Fraser Aird

[baulderdash77]

He's definitely playing his way up the CMNT depth chart at RB.  Considering he's the only real professional RB we have in our pool I wouldn't be surprised if he's starting in September for us.

[Yoginess]

A lot of his slide tackles are from when he gets beat. Though to have the recovery speed and execute the tackle is a good skillset in itself. He's also improved a lot each game he's played at RB. Just a month into the season he's leaps and bounds better than before.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

On 2016/03/10 at 3:54 AM, Unnamed Trialist said:

Do you seriously want to tell us he was taught that at Ibrox, my lord, if I were a Rangers fan I'd be cringing.

He started off as an attacking midfielder at Ibrox. The switch to being a defender is a relatively recent thing.

[Unnamed Trialist]

2 hours ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

He started off as an attacking midfielder at Ibrox. The switch to being a defender is a relatively recent thing.

He picked up a lot in the last match for Whitecaps, I am glad for him. If he gets coached right it will work.

Regarding that and regarding his speed, which people are referring to in relation to a specific play for the Caps last weekend, where he was up high and after losing the ball, ran like a bullet back to position. That was a very questionable tactical and positional move on his part, I found it shocking. No properly coached back up high in attack abandons the pressure on the ball for merely positional correctness. If you are now an attacking mid, you stay an attacking mid, you take the role. And someone takes yours. You have to keep pressuring and of course, 100%, there is someone back there covering for you.

Only when the ball is moved out of your zone do you move quickly to recover position, never when it is in front of you still. 

If you can't coach both those things you should not have the job. I can cite a few more errors on the flanks I see with the Caps that surprise me, also in defence, subtle things that suggest some inexpert coaching.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Unnamed Trialist

[Obinna]

52 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

He picked up a lot in the last match for Whitecaps, I am glad for him. If he gets coached right it will work.

Regarding that and regarding his speed, which people are referring to in relation to a specific play for the Caps last weekend, where he was up high and after losing the ball, ran like a bullet back to position. That was a very questionable tactical and positional move on his part, I found it shocking. No properly coached back up high in attack abandons the pressure on the ball for merely positional correctness. If you are now an attacking mid, you stay an attacking mid, you take the role. And someone takes yours. You have to keep pressuring and of course, 100%, there is someone back there covering for you.

Only when the ball is moved out of your zone do you move quickly to recover position, never when it is in front of you still. 

If you can't coach both those things you should not have the job. I can cite a few more errors on the flanks I see with the Caps that surprise me, also in defence, subtle things that suggest some inexpert coaching.

As an aside - this is a massive problem in Canadian soccer that we don't give enough attention (at least on here). 

 

If my personal experience means anything: It wasn't until the U-17 level where I learned about positional mobility.

My provincial team coach included "mobility" in our player evaluations and I had to ask him to explain it. So here I was learning about mobility for the first time as a 16 year old while preparing to play in a CSA scouted National team tournament against some of the best kids in the country. 16 years old is far to late to learn about that sort of thing, isn't it?

 

Unsurprisingly, interchanging positions is something our national team struggles with in comparison to a team like Mexico. A lot of that is likely attributed to the lack of technical ability of our players. If all players are similar in technical ability it is easy to interchange positions - but imagine a player like Doniel Henry stuck far up the pitch in an extended attacking move? He'd be pretty useless. 

I also believe this is why teams like El Salvador or Guatemala are better on the field than on paper - all players are technically comfortable and able to interchange. I personally get frustrated that we have players at Besiktas or QPR, but cannot consistently beat these teams. 

 

Anyways, just my two cents. Back to Aird.....

[Boominbooty]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

As an aside - this is a massive problem in Canadian soccer that we don't give enough attention (at least on here). 

 

If my personal experience means anything: It wasn't until the U-17 level where I learned about positional mobility.

My provincial team coach included "mobility" in our player evaluations and I had to ask him to explain it. So here I was learning about mobility for the first time as a 16 year old while preparing to play in a CSA scouted National team tournament against some of the best kids in the country. 16 years old is far to late to learn about that sort of thing, isn't it?

 

Unsurprisingly, interchanging positions is something our national team struggles with in comparison to a team like Mexico. A lot of that is likely attributed to the lack of technical ability of our players. If all players are similar in technical ability it is easy to interchange positions - but imagine a player like Doniel Henry stuck far up the pitch in an extended attacking move? He'd be pretty useless. 

I also believe this is why teams like El Salvador or Guatemala are better on the field than on paper - all players are technically comfortable and able to interchange. I personally get frustrated that we have players at Besiktas or QPR, but cannot consistently beat these teams. 

 

Anyways, just my two cents. Back to Aird.....

How does it come to this? If this is hockey all wingers know to cover for the D man if they are pinching in. This is something I feel kids in u9 should understand no?

As for Aird, I like him. He will get called on Sept if he continues like this. 

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, Boominbooty said:

How does it come to this? If this is hockey all wingers know to cover for the D man if they are pinching in. This is something I feel kids in u9 should understand no?

As for Aird, I like him. He will get called on Sept if he continues like this. 

Canada's youth coaching are much better for hockey than soccer.

[rob.notenboom]

15 hours ago, Boominbooty said:

How does it come to this? If this is hockey all wingers know to cover for the D man if they are pinching in. This is something I feel kids in u9 should understand no?

As for Aird, I like him. He will get called on Sept if he continues like this. 

In Div 5 Regina, I know to assume the defenisive responsibilities of the RB playing behind me if he goes on a run. It's a pretty simple concept. 

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, rob.notenboom said:

In Div 5 Regina, I know to assume the defenisive responsibilities of the RB playing behind me if he goes on a run. It's a pretty simple concept. 

I think it's more than just simple coverage - players generally get that you have to cover your teammate if he goes on a run. 

What I am talking about is players being uncomfortable with interchanging. There is far too much of a hurry to get back into your original position. There is generally a lack of encouragement in Canadian soccer to drift from your spot on the field. Players and coaches are way too uncomfortable with this idea - at least at the level I have played at right now.

At the moment I bounce around between Div 1 and 2 in Calgary. My club can be best described as a collection of late 20 or 30-somethings who want to be competitive without sacrificing the more important things in life.

We do train regularly and many of us have played at Canadian universities and whatnot - but does our movement off the ball suck? You bet. Do we interchange outside of the occasional overlap? Never!

I'd love to say we are just too old and lazy and don't care - but there are also teams with an average age of like 19 who can run all day long - there is no real off the ball movement on their part either.

So yeah - it's concerning to me and i'm sure it's like this all across the country. Good players with poor soccer IQ's and coaches who don't place value on player movement.

[Unnamed Trialist]

2 hours ago, Obinna said:

I think it's more than just simple coverage - players generally get that you have to cover your teammate if he goes on a run. 

What I am talking about is players being uncomfortable with interchanging. There is far too much of a hurry to get back into your original position. There is generally a lack of encouragement in Canadian soccer to drift from your spot on the field. Players and coaches are way too uncomfortable with this idea - at least at the level I have played at right now.

At the moment I bounce around between Div 1 and 2 in Calgary. My club can be best described as a collection of late 20 or 30-somethings who want to be competitive without sacrificing the more important things in life.

We do train regularly and many of us have played at Canadian universities and whatnot - but does our movement off the ball suck? You bet. Do we interchange outside of the occasional overlap? Never!

I'd love to say we are just too old and lazy and don't care - but there are also teams with an average age of like 19 who can run all day long - there is no real off the ball movement on their part either.

So yeah - it's concerning to me and i'm sure it's like this all across the country. Good players with poor soccer IQ's and coaches who don't place value on player movement.

Okay, I thought folks would say I was off the wall and I see some positive feedback. There was another play that got me, in defence. I think it was against Houston, Harvey was deep defending all alone vs. a winger, and Bolaños was there with the play, within 10-12 yards, and when he saw that Harvey had the guy covered, one on one deep, he ran away from the ball about 10 yards to cover the supporting mid back near the 25 yard line, or whatever. Instead of going in to do a standard 2 on one cover. Because he had this idea that if he went in, which he absolutely had to do deep, no one would cover his spot. 

From Bolaños that is incredible since he is a World Cup player with experience. But not a very defensively minded player. I even suspect he was yelled at from the bench, which was near, but not sure. Techera is also weak on this kind of play. 

In Spanish they talk about the idea of "bascular", which is to shift like on a scale, a traditional scale for weighing things, the whole team shifts to cover, attacking and defending. So you could leave someone open, but the guy furthest away on the field and least consequential, someone you can always adjust for unless they play an amazing 40 yard pass and take advantage of it.

[jpg75]

I watched most of the LA game and i did notice some defensive improvements in Aird's game. His positioning and communication looked improved and in the first half he managed to contain Magee for the most part. In the second half Arena had his wingers switch sides and Boateng proved much harder to contain. Aird also beat his man off the dribble on two occassions (including splitting two defenders one of those times). 

I flipped to the Van-DC game after the TFC game ended today watched about 10 mins. starting at the 30 min. mark just in time to see the DC winger beat Aird off the dribble at the edge of the box (Aird missed on a slide tackle) and create a very dangerous scoring chance that Ousted did well to save. So it appears to me that Aird has a serious issue defending fast wingers who dribble well. That's going to take some time and experience to improve, you can't expect a kid who has always been an attacking player to instantly develop into a reliable professional defender in less than a season.

If playing RB is what gets him on the field then so be it, but from what i can see of the kid he's got the skills, athleticism and attacking instincts to be a good winger. It worked for Josh Simpson -starting at FB before becoming an AM - and hopefully Aird can do the same.

[Keegan]

Aird is a really exciting prospect for us.  Anytime he gets the ball he isn't afraid to make something happen, he's excellent at taking a touch and dribbling out of trouble.  I saw a couple times instead of making the typical push and run Ashtone Morgan special down the line he actually cut inside and combined with central players.  His overlaps to support the attack at times were great as well, he's showing good instincts to get forward and it's refreshing to see a guy who can cross the ball at RB.  You can tell he just "gets it" more than some of our NA trained players.  You always hear a lot of ragging on the Scottish Championship but I wouldn't say MLS is a huge step up.. Aird could be a top FB in the league by the end of this season.

[gator]

I also watched a fair bit of the Caps match last night, just like jpg I tuned in just on time to see him get skinned by the winger on a missed tackle, something that would be a real problem against our tricky CONCACAF opponents! I agree that being trained and playing at Rangers should serve him well and I thing he has a fair soccer IQ, whether he can adapt to playing RB remains to be seen, I'm sure hoping he can!

[Ottawafan74]

21 hours ago, Obinna said:

I think it's more than just simple coverage - players generally get that you have to cover your teammate if he goes on a run. 

What I am talking about is players being uncomfortable with interchanging. There is far too much of a hurry to get back into your original position. There is generally a lack of encouragement in Canadian soccer to drift from your spot on the field. Players and coaches are way too uncomfortable with this idea - at least at the level I have played at right now.

At the moment I bounce around between Div 1 and 2 in Calgary. My club can be best described as a collection of late 20 or 30-somethings who want to be competitive without sacrificing the more important things in life.

We do train regularly and many of us have played at Canadian universities and whatnot - but does our movement off the ball suck? You bet. Do we interchange outside of the occasional overlap? Never!

I'd love to say we are just too old and lazy and don't care - but there are also teams with an average age of like 19 who can run all day long - there is no real off the ball movement on their part either.

So yeah - it's concerning to me and i'm sure it's like this all across the country. Good players with poor soccer IQ's and coaches who don't place value on player movement.

I find too often the coaching of team structures is based on positional concerns. Put player A here and player B there. Pass it here, move it there. Too often kids are robots trained to be in their position, in their spot. They look brilliant and confident against inferior teams. But when faced with a similar type structure and talent level it doesn't allow kids to seperate themselves. 

Part of this is lack of skill development at early stages, lack of club foresight into these stages overlapping and too little competition at mid development ages. 

[A_Gagne]

Had a good game overall last night. I was watching the DC broadcast, and the announcers had plenty of praise for him. He still looks really dodgy intercepting crosses and is still being targeted by other teams 1v1, but he brings a lot moving forward though, as mentioned here, and seems to be improving each game. If he keeps working on the defensive side of his game, and keeps doing enough to keep his spot, I'm confident he'll turn into a quality MLS starter. Doesn't hurt that Jordan Smith is shite either.

[Obinna]

31 minutes ago, Ottawafan74 said:

I find too often the coaching of team structures is based on positional concerns. Put player A here and player B there. Pass it here, move it there. Too often kids are robots trained to be in their position, in their spot. They look brilliant and confident against inferior teams. But when faced with a similar type structure and talent level it doesn't allow kids to seperate themselves. 

Part of this is lack of skill development at early stages, lack of club foresight into these stages overlapping and too little competition at mid development ages. 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[BearcatSA]

On Sunday, April 10, 2016 at 5:41 PM, jpg75 said:

I flipped to the Van-DC game after the TFC game ended today watched about 10 mins. starting at the 30 min. mark just in time to see the DC winger beat Aird off the dribble at the edge of the box (Aird missed on a slide tackle) and create a very dangerous scoring chance that Ousted did well to save. So it appears to me that Aird has a serious issue defending fast wingers who dribble well. That's going to take some time and experience to improve, you can't expect a kid who has always been an attacking player to instantly develop into a reliable professional defender in less than a season.

 

His play on the ball looked good but he got skinned a few times against the winger 1 v 1.   He's a  work in progress in that area, for sure.  

[Unnamed Trialist]

I like him too, he has some real flash, but then screws up. But face it, the way the Caps are doing this year, we really do need to go back to a more solid defensive lineup. So I predict Robinson will end up sacrificing Aird for anyone who can convince him he's the 4th member of a solid back line. 

[Northvansteve]

Great update on Aird: http://www.theprovince.com/sports/soccer/weber+fraser+aird+what+truly+positive+progression+looks/11909827/story.html

[jpg75]

7 hours ago, Northvansteve said:

Great update on Aird: http://www.theprovince.com/sports/soccer/weber+fraser+aird+what+truly+positive+progression+looks/11909827/story.html

Aird capped off Saturday’s game with a near end-to-end dribble, as if he was Bobby Orr with a soccer ball.

“To be fair, I almost stopped breathing at the end, I was so tired,” Aird said with a laugh. “I just tried to get the boys up the park as quick as I could and I won us a corner and the game was pretty much done after that. That’s what I’m good at. I’m good at bringing the ball up the park — and, as well, as I’ve got a lot better at defending.”

This kid has skills, i really hope he gets transitioned to RM or RW after his stint at RB - like Josh Simpson did early in his career.

[gator]

2 hours ago, jpg75 said:

Aird capped off Saturday’s game with a near end-to-end dribble, as if he was Bobby Orr with a soccer ball.

“To be fair, I almost stopped breathing at the end, I was so tired,” Aird said with a laugh. “I just tried to get the boys up the park as quick as I could and I won us a corner and the game was pretty much done after that. That’s what I’m good at. I’m good at bringing the ball up the park — and, as well, as I’ve got a lot better at defending.”

This kid has skills, i really hope he gets transitioned to RM or RW after his stint at RB - like Josh Simpson did early in his career.

I hope he continues to improve quickly and can become a mainstay at RB for our National team, it's surely a position of weakness for us!

[Keegan]

I wonder if there's any chance he gets called to the Austria camp?  In a must win at home against El Salvador we are going to want him starting but it's not realistic if he hasn't been in camp for a year.  

My guess is we won't get him because let's face it... our MNT gets walked all over by MLS clubs.

[Vince193]

8 minutes ago, Keegan said:

I wonder if there's any chance he gets called to the Austria camp?  In a must win at home against El Salvador we are going to want him starting but it's not realistic if he hasn't been in camp for a year.  

My guess is we won't get him because let's face it... our MNT gets walked all over by MLS clubs.

While that's true the whole point of this camp was to call in mostly Euro based players.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 hour ago, Vince193 said:

While that's true the whole point of this camp was to call in mostly Euro based players.

It will be to call in everyone Floro wants to see. It's a FIFA date.

[gator]

2 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

It will be to call in everyone Floro wants to see. It's a FIFA date.

Aird has to be called then regardless of what the Caps think about it!