Dundee United v Airdrieonians

[UtdFan]

A mixture of Airdrie being really good in the second half without creating too much and United being very very average! I think Airdrie will have a good season if that’s them without 3 or 4 of their best players! Comfortable in possession, attack minded, good young team. 

[Jack Reed]

39 minutes ago, UtdFan said:

A mixture of Airdrie being really good in the second half without creating too much and United being very very average! I think Airdrie will have a good season if that’s them without 3 or 4 of their best players! Comfortable in possession, attack minded, good young team. 

Refreshing to hear a good take on the game  from united fans ,cheers for that if not the points ,

[Mr November]

I think @++Ammo - Airdrie++ has it spot on. Lots more positives than negatives for me but can’t argue with the result. As others have said, a strange game where United hit the woodwork a few times and came close on other occasions while Airdrie dominated possession. ATS must have had about 40% of possession on his own.

Losing McMaster so early on was a real blow and any team would struggle without their four most experienced midfielders. The boys who did play generally did well though, in particular Aiken who had another good game.

I enjoyed the day out. I haven’t been to Tannadice for a long time so didn’t appreciate quite how close the stands are to the pitch. As much as I enjoy a trip to Montrose or Forfar, heading to Tannadice for a league game was a nice reminder of being up a level. 

Highlights included Middleton running the ball out the pitch and Ballantyne committing to smashing in a slide tackle anyway, the over a minute spell where Airdrie kept possession patiently and created a great chance that was cleared off the line and most importantly, Jim Goodwin throwing a tantrum near the end.

[pandarilla]

Bit of shit game from United, as others have said - very poor in the 2nd half.

Airdrie didn't create much but that clearance off the line was so close.

I thought the tiny fella in midfield did well for Airdrie - looks like a player for the future (when he fills out).

I'm just amazed that Goodwin doesn't try and go all out at home this season.  Surely going baws oot no-one would cope - and maybe tighten up at the back.  Letting Airdrie have the ball and trying to hold on and hit on the break seems a strange tactic to get the fans on side. 

[Glenmavis Diamond]

59 minutes ago, UtdFan said:

A mixture of Airdrie being really good in the second half without creating too much and United being very very average! I think Airdrie will have a good season if that’s them without 3 or 4 of their best players! Comfortable in possession, attack minded, good young team. 

Tell that to some of our own fans.

[foxinperu]

What a really strange game.  I thought United started very brightly, good energy and lots of attacking intent.  Airdrie’s tactic of slowing it down, passing it around and waiting for a press that wasn’t coming, really robbed the game of any tempo and I don’t know that United knew quite how to deal with that.  I thought this was further exacerbated by not having Docherty for us in midfield to tie it all together, so we kept giving it back to Airdrie cheaply when we did get the ball.

Fair play to Airdrie, they were still in the game with 10minutes to go, so I guess their approach worked to an extent.

Relieved we were able to pinch the late second and see the game out.

[kdyteejay]

Who was Airdrie’s number 12,  good wee player. Like others said it was a strange game. Airdrie played very well but they created very little.

[Diamonds02]

13 minutes ago, kdyteejay said:

Who was Airdrie’s number 12,  good wee player. Like others said it was a strange game. Airdrie played very well but they created very little.

Liam McStravick, signed him from linfield. That was his debut today

[Diamonds02]

Btw how are the advertising boards allowed to be so close to the pitch? McMaster injured by them and mcgregor was lucky he managed to jump over it last second. Looks like you’d get a good few injuries from them a season based off today, or are we just unlucky?

[Loemba90]

3 minutes ago, Diamonds02 said:

Liam McStravick, signed him from linfield. That was his debut today

Looks a very tidy wee player 

[Loemba90]

1 minute ago, Diamonds02 said:

Btw how are the advertising boards allowed to be so close to the pitch? McMaster injured by them and mcgregor was lucky he managed to jump over it last second. Looks like you’d get a good few injuries from them a season based off today, or are we just unlucky?

Can’t say I’ve ever noticed it being too much of a problem before, so yeah maybe just very unlucky!

[???]

2 hours ago, ++Ammo - Airdrie++ said:

A funny game that, United came out flying and we never looked settled at all, injury to McMaster early really didn't help at all. Once utd scored they were content to let the Airdrie back line have the ball, and really nullified the space for anything, and a few times we resorted to the long ball, and against Gallagher and Holt, there's only one winner. End of the first half we created a bit and arguably our best chance that McGregor missed.

Second half for all our possession we didn't really do anything and utd defender particularly well and deserved the clean sheet 

I'm definitely not disappointed with the performance, we gave a decent account of ourselves but that final wee decision in and around the box has to be a bit better.

As someone else said, our season won't be defined by games against utd, but I enjoyed my day tbf.

I felt that we should have brought Todorov on sooner and just went a bit more direct to try and get a 2nd ball or cause some chaos in their defence. As you say they were quite happy with the men behind the ball and preventing us from having space. Having said that, at times it was frustrating that no1 was showing for the ball when we had it with Rae for what seemed like a minute at a time! 

[???]

McStravick looked decent also, which is very encouraging. 

[Chapelhall chap]

Thought Ballantyne was our best player and given the early goal , McMaster's injury and so many experienced players out, it was a reasonable performance, even if United seemed to just drop back to protect a one goal lead at home. We did pass the ball around well in the second half but apart from the Fordyce header, we never looked like scoring.

Yes it was good to be back out of L1 and just worth the £15.00. 

I had predicted a 2-0 score but even I groaned at that last minute nonsense. Good finish but does Josh get an assist?

Hope the emergency situation patient is ok. 

 

 

[Pull My Strings]

Airdrie weren't the worst team I've seen this season but they were by far the slowest and most boring. We were promised a team which would play out from the back and attack but in truth we got a team which just passed back and forward among the centre halves and keeper before launching it long into the channels (mostly straight to Walton or out of the park). For a team which was behind for all bar the first four minutes, the lack of urgency was terrible. You could call it patient but that implies a plan of action; this was just pointless side to side passing, going nowhere. 

To their credit, they managed to draw any tempo out of the game and United rather succumbed to the general torpor in the second half, which didn't make for much of a spectacle. United, of course, were already ahead so they were only wasting their own time. Noticeable that they upped the tempo after going two down. Too little, too late. The idiotic second goal was just desserts for all the fannying about by the keeper throughout the game. Technically competent tiki taka is bad enough but this sort of shite will be the death of football. 

[Steven W]

Given they've just come up from the league below, I thought Airdrie were very decent and credit to McCabe for forming a team who play like that. It became a game of cat and mouse. Or chess even. And it very nearly worked.

I thought the way United dealt with it, although to much of the fans' frustrations, was spot on. Glass got sucked in once, and sure enough Airdrie got the break and created a chance. But by just standing off and waiting on Airdrie making their move, it became a bizarre, but justifiable, spectacle. Personally I really enjoyed it. Tactics were certainly to the forefront today.

As above, credit to Rhys McCabe. Clearly a man with a big future in the management game. 

[Pull My Strings]

1 hour ago, ??? said:

I felt that we should have brought Todorov on sooner and just went a bit more direct to try and get a 2nd ball or cause some chaos in their defence. As you say they were quite happy with the men behind the ball and preventing us from having space. Having said that, at times it was frustrating that no1 was showing for the ball when we had it with Rae for what seemed like a minute at a time! 

You could call it getting men behind the ball but the Airdrie strategy is so basic - side to side, backwards, side-to-side, hope the opposition gets frustrated and overpress then a long ball forward. It's doesn't take a tactical genius to say, "let them get on with it, they aren't going anywhere ". I can see how it might work when your team are ahead but when you're already behind it just kills the game. 

[Pull My Strings]

6 minutes ago, Steven W said:

Given they've just come up from the league below, I thought Airdrie were very decent and credit to McCabe for forming a team who play like that. It became a game of cat and mouse. Or chess even. And it very nearly worked.

I thought the way United dealt with it, although to much of the fans' frustrations, was spot on. Glass got sucked in once, and sure enough Airdrie got the break and created a chance. But by just standing off and waiting on Airdrie making their move, it became a bizarre, but justifiable, spectacle. Personally I really enjoyed it. Tactics were certainly to the forefront today.

As above, credit to Rhys McCabe. Clearly a man with a big future in the management game. 

Ach well, each to their own. 

[Steven W]

1 minute ago, Pull My Strings said:

Airdrie weren't the worst team I've seen this season but they were by far the slowest and most boring. We were promised a team which would play out from the back and attack but in truth we got a team which just passed back and forward among the centre halves and keeper before launching it long into the channels (mostly straight to Walton or out of the park). For a team which was behind for all bar the first four minutes, the lack of urgency was terrible. You could call it patient but that implies a plan of action; this was just pointless side to side passing, going nowhere. 

As I've said in my own post, I think United (and Goodwin) got it right. The idea is that you 'take the bait' and press them and then ultimately get caught on the sucker punch (it happened once when Glass got excited and got sucked in and Airdrie got a chance from it). By refusing to get drawn in, I thought we dealt with it perfectly. Granted it didn't make for much excitement, but from a tactical point of view, I thought it was fascinating. (Maybe just me!)

[Pull My Strings]

Just now, Steven W said:

As I've said in my own post, I think United (and Goodwin) got it right. The idea is that you 'take the bait' and press them and then ultimately get caught on the sucker punch (it happened once when Glass got excited and got sucked in and Airdrie got a chance from it). By refusing to get drawn in, I thought we dealt with it perfectly. Granted it didn't make for much excitement, but from a tactical point of view, I thought it was fascinating. (Maybe just me!)

I mean, they've got an unusual style of play for this level and they certainly stuck to their game plan. I think we just differ in whether we think its creditable, interesting or worthwhile. I can see Airdrie  getting lots of nil nil draws as they suck the tempo and atmosphere out of a game but they're so easy to defend against I just can't see them winning enough games to be challenging for the play offs.