Offside

I’ve got zero confidence about this game. We always seem to get thrashed there.

Scratch and Sniff

In those images we look a mess. Gaps all over the place. Our players not engaging with their players (like one the first one - the amount of space their player with the ball has deep in our half!). So many of our players in positions where they’re not doing anything. Very passive from us. We don’t make it difficult for the opposition.

James has been decent so far, but he really benefits from having energetic players like HNM and Williams alongside him. King has been quite anonymous in the games I have seen.

Completely agree. Yes Bournemouth are a good side, but I thought they were no better than Fulham. And against Fulham we gave it a real go (in a game we should have lost given the chances they missed near the end). We made it very easy for Bournemouth today. Often because we made poor decisions. For example, in the first half when we tried to play it out, Baker passed to Kalas, who went right and passed to Tanner, who was on the touchline and already being pressed and we lost the ball. So predictable. One of many examples of us passing into trouble. And very frustrating because Baker was in loads of space and Kalas switching it back to him would have been the much better option. I’m not singling those players out, Kalas especially was one of our better performers today, but it was just an example of how we are so predictable and one dimensional. The Bournemouth players knew exactly what we were going to do because we telegraphed it and, hey, presto, we gave away the ball.

Also today a lack of aggression, mobility and the ability to control the ball and pass it. Bournemouth were good, but we made it far too easy.

King never looked like he was going to last the 90 minutes, so I was surprised to see that Pring got replaced instead of him.

That second goal was typical. We give the ball away very cheaply from a throw-in deep in their half. They counter, Tanner is left exposed, goal. Bournemouth look decent enough but we are making it very easy for them by standing off them. We look powder puff both with and without the ball.

We’ve been very poor so far. Unable to keep hold of the ball.

I’d love to get that long awaited home win today, but I think they’ll have too much quality. Hopefully it’ll be a decent game and we’ll see a good City performance.

Just like how games can still bring back horrible emotions many years later (like in the worst away games thread), the memory of Bob Taylor being allowed to leave so cheaply still rankles. What a player he was, as he went on to show throughout his career.

I like the purple and lime. I’d much rather that than all black. That is the best away kit ever.

Another bad one for me was Aston Villa away in early 2017. I was looking forward to my first trip to Villa Park, I had high hopes for the ground. But what an awful trip it turned out to be. I drove there after work, parked easily……then it hammered down with rain and I got soaked. I decided to get a drink in the ground…….but the away concourse was shockingly awful with long queues and didn’t serve alcohol. My seat was right in the corner of the top tier and felt very detached. City lost 2-0 and never really looked in the game. Kodjia got stick from the City fans and then inevitably scored for them. Then on the way home the M6 was closed and I got stuck on it for absolutely ages. Then the M5 was closed so I had to follow a diversion. I finally got back to Bristol at about 2.30 and had to be up for work at 6am. I’ve not been back to Villa Park.

Yeah, I hated that game too. We were pipped to the league title by Watford that day. Preston got their winner right after we had equalised (Sean McCarthy, who celebrated with an unlikely somersault) and many of our fans were still celebrating our goal. It was all ticket for away fans (we sold out, about 3,000 made the trip) and I’d got to AG really early on the morning they went on general sale to get mine. My dad couldn’t get a ticket so ended up going in the home end with many other City fans, and he said the Preston fans were very friendly.

No, I just looked it up, the game I’m thinking of was in March 1999.