Mr November Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 1 hour ago, Chapelhall chap said: To follow your comments on the 7/8 players of that East Fife team , I certainly would see more value in Agnew and Wallace as those are the positions we need more quality. But as Fifer 67 says there is a reason why they play in L1 and that applies to our experienced players as well. I just hope it was a bad day at the office , given my half full personality, but Montrose will be another test for all of us. Agnew is a player I've wanted Airdrie to sign for years. He's exactly what we lacked in midfield last season and probably for a few years before that too. He worked with Murray before at Dumbarton and St. Mirren and he spoke pretty highly of him on the Pele podcast a few years ago but I think he's always been under contract at East Fife since Murray's been here. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, fifer67 said: Consistency is the holy grail at our level you would struggle to name many players who give a solid 8 out of 10 every week. I personally believe that squad continuity is vastly underrated. Arbroath have been excellent at this under Dick Campbell, he seems to know when the time is right to freshen things up. He’ll openly tell you that the players he brings in have to be better than what he already has. I think your going to get a lot of inconsistencies when you chop and change your squad especially when the new players are very young and inexperienced. I think that is the key. For what felt like the first time in years we signed up the majority of our better performing players to gain some continuity and I think everyone agrees/ed that was a wise strategy. Our main failure though has probably been our failure to replace Callum Smith and Andy Ryan/sign either a dependable goal-scoring forward or a forward of the quality of Andy Ryan who can dig you out of holes, turn losing or drawing positions into victories etc. Easier said than done in the latter case of course. I think Robert and Sabatini are better than what we had previously and Currie is probably an upgrade or at the very least on a par with Hutton and Gallacher. That makes only about a third of our signings this summer a success which isn't a great hit ratio. Which is probably why the positives, negatives and inconsistencies of this season mirror last season's and why we'll probably be good enough to make the playoffs but nowhere near good or consistent enough to sustain a title challenge. Edited to add: Forgot about Kyle Connell in my initial post who has also been a good addition. Edited December 10, 2020 by airdrieman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCFCDiamond Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 (edited) Looking at the signing policy there certainly appears to be issues and many of these are self created: 1. Most of the "senior" players that were re-signed last season were acceptable - but there were a couple that were failures/weaknesses last season / did not show enough - Roy and Thomson, I know Roy was doing OK pre-season but was he really the solution to our goal scoring issue? Could the club take risk that they may come good. 2. Signed 5/6 "youth" players. Personally I agree with this tactic. Need numbers for training plus the club has invested in these players so probably do not want to dump all the potential tallent. 3. Hanging hat on West Ham player. It apears that the club were badly let down by this saga at the last minute and then had to address matters quickly with the signing of Connell. THe lad looks a good prospect but is he what you really need in a shortned all games count season? The same goes with the 3 glamour ignings - 2 appear to have worked out to a degree with one jury still out and not looking that good.. It appeas his short sharp season was not suitable to the above dealings Edited December 11, 2020 by NYCFCDiamond 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric the half a b Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 21 hours ago, NYCFCDiamond said: Looking at the signing policy there certainly appears to be issues and many of these are self created: 1. Most of the "senior" players that were re-signed last season were acceptable - but there were a couple that were failures/weaknesses last season / did not show enough - Roy and Thomson, I know Roy was doing OK pre-season but was he really the solution to our goal scoring issue? Could the club take risk that they may come good. 2. Signed 5/6 "youth" players. Personally I agree with this tactic. Need numbers for training plus the club has invested in these players so probably do not want to dump all the potential tallent. 3. Hanging hat on West Ham player. It apears that the club were badly let down by this saga at the last minute and then had to address matters quickly with the signing of Connell. THe lad looks a good prospect but is he what you really need in a shortned all games count season? The same goes with the 3 glamour ignings - 2 appear to have worked out to a degree with one jury still out and not looking that good.. It appeas his short sharp season was not suitable to the above dealings On last week if EF players not good enough to get in our team yet they gubbed us would suggest to me their manager is a better organiser/ coach than ours and probably did his homework on us, would we have won if the managers were on the other bench... probably. On to today big game still feel Montrose at home should mean get out be positive and win by a couple that said looks a tough one still 2-1 Airdrie. The only way is up 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Reed Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 McKay sitting stripped in dressing room waiting for team selection 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Passionate Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 18 minutes ago, Jack Reed said: McKay sitting stripped in dressing room waiting for team selection After last week's debacle, surely changes had to be made, If Robert gets marked out the game we could be in trouble here, would have added Stokes and Thomson to the team in place of McKay and McDonald.... massive game need 3 points... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric the half a b Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 1 hour ago, Passionate said: After last week's debacle, surely changes had to be made, If Robert gets marked out the game we could be in trouble here, would have added Stokes and Thomson to the team in place of McKay and McDonald.... massive game need 3 points... Not the most exciting 45 min still can only get better 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Reed Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 23 minutes ago, Eric the half a b said: Not the most exciting 45 min still can only get better You think 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 51st minute Montrose scored. It's now the 67th minute and still no change. Baffling that Connell still isn't on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G_H Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 looks like i made the right call to spend the day playing cyberpunk 2077 instead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric the half a b Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 Just now, G_H said: looks like i made the right call to spend the day playing cyberpunk 2077 instead I would say so far too negative again. Still only way is up 🥸 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond Oracle Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 Iain Murray is a fucking charlatan. No matter how this ends up we’ve been hopeless again. The fact he’s just made another triple substitution replacing the front three tells me he’s ran out of ideas.We shouldn’t be struggling to break down teams week in week out with the players we have in our squad. We have a very good squad for this level and Murray simply isn’t getting anywhere near the best out of it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric the half a b Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 1 minute ago, Diamond Oracle said: Iain Murray is a fucking charlatan. No matter how this ends up we’ve been hopeless again. The fact he’s just made another triple substitution replacing the front three tells me he’s ran out of ideas. We shouldn’t be struggling to break down teams week in week out with the players we have in our squad. We have a very good squad for this level and Murray simply isn’t getting anywhere near the best out of it. How many times have we seen this hardly a shot at goal now the usual mad 15 min chasing the game Montrose no world beaters time for Murray and Miller to go. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Reed Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 6 minutes ago, Eric the half a b said: How many times have we seen this hardly a shot at goal now the usual mad 15 min chasing the game Montrose no world beaters time for Murray and Miller to go. Not even worth talking about except to say management and players absolute rubbish, 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond Oracle Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 How many times have we seen this hardly a shot at goal now the usual mad 15 min chasing the game Montrose no world beaters time for Murray and Miller to go. [emoji815]️ Agreed. Both East Fife & Montrose are decent but not great League One sides and we’ve completely and utterly failed to break them down. We’re now only one point ahead of that honking Peterhead team. Awful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric the half a b Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 2 minutes ago, Diamond Oracle said: Agreed. Both East Fife & Montrose are decent but not great League One sides and we’ve completely and utterly failed to break them down. We’re now only one point ahead of that honking Peterhead team. Awful. To end the day he will come out and say we pushed forward and dominated the last 20 minutes needs to go now 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr November Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 I think that’s the third time we’ve lost to Montrose at home since they were promoted which I think says a lot. They’ve not changed too much in that time, always a solid, consistent side who are well organised defensively with good quality in the final third. We consistently seem to struggle to break them and other teams down though. We’re now guaranteed to have a worse opening quarter than last season and if we lose next week, which seems likely, we’ll have the same number of points that Stevie Findlay managed. I don’t think we’re as bad as we were under Findlay and this is undoubtedly a stronger league but either way, this opening quarter hasn’t been good enough. We only have 8 home games left now and we really haven’t made the most of the ones we’ve had so far. I don’t think home advantage counts for that much in this league, especially with a lack of fans, but our continued poor home form is a real issue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulloch Gorum Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 That was dire. That's two games now with hardly a worthwhile chance created between them. It's so frustrating because these players are clearly good enough to do so much better, it's maddening to watch the side that ran five past Clyde and blew Forfar way in the first half up there look so insipid and toothless against sides that are decent and well-organised but hardly a terrifying prospect to face. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamonds are Forever Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 Montrose deserved that, should have won by more. An utterly hopeless performance. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond10 Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 (edited) What’s the excuses this week then ? Don’t worry there’s always next week ? I said at the start of the season I’d take 4th place and run and that got shot down by some. It doesn’t even look likely we’ll be able to get that. I don’t see any positives or any hope coming from that team and I actually believe it is a whole lot worse than the team we had last year all be it the league has got stronger . Always wanted Murray to succeed but comments like we could go second etc are utterly ridiculous and deluded tbh. That’s us saw us play most teams in the league and most look better than us. A part from Robert in patches the signings look poor. Don’t think I’ll bother with the donation to Falkirk next week it could be embarrassing. Edited December 12, 2020 by Diamond10 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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