Jump to content

Lions v Diamonds / Sat 28th September.


Recommended Posts

Nothing much between the teams in the first half and glad we showed a lot more resolute effort. Good to see a quick response to Livingston opener. 

Although Livi stepped it up more in the second half and posed real questions at the corners, but for a save from Mochrie's snap shot it could have been Airdrie taking a lead. 

The measure of the two squads is that Livingston could bring on quality subs who created the winner. Yes we should have taken more care of the 18 yard line on many occasions but it was a fine shot by Shinnie.

On to next week's dogfight with more injuries. 

 

 

Edited by Chapelhall chap
Spelling
Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, Chapelhall chap said:

Nothing much between the teams in the first half and glad we showed a lot more resolute effort. Good to see a quick response to Livingston opener. 

Although Livi stepped it up more in the second half and posed real questions at the corners, but for a save from Mochrie's snap shot it could have been Airdrie taking a lead. 

The measure of the two squads is that Livingston could bring on quality subs who created the winner. Yes we should have taken more care of the 18 yard line on many occasions but it was a fine shot by Shinnie.

On to next week's dogfight with more injuries. 

 

 

Decent summary of the game as whole.Your correct, Livi subs made the difference. And yes Shinnies stunning strike at the end of the game made the difference. As a Livi fan,I guinely thought there was only going to be one winner here.Airdrie got their tactics spot on and probably deserved a share of the spoils.Not to be on this occasion. Put in endeavour like today,they won't be bottom for long imo.As for Livi,few tweets sorted out and dare I say it,ominous for the rest of the league. 🤷‍♂️.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Troy.1995 said:

Decent summary of the game as whole.Your correct, Livi subs made the difference. And yes Shinnies stunning strike at the end of the game made the difference. As a Livi fan,I guinely thought there was only going to be one winner here.Airdrie got their tactics spot on and probably deserved a share of the spoils.Not to be on this occasion. Put in endeavour like today,they won't be bottom for long imo.As for Livi,few tweets sorted out and dare I say it,ominous for the rest of the league. 🤷‍♂️.

Fair points sir but did you mean "tweaks" . I have little contact with the world of X. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Chapelhall chap said:

Nothing much between the teams in the first half and glad we showed a lot more resolute effort. Good to see a quick response to Livingston opener. 

Although Livi stepped it up more in the second half and posed real questions at the corners, but for a save from Mochrie's snap shot it could have been Airdrie taking a lead. 

The measure of the two squads is that Livingston could bring on quality subs who created the winner. Yes we should have taken more care of the 18 yard line on many occasions but it was a fine shot by Shinnie.

On to next week's dogfight with more injuries. 

 

 

Both of these points have been the story of our season so far, sit in, in the first half and then use that extra quality to pick teams apart in the second. Just that extra quality in bringing on guys like Shinnie and Sole told in the end. Both of them probably start for every other team in the league.
 

Picking up wins in the way we did is the way you win leagues, we're turning draws into wins which is a huge thing. I've no doubt that over the course of a season and one off 90 minutes we have more quality than Ayr and Falkirk do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, ATLIS said:

Both of these points have been the story of our season so far, sit in, in the first half and then use that extra quality to pick teams apart in the second. Just that extra quality in bringing on guys like Shinnie and Sole told in the end. Both of them probably start for every other team in the league.
 

Picking up wins in the way we did is the way you win leagues, we're turning draws into wins which is a huge thing. I've no doubt that over the course of a season and one off 90 minutes we have more quality than Ayr and Falkirk do.

It's a long season of course but if I went by our losses to Ayr and Falkirk, I think you'll all be in top four but it's a funny old game as Jimmy Greaves used to say. Think Ayr will miss their injured number 9, whose name I'm trying to forget ! As for Falkirk I suspect their defence may just be lacking. But as another poster said, many of us are crap at predicting results on a weekly basis, never mind the season. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ATLIS said:

Both of these points have been the story of our season so far, sit in, in the first half and then use that extra quality to pick teams apart in the second. Just that extra quality in bringing on guys like Shinnie and Sole told in the end. Both of them probably start for every other team in the league.
 

Picking up wins in the way we did is the way you win leagues, we're turning draws into wins which is a huge thing. I've no doubt that over the course of a season and one off 90 minutes we have more quality than Ayr and Falkirk do.

Left it a bit late today right enough, thought we were never bringing subs on. WTF we left it to the game was just about over to bring Sole on i just can't understand either, would've had him and Montano on a good half hour before, as both are players that can drive forward with the ball and we were sadly lacking that today.

Got the 3pts but it was a slog, and harsh on Airdrie, think it's our worst performance this season, may be churlish cause we won and we're on 4 wins and 2 draws, sitting on 14 pts just behind Falkirk who have been on fire, but it just isn't an enjoyable watch, and i see players sitting on the bench who are far more exciting to watch than the ones playing. Worse still, Martindale will be saying how great we are, and happy with how we're playing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

would've had him and Montano on

Did you see Montaño warming up at  any point? I never checked. It's possible he might've been injured but in the squad anyway. I think Martindale has done that before with players. If he was available, though, then its a surprise he didn't feature at all today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

it just isn't an enjoyable watch

This is exactly how I feel. Sure we are finding ways to win games and we are unbeaten but we are capable of a lot better. 

7 hours ago, Freedom Farter said:

Did you see Montaño warming up at  any point?

Montano definitely did warm up. To the extent I thought he'd been told he was going on. Sole was ready to go on I think before Shinnie & Winter but Martindale looked to change his mind and he went back to warming up. I think it's because Smith was having a good game and Martindale didn't want to take him off even though he was looking increasingly tired. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Livi La Vida Loca said:

This is exactly how I feel. Sure we are finding ways to win games and we are unbeaten but we are capable of a lot better.** 

Montano definitely did warm up. To the extent I thought he'd been told he was going on. Sole was ready to go on I think before Shinnie & Winter but Martindale looked to change his mind and he went back to warming up. I think it's because Smith was having a good game and Martindale didn't want to take him off even though he was looking increasingly tired. 

Yeah Martindale said in his post match interview that he thought we'd get a winning goal from the right hand side, and Smith would provide it. And yes, we did get the winner down the right hand side, but with with Sole's assist for Shinnie*, great cross field pass by Shinnie to Sole, and lay off by Sole for Shinnie's goal. 

*It's the kind of forward pass i'm always wanting Lawal and Green on for, so a big image.png.9fd21c3550b43c8fb3b11e94a631316e.png  from Shinnie to me there.😂

 

Cracking goal too.

We've got a strong squad though, which is a big advantage to us with the quality of the subs we can bring on, so we need to be using them and not waiting till the 88th minute to bring on the likes of Sole.

 

**Yeah also agree with you there, the strength we have in our squad will also be a big factor later in the season, but we still look like there's a lot more to come from us and we can get better. Also like how we're going under the radar with all the talk being Falkirk and Ayr, nobody noticing us only being a point behind Falkirk now, and having 2 games in hand to make up the 4pts on Ayr. Oct will be shuge with us playing both Falkirk and Ayr, we'll see where we are after that.

Edited by LIVIFOREVER
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was surprised Montano didn't come in for Clarke. I see the logic in having Clarke as your nailed down left back as that frees up Montano to fill in at centre back if Nottingham or McGowan get injured. However, while Clarke is a good left back, Montano is a great left back. Perhaps Montano isn't fully fit. 

Muirhead had to come in after his heroics against Hamilton. Dropping Smith straight back out the team after only a single start wouldn't have been fair so it made more sense that Shinnie came out. I felt we missed Shinnie in that first half. Neither Clarke nor Muirhead like to hold onto the ball, they prefer to move it on quickly which meant our left side was a bit too frenetic. Yet May solved that problem in the build up to the goal by coming across to the left wing. Good combination with Muirhead who did well to then find Pittman who'd ran into the centre forward space May had vacated and gave the simple assist for Kelly.

Martindale said in his match review he'd been caught out by Airdrie switching to the 3-4-2-1 for this match and you saw that with their goal. We were only playing with a single holder in defensive mid while they had two attacking mids there. So we were pulling a full back in to pick up the spare attacking mid Brandon wasn't taking. After Reid's knock down, Clarke had come in to pick up McGregor which meant our left back space was open. That's where McGregor played his pass for the onrushing MacDonald not properly tracked by Muirhead, cross and goal. Second half we tweaked our defensive shape to solve that weakness.

Prior's save from Mochrie was excellent. Similar to his saves against Raith, it was more or less straight at him but again, I always give full credit to the keeper for his positioning in those cases. It also still took a fast reflex to get his hand to the ball.

Nottingham was unlucky not to score from his volley. He's going to score eventually from a set piece, he keeps coming close.

I liked the composure the team showed with the winner. They stayed patient with their passing and build up. By the time Shinnie's shot came in, the pass count for that move must've been high, which was moving Airdrie around the whole time so Shinnie ended up having the space for that shot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Livi said:

You are so negative towards Shinnie and yet he got the 3pts yesterday 🤔🙃 

I've made it pretty clear that I think he's a technically gifted player and has quality however he's just not effective as a winger which is where he's been starting. He was subbed on as a winger but where did the goal come from? He dropped to centre mid, played a great pass then again remained central to score. 

Should add that Smith & Sole caused loads of problems by getting wide and beating a man which as a winger Shinnie is not capable of. If he plays centrally I'm happy for him to play. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Livi La Vida Loca said:

I've made it pretty clear that I think he's a technically gifted player and has quality however he's just not effective as a winger which is where he's been starting. He was subbed on as a winger but where did the goal come from? He dropped to centre mid, played a great pass then again remained central to score. 

Should add that Smith & Sole caused loads of problems by getting wide and beating a man which as a winger Shinnie is not capable of. If he plays centrally I'm happy for him to play. 

Sole and Smith, as you point out, can do the traditional winger role. They can dribble past players and knock over a cross. Shinnie and Muirhead both have a good cross but they're not going to dribble forwards into a crossing position themselves. They're going to look to combine with teammates through passing to get themselves into that crossing position. When either of them play, the full back's attacking runs become extra important. So if Martindale has Shinnie or Muirhead as one of the wide attackers and he wants to get the best out of them there, he has to really let the full back off the leash on that side. An inverting full back makes it easier for Muirhead or Shinnie to get a cross in from wide. An overlapping full back allows them both to come infield which is where both are at their best. With Shinnie its more about moving into the attacking mid space whereas Muirhead likes to get right up into the centre forward space.

Edited by Freedom Farter
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...