The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond

[NYCFCDiamond]

Robert - emperor's new coat comes to mind,

Midfield - was none existant until the return - then we got lucky with Turner

Jack McKay- joke of player

[Mr November]

5 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

Injuries haven't helped, and I doubt very much we'd have won anyway, but that team that Murray put out tonight was a shambles, and the one on Tuesday wasn't much better. There is no structure whatsoever - in part because guys are being asked to play positions they aren't comfortable in. We deserved to lose that game by about 6 or 7 goals, that's not just down to a few injuries or players being tired.

Tuesday was disappointing as we offered no threat whatsoever going forward but we were at least solid and organised defensively, even with Kerr and Paton being out. We never looked like scoring at all and the midfield, Turner aside, was a shambles but it was at least organised defensively. Tonight has been embarrassing though, the injuries are on thing but the lack of organisation and structure is entirely on Murray. I don't think our subs tonight are particularly great but there's no need to play so many players in positions they're clearly not suited too. Over the last two games we've played Walker, Crighton, O'Reilly, Thomson, Turner, Carrick, Robert and Jack McKay out of position. I'm not their biggest fan but surely playing Sabatini and Ritchie in their natural position and then playing the guys I've listed in their natural positions makes far more sense than constantly shuffling guys around?

[airdrieman]

47 minutes ago, airdrieman said:

That team Murray has put out tonight is an absolute shambles. Wingers at centre mid and O’Reilly somehow getting a game after doing nothing but chase his shadow on Tuesday night. That big diddy Jack McKay upfront who has no discernible footballing ability. And a big haddy, meat and potatoes centre-half in Sean Crighton at right-back. I know we have injuries but there’s literally no reason to be putting out such a fucking mess. There’s two centre mids and a better forward than Jack McKay on the bench and about 5 players in the squad who can play right-back. 

No complaints about Morton winning. They were by far the better team over the piece. But the way we lost that was an embarrassment. A completely unnecessary shambles from Murray. No excuse to have so many players out of position and to be such a disorganised rabble. 

[Mr November]

That's now 5 play-off final defeats and 2 semi-final defeats for us. What a club.

[airdrieman]

The big question now is who’s going bust or into admin to get us promoted a week before the season starts? 

[thediamonddude]

33 minutes ago, Mr November said:

That's now 5 play-off final defeats and 2 semi-final defeats for us. What a club.

8 in total if you count the play-off defeat to Hibs in ‘96 - the moral of the story is, win the league.

[Afro]

Thomas Robert, then? Bit of chat he is heading our way.

Watched the last 30 minutes of the game tonight. Can't say I was overly impressed by Robert despite everything seeming to be going through him, but Morton were absolutely riding you at that point so maybe not the best time to judge his ability.

Is he any good?

[vikingTON]

8 hours ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

All the best to the Diamonds tonight. Watched the first leg and you have much more to give and I'm sure tonight you'll give it everything and do L1 proud. I, for one, fancy Airdrie to turn the tie around and progress.

Thanks for playing anyway.

[FFC 1876]

27 minutes ago, Afro said:

Thomas Robert, then? Bit of chat he is heading our way.

Watched the last 30 minutes of the game tonight. Can't say I was overly impressed by Robert despite everything seeming to be going through him, but Morton were absolutely riding you at that point so maybe not the best time to judge his ability.

Is he any good?

Massively overrated, shows glimers of talent with a few decent touches here and there but in the games against us this season I was massively underwhelmed after all the talk about him moving to bigger and better things. Just disappears in games and I think it says it all that he's not been starting every game for Airdrie this season.

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by FFC 1876

[G_H]

40 minutes ago, Afro said:

Thomas Robert, then? Bit of chat he is heading our way.

Watched the last 30 minutes of the game tonight. Can't say I was overly impressed by Robert despite everything seeming to be going through him, but Morton were absolutely riding you at that point so maybe not the best time to judge his ability.

Is he any good?

Murray has failed to develop him, to be blunt.
He shows signs of being able to augment a team that is already decent, but he can't make a noticeable impact when playing in a poor team.

Edited May 21, 2021 by G_H

[Chapelhall chap]

Too late to do a post as I could not think about where to start. Went off to laugh at Gogglebox. Maybe tomorrow when the dust has settled I will revise why I thought better days were shining through. Mind you lovely sunset shot in the last few minutes of Alba's broadcast.

[Benidorm]

Thomas Robert is a myth of a player.  Generic sand dancer. 

[++Ammo - Airdrie++]

Well that..... Was f*cking dreadful.

Clear out required, if we're forced to have to keep 1 McKay, then Paul for his "versatility". Currie didn't cover himself in glory at all last night, positioning for the 1st and then palming 2 shots straight to the only Morton player lingering.

Too many passengers dead on their feet.

[Diamond8]

I reckon the only players I'd keep for next season are Currie, Fordyce, McCann, Kerr and maybe Gallagher and Paul McKay. That's if they would stay. I would also throw a deal Paton's way on the off chance he would take it. The rest can go, very average players. As for the manager, I think his contract runs out, I wouldn't like it to be renewed/extended and a new management TEAM brought in. 

 

In the real world we will probably have Murray as manager and a core team of Crighton, Carrick, Thomson and O'Reilly.

[ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds]

37 minutes ago, Diamond8 said:

I reckon the only players I'd keep for next season are Currie, Fordyce, McCann, Kerr and maybe Gallagher and Paul McKay. That's if they would stay. I would also throw a deal Paton's way on the off chance he would take it. The rest can go, very average players. As for the manager, I think his contract runs out, I wouldn't like it to be renewed/extended and a new management TEAM brought in. 

 

In the real world we will probably have Murray as manager and a core team of Crighton, Carrick, Thomson and O'Reilly.

I'd agree that those are the only players I'd definitely keep (though I think McCann will be off) but I wouldn't mind Carrick, Thomson, O'Reilly staying as part of the squad as long as when they're used it's in their best positions. Might be controversial but I'd agree that we'd be better off letting Crighton go. Kerr and Fordyce are better and I can't see Crighton starting for any other team at the top end of League One these days. We should offer Paton a contract and hopefully he'll join but seeing as there's very little chance of us signing Connell and even less chance of Turner the rest of the team will need to be made up of new faces. Look at the last three seasons and who's won the league. Dick Campbell with a team full of experienced lower league players, then John McGlynn and Ian McCall with a good mix of experience and youth through their squad. I think on the whole there is a real lack of experience in our squad and I think at times (particularly last night) we've been far too soft as a result. If we're serious about giving it a go next season there should be 9 or 10 new faces in and at least half of them should have a few seasons playing in the lower leagues under their belt.

[third lanark]

14 hours ago, Bully Wee Clyde FC said:

Sad for Airdrie who certainly earned their play off spot.  Destroyed us in both games.  Wouldn't have minded Morton in our league.

Don’t often agree with a Clyde fan but your spot on.  If Airdries run in and cove too for that matter had had the same run in as Morton game wise I think they would have been more than capable against Morton. 2 very good teams Airdrie and Cove who would have been more than a match for a lot of championship clubs let alone league one

[Jack Reed]

1 hour ago, third lanark said:

Don’t often agree with a Clyde fan but your spot on.  If Airdries run in and cove too for that matter had had the same run in as Morton game wise I think they would have been more than capable against Morton. 2 very good teams Airdrie and Cove who would have been more than a match for a lot of championship clubs let alone league one

What Airdrie have you been watching, 

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, third lanark said:

Don’t often agree with a Clyde fan but your spot on.  If Airdries run in and cove too for that matter had had the same run in as Morton game wise I think they would have been more than capable against Morton. 2 very good teams Airdrie and Cove who would have been more than a match for a lot of championship clubs let alone league one

This is just birthday caird pish. 

The League One clubs were unfortunate in the sense that while you often get a Championship team in freefall in the play-off, we were consistently mediocre throughout. I think we only lost 3 of our last ten league games or something: it was just a stack of stuffy draws that put us deservedly into 9th. If Ayr had lost on the final day instead - having been trying to finish in the top 4 all season - then there would have been a genuine state of crisis playing Montrose and then the finalists and it could have gone differently.

I don't see how any of the squads would have been even remotely competitive in the Championship though. 

[vikingTON]

12 hours ago, Benidorm said:

Thomas Robert is a myth of a player.  Generic sand dancer. 

In fairness to Robert, he completely did his man and fired a ball across the goal mouth in the second half, which was the only genuine sense of danger at our end in last night's match.

A sand-dancer for the rest of the game, but if I were Livingston then I'd be taking the gamble that they can develop him like they did Dykes and other jobbers from the lower leagues. He'll always catch the attention of bigger clubs with the publicity bandwagon attached to him, so if Livingston got a tune out of him for a few games in the Premiership an English Championship/League One club would be daft enough to throw six figures at them for a transfer. 

[airdrieman]

Biggest feelings for me after last night is frustration and disappointment. I’m disappointed that we never gave a good account of ourselves or put in a performance that was worthy or reflective of our run to the final. I think for as long as Murray is Airdrie manager he will continually frustrate me. There’s a good manager in there but some of his habits and decisions RE player selection, shape and tactics are mind boggling. Take Tuesday night - defensively we were fine but everybody could see that our problems were shilling long balls that their defence easily dealt with all night and playing a non-existent midfield that failed to link effectively with the rest of the team (bar Turner).  So what does he do? Continues with the long ball tactic and plays wingers in centre mid again. Baffling. I don’t think Ritchie is ultimately good enough, and he obviously doesn’t rate Sabatini. But it’s the biggest game of the season - would it kill you just to play the players available in their best positions? They’d both at the very least have been able to support Turner and have a better positional sense than O’Reilly who inexplicably played the full 180 minutes. I don’t think he took a decent touch or played an accurate pass in either game but I feel sorry for him actually - Murray sold him out big time playing him in essentially the key position in the biggest game of the season when it’s clear he’s never a centre mid and he doesn’t have the positional nous to play there against a half decent team. 

6 injuries to key players is enough to unsettle any team. But there was literally no excuse for having almost the entire team at some points out of position or the disorganised rabble we saw last night. It’s no wonder the team didn’t look like they had any clue what they were doing. Because they wouldn’t have. 
 

Then there was the peak Murrayball of playing Sean Crighton at right-back. Sean Crighton who’s a big haddy meat and potatoes centre-half who kicks and heads the ball the way he’s facing. I have no problem with that at League 1 level but he’s never going to have the dynamism to play full-back in a defensive or attacking sense. Playing him there is the sort of nonsense a manager who’s on the verge of getting sacked tries in the hope something will stick. NOT a manager who’s picking the team for a promotion play-off final FFS. The worst thing is - there’s literally a right-back (Walker) in the starting XI and four other players who can or have played there before (Kerr, Fordyce, Jack McKay and Ritchie). Just play Walker there and give him support, whether from a winger, a midfielder dropping back or a centre-half coming across if you think he’s going to get a hard time down the flank. The youngest of the Airdrie Aces could have told you playing Crighton there was a nonsense idea. 
 

And Jack McKay upfront... He tries his best but there’s just no discernible footballing ability there whatsoever. As I said after the game on Tuesday night, his role should be throwing him on late in games if you’re needing something or plugging gaps in the team when players go off or we change shape. Starting him in such a big game, when we’re already 1-0 down, is wild as he’s just never going to score from open play or create something out of nothing. I remain unconvinced by Ally Roy but I’d at least be more confident of him scoring than I would be Jack McKay. He scored 3 goals in 3 games in the run-in and he’s barely played since. Why? So Jack McKay can get a game after his stroke of luck against Cove? Roy deserved a chance IMO. I do sincerely hope Jack McKay can cut ties from his father so he can actually go play at a level he’s good enough to play at. I’ll be raging if we sign him again. 
 

At least Kyle Turner and Thomas Robert were lively and tried their best to get the team going. I hope they both get a move to a decent club and go on to have good careers in the game. 
 

As for the rest of the squad I’d be looking to keep Currie, Walker, Kerr, Fordyce, McCann, Paul McKay, Carrick and Gallagher. I’d also throw a deal Paton’s way assuming he fancies it. A bit concerning he’s picked up what looks to be two bad injuries in a short of space of time but the amount of football we’ve played can’t have helped in that regard. Either way the midfield needs a massive overhaul again. Crighton is the captain and a coach so will no doubt be offered a deal. As said above I don’t have a problem with that in League 1 but we should be making it a priority to keep Kerr and Fordyce and making them our first choice centre-halves IMO. Crighton is more than good enough to be back up or playing with them in a back three though. 
 

Not fussed about the rest. I think there is a player in Ally Roy but I think he needs regular game time and a manager who’s willing to gamble on him coming good by playing him every week and I’m not sure we’re in a position to do that. Either way, while I think Gallagher and Carrick are more than decent and I’d keep both of them, I also think we need an upgrade, something which we haven’t done the last two seasons. Do West Ham have any surplus strikers? 
 

Thomson and O’Reilly are both mediocre League 1 players. We could and should be looking to do better.