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

[Robbored]

14 minutes ago, RedSA said:

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. 

I'm sure LJ is fully aware of how thin the cover is in the midfield and will have a shopping list of who he'd like MA to try and sign in the winter window.

Woods could well be on that list as could Bannon. I wonder who else?

[SedRA]

21 minutes ago, Robbored said:

I'm sure LJ is fully aware of how thin the cover is in the midfield and will have a shopping list of who he'd like MA to try and sign in the winter window.

Woods could well be on that list as could Bannon. I wonder who else?

I'd guess also some targets from the European market as those two will be large fees and a lot of competition. I'm not clued up on who would be reasonable targets for us from Europe though. 

[redsquirrel]

another thing to remember is being where we are and the number of defeats conceded, all lower teams are going to up their game significantly because they feel they need  to. i couldnt go last night but it sounded like preston had a plan and stuck to it.

[cheesleywalksoncider]

4 hours 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.

Totally agree @RedDave any team this season that has constantly pressed us has given us problems. Press us from the off and make Fielding think about his distribution and we look a different side. I guess one answer is being comfortable not having the ball, problem is when you have a lot of the ball and don't really cause any problems sooner or later you will come unstuck. I'm sure Johnson knows this but we do need to have an alternative plan as more sides will be aware of this and keep playing a high press game.

The one thing that did disappoint me last night was the players continued to play a long ball to Djuric in the first half. It clearly wasn't working, from what Johnson said in the interview it was what they planned for so why persist, we certainly have enough quality players in the side to run at teams and try and create space behind.

Hopefully it was bad night at the office and we come roaring back on Saturday. COYR

 

 

[Corsham Alf]

I have to agree with the consensus here. Our midfield (centrally) needs a major upgrade if we are to progress. Pack and Korey don’t provide the thrust and pace that we need. Its always safety first or sideways. Pack is very one paced.

Eliasson did well last night when he came on and has pace and quick feet. He needs time though to mature but one for the future.

Woodrow is simply miles off the pace and we genuinely may as well send him back come Jan. He offers us nothing.

lots to be positive about but no place for sentiment to move forward.

 

[Esmond Million's Bung]

1 hour ago, Corsham Alf said:

I have to agree with the consensus here. Our midfield (centrally) needs a major upgrade if we are to progress. Pack and Korey don’t provide the thrust and pace that we need. Its always safety first or sideways. Pack is very one paced.

Eliasson did well last night when he came on and has pace and quick feet. He needs time though to mature but one for the future.

Woodrow is simply miles off the pace and we genuinely may as well send him back come Jan. He offers us nothing.

lots to be positive about but no place for sentiment to move forward.

 

I really do not for the life of me understand the negativity about Smith, he has been our most consistent player over the past few months and as I said on another thread the cornerstone of our midfield when we have actually dominated games in the area, something that we rarely did last season.

Recently his performance at Fulham was superb, his 2 full back performances covering for Wright at right back show how adaptable and important he is to the team.

He has had one really bad game and suddenly he is deemed not good enough. What was patently obvious last night was as good as Brownhill was on Saturday (and be sure he is a great talent), he was pretty poor for all of the game last night, bullied for 90 minutes and he was not physically strong enough to stand up to Preston's physical approach. Patterson should never have been selected and that was last night's problem 2 players being bullied by a physical team and not being able to stand up to that bullying.

The problem with our midfield is Smith and Pack are too similar but Smith is consistent and Pack is not, your contention of thrust and pace is all well and good but what about the stuff like tackling, breaking up moves and then the sideways pass to somebody who can open defences up?, attacking midfielder yes we need one but one who is an upgrade and one who can also defend.

[John jo]

8 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

I agree , we kept the ball much better with pack on , he’s so quietly affective just does the simple stuff easy and as I said before he reminds me of carrick type of player so underrated I think 

[BCFC Rich]

A big part of what went wrong with Preston was starting Djuric and not adapting our game. LJ acknowledged this (in part) in his post-match. But this runs a bit deeper – there is a reason LJ sees him as a plan B not a like for like replacement for Fammy.

It’s clear from our signings that LJ wants to use wingers, it is also clear from watching our games a key part of our attacking play is hitting direct balls quickly into the front line, we try to make this diagonal where possible. This tactic is about making space through the middle. For this part of our tactics to work, the ball is hit into space diagonally and we rely on the forward being underneath it. This is the part of Fammy’s game that is mostly ignored.

When Woodrow came in early in the season we hit the same balls but he didn’t get under them.

Against Preston, we played Djuric and despite his strengths, he is not as mobile as any of our other forwards (some of this will be due to not yet being 100%). Consequently, he doesn’t press in the way our other forwards do and he doesn’t move too the ball in the way Fammy does. This is probably why the players resorted to balls lumped into wherever Djuric was or into the spaces Fammy would have managed to get to. It’s also why Taylor has been relatively successful in the (almost target man) role because his movement is exceptionally good.

[pnefcok]

AN's view on the game and his tactics - https://www.lep.co.uk/sport/football/preston-north-end/homework-was-a-big-part-of-pne-s-win-at-bristol-city-says-alex-neil-1-8871038

Quote

Preston North End boss Alex Neil revealed that a study of Bristol City's past line-ups helped influence his tactics in Tuesday night's victory at Ashton Gate.

Neil switched to a 4-4-2 formation for the clash with the Robins and didn't employ a high pressing game as has been the case for most of the season.

In particular, City's 2-1 win over Cardiff earlier in the month caught his eye from a tactical point of view.

Neil said: "I looked at the team sheets from the games Bristol City had played.

"We knew that Milan Djuric had played against Cardiff, and that Cardiff are a high pressing team who want to hunt.

"What Bristol City wanted in that game was an outlet to bypass the press and then play off the front.

"I decided not to use the high press because that is what they expected from us.

"When the big fella Djuric started, I knew that was perfect for us.

"We sat deep and when they hit the ball, we had plenty of bodies to mop up.

"Then we could go and hit them on the counter-attack.

"We narrowed the pitch off, meaning they had to play down the outside of us rather than through us because they played with a front two."

Neil had commented before the game that he saw similarities between North End and Bristol City, and he held the same view after the final whistle.

The Scotsman said: "The similarities were something we had spoken about.

"I know Lee Johnson has admiration for our energy in the middle of the pitch, equally they put their energetic players in the middle to try and counteract that.

"Both teams have got big lads who are targets, they have good pace on the flanks and good quality players in the middle of the pitch."

 

[Offside]

16 minutes ago, pnefcok said:

AN's view on the game and his tactics - https://www.lep.co.uk/sport/football/preston-north-end/homework-was-a-big-part-of-pne-s-win-at-bristol-city-says-alex-neil-1-8871038

 

Interesting - different from how I saw it because I thought one of the things Preston did well was to press City’s players quite high up the pitch, especially in the first half. 

[JoeAman08]

7 hours ago, Offside said:

Interesting - different from how I saw it because I thought one of the things Preston did well was to press City’s players quite high up the pitch, especially in the first half. 

They did press but mixed it up. Sometimes they would press us on goal kicks. Other times they would drop deep and not really press until almost the halfway line. Think there were multiple times our players expected a press and it was not there but the ball was still pumped forward. So players need to take some blame there. Sure you go in with a tactical plan but when you see your tactics are wrong you need to take responsibility to make the right play. Too many times COD was not marked in the first half but never even looked at him instead played it 40 yards to Milan. COD got it once late in the first half and drew the foul in a good area and saw their LB booked. There were holes in that Preston side but we chose to ignore them, first half especially. 

[phantom]

Now I am concerned . . .