Have we got the balls for promotion to the top?

[City oz]

22 hours ago, reddogkev said:

Hoping we get an important and convincing win tomorrow, but my question is, do we have the mentality at the club to fight for promotion right until the end?

I don't think we've played that well generally this season, but still find ourselves in a fantastic position.

Have we got the balls, confidence, belief, you name it, to keep this up all season?

I've said in the past that as much as I like LJ as the City manager, to me he doesn't have the winning edge or ruthlessness needed to succeed over a whole season.  Bloody hope he proves me wrong.

City being in the top league again is long overdue; will we have enough this time around, and will we fund a big transfer if we need it in January?

Red dog Kevin , remember the man in space 

[City oz]

9 hours ago, cidercity1987 said:

Soon find out I suppose. Win tomorrow to go second, win on Friday to go top, both winnable games. 
We’ve been in that position quite a few times over the last few years and never grabbed the opportunity.

Is this year any different? I think this week will go some way towards answering that.

I think you are correct, the next two will show where we are really at. Both are winnable and if we are going to be a force this year then we should be top on FRIDAY night before commencement of the others on Saturday and Sunday.

[Phileas Fogg]

On 26/10/2019 at 10:02, reddogkev said:

Hoping we get an important and convincing win tomorrow, but my question is, do we have the mentality at the club to fight for promotion right until the end?

I don't think we've played that well generally this season, but still find ourselves in a fantastic position.

Have we got the balls, confidence, belief, you name it, to keep this up all season?

I've said in the past that as much as I like LJ as the City manager, to me he doesn't have the winning edge or ruthlessness needed to succeed over a whole season.  Bloody hope he proves me wrong.

City being in the top league again is long overdue; will we have enough this time around, and will we fund a big transfer if we need it in January?

I wouldn't say it's winning edge or ruthlessness really. I think LJ has learned on the job, he's a better manager and manager of people than when he first joined. 

I think we've visibly seen changes - he's now more consistent in picking his best team and style, and has grown out of thinking he can 'change' reformed characters. I doubt we'll see another Tomlin character here whilst LJ is manager.

I don't think we'll see another Taylor Moore vs Ipswich situation (late 2016?) again either where he totally singled him out in an interview after a frustrating game. 

Our downfall could be injuries, but so far we've done really well with a bare-bones squad. 

 

[DaveInSA]

This squad has the fight in them. It’s worth a good few points over the season.

A team of pros working together will beat a team of great individuals who don’t get along. EVERY TIME.

i’m excited for this season.

[Davefevs]

4 hours ago, City oz said:

Red dog Kevin , remember the man in space 

Lack of atmosphere in there!

[George Rs]

Imo I think it will feel like a long time between now and JD’s/Afobe  return. Because players are getting played game in and game out for 90mins their tiredness is starting too show. Rowe has played almost every game and he is showing signs of fatigue earlier in games much like HNM. I think it All depends on when the injured come back tbh as the squad is stretched incredibly thin at the moment . 
 

Striker and maybe a defender in January that are proven in this division would go a long way . It’s doable just need very few more injury’s in the next few months 

[Allwaysred]

On 26/10/2019 at 10:02, reddogkev said:

Hoping we get an important and convincing win tomorrow, but my question is, do we have the mentality at the club to fight for promotion right until the end?

I don't think we've played that well generally this season, but still find ourselves in a fantastic position.

Have we got the balls, confidence, belief, you name it, to keep this up all season?

I've said in the past that as much as I like LJ as the City manager, to me he doesn't have the winning edge or ruthlessness needed to succeed over a whole season.  Bloody hope he proves me wrong.

City being in the top league again is long overdue; will we have enough this time around, and will we fund a big transfer if we need it in January?

Think you questions have been answered.... 

As I've said before and got slated for we will never get promoted under LJ. 

[shelts]

Injuries have massively hampered us of recent times . A stronger squad than last year but still lightweight 

[Daniel James]

On 26/10/2019 at 10:21, archie andrews said:

depends who we can possibly sign in January in my view.....

For me its all about January if we get the signings we can 100% get playoffs.

[Tammyjr]

Nope proved that today ain't got enough for top six

[cidercity1987]

I’ve had my answer this week, settle down for another season of nearly men. Promotion contenders stroll through these last two games, we’ve been lucky to scrape 2 points.

[mozo]

It feels bad to be negative given our injury problems and ability to avoid defeat but this isn't our season. Many people mocked when we realised that last season and, objectively, I predict the same again. 

[JoeAman08]

We probably have the balls. I look at Kalas, Williams, Brownhill, Hunt and a few others and sure they have their flaws. That said I don’t think they are the types that will shrink with pressure. 
 

Now if you asked do we have the head coach for promotion I’d probably have to say no. I am 100% certain someone could have gotten more out of our squads these past seasons(last and this).
 

Now no guarantees with anyone but I am at the point where LJ under this structure has plateaued. He has done a fantastic job to stabilise this club in the championship but feel like him limitations will prevent us from doing more. Part of this is selling the best players every summer. That is tough but that will be the reality here and I don’t think LJ is talented enough to overcome this. 
 

I know we have had injuries. I know we have a lot of new players. That said we have not pieced together 1 good all around performance this season. Average to bad sides dominate us at times. We are just fortunate enough to have 15-20m in defenders and keepers to choose from. 

[City Ben]

2 hours ago, JoeAman08 said:

We probably have the balls. I look at Kalas, Williams, Brownhill, Hunt and a few others and sure they have their flaws. That said I don’t think they are the types that will shrink with pressure. 
 

Now if you asked do we have the head coach for promotion I’d probably have to say no. I am 100% certain someone could have gotten more out of our squads these past seasons(last and this).
 

Now no guarantees with anyone but I am at the point where LJ under this structure has plateaued. He has done a fantastic job to stabilise this club in the championship but feel like him limitations will prevent us from doing more. Part of this is selling the best players every summer. That is tough but that will be the reality here and I don’t think LJ is talented enough to overcome this. 
 

I know we have had injuries. I know we have a lot of new players. That said we have not pieced together 1 good all around performance this season. Average to bad sides dominate us at times. We are just fortunate enough to have 15-20m in defenders and keepers to choose from. 

You know it's LJ who assembled this squad, right? 

[JoeAman08]

6 hours ago, City Ben said:

You know it's LJ who assembled this squad, right? 

Is it? He is head coach not manager. I am sure he gets a say at points but not sire he has full control. Instead gets on with what he gets

[Ron W]

9 hours ago, JoeAman08 said:

Now no guarantees with anyone but I am at the point where LJ under this structure has plateaued. He has done a fantastic job to stabilise this club in the championship but feel like him limitations will prevent us from doing more. Part of this is selling the best players every summer. That is tough but that will be the reality here and I don’t think LJ is talented enough to overcome this. 

I just don't see what going from 17th to 11th to 8th despite, as you say, selling our best players, dealing with a Carabao Cup run in 17/18 and being fifth even with a game in hand 15 games into this season does to suggest we've got no possibility of going further under LJ.

[reddogkev]

Sadly, this thread has been rendered obsolete by our injuries, Josh Brownhill being the latest.  If Josh stayed on last night, we would have won the game.

 

 

[JoeAman08]

1 minute ago, RonWalker said:

I just don't see what going from 17th to 11th to 8th despite, as you say, selling our best players, dealing with a Carabao Cup run in 17/18 and being fifth even with a game in hand 15 games into this season does to suggest we've got no possibility of going further under LJ.

Performances have gone backwards for multiple seasons now. He has spent 57m on transfers so I expect that has a lot to do with our league position. In that same time Preston have spent less than 8m and are 2nd. Swansea have had 2 consecutive fire sales and are 4th. We grind out results despite LJ and he often finds ways to drop points for us like last night. 

[GlastonburyRed]

Last night was all about game management, those subs were senseless (and that was obvious @ the time, no need for hindsight), injuries had little to nothing to do with surrendering that two-nil lead. 

[Ron W]

1 minute ago, JoeAman08 said:

Performances have gone backwards for multiple seasons now. He has spent 57m on transfers so I expect that has a lot to do with our league position. In that same time Preston have spent less than 8m and are 2nd. Swansea have had 2 consecutive fire sales and are 4th. We grind out results despite LJ and he often finds ways to drop points for us like last night. 

£57m is a lot of money but you know as I do that even before we look at this summer and the Webster cash we've made a net £18.3m in transfer profit since LJ has been here. How does that tally up with us improving in spite of LJ?

[JoeAman08]

18 minutes ago, RonWalker said:

£57m is a lot of money but you know as I do that even before we look at this summer and the Webster cash we've made a net £18.3m in transfer profit since LJ has been here. How does that tally up with us improving in spite of LJ?

The talent brought in is better than 70% of the teams in this league can access at the moment. We win games because we have more talent not because we are tactically astute. We have invested heavily in defense and GK and I’d say they are the main reasons we are picking up points.
 

Profit means little. Just that we have Mark Ashton who could sell ice cubes to eskimos. We are still backing this coaching staff with funds not accessible to most of the division but performing to the levels of Luton, Wigan and Barnsley. And yes very tough league but any other top 6 team would be looking for at least 6 points from those 3 fixtures. They’d go for it from the off not let those teams take the game to them

[Ron W]

7 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

The talent brought in is better than 70% of the teams in this league can access at the moment. We win games because we have more talent not because we are tactically astute. We have invested heavily in defense and GK and I’d say they are the main reasons we are picking up points.
 

Profit means little. Just that we have Mark Ashton who could sell ice cubes to eskimos. We are still backing this coaching staff with funds not accessible to most of the division but performing to the levels of Luton, Wigan and Barnsley. And yes very tough league but any other top 6 team would be looking for at least 6 points from those 3 fixtures. They’d go for it from the off not let those teams take the game to them

So we're good in the transfer market, with a backroom team LJ plays some part in. Why are we getting talent 70 per cent of clubs in the division can't, when our wage bill from 2018/19 would have put us in the bottom half of spenders even in 2017/18?

If investment in defence is the main reason for our success, how have we got to fifth with our two best defenders out for most of the season? And why have we done it despite conceding more goals than anyone else in the top half except QPR?

The highlighted point is just total nonsense. Wigan are 18th, Luton are 19th, Barnsley are 23rd. You evidently don't like the way sets us up, and yes those three results were poor, but we've lost twice all season and are playing a League 1 central midfielder at left-back and without replacing our best centre-back - who went from a £4m buy to one of the Championship's best defenders in 12 months. Does LJ get no credit for that either?

Is there any balance to be had or has LJ really been the luckiest man in football and defrauded his way into the head coach role, while the club rolls on around him improving year-on-year and he pretends he's got something to do with it?

[JoeAman08]

1 minute ago, RonWalker said:

So we're good in the transfer market, with a backroom team LJ plays some part in. Why are we getting talent 70 per cent of clubs in the division can't, when our wage bill from 2018/19 would have put us in the bottom half of spenders even in 2017/18?

If investment in defence is the main reason for our success, how have we got to fifth with our two best defenders out for most of the season? And why have we done it despite conceding more goals than anyone else in the top half except QPR?

The highlighted point is just total nonsense. Wigan are 18th, Luton are 19th, Barnsley are 23rd. You evidently don't like the way sets us up, and yes those three results were poor, but we've lost twice all season and are playing a League 1 central midfielder at left-back and without replacing our best centre-back - who went from a £4m buy to one of the Championship's best defenders in 12 months. Does LJ get no credit for that either?

If you can’t see where our keeper and defenders have bailed us out this season that is on you. They are continuously pummelled with attack after attack because our front players can’t hold onto the ball. We ship goals because teams are constantly running at us. If we didn’t have Bentley, Williams, Baker and Moore we’d be bottom half. 
 

Wage bill doesn’t mean much either. We go for younger talents who tend to be lesser paid. Also it has gone up each of the last five years just like our league position. You can see success and spend correlating. Our wage bill will probably be top 10 this year forcing us to sell another top talent next summer but that will be another excuse for LJ. 
 

Not saying LJ should go because it is far too early and our results have been adequate. My main thing is when do we say he has gone as far as he can? We don’t look likely to finish higher than last season so that will probably be off the CV. Our performances at home have been dire over the past 30 games at AG. So that disgruntles 16000 season card holders. When do we move from LJ? What if we finish 9th on 66 points this season? Will that be enough for one of the few sides that had money to spend this summer? Enough for a top 10 wage bill? Think these questions will need to be answered sooner rather than later.

[Ron W]

3 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

If you can’t see where our keeper and defenders have bailed us out this season that is on you. They are continuously pummelled with attack after attack because our front players can’t hold onto the ball. We ship goals because teams are constantly running at us. If we didn’t have Bentley, Williams, Baker and Moore we’d be bottom half. 
 

Wage bill doesn’t mean much either. We go for younger talents who tend to be lesser paid. Also it has gone up each of the last five years just like our league position. You can see success and spend correlating. Our wage bill will probably be top 10 this year forcing us to sell another top talent next summer but that will be another excuse for LJ. 
 

Not saying LJ should go because it is far too early and our results have been adequate. My main thing is when do we say he has gone as far as he can? We don’t look likely to finish higher than last season so that will probably be off the CV. Our performances at home have been dire over the past 30 games at AG. So that disgruntles 16000 season card holders. When do we move from LJ? What if we finish 9th on 66 points this season? Will that be enough for one of the few sides that had money to spend this summer? Enough for a top 10 wage bill? Think these questions will need to be answered sooner rather than later.

A defender who was at Southend last season, another one who wasn't good enough for 24th-placed Stoke... If they've done well for us against the odds, is that in spite of LJ too?

I'm gonna give up, apparently what you spend compared to what you bring in, and how much you pay players, has no bearing on whether you've done a good job so I don't think anything anyone says could change your mind that LJ is a fraud.

[Johnr1986]

I can never see us being consistent enough to have a genuine promotion season under Johnson. Ok we are making progress every season under him and some fans are happy with it, the results  like luton , Wigan, Barnsley massively frustrating as you feel a more astute manager would of found a way to overcome and grind out the results which is what we are lacking under His leadership. Give him this season if we don’t manage to make the playoffs it’s a case thanks and goodbye for me ! 

[Spike]

Simple fact is that we had a two goal lead against bottom of the league who didn't look strong defensively and we did what we always do and chose to sit back on our lead. 

I honestly don't get how tactically LJ or our staff think that is a good idea when the opposition looked strong going forward and looked scared when attacked? 

Tactically we played right into their hands once we had that 2-0 lead and it cost us. We needed to keep them on the back foot and take away their confidence, instead we sat back and tried to absorb their attacks which showed a total lack of respect and ultimately gave Barnsley the chances they needed to get back into the game. 

Semenyo was an awful choice too, offered very little, kept going to wide positions, couldn't hold onto the ball and took away any threat we had going forward meaning Barnsley could focus more on attacking us. 

I'm not anti Johnson but yesterday he got it all wrong, Barnsley took the game to us and the only reason we got ahead was because of how bad their defending was, then we stopped probing their biggest weakness and allowed them to play to their strengths which is madness when LJ knows Barnsley and their philosophy so he knew exactly what to expect. 

[AshtonGreat]

24 minutes ago, Maesknoll Red said:

Could you start cheering the sags on please.....

 

26 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

The talent brought in is better than 70% of the teams in this league can access at the moment. We win games because we have more talent not because we are tactically astute. We have invested heavily in defense and GK and I’d say they are the main reasons we are picking up points.
 

Profit means little. Just that we have Mark Ashton who could sell ice cubes to eskimos. We are still backing this coaching staff with funds not accessible to most of the division but performing to the levels of Luton, Wigan and Barnsley. And yes very tough league but any other top 6 team would be looking for at least 6 points from those 3 fixtures. They’d go for it from the off not let those teams take the game to them

What are you talking about? Luton were much better than us

[JoeAman08]

29 minutes ago, RonWalker said:

A defender who was at Southend last season, another one who wasn't good enough for 24th-placed Stoke... If they've done well for us against the odds, is that in spite of LJ too?

I'm gonna give up, apparently what you spend compared to what you bring in, and how much you pay players, has no bearing on whether you've done a good job so I don't think anything anyone says could change your mind that LJ is a fraud.

Williams played the majority of their matches in a midtable side and was on 60-70k a week so he has some pedigree. And Moore was a 1.5m prospect with youth caps for England. Let’s not act like they were signed on free transfers like Rowe was. 

When did I say LJ was a fraud? Make things to support your argument. There is some validity to selling for big profits because obviously they are worth that to someone. That said when these players go we tend to bring in better prospects. Bryan sold in comes Dasilva who is as close to as good as Bryan and a higher ceiling. Reid goes and in comes Weimann someone who has more top flight pedigree. Not like we are selling and bringing in projects. There is always a base here for him to work with and yet he seems to come up short in big spots constantly. 

[Ron W]

7 minutes ago, JoeAman08 said:

Williams played the majority of their matches in a midtable side and was on 60-70k a week so he has some pedigree. And Moore was a 1.5m prospect with youth caps for England. Let’s not act like they were signed on free transfers like Rowe was. 

When did I say LJ was a fraud? Make things to support your argument. There is some validity to selling for big profits because obviously they are worth that to someone. That said when these players go we tend to bring in better prospects. Bryan sold in comes Dasilva who is as close to as good as Bryan and a higher ceiling. Reid goes and in comes Weimann someone who has more top flight pedigree. Not like we are selling and bringing in projects. There is always a base here for him to work with and yet he seems to come up short in big spots constantly. 

If you came on here in, let's say, late July and said "we'll have Taylor Moore and Ashley Williams as two of our main centre-backs and be in the play-offs at the start of November" you'd be laughed out of town, for good reason.

[Mr Popodopolous]

On 02/11/2019 at 10:42, JoeAman08 said:

The talent brought in is better than 70% of the teams in this league can access at the moment. We win games because we have more talent not because we are tactically astute. We have invested heavily in defense and GK and I’d say they are the main reasons we are picking up points.
 

Profit means little. Just that we have Mark Ashton who could sell ice cubes to eskimos. We are still backing this coaching staff with funds not accessible to most of the division but performing to the levels of Luton, Wigan and Barnsley. And yes very tough league but any other top 6 team would be looking for at least 6 points from those 3 fixtures. They’d go for it from the off not let those teams take the game to them

I query this bit, I'm unsure.

Agreed that we've underperformed in a number of areas and a number of games.