Kenny_m Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 The match thread for today's game is the predictable mess, so Muzz Johnson starts in goal but does Smith come back in? I think his pace is invaluable but not sure of Rhys's thinking on this one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 12 minutes ago, Kenny_m said: The match thread for today's game is the predictable mess, so Muzz Johnson starts in goal but does Smith come back in? I think his pace is invaluable but not sure of Rhys's thinking on this one. I would put Smith back in myself but I wouldn’t be annoyed if he went with the same team and system he played last week. He’s been pretty set on going with the three forwards so I’d be surprised if Smith wasn’t straight back in but you never know. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 I suppose it’s not really any different to him being in the squad but never coming on, but if I wonder if Bright heading out on loan might see us bring in forward? We’re cutting it pretty fine in terms of signing someone but Salim and Dixon being our only forwards off the bench is a bit grim. Gabby picks up injuries here and there and if either Gal or Smith went out injured for a period of time we’d be fucked. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Passionate Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 1 hour ago, airdrieman said: I suppose it’s not really any different to him being in the squad but never coming on, but if I wonder if Bright heading out on loan might see us bring in forward? We’re cutting it pretty fine in terms of signing someone but Salim and Dixon being our only forwards off the bench is a bit grim. Gabby picks up injuries here and there and if either Gal or Smith went out injured for a period of time we’d be fucked. Wouldn't be surprised to see Jamieson return, only got till Tuesday to find out I suppose, we have 2 loanees slots available, Rhys playing with fire for the run in, if we don't get somebody else in IMO.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 13 minutes ago, Passionate said: Wouldn't be surprised to see Jamieson return, only got till Tuesday to find out I suppose, we have 2 loanees slots available, Rhys playing with fire for the run in, if we don't get somebody else in IMO.. I’d be delighted if we got Jamieson back. Not sure how much of a game he’s getting at St Mirren? But I can’t think of any scenario in which I’d rather play any of Salim, Dixon or McGregor (through the middle) upfront than Jamieson. As I said above, if any of our current front three are out for an extended period of time we’re snookered. Looking forward to playing the play-off final with Janny, Dixon and Dom Kavanagh as the front three. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny_m Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 8 minutes ago, airdrieman said: I’d be delighted if we got Jamieson back. Not sure how much of a game he’s getting at St Mirren? But I can’t think of any scenario in which I’d rather play any of Salim, Dixon or McGregor (through the middle) upfront than Jamieson. As I said above, if any of our current front three are out for an extended period of time we’re snookered. Looking forward to playing the play-off final with Janny, Dixon and Dom Kavanagh as the front three. Jamieson looks to have played 11 minutes since his return to St Mirren so it does look a possibility and given that St Mirren's financial position isn't great perhaps they will be happy to offload. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny_m Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 42 minutes ago, Kenny_m said: Jamieson looks to have played 11 minutes since his return to St Mirren so it does look a possibility and given that St Mirren's financial position isn't great perhaps they will be happy to offload. He is on the bench today though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhys McCabe Hype Train Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 (edited) Very clearly a mentality problem within this team. There’s been a few “oh no here we go” moments this season: Ballantyne reds against Dundee and Edinburgh, Smith red against Dunfermline, Telfer’s penalty miss today… and when they happen you just know something bad is going to happen. It’s all very predictable. Need to go all out and get Ian McCall involved in some capacity. Even as a “director of football” that can exert some influence on that side, because very simply we are sleepwalking to another few seasons in League One. Edited February 25, 2023 by Rhys McCabe Hype Train Spelling. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 21 minutes ago, Rhys McCabe Hype Train said: Very clearly a mentality problem within this team. There’s been a few “oh no here we go” moments this season: Ballantyne reds against Dundee and Edinburgh, Smith red against Dunfermline, Telfer’s penalty miss today… and when they happen you just know something bad is going to happen. It’s all very predictable. Need to go l out and get Ian McCall involved in some capacity. Even as a “director of football” that can exert some influence on that side, because very simply we are sleepwalking to another few seasons in League One. McCall as DoF would be ideal I think. McCabe’s major issues are his lack of experience and the fact he’s on the pitch. McCall would offer experience and be able to watch the match from the stand. Falkirk’s first two goals today came from really sloppy play in the middle of the park, first from Stanway then from Telfer. Thought Smith had to come on because Falkirk were getting far too much joy through their right back, but that three man midfield was far too soft. Telfer can be good but he offers absolutely when we aren’t strolling it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 Do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr November Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 I say it all the time but this is such a frustrating team. There’s so many good points about them and the way we play but the downsides are just so pronounced it’s ridiculous. I think that’s 13 points dropped this calendar year alone from winning positions (3 v Edinburgh, 2 v Kelty, 5 v Dunfermline, 3 v Falkirk). That simply isn’t sustainable at any level. I think these three games have been a bit of a reality check. Some people were talking about winning all three games before we played them and while that seemed unrealistic, we actually took the lead and had spells of looking dominant in all three. Unfortunately the main issue is how soft we are as soon as anything goes against us. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, whether it’s a sending off, a missed penalty, even just conceding a goal and we seem to crumble. We’ve seen this at points throughout the season but it’s been very apparent across these three games, though particularly the home ones as I thought we did well last week. You can forgive these things if they’re one-offs. I wasn’t too fussed about the 6-0 defeat to Edinburgh as it appeared to be a freak result and similarly there were circumstances that easily explained the 6-2 game at Dundee. We all know the subs are hardly every going to play but at 3-1 down today none of them were out warming up, before the eventual change of Deveney (who was doing fine) for Devenny. Just chuck Salim on and go for it, what we were doing was clearly getting nowhere. We made a lot of signings in January but it’s hard to see the point in most of them. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 (edited) Still can’t defend a lead. Still can’t win when the other team scores. Still can’t score a penalty. Still clown car defending every week. Still no bottle. Still no resilience or ability to respond to any set back. Not good enough. We can play all the nice football we want but we’ve no resilience or bottle whatsoever, rendering it pointless. No chance that team is winning a play-off. We’ve literally one way of playing which is batter a team into submission, and even then we can’t defend a lead anymore. If that game plan doesn’t work we’re fucked. Give Ian McCall what he wants because that team isn’t getting promoted without a proper manager. Edited February 25, 2023 by airdrieman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dextermorgan Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 For me, our problems were fairly obvious today. We had enough chances to win five games but were not clinical in the box for the umpteenth time. We also cannot compete with Falkirk and Dunfermline in terms of quality squad numbers unless we approach their crowd sizes so I don't see that changing. Not scoring and conceding at crucial times in games has been our undoing of late coupled with conceding penalties. With regard to the mental aspect of the game, I don't believe that a manager on the sidelines would be an improvement to a manager on the park. Maybe only as someone who can take a broader view tactically. With regard to Ian McCall I don't think for a minute that he would come here as he will find better-paid employment elsewhere. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny_m Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 I'd rather be relegated than have that odious lying cretin McCall anywhere near the club. Davie Hutton is correct about him. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mybitchunderprotest Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 7 minutes ago, Kenny_m said: I'd rather be relegated than have that odious lying cretin McCall anywhere near the club. Davie Hutton is correct about him. Neither know nor care what Hutton said about McCall. Fact is he's a man who gets performances and results from a football team and that's what matters. If we were employing people based on them being of good character I don't think Hutton would be anywhere near us. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny_m Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 2 minutes ago, Mybitchunderprotest said: Neither know nor care what Hutton said about McCall. Fact is he's a man who gets performances and results from a football team and that's what matters. If we were employing people based on them being of good character I don't think Hutton would be anywhere near us. Ok, take away Hutton's comments and he's still odious cretin who barefaced lied to all Airdrie fans in the famous Town Hall night, he should never be forgiven and i will never forget. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Fernández Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 One of the things that has annoyed me about us has been the poor recruitment in January. McCabe has always repeatadly said that 'hes not just going to sign any player but only ones that will improve the team.' The bench looks bigger in numbers but what's the point of having the likes of Byrd, McMaster, Salim and Dixon and as @Mr Novemberhas pointed out already, I struggle to see the point in these signings. Its criminal that we are nearly into March, and have played the entire season with only one natural centre back in the squad. We are still relying pretty much on the same starting 11 every week and if we need to change anything we can't. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr November Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 1 hour ago, dextermorgan said: For me, our problems were fairly obvious today. We had enough chances to win five games but were not clinical in the box for the umpteenth time. I don’t know, while we could undoubtedly be more clinical going forward we can’t rely on scoring three or four every week. We average just under two goals scored a game, only Falkirk have scored more than us. For me the clear issues with this team are being very soft and not being able to do the basics defensively. It’s rare we concede a genuinely great goal, the vast majority contain some form of us shooting ourselves in the foot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 1 hour ago, dextermorgan said: With regard to the mental aspect of the game, I don't believe that a manager on the sidelines would be an improvement to a manager on the park. Maybe only as someone who can take a broader view tactically. With regard to Ian McCall I don't think for a minute that he would come here as he will find better-paid employment elsewhere. You need that leadership both in the dugout and on the pitch though which is the problem. Being able to have a broader view RE tactics allows you to actually manage a game, make appropriate tactical and personnel changes, see out or regain leads and win games which is what breeds a winning mentality and strong resilience. A good manager will also sign good leaders and players who are a bit streetwise and ‘cute’, which we don’t really have at all. Being a leader on the park is also very different to managing a squad of players but we have no distinction between the two at all. 7 minutes ago, David Fernández said: One of the things that has annoyed me about us has been the poor recruitment in January. McCabe has always repeatadly said that 'hes not just going to sign any player but only ones that will improve the team.' The bench looks bigger in numbers but what's the point of having the likes of Byrd, McMaster, Salim and Dixon and as @Mr Novemberhas pointed out already, I struggle to see the point in these signings. Its criminal that we are nearly into March, and have played the entire season with only one natural centre back in the squad. We are still relying pretty much on the same starting 11 every week and if we need to change anything we can't. The Devenny for Deveney like-for-like sub was laughable. I like Devenny but that substitution wasn’t going to claw the game back for us. Maybe they’re not any good but you’ve got two forwards on the bench in Salim and Dixon. We’re already 3-1 down, just chuck them on and go for it. So much for McCabe’s mantra… But the fact they didn’t come on today or in similar circumstances in other games is a worry. We’re not that far away from either of them having to play in the event of injuries or suspensions. A concern for me is how many of those January signings are intended to be part of any long-term plans? Jay Riley’s not good enough, Joe Dixon has obviously been deemed as not good enough or at best not ready and Bright is only 17 and more of an internet cult figure than he is part of the squad. Has Big Byrd really come from Australia just to sit on Airdrie’s bench for only half a season? We haven’t seen a lot of him but he’s very much in the unconvinced pile for me. Add in Wylie, McMaster, Henderson and Lyness and it hardly bodes well for a McCabe rebuild in either division next season. His best players are the ones who were already here and his best signings were ones any of us could have identified - Ballantyne, Rae and Jamieson - and even then all three of them have come with caveats. I suppose ATS and Deveney have turned out decent. But if you wanted to be harsh are both of them really good enough either? A definite worry considering a lot of our better players will go if/when we don’t get promoted (again). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Reed Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 13 minutes ago, Mr November said: I don’t know, while we could undoubtedly be more clinical going forward we can’t rely on scoring three or four every week. We average just under two goals scored a game, only Falkirk have scored more than us. For me the clear issues with this team are being very soft and not being able to do the basics defensively. It’s rare we concede a genuinely great goal, the vast majority contain some form of us shooting ourselves in the foot. If our strikers are not clinical enough,our midfield to light ,our defence just can't defend,and we don't know who is playing in goal from week to week,I think our manager has a problem , 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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