The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[Only me...]

Not sure if it was a tactical error today, what I saw were Dundee Utd players first to every loose ball, keeping it on the deck and running diagonally through us, as well as having a long shot at the wandering goalie, and pressure when we played tippie toe about the back. Exact same as Morton game. We had nothing up front. Rose is strong but that's about it I'm afraid,  not fast enough or remotely close to having a shot on goal. Musonda is nowhere near as fit as he has been but played out of position.  Mckenzie and Bryden are not championship level. Stanger is immense and will attract buyers. Chalmers and Murphy will make a huge difference to this team but today shows how pish we are without them.  Would Dougie Imrie or Dick Campbell have put up with that effort and not changed anything or battered players at half time? Bullen can't affect games other than throw a substitute dice at 70 minutes. 

[Nelson]

28 minutes ago, Rb123 said:

What's this about the panda being attacked?

Dundee United thugs I take it?

The panda was walking from the shop to the main stand.  There was a glass bottle thrown that hit the side of the shop too.  Not a polis in sight of course.  

[itzdrk]

19 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

These Bullen quotes lately. Something def seems off....

Besides the obvious. 

I know I've never taken to the guy but I'm perplexed that he can constantly be talking about players not doing what he asked of them.  Is he that thick 

If the players are not following your instructions in every game we play then either your instructions are inadequate or you have players who cannot do what you are asking (if so why are they here).  

[edinburghhonestman]

19 minutes ago, Only me... said:

 Bullen can't affect games other than throw a substitute dice at 70 minutes. 

To be fair to him he did have them stripped and waiting to come on before the first goal today.

[Thereisalight..]

48 minutes ago, Rb123 said:

What's this about the panda being attacked?

Dundee United thugs I take it?

Aye young neds. Knocked the panda head off and tried to lob a glass bottle at him

[itzdrk]

Something I saw today was our imbeciles were doing shooting practice pre match and Fraser Bryden hit a terrible effort and it hit a wee boy square in the face.  Good reaction from two of the coaches and then Became aware of it and gave the boy his gloves.  I think the wee boy was fine.  

Bit disappointed in Bryden not coming over once the drill was finished though!

[foxinperu]

8 minutes ago, Thereisalight.. said:

Aye young neds. Knocked the panda head off and tried to lob a glass bottle at him

That’s really poor, very sorry to hear this.  Hope he’s ok.

I don’t usually see trouble from fellow United fans; noisy but good-natured in the main.  Demeans our club if this sort of nonsense starts creeping in.  Hope the United fanbase will self-police that pish in future.

[D'Jaffo]

6 minutes ago, edinburghhonestman said:

To be fair to him he did have them stripped and waiting to come on before the first goal today.

Still about ten minutes too late. Changes were painfully obviously needed at half time. We offered nothing in the first half besides a chance conjured up by McGeady. A combination of good goalkeeping, some body on the line defending and a poor final ball from Dundee United kept it at 0-0 but I’m not sure what Bullen was expecting in the second half without a change. Rose was isolated and the one guy who could have potentially created him a bit of breathing space was being played out of position, we had ONE actual midfielder playing whilst a perfectly good player sat on the bench.
 

If I’m Pendlebury and I’m not starting next week then I’d be wondering what the f**k I came up here for. It’s genuinely frustrating as we’ve signed ten players and the majority of them look like they could offer something positive but based on the games this season we could argue we’re another three or four away from a play off team. This might not be agreed with but I’d scrap getting another midfielder in and focus on a striker to pair Rose with. If we could stretch to another left back then that would be good as well. Readings passing was poor but in fairness to him I think he recovered most of those situations quite well. Glass and Cudjoe doubled up on him in the first half and we was getting zero support from Amartey which meant he was chasing shadows. 
 

I don’t think Bullen will be sacked and I still think it’s too early for that anyway especially as there’s still scope to bring players in and it is early days with practically a new squad but the signs aren’t great. Calling players out this early isn’t good either. Might be a case of his own frustration getting the better of him and he walks away. 

[Only me...]

7 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

Something I saw today was our imbeciles were doing shooting practice pre match and Fraser Bryden hit a terrible effort and it hit a wee boy square in the face.  Good reaction from two of the coaches and then Became aware of it and gave the boy his gloves.  I think the wee boy was fine.  

Bit disappointed in Bryden not coming over once the drill was finished though!

Seen that as well, looked a bloody sore one, hope he's alright. Good on Mutch for giving his gloves, dunno if Bryden was aware, he hit the same post with all his other pre match efforts. 

[Thereisalight..]

14 minutes ago, foxinperu said:

That’s really poor, very sorry to hear this.  Hope he’s ok.

I don’t usually see trouble from fellow United fans; noisy but good-natured in the main.  Demeans our club if this sort of nonsense starts creeping in.  Hope the United fanbase will self-police that pish in future.

Hopefully the clowns that did it didn't get allowed in! Every club has idiots amongst the fanbase. Surely if they got the guy on camera he will be banned from future away games at least 

[No_Problemo]

1 hour ago, D'Jaffo said:

Musonda and Ahui in for McGinty and McAllister. I know I said keep Ahui for the Falkirk game but McAllister is fucking hopeless and spends 90 minutes being hounded by his teammates for not being where he’s supposed to be. 

At half time today I watched Ahui play a five yard pass in the warm up out the park - hilarious stuff. Not that McAllister doesn’t do it several times a game. 

30 minutes ago, edinburghhonestman said:

To be fair to him he did have them stripped and waiting to come on before the first goal today.

It was pointless like for like changes as usual though. 

As others have said, we don’t have the players to play a more passing style. The players we have in central midfield aren’t brave enough to drop in and ask for the ball. I watched all game today, and for the majority of the time they both hid when we had the ball at the back. Add this to McGinty and McAllister who can’t deal with it and then Reading who had a shocker and we have no chance of playing that way. The one singular time Musonda offered an outball we progressed it up the park and won a corner - didn’t happen again. 

We also aren’t remotely set up to play directly as it suits specifically none of our players, so we are then stuck in the middle doing neither and in a world of trouble hoping the individual quality we have at the top end of the park will make a difference. 

We need a competent footballing right back, left back, Musonda in central defence and a deep lying playmaker style player or we are in trouble. Basically all the things that were identified at the start of the summer. I’m aware we won’t get all of those things, but we need to do what we can. Alternatively just sign a target man and play hoofball all season again. 

Saying all that, Bullen could have realised we had no control in the middle of the park the entire game and brought on Pendlebury to try and help out in there - he didn’t even contemplate it. It’s fucking infuriating to watch. 

[Only me...]

22 minutes ago, foxinperu said:

 Hope the United fanbase will self-police that pish in future.

Have a word with your bus that stopped on the A77 outside kilmarnock about 12pm  and let off smoke bombs in the lay-by behind the bus. I nearly crashed into the morons as you couldn't see the road. We all understand that toilet breaks are mandatory on Kilmarnock,  but keep the bombs for the game. 

[shizzlemanizzle]

1 hour ago, GaryMc93 said:

I see the usual unofficial highlights are on YT. Difficult to tell who is meant to be marking Holt for either goal given the angle. Doubt the official one will offer much more clarity either.

I’ve given up on official highlights. Which is criminal but we are where we are. Amateur.

[ComradeDiego]

I think by October, if we’re still languishing down at the arse end of the league, then it’ll start getting toxic (if it hasn’t already).

Find it quite incredible he’s never brought in an assistant over his tenure, surely that’s a massive red flag?

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by ComradeDiego

[diegomarahenry]

An assistant isn’t the problem, he has a back room staff looking after more of the squads needs than any manager before him. Would an assistant have taken him aside and said, playing Musonda in midfield is a mistake? Maybe

would he have listened? Would an assistant have told him not to sign half the shite we have? 
It’s more than Bullen that’s at fault, it’s more than 1/3 of the squad that’s at fault 

[No_Problemo]

3 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

An assistant isn’t the problem, he has a back room staff looking after more of the squads needs than any manager before him. Would an assistant have taken him aside and said, playing Musonda in midfield is a mistake? Maybe

would he have listened? Would an assistant have told him not to sign half the shite we have? 
It’s more than Bullen that’s at fault, it’s more than 1/3 of the squad that’s at fault 

Yeah - we think an assistant will help us in terms of our set up and style of play, however Bullen is literally the head coach - those things are his entire job. 

You can look at it two ways, Bullen has been failed by the recruitment department as he hasn’t been given the players to play the style of play he wants. To be fair to him he has asked for experience in the middle of the park and better players in the full backs areas - he has been given none of this. 

The second is that Bullen doesn’t know what type of players he needs, doesn’t know how to implement the style and can’t change games to ensure we have the necessary control. 

Bit of both, but strangely I’m actually leaning towards the first as being more prevalent. As much as Bullen frustrates the life out of me he identified three problem positions from interviews etc and not a single one has been improved upon. 

I would genuinely love to know what type of players we are looking for in terms of our recruitment strategy. The signings for the positions behind the striker have been good - out with that and Stanger they just seem all over the place. 

[Broken Algorithms]

Interesting to see Musonda chucked into midfield. In our first season back up, McGlynn said he'd wanted to try him there but injuries prevented it. At the time it didn't seem a terrible idea but obviously as a player you're ideally wanting him at centre half in his natural position. 

[diegomarahenry]

4 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

Yeah - we think an assistant will help us in terms of our set up and style of play, however Bullen is literally the head coach - those things are his entire job. 

You can look at it two ways, Bullen has been failed by the recruitment department as he hasn’t been given the players to play the style of play he wants. To be fair to him he has asked for experience in the middle of the park and better players in the full backs areas - he has been given none of this. 

The second is that Bullen doesn’t know what type of players he needs, doesn’t know how to implement the style and can’t change games to ensure we have the necessary control. 

Bit of both, but strangely I’m actually leaning towards the first as being more prevalent. As much as Bullen frustrates the life out of me he identified three problem positions from interviews etc and not a single one has been improved upon. 

I would genuinely love to know what type of players we are looking for in terms of our recruitment strategy. The signings for the positions behind the striker have been good - out with that and Stanger they just seem all over the place. 

All of this amounts to why I just can’t be fucked watching it any more. 

[No_Problemo]

1 minute ago, diegomarahenry said:

All of this amounts to why I just can’t be fucked watching it any more. 

Yeah - the frustrating thing is that we could be good to watch with the players that we have signed but the side is just so horribly imbalanced that we aren’t going to see the best of those players due to the things that haven’t been addressed further back. If we can get an actual footballer in central midfield, and Young continues from that promising energetic cameo we will be okay I think as you can probably just about deal with the full back issues. 

A pretty huge game next week now, before what looks like another run of horrible fixtures. 

[Rb123]

1 hour ago, shizzlemanizzle said:

I’ve given up on official highlights. Which is criminal but we are where we are. Amateur.

They're actually decent again this season, back to full HD just in time for the team going back to shite, typical....