Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

[Kenny_m]

4 minutes ago, Diamond1924 said:

This all links back to McCabes stubbornness and reluctance to adapt our team to the championship. He should have signed at least 3 championship-level players back in the summer  but he didn’t. He went for unproven youngsters in Aiken, O’Connor, McStravick, G. Gallagher. Only one of those signings has come good. The others being a total waste of a wage and jersey. 

Not his fault, our budget dictates the level of player we sign.

[Diamond1924]

Just now, Kenny_m said:

Not his fault, our budget dictates the level of player we sign.

Absolutely his fault. He was only signing boys who ‘fit with his style’ but then goes and signs Todorov (who will be taking a decent wage). Todorov is literally anti-football

[Kenny_m]

1 minute ago, Diamond1924 said:

Absolutely his fault. He was only signing boys who ‘fit with his style’ but then goes and signs Todorov (who will be taking a decent wage). Todorov is literally anti-football

Drivel, all  managers want better players but you can only pee with the cock you've got. Direct your angst to the Chairman!

[mcjameos]

30 minutes ago, Passionate said:

Let's not sugarcoat this, we will probably be bottom by new year, 

 

Oh........ I think we'll have something to say about that

[Diamond8]

14 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

Not his fault, our budget dictates the level of player we sign.

Don't really know the ins and outs of our budget but I'd guess its the lowest in the league but I've also been told and heard that we didn't spend it all. If that is the case then yes it is his fault, signing guys like Dunlop and going with McMaster as our main midfielder for the season was always going to be a disaster I just don't get how it's taken most so long to understand this.

[Peaked in the 90’s]

Pre match McCabe saying ‘we need to get the basics right before any style of play/philosophy’ drivel.

The tallest striker threat in their team is given a completely free header from a corner and they score. 
We’ve got strikers that at best, are good league 1 players 

[Mr November]

I thought we played better today than we did the last two weeks. The first half in particular we moved the ball much quicker than we have recently, had a few balls across goal, one of which Gallagher hit the post from, plus McCabe and Frizzell's long range efforts. The issue is though that we concede another soft goal very early into the game and then run out of ideas in the second half. The latter part of that is a familiar story unfortunately. 

The only goals we've scored in the last 15 minutes of league games have been McGregor v Arbroath (already winning) and Gallagher's penalty last week (a penalty). When plan A doesn't work, which it generally doesn't if we concede first, then we really need to figure out a way to at least look threatening late in games. We had plenty of possession towards the end there but did we ever look like scoring in the last 15-20 minutes? Even when we chucked Todorov on, it felt like largely the same gameplan, just with McCabe and McMaster (why both at this point in the game anyway?) looking very exposed. 

We're obviously not going to wildly change our style of play, and I'm not sure that we really need to. Almost every game has been pretty tight, they're just often decided by conceding soft goals and then an inability to create clear chances. We really need to find a way to do something different going forward when we're chasing games. We don't need to go full Murrayball every week but when the patient build-up play has stopped working and we need a goal, why not just go for it and chuck McGill, Todorov, O'Connor etc. on and cause some chaos?

A bit of pressure on the next few games now. Morton have picked up and will be tougher opposition than the previous two games against them, while we never really got the better of Queen's Park in the last fixture. I'd say four points minimum from them is required. 

[Aufc]

The board need to make a call whether the stick or twist. Not talking about the manager but they need to decide whether they want to stay in the championship and, if they do, allow the manager to bring in some extra quality. Inverness changed manager and allowed Ferguson to bring in some quality which has paid off. Arbroath changed manager and got a good win today. Morton brought in a little bit of quality and winning games. I would imagine Queen’s Park might look to do the same. 
 

edited to add. It’s all well and good getting plaudits from teams saying we are a good “footballing” side but it means f**k all if we are not winning games. 

Edited December 16, 2023 by Aufc

[WL Diamond]

The last few games should dispel the myth that we’ll be fine/comfortably mid table etc.  No mistaking now the fact we’re relegation candidates and the lack of quality recruitment in the summer is coming home to roost. Any less than four points from the next two games and we could soon find ourselves stranded at the bottom.  If McCabe has his sights set on a bigger job sometime soon (as I suspect he might) he’s going to have to start turning it around fast

[Chapelhall chap]

Certainly see us a bottom half team and I agree with @Mr November so I'll say little more apart from Todorov is hardly worth even a bench spot. 

[David Fernández]

That was pretty much a carbon copy of the Inverness away game in which we had a lot of the ball but didn't really create too much and concede a ridiculously soft goal from a set piece.

If the budget is there, I definitely think we need a couple of loans in January, the quality that we have in the final 3rd is not there at all. Callum Smith or even LJ from last season would walk into this starting 11.

Despite our poor run and lack of goals I do believe the team can turn it round, we aren't too far away and we are definitely competitve in almost every game.

The Championship is a mad league in which a couple of wins can get you right up the table as seen with Morton, I do agree with the comments that we need at least 4 points in the next two games.

I think 8th place is still the aim and would be a great achievement if we managed to stay up considering it's our first season back in the 2nd tier and we have the lowest budget and 2nd lowest average attendance.

I don't agree with the comments calling McMaster an 'imposter' when he certainly wasn't the worst player on the park today, comments like that are just reactionary nonsense IMO.

[Kenny_m]

9 minutes ago, David Fernández said:

I don't agree with the comments calling McMaster an 'imposter' when he certainly wasn't the worst player on the park today, comments like that are just reactionary nonsense IMO.

Go tell me what he contributed?

[Kenny_m]

2 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

Go tell me what he contributed?

And there's nothing reactionary about it, I've been saying it all season.

[Diamond8]

2 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

And there's nothing reactionary about it, I've been saying it all season.

Pretty sure I got red dotted or whatever its called for suggesting I'd be a lot more comfortable with Aiken playing at the heart of our midfield than McMaster but here we are.

[David Fernández]

9 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

And there's nothing reactionary about it, I've been saying it all season.

Well tbh you've completely got an agenda against one player in particular and I'm just pointing it out. There's one thing criticising the boy but calling him an 'Imposter' is way over the top. He's a defensive midfielder and his job is to win the ball back and play short passes to the more creative players within our team. I don't think Dean McMaster is the biggest problem that we've got within the squad, it's our lack of creativity going forward and our poor ability to finish and create chances in the final 3rd, surely that's something we can all agree on eh?

Edited December 16, 2023 by David Fernández

[Mr November]

McMaster has been fine this season. He had some excellent performances at the start of the season (he was our best player in August) and has tailed off since then. Telfer and Aiken have been the pick of the midfielders this season, the others have been a bit more mixed at best, but overall McMaster has been better than I expected at this level.

[Kenny_m]

1 minute ago, Mr November said:

McMaster has been fine this season. He had some excellent performances at the start of the season (he was our best player in August) and has tailed off since then. Telfer and Aiken have been the pick of the midfielders this season, the others have been a bit more mixed at best, but overall McMaster has been better than I expected at this level.

I find him playing "cowards" football, I get so frustrated watching him continually going backwards. Sorry we need better.

[Diamonds are Forever]

We've lost 9 league games and 6 have been by 1 goal (plus Tannadice which was a 1 goal game until the 95th minute) which shows we are in games in terms of the scoreline but in reality I never really feel we are in the game because we don't look like scoring. I've never seen a side so incapable of sustaining attacks. I think we probably think we are sustaining pressure because we are keeping the ball, but we're just keeping it in our own half (with the other team quite happy for us to) and never actually building up any pressure or putting 3 or 4 attacks together in a row. You watch teams who go behind in games and usually they have at least a 5 or 10 minute spell where they hem teams in, get corner after corner or attack after attack, we never do that. Obviously the quality of players is part of that but I definitely think it's lack of game management too. To sustain those attacks there are times when it's all about territory and just keeping the ball in the opposing third, even if that means giving the opposition throw-ins near their own corner flag to keep them boxed in. It gets your own fans up and their fans a bit edgy. But we give them such an easy out by passing back to Fordyce and or Rae, putting our foot on the ball, slowing the game down and letting them push up the park. By the time we've passed it around again it's another 5 minutes before we venture up the park. That was a big 3 points for Ayr today and with 20 minutes to go we should have been making them nervous and pinning them in, however the longer the game went on the more likely it was that they scored rather than us.

The main issue for me is still just a total lack of quality in the attacking areas though. Frizz was better today I thought but he still has virtually no end product for all the times he gets the ball in good areas. McStravick has a nice touch but is always on the edges of a game and doesn't offer anywhere near enough in his all round play. Over a season if given service Gal will get goals but he misses a lot of chances so we need to create loads, but we create very little. McGregor, O'Connor and McStravick are all young guys who would be decent squad options in League 1. McGregor was signed for League 1 (and didn't get a game), O'Connor was signed for League 1, and McCabe said when we signed McStravick that he'd tried to get him last season, so he was also signed with League 1 in mind. But we're relying on them being our main creative force alongside Frizzell in the Championship. Todorov seems an increasingly weird signing given McCabe clearly doesn't want to use him, and Gabby's form has fallen off a cliff. If we could get a couple of quality attackers in I think the rest of the team is of a standard that we'd probably stay up, but how we get these players and where they come from is anyone's guess.

 

 

[TxRover]

Shall I point out that the leaders have 1 loss and 3 draws…and you contributed the loss and one of the draws. Just saying.

[Mr November]

Just now, TxRover said:

Shall I point out that the leaders have 1 loss and 3 draws…and you contributed the loss and one of the draws. Just saying.

I did say the other day that win against Raith looks better every week. @Diamonds are Forever makes a great point about us not being able to hem teams in. For whatever reason the only time I can properly recall us doing that this season was that five minute spell up at Kirkcaldy when Dabrowski pulled off a great save, Todorov hit the bar and I think we had another run right across goal too. If only it was the same against every other team!