Dolman_Stand

The Leeds game is now on the red button....hopefully Reading follow suit.

Bilic out then surely?

Better than Louis Carey in his pomp?

If we beat Barnsley on Saturday we would have won 3 of our last 4 in the league, with the Brentford game having mitigating circumstances I.e. being down to 10 men for 80 minutes. We could also be back in the top 6 with a win. Who else in the country would even be discussing the managers position in this scenario?

Who?

He's been pretty decent of late, wonder whether th talk of two strikers coming in has given him a bit of added motivation?

Is it being streamed anywhere?

Almost certainly will be on the telly now with the prize on offer?

And bringing in another manager within the same division with the same group of players is 100% guaranteed to eradicte this is it? We are not at the level of WBA / Leeds / Villa where a top six finish should be the bare minimum expactation at this level, look at the sides in and around us i.e. Fulham, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby, Middlesbrough, Forest, Birmingham most of which have spent much longer historically at this level (or above) and even they struggle to nail down a consistent top-6 finish year on year and no doubt go on similar good / bad runs to ourselves IMO that is true perspective. The exceptions to the rule are the likes of Brentford this year and Sheffield United before them but remeber they are the exception not the rule.

It happens to almost every side in the Championship, look at PNE, Fulham, SHeff.Wed who have all had poor spells recently, on the flip side Hull, Boro and Reading have recently put good runs together. We don't have a divine right to be top-6 at this level it is an incredibly tough league and a bit of perspective is needed at times.

I do understand why people are frustrated at the moment, ultimately we aren't playing well at the moment and that will breed frustration, I just feel that we are a long way from being at the point where the manager's position should be under threat. It was only a month ago that we won at Fulham and everything was rosy in the Ashton Gate garden so things can change quickly, would anyone really be that suprised if in a months time we are back on an upward trajectory? I can't recall many disenting voices in the summer when he signed his new contract in fact it was quite the opposite and seen as a positive. The play-offs are still within striking distance and all is not yet lost, if the season fizzles out and we end up nowhere near them or lower half then I agree the conversations should be being had but only at that point. I also think everyone should bear in mind that whoever replaces LJ if we do pull the trigger will be of a similar ilk i.e. more coaching based than managerial as it fits the business model that the club has decided to utilise.

Whatever the man says it feels like this forum will look to pick it apart and use it against him. It does feel like a continuation of the abuse he got as a player and the stick he gets is much more intense and comes for lesser reasons than any manager I can remember in the 25 years I've followed City. We are on a bad run, it happens, if we sack a manager everytime it happens we will go through managers like nobodies business. I don't think his position is or should be under threat at present, the earliest we should be having any discussions of this nature is the end of this season.

Denly Sibley Crawley Root Stokes Pope Buttler Curran Bess Broad Anderson

Difficult to defend at the moment (pardon the pun). Ultimately if we can snap out of this rut sharpish then their is still all to play for, we are in no danger of relegation and if we can put a run of results together in the same way Millwall, Reading, Hull and Boro have done over the last month or so then the play-offs is still a strong posibility. Fulham and Preston are currently in similar poor form which only highlights how close this league is at the moment. In LJ's defence he has continually had to rebuild a team following the loss of players in almost every summer window I can recall which is going to make producing a consistent cohesive team performance very difficult to achieve, on top of this due to our policy of signing young players with potential resale value we are always going to have to live with individual errors / inconsistencies associated with younger players. We have had a serious injury problem this season with Afobe, Kalas, Dasilva, Nagyetc being out for prolonged spells which will only further disrupt what we are trying to achieve. For all of those reasons I do sympathise with LJ and don't believe he should be sacked as it stands, what I think irks alot of people is the use of "corporate" language i.e. DNA, Identity, Culture etc. It sounds great when results are going well but when the pressure is on I think fans would prefer the use of more normal approach to media. I don't think SL is going to be looking at making any change at this moment in time, if the season peters out and we end up bottom half it is a possibility in the summer though. WHat people need to rememebr though is we are only going to be looking at a similar type of coach to replace him given our internal structure so be careful what you wish for!

Agreed although it was Bentley's failure to hold the shot that led to the second goal rather than a lack of cover at CB. Whatever LJ did or didn't do following AW's red card he was going to be criticised for.