The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond

[Jack Reed]

25 minutes ago, Passionate said:

Looking at stats,  during our good run we scored first, defended the lead and used our pace on the break or counter attack, that is the team and formation that works for Murray,  it starts to go pete tong when you lose an early goal, which has happened in every game since our good run,  EF, clyde, Hearts, Raith twice,  we struggle to break teams down when they sit back and hit us  on the break, ,  we are losing bad goals from crosses into the box from wide midfield areas,  nothing that cannot be fixed if we can get the initiative early in games we should begin to get a bit of form.

Ryan should help ,once we get past Tuesday the jars half full again

[Eric the half a b]

1 hour ago, Jack Reed said:

Ryan should help ,once we get past Tuesday the jars half full again

Lol I am ever the optimist I bet Airdrie to win the league or get up through playoffs then again did so last season also.  It just seems the team has lost the spark of late we put ourselves under pressure due to long ball coming straight back at us 3 times on Saturday before they scored. I still think .. and hopefully starting on Saturday... with a win or two we can get the confidence  back but the management team need to settle things down at times and just my opinion I feel we worry to much about the opposition rather than play to our strengths. AR will come good.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Eric the half a b

[Spanish Armada]

Lol I am ever the optimist I bet Airdrie to win the league or get up through playoffs then again did so last season also.  It just seems the team has lost the spark of late we put ourselves under pressure due to long ball coming straight back at us 3 times on Saturday before they scored. I still think .. and hopefully starting on Saturday... with a win or two we can get the confidence  back but the management team need to settle things down at times and just my opinion I feel we worry to much about the opposition rather than play to our strengths. AR will come good. [emoji815]️

By the looks of it AR is playing like BP back in the day fighting for every ball and if he misses a chance he’s down on his knees devastated but he never seems to give up or be low on confidence but once he gets one he’ll get 2-3+ same with Smith Carrick Call Gall

[Jack Reed]

11 hours ago, Spanish Armada said:

By the looks of it AR is playing like BP back in the day fighting for every ball and if he misses a chance he’s down on his knees devastated but he never seems to give up or be low on confidence but once he gets one he’ll get 2-3+ same with Smith Carrick Call Gall

Just don’t see smith scoring many goals ,we seem to have a few players that can work all day but no finish product ,

[Mybitchunderprotest]

Shite first half. Shite second half. So absolutely no need to pick out out Wedderburn as the one failure in that team today. Blinkered stuff.

I'll agree that the entire 90 were shit, and while my post may have "singled" Nat out it was only in response to the poster who thought Matt had "stepped up" with a "good committed" performance.

[Mybitchunderprotest]

What people need to remember is that our players are playing in league one for a reason. The people slating Nat obviously weren’t watching the same game, he changed the game when he came on, much superior player to McKay, hopefully he gets a another chance to prove himself in place of Paul.

He changed the game right enough. Miscontrolled everything that came his way and ensured there was absolutely no impetus to move forward.

[Jack Reed]

14 minutes ago, Mybitchunderprotest said:

On 01/02/2020 at 21:27, airdrie_3 said:

What people need to remember is that our players are playing in league one for a reason. The people slating Nat obviously weren’t watching the same game, he changed the game when he came on, much superior player to McKay, hopefully he gets a another chance to prove himself in place of Paul.

He changed the game right enough. Miscontrolled everything that came his way and ensured there was absolutely no impetus to move forward.

Changed the game ,here’s me thinking we got beat ,

[Ballboy]

I've said myself big nat isnt the sort of midfielder who will thrive in this league.  He lost his place in the team when he got injured away to forfar.  He had made a few mistakes and generally looked slow at everything he did.  However in the last few weeks mckay has bought nothing to the team.  The long throw has only made a scoring chance 2 or 3 times in 9 games.   Half hearted challenging for headers and has shat out a more than a few 50/50 tackles.  I personally think McKay should be sitting on the bench for a few weeks.  I'd give the new boy Murray a go.  He cant be slower than nat or more useless than mckay.   Still need Robert's though with Millar behind.   Play a bit more attacking through the middle than balls over the top.  

[Jack Reed]

1 minute ago, Ballboy said:

I've said myself big nat isnt the sort of midfielder who will thrive in this league.  He lost his place in the team when he got injured away to forfar.  He had made a few mistakes and generally looked slow at everything he did.  However in the last few weeks mckay has bought nothing to the team.  The long throw has only made a scoring chance 2 or 3 times in 9 games.   Half hearted challenging for headers and has shat out a more than a few 50/50 tackles.  I personally think McKay should be sitting on the bench for a few weeks.  I'd give the new boy Murray a go.  He cant be slower than nat or more useless than mckay.   Still need Robert's though with Millar behind.   Play a bit more attacking through the middle than balls over the top.  

Would think Murray will start  on sat ,would think Hibs will want him to be given game time ,Ryan and Gal to start maybe at the expense of Carrick ,@McKay 

[Chapelhall chap]

26 minutes ago, Jack Reed said:

Would think Murray will start  on sat ,would think Hibs will want him to be given game time ,Ryan and Gal to start maybe at the expense of Carrick ,@McKay 

Not good at predicting scores as I am, I think it will be Smith and McKay that drop out. Whether we then play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 where does Gal play?  Always fun to get Murray's team lines on way to game.

[Eric the half a b]

10 minutes ago, Chapelhall chap said:

Not good at predicting scores as I am, I think it will be Smith and McKay that drop out. Whether we then play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 where does Gal play?  Always fun to get Murray's team lines on way to game.

Be very surprised if he starts Robert's or Gal seems they are first to drop out.  Easier to predict the lotto numbers.  Maybe he will try the 6 4 or possibly a 3 21211 lol.  

Has mr Murray  played a 4 4 2 this season. 

[Eric the half a b]

2 minutes ago, Eric the half a b said:

Be very surprised if he starts Robert's or Gal seems they are first to drop out.  Easier to predict the lotto numbers.  Maybe he will try the 6 4 or possibly a 3 21211 lol.  

Has mr Murray  played a 4 4 2 this season. 

Another point that strikes me... being Airdrie why doesn't he play the diamond midfield system

[Ballboy]

56 minutes ago, Chapelhall chap said:

Not good at predicting scores as I am, I think it will be Smith and McKay that drop out. Whether we then play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 where does Gal play?  Always fun to get Murray's team lines on way to game.

I think it depends if roberts has fallen out of favour.   I think the only change I'd make from the starting line up on Saturday would be mckay out Murray in.  If Roberts doesn't start then maybe try the ryan in behind gal again.  We need to start scoring goals again so playing with a back 4 and 2 deep midfielders isnt creating chances.  

[Chapelhall chap]

2 hours ago, Eric the half a b said:

Be very surprised if he starts Robert's or Gal seems they are first to drop out.  Easier to predict the lotto numbers.  Maybe he will try the 6 4 or possibly a 3 21211 lol.  

Has mr Murray  played a 4 4 2 this season. 

He always tinkers around during games and our successful spell was that 4-3-3 or 4-2-1-3 but I think he did start the Clyde game as a 4-4-2  in that terrible first half hour? It the reverted to the other ones at different times. I can't see him doing a strict 4-4-2 but I suspect Ryan might play just behind Gallagher. If Roberts is out of favour then it raises a lot of questions. One of my friends suggested  a back four of McDonald/Crighton/Fordyce/Eckersley with McCann wide left/ Carrick wide right/ and any 2 midfielders, with Ryan and Gallagher up front. I have not a scoobie!

[TxRover]

6 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

Changed the game ,here’s me thinking we got beat ,

Not defending Nat, but you played to a 0-0 draw in the second half. I’d love to understand what happened in the second quarter that made Airdrie such a juggernaut and has once again disappeared.

[Jack Reed]

7 hours ago, TxRover said:

Not defending Nat, but you played to a 0-0 draw in the second half. I’d love to understand what happened in the second quarter that made Airdrie such a juggernaut and has once again disappeared.

We did pick up points but even when we were winning you could not say we were playing well .

[Moon]

I think that's going a wee bit too far, I certainly started to at least believe that we would win games and some of our play was good. When the long balls were used they seemed to be effective, and the long throw hadn't been figured out at that stage.

 

In comparison, going back to the Montrose home defeat, we scored after 2 mins or so and I still didn't think we would actually win the game.

 

So for me there was a change.

Edited February 5, 2020 by Moon

[Jack Reed]

17 hours ago, Ballboy said:

I think it depends if roberts has fallen out of favour.   I think the only change I'd make from the starting line up on Saturday would be mckay out Murray in.  If Roberts doesn't start then maybe try the ryan in behind gal again.  We need to start scoring goals again so playing with a back 4 and 2 deep midfielders isnt creating chances.  

Would that be a 4-4-1-1,think we need to keep Ryan and gal upfront but not wide ,need wide men for service ,

[Ballboy]

18 minutes ago, Jack Reed said:

Would that be a 4-4-1-1,think we need to keep Ryan and gal upfront but not wide ,need wide men for service ,

I'd go with back 4 McDonald, crighton, fordice, McCann.    Midfield Millar with Murray and Roberts more advanced.  Then Carrick, ryan and Smith.    Just because it didn't work last time gallacher played in the wider role.   I think the work rate Smith puts in keeps him in.  Gal hasn't done much wrong but maybe the manager is as frustrated as the rest of us at all the offside. 

[TheBuckfastTriangle]

Offside or not, he's got 11 league goals and 4 assists. After accounting for the 4 penalties that's over half our league goals he's scored or set up. He's also the only forward to have scored in any of our 5 games in 2020.

I'm struggling with the clamour on here for Murray to start too. The midfield balance isn't great but without having seen a single minute of him (is he a 10 or a winger?) he's walking into the team.

McKay also gets a lot of stick. I've defended him on here before and, given I'm not exactly overwhelmed by him myself, I'm reluctant to do it again - but he's the defensive midfielder in a team that generally doesn't lose many goals. 

 

Big decisions for Murray at the weekend though, we're drifting a bit and Dumbarton are the only team with fewer points than us over the last 3 games.

 

ETA: Falkirk and East Fife/Montrose not playing in the league this weekend we could either be 2 points off second or needing snookers to stay in the playoffs - feels like a pivotal game for our season. 

Edited February 5, 2020 by TheBuckfastTriangle