Dr Balls

If (an absolutely enormous “if” that is so large it can be seen from space!) we win tomorrow, I can guarantee it won’t be because we will have been playing “Manningball”!

The list of those with experience leaving AG under Lansdown goes back further than that. The Coppell “cameo” showed that a real football person with a brain (degree in economics iirc) took a week or so to work out that there was something very wrong with the way the club was run by the owner. The owner who brought in David James as goalkeeper on an enormous contract without informing the manager!

The real question is why wasn’t Nige going to be offered a new contract, considering he has done everything that has been asked of him to that point? Why didn’t they trust Nige and Phil Alexander to get on with using some of the Scott money to invest in players? How did they manage to lose 2 men with over 60 years’ worth of top football experience, including time at the highest level, in the space of just over a month? Why did they think that they could cope without that experience? Was it arrogance or ignorance? Why did they appoint an inexperienced League 1 coach with no actual success, but one sacking in just over 2 years, to replace Nige? Why was Tinnion elevated from Head of the Academy to Head of Recruitment and then to Technical Director, when his only period as a manager ended after just over a season in League 1 with us and in failure? How did we end up with a “board” that has only 2 people, one of whom is the son of the owner and the other was the Bristol Sport accountant? Why were all of the other board members removed over time and not replaced? All of these questions would help explain why we find ourselves in the position we do now, with a team in a terrible run of form, playing some of the dullest football ever witnessed at Ashton Gate, from a Head Coach who is out of his depth, appointed by people who think they know more about professional football than they really do.

But the whole point is that Manning’s persona and attributes suit the Lansdowns. He’s not going to challenge the hierarchy at the club. He’s a “yes man” who rather than admit he’s not up to the job will blame the players for his failures. Unfortunately the reason for needing to appoint someone and then his particular appointment are a reflection of the poor leadership at the club.

Clear that Nige was a bit of a father figure for Tommy, in part because he had the confidence to play him up front at such a young age, plus pairing him with the experienced Nakhi. And the way that Manning wants the team to play would frustrate any forward. It’s Guardiola pre-Haaland, when even Aguero was sacrificed so that they could play some kind of 4-6-0 formation.

Play 4-3-3/4-5-1 with Tommy up front, 3 in midfield (to include both TGH and Knight) plus Mehmeti on the left and Sykes on the right. Try to overload them in midfield and play on the break. It’s not ****ing rocket science - play the players the way that best suits them, play the best players in each position, and stop trying to make them play to some principle that you have but that just doesn’t work on the pitch. And if you want to catch them out or give the team more space, try playing some balls from defence over the back line that make the opposition defenders turn and that Tommy (or others) can run onto.

Brentford have some decent players but at times this season they have struggled, whatever system they have played. And let’s be clear Manning is nowhere near Thomas Frank in terms of coaching/managing ability. Nor is he as honest about his own mistakes as Frank when it doesn’t go well on the pitch…

Yep. But SL can still manage 2 out of 3 this season. Not exactly maximising his investment!

I honestly don’t think they will act before it’s too late. That would be an admission of failure on their part. So is there a real risk that we could go down? Under Manning and the hierarchy at the club, absolutely. And if not this season, then next looks even more of a struggle if Manning stays. Look how Burnley have struggled under Konpany in the Premier League. This way of playing needs considerably better players than the opposition, which actually means it’s not easily transferable without considerable investment, potentially more than a club can actually afford without significant additional financial means, either being owned by a Petrostate or in the Championship, parachute payments.

@Numero Uno I am afraid Crayon Boy and the Accountant are that naive. For goodness sake they made Tinnion Technical Director. Does that suggest switched on footballing folk? A failed League 1 manager, who helped develop the Academy but has done little else. There is no way that they are going to sack Manning this season, even if we are relegated. They have made their decision and they are going to stick by it. Anyway Manning has guided a team to the playoffs in League 1 , so by their reasoning he would be the perfect coach to get us promoted again. That’s how divorced from reality they are!

And here’s another team that are proving that just because Guardiola can make it work with the very best and most expensive players doesn’t mean that his acolytes can with lesser resources: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/03/burnley-bournemouth-premier-league-match-report

The victory against Southampton was because it played to the strengths of the squad (I.e. quick transition / on the break) developed and honed by Pearson rather than the way Manning has consistently said he wants the team to play (I.e. dominate possession). As well as a real risk of a relegation battle this season, what really worries me is that Manning will be given the nest egg this summer to blow on players for his system, whichever division we are in, when I have no confidence that he knows how to actually manage players properly, or has any other set of tactics than boring the opposition to death with our lateral and backwards passing, while creating zero scoring chances of note.

Can’t see the Upper Lansdown from where I sit but given the number of empty seats in the South Stand each game, I’m guessing quite a few in what are some of the cheapest seats won’t bother renewing if they aren’t coming now.

Then the relative cost is small compared to even the amount Manning and co are costing us in player sell-on valuations. An owner who was serious about success and appropriately concerned about the failures on the pitch would be making calls right now. Which tells me won’t do anything until mid-April, by which time things could look a lot worse and the options for change a lot less.

As the saying goes “a fish rots from the head down”…

Disaffection? Yes agree there were a lot of unhappy players out there yesterday having a go at each other. McCrorie was livid with Sykes in the second half and vice versa. It all suggests that the strong, happy bonds that appeared to have been created under the previous managerial regime have gone. Doesn’t help when the new coach constantly blames the players rather than taking any blame himself for the defeats.

Processes Major, processes. It’s the one word that Manning learnt from Guardiola!

Wells and Conway have hardly been played as a combination at any point in the last 4 months so I don’t think you can say that they aren’t working well together. It happened briefly against QPR and gave us the best opportunity of a goal in the match, as Nakhi played in Tommy and his shot narrowly missed .

It would appear that Brian is keeping a low profile this morning…

It would help Conway’s valuation if the team actually played a way that even slightly suited Conway, given that he’s our best striker and the object of football is to score more goals than the opposition. That’s not a process it’s an outcome that appears to have been completely overlooked by a Head Coach who appears increasingly clueless the longer he stays in post.

Article about how Haaland is a potential problem for Guardiola because he has potentially disrupted “their processes” I.e. boring opposition teams to death with their midfield possession play and wanting to walk the ball into the net. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2024/mar/02/erling-haaland-remains-both-solution-and-problem-for-manchester-city But of course Haaland is the ultimate centre forward of modern times and gets goals that others wouldn’t just because of how he plays. What he really likes is balls played through in front of him that he can run into as per most of the 5 he scored against Luton. Helps that he has De Bruyne to play those passes. Supposedly playing Haaland and playing to Haaland’s strengths as a centre forward has made Man City more open at the back against balls behind the defence, so conceding more goals. Yet going back to how they played with “their processes” potentially strangles the flow to Haaland and negates having such a prolific goalscorer upfront. It’s no coincidence that the form of Tommy Conway and his goal scoring from open play has fallen off a cliff since Manning arrived. The tactics, formation and “processes” are meaning he has few if any opportunities on goal. We all remember the goal against West Ham away because it was brilliantly taken and absolutely what he is capable of, but also because it’s such an outlier since Manning arrived. When since that game has he been given a through ball like that to run onto? I am struggling to think of a single occasion in the last 8 weeks. So it should be no surprise that Tommy might be stalling on signing a new contract. Why stay at a club that’s not only going nowhere but completely ignores your strengths and makes you look far worse as a striker? Especially when there will be clubs willing to offer you far more to play in a team that plays to your strengths and values your goal-scoring ability. He only has to look how much his mate Alex Scott is making at Bournemouth to realise his own potential earnings, plus the opportunity to play at the highest level. So in summary, given how he has been treated by Manning and his tactics, do I expect Tommy Conway to be a Bristol City player next season? In a word “no”.

Get well soon Chris. And don’t worry that you’re missing anything because you’re not. Just utter frustration at the stupidity of the club appointing someone who is way out of his depth and ruining what we had.

Paddy Power have us at 150/1, Watford at 33/1 and Swansea at 30/1. You tell me which one looks like the outlier there because there’s no way that Watford are at greater risk of relegation than us. And certainly not nearly 5 times more likely!

What I also know about bookies is that they pitch their odds to get punters to flutter. Until now few people would have betted on us finishing in the bottom three at the end of the season. However if there is a rush of people tomorrow betting on City getting relegated those odds would rapidly start to fall even though the situation might not be any different. Bookies hate losing money and if they see that sentiment is going a particular way they will quickly follow. I would expect those odds to be significantly lower by the time we face Leicester at the end of the month. And if any of them had actually watched us play or looked deeper into our issues then they might be pitching the odds a lot lower than 66/1.

There is a common theme going on in the Championship with the vogue being for young head coaches being brought in to achieve success, based on what Rob Edwards did with Luton and McKenna had been achieving with Ipswich. The difference is as that both of those had actually achieved promotions at a lower level, unlike most of the other young coaches brought in who have achieved nothing tangible in most cases, just maybe a run of good results. It’s bombed at Birmingham with Rooney. It’s bombed at Sunderland with Beale. And it’s bombing with Manning here. Yet some owners seem to think it’s some guarantee of success to go for the next “bright young coach” rather than stick with an experienced manager who was doing ok in the circumstances.