Base this on, just my opinion. I think mcbride is setting out the team, and he is way out of his depth!

[roadrunner]

1 hour ago, touchedbymadness said:

Firstly you said you were a ross county fan,  now you're saying "us".  

We need to sort somethimg out that suits.   Normally he's a good captain, today excepted,  we need to find a position that suits his skillset.

Is there a rule that says you can't support more than one team ?

[LiviLion]

20 minutes ago, roadrunner said:

Is there a rule that says you can't support more than one team ?

Yes.

[cb_diamond]

4 hours ago, roadrunner said:

Is there a rule that says you can't support more than one team ?

Do you know who the biggest twats on this site are? It's not the Coopers of this world, moronic as they are, it's the "in the know" wankers, players, friends of players etc who come on talking condescending shite to actual fans. Do one. Tell your pal to do the same.

[Craigyboy]

Was he originally on that and now he's not?

Or is he on a money sum plus has accomodation to equivalent from his agent,  sorry McBride's agent?  

The accommodation he is in does not come out of the clubs budget. ..totally separate and not unlike many clubs who give cars from sponsors or jobs to part time players to make up for lack of basic wage. To my knowledge his 'agent' was Mark Burchill who turned up with him on the day he signed.

[touchedbymadness]

2 hours ago, Craigyboy said:

The accommodation he is in does not come out of the clubs budget. ..totally separate and not unlike many clubs who give cars from sponsors or jobs to part time players to make up for lack of basic wage. To my knowledge his 'agent' was Mark Burchill who turned up with him on the day he signed.

His previous manager was his agent?  Listen Craigyboy,  "in kind" gifts from agents or sponsors are not freebies.   Nothing in life, and certainly not in football, are free.    Bearing in mind the manager is the benevolent landlord's player, and we have at least 3 awful players sharing that Loveshack...   well, you can only guess.

[Kennboy1978]

we have at least 3 awful players sharing that Loveshack...   well, you can only guess.

Bloody hell this is Airdrie we are talking about, do you sleep in a tin foil hat ?

[Moon]

I noticed Chelsea struggling to play out from the back last night, was very similar to our problems apart from how the keeper dealt with it.

I couldn't make the game yesterday (thank christ) but it sounds like all of the usual problems. Something needs to change. TW has put his hand in his pocket, so he should be given the benefit of the doubt, but the management needs to change.

[touchedbymadness]

Back to on-field football matters.

I still think the formation/tactics we're trying to play is the biggest culprit.  Tbh, I'm still not sure what it actually is.   What I can say, is that it's not good for us.   Maybe it would work if we had good enough players for it.  We're simply not compact enough defensively for starters.

I really don't see why we can't play an easy to understand 442 (or 4411) when defending with wingers and fullbacks doubling up, central midfielders working together to protect defence.   That simple formation could expand into a neat 442 with midfield diamond when attacking.

As it is we have Russell and Brown disconnected with the fullbacks, a no. 10 too high up and non-defensive minded centre mids not covering well enough.   And our ropey defence is causing so much chaos and panic that we can't get out any longer.

Yesterday's game was shocking for us.   From the whistle our guys looked disinterested.   We lost an early goal from a corner that Bombscare Boateng conceded poorly.  The resultant corner was a joke, our defence simply didn't look ready and no one seemed to attack the ball that came in near post.    The second came from a poor Fitzy clearance that barely cleared our own box and Rovers' scorer had ample time to shoot as we didn't close him down.  Just really piss poor stuff, no leadership, no organisation, no enthusiasm.  They looked like a team that wants out.

ROHAN:   Has looked ropey lately and low on confidence.   Goalie needs to be organising the defence in front of him but isn't happening.   He will have a lot of ups and downs but we need a good team in front of him.  We are where we are with him and it's up coaching staff to sort him out.

STEWART:  One of the few seemingly blameless,  he did his best to power us forwards.  Not under much pressure defensively (thankfully) his forward runs were a threat.   Really should be in midfield.

BOATENG:  Utterly horrendous and unable to cope with Wallace's diminished pace.  No positional sense, awkward control and not helping set piece defence either which was our major issue before he signed.   A major accident waiting to happen and  should be nowhere near our team or club.

FITZY:  At fault for at least the 2nd with his poor clearance and clearly one of his worst games ever.  Looked like he'd given up the ghost tbh.   Fitzy is not a particularly good defender or passer of the ball, but he is normally a good captain and leader.  Frustration getting the better of him.   Best he could do is play left back or left of a midfield 4.

MCDONALD:  Utterly useless defensively, terrible 1v1, terrible positioning, he's chaos and has been since day 1.   He is mobile going forwards but his use of the ball is debatable most of the time.

 BROWN:   Now going into hiding mode after a few goals early in season gave impression he could be useful.    Being told to stay high up pitch and hug touchline in an attempt to make Black look like Guardiola.    Brown's use of the ball is insignificant at best and he's not helping the fullbacks.   Pretty much anonymous lately.

MCINTOSH:  Genuinely great on the ball and makes the easy passes accurately but for a supposed CDM he's not providing any defensive tangiable cover to release the playmakers.    At only 19 he's still a big skinny kid,  I was really taken by him at centre half and wanted to see him play there.   He's 10x better than  Boateng and would improve as he gets experience like Stewart has.

CONROY:  Really is a superb passer of the ball.  Fans booed a bad pass in the 1st half but I could clearly see Brown fail to make the run for him that Conroy signalled.   Don't think some realise how good a player he is.    However his defence is ropey,  he needs a bodyguard beside him.   

LEITCH:  Like Conroy, he's a terrific passer and mover but too often yesterday he didn't have folk on his wavelength.   Again, not a good defender and we need to address that situation.   I have no idea what his role is.   Yesterday he flitted between no. 10 role and left of a 3.   Clearly we hadn't scouted Rovers well or failed to act to info rec'd.

RYAN:   Brilliant striker who is getting little support or supply.

RUSSELL:  A real Jeckyll and Hyde.   He pled to be in a front 2 with Ryan but seems to have spat the dummy in recent weeks as we have went back to 451/433.   When he plays football he's great but the dark side of him bogs him down.   

GORMAN:  been treated like shite lately and made a complete dick of the team selectors by looking great yesterday when he came on.   Great use of the ball, organised the defence and was aggressive too.   How can he be left out now?

What do we do moving forwards?   

We need to sort our midfield first then our defence, then our attack.  

We could do with urgently getting a right back on loan to release Stewart into midfield.   But assuming we dont,  we simply need to go with Stewart, McIntosh, Gorman and Fitzy along the back 4.

With Russell missing next week or so we need to get our midfield right so we can protect the defence and support Ryan.

I'd propose we use Daly, Conroy, Leitch and McDonald as a 4 across the middle with McLaughlin supporting Ryan.   Daly and McDonald helping us keep our shape and pray that the other trio can keep the ball.

 

[Diamonds are Forever]

I'm hoping the result yesterday is a wake up call to the management. For the last few weeks McBride's comments suggest that he thought all that was holding us back were stupid defensive mistakes and that eventually they'd dry up and we'd be fine. He said that we dominated the game last week, a game where East Fife scored early, were happy to sit back and where I don't think we created a single chance in 90 minutes and took a penalty out of nothing to get us a goal. Defensive mistakes obviously are holding us back, but equally we have been really poor going forward and are creating very few chances in games. The whole team isn't working just now and I think it's 'back to the drawing board' this week.

Our small, unbalanced squad means we are playing too many players in new or unfamiliar positions to them. Stewart isn't a right back, Fitzpatrick isn't a centre back, Conroy isn't a centre mid, McIntosh is playing anywhere it seems, Schmidt is playing all over the place. One or two of these would be okay (I think Conroy could be good in centre mid for example) if the team was held together by experienced guys dragging players into positions and organising, but it's not, you've got a 19 year old in nets, Boateng at centre back, a 21 year-old Leitch as the other centre midfielder and they are all surrounded by guys playing out of position.

As I say though, this is largely down to the squad that was put together which means week to week we almost have to play players out of position because there is no-one else.

[touchedbymadness]

1 minute ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

I'm hoping the result yesterday is a wake up call to the management. For the last few weeks McBride's comments suggest that he thought all that was holding us back were stupid defensive mistakes and that eventually they'd dry up and we'd be fine. He said that we dominated the game last week, a game where East Fife scored early, were happy to sit back and where I don't think we created a single chance in 90 minutes and took a penalty out of nothing to get us a goal. Defensive mistakes obviously are holding us back, but equally we have been really poor going forward and are creating very few chances in games. The whole team isn't working just now and I think it's 'back to the drawing board' this week.

Our small, unbalanced squad means we are playing too many players in new or unfamiliar positions to them. Stewart isn't a right back, Fitzpatrick isn't a centre back, Conroy isn't a centre mid, McIntosh is playing anywhere it seems, Schmidt is playing all over the place. One or two of these would be okay (I think Conroy could be good in centre mid for example) if the team was held together by experienced guys dragging players into positions and organising, but it's not, you've got a 19 year old in nets, Boateng at centre back, a 21 year-old Leitch as the other centre midfielder and they are all surrounded by guys playing out of position.

As I say though, this is largely down to the squad that was put together which means week to week we almost have to play players out of position because there is no-one else.

Bang on.    At the very least we need a right back in to let Stewart sort out midfield but since the season started we have signed Boateng, Leitch and Scullion!!!

[roadrunner]

6 hours ago, cb_diamond said:

Do you know who the biggest twats on this site are? It's not the Coopers of this world, moronic as they are, it's the "in the know" wankers, players, friends of players etc who come on talking condescending shite to actual fans. Do one. Tell your pal to do the same.

When have I been condescending? I was having a conversation with touchedbymadness, he asked my opinion and I gave it...nothing more! 

[Diamonds are Forever]

48 minutes ago, touchedbymadness said:

We could do with urgently getting a right back on loan to release Stewart into midfield.   But assuming we dont,  we simply need to go with Stewart, McIntosh, Gorman and Fitzy along the back 4.

With Russell missing next week or so we need to get our midfield right so we can protect the defence and support Ryan.

I'd propose we use Daly, Conroy, Leitch and McDonald as a 4 across the middle with McLaughlin supporting Ryan.   Daly and McDonald helping us keep our shape and pray that the other trio can keep the ball.

 

 

I agree that back 4 is as good as we've got just now. In midfield I genuinely don't know what we can do to fix it at the moment. The problem is there is no link from midfield to the striker/s, either from wide areas or through a number 10 position. We don't have a single wide player in the squad - arguably Brown although Ii'm not really sure he has a position - so like you suggest going for the central option is probably better but not sure we have the personnel to do that either at the moment. Perhaps goes against what I was saying about playing players out of position but Brown could be worth a shot in behind Ryan against Alloa in a 4-4-1-1, would give him a bit of freedom and puts him in areas where he could be a threat. Playing him out wide right is pointless, and when playing wide left teams have caught on to his 'run 20 yards, cut inside and shoot' tactic.

[touchedbymadness]

It's hardly a choice is it DaF?  I put Daly down as wide right and it's not his position either.  I suggested McLaughlin as the no. 10 above as he's not had much of a chance lately and I think he could link things brilliantly.

Chosing between Brown, Scullion (only a kid tbf), Schmidt, etc is hardly inspiring.  We're playing with 7 or 8 men every week now.

Only way we can fix midfield is to wedge Stewart in.    We had Bain, O'Neill, Esposito, Ferguson and the ghost of vZanten last season but nothing this year.

You know, i was going to suggest playing Higgins there then realised we just punted him too.

I'm utterly depressed.

[waysider]

TBM, you are indeed depressed. You've made about 20 posts since yesterday. I'm not being sarcastic when I say this but you should try to calm down. It is after all only a game. For once I'm not trying to get at you.