vikingTON

If players want a full picture of their future "the earlier the better", then they should have done a better job of picking up points, such as on Saturday.

Wtf - he's a football player. Should we also be showing Nathan Shaw a full organisation chart and financial projections as part of any (hopefully not forthcoming) contract discussions? And just who exactly is going to be tasked with all these completely unnecessary communications to all and sundry, or are we going to borrow Inverclyde Council's chatbot to do that job instead?

O'Halloran was playing as a 10, with an 11 and a 7 (two wingers) on the park at the same time. That's why we got overrun: without the ball, there were 4 players doing either very little to press or pressing with no discipline or ability. The centre of the park can and should be a strength - I'd much rather have Blues' industry over 90 minutes to support Wilson as well as late runs into the box as a goalscoring threat than anything on our right wing. If we are choosing which area to build a squad around - which we need to given the limitations of a budget compared to others - then it's a no-brainer to build the team around a strong set central midfielders and lean into that opportunity, over the endless parade of sand dancers who come and go at this club. Let the other teams in the division focus on wide play. Their end product is diabolical too given that all of midtable are also on sub-40 points, and a mediocre Arbroath team have been secure in the playoffs since autumn. We need to adopt a different style of play instead of matching up with the garbage approaches elsewhere.

A: You play a narrow midfield 4 to actually control the game from the middle of the park for a change. This not only helps you to feed chances to a front two (this could be Moffat playing off a centre forward - for away games), but also makes you far, far more difficult to break down than having two sand dancers and Main being passengers without the ball. Or as seen in the Arbroath game, bringing on O'Halloran as an extra passenger that saw us being completely overrun in the second half. You cannot get away with this lack of discipline and organisation to defend and press from the front any more. As for the full backs, they have been the biggest improvement overall since Murray came in - particularly Delaney who has offered a genuine attacking threat from the left touchline. We could have more clinical strikers and we will still get absolutely nowhere in this division while reliably shipping three goals per game away from home. We signed Peter MacDonald and Andy Jackson in 2011 in a similar situation and... still floundered in the following campaign. And the same shortage of available options - and so, price inflation - applies even more to clinical strikers as it does to wingers. We will never have a ruthless finisher signed on a permanent basis at this club, who won't be out the door within 12 if not 6 months. That is clearly not a stable basis to build a squad around. If GMFC is to punch above its financial weight, then it needs to do something different: either to target player characteristics that aren't valued as much by others (see Wilson), or to tap an unknown market like previous Scandinavian imports. Simply doing the same as everyone else only with less resources (first team signings, or youth development) bakes in mediocrity.

Wingers are in short supply and so attract a higher share of wages than their actual contribution merits. Call it the Dom 'Dom' Thomas Rule, as that mercenary continues to dawdle pointlessly from one foolish Championship to another. Unless the Estrella partnership has access to a better network of talent, Moffat probably is more or less as good as winge as we can get, as a midtable Championship club. But that's not a valid reason to extend that deal: it's a reason to question the purpose of having any sand dancer roles at all in the first team lineup. They don't bring value for money and unlike a striker, aren't actually crucial to scoring goals and winning games. I'd have one winger in the entire squad, whose job is to be a bench option each week and to stretch assorted jobber outfits in the cup.

We have recorded 36 points with 3, albeit very easy, games to go. If the Estrella partnership goes through, this squad should purged like Russia in the 1930s, instead of the wishful thinking and cherry picking judgment shown earlier in this thread.

Our goals conceded under Imrie were 43, 46, 48 in chronological order. 47 in the season he took over from slaphead Gus. We're on 44 now but my over/under would be on that 48 mark that we recorded just last season. So there's no real evidence of a difference compared to previous squads - if anything, the rot started slowly but surely under Imrie's watch. I agree that there is a defensive issue, but the paradox is that the individual defenders are not the problem. We would be better with Baird rather than Moore of course, but that's the reality of losing senior players to title winners. At the same time we are bringing through a far more reliable player than Baird actually was in his first spell with us - Owens and Lopata White are promising options too. The issue with this team in terms of defending is not a lack of individual ability in any position. There's just a collective soft as shite trait, perhaps caused by a lack of leadership on the park. The Stenny cup game was the textbook example of that - but the refusal to adjust to the situation in the second half against Arbroath last weekend was a reminder of that too. Someone simply needs to take responsibility for winning the first ball into the box and then launching clearances into the fucking Clyde when the team is under pressure, instead of dinking it 10 yards into midfield to invite another wave of attacks. Longridge was presumably meant to offer that experienced leadership on top of his own performances but I'm yet to witness that added value.

Same as ~17 of the last 20 years. The Sun will expand and engulf the Earth before GMFC will leave its crevice of 7th place in the second tier of Scottish football.

If by 'grind out some results' to be safe you mean 'win a solitary game of football' then sure. But there's absolutely nothing to suggest that we won't do that - given a progressively and objectively easier fixture list, the win we picked up last Saturday and the one the week before too. It's hardly Johansson or Grady levels of freefall we're experiencing here. And let's not forget how the mass knicker-wetting about the former overlooked the reality - of Falkirk being relegated in the most delicious manner possible.

Nothing's going to go down to the final game. Airdrie's next three fixtures (including their game in hand) are: St Johnstone (a) Dunfermline (h) - Tues 14th Partick (h) I fully expect us to take more points in our next two games (Raith (a); QP (h) than those 3. At which point, we're officially 'safe'. Leaving aside the three other teams with the same current points total as ourselves, the only realistic risk to the pack was Ross County running the table with a promising set of fixtures. We can rule out that prospect after today too.

Main discussed in the Tele before Saturday's game about how Murray's more direct style for forward play was enjoyable and suited him, as opposed to playing 18 passes around before playing the ball forward (see Imrie, D., after not getting the come hither look from bigger clubs). Saturday's performance was good in parts, but we would need both consistency and a more reliable 90 minute long (or 75 minutes at least) presence to merit offering a new deal. Main has been an upgrade on Adeloye in terms of link up play and effectiveness, but we should be open to other options too.

Who says that? The Director of Football at Spurs or some other rabble? Put aside the manager and you are describing the seasonal performance of Paul di Giacomo and countless other flattering to deceive sand dancers.

^^^ unwise knicker-wetting pish ^^^ award-winning, fact-based analysis

We're absolutely, unquestionably safe already - the aim should be a top half finish.

Blues caused them lots of problems with runs into the box until the 50th minute, he looked knackered in the final half hour and not the only one. Which makes the (non) use and wastage of subs all the more inexplicable. While we are playing some good football and with such performances a midtable finish was never in doubt, we got away with a win that we did almost everything in our power to throw away in the second half. The O'Halloran sub not working out is fine - but you then need to respond by taking Main off and bring in Lyall or Taylor to shore things up, as well as far more fresh legs than we kept on out there.