CityGill

Our passing today has been terrible. If we are under any pressure we seen unable to make simple passes. The movement in midfield has also been really poor.

I have always wondered why all premier league clubs couldn’t have mandatory contract clauses in all playing staff contracts stating that should they get relegated all players contracts would be reduced to X amount …… determined by the income of the club. It seems to be that one of the biggest justification for parachute payments is to cover wages of players after relegation. So if players under-perform they still have their PL wages guaranteed. This is at the expense of fairness of competition throughout the EFL.

I was going to post last week, but since TGH’s permanent move he seems a lot less attacking. When he was signed (under Pearson) he would receive the ball in midfield and look for a forward pass; or he would drive into space. Since signing, and under Manning, he seems to receive the ball and his first thought seems to be to turn and pass back to defence. It’s a shame, because when we signed him permanently, I was excited. I saw him as the slightly more attacking of the midfield two. The player to receive the ball from defence and look to bring is forward. As others have said, he is still young, but I’d like to see a bit more bravery both in attack and defending.

I look at the interviews from our owner, chairman, and technical director and I don’t see the vision or passion to set a direction for the whole club. We are a static club at the moment. A forever mid table club. Quite frankly, it’s boring. As fans, it’s hard to get excited and I feel that in BS3. The only thing to look forward to is a cup run. The only way I can see out of this rut is a relegation or a change at the top who can inject some passion and excitement. Let’s be honest, we are nowhere near a promotion! I am not anti Lansdown or Anti Tinnion. I am very grateful for the continued investment from our owners, but they need to appoint someone at the top who has passion and vision then leave them to do their job.

All “behaviours” we lack. For me, it’s not about the quality of our players, because Ipswich have just showed us that mentality is what makes a promotion side. There is something wrong with the mentality of our club as a whole. Bristol City feels like a “nice” club to come and work. You will be treated well, nobody will deride you for not performing. The club mentality is a reflection from the staff we have at the top of the club. We don’t buy players who have the mental strength we need. There is nobody to lead, to take a game by the scruff of the neck, to put that game changing tackle in and grab their own teammate and scream in their face when they misplace a 6 yard pass. This is not meant to be a reflection on the Ipswich match, if I’m honest I watched the match and thought good attempt city, but I was jealous of Ipswich’s passion.

On the subject of rule changes, the MLS are introducing some rules to reduce stoppages: “If a player with a suspected injury is on the ground for more than 15 seconds referees will stop play so that the player can be removed from the field and evaluated at which point they will remain off the field for a minimum of two minutes following treatment. There are a few exceptions including head injuries, goalkeeper injuries, serious medical events, and fouls resulting in cards as those may need more time on the pitch. The timed substitution rule follows a similar theme. Any player substituted must leave the field of play by any point within 10 seconds. If they fail to do that, the player coming in will need to wait 60 seconds before entering the game at the next stoppage. In MLS Next Pro, 99.7% of more than 3200 substitutions were able to leave the pitch within that time frame. There are exceptions for injuries and goalkeeper substitutions.” (Source:CBS) if Implemented correctly, this could reduce time wasting and players rolling around trying to get the ref to stop play. Sorry if it’s been posted before.

Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge that in the grand scheme of things, this is not the most important thing we need to fix. However, I have found it particularly irksome recently our inability to retain position from a throw-in or adequately defend our opponents throw ins. This is particularly true in advance positions, where more often than not, Tanner or Pring have to throw back to Vyner or Dickie due to lack of movement or support. I think there were 3 times yesterday, where Tanner threw the short throw and a combination of a poor return pass, or lack of control, meant we immediately lost possession. The long throw down the line from deep also rarely gets any positive results, mainly due to our lack of physicality. Defensively, we seem happy to let our opponents take a short throw with little pressure on the receiving player or we fail to track movement adequately. I am the first to admit, I am no football coach, and someone may have stats to prove that I’m completely wrong. From my point of view, we just don’t seem to be willing to take risks in advanced positions. One other small thing, whilst I’m making a rare post…. And unfortunately we have conceded or given clear chances from this several times this season. Vyner, far too often, passes to Tanner, rather than going long or back to O’Leary, when Tanner is totally isolated. Normally he is quickly closed down, has nowhere to go and either, falls over trying to get a free kick, concedes a throw or looses possession, putting us immediately under pressure. The pass to Tanner is far to obvious and triggers an immediate press.

That was truly terrible. The players look knackered and unfortunately we have no squad depth. We really lack physicality all over the pitch. We need to recruit strength and pace, even if it’s just an option for us to play against sides like Preston and Birmingham. There is no plan B at all, if I’m an opposing manager, I really don’t have to do much research to understand how we might play or how to set up against us. It’s not like I would even have to tell my players that city might change formation, because we only have one. We also really lack gamesmanship, we don’t push or try and buy free kicks. We are never in the refs face, we just accept poor decisions and allow ourselves to get bullied. We have to learn to give as good as we get against physical teams. It’s just naive football. We see lots of effort and and work from the lads, but we need grit and fight and a win by any means attitude. West Ham, like previous cup runs, is just a distraction at a time we don’t need it. I wish we had the depth for a manager to be able to say, if you don’t perform in the league against Preston, you won’t have the privilege of testing yourself against Premier League opposition. Maybe that way, there would have been a little more reason to put in a good performance today.

Today was a really frustrating game to watch. Unlike many, I don’t think City are a million miles away from a strong championship team. There are a few things that really frustrate me, not just during the Birmingham game, but for the past few seasons. After Dickie got his first yellow, Birmingham attackers were regularly driving at Dickie knowing he couldn’t risk getting sent off. We just don’t do that to other teams. Šunjić got a yellow after 20 mins, and I can’t think of a single time we did anything to try and draw a second yellow or at least force Birmingham into making the change. We simply are not a “bad” or ruthless team. Every time city were putting pressure on Birmingham, one of their players would go down “injured” which would take the sting out of the games we never do that kind if s**thousery! We just lack that games management and streetwiseness! As Robbored says, we have FAR too many individual errors. We really are suicidal at times. Under hit passes, letting the ball go under feet. I don’t know if it’s a matter of concentration or quality. We seem to be the only team I can recall to regularly get a free kick in an advanced area, then choose to take it 15 yards behind the point at which it was conceded, pass it backwards, then play ourselves into trouble. We do it every game. It’s the same with Throw ins, we always take them behind where the ball went out and we seem to give away position from throw ins a disproportionate amount of times. These should be really basic things for professional footballers. We opt to throw away chances to put pressure on the opposition. Lastly, does Naismith think he is Roberto Carlos, I can’t think of a game he has played when he hasn’t tried a 40 yard shot, only to blast in into the player 5 yards in front of him. I honestly believe if we can reduce these individual errors and introduce a bit of gamesmanship we could really progress as a team.

I think you have to give SU credit. They were the better team until the sending off, and even then they still tried to attack with numbers. They kept playing with 3 out wide and outnumbering us, and we really couldn’t handle it. However, we made some great tackles, flinty put his face on the line and frankie made an outstanding save. We were pretty clinical in front of goal. 3 points, onwards and upwards!