The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond

[Passionate]

2 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

Out of the signing's at the start of the season Sabatini  seemed to be the best, for the first few games anyway, do you think being dropped to bench  contributed to a loss of form, maybe a player worth sticking with, just a thought , 

Would think it is a stick on that Sabatini, Robert, Mbayo and Stokes will a 'll be gone at the end of the season, I think it is pl a in to see that our left fi e ld recruitment has failed miserably,  that is down to our now departed DOF......   

[airdrieman]

3 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

Out of the signing's at the start of the season Sabatini  seemed to be the best, for the first few games anyway, do you think being dropped to bench  contributed to a loss of form, maybe a player worth sticking with, just a thought , 

I certainly think so, on both counts. As you say he really looked the part in the first few games. Nice touch, 'busy', recycled the ball well, good in the tackle and won those crucial second balls. He maybe dipped a little bit but I still think he was contributing enough and never played particularly badly. But for whatever reason he was dropped and has struggled to get back in the team or make an impression since. I still think he's our best centre mid so why Murray prefers to play centre-half Josh Kerr in there I'll never know or understand. I don't think it's helped any of Sabatini, Kerr, McKay and Ritchie that they're all fairly similar players and want to play in similar areas of the park. So when THREE of them play together the midfield feels very unbalanced and homogeneous. Because it usually is. What also contributes to that is that none of them seem to have a particular or defined role in the team. Who's playing #6, who's going box-to-box etc? Which usually results in our midfield being ineffective as none of them seem to have a clue what they're actually meant to be doing or where in the pitch they're meant to be. Which is why they then appear to be in more-or-less the same positions and trying to perform similar roles. 

[Jack Reed]

9 hours ago, airdrieman said:

I certainly think so, on both counts. As you say he really looked the part in the first few games. Nice touch, 'busy', recycled the ball well, good in the tackle and won those crucial second balls. He maybe dipped a little bit but I still think he was contributing enough and never played particularly badly. But for whatever reason he was dropped and has struggled to get back in the team or make an impression since. I still think he's our best centre mid so why Murray prefers to play centre-half Josh Kerr in there I'll never know or understand. I don't think it's helped any of Sabatini, Kerr, McKay and Ritchie that they're all fairly similar players and want to play in similar areas of the park. So when THREE of them play together the midfield feels very unbalanced and homogeneous. Because it usually is. What also contributes to that is that none of them seem to have a particular or defined role in the team. Who's playing #6, who's going box-to-box etc? Which usually results in our midfield being ineffective as none of them seem to have a clue what they're actually meant to be doing or where in the pitch they're meant to be. Which is why they then appear to be in more-or-less the same positions and trying to perform similar roles. 

Aye, Curtis Roberts would have been more suited, certainly need some box to box players, naw  no Jimmy Shand, some one like Evan  Balfour comes to mind, 

[Old Diamond]

The stadium debacle was just downright bad planning.  The comparison is made with St Johnstone, who got it exactly right, new stadium was planned and built while the old one was still in use, they seamlessly flitted from one to the other in the close season.  Airdrie on the other hand totally failed to ensure that planning permission was in place and the project was "shovel ready" before committing to move out of Broomfield hence the wilderness years at Broadwood.

Sometimes I wonder if the "old" Airdrie would be given the change of league structure and the emergence of Hamilton, Livingstone and the Highland Old Firm of Caley and Ross County.  We usually sat somewhere between 4th and 10th in the old 14 team league, now given that those four clubs have established themselves in the Championship and Premier League that is four places that have knocked not just us down a peg or two, but have also resulted in the more regular Premier league dwellers down to the Championship, given that there are four places fewer in the Championship (OK two additional in the Premier) there is a much greater chance that we would have faced relegation

[airdrieman]

On 22/02/2021 at 09:24, Jack Reed said:

Aye, Curtis Roberts would have been more suited, certainly need some box to box players, naw  no Jimmy Shand, some one like Evan  Balfour comes to mind, 

I actually think Paul McKay is probably our best option as a box-to-box midfielder. But he’s rarely given that role and is often our most advanced midfielder! Which isn’t his game at all. 

Edited February 23, 2021 by airdrieman

[Jack Reed]

9 hours ago, airdrieman said:

I actually think Paul McKay is probably our best option as a box-to-box midfielder. But he’s rarely given that role and is often are most advanced midfielder! Which isn’t his game at all. 

Aye probably is, and that is why we  are a poor team, 

[Diamond10]

4 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

Aye probably is, and that is why we  are a poor team, 

Paul McKay is becoming a bit of a scapegoat here. Admittedly, no world beater but he’s far from the worse we’ve seen in recent times. If Kurtis roberts and Kieran millar were any better they wouldn’t be jobbing around league 2 in all fairness. As Airdrieman suggested I think the problem more lies in Murray playing 3 defensively minded players in midfield off the top of my head games we’ve done well in, Forfar away for example we dropped one to play an extra attacker which worked that day. To score more goals and create more chances that’s what we need. A centre mid pairing of Kerr and McKay along with a more attacking midfielder might work. Overall, We’ve got a pretty average team in my opinion hence some weeks we do well then the next struggle. Remarkably, if we won our game in hand on the top 3 we’d be second after our pretty gloomy start - which says all you need to know about the league.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Diamond10

[airdrieman]

Sad news. 

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12226587/gordon-mcqueen-former-manchester-united-leeds-united-and-scotland-defender-diagnosed-with-dementia

[Mybitchunderprotest]

For future reference the ad blockers don't stop your visit registering as site traffic and that's how they encourage advertiser's to pay them. You blocking the ads makes f**k all difference and the only way to reduce traffic is to not visit.

They're all scummy rags, adblockers have been around for a while.

[Jack Reed]

5 hours ago, Diamond10 said:

Paul McKay is becoming a bit of a scapegoat here. Admittedly, no world beater but he’s far from the worse we’ve seen in recent times. If Kurtis roberts and Kieran millar were any better they wouldn’t be jobbing around league 2 in all fairness. As Airdrieman suggested I think the problem more lies in Murray playing 3 defensively minded players in midfield off the top of my head games we’ve done well in, Forfar away for example we dropped one to play an extra attacker which worked that day. To score more goals and create more chances that’s what we need. A centre mid pairing of Kerr and McKay along with a more attacking midfielder might work. Overall, We’ve got a pretty average team in my opinion hence some weeks we do well then the next struggle. Remarkably, if we won our game in hand on the top 3 we’d be second after our pretty gloomy start - which says all you need to know about the league.

If Clyde win their games in hand they would be 3rd, funny league, if if if  

[Chapelhall chap]

4 hours ago, airdrieman said:

Sad news. 

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12226587/gordon-mcqueen-former-manchester-united-leeds-united-and-scotland-defender-diagnosed-with-dementia

I saw this earlier today and it shows the concern about heading and footballers. Despite the great/magnificent goal he scored against England, it makes you wonder about repeated heading/training etc. The one season he was with us was  exciting. Best wishes to him and his family.

[Chapelhall chap]

5 minutes ago, Jack Reed said:

If Clyde win their games in hand they would be 3rd, funny league, if if if  

As you say it is all "ifs" but to be pedantic, if East Fife won both their games the they would be third and Clyde fourth-- mind you can you see Clyde winning their catch up games? ( Or indeed any of us playing games). Cheers

[Chapelhall chap]

15 minutes ago, Chapelhall chap said:

As you say it is all "ifs" but to be pedantic, if East Fife won both their games the they would be third and Clyde fourth-- mind you can you see Clyde winning their catch up games? ( Or indeed any of us playing games). Cheers

Just realised of course that if one of the catch up games is EF against Clyde, and Clyde win, then Jack could be correct.  All great  fun! 

[Rio 2]

On 20/02/2021 at 21:28, Chapelhall chap said:

Geoff Brown was a much better owner than all the ones we have had but to be fair to the initial Ballantyne period, there would have been no club to follow.  Perth might have been more prepared to support their team. All explored in some of recent OTL fanzines but I still think some good managers would have done better. Hindsight is wonderful but as you say it's money that talks.

Well done in not mentioning the cant we had, who took us to the brink, then bailed out to Stenny, so that he could keep his blazer ambitions alive......

[Chapelhall chap]

22 hours ago, Rio 2 said:

Well done in not mentioning the cant we had, who took us to the brink, then bailed out to Stenny, so that he could keep his blazer ambitions alive......

I never want to sully a post with that guy, and I agree with your analysis..

Edited February 24, 2021 by Chapelhall chap

[Caro-Kann]

On 24/02/2021 at 19:38, Chapelhall chap said:

I never want to sully a post with that guy, and I agree with your analysis..

Sorry, but I'd happily watch peat burn as a fuel source.

[Chapelhall chap]

8 hours ago, Caro-Kann said:

Sorry, but I'd happily watch peat burn as a fuel source.

Made me smile.

[D'Jaffo]

Evening guys

Just wanted to ask your take on Ian Murray? Seems like he’s in the running for the Ayr gig.

One of your posters was on the Ayr thread talking about him and it seems he’s not exactly set the heather alight with you. Just wanted to see what the wider opinion on him was.

[G_H]

48 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Evening guys

Just wanted to ask your take on Ian Murray? Seems like he’s in the running for the Ayr gig.

One of your posters was on the Ayr thread talking about him and it seems he’s not exactly set the heather alight with you. Just wanted to see what the wider opinion on him was.

You can have him

[Mr November]

1 hour ago, D'Jaffo said:

Evening guys

Just wanted to ask your take on Ian Murray? Seems like he’s in the running for the Ayr gig.

One of your posters was on the Ayr thread talking about him and it seems he’s not exactly set the heather alight with you. Just wanted to see what the wider opinion on him was.

I think most Airdrie fans would happily see him leave at this point, though I'm still a bit unsure whether that would be a good thing or not. 

I was really excited when we appointed Ian Murray. He obviously had a very poor spell at St. Mirren but the job he did at Dumbarton was outstanding and I hoped he could have a similar impact at Airdrie. When he joined us we were sitting 6th after the first round of fixtures, albeit only two points off bottom and 11 points off top. We were a bit of a mess at the time, Stevie Findlay had signed a new team of average League One jobbers on seemingly decent contracts but they never really clicked. When Murray came in we had lost four of our last five games and were generally a bit of a mess. The football under Murray that season was pretty awful, there were a few games where we were fantastic but on the whole it was pretty stodgy, solid at the back but nothing going forward. After a mixed start he consistently stuck to a 5-4-1 formation that season given how poor we were defensively, the aim generally seemed to be keep things tight and sneak a goal rather than going out to attack teams. We almost snuck into the play-offs but ultimately we just weren't good enough and lost far too many games at home, generally without scoring. 

He had a pretty poor start to the 2019/2020 season. Whereas previously he'd staunchly stuck to the same system he flipped between a back five and back four for the first quarter and the team were a bit all over the place as a result. Eventually things clicked in a game up at Forfar where Nat Wedderburn had to come off injured, Kurtis Roberts came on and suddenly we looked a much better team. I'm not sure whether Murray had actually planned this when he made the change or it was just a fluke but either way, we finally looked like a good team. Including that Forfar game, we went on to win six games in a row, playing some great football throughout and even going top of the league at one point. The rest of the season was pretty much a mixed bag, some good performances, some not so good but we were on course to finish in the play-offs with a reasonable chance of going up given our record against Falkirk that season. 

Unfortunately, there hasn't really been any progress this season. It's very much been a case of continuing where last season left off, a mix of great performances but also some very poor ones. Overall, I think Murray's done a decent job at Airdrie, albeit not as good as I had hoped. The club had been a mess for a good few years before he came in. We've had seasons of having a very young (and not very good) full-time squad, a team of youth players and then experienced League One jobbers but Murray has turned us into a solid play-off level team, which is more than can be said for most of our recent managers. However, he's also been well backed by the board with a move to a hybrid setup, the biggest squad in the league two seasons in a row (albeit a lot of those players are young players who never played) and a new contract last season at a point where he didn't really deserve one yet. It's hard to judge him in terms of recruitment given we've had a Director of Football throughout his time here and more recently links with certain agents but our recruitment has very much been a mixed bag.

We've consistently had the same issues under Murray which I think is the most frustrating thing. He's still very young for a manager but he's pretty experienced now and should really be learning from his mistakes. We've lost 14 home games throughout his time here without scoring a goal, 10 of which we lost 1-0. It's generally always the same story of being ok defensively but being completely unable to break teams down. This has been the case for teams lower down the league as well as teams at the top and ultimately is what has cost us in all three seasons, Raith beat us 1-0 three times last season but only finished 5 points ahead of us. 

I'm not necessarily against Airdrie keeping him on for next season but I can't say I'd be upset if he left. In each of his seasons he's pretty much performed to the minimum level expected but nothing more than that, though on paper that's certainly more than a lot of other managers have achieved. I think he'd do fine at Ayr, he'd certainly keep you up but I'm not convinced he'd do much more beyond that. I don't think he'd take it but in terms of managers in this league Stewart Petrie would be a much better choice.