bearded_red

Don’t worry, there hasn’t been any. Slow possession played in front of the other team is about as far away from ‘expansive attacking play’ as you can get. You rightly point out the goal at Huddersfield, I’m probably being slightly facetious, but I didn’t understand the great enthusiasm from people clearly (somehow) excited about the football Manning is supposedly trying to play for the first half at Southampton when let’s be clear, the opposition had the ball and we played counter attack.. so we played the football we were best at under Nige?

The issue is surely there was absolutely no need at all for there to be ‘early days’. It was a team performing to a perfectly adequate level, the ability and level of performance possible in the team was being shown. There was no under performance, there was no threat of relegation, there was no mutiny within the squad. Nothing was ‘wrong’. No manager in my time watching has ever taken over in as good a position. So there is no need for any particular amount of patience. For example, some people will find this hilarious, but I wasn’t in support of the sacking of Sean O’Driscoll at the time because I felt there should be more patience due to the absolute shambles he had taken over, Gary Johnson received nothing but support from me through the record losing run because, again, the situation he inherited needed time to sort out. This isn’t the case here, if Liam Manning replacing Nigel Pearson was correct, then the outcome would be clear much quicker than usual with changes of manager at City. The (very) early signs are that it wasn’t. Our players are not perfect, they play for us for crying out loud. But we are now seeing players receiving a lot of criticism and people talking about mass clear outs and however many signings needed to come in. Nobody would be saying any of these things if Pearson was still manager. We would still be a style suited our players, and has been recruited for over the past three years windows. It was a joke of a decision, and even if Manning does get this ‘right’, I think it’s surely clear that we have been hugely set back as a club. I’m afraid it is difficult to be ‘patient’ when it just feels like an act of self sabotage

Have to say I thought Wells and Naismith were great tonight. So much better than the usual laughable propaganda.

As much as I have been completely unimpressed so far, I have absolutely nothing against Manning and have felt the Lee Johnson comparisons have been totally unfair. This, however, is peak Lee Johnson. If anything, I’ve coached them too well. Absolute garbage.

If people keep telling themselves ‘the football is better in places’ I’m sure it’ll come true eventually. But it isn't. It’s crap. I liked having a style of play that suited our squad rather than one that doesn’t make use of their strengths and exposes their weaknesses. Got rid or a pragmatic manager that knew how to get the best out of his players for one that wants to coach out of the textbook. Oh and by they way, I’m certain other teams allow their most dangerous attacking player to play 90 minutes rather than dragging him off every single game.

Tell daddy to sell up and **** off.

It’s all going really ******* well isn’t it.

Remember though, some genuine idiots will bring up Nige’s record after he took over, pretending he wasn’t inheriting that absolute omnishambles. Your man from Guernsey should be thanking him daily for the job he did. The state he found compared to what he left. What a job he did. Cheers Nige.

Shambolic football club.

We were joking at the ground in the summer that due to just how bare the cupboard is, Bashir probably wasn’t far away from the squad. I can’t say I actually thought he’d make it though, at least not from the start, maybe drafted in after some injuries and poor performances. It seems there’s been a Lions tour to the UAE the past month or so where they’ve basically taken every single bloke under about 25 that has ever bowled a bit of spin and Bashir had came out in front. Taking four spinners to India in which Rehan Ahmed at 20 has the second most amount of test wickets does rather suggest what we should all know however, that we’re going to get thrashed.

Yes Bash!

I bet it has.

Frankly, if the early Sykes substitution last week and yesterday aren’t anything to do with a niggle or managing his minutes for whatever reason, then they are two of the maddest substitutions I’ve ever seen. The bloke is by so far currently our most threatening player.

My theory, and it could be complete nonsense, is Nige loved throwing him on because Nige loved the pace and chaos he could provide even if there are currently elements of his game that are miles off Championship level. Manning it seems wants control, Yeboah at this point doesn’t provide that. Personally, I think there is often a case for throwing in some pace and chaos late on in a game, and would like to see him get a run late on late on in games. Especially when, to be honest, I have absolutely no interest in watching Mehmeti take a million touches to achieve the square root of nothing.

In the main, no. The criticism was not unjustified. The only slight caveat to that, was I did feel at the time that there seemed to be a large section of fans that held him totally responsible for the utter mess we got into and allowed Steve Lansdown and Lee Johnson to get off scot-free. The main person responsible was always obviously Lansdown for allowing such shambolic overspending and Johnson, as he is currently proving once again, is an absolute fraud of a football manager who was never going to achieve anything regardless of how many millions you endlessly throw at him. Luckily, two of the people named have now left the club, I eagerly await the day Steve Lansdown joins them.

It was two, he was fine in one of them and we were absolutely desperate with literally nobody fit at the club that played in that position. Today Cameron Pring was on the bench watching Sam Bell play left wingback for crying out loud.

Always thought he’d make a brilliant left wing back. Said nobody ever.

Well done Lee.

Should have played a few more right footed players in the starting eleven I reckon.

The weather didn’t help today, and Huddersfield were even worse, but Jesus Christ it’s a tough watch isn’t it.

Same here, for all the talk (which I’ve been more than guilty of myself) of the passing around the back, the clear instruction for Conway to not press has been the most disappointing aspect of the games so far under Manning.

Well that was my point really!

I never for a second believed we would have Alex Scott this season so any expectation relied on some of the money from his sale being spent on two or three players that the squad is clearly lacking. Under that assumption I wanted us to be in the top half, hopefully with an outside sniff of the playoffs until deep into the season. All while continuing to build the club, develop the younger players and become a team that can be more comfortable in possession and not rely quite so heavily on the counter attack. Those players never came, and he was disgracefully sacked. I'm now reading that we need to overhaul the squad so the new manager can move to a completely different style of football. A truly preposterous football club.

Budget was maxed out in August wasn’t it? Shouldn’t be any signings without people leaving.

This has also surprised me. What ‘better’ is is obviously subjective, one man’s attacking, gung ho football is another’s kick and rush. One man’s cultured, modern possession is another man’s mind numbingly dull tippy tappy rubbish. However, of all the people I talk to about City, with various different views on the current state of the club (Lansdowns, Pearson, this squad etc), all of them have found the football incredibly dull. In fact at halftime on Sunday, while winning obviously, I bumped into a lad I used to play football with, haven’t spoken to him in a couple of years, first thing he said.. ‘Jesus, this is ******* boring isn’t it’. All I could hear from people around me at the game on Sunday was moaning how crap it was. I know during the reaction to Pearson leaving there was an accusation that the views on this forum in no way reflected the wider fan base, but in my experience the views on here that are positive about the football played so far under Manning are completely at odds with everyone I’ve spoken to that doesn’t post on here.