LJ’s post match interview - think he has it pretty much spot on...

[LondonBristolian]

Last season I sometimes read his interviews and wondered whether we had been watching the same game but I find all this hard to disagree with.

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/we-played-without-our-identity-johnson/

There is of course a question as to whether three not fully fit players was too much of a gamble. He seems to imply Djuric came off for tactical reasons rather than injury, which was probably an error in retrospect as it limited our options when Bryan had to go off. 

But all in all, it looks like he knows where the problems were so hopefully he can put them right v Hull. We bounced back well from Birmingham and Leeds so let’s hope we do that again.

COYR!

[Guest]

From long ball to passing sideways and backwards - the difference was very apparent from first half to second half.

I can only think the players got confused with LJ's instructions?

I like the passing game but there has to be some end product at the end of it i.e. it has to go forward.

Disappointed with last night (the less said about the ref and Preston's antics the better).

[cidered abroad]

If he knows what the answer is, the why doesn't he do something about it?

Burton, Millwall, Leeds and now PNE.

Only one word to describe it.

DISMAL

[Vincent Vega]

On the whole a decent interview, but I didn't like how he singled out O'Dowda for the 2nd goal. May have prompted his tweet later.

[And Its Smith]

If teams come and press we dont have an answer, yet. He needs to find one quickly as other teams managers will see the correlation if they are any good.

[RobintheRed Red]

32 minutes ago, bcfcfinker said:

From long ball to passing sideways and backwards - the difference was very apparent from first half to second half.

I can only think the players got confused with LJ's instructions?

I like the passing game but there has to be some end product at the end of it i.e. it has to go forward.

Disappointed with last night (the less said about the ref and Preston's antics the better).

Have to agree we play in midfield sideways an backwards if pack or korey went forward theyed get a nosebleed we were also carrying three or four with long term injuries as i witnessed at sheff weds the boys are looking very tired

[spudski]

The reason the back four resorted to punting long balls to Duric, was because of the lack of proper movement by our midfield. They had no options on to pass...hence the long balls.

Credit to Duric...he was solid and won pretty much every ball, only for Reid to never win the next ball.

I thought Smith showed his inconsistency again....went missing again last night.  Good one match...awful the next. That won't get you a top 6 place.

Our CM needs a big improvement in January. And we need another forward.

With long term injuries to key players, players playing with knocks and niggles, I can see this having a real effect on the second half of our season. Especially with the winter months coming, and playing a fast high pressing game...more injuries will happen.

If Duric goes out again we are stuffed imo. Reid, Taylor and Woodrow aren't going to win you games up front on their own....especially if we are looking at getting crosses in from the likes of Elliason, Leko and Odowda in the future.

Another frustrating point for me, and it's a common theme....when opposition teams come and waste time, feign injury, get in the refs ear...what do we do?....Nothing. Whilst it's a part of the game I detest...you need someone on the pitch, putting your point across, being strong and vocal and taking no shit. Who was our Captain last night? Who was controlling...being vocal or organising? It was like the BCFC mute team playing. Whilst I didn't rate GoN's level of performances on the pitch...I did rate his level of communication and ref ear bending. We sorely miss that on occasions like last night.

[LondonBristolian]

40 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

If he knows what the answer is, the why doesn't he do something about it?

Burton, Millwall, Leeds and now PNE.

Only one word to describe it.

DISMAL

Let’s not forget we are still in a play off position and two of those games - last night included - we were disrupted by injuries. There is an issue apparent in Burton, Millwall and PNE and that issue is that we do not cope well when teams come and treat us as favourites and play as underdogs. To be fair, that is hardly a surprise as it has not happened much over the last two years. Nonetheless we do need to get better at it if we want to stay where we are.

[Robbored]

48 minutes ago, bcfcfinker said:

From long ball to passing sideways and backwards - the difference was very apparent from first half to second half.

I can only think the players got confused with LJ's instructions?

I like the passing game but there has to be some end product at the end of it i.e. it has to go forward.

Disappointed with last night (the less said about the ref and Preston's antics the better).

The second half was slight better because LJ took off  Djuric  which meant the defence in particular didn't have the long ball option. He was trying to get the team playing proper football.

He said as much in post match interview.

[Lorenzos Only Goal]

35 minutes ago, Vincent Vega said:

On the whole a decent interview, but I didn't like how he singled out O'Dowda for the 2nd goal. May have prompted his tweet later.

I don't know I like his honesty at times.  And the players should be good enough to know when it's their fault.

[LondonBristolian]

11 minutes ago, Robbored said:

The second half was slight better because LJ took off  Djuric  which meant the defence in particular didn't have the long ball option. He was trying to get the team playing proper football.

He said as much in post match interview.

What did worry me was the number for times second half we passed it back to Fielding. He has improved massively this season and really impressed me with his shot stopping but he will never be a sweeper-keeper...

[sh1t_ref_again]

I am sure I will get slated by some on here, but for me the improvement 2nd half was Pack, he was looking to get us on the front foot and moving forward

[Cider-Head23]

1 hour ago, cidered abroad said:

If he knows what the answer is, the why doesn't he do something about it?

Burton, Millwall, Leeds and now PNE.

Only one word to describe it.

DISMAL

Come on have some perspective, 

We've played 22 games in all competitions this season and lost only 3, were 5th in a very tough league and in the QF of the League cup.

There has been a few frustrating performances at home and yes we do need to work on how to break teams like Burton, Milwall down better..

But we've also exceeded expectations away from home with wins at places such as Reading & Ipswich. 

Were nowhere near the finished article, but apart from the odd blip we've had a very good first third of the season.

It doesn't feel to long ago we were losing most games and in threat of being relegated to league one.

Fast forward 5-6 months were holding our own in the top 6 of the Championship. Keep the faith.

[City1984]

3 minutes ago, Cider-Head23 said:

Come on have some perspective, 

We've played 21 games in all competitions this season and lost only 3, were 5th in a very tough league and in the QF of the League cup.

There has been a few frustrating performances at home and yes we do need to work on how to break teams like Burton, Milwall down better..

But we've also exceeded expectations away from home with wins at places such as Reading & Ipswich. 

Were nowhere near the finished article, but apart from the odd blip we've had a very good first third of the season.

It doesn't feel to long ago we were losing most games and in threat of being relegated to league one.

Fast forward 5-6 months were holding our own in the top 6 of the Championship. Keep the faith.

Spot on

[LondonBristolian]

20 minutes ago, Cider-Head23 said:

Come on have some perspective, 

We've played 22 games in all competitions this season and lost only 3, were 5th in a very tough league and in the QF of the League cup.

There has been a few frustrating performances at home and yes we do need to work on how to break teams like Burton, Milwall down better..

But we've also exceeded expectations away from home with wins at places such as Reading & Ipswich. 

Were nowhere near the finished article, but apart from the odd blip we've had a very good first third of the season.

It doesn't feel to long ago we were losing most games and in threat of being relegated to league one.

Fast forward 5-6 months were holding our own in the top 6 of the Championship. Keep the faith.

Absolutely agree but would throw in that we also have been holding our own with four long term injuries including two probable starters, one of whom is our record signing, and last night had three players who were nowhere near fully fit. People talk about squad depth but I think most teams in the Championship would struggle with that level of injuries...

[Robin1988]

1 hour ago, cidered abroad said:

If he knows what the answer is, the why doesn't he do something about it?

Burton, Millwall, Leeds and now PNE.

Only one word to describe it.

DISMAL

Dismal? Are we fifth or fifth-bottom?

[cheshire_red]

Preston have markedly more players out injured even allowing for a couple who retuned to their squad last night.

An extra day between fixtures may have helped them. However, we should be able to cope with Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday games if we want to progress in this league and the cups.

[BobBobSuperBob]

1 hour ago, cidered abroad said:

If he knows what the answer is, the why doesn't he do something about it?

Burton, Millwall, Leeds and now PNE.

Only one word to describe it.

DISMAL

To be fair - they have /he has  after

Millwall

after Burton

after Leeds

Cant see the response to those blips could have been better, especially since Leeds , bearing in mind the injuries around this time

As well as we have been exceeding expectations , we can't win every game -we will lose here and the re and with the injuries possibly more than the odd one in the immediate period

Lets see how it pans out second half season

[Red-Robbo]

55 minutes ago, spudski said:

The reason the back four resorted to punting long balls to Duric, was because of the lack of proper movement by our midfield. They had no options on to pass...hence the long balls.

Credit to Duric...he was solid and won pretty much every ball, only for Reid to never win the next ball.

I thought Smith showed his inconsistency again....went missing again last night.  Good one match...awful the next. That won't get you a top 6 place.

Our CM needs a big improvement in January. And we need another forward.

With long term injuries to key players, players playing with knocks and niggles, I can see this having a real effect on the second half of our season. Especially with the winter months coming, and playing a fast high pressing game...more injuries will happen.

If Duric goes out again we are stuffed imo. Reid, Taylor and Woodrow aren't going to win you games up front on their own....especially if we are looking at getting crosses in from the likes of Elliason, Leko and Odowda in the future.

Another frustrating point for me, and it's a common theme....when opposition teams come and waste time, feign injury, get in the refs ear...what do we do?....Nothing. Whilst it's a part of the game I detest...you need someone on the pitch, putting your point across, being strong and vocal and taking no shit. Who was our Captain last night? Who was controlling...being vocal or organising? It was like the BCFC mute team playing. Whilst I didn't rate GoN's level of performances on the pitch...I did rate his level of communication and ref ear bending. We sorely miss that on occasions like last night.

 

Some very good points there, Spud. The game was lost in the midfield. Their big, strong midfield bullied ours with Korey (who was having a bad night) and Josh being pinned back deep, where they aren't that effective. Patto is still AWOL since his virus, so we lumped the ball up when we could get it, but then found no-one anyone near Djuric for him to give it too. A shambles.

The introduction of Pack did at least strengthen MF options and allow Brownhill to get forward, but then this was negated by playing Bob as lone striker. We were finally getting crosses in from Eliasson, but he had the shortest man on the pitch as his only target!

Although the players share a lot of blame for last night. They played that first half as though they were emerging from anaesthetic. I think LJ really screwed it up to be honest. A shame to lose to such a poor team.

[petehinton]

The only issue with Djuric is that he gives all the players an option to just shell the ball towards him. I’ve always held the belief that playing target men from the start of the game are for away games (or for the likes of Cardiff where Sol Bamba would’ve eaten Bobby & Matty alive with no djuric). 

You could see Flint/Baker yesterday looking through the pitch, seeing Korey/Brownhill with Preston CMs right by them (to be fair Preston were well organised). That then defaults them to just go direct. No Djuric means we would’ve had to have tried to play through them and possibly have more luck. 

Taking Djuric off was the only thing LJ could’ve done to remove that choice. What was completely headscratching was bringing on our best crosser of the ball in Eliasson, to put balls in the box to no one because we effectively weren’t playing a striker, let alone someone who would get their head on the ball. 

Bobby was then dropping way too deep to get the ball, so whenever COD/Eliasson has the ball, it was pretty redundant as all they could do was pass it backwards/sideways.  

[Esmond Million's Bung]

1 hour ago, RedDave said:

If teams come and press we dont have an answer, yet. He needs to find one quickly as other teams managers will see the correlation if they are any good.

Exactly we either lack a plan B or the creativity to counter this occurrence.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

3 hours ago, LondonBristolian said:

Last season I sometimes read his interviews and wondered whether we had been watching the same game but I find all this hard to disagree with.

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/we-played-without-our-identity-johnson/

There is of course a question as to whether three not fully fit players was too much of a gamble. He seems to imply Djuric came off for tactical reasons rather than injury, which was probably an error in retrospect as it limited our options when Bryan had to go off. 

But all in all, it looks like he knows where the problems were so hopefully he can put them right v Hull. We bounced back well from Birmingham and Leeds so let’s hope we do that again.

COYR!

IMHO he should have taken some of the responsibility for last night and never did and this seems to be a recurring theme from last season.

[BRISTOL86]

The irony is we are a good passing side. A team that presses us high should play into our hands but we repeatedly see ourselves struggle against energetic pressing - midfield movement yesterday was awful and rarely gave the centre backs/full backs an option.

The game just seemed to completely bypass the entire midfield. 

Their central midfielders gave us an absolute lesson on how to orchestrate a game. What I’d give to see us make a move for Daniel Johnson in Jan. 

[The Bard]

1 hour ago, spudski said:

The reason the back four resorted to punting long balls to Duric, was because of the lack of proper movement by our midfield. They had no options on to pass...hence the long balls.

Credit to Duric...he was solid and won pretty much every ball, only for Reid to never win the next ball.

I thought Smith showed his inconsistency again....went missing again last night.  Good one match...awful the next. That won't get you a top 6 place.

Our CM needs a big improvement in January. And we need another forward.

With long term injuries to key players, players playing with knocks and niggles, I can see this having a real effect on the second half of our season. Especially with the winter months coming, and playing a fast high pressing game...more injuries will happen.

If Duric goes out again we are stuffed imo. Reid, Taylor and Woodrow aren't going to win you games up front on their own....especially if we are looking at getting crosses in from the likes of Elliason, Leko and Odowda in the future.

Another frustrating point for me, and it's a common theme....when opposition teams come and waste time, feign injury, get in the refs ear...what do we do?....Nothing. Whilst it's a part of the game I detest...you need someone on the pitch, putting your point across, being strong and vocal and taking no shit. Who was our Captain last night? Who was controlling...being vocal or organising? It was like the BCFC mute team playing. Whilst I didn't rate GoN's level of performances on the pitch...I did rate his level of communication and ref ear bending. We sorely miss that on occasions like last night.

Good points though you seem to have something against Korey Smith.  Obviously weren't at Fulham where he was immense. He's been moved around too much recently and eventually that effects your performance.  The others don't have the same excuse..  

He had a poor game last night as did Bryan, Brownhill, O'Dowda, Reid, Wright and Patterson (who clearly isn't right).  Eliasson looked lively though and if we'd had Duric on when he was putting crosses into the box we may have had some joy.  He does things quickly which should mean he can be effective in the Championship and unlike Leko he seems to have a decent football brain.

We need to send both Woodrow and Leko back and get someone into CM who has a bit of a presence. Preferably left footed.  Johnson from PNE, Bannan or Charlie Adam would do. Add a right back and a striker as well.  

[Esmond Million's Bung]

5 minutes ago, The Bard said:

Good points though you seem to have something against Korey Smith.  Obviously weren't at Fulham where he was immense. He's been moved around too much recently and eventually that effects your performance.  The others don't have the same excuse..  

He had a poor game last night as did Bryan, Brownhill, O'Dowda, Reid, Wright and Patterson (who clearly isn't right).  Eliasson looked lively though and if we'd had Duric on when he was putting crosses into the box we may have had some joy.  He does things quickly which should mean he can be effective in the Championship and unlike Leko he seems to have a decent football brain.

We need to send both Woodrow and Leko back and get someone into CM who has a bit of a presence. Preferably left footed.  Johnson from PNE, Bannan or Charlie Adam would do. Add a right back and a striker as well.  

Exactly what I thought as well, Smith has been our MVP for 2 months now, whilst Pack has played 1 good game in every 4, he never went missing last night he just had an incredibly poor game by his high standards but he found himself in good very good company with 10 other starting players, 2 of the 3 subs and the manager, it was truly a team effort.

[SStandUp]

2 hours ago, Robbored said:

The second half was slight better because LJ took off  Djuric  which meant the defence in particular didn't have the long ball option. He was trying to get the team playing proper football.

He said as much in post match interview.

This. 

I can't believe fans aren't recognising we were a better team in the second half because of the changes.

Yes we had to be patient (ball going back and sideways), but they had 11 men behind the ball? In fact, our most attacking threats came from when we were really patient and pulled and stretched PNE's solid shape, by ironically going side to side and spreading play. 

If we go in at 0-0 at HT, I think we win. 

Frustrating night, but anyone who thinks we're gunna walk all over every team is mad. I actually think a reality check now and then is good for fans and a young group of players, keeps us on our toes and we have responded well to set backs so far this season. 

Up the City 

[SStandUp]

2 hours ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

I am sure I will get slated by some on here, but for me the improvement 2nd half was Pack, he was looking to get us on the front foot and moving forward

Bang on .. Him and Eliasson linked up so many times .. Mainly instigated by pack !

[spudski]

30 minutes ago, The Bard said:

Good points though you seem to have something against Korey Smith.  Obviously weren't at Fulham where he was immense. He's been moved around too much recently and eventually that effects your performance.  The others don't have the same excuse..  

He had a poor game last night as did Bryan, Brownhill, O'Dowda, Reid, Wright and Patterson (who clearly isn't right).  Eliasson looked lively though and if we'd had Duric on when he was putting crosses into the box we may have had some joy.  He does things quickly which should mean he can be effective in the Championship and unlike Leko he seems to have a decent football brain.

We need to send both Woodrow and Leko back and get someone into CM who has a bit of a presence. Preferably left footed.  Johnson from PNE, Bannan or Charlie Adam would do. Add a right back and a striker as well.  

Nothing against Korey...I just feel he and our other CM's are too inconsistent for us to achieve a play off position.

Good on their day, but wayyyy too inconsistent imo.

Top 10 is achievable with what we have, but for us to get in that play off spot, I really do think we need upgrades in both Pack, Smith, GoN and Hegeler in that CM department.

Just my opinion...like I said, all good on their day, but far too inconsistent for the spot we are presently in...imo.

Add that to the injuries...and we shall see.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

9 minutes ago, spudski said:

Nothing against Korey...I just feel he and our other CM's are too inconsistent for us to achieve a play off position.

Good on their day, but wayyyy too inconsistent imo.

Top 10 is achievable with what we have, but for us to get in that play off spot, I really do think we need upgrades in both Pack, Smith, GoN and Hegeler in that CM department.

Just my opinion...like I said, all good on their day, but far too inconsistent for the spot we are presently in...imo.

Add that to the injuries...and we shall see.

Sorry but ok it's your opinion but that is without doubt Smith's only blip since he returned to full fitness well over 2 months ago, over that period he has been the most important and consistent player in the team and a cornerstone of success during that period, games where results were won by midfield dominance and that is something that I never thought I would be saying

[SedRA]

59 minutes ago, The Bard said:

Good points though you seem to have something against Korey Smith.  Obviously weren't at Fulham where he was immense. He's been moved around too much recently and eventually that effects your performance.  The others don't have the same excuse..  

He had a poor game last night as did Bryan, Brownhill, O'Dowda, Reid, Wright and Patterson (who clearly isn't right).  Eliasson looked lively though and if we'd had Duric on when he was putting crosses into the box we may have had some joy.  He does things quickly which should mean he can be effective in the Championship and unlike Leko he seems to have a decent football brain.

We need to send both Woodrow and Leko back and get someone into CM who has a bit of a presence. Preferably left footed.  Johnson from PNE, Bannan or Charlie Adam would do. Add a right back and a striker as well.  

 

24 minutes ago, spudski said:

Nothing against Korey...I just feel he and our other CM's are too inconsistent for us to achieve a play off position.

Good on their day, but wayyyy too inconsistent imo.

Top 10 is achievable with what we have, but for us to get in that play off spot, I really do think we need upgrades in both Pack, Smith, GoN and Hegeler in that CM department.

Just my opinion...like I said, all good on their day, but far too inconsistent for the spot we are presently in...imo.

Add that to the injuries...and we shall see.

I'm gonna keep banging this drum up until the Jan window is over, but I think we should make a big money move for Ryan Woods from Brentford before his price goes astronomical. Him and a quality striker would take this team up a notch.