The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[itzdrk]

It feels pretty inevitable that we are entering the last 4/8 weeks of Lee Bullen to me. 

Club need to be working out:

• Was he an inflexible coach in his demand for hoofball despite only having a couple of players who can play in that style. 
• Are the recruitment team providing players that suits how the head coach plays the game?
• If these two roles are not working in tandem why not?
• Do the club want to continue the hoofball with the new coach? 

 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

It feels pretty inevitable that we are entering the last 4/8 weeks of Lee Bullen to me. 

Club need to be working out:

• Was he an inflexible coach in his demand for hoofball despite only having a couple of players who can play in that style. 
• Are the recruitment team providing players that suits how the head coach plays the game?
• If these two roles are not working in tandem why not?
• Do the club want to continue the hoofball with the new coach? 

 

If we didn't have the injury issues and lack of match fitness and sharpness of the new signings then I'd agree, however if I was Bullen putting forward my case, that would consist of,

We've lost the divisions top scorer and player of the year and that's not easily replaced

Our top summer signing along with our first choice Midfield is out injured which nobody could legislate for

BUT

We qualified out of our league cup group, beating the top seed from a higher division away from home and remained unbeaten in the group

We don't have the players at the moment to do the job required but that is starting to change with Chalmers and the new Midfielder coming in and the new boys starting to get up to speed in terms of match sharpness.

We finished 2nd last season which was our best position in over 30 years and was always going to be a tough act to follow

Judge me and judge this group on where we are at Christmas in terms of both league position and the football played

[D'Jaffo]

Bullen should get the rest of the first quarter and see where we are then. There’s a lot of stuff going against him at the minute in terms of injuries and needing another couple of players in but by the end of the first quarter we should have a clearer picture of where we’re at. 

[No_Problemo]

19 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

It feels pretty inevitable that we are entering the last 4/8 weeks of Lee Bullen to me. 

Club need to be working out:

• Was he an inflexible coach in his demand for hoofball despite only having a couple of players who can play in that style. 
• Are the recruitment team providing players that suits how the head coach plays the game?
• If these two roles are not working in tandem why not?
• Do the club want to continue the hoofball with the new coach? 

 

I don’t think Bullen is demanding hoofball this season, he definitely was last season - and as soon as Bryden came on yesterday you knew it was happening immediately too. I think he wants a better style, but hasn’t been given the players to do so - but in saying that he doesn’t help himself. 

If they get the central midfield signings right, and he drops McGinty then the individual quality of McGeady and Chalmers should pull us through to some extent. Similar to what I said yesterday - if the central midfielder can’t dictate a game though, we are in a huge amount of trouble. 

[ayrunitedfw]

19 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

It feels pretty inevitable that we are entering the last 4/8 weeks of Lee Bullen to me. 

Club need to be working out:

• Was he an inflexible coach in his demand for hoofball despite only having a couple of players who can play in that style. 
• Are the recruitment team providing players that suits how the head coach plays the game?
• If these two roles are not working in tandem why not?
• Do the club want to continue the hoofball with the new coach? 

 

Unless the target for this season was promotion then I don't see Bullen getting sacked until at least January. As much as a lot of last season was turgid shite we finished 2nd and the board will see that as a massive success. 

[Shibuya]

1 hour ago, GaryMc93 said:

Possibly Roy Syla who was released by Brentford B in the summer who I'm assuming has been training with the team this week.

How would you make that connection from nowhere? 

 

  

19 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

I don’t think Bullen is demanding hoofball this season, he definitely was last season - and as soon as Bryden came on yesterday you knew it was happening immediately too. I think he wants a better style, but hasn’t been given the players to do so - but in saying that he doesn’t help himself. 

If they get the central midfield signings right, and he drops McGinty then the individual quality of McGeady and Chalmers should pull us through to some extent. Similar to what I said yesterday - if the central midfielder can’t dictate a game though, we are in a huge amount of trouble. 

He obviously asked the players to play out from the back towards the end of last season, it was laughable against Thistle and it has been laughable when we've tried it this season as well. You just need to look at the impact Doolan has had on Thistle's style of play to see what a good coach can do in terms of playing style. There is no pattern to our play, we don't find gaps between the lines, we very rarely support our wide players and give them options...THAT is coaching and it is clear that he's not very good at it. 

With Chalmers coming in and Murphy due back, we might get lucky and be able to rely on their individual brilliance, but it will be in spite of Bullen's tactics.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Shibuya

[AnonGuy7991]

1 hour ago, Aliayr76 said:

If the best thay can supposedly do is a player who is 23 and NEVER played a first team game for his club we are in trouble,surly there players in Scotland thay could try and get.

From what we’ve seen the club can’t afford experienced championship players, or at least not more than 2/3 of them which they probably class McGinty, Murdoch, reading (3+ seasons tbf to him). We’ve seen each season recently we target u23 loans and non league players which is a cheap option and a gamble. The main reason behind this presumably is the financing of the loan moves save a lot of money. 
 

Getting a player with 100+ championship games under his belt will command a decent wage. Ayr missed out on Robbie Crawford to Morton due to penny pinching and settled on not bringing anyone in that position until Reece McAlear on loan in January. Do Morton have a much bigger budget? I doubt it. 

[No_Problemo]

13 minutes ago, Shibuya said:

How would you make that connection from nowhere? 

 

  

He obviously asked the players to play out from the back towards the end of last season, it was laughable against Thistle and it has been laughable when we've tried it this season as well. You just need to look at the impact Doolan has had on Thistle's style of play to see what a good coach can do in terms of playing style. There is no pattern to our play, we don't find gaps between the lines, we very rarely support our wide players and give them options...THAT is coaching and it is clear that he's not very good at it. 

With Chalmers coming in and Murphy due back, we might get lucky and be able to rely on their individual brilliance, but it will be in spite of Bullen's tactics.

Yeah - we did attempt it at times towards the end of the season.

Yeah, you are completely correct - it is most definitely a coaching issue just as much as a player recruitment issue. It all just seems very inept when we attempt to play it about - it basically just relies on someone like McGeady dropping in and doing it all by himself. 

It very much just looks like giving the players in defence that instruction but then not not working with the central midfielders and the full backs etc what he wants from them and so on up the field. It is so frustrating to watch our centre halves on the ball, as our central midfielders just slowly jog alongside their markers up the field. McGinty is shite on the ball, but it does completely hang him out to dry - he should be going fucking mental at the guys in front of him though. 

There is just so much wrong with it, it is hard to quantify it all but it is the most inept attempt to play a more controlled possession  style that you could possibly see. 

[D'Jaffo]

15 minutes ago, AnonGuy7991 said:

From what we’ve seen the club can’t afford experienced championship players, or at least not more than 2/3 of them which they probably class McGinty, Murdoch, reading (3+ seasons tbf to him). We’ve seen each season recently we target u23 loans and non league players which is a cheap option and a gamble. The main reason behind this presumably is the financing of the loan moves save a lot of money. 
 

Getting a player with 100+ championship games under his belt will command a decent wage. Ayr missed out on Robbie Crawford to Morton due to penny pinching and settled on not bringing anyone in that position until Reece McAlear on loan in January. Do Morton have a much bigger budget? I doubt it. 

We didn’t miss out on Crawford due to money. 
 

I’m not bothering to address the rest of the stuff about us trying to penny pinch as there’s absolutely zero basis for it but for some reason people have a weird obsession with it. 

[Shibuya]

3 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

It very much just looks like giving the players in defence that instruction but then not not working with the central midfielders and the full backs etc what he wants from them and so on up the field. It is so frustrating to watch our centre halves on the ball, as our central midfielders just slowly jog alongside their markers up the field. McGinty is shite on the ball, but it does completely hang him out to dry - he should be going fucking mental at the guys in front of him though. 

There is just so much wrong with it, it is hard to quantify it all but it is the most inept attempt to play a more controlled possession  style that you could possibly see. 

Totally this, "Right lads, let's play it out from the back today!" and then just leave them to get on with it. McGinty, as you say, is so limited that you can tell he's going to horse the ball up the park before he's done it. 

[GaryMc93]

34 minutes ago, Shibuya said:

How would you make that connection from nowhere? 

Just guessing 

[Rb123]

1 hour ago, itzdrk said:

 

• Do the club want to continue the hoofball with the new coach? 

 

I've not been to any of the league games however in the league cup we were playing it on the deck and trying to pass it out from the back so disappointing if we've reverted back to hoofball

[Nelson]

17 minutes ago, Rb123 said:

I've not been to any of the league games however in the league cup we were playing it on the deck and trying to pass it out from the back so disappointing if we've reverted back to hoofball

In fairness, I didn’t see a great deal of hoofball yesterday as a deliberate attacking tactic in the way that we were consciously trying to hit early balls to Dipo last season.  Was more that our defence simply couldn’t get out, had no out ball and had to just punt the ball up the park to try and clear our lines.  That was the case from very early on despite questionable assertions that we played “well” in the first half.  For all the criticism McGinty gets for his poor distribution, I’m not sure what else we expect him to do when the opposition are playing a high press and he has nothing in front of him.

[Thereisalight..]

I can count on one hand the amount of home games I've enjoyed in the last year and a bit. Missed the Alloa game and we annihilated them so I cant even count that one. I dont know why we play such cagey boring football at home.

Can only hope we will have enough about us away to Arbroath then get the better of Falkirk at home but I wont be putting any money on it 

[railwayend]

3 hours ago, GaryMc93 said:

Possibly Roy Syla who was released by Brentford B in the summer who I'm assuming has been training with the team this week.

Brentford was the club mentioned yesterday. 

[Nelson]

5 minutes ago, Thereisalight.. said:

I can count on one hand the amount of home games I've enjoyed in the last year and a bit. Missed the Alloa game and we annihilated them so I cant even count that one. I dont know why we play such cagey boring football at home.

Can only hope we will have enough about us away to Arbroath then get the better of Falkirk at home but I wont be putting any money on it 

You make it sound like a choice.  The hard reality is that we had too many players on the park yesterday who simply aren’t good enough to do what players in those positions need to be able to do.  

[No_Problemo]

Bizarrely Syla was released by Barnet in 2020, but somehow ended up at Brentford. They released him last season, but then signed him again - I’m assuming as they had a gap in their 23’s side. He then seems to have spent most of last season injured though. 

ETA, I think he has payed first team football in the English lower leagues on loan from Barnet - but it is hard to find anything bar little pieces in articles. 

Edited August 27, 2023 by No_Problemo

[railwayend]

2 hours ago, No_Problemo said:

That first paragraph is just so depressingly unambitious and accepting of our wee place in the world - basically the exact attitude that our coaching and playing staff went out with

It’s just the facts as they stand . We need to field our Logan’s and Jamie’s to have a chance against a team like Dundee United . However playing Arbroath should a completely different situation. A defeat up there is unacceptable. 

[Iain]

2 hours ago, Richey Edwards said:

That Dundee United team are amazing and we should be honoured to share a pitch with them. Can't believe I finally got to see Tony Watt and Kevin Holt playing fitba.

 

We shouldn't expect to beat Dundee United because they have more money and better players than we do. Also, we shouldn't expect to beat Arbroath just because we have more money and better players than they do.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Iain

[OnlyAyrfaninTarbolton]

We missed out on R.Crawford because of the utter shite abuse he got when he was here before...

 

Fact

Edited August 27, 2023 by OnlyAyrfaninTarbolton