mozo

I remember that well

Whenever I think of Blackburn I think of how good Alex Scott was in the win at their place in 2022.

Yeah if Nige had been given a forward and a creative midfielder, I'd have upped my expectations for this season to be pushing for playoffs. Next season the squad could be stronger or weaker depending on retention and recruitment. Ultimately, BT and LM have to take responsibility for that. If they bin off Williams and James, then Bird, Knight, Stokes and TGH struggle, that's poor management. Likewise, if they take that step and it pays off, then it's good succession planning and they deserve credit for it.

My view on this... Pretty ordinary is what I expect, so expectations have been met. They were exceeded in some games and underwhelmed in others. That was the experience last season too and kind of inevitable in my honest opinion. We've been inconsistent for years, but if we keep making marginal league position improvements year on year, I guess we're heading in the right direction. That what I expect from Manning next season; league position improvement. One way or another he's managed to finish the job this year, and next year he needs to make enough tweaks to continue that arc.

That's an interesting perspective and thanks for sharing the data. I definitely don't buy that Manning is a self-promoter, or at least no more than your average manager, who of course have to sit there and be publicly quizzed about team performances. Regards the stats, I'm a little bit wary of xG, and I'm also quite comfortable with Max having good games. Part of being a good team is having a good keeper, and that's what we want to be. On the flipside, Max has certainly made mistakes this season that either did cost us goals or led to xG for the opponent, so it kind of balances out. The thing is, I'm not of the belief that Manning has 'turned a corner'. My belief always has been that performances have been encouraging enough that eventually results would follow, and they did. The fact that we went on a negative streak, followed by a positive streak for me was just an example of the undulating nature of mid table Championship football. At times you will out-perform the stats, at times you will under-perform against them. So I'm not hailing the current form as anything other than good results. We have a painfully inconsistent team and coaching consistency must be one of the great challenges for all gaffers. We could absolutely anything tonight by the way!

Well the journalist asked was silly mistakes that cost us previously and ask what City had done better. The answer was 'we had time to work on it'. He praises how the players have executed it, says they've done a great job If that's Manning peacocking in your eyes fair enough.

I could see there being goals either side tonight

Well he did actually say that if it wasn't for Max we wouldn't have drawn in the weekend You're free to criticise him, but he really doesn't come across as arrogant and is frequently giving the players credit.

Well he was only answering Piercy's leading questions, but maybe Piercy is in on it

You've clearly forgotten Birmingham v Bristol City in December

Definitely sounds like a powerful foreign striker is the target.

I was going to say, Knight seems to have played his way out of contention!

After it was clear that Nige wasn't getting a warchest, my predictions were that we'd finish 10-12th, and so if we finish 11th I'd be pretty comfortable with that. That would be another year of league position improvement and a respectable top half mid table position.

It's not an oxymoron, because it's impossible to sustain an attack for a whole game! Sustained attacks always come in spells!

The what if situation that I always think of is... if we'd have held on for wins against Coventry and Ipswich - we were 2-1 up in each game with 10 minutes left, in what would have been brilliantly executed away wins - we would now be 5 points better off, only one position higher, but in with a shout of finishing 7th. 20 minutes (plus stoppage time) of resilience and we'd probably have a different assessment of the Manning era so far.

The truth is, we've seen sustained attack and pretty patterns at times in spells but not enough.

Our problem is we play the wrong ball too often!

I think people forget the context of the Swansea game. We had just lost four games on the trot, and whilst the previous performance at Ipswich had been pretty good, we suffered two crushing late goals to lose the game. So roll on to a home game, with a crowd ready to turn toxic, and players devoid of confidence... Manning decided to be pragmatic. Now, personally I'd rather we had engaged higher up the pitch and not stood off the Swansea defence when they had the ball, but it was a tactic that Manning had used successfully in other games; let them have them have the ball in non-threatening areas, then squeeze them as soon as they try play forwards, and hit them on the break. The reason the game was a tough watch wasn't just the tentative press, it was the fact that our players were playing with fear, having had their confidence drain away. That happens in football. It happened to Liverpool last season and even Klopp with all his personality was struggling to fix it. So, the fact that we won was enough. It was the turning point which has seen that confidence return, albeit we can still be unsettled. It was a really hard watch though.

The crazy thing about this debate is that if City beat Blackburn (big IF as it'll be a tough game), irrespective of the performance, that would be 13 points from 6 games, which is incredible form. And yet we'll still be talking about whether Manning is out of his depth. Obviously, if we don't win, then this post redundant, but it's food for thought.

It would certainly put a lot of pressure on Bird to come in and be a consistent performer.

Yeah, all it really shows is how deeply frustrating watching City has been! Sorry! Flipping between screens on my phone. I knew I'd get something wrong

You don't feel there's a chance James stays? Thanks for sharing

I think some people would have been more patient with him had it not been for the debacle.

2021-22: 15 wins, 62 goals, -15 gd 2022-23: 15 wins, 55 goals, -1 gd 2023-24: 15 wins, 46 goals, -1 gd So we can improve on wins and gd this season, but goals continue to decline.

There were definitely games under Nige where it looked great and I enjoyed them too, but it was inconsistent as the results show you. In those worse games, I do not believe that Nige was telling the players to launch it forwards as soon as they won the ball back, but in some games the players kept doing that. Nige talked about the need for consistent performances, to be clinical in both boxes and to be brave on the ball, and he never really achieved that with this group. With the right backing I think he would have got us there. Same with Manning, his good games have been really good, but then the next week, you might get something really different. We need to see if he can get us there.