Firstyardleftinbed

https://x.com/foxpunter/status/1722231707221606458?s=20

This was posted by someone on here a while ago and a lot of it rings true for me.

As fans we might not agree with everything he does tactically but I do think he knows what he's doing from that perspective. However, it's all very robotic, predictable and he really doesn't seem to consider the human side of things. There have been far too many games that have just drifted away from us and I can't help but think Pearson would have at least provided a much needed half time bollocking or an early couple of subs to at least try and shake things up. It's not to say it would have worked every time but under Manning we are far too easy to play against because teams will know almost to the minute what we will try and do. Fine if you're Pep and Man City but we definitely aren't at that level!

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Youth: right midfield / centre midfield

Senior (for WBA): predominantly in midfield, across the piece.  In 60 apps he played RB 8 times.

(source: Transfermarkt)

I stand (slightly) corrected  Looking at Transfermarkt it seems like he only played CM 18 times within those 60 appearances and was scattered around a few other positions for the rest (youth career looks to be all right/left sided). 18 games isn't insignificant but I'd say he's definitely still learning and some of the positioning, awareness when receiving the ball etc doesn't look to come naturally to him. That can all be developed but will take a fair bit more game time and I'm not sure he will get that consistently with the CMs we have + the new ones coming in.

I don't know what position he played in youth football but he played most of his football for West Brom as a full back and still comes across to me as a right back learning to play centre mid. His touch is good and he can pass the ball but his awareness of what is around him isn't great, which (as others have said) leads to him taking too many touches and losing the opportunity to pass the ball forwards or drive with it. There's enough there for him to be a decent Championship centre mid in future but with his lack of any real stand out physical attributes I think that's about his ceiling. 

42 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Something relevant to this is one of the things Naismith said in Comms today. I cannot remember it verbatim so I'll paraphrase but it was essentially "I don't understand why we are playing like this. We don't do this in training and I'm sure it's not the game plan". Naismith wants honestly baffled at how badly we were playing, he couldn't explain why we were a yard off, why we weren't moving, why we just looked...ugh (apologies for the lack of eloquence)

As a number of us said in the match day thread, he's an honest commentator who doesn't pull punches. I think if he knew why we were crap he'd say.

This was during the game, and it does seem to support the idea that there is a plan that wasn't executed today...or maybe wasn't executed with enough vigour?

Completely agree with this. The players were well off it today and sometimes its just comes down to who wants it more and today it wasn't us.

However, as @Davefevs mentions, if it's not working or players arent at it then Manning needs to change it. The changes today came too late I thought.

Not a great first half. We look very slow and Kal is completely right on commentary in that there is no movement up top at all. It just looks like we're going through the motions and no intensity at all, especially poor showing for the ball and trying to impose any sort of tempo on the game.

Conway could have done more at times but even if he does get hold of it, Sykes and Mehmeti are nowhere. Cam also looks well off the pace, wouldn't be surprised to see a few subs at ht.

30 minutes ago, cityexile said:

As somebody who moons ago plied their trade between the sticks, he gets a rough press, and the No 1 usually does. A striker misses three then pops one in, it’s the goal that gets remembered. A goalie makes three great saves then messes one up it’s the mistake people talk about.

Bentley was decent but for me got stuck on his line far too often. Max will come when he thinks he can win it, and is having I suspect to learn the role of sweeper keeper which he is making a good fist of. That one particularly he will look a wally if and when it goes wrong, as it does for every keeper now and again. His positioning is also good, and often you may think ‘the forward has hit is straight at him, but a good % of that is where he has got himself in the right place. Defence is also about partnerships, and the others around him now know him and what he will do, which is also important.  

As for distribution, it’s not always great but he sometimes has to play low % balls to get us out of trouble, or a high press means no easier pass is on.

He is fine. Every goalie messes up, it’s how often. My only concern is the cover one as I have no idea if we really have a number 2 who is Championship ready.

As another older member of the keepers union I agree with all of this.

Max is good all round keeper, he's not the world class shot stopper that some people expect him to be but he does a lot of the 'ugly' stuff well and is pretty consistent. He does make mistakes like any keeper at this level but the more he plays the better he will get and less we'll see any mistakes. By the end of next season, with another full season behind him I think we'll start to see a very good keeper and possibly do well to hold on to him. A bit more pressure from whoever is his # 2 should help this as well 

Seen very little of him but like the strength he shows for someone relatively small and the fact he shoots well off both feet 

Ground out a much needed win there and Max has to take a lot of the credit, two very good saves to keep us ahead.

Overall though, I'd have to say it was a very mixed bag. There was a 10min spell where we looked good passing through midfield but beyond that we were hanging in there.

Positives: We won. Max's performance. TGH looked very good in patches, Tanner was solid and Mehmeti, although not perfect, was a good outlet and looked a bit more of a threat.

Negatives: Pring got better as the game went on but was all over the place first half. Vyner and Dickie also shaky. Matty James needs to have a bit more influence with the ball, feel like too much is passing him by at the moment.

Much better second half but the first was very weak. Far too passive, especially with the ball. If we want to play this controlled possession stuff then that's great but the opposition aren't going to let you walk it past them. All lot more bravery needed showing for the ball in awkward areas. As much as Bell and Conway arent bad players overnight, Mehmeti and Cornick were much better for this when they came on and dragged us up the pitch a lot more consistently. Still a lot to work on...

I could see why he chose the 11 he did yesterday. Weimann has to play in that attacking CM position as he's just not very good playing out wide and Sam Bell's form has dropped off a bit recently so it was worth giving Mehmeti a go. 

Neither Mehmeti or Weimann were great yesterday (same with Conway and Sykes) but I thought the problem was more with Pring, Tanner and Matty James. Every pass was backwards and sideways even when under no pressure. I imagine the team in a couple of weeks will be fairly similar but Liam will be wanting them to be a lot braver on the ball. 

Everything in that interview makes a lot of sense to me, we're doing a lot of things right but weren't sharp enough with and without the ball today. They're obviously a good team but we made it too easy at key times and never put them under enough pressure. If we can put 2 or 3 wins together after the international break I could see us really kicking on but we just look to inconsistent to do that at the moment like Kal says.

Agree Dickie was very good tonight, won everything in the air and decent with the ball.

Thought Naismith had a more mixed game though, a lot of poor passes and misjudged a few headers. Great defending set pieces but seems to get caught under long balls a lot

The last few games Williams has looked so much better. It seems like he's finally got his confidence back in his fitness. Last year it looked like he was holding back on making runs from midfield because he was worried he'd do his hamstring again and when he just sits back he nowhere near as good a player.

Fingers crossed he stays fit now because he'll be key to us getting support around Nakhi/Tommy for the rest of the season.

Thought Williams had one of his better games. He missed that sitter but was actually making forward runs to get in to dangerous positions which we haven't seen for a while. Hopefully he's getting back to that 'box to box' type midfielder we saw bits of in his early games

https://twitter.com/BrentOrJohnson?s=20

20 hours ago, redkev said:

Unless Scott stays or one of the academy lads has really impressed and come on leaps and bounds midfield looks a little weak in my eyes ( Williams injury record + James age ) just an observation not being negative 

Yeah, I agree with that. Scott would be in there somewhere assuming he stays and it's a big season for Williams. Would prefer to see Scott as one of the deeper midfielders though, despite all his ability on the ball I didnt think he looked as comfortable when played further forward last year

20 hours ago, redkev said:

Harsh on Zak thought he was superb last season , but that’s what a stronger squad does 

Agree, it would be harsh on Zak and Tanner but definitely one of those nice problems to have.

It could be that Zak plays and Naismith moves in to midfield instead of Williams, I think a lot depends on how good Williams looks in pre season. There have been times where Williams has looked like the sort of box to box midfielder we've been missing for years but I though he was mostly pretty poor last year.

1 hour ago, Simon bristol said:

Im sure most prem scouts know exactly who conway is already, but not sure pring would be geting that much interest, hes a hell of an athlete, but not as good offensively as bryan was when he got his move, which will make clubs take notice. i dont think he has bryans goals output and quality on the ball, not that he isnt a good defender.

Yeah, I'd agree. Pring isn't quite as good as Bryan going forward yet but on the flip side I would say he is a better defender. Doesn't end to get caught out positionally as much as Bryan. Like you say though, it's not really that sort of stuff that catches the eye as much for Prem scouts I'd imagine. Happy for him to stay for a while yet!

This is what I think Nige will end up going with for the first game (barring injuries etc). Possibly Bell instead of Mehmeti and Tanner instead of McCrorie but think he'll go with the new signings to try and bed them in. Sounds like Scott will be gone by then as well but this allows us to get Weimann in a more central position where he is so much more effective than out wide. As a few people on here have already said, I'm really looking forward to seeing how Conway gets on this year, think him and Pring will be the next ones on the radar of Prem clubs.

7 minutes ago, Boston Red said:

Bryan has always been a left midfielder/left wing back. He is good at crossing and shooting, but no good at defending. He is too weak physically at heading and tackling. 

It was Lee Johnson who played him as a specialist left back but he got found out defensively at Fulham. They conceded 100 goals twice with him in their team as a defender and relegated twice.

But him at left midfield with Pring behind him is a tasty prospect.We have eight attackers at the club and they are ALL right footed ( Wells Bell Mehmeti Cornick Weimann Conway Wilson Sykes) A talented left footed attacking midfielder would give us serious options to play 4-4-2. Bryan wide left with Pring bombing forward in front of him would be very difficult to stop.

 

It's not so much the physical stuff that I though was his weakness when he stepped up to the Prem, more that he lost concentration and players continually ran off him. You can get away with that a bit in the Championship but pretty much every mistake in the Prem is punished.

Completely agree with the general point though, would definitely have him back playing ahead of Pring 

On 06/01/2023 at 19:29, Sleepy1968 said:

Stan, you're pretty damn good with these interviews. Keep up the good work.

Second that. The Cider With's are always good value and hold up well vs 'proper' interviews. Definitely try and keep these semi-regular if you can even if OSIB goes on hiatus (very obvious you are getting bored with those!)

8 minutes ago, bcfc01 said:

Confidence finally gone (mine, that is).

Not too bothered about the loss today as I expected it, they are a much better team than us with a tactically competent manager.

But its the manner of the losses, the performances, coupled with his strange line ups with players out of position and looking like it most games and the rambling explanations. The substitutions are also a bit weird (but its true that supporters say that at every club). We have regressed and I don't believe there is anything to blame on that front other than the manager. 

I wanted Pearson when LJ got the elbow and I've kept faith up till very recently, but the player selections and chucking others under the bus whilst playing crap is undermining him and just alienating supporters and that leads to calls for him to get gone, which in normal circustances would happen.

I've lost confidence in him.

Yes, the legacy he had to pick up was a poison challice, but we are a long way down the line from that now and I'd expect better performances than we have endured. Can't see him getting the sack (can the club afford that anyway) and I hope he turns it around, but I really can't see it.

 

Echo this entirely. Pearson was (in my view) the right choice at the time and I'm sure he's done a lot in the background to sort out the previous mess but the basics havent improved enough on the pitch. Still far too easy to play against and tactically very predictable. He'll need to do a hell of a lot to turn it round from here and I just cant see it happening.

7 minutes ago, Atticus said:

Sack.

Refusing to change formation. Playing players out of position. Not playing players he signs.

Defensively we show zero improvement week in week out.

Really woeful imo. 

This is the real worry for me. The shape of the team is all over the place at the moment and he's not willing to change formation to suit the players we have available. Also, as much as the players have been poor he seems too stubborn to acknowledge he's also making mistakes.

Still keep for me but only just, if the next couple of games dont go our way I think he's gone.

6 minutes ago, Sturgess said:

I've steadfastly supported Pearson and the challenges he's faced with constrained ability to make signings, but the January transfer window really does feel pivotal, as without some quality additions, this really is shaping up for a relegation battle. The board need to make some money available (even if it's through offloading some "star players") or let Pearson go.

Completely agree. I would take any reasonable offer Semenyo/Bentley/Dasilva and invest in a CB who can head the ball and a CM who can run.

I've always thought Pearson is the right man for where we are, and still do for the moment but we're far too easy to play against and I don't think he's helped that in recent games with the way he's set us up.

Even for City this has been an incredibly frustrating game.

King at CB I can kind of understand but you wont get away with it for more than a couple of games. Weimann is offering nothing at RWB either. Need to look at a change in shape if we dont have the right players available.