The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[ayrunitedfw]

Sinisalo is a strange one. He can pull off a remarkable  save then 10 seconds later start flapping at a ball. From what I’ve seen so far I’d say he’s a good shot stopper but not great at commanding his area. 

[diegomarahenry]

Albion Rovers game aside (even then we conceded two) we haven't played particularly well this calendar year. Losing quality players every year for the last 5 years takes its toll and the replacements we have brought in have kept the momentum going somewhat. 

This season though,

Walsh has been absent, a one year deal is a waste of time for him, he needs a two year deal and a club willing to pay for whatever is wrong with him to be fixed. 

Zanatta, I didn't really rate him before we signed him, he was impressive in the Albion Rovers game but has done little since, either the third division is his level or he is lacking confidence. 

Chalmers, has the style to be a great player but needs help, someone to win the ball and give it to him like Docherty and Kerr.

Baird, been part of a leaky defense, Can blame Roscoe or the midfield or the lack of game time at St Mirren but hasn't has anything above a 6/10 this season

Smith, has been a success so far

Anderson, See Zanatta

Miller, in and out of the team, made Adams job more difficult last week but along with the rest of his team mates had a stinker this week

Reading, I have been reasonably pleased with him, still very raw and I think he will be a big player in the second half of the season

Sinisalo, Hard to judge, 19 years old, playing behind a shambolic defense has made some fantastic saves. But also been rooted to his line or flying out and missing crosses, doesn't seem to be an in between.

Cameron, apart from scoring with his first touch, I don't remember him controlling a ball since let alone doing anything meaningful.  

The last few years we have got off to a flyer, dipped about Christmas and limped home, including the year we won the league, This season with a shorter campaign, a great start would have been beneficial. the concern is that without a good start we might not have a good middle or end. 

So far we have got 4 points from 2 bogey teams, shat the bed against Morton, been flat against Dunfermline but got a draw and competent against a dreadful Dundee team and won, we also got a round further in the Betfred than last season. It hasn't been as impressive as previous years but it isn't dreadful. 

The concern is, that with the size of the squad and the current difficulties, there aren't many changes we can make in personnel and the momentum built up over the last 5 years could be lost. 

 

 

[eez-eh]

3 hours ago, WATTOO said:

Much of what you say is correct, however we need a hint of realism here, we're not Bayern Munich we're a mid table 2nd tier Scottish club with no money and little support (none at all at the moment), so 4th in the league is honestly a pretty decent position plus we've only lost one league game and are unbeaten at home, not to mention we topped our league cup group.

Hardly anyone in this league has money. Kerr was fairly well backed in the summer given the circumstances we find ourselves in and we had a more ambitious transfer window than most teams in this league.

As for “only lost one league game” and “topped our league cup group” - we’ve also only won one more than we’ve lost and we had the lowest points total of any side to qualify from the group stages (including the second placed sides) despite being in a group with Hamilton and 3 League 2 sides. Add to that performances have largely ranged from uninspiring to just pure shite, apart from 80 minutes against Morton where we still ended up shitting the bed anyway.

It isn’t “time to go” but it isn’t looking good by any stretch either. I’m saying this as someone who stood up for Kerr a lot last season.

[BukyOHare]

Didn't expect it all to be rosy on here this morning but some calling for the manager to go? Have a strong word with yourselves, if its the sensationalist, mouth frothing you want off you pop to the Facebook page.

Yesterday was horrendous, there is no getting away from that.

However, lets get a bit of perspective into things, despite their current form, Livingston are an established SPL team who play a brand of football, at home especially, that can easily turn teams over if you don't stand up and win your physical battles all over the pitch. We didnt do that from the first whistle and paid a hefty penalty for it.

By my calculations, the average age of our back 4 and goalkeeper is just over 21. Like it or not, with that will come elements of naivety, mental weakness perhaps and general inconsistency and I think its these things which contributed to yesterday's performance more than anything else. Its these things I would be focusing and working on if I was part of the management team.

General team selection has been strange over the last few games as well. Anderson being on the bench for one.

I thought he'd be regularly starting every game of every week, scoring goals and bring others into play and generally get us up the pitch but for whatever reason it hasn't yet happened. Not having Walsh is a major factor as well. But that's what team sports are all about, overcoming adversity and setback, getting the best out of the squad you have and not over reacting over a few positive results.

The truth, as with most things in life, has to be somewhere in the middle.

Lets get our league campaign back on track, with both players and management learning from yesterday and generally moving forward. Sacking the manager should be one of the furthest things from our minds right now.

Edited November 29, 2020 by BukyOHare

[ayrunitedfw]

14 hours ago, rb123! said:

I'm not really buying this "one off" or "we've only lost 2 games ffs" pish.

We've been shite all season so far IMO, only masked by the fact the quality in the championship is garbage and seemingly getting worse.

And the biggest point is we are not learning from our mistakes and stopping them happening again, THAT IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM and that lies at Mark Kerr.

First game of the season we should never have beat QOS, would have been lucky to say we deserved a draw, they were comical at defending set pieces and we had worldie saves from Sinisalo to win it for us. 

We then had what was a solid point away to Inverness however should really been a win if it wasn't for park the bus tactics inviting pressure on ourselves. 

Then there was the complete arse collapse at Morton which was unacceptable, a horrendous draw against Dunfermline which if they'd been at the races they'd of beaten us easily.

A woeful scrape by Stranraer followed where like today we should have been 2-0 down in the first 10 minutes but somehow salvaged it and then last weeks win which actually looking back on it, Dundee missed a sitter and we reverted to negative tactics the minute we went 2-0 up which meant they could have sneaked a draw.

Then today, the worse of them all. 

Main themes from that are 1. Inconsistency & 2. Two games where we never get going and get punished and two games where we chuck it away at the end.

This team is all over the place with results and performances which shows no sign of improving even though Kerr said after Dundee we had to go on a run, we've done the complete opposite.

This lies at the managers door and he's lost his 1st strike today, no win next week and his 2nd will be gone leaving him with 1 left before he should be punted IMO. We're only 4 points ahead of 8th and couple of loses could leave you at the wrong end. A shortened season leaves Cameron and Co with even less time to play with, if sacking isn't the option he needs an experienced head alongside him and McCardle (Peter Houston for example)

We've a brilliant squad (defence questionable) but clearly not being utilised well enough, never had performances like that today under McCall, Kerr needs to start being more basic and stop treating it like football manager with the other thinking tactics IMO.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH 

RANT OVER

PS Very pissed off Ayr United supporter

 

This is a great post and sums up my feelings better than I could ever post. I still maintain that Kerr should never have been appointed and was the cheap/easy option and the jury is still very much out on him and is probably edging closer to the GTF than the Kerr in at the moment.  We’ve looked a shambles defensively in most of our games so far and this has been particularly highlighted in our games against Morton (which like @WATTOO says has probably been our best performance so far) and yesterday against Livingston. We really should of signed another centre half when Bell decided to move on. 

Ive deleted my comment from last night as it was maybe slightly harsh on Kerr however his post match interview was very disappointing and he did seem to be passing off yesterday performance as a one off which clearly wasn’t the case. We have been ranged from poor to meh in the majority of games this season.

ETA: I fear where we’d be without Cammy Smith. A very dece player. Hope his ‘knock’ doesn’t keep him out too long.  

Edited November 29, 2020 by ayrunitedfw

[THEHonestman1910]

I don't think it was the fact that we appointed Kerr, it was the fact that we never appointed an assistant manager or any coaching staff with any know-how. Sandy Stewart leaves and we appoint...Michael McArdle, who seems more interested on delivering stats and data on his laptop. 

I'll say what I said yesterday, Kerr needs to a strong 3 games to keep his job for me.  

[Trogdor]

24 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

By my calculations, the average age of our back 4 and goalkeeper is just over 21. Like it or not, with that will come elements of naivety, mental weakness perhaps and general inconsistency and I think its these things which contributed to yesterday's performance more than anything else. Its these things I would be focusing and working on if I was part of the management team.

This is certainly a factor. I never rated Bell as highly as others but we definitely need an auld heid in there. Can we get Jamie Adams out of retirement?

On yesterday -

I still think that's one of the most ineffective performances I've ever seen from an Ayr team. Its by no means the worst result Talbot, Killie semi final, St Mirren away etc. were all worse results because they meant something.  Whilst the league cup is not a priority, the league is, so ultimately the result isn't the end of the world. However, the players confidence will be impacted. Kerr has a job to get them turned around and up for it for Alloa. If we concede first I worry the heads might go down. Alloa will also be bouyed by their win over Hearts so it'll be tougher than we maybe expected given their league position.

A modicum of perspective - What an up and down season this has been thus far and we're still fourth having really not going at all. 

[Finlay21]

We are playing poorly and yet in the league ( apart from 5 minutes at Morton) we have got some decent results , get a settled team and we could push on , very rarely have we had the same team twice ( outwith Kerr’s control ) we need to weather the storm and come out the other side ( rather quickly) would you rather in these tough times we play real attractive football and lose every week ? In a short season it’s all about points in the bag no matter how poor we believe everyone else is 

Edited November 29, 2020 by Robbo63

[North British]

The defence is clearly priority number one and will need some attention at Christmas . We need and experienced centre half/leader . Someone on Twitter had a good shout of a Malky Shotton . Not such a bad idea . When Malky came to Ayr he was clearly slowing down but masked this with his huge experience .

So , and don’t all start screaming at once, could Charlie Mulgrew be a decent if very ambitious shout . Charlie is pushing 35 and way way out the picture at Blackburn ,currently playing for Fleetwood in L1 . I don’t know how long his contract has to run at Blackburn or if he plans to retire and live in England but if he wants to live nearer the grand parents and get started in a coaching career .Where better to start than with his old pal Mark Kerr who he played with at Aberdeen I think .? It would require some creative financial thinking but surely if St Johnstone appealed to Craig Conway them why not .......

[No_Problemo]

34 minutes ago, THEHonestman1910 said:

I don't think it was the fact that we appointed Kerr, it was the fact that we never appointed an assistant manager or any coaching staff with any know-how. Sandy Stewart leaves and we appoint...Michael McArdle, who seems more interested on delivering stats and data on his laptop. 

I'll say what I said yesterday, Kerr needs to a strong 3 games to keep his job for me.  

How can you possibly know what McArdle offers? 

Just because someone utilises stats and sports science doesn’t mean they offer nothing else. 

It is the usual lazy nonsense terracing chat as soon as someone utilises up to date methods. 

[grazza]

24 minutes ago, North British said:

.

So , and don’t all start screaming at once, could Charlie Mulgrew be a decent if very ambitious shout . 

Michelle Mone would report us for leaving the academy players out in the cold

[THEHonestman1910]

33 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

How can you possibly know what McArdle offers? 

Just because someone utilises stats and sports science doesn’t mean they offer nothing else. 

It is the usual lazy nonsense terracing chat as soon as someone utilises up to date methods. 

There doesn't seem much evidence that what McArdle is offering when it's rarely translating on the pitch. 

Obviously, I've got no doubt that he is trying different techniques, but whatever comes out of his mouth seems to be about data analysis and these worldwide contacts. 

[D'Jaffo]

Tbf it’s been a good couple years since we’ve had a sack the manager debate so it’s been well overdue.

In this instance I think it’s unnecessary and reactionary to seriously suggest he should be sacked or he’s close to being sacked. I don’t think he needs an experienced head in the dugout, I don’t think it’s correct to start questioning what McArdle offers (for the millionth time since he was appointed), I don’t think he’s anywhere close to losing the dressing room and I really really think it’s a better idea to give Kerr a chance to learn from his mistakes rather than get rid of him. He’s been in the job just over a year which is nothing in football especially when you consider months of that was spent in lockdown. He’s still getting to grips with it. I think at the moment there’s a fear of losing which in the past has made him more cautious and apart from a good wee run last season has probably done more harm than good.

The defence is very obviously the weak point right now and whilst the midfield is pretty decent going forward we’re sorely lacking someone to do the dirty work and tidy up loose balls. Miller may have been brought in to do this job but I haven’t seen it from him yet. He looks far more effective being told to stick to a player and not give them a minutes peace. I think this could be solved for the time being by introducing Muirhead into midfield. He can give protection to Baird and Roscoe behind him and allow Chalmers and Murdoch to be a bit more forward thinking.

[itzdrk]

Back to what largely worked for us last season, Muirhead and Roscoe.  Priority is sign Smith, a right full back and someone who resembles a football player to replace Cameron in January.  

Do that and we will be fine. 

[ayrunitedfw]

27 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

Back to what largely worked for us last season, Muirhead and Roscoe.  Priority is sign Smith, a right full back and someone who resembles a football player to replace Cameron in January.  

Do that and we will be fine. 

For me it should be Muirhead and Baird until January and we can evaluate the state of play then. 
 

We giving up on Cameron and Anderson already? I thought Cameron changed the game in our favour when he came on against ICT. He was really poor yesterday as were the whole team. Anderson is a weird one, dunfermline fans raved about him and he started off on fire albeit against poor opposition however since then he’s cut a frustrated figure up front. 

[Jazzar]

I wasn't expecting anything, result-wise, from yesterday's game. It was on that plastic shite for starters and losing Smith before the game even started was a clear signal that we'd struggle....and boy did we. But the bigger worry for me was the non-performance of so many of that team - it just seemed like there was a total lack of fight for 90 minutes fgs. Hate saying this but that performance was never something I'd expect to see from a full-time professional outfit - we  looked like we'd been out at the pub the night before at times. Maybe we're needing a different captain or a 'bawler' like McCall or Scally at the side of the pitch to give a few of them a shake. Ye, I'm still hurting. 

[North British]

While there is no doubt we took a proper tanking yesterday , we are a million miles from sacking Kerr and his staff . LC is loyal and will give him a proper shot at it . Anyway we are sitting fourth in the League and made the last 16 of the League Cup , the latter generating a health sum in prize money .

However a classy and experienced centre half is a must at Christmas as is a second crack at Drinan if Cameron isn’t going to cut it . I’d also be looking at getting a couple out on loan or just out to free up money for the CH . Yes of course Smith must stay too . My big worry is Anderson, this guy was getting game time for Aberdeen from the bench this season. He seems right out the picture with us . Something not quite right there ....

[LIVIFOREVER]

21 hours ago, Lochwood said:

Not a single shot at goal today and 1corner which is absolutely shocking, most definitely men against boys right through the team and against a livi team who have been struggling and lost there manager. 

Yep, and the way Holt had us set up was why we were struggling, main problem was playing a big cumbersome striker in JET with no pace or energy to press defenders, before we signed him we had Tiffoney or Poplatnik giving us much more energy and mobility up front, and did to Dundee Utd what we just did to you, limiting them to zero shots on goal in open play and playing a pressing game. Also not playing Mullin and Forrest at the same time was another fault with Holt, we esp needed Mullin for his crosses into the box from set pieces. Fitzwater was also left out in the cold and obv had a point to prove yesterday.

Unfortunate for Ayr that Holt decided to leqve, if he'd stayed i'd have expected our 2nd half performance to have been how we'd have played the whole game. But Martindale changed a few things and we were right in your faces from the off, and a completely different team from the last few games under Holt.

[Richey Edwards]

Football fans are fickle as f**k. Win the next couple of games and yesterday will be forgotten about.

Anyone calling for Kerr's head is an idiot.

[itzdrk]

2 hours ago, ayrunitedfw said:

For me it should be Muirhead and Baird until January and we can evaluate the state of play then. 
 

We giving up on Cameron and Anderson already? I thought Cameron changed the game in our favour when he came on against ICT. He was really poor yesterday as were the whole team. Anderson is a weird one, dunfermline fans raved about him and he started off on fire albeit against poor opposition however since then he’s cut a frustrated figure up front. 

Aye we see the problem centre half differently and that's fine, ideally it would be Muirhead and another new centre half but we aren't signing anyone until January.  

Not giving up on Anderson but Cameron other than one touch and finish has no looked like a football player, his second touch is a foul.