Blackburn Rovers v Bristol City Match Day 38

[DT The Optimist]

Simple truth is they were better than us all over the park, deserved the win. The goal they had chalked off as well, should have been more convincing . Ironically we  had better players than Blackburn but zero cohesion.  It’s same old, all these clubs in the bag and spinning tombola and we can never string together decent passing moves.  Or very rarely . 9th or 10th finish looks right 

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

5 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

I like possession football but playing out from the back with Baker is a total car crash , the guy is not a playmaker . 
 

 

If you're going to play a back 4, the most suitable pairing as of now would be Kalas and Benkovic IMO. In terms of both possession and ability to squeeze into a medium-higher line.

Could Vyner be worth consideration too?

[havanatopia]

2 minutes ago, Countryfile said:

Compared to Fulham v Brentford you wouldn’t think us and Blackburn were in the same league as them.

Poor performance, and the only quality was Blackburn’s 3rd goal.

We aren’t going to get relegated, and we aren’t on this showing better than a mid table team with that starting line up, so why not go for it in the first Of nine cup finals? We couldn’t have fared worse if Afobe, Palmer, Wells and DaSilva had started.

This really is a golden opportunity with our squad to push for the top six.

 

 

Is there a conspiracy coming in your next post? ; - You speak perfect sense but the team selection is baffling.

[Wrongagain]

That caps it! Good stream, crap team selection, crap tactics and we end up switching to BBC brizzle to hear the excuses, would has thought LJ would have had something to say to the watchers of the stream!

[Simon bristol]

Well that was shite...

keeper was poor, and was lucky with the disallowed one cause there didnt seem much wrong with it (hard to tell cause the feed kept buffering)

midfield non existent, because it didnt exist with one proper midfielder in there.

2 right backs who are average, and a 4 million quid goalscorer who they have no way of integrating in the team to get the best out of him.

overall though, the problem is how we are set up, the last 10 minutes was smith kalas and baker passing it in a circle, with 10s of millions of pounds of attackers stood around waiting for the ball to come.... which it did if baker hoofed it up to them with no accuracy whatsoever. Thats years of lee johnson imparting his vision on the club, dozens of players, no structure or organisation.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, havanatopia said:

Is there a conspiracy coming in your next post? ; - You speak perfect sense but the team selection is baffling.

No conspiracy post from me.

Not a baffling team selection from LJ, He’d clearly looked at the stats and set up to keep a clean sheet and nick a goal if possible, as he’s done in so many games this season.

Sadly it didn’t work (again), and I don’t expect to see any difference in the remaining away games.

[Alex_BCFC]

I mean I’m glad we won’t be going up as it wouldn’t feel great to miss out on a playoff final win but I would like to see us play some decent football. If LJ can’t improve us then I find it hard to see the point in him carrying on much longer and this season we may well have gone backwards despite good players being available to him.

Really poor display apart from 25 mins until half time. Midfield a shambles and perhaps only Elliasson can come out of today with any credit. Bentley probably at fault for first 2 goals and also lucky not to concede from the corner as I didn’t see a foul. 

[Offside]

Awful from City. We looked disjointed from the start, our passing and movement were poor and their keeper had precious little to do. We deserved nothing out of that game. Painful to watch. 

[Sir Geoff]

2 minutes ago, Simon bristol said:

Well that was shite...

keeper was poor, and was lucky with the disallowed one cause there didnt seem much wrong with it (hard to tell cause the feed kept buffering)

midfield non existent, because it didnt exist with one proper midfielder in there.

2 right backs who are average, and a 4 million quid goalscorer who they have no way of integrating in the team to get the best out of him.

overall though, the problem is how we are set up, the last 10 minutes was smith kalas and baker passing it in a circle, with 10s of millions of pounds of attackers stood around waiting for the ball to come.... which it did if baker hoofed it up to them with no accuracy whatsoever. Thats years of lee johnson imparting his vision on the club, dozens of players, no structure or organisation.

Happened all game....so frustrating ...why cant we keep a bit of good possession for a change instead of the first instinct being to hoof the ball 60 yards into the channels or onto a big centre halfs head.

[CHAZ MICHAELS]

Just now, Offside said:

Awful from City. We looked disjointed from the start, our passing and movement were poor and their keeper had precious little to do. We deserved nothing out of that game. Painful to watch. 

So basically, no change then from when the season stopped.

[Offside]

1 minute ago, CHAZ MICHAELS said:

So basically, no change then from when the season stopped.

Yep, it was same old same old. Depressing. 

[Lrrr]

This is merely an observation as it affected both teams, I assume Blackburn must have given the pitch one hell of a watering pre-match as players seemed to be all over the place slipping, for both teams prevented any sense of fluid football, perhaps thats Blackburn's game plan. A number of times we seemed to be in half promising positions but for players to lose their footing.

Wonder if its rained as much in the north west as it has in the south west in the last week as its been pretty constant down here

[BigTone]

So after all that, normal service resumes

[RedRock]

We’re simply not good enough. 

We should be .... the money spent, now decades old Academy, new stadium ‘bounce’, stability at Board and management level.... but we’re not.

 

Cotts had it right, ‘quality not quantity’ a, small, tight, close-knit squad with each player well-drilled and a couple of decent game plans. He got a team that performed better than the sum of its parts. Consistent team and tactics, by and large consistent performances.

LJ has adopted a different strategy one of the more clubs in the bag the better. One club available to deal with any situation, he is more concerned about stifling the opposition than playing to our strengths and has built a team with loads of small, physically fragile and inconsistent players which is no good given the rigours of the Championship. 

Unless he changes his strategy or we change the manager, I fear, we ain’t going anywhere fast. 

 

 

 

[Sturny]

Coming back to the forum and seeing everyone disappointed with the exposed Lee Johnson 
 

[Superjack]

So...

...turns out if you give Johnson three months to prepare them for a game, he still can't do it.

Aren't we supposed to have two good keepers? Maenpaa absolutely must start against Wednesday. That was beyond shocking from Bentley.

And I don't care what anyone says, if Afobe being back means we have to have show pony Palmer in the team, then I suggest that we sign Ivan Toney ASAP.

[Loosey Boy]

Well....that was awful from a squad which LJ stated in the week as being “the best it’s ever been......”

[bristolcitysweden]

Again a good kick up the ass. Same, same after three months wasted. Total boring bullshit. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

If it was part of their gameplan it possibly had a negative effect. See the Brereton slip!

Mind you I don't think Brereton much good but a big moment in terms of the pitch was that one.

[bristolcitysweden]

Credit to the club for the broadcasting. That was really, really good. And it worked perfectly fine all day long.

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 minutes ago, RedRock said:

We’re simply not good enough. 

We should be .... the money spent, now decades old Academy, new stadium ‘bounce’, stability at Board and management level.... but we’re not.

 

Cotts had it right, ‘quality not quantity’ a, small, tight, close-knit squad with each player well-drilled and a couple of decent game plans. He got a team that performed better than the sum of its parts. Consistent team and tactics, by and large consistent performances.

LJ has adopted a different strategy one of the more clubs in the bag the better. One club available to deal with any situation, he is more concerned about stifling the opposition than playing to our strengths and has built a team with loads of small, physically fragile and inconsistent players which is no good given the rigours of the Championship. 

Unless he changes his strategy or we change the manager, I fear, we ain’t going anywhere fast. 

 

 

 

So how would you setup then? 

You often mention small, physically fragile, inconsistent players, but I ask. 

Leeds, WBA in a number of ways, Brentford, Fulham. Not entirely but they seem to have in the main more emphasis on technique. I watched the Leeds game back earlier this week when I found it online, the one in August and it was notable. Phillips their holding mid made I counted a mere two tackles. Not saying there was no physicality of course but it certainly wasn't be all and end all!

[OldlandReddies]

Think they put too much into getting Robins TV to run smoothly and forgot about the team. Still in it though somehow thanks to Luton. Plenty of twists yet.

[EstoniaTallinnRed]

10 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

No excuses but that pitch was awful. How can it be in that bad condition when they have had 3 months of looking after it!

Well it didn't seem to affect the home team, was it because they are use to it?

[BCFC Grim]

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

So how would you setup then? 

You often mention small, physically fragile, inconsistent players, but I ask. 

Leeds, WBA in a number of ways, Brentford, Fulham. Not entirely but they seem to have in the main more emphasis on technique. I watched the Leeds game back earlier this week when I found it online, the one in August and it was notable. Phillips their holding mid made I counted a mere two tackles. Not saying there was no physicality of course but it certainly wasn't be all and end all!

I've watched every game this season, whether in person or via a stream and I genuinely think nearly every team has look technically better than us. That includes Shrewsbury twice.

[Bazooka Joe]

After this awful defeat, I predict a very low attendance at our next home game.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

I guess if Bentley hadn't had a shocker then who knows what may have happened.

Not his best game, but Thought Rowe was equally at fault for the first goal.

But did Bentley having a poor game stop us creating chances?

Was Bentley at fault for O’Dowda barely touching the ball?

Why did so many of our players lose  their footing so many times.

 

[Roger Red Hat]

13 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

I guess if Bentley hadn't had a shocker then who knows what may have happened.

Why does he get picked ahead of Maenpaa? When he played those games before the break, we looked much more assured at the back.

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 minutes ago, BCFC Grim said:

I've watched every game this season, whether in person or via a stream and I genuinely think nearly every team has look technically better than us. That includes Shrewsbury twice.

It's how we setup I think, but I find it hard to disagree!

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

An awful pitch probably suits a bigger team I think. Blackburn have quite a few big players.

Stop making excuses. They were better, we had a defensive nightmare, but was clear they'd outmanoeuvre us in certain areas when I saw the team. Decent side, playoff contenders not surprising, would always be difficult.

[RoystonFoote'snephew]

28 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

I like possession football but playing out from the back with Baker is a total car crash , the guy is not a playmaker . 
 

 

It's not his fault he saw more of the ball than anyone else as our static midfield constantly gave him the ball and he probably hit our best pass of the game with a 45 yard ball to Eliasson on the right wing. We may as well have by-passed the midfield all game as I can't see how any of the midfielders came out of that game with any credit. It is up to the midfield to create tempo and they certainly did that, slow, slower and slower still.