Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

[ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds]

Obviously yesterday was a bit crap. We need a plan B. If we’re 1-0 down at home to Ayr we can’t expect them to press our defenders so we have to be a bit more creative. I also think it was a case of a few individuals simply not being at it. Frizz was uncharacteristically poor, as was Gallagher. Hancock started really well I thought but got sucked into playing that overly patient game after the first Ayr goal and all his passes started going sideways. McStravick gave us something when he came on and I think at the moment he might be a better option than McGill. Megwa obviously at fault for the first goal and had a shaky start but I think it was a case of debut nerves. He had a much better second half and him and McStravick linked well down the right I thought. Telfer done well when he came on.

[Kenny_m]

Agree with most that has been said and note that @Passionate has even had the audacity to criticise McMaster. That apart there were other real poor performances.

Gabby's work rate is never in question but is really struggling and serious concerns that he's simply not good enough.

Megwa replacing Ballantyne was a massive downgrade even though he did improve as the game went on, and of course it's far too early to write him off. Ballantyne arguably our best player this season was a major loss so lets hope his injury isn't too serious.

Gal had an absolute mare as nothing stuck with him all game and he never linked anything due to being completely out muscled by McGinty. Lucky to finish the 90!

Frizz and Aiken were only average yesterday which highlighted how important they are when their high standards drop a tad.

[Passionate]

12 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

Agree with most that has been said and note that @Passionate has even had the audacity to criticise McMaster. That apart there were other real poor performances.

Gabby's work rate is never in question but is really struggling and serious concerns that he's simply not good enough.

Megwa replacing Ballantyne was a massive downgrade even though he did improve as the game went on, and of course it's far too early to write him off. Ballantyne arguably our best player this season was a major loss so lets hope his injury isn't too serious.

Gal had an absolute mare as nothing stuck with him all game and he never linked anything due to being completely out muscled by McGinty. Lucky to finish the 90!

Frizz and Aiken were only average yesterday which highlighted how important they are when their high standards drop a tad.

When we play the very slow passing about the back 4, totally nullifies the strengths of McMaster as he plays too close  , Fordyce et al have to feed the ball much much quicker through the midfield,   and he should probably have been subbed earlier,  Telfer gave us a far better option when he came on....  Deano was poor last week against Morton as well,   we have a decent 'sized" squad, I think Rhys has to change things up again, 

[Diamonds are Forever]

15 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

Agree with most that has been said and note that @Passionate has even had the audacity to criticise McMaster. That apart there were other real poor performances.

Gabby's work rate is never in question but is really struggling and serious concerns that he's simply not good enough.

Megwa replacing Ballantyne was a massive downgrade even though he did improve as the game went on, and of course it's far too early to write him off. Ballantyne arguably our best player this season was a major loss so lets hope his injury isn't too serious.

Gal had an absolute mare as nothing stuck with him all game and he never linked anything due to being completely out muscled by McGinty. Lucky to finish the 90!

Frizz and Aiken were only average yesterday which highlighted how important they are when their high standards drop a tad.

 

This is where I don't get the lack game time for Todorov. It's difficult because when you need a goal you want Gal on the pitch regardless of how poor he's been, but whether it's a replacement or just alongside Gal surely Todorov is the person to help with this. Gal has always had a few games a season where he struggles against physical centre backs, like Benedictus and O'Reilly last season. I assumed Todorov was brought here to be the 'Plan B' if Gal wasn't getting much out of them.

I've seen so little of Todorov that I don't actually know whether he would make a difference, but it begs the question why bother signing him if all you give him is 5 minutes when we really need a goal.

[Kenny_m]

It's now on to the Queens Park game and a chance to end the first quarter on a high in a very competitive league. A win and 3 points would equate to a sensational start as 15 points per quarter would probably get you a promotion play off position, even defeat and 12 points per quarter would be more than enough to ensure an 8th place finish.

To put it in perspective, Arbroath only won 6 games (16 draws) last season and avoided the drop so in reality, an excellent start.

[AJ77]

Everyone been spot on with their posts good to see a sensible opinion in here rather than the social media fans!

Mcstravick got to start next time out did more in that half than gabby has done all season, Hibs rb looked really poor defensively thought he struggled hopefully nothing to serious with cammy. If you told me start of the season 8 games in we'll have 12 points I’d be more than happy, 12 points a quarter and we’ll be nowhere near the bottom 2.

[Sub Parr]

Nice corner routine for the Ayr goal. We fell for it and Dowds was left in so much space- even more than it looks on the highlights. Yes, Friz slips but I think Dowds was away from him irrespective.

[D'Jaffo]

28 minutes ago, Sub Parr said:

Nice corner routine for the Ayr goal. We fell for it and Dowds was left in so much space- even more than it looks on the highlights. Yes, Friz slips but I think Dowds was away from him irrespective.

It’s pretty horrible goalkeeping as well. 

[Kenny_m]

26 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

It’s pretty horrible goalkeeping as well. 

It's always looked upon as a goalkeeping error when they get beat at their near post but in fairness it's a helluva strike from Dowds.

[Mybitchunderprotest]

1 hour ago, Sub Parr said:

Nice corner routine for the Ayr goal. We fell for it and Dowds was left in so much space- even more than it looks on the highlights. Yes, Friz slips but I think Dowds was away from him irrespective.

I have ask though, seeing as our other players on the edge of the box went with Ayr players in that routine why was Frizzell left with Dowds? Bit of a physical mismatch that one so I'm going to suggest that our marking was so bad that they weren't sure who they were picking up or the routine was so effective that the player who should have been picking up Dowds went with someone else leaving Frizz to pick up the pieces.

[Diamonds02]

Felt sorry for megwa yesterday, I imagine the plan was to bed him in a bit longer to get used to the style of play but he was thrown in against a Scotland capped winger and when basically all of his teammates had off games as well.

Not worried about him at all having seen him play before, given time he’ll be a great asset for us this season.

[Kenny_m]

34 minutes ago, Mybitchunderprotest said:

I have ask though, seeing as our other players on the edge of the box went with Ayr players in that routine why was Frizzell left with Dowds? Bit of a physical mismatch that one so I'm going to suggest that our marking was so bad that they weren't sure who they were picking up or the routine was so effective that the player who should have been picking up Dowds went with someone else leaving Frizz to pick up the pieces.

I would say that was correct.

Clever from Ayr and physically bullied us in this routine.

[Diamond1924]

I’m all for McCabes passing. In fact, I have actually come to accept and enjoy it at times but…

There needs to be a plan B when teams are being effectively stuffy against us. Passing the ball about side to side was so frustrating yesterday. At times there was literally no intention of going forward even when it ‘was on’ which is just so negative. 
 

 

Edited October 9, 2023 by Diamond1924

[Diamonds are Forever]

2 hours ago, Diamond1924 said:

I’m all for McCabes passing. In fact, I have actually come to accept and enjoy it at times but…

There needs to be a plan B when teams are being effectively stuffy against us. Passing the ball about side to side was so frustrating yesterday. At times there was literally no intend of going forward even when it ‘was on’ which is just so negative. 
 

 

 

That's what I think. I've said before I think in years to come we'll look back and realise how lucky we've been in the last couple of years with the style of play and scorelines. But I think discussion around our style of play becomes unfairly polarised - you're either a full supporter of McCabeball or you're a long ball dinosaur. In reality most people want to see us playing nice passing football but also realise that variety is needed.

I think the way we try and play is great, but teams will be quickly working out how to play us, and the more times they play us the better you'd assume they'd get at it. Also as we head into winter and conditions worsen it will be harder to play the way we want.

We are in a good situation where we've picked up a good number of points so far, but there's also been a few warnings of our limitations which will hopefully mean we evolve our style slightly so we don't become predictable.

[Diamonds on the Windshield]

The worry is how few chances we are creating. McStravick looks like a Dylan Easton type player and was effective in and around the box and Telfer was making things happen going forward and he is good at breaking things up when needed. A few hard 50/50s yesterday where he came away with the ball and he has improved the team when he has come on in the last couple of games. These are the players we need on the pitch and not the ones who work hard but have poor games.

I still think Gabby can take a touch and score but he's not getting into those kind of positions with the way we are playing.

I'd like to see us play a midfield four of Frizz-Aiken-Telfer-McStravick with a combination of two from Gal, Gabby and Todorov up front. McGregor can come on as an impact sub when required and if we need to shore up the defence bring on McMaster. With the way it went yesterday the back 4 passing sideways waiting for something to open up in front that midfield 4 have the ability to make runs, flick ons, one twos and through balls to the runner and that is how to create space and get the ball in the box.

 

[Mr November]

Yesterday was as bad but it could be worse, this happened a year ago today.

[Mr November]

50 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

That's what I think. I've said before I think in years to come we'll look back and realise how lucky we've been in the last couple of years with the style of play and scorelines. But I think discussion around our style of play becomes unfairly polarised - you're either a full supporter of McCabeball or you're a long ball dinosaur. In reality most people want to see us playing nice passing football but also realise that variety is needed.

I think the way we try and play is great, but teams will be quickly working out how to play us, and the more times they play us the better you'd assume they'd get at it. Also as we head into winter and conditions worsen it will be harder to play the way we want.

We are in a good situation where we've picked up a good number of points so far, but there's also been a few warnings of our limitations which will hopefully mean we evolve our style slightly so we don't become predictable.

I agree with this but I think the reassuring thing is that McCabe has adapted how we’ve played throughout his time. I think we’ve both said something similar before but the way McCabe talks about our style of play hasn’t changed too much since he first become manager but the style itself has evolved a lot since then.

We were a lot less naive as last season went on and became more direct, in terms of getting the ball forward quicker rather than long aimless balls, and became a bit more compact defensively too. Our style has obviously changed a bit again this season to be slower and more possession based, presumably as the quick attacking style might be caught out a bit more at this level, but I’d like to think McCabe will continue to evolve things if we start regularly struggling to break teams down.

[D'Jaffo]

7 hours ago, Kenny_m said:

It's always looked upon as a goalkeeping error when they get beat at their near post but in fairness it's a helluva strike from Dowds.

He’s maybe unsighted but given how far out Dowds takes the shot and I think it goes through relatively clean without any deflections I think he should be palming it away at least. 

[Diamonds02]

2 hours ago, Diamonds on the Windshield said:

The worry is how few chances we are creating. McStravick looks like a Dylan Easton type player and was effective in and around the box and Telfer was making things happen going forward and he is good at breaking things up when needed. A few hard 50/50s yesterday where he came away with the ball and he has improved the team when he has come on in the last couple of games. These are the players we need on the pitch and not the ones who work hard but have poor games.

I still think Gabby can take a touch and score but he's not getting into those kind of positions with the way we are playing.

I'd like to see us play a midfield four of Frizz-Aiken-Telfer-McStravick with a combination of two from Gal, Gabby and Todorov up front. McGregor can come on as an impact sub when required and if we need to shore up the defence bring on McMaster. With the way it went yesterday the back 4 passing sideways waiting for something to open up in front that midfield 4 have the ability to make runs, flick ons, one twos and through balls to the runner and that is how to create space and get the ball in the box.

 

I think completely changing the system after our first loss at home might be a slight overreaction.

That being said I wouldn’t mind mcstravick starting over McGill next game.

[moses1924]

3 hours ago, Mr November said:

Yesterday was as bad but it could be worse, this happened a year ago today.

That about gave me a heart attack before I read the date,,,