The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[super_carson]

27 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

What nonsense is this?

In what way did we have a "challenge even getting a team on the pitch"? We had to restart the squad almost from scratch, is that what you mean? Morton didn't though so I've no idea what this comment even means?

I think that's what he means, and that given Ayr were able/willing to offer 2 year deals to some players that should (in theory) have made building a squad a bit more straight forward.  Ayr did at least have some players from last year staying on (Muirhead, Rosscoe, Houston, Hare-Reid, Moffat, Murdoch, Moore - before getting injured again etc.) but I don't think QoS or Morton had the same consistency (perhaps I am wrong on that).  

On paper, Ayr arguably have a better squad than a few of the teams above us.  But the game isn't played on paper and QoS are now showing exactly what some consistent results can achieve in a very tight league, something we have been woefully incapable of this season.  

[Skyline Drifter]

7 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

i think what he means is that most had you marked as relegation fodder at the beginning of the season but, to your credit, have surprised everyone and performed way way above your station.

Marking us as relegation fodder is fair enough, you're entitled to think that. I fail to see how thinking we're not very good equates to facing a challenge to get a team on the pitch though. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. I imagine everyone also thought pre-season Alloa would be relegation fodder but he's not saying they faced a challenge getting a team on the pitch!

5 minutes ago, super_carson said:

I think that's what he means, and that given Ayr were able/willing to offer 2 year deals to some players that should (in theory) have made building a squad a bit more straight forward.  Ayr did at least have some players from last year staying on (Muirhead, Rosscoe, Houston, Hare-Reid, Moffat, Murdoch, Moore - before getting injured again etc.) but I don't think QoS or Morton had the same consistency (perhaps I am wrong on that).   

Fair enough if that's what he meant but it's an odd way to phrase it if so. I'm also not sure it's particularly true of Morton even if it is of us so grouping us together is odd if that's the case. I think Morton had about as many returning players as Ayr had.

Edited February 22, 2021 by Skyline Drifter

[ryanayr1987]

7 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Marking us as relegation fodder is fair enough, you're entitled to think that. I fail to see how thinking we're not very good equates to facing a challenge to get a team on the pitch though. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. I imagine everyone also thought pre-season Alloa would be relegation fodder but he's not saying they faced a challenge getting a team on the pitch!

Fair enough if that's what he meant but it's an odd way to phrase it if so. I'm also not sure it's particularly true of Morton even if it is of us so grouping us together is odd if that's the case. I think Morton had about as many returning players as Ayr had.

But Morton had serious financial issues and had issues getting a squad together. I think this is what he was referring to. You guys had a problem getting a squad together too 

[AyrExile]

48 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

What nonsense is this?

In what way did we have a "challenge even getting a team on the pitch"? We had to restart the squad almost from scratch, is that what you mean? Morton didn't though so I've no idea what this comment even means?

Is starting a squad from scratch on a limited budget not more of a challenge than many others will experience? At one point i seem to remember you did not have many players signed at all.  On the other hand Ayr were more organised than normal and avoided much of the usual last minute rush. I'm sure you are aware of the off field problems Morton have had recently and to their credit are making a great fight of it. 

[Skyline Drifter]

16 minutes ago, ryanayr1987 said:

But Morton had serious financial issues and had issues getting a squad together. I think this is what he was referring to. You guys had a problem getting a squad together too 

What problem did we have getting a squad together? Needing to sign 15 players instead of 10 is not particularly a problem (it's not massively conducive to hitting the ground running as we've seen but it's not a problem).

Morton had more players retained from last season than Ayr did.

8 minutes ago, AyrExile said:

Is starting a squad from scratch on a limited budget not more of a challenge than many others will experience? At one point i seem to remember you did not have many players signed at all.  On the other hand Ayr were more organised than normal and avoided much of the usual last minute rush. I'm sure you are aware of the off field problems Morton have had recently and to their credit are making a great fight of it. 

We had 3 players signed through the summer, one of whom then departed for Cyprus before a ball was kicked, although one additional player from last season then re-joined. It's much the same as we had signed at the same time the year before though. Fair enough though, if you simply meant the manager had a fair bit of work to do assembling the squad. He clearly did. I read it as meaning in some way we were going to have difficulty doing so.

[callum-ayr]

Morton’s main problem was they had 1 keeper, no right back, 1 left back and about 13 attackers. Fielding a balanced  team was probably their biggest problem. As seen by having the likes of Robbie Muirhead playing left wing back etc.

[ryanayr1987]

16 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

What problem did we have getting a squad together? Needing to sign 15 players instead of 10 is not particularly a problem (it's not massively conducive to hitting the ground running as we've seen but it's not a problem).

Morton had more players retained from last season than Ayr did.

We had 3 players signed through the summer, one of whom then departed for Cyprus before a ball was kicked, although one additional player from last season then re-joined. It's much the same as we had signed at the same time the year before though. Fair enough though, if you simply meant the manager had a fair bit of work to do assembling the squad. He clearly did. I read it as meaning in some way we were going to have difficulty doing so.

Ocht away and take your face for a shite!  Signing 15 players instead of 10 is pretty difficult especially given the circumstances where you had no income 

[Trogdor]

All this chat about how bad Morton and QoS looked at the start of the season just emphasises how badly we've actually performed. Its a pretty damning indictment of us.

[Skyline Drifter]

Just now, ryanayr1987 said:

Ocht away and take your face for a shite!  Signing 15 players instead of 10 is pretty difficult especially given the circumstances where you had no income 

No income.

http://www.qosfc.com/news-5138

https://livingstonfc.co.uk/lyndon-dykes-signs-for-queens-park-rangers/

[AUFC 1910]

From the start of the season I had a feeling that the team wasn’t going to gel well together.

It was just based on how the general performance as a group came across.

Nothing has really changed and we are now almost into March, so basically here are the options.

1. Change nothing.
A huge gamble. Realistically, this will give us no change on how we are performing or how we will end up - relegation battle.

2. Change manager.
Bit extreme and a gamble, but on occasion can have the desired effect on performances and results.

3. Add some experience.
We really needed a leader in the middle of the park, which I don’t think we have at the moment. A Roy Keane type figure to whom winning is everything. Cant see this happening at this late stage.

4. Management mentor
It takes a big man (or woman) to admit they are wrong or that what they have been doing is not having the desired effect, so seeking someone to come in and give some advice is not easily done throughout a season - but again, you then have to look at 1 and 2, and the manager could end up on the scrap heap after his first managerial job.

What do you think?
I’m crossing fingers for 4, or even 3 and 4

[HMIP]

11 minutes ago, AUFC 1910 said:

From the start of the season I had a feeling that the team wasn’t going to gel well together.

It was just based on how the general performance as a group came across.

Nothing has really changed and we are now almost into March, so basically here are the options.

1. Change nothing.
A huge gamble. Realistically, this will give us no change on how we are performing or how we will end up - relegation battle.

2. Change manager.
Bit extreme and a gamble, but on occasion can have the desired effect on performances and results.

3. Add some experience.
We really needed a leader in the middle of the park, which I don’t think we have at the moment. A Roy Keane type figure to whom winning is everything. Cant see this happening at this late stage.

4. Management mentor
It takes a big man (or woman) to admit they are wrong or that what they have been doing is not having the desired effect, so seeking someone to come in and give some advice is not easily done throughout a season - but again, you then have to look at 1 and 2, and the manager could end up on the scrap heap after his first managerial job.

What do you think?
I’m crossing fingers for 4, or even 3 and 4

If we sack Kerr we’ll basically have Michael Moffat or the AU media guys picking the team for what is now the biggest game of the season on Saturday.  Option 4 is surely doable.  There must be someone out there who could help out.  Whatever happened to John Henry?

[Trogdor]

There's no risk free option available.

Option 1 may be untenable dependening on Tuesday & Saturday's result. However, Kerr can in theory still turn this around.

Option 2 is a gamble but again we may be forced into this depending on how Option 1 goes. 

Option 3 I cant see it.

Option 4 Probably the least risky option but you want someone of some calibre who's been places and done things. That is in no way an endorsement of Billy Brown btw. 

[davidkennedyshand]

I've said since the pre season friendly v Partick we seem to have a huge hole in front of our central defenders and behind our central midfielders pretty constantly.
Most teams seem to take advantage of this.

Chalmers and Murdoch seem incapable of closing this area down. If you look back at Doc,Bell or Adams this is what they did to good effect. Possibly McGavin can provide something different in there. However as mentioned we need some more grit in that position.

I'm not sure we'll punt Kerr so he could do with someone like Peter Houston in the dugout to help him as well.

Think a change of tactics is long overdue.

[rb123!]

2 hours ago, Trogdor said:

All this chat about how bad Morton and QoS looked at the start of the season just emphasises how badly we've actually performed. Its a pretty damning indictment of us.

It shows a complete failure in performances/results and getting the best out of our what should be a pretty good team.

Our squad is certainly a lot better than Morton and QOS IMO and we're lagging behind them which speaks volumes

Morton certainly in January ended up weaker by the end of the transfer window yet are still ahead of us meanwhile we made 4 top end signings and are still going backwards.

With 1 win in 9 we're in freefall

Killie up the road were shite for a good month in which they hummed about changing manager and it took them so long to sack Dyer it looks like it could cost them their position in the premiership. Smith can't get drawn into the same trap of prolonged hesitation, if i was owner i'd be using next 2 games to decide about Kerr, no wins from either and he has to go for me unfortunately.

Edited February 22, 2021 by rb123!

[AUFC 1910]

I think it is inevitable that something has to change.

Would most agree that on paper, the individuals we have are quality?

It just seems to me the tactics or mix of players just isn’t right, and just hasn’t been right from the start.

The quality of the individuals has certainly extended my hope of a turnaround, but then you look at the likes of Falkirk and Partick, who both went down - let’s not fall into that trap!

[rb123!]

Watching highlights from McCall's last two seasons compared to games now just makes you want to cry

[itzdrk]

13 minutes ago, AUFC 1910 said:

I think it is inevitable that something has to change.

Would most agree that on paper, the individuals we have are quality?

It just seems to me the tactics or mix of players just isn’t right, and just hasn’t been right from the start.

The quality of the individuals has certainly extended my hope of a turnaround, but then you look at the likes of Falkirk and Partick, who both went down - let’s not fall into that trap!

Some but not all. 

[HMIP]

36 minutes ago, AUFC 1910 said:

I think it is inevitable that something has to change.

Would most agree that on paper, the individuals we have are quality?

It just seems to me the tactics or mix of players just isn’t right, and just hasn’t been right from the start.

The quality of the individuals has certainly extended my hope of a turnaround, but then you look at the likes of Falkirk and Partick, who both went down - let’s not fall into that trap!

Some good players but a horrible lack of balance.  Too many luxury players who don’t do enough off the ball.  No pace up front.  Not enough physicality in the middle of the park.  Lack of experience, particularly in defence,  Lack of leadership generally - Baird as captain speaks volumes.

[honestly united]

I've backed Kerr in the past, but like others have said I think he has 2 games to turn things round, or we are in the mire. He's stuck by the 4-2-3-1 all season and it hasn't looked like working for most of it. He probably thought that Wright signing was the final piece of the jigsaw, but the fact he has no other plan or tactics is shocking. On paper I think everyone thought we would have a cracking team, but from the start I was worried we were top heavy in having too many attacking players who are all too similar. If Kerr wants to keep his job he should be going back to the drawing board and looking at something different. 

As others have said I would go to a basic 4-4-2 as a starting point to try and be a bit more solid. I would also gamble and go with Ndaba and McGavin in the middle as I think they would offer more energy and pace in their and Ndaba would offer more physicallity. I would get Reading back in at left back as I think he has a lot to offer. The first month or so I thought he was one of our better players, but a few mistakes and he has been dropped and not seen again. 

4 points out of these 2 games would be huge. Remember we are still sitting 4 points off of 4th and if things suddenly click we are in the promotion play off - however if there isnt an improvement we are staring at relegation.

Its a good call getting an experienced coach in to help. Even someone that could just motivate the players as they look like they need it.

[D'Jaffo]

I think it is inevitable that something has to change.

Would most agree that on paper, the individuals we have are quality?

It just seems to me the tactics or mix of players just isn’t right, and just hasn’t been right from the start.

The quality of the individuals has certainly extended my hope of a turnaround, but then you look at the likes of Falkirk and Partick, who both went down - let’s not fall into that trap!

In terms of actual quality players then we’ve got Smith, McCowan and Walsh. The rest are all fairly standard Championship players.