Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

[Diamonds02]

5 hours ago, Diamond1924 said:

And yet I’d have every single one of those players in my team over Gallagher this season

He scored for fun in league 1 but has really struggled in the championship this season. 
 

Cherry picking players with mildly worse goal contribution stats than Gal’s doesn’t really say much. Can guarantee that all of those players will have more goal contributions than Gallagher by the end of the season

But if all these players who you believe are better, have less goal contributions than him this season.

By what metric has he ‘struggled’?

Edited December 6, 2023 by Diamonds02

[Diamond1924]

9 hours ago, Diamonds02 said:

But if all these players who you believe are better, have less goal contributions than him this season.

By what metric has he ‘struggled’?

He’s just not good enough for the championship. That’s it really 

[AJ77]

32 minutes ago, Diamond1924 said:

He’s just not good enough for the championship. That’s it really 

Not sure what games you've been watching but he's been more than fine, 4 goals and 3 assists in 12 starts. If you think Gallagher is our biggest problem then your way off it.

[Jack Reed]

1 hour ago, AJ77 said:

Not sure what games you've been watching but he's been more than fine, 4 goals and 3 assists in 12 starts. If you think Gallagher is our biggest problem then your way off it.

You have got to wonder what the manager thinks then when he takes him off,don't think he is our biggest problem but we surely have to try and up the quality rather than standing still ,

[cb_diamond]

Also agree Gall is far from our biggest problem and in fact, he's been a victim of our biggest issue which has been hugely substandard wingers. He's done ok feeding off of the absolute scraps they are producing at the moment.

[Diamonds on the Windshield]

My thoughts on Gabby are highlighted by the cup game where he scored one top corner with his left foot, one top corner with his right foot and a pass to Gal for his goal. That is because he is an experienced goal scorer. Contrast that with the young "wingers" who get in the box and shoot at the first opportunity. Most of these shots are blocked by the legs of the defender standing in front of them or go straight into the keepers hands. McStravick is smart enough to know that there is no point kicking the ball into a defenders legs and he can pass the ball in the box which led to another Gal goal. Most shots are being blocked and no one is passing to Gal for his tap ins. This is why we are so poor at finishing in the last third and the new tactic should be no shooting allowed from in the box with only passing to Gal for him to tap in.

This means that Gal has to stay on for the whole game and if he had Todorov's shot in injury time I believe he would have scored.

[Passionate]

2 hours ago, cb_diamond said:

Also agree Gall is far from our biggest problem and in fact, he's been a victim of our biggest issue which has been hugely substandard wingers. He's done ok feeding off of the absolute scraps they are producing at the moment.

Interesting discussion all round,  all strikers are around the one goal to every 3 games ratio, which is decent and gets players 15 goals or so a season,  decent haul,   The problem is it's really Gall or bust this season,   McGill is hopelessly out his depth(fair description I would say) Todorov is a proven striker at this level again probably a one in three ratio for goals, but our system suits one striker,   the elephant in the room is the midfield / wide players,    Frizzell,  Telfer (good season), McMaster,Aiken, McCabe,  McGregor and Magic,  only McGregor has consistently contributed goal wise, and he is still to fully convince,  out of that combination of players you would expect 25 goals minimum a season,  because of the deficiency the flak ends up at the feet of Gallagher,    can it be resolved for second half of the season Yes and No, it fully depends if McCabe wants to play,  arguably one of the best players in the league IMO,   or a system change like we had against Rangers B,  which was great too watch, good attacking football, but we were hopelessly exposed due to it, and the game was far too open for McCabes liking..   we need points and goals consistently otherwise we will struggle,  8th place must still be the only realistic target.

[David Fernández]

Mad to think that Gal is still under appreciated/under rated amongst some of our fanbase, with our budget we'll not sign a better striker than him.

Another player I think who's been under appreciated a bit is Lewis McGregor.

For someone who wasn't our first choice winger in league 1, he's got 3 goals and 1 assist in 13 games this season and one of them was coming on as a sub.

He's only 19 and although he can be frustrating at times with his final ball/decision making, there is still room for him to improve and be a massive player for us, we did miss him on Saturday.

 

[Kenny_m]

Anyone know the latest on Cammy Ballantyne's injury?

[Diamond1924]

7 hours ago, AJ77 said:

Not sure what games you've been watching but he's been more than fine, 4 goals and 3 assists in 12 starts. If you think Gallagher is our biggest problem then your way off it.

He IS part of our biggest problem i.e lack of fire power up front. 
 

We wont be winning many games with McGill, Gallagher or Todorov up top. They’re league one standard at best and are being found out in the champ

[David Fernández]

37 minutes ago, Diamond1924 said:

He IS part of our biggest problem i.e lack of fire power up front. 
 

We wont be winning many games with McGill, Gallagher or Todorov up top. They’re league one standard at best and are being found out in the champ

You'd think we were sitting bottom on 2 points with the way you're talking.

We've got a home game vs Dunfermline on Saturday and if we win that we'll be sitting in the promotion play offs.

With our 'League 1' strike force we've beaten more than 50% of the teams in the championship.

I'm not sure if you're trying to start a debate for the sake of it but you're talking absolute nonsense.

[Shooter McGavin]

9 hours ago, Diamond1924 said:

He’s just not good enough for the championship. That’s it really 

Hardly a convincing argument. 

Just saying something over and over doesn't make it so. 

[diamond_for_life]

We have stepped up a division and are looking better defensively than we did last season.

Im not the best at researching statistics but by the looks of things we had conceded 23 goals after 14 league games last year. Last season we shipped about 3 a game on average to Edinburgh, conceded 10 in our games against Queen of the South, lost a 3-0 lead to Dunfermline, I could go on and on about us defensively last year. This season it’s 10 less conceded after 14 games. and other than Arbroath we haven’t had another doing.

I admitted my naivety on thinking going forward we would damage teams in this league but we need to play with what we have. We are not individually strong enough to hurt teams and the way we play is to have high possession and minimise opponents chances. The slow build up play at times is no accident. 

Absolutely concede it can be frustrating as f**k to watch but it’s how we are going to play this season and I’m happy with that. I also get there’s an arguement to playing more attacking and we could get a few more goals but we also get get carved up by better teams than the ones who carved us up on occasion last season with pretty much the same back line we had then too. The defence deserves so much credit for how they have started this season. 

I always say I would never single players out but yet again I feel players are being unfairly targeted/treated and we still have fans with hugely unrealistic expectations of where we are as a club. 

People are quick to praise McStravick and rightly so but they then scapegoat McGregor every week without fail. Let’s be clear here though McStravick is another young lad still learning and will make plenty mistakes too. As I say hate doing this but he gives the ball away plenty (costly against Dundee Utd), he lasted what 10 mins on the park against Arbroath too. I’m not criticising the lad in any way, I want him to keep doing what he does and I love the excitement he brings he is potentially my most exiting player since I first clapped eyes on prime Willie McLaren. What I’m saying is can we take off the tinted glasses we have for some players and realise all players will make mistakes, make poor decisions and have bad games. It happens. Especially at this level.

Lewis McGregor is a young lad who has had a torrid time at Morton. His confidence must have been in the gutter and he is trying to build himself back up. I get frustrated with him and I have moaned about his final ball or missing a chance but he is the most dangerous winger we have at the club. There is absolute no denying his work rate and he never stops trying. He misses a chance he goes again he doesn’t go hiding. That’s more than some I’ve saw over the years at Airdrie. He is what 19. Top class wingers are inconsistent and we expect what from him exactly perfection??

Gallagher was league 1 player of the year last year and folk still said he wasn’t good enough so I’m not shocked it came around again this year. People saying his lack of goals this year make him ineffective tell you what next time he plays watch how he moves round the park, comes deep, drags players about and creates space for others. Again I’m no Pep or Jose but the work that boy does that goes unnoticed is astonishing to me. 

We have some players in that squad struggling and we have some who are sadly not good enough for this level. The above mentioned are no where near the bottom of the list of things we need to worry about though.

We are relegation favourites this year and on paper we probably have the smallest/least experienced team for this division. Again not saying happy clap nor am I saying accept sub bar garbage. Get a sense of realism though. We are not late 80s early 90s Airdrieonians. We are small fish in a big pond in the championship never mind going beyond that. Still seems to me people see us a far bigger club than where we currently are. 

[Jack Reed]

2 hours ago, Diamond1924 said:

He IS part of our biggest problem i.e lack of fire power up front. 
 

We wont be winning many games with McGill, Gallagher or Todorov up top. They’re league one standard at best and are being found out in the champ

Preferred Andy Ryan myself ,

[Rhys McCabe Hype Train]

8 hours ago, Passionate said:

8th place must still be the only realistic target.

Surely every Airdrie fan knows this is the case? 

[cb_diamond]

I see the Falkirk begging bowl was out yet again today to cover the fact they constantly live beyond their means. 

One consistently decent thing about the club in recent seasons has been not getting sucked into that debt cycle. Hetherington may be poor on the communication front but he's done a good job with the books.

[Chapelhall chap]

3 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

Preferred Andy Ryan myself ,

He certainly was a more exciting striker but I think Gal has a much better scoring record in the same League and we got promoted with his contributions. Andy of course departed as was his right whilst Gal has shown a bit more loyalty. It's all a debate of course and I'm in the Gal offers more camp. Hope I see a win on Saturday and it's been a good season so far. 

[Passionate]

2 hours ago, Rhys McCabe Hype Train said:

Surely every Airdrie fan knows this is the case? 

Honestly it would surprise you,

[Jack Reed]

10 hours ago, Chapelhall chap said:

He certainly was a more exciting striker but I think Gal has a much better scoring record in the same League and we got promoted with his contributions. Andy of course departed as was his right whilst Gal has shown a bit more loyalty. It's all a debate of course and I'm in the Gal offers more camp. Hope I see a win on Saturday and it's been a good season so far. 

Aye once they are gone to another  club all interest is forgotten,for me anyway , loyalty is with Gal at the moment ,

[Diamonds on the Windshield]

I always thought Iain Russell was the reason Ryan had such a good season and Gal does not have anyone providing for him the same way. I wonder how many of Gal's goals were set up by Smith last season? When Ryan came back for 8 games he only scored 2 goals ( 1 was a pen) and kept Gal out the team.  I always think it would have been better if he had not come back as Gal and Carrick were playing well together.

That season we finished 5 points behind Raith having drawn 0-0 at home with Stranraer (Ryans first start on his return) who were bottom of the table. The previous game away to East Fife we were winning 2-1 with Gal having scored both the goals. Ryan ( just re-joined) then replaced Gal in the 70th minute and a Craig Watson goal in the 89th minute cost us 2 points. So those 4 points made all the difference. We lost 0-1 at home to Raith but with those 4 points in the bag if we had drawn with Raith at home we would have finished first with Falkirk 1 point behind.

Call me bitter but I blame Andy Ryan for costing us promotion that season.