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Mental strength


PeterStyvarsRightFoot

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This evening , it has truly proven how much of a mental affect this run has had on the team pre Xmas and post Xmas.

 

yes we were out of steam for a while. But they're fit and firing , the one thing is..... the knock they took against wolves has set them back a country mile, it's almost like having an anxiety disorder,

when one thing goes wrong you begin to fear everything goes wrong.

when something goes right, everything goes right.

It's such a shame things are beginning to crumble as they are. I do believe if we find that steel about us, that was there throughout October/ November / December. We'll turn it around but it's slipping out of our hands if it continues .

there were positives today I feel though, we took the game to Leeds in the first 45 and could've had 3 or 4, but we need to Make it count.

the phrase 'lessons learnt ' is very vague but I genuinely believe we did learn lessons from Sunderland , it's just aggravating when you put out one fire. Another raises.

lets get behind them Wednesday now.

we saw how much a big crowd cheering you on can impact this evening.

its still in our hands , time to play points make prizes.

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Sorry but blaming it on the cup run is a poor excuse. In 2013, Bradford City reached the Football League Cup Final. While at the same time reaching promotion from League Two, to League One. At the time, Bradford City FC spoke about the league cup run gave them the momentum to get promoted to League One. 

You cannot look for easy excuses simples because the status quo changed. The players and management have a lot of work to do, and need to stop all the BS excuses. The season dynamics change, and as a professional must put in the work from the first game to the last. 

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19 minutes ago, Red_Wizard said:

Sorry but blaming it on the cup run is a poor excuse. In 2013, Bradford City reached the Football League Cup Final. While at the same time reaching promotion from League Two, to League One. At the time, Bradford City FC spoke about the league cup run gave them the momentum to get promoted to League One. 

You cannot look for easy excuses simples because the status quo changed. The players and management have a lot of work to do, and need to stop all the BS excuses. The season dynamics change, and as a professional must put in the work from the first game to the last. 

Interesting comparison re Bradford. Between the end of December and the end of March they only managed 3 wins in 16 league games. They got promoted, but finished 7th.

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Mental toughness is missing for me. At 2-0 today we've got to be thinking about closing the game down and not going for the 3rd goal, put the pressure back on Leeds. Same should've been with Sunderland, 3-0 at home is comfortable against an ex Prem team that is going straight back down for back to back relegations.

If anything, change formations whilst still in front, 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2 or 5-3-2.....the team needs to be flexible enough to understand when it needs to change, both for attacking as well as defending. The players on the pitch need to be able to drop in when defending and keep structure and discipline, particularly when under pressure.

Not sure if we have the players to take this on board but would like to think that LJ knows it and has practised at some point.

These leads we keep throwing away are crippling, not just for momentum but also for confidence. I'm amazed that someone like Flinty isn't going ballistic when we concede and isn't then organising and moving everyone to where they need to be. We seem to be far too soft and accommodating of our collective fate once we concede.

Going ahead is one thing, keeping the lead is quite another, especially 2 or 3. I know we joke about 2-0 being the most dangerous scoreline but today proved that, you just knew when Leeds scored the 2nd wasn't too far behind. And thank heavens for the crossbar to save a humiliating 3-2 defeat.

Somehow this team, and i include all the management and backroom staff, need to find a way, mentally collectively, to bolster much more mental toughness and fortitude when up against it.

Hopefully we won't go through another game like today or Sunderland in the remaining games of the season.....but we know it will. And sadly i think the team do, too.

Having said that, onwards and upwards. One team, one city - Bristol City!

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Good post @BanburyRed.

There are several areas we could’ve improved on tonight, that might’ve changed the outcome.

I do think LJ (and I include DH, JM and the analysts in this too) reacted too slowly to the Roofe and Sacko subs.  We all know Roofe is a nippy wide forward and Sacko a bustling right winger with pace, and in Sacko’s case particularly, they were gonna try to get him 1on1 with Bryan.  We got stretched, the gaps between attack and midfield, midfield and defence grew.  Happening quite regularly in second halves of games of late.

We didn’t have a defensive player on the bench with the exception of Kelly, who is very inexperienced.  But in hindsight I’d have chucked him on instead of Kent and just told him to support Bryan defensively, like he did v Reading.  It’s a bit like Wayne Bridge did with Ashley Cole in WC Japan (I think).

Could even have gone 4-6-0 without the ball.

We appeared to do nothing....until 2-1, when Brownhill’s injury forced a change....although Woodrow was about to come on, and was delayed by the injury / corner....that ultimately became 2-2.

We have to be able to react to the opposition changes.  There are good players in virtually every squad, and some of them capable of turning games on heads.  We need to spot these and do something about them.  We aren’t good enough to just play our game and win through.  

In fairness to LJ, they got it spot on after 55-60 v QPR....but can’t take the praise without the criticism.

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We lack leaders on the pitch. This has been our problem since last season and hasn't been addressed.

Players will panic. You need steadying heads on the pitch to galvanise the mood and bring things back into perspective. We don't have that. We have panic followed by long balls and dwelling on the ball whilst in possession that leads to us being dispossessed which in turn brings fresh panic.

Ability wise our players are good enough to challenge for a place in the premier league. 

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2 hours ago, cidered abroad said:

It goes back a lot further than Wolves on 30 December. 

We've been bottling games for the last two years! How much longer do we have to put up with it and try to make up excuses for them, to hide our disbelief that it still ruins our future. 

ignore atyeos lift obviously an idiot.

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It's obviously frustrating to lose leads the way that we have in the past week, but measured over the course of the season, there isn't any significant statistical evidence of a problem here. You could certainly make a case that our defending / goals conceded has deteriorated including and since that Wolves game (14 goals in 8 games after 24 goals in 24 games), but there is no actual trend of throwing away matches, or of not winning games we're leading (W7 D3 L0 when leading at half time).

5a8a7b319d4db_ScreenShot2018-02-19at07_22_32.thumb.png.a6703604990b9235bb1a9bd17a3c19ba.png 

I'm saying this having just stared at pages of different Championship statistics to see if there are any unusual patterns for our team relative to our position. There aren't.

Perhaps you might call out that in minutes 71-80 of matches our goals for/against record of 3-9 is an unusually concentrated swing against us and the biggest gap for or against us at any time in matches (it's also 24% of all our goals conceded coming in one ten minute period), but add in the final ten minutes (or indeed the whole second half) and we more than give as good as we get - i.e. swings and roundabouts.

Now, I did say there were no statistically significant trends relative to our position. That is a lie. There is one.

We are second in the league for minutes spent in losing positions - only Wolves have spent less time behind in matches than us. So for all the soul-searching about blowing decent leads over the past week, lets remember that we are a team that not only isn't getting beaten very often, but very rarely lets matches run away from us. Those are the attributes of players with plenty of focus and fight - and two bad second halves don't change that.

  5a8a7efb8f25b_ScreenShot2018-02-19at07_11_29.thumb.png.b39b33a3a10dc5cbf56b2b87831057cd.png

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I come back to something I said in another thread - in situations like this no one seems to take account of the other side.  The fault seems to lie exclusively with us.  All sorts of theories being put down as to why we didn't win yesterday, but the reality is this:

  • We came at Leeds early on, put them on the back foot, scored a couple of goals due to our speed of play and incessant pressure, and made it very difficult for Leeds to recover.
  • They had a 15 minute break at half time which enabled them to regroup and rethink their approach.
  • They came out in the second half with new confidence, and pushed us back.  We dropped deeper to defend, and found it difficult to regain the positional dominance we had in the first half.
  • We let in two goals, not least because of one or two individual errors.  Errors happen (though it's noticeable that much of the damage against us is coming down the right side these days, and Joe Bryan is not coming out well as a defender in crisis situations).  
  • Leeds built on the confidence a goal gave them.
  • We are still a good team.

Another team drew 2-2 yesterday.  Are we to assume that Spurs lack mental toughness because they were held by Rochdale?  Because they didn't trail 0-2 at any stage, does that make their 2-2 draw any more acceptable?

Football is a game of two sides, and each can influence the game.  We saw in the second half that Leeds are capable of playing some good football, so a draw is not a bad result.

 

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8 hours ago, pillred said:

where would you like me to start, or perhaps you can explain why we lost a good lead in two consecutive games we had completely dominated, look forward to hearing it.

Because it’s football, and shit happens? Both results poor in the context of the games but Christ, you’d think we were the first team to ever throw away a couple of leads. 

We’ve won games from behind and we’ve drawn/lost games from being ahead. That’s life for about 88 teams in the football league. 

Some reality check is needed for a fair few on here (nothing personal to you) 

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10 hours ago, cidered abroad said:

It goes back a lot further than Wolves on 30 December. 

We've been bottling games for the last two years! How much longer do we have to put up with it and try to make up excuses for them, to hide our disbelief that it still ruins our future. 

'Bottling games'?  What does that mean?  So every time a team loses a lead they have 'bottled it'?  Football would be so easy if it was just a question of scoring a goal and then routinely seeing out the game. 

As to our future, it looks pretty rosy to me and I've been following City for a long time.  We are, as Lee has said many times, still 'a work in progress' and 'ahead of schedule'.  I'm surprised that he hasn't been round to yours to apologise personally for our failure to win every match this season without conceding any goals.  Outrageous.  Still, with a bit of luck we should just avoid relegation, eh?

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4 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

'Bottling games'?  What does that mean?  So every time a team loses a lead they have 'bottled it'?  Football would be so easy if it was just a question of scoring a goal and then routinely seeing out the game. 

As to our future, it looks pretty rosy to me and I've been following City for a long time.  We are, as Lee has said many times, still 'a work in progress' and 'ahead of schedule'.  I'm surprised that he hasn't been round to yours to apologise personally for our failure to win every match this season without conceding any goals.  Outrageous.  Still, with a bit of luck we should just avoid relegation, eh?

Our fans do this every time we have the slightest whiff of anything, all of a sudden forget anything good that’s happened. We’re 6th FFS, anyone would think reading here that we were in a relegation scrap. 

There were actually calls for Johnson to resign on here last night, absolutely embarassing. 

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3 minutes ago, BRISTOL86 said:

Our fans do this every time we have the slightest whiff of anything, all of a sudden forget anything good that’s happened. We’re 6th FFS, anyone would think reading here that we were in a relegation scrap. 

There were actually calls for Johnson to resign on here last night, absolutely embarassing. 

Another sign of improvement is that this current run is a comparable ‘poor run of form’ - but with far less defeats. It’s the equivalent of last season’s poor form over winter.

Johnson is a streaky manager, always has been. I take comfort in that because it’s a pretty safe bet to assume we’ll have a good run of form before the season ends.

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2 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Another sign of improvement is that this current run is a comparable ‘poor run of form’ - but with far less defeats. It’s the equivalent of last season’s poor form over winter.

Johnson is a streaky manager, always has been. I take comfort in that because it’s a pretty safe bet to assume we’ll have a good run of form before the season ends.

We’re vastly improved from last season in all aspects, even our ‘bad runs’. Our bad run last season took us from playoffs to looking doomed to League One. The ‘bad run’ this year has seen us never drop out of the top six. 

Some people seriously need to get some perspective.  

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19 minutes ago, BRISTOL86 said:

We’re vastly improved from last season in all aspects, even our ‘bad runs’. Our bad run last season took us from playoffs to looking doomed to League One. The ‘bad run’ this year has seen us never drop out of the top six. 

Some people seriously need to get some perspective.  

I still think we’ll make playoffs. Very disappointed with the last two results but still believe we can do it.

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18 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Another sign of improvement is that this current run is a comparable ‘poor run of form’ - but with far less defeats. It’s the equivalent of last season’s poor form over winter.

Johnson is a streaky manager, always has been. I take comfort in that because it’s a pretty safe bet to assume we’ll have a good run of form before the season ends.

We may not because we do not have to battle against relegation. The bright spot of this season.

But as this season has panned out, we are wasting a golden opportunity to achieve the impossible when there aren't two teams at the top who are nailed on like Newcastle and Brighton were last year.

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5 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

We may not because we do not have to battle against relegation. The bright spot of this season.

But as this season has panned out, we are wasting a golden opportunity to achieve the impossible when there aren't two teams at the top who are nailed on like Newcastle and Brighton were last year.

LJ’s record indicates we will, it’s a Jekyll and Hyde feature of his management. Battle against relegation is last season’s equivalent of this season’s battle for the playoffs.

 

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21 minutes ago, cidered abroad said:

We may not because we do not have to battle against relegation. The bright spot of this season.

But as this season has panned out, we are wasting a golden opportunity to achieve the impossible when there aren't two teams at the top who are nailed on like Newcastle and Brighton were last year.

I think we have had more than one bright spot this season.

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1 hour ago, Olé said:

there is no actual trend of throwing away matches, or of not winning games we're leading (W7 D3 L0 when leading at half time).

5a8a7b319d4db_ScreenShot2018-02-19at07_22_32.thumb.png.a6703604990b9235bb1a9bd17a3c19ba.png 

in minutes 71-80 of matches our goals for/against record of 3-9 is an unusually concentrated swing against us

We are second in the league for minutes spent in losing positions - only Wolves have spent less time behind in matches than us. So for all the soul-searching about blowing decent leads over the past week, lets remember that we are a team that not only isn't getting beaten very often, but very rarely lets matches run away from us. Those are the attributes of players with plenty of focus and fight - and two bad second halves don't change that.

  5a8a7efb8f25b_ScreenShot2018-02-19at07_11_29.thumb.png.b39b33a3a10dc5cbf56b2b87831057cd.png

What does the red bracketed item 4 in your first table mean? We have a 42% chance of conceding a lead? Is that up to and including Sunderland?; i assume it does not yet include Leeds.

Moreover, below your first table, i think is the crux of it all; we are seeing a lot of points dropped, in the last 2 months especially, during these latter stages. We are far from alone but its hurting us comparable to the teams around us and those are the stats that matter. It all comes down to a strong defence and ours, in whole, is not; it is being compensated for by a superb midfield and the two strikers when they work well together. For me the problems are very clear to see; right and left back and the still missing commanding midfielder even if only a sub to see out games.

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2 minutes ago, havanatopia said:

What does the red bracketed item 4 in your first table mean? We have a 42% chance of conceding a lead? Is that up to and including Sunderland?; i assume it does not yet include Leeds.

The 4 in brackets is just a footnote reference to note 4 below it, on how they calculate the number (ratio between equalisers conceded versus goals scored to go in front), in other words we concede an equaliser 42% as many times as we take the lead. Which isn't particularly good, but not unusual.

Here's an overall table for the league on the types of goals scored or conceded. We've conceded 10 equalisers this season. So have Fulham. Technically we're joint second worst in the league for this, with the important caveat that you can't concede equalisers unless you're scoring goals first too.

5a8a9d2a77619_ScreenShot2018-02-19at09_45_31.thumb.png.436463a6223bf8e24c629176d1f4b1a1.png

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@havanatopia - they don't report this in a table itself, but the above table I just posted of types of goals scored/conceded, the "Opponents ability to equalise", for which we are 42%, would be the red equalise column divided by the blue take the lead column... which would produce this table. In which we're not statistically significant (but Hull on the other hand, you want to talk about bottlers!).

5a8a9eeba221c_ScreenShot2018-02-19at09_54_49.thumb.png.6bd638458c088f78e92e44bef60c3657.png

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Good to see Fulham close to us. Significantly Cardiff, Villa, Derby are all low in that table. They know how to manage games, see them out. Fulham and City probably play the more attractive football but they overlook the boring part. Maybe that is just it; you can get one part right but not the other unless you are truly a great team.

No real surprise then that the two managers known for their rather route one football, Cardiff and Boro, are right down the bottom of that table. Perhaps Pulis is not entirely responsible for Boro though given his short tenure.

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1 hour ago, BRISTOL86 said:

Because it’s football, and shit happens? Both results poor in the context of the games but Christ, you’d think we were the first team to ever throw away a couple of leads. 

We’ve won games from behind and we’ve drawn/lost games from being ahead. That’s life for about 88 teams in the football league. 

Some reality check is needed for a fair few on here (nothing personal to you) 

I think it's because they were back to back, it just feels worse, would be interesting to know if any other team in the championship had done anything like it this season.

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