Bristol City v Mk Dons

[Simon bristol]

4 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

I didn't think it sounded like it was confusion? Thought he just said how the midfield were pressing. He said it's good we set it up in the right way and when they went, most of the time they went together.

Hmm, well the number of games williams has played he can be excusedfor being out of step, but we cant be going into league games with that not being razor sharp.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, M.D said:

Agree, we have a very good crop of youth players coming through, Conway looks good but for me Alex Scott is first team ready. He looks a real talent.

Those are the two I’m most excited about too, but generally like all of them, just those two impress me the most.

Janneh has jumped out of the pack a bit too playing left side.  Raw in a different way to Semenyo, but he’s very confident.

11 minutes ago, mozo said:

I missed the game, would anyone care to summarise?

 

PS I have read the thread but that doesn't give the most coherent summary!

Won’ summarise per se, but today I saw the birth of a press against the type of back 4 buildup style we might see throughout this campaign.

We lined up 442, Conway partnering Wells with Pearson and Janneh right and left of Nagy and Williams.

First 5/6 minutes MK played it around nicely, but then we saw that when they tried to play out through the back 4 into midfield (no8 and Twine) we dropped Conway in front of the DM to cut his passing lane.

Normally that would leave the other striker Isolated against two CBs, doing ‘doggies’ (in Fam’s case hands on hips), but Wells saw Pearson and Janneh join him inside of their starting wing positions, half engaging their opposition full-backs, half ready to pounce on the keeper or CB bad touch. Wells triggering it.

It meant Nagy and Williams could pick off balls played beyond the MK midfield, and not get picked off individually. Worth listening to Williams post match interview.

As a front 6 we did force lots of turnovers against the best passing team in Lg1 last season.

That’s what I enjoyed today. Work to do on our own phases, but today I got the sense Nige has had them working on defensive shape as a priority. Wells and / or Weimann could play key roles. You can see why Nige wants energy. 

[Tinmans Love Child]

58 minutes ago, Henry said:

More importantly, where is the Pearson v MacGragor showdown?!

[Davefevs]

16 minutes ago, Simon bristol said:

Just listened to the joe williams interview, great to have him back, but hes clearly suggesting theres some confusion regarding the press, and whether we are all in, or going in 1s and 2s. Is this not something that should have been implemented back when pearson came in? 

I think he’s suggesting they are trying to fine tune it.  I thought it was bloody good. 

[Port Said Red]

16 minutes ago, mozo said:

I missed the game, would anyone care to summarise?

 

PS I have read the thread but that doesn't give the most coherent summary!

First half looked like they were going through training exercises, maintaining shape and letting MK have the ball without really having anything dangerous, then we started pressing high up, we caused lot's of problems to their backline and especially the keeper. We won the ball back before the halfway line about halfway through the half and Janneh or their player bundled in a low cross from the right at the back post. I can't say for sure who else was involved due to a very wet camera lens.  

2nd half we imposed ourselves a lot more, Nagy played about 10 metres further forward and we kept them pinned back for periods, then we scored a very good 2nd goal which @Davefevs has described well on an earlier post. Then we overturned the ball on the edge of the area and Wells had a simple finish from Conway's pass. Scott and Benarous came on looked good, we had a very young team for the last 20. Bent's made a hash of a clearance to gift them a consolation goal.

[Roger Red Hat]

1 hour ago, bcfc01 said:

I agree that Scott and Bell should get good game time this season.

But I'd also add Conway - give him another few games and he'll be scoring regularly imo. Those three are just about ready imo.

Benarous, his time will come.

Janneh is still very raw and I don't see him as a regular first teamer at the moment. He's had some injuries which has held him back tbf, but he needs a bit more time imo. I think Pearson also needs a bit more time, the talent is there.

Nice to see these younger players coming through.

 

Conway has the look of a natural finisher to me.

[downendcity]

Pearson seems to have made fitness a priority ( hardly surprising after last season’s emergency ward 10 shambles) but you can see that if he is employing a pressing game then high levels of fitness is essential to sustain it through the game. It will also give players greater energy - which they showed today and which was sadly lacking for far too much of last season.

 

[BigTone]

What was the result?

[Waconda]

4 minutes ago, downendcity said:

Pearson seems to have made fitness a priority ( hardly surprising after last season’s emergency ward 10 shambles) but you can see that if he is employing a pressing game then high levels of fitness is essential to sustain it through the game. It will also give players greater energy - which they showed today and which was sadly lacking for far too much of last season.

 

Not defending the debacle of last season but we need to remember many of the players in the team for last quarter of the season were playing injured to varying degrees.

I think the "lack of effort" angle is overplayed at times - IMO.

[Major Isewater]

1 hour ago, pillred said:

Oh I hope you are right but we have been here before "with a talented group of youngsters coming through

True and we made it to the old First Division with them. 

[Numero Uno]

8 minutes ago, BigTone said:

What was the result?

3-1.

[mozo]

48 minutes ago, Roger Red Hat said:

Conway has the look of a natural finisher to me.

This is probably me being a bit odd (very rare, I know...), but there's something about Conway looks-wise that reminds me of a young Alan Shearer, and now in my mind I want him to be the new Alan Shearer!

[JoeAman08]

1 hour ago, REDOXO said:

Louis Britton has been injured. He will be looking toward some first tam action. If I remember correctly he scored our last EFL goal!

Not so sure about him. Was the last one involved last season. About the only one that didn’t get a new contract. He put himself about and scored but didn’t see it the way you saw it early from Conway and Scott imo. 

[pillred]

31 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

True and we made it to the old First Division with them. 

There is always the exception, I'm wondering if we could keep a team of talented young players with us for long enough to make it again, the odds are against it, you just have to see how many of our promising players have left us for clubs arguably no bigger than us that get parachute payments, it's going to be hard for us going forward, we have to hope though don't we.

[Red Army 75]

Steve Cotterill was watching from the sidelines today. As a guest of the club. Really nice touch could be scouting a few as well 

[Supersonic Robin]

2 hours ago, pillred said:

Oh I hope you are right but we have been here before "with a talented group of youngsters coming through" it nearly always seems to end up with half of them being poached and us having to start yet again, let's hope your right and this time it's different. 

In fairness, the selling of the players isn't necessarily where the failure lies. Unless you're Real Madrid or Barcelona, you're going to lose your best players.

The issue is successfully developing and selling your young players, but then pissing away the money you've earned such that you're no better off

[BarneyN]

Do we know why Massengo hasn’t played in the last two friendlies?

 

[RUSSEL85]

1 hour ago, Numero Uno said:

3-1.

To Mk Dons,  

[slartibartfast]

1 hour ago, Simon bristol said:

Just listened to the joe williams interview, great to have him back, but hes clearly suggesting theres some confusion regarding the press, and whether we are all in, or going in 1s and 2s. Is this not something that should have been implemented back when pearson came in? 

I thought he was talking about the title fight ,later  Big Nige v wee mcgregor

[Northern Red]

1 hour ago, Red Army 75 said:

Steve Cotterill was watching from the sidelines today. As a guest of the club. Really nice touch could be scouting a few as well 

 

[IAmNick]

1 hour ago, Red Army 75 said:

Steve Cotterill was watching from the sidelines today. As a guest of the club. Really nice touch could be scouting a few as well 

Hope so - Shrewsbury would be an ideal place to send some of our kids on loan in my opinion. We know the manager and what to expect from him and his standards, I can see him and Pearson getting on reasonably well, it's a quiet place where they're not going to get into trouble or swept up into "the lifestyle", and only a couple of hours from Bristol.

[PHILINFRANCE]

1 hour ago, IAmNick said:

Hope so - Shrewsbury would be an ideal place to send some of our kids on loan in my opinion. We know the manager and what to expect from him and his standards, I can see him and Pearson getting on reasonably well, it's a quiet place where they're not going to get into trouble or swept up into "the lifestyle", and only a couple of hours from Bristol.

Not only do we know the manager, but also his assistant, AW.

There was mention on another thread of how Jamie McAlister was utilised to teach the young Lloyd Kelly something about the ‘dark arts’ of defending and, if any of our young forwards are going to go out on loan (Louis Britton, perhaps, or Tommy Conway - although I suspect TC might remain in the first team squad) I can think of nobody better than AW to introduce them to some of the dark arts of being a ‘target’ type forward.

[Phileas Fogg]

2 hours ago, IAmNick said:

Hope so - Shrewsbury would be an ideal place to send some of our kids on loan in my opinion. We know the manager and what to expect from him and his standards, I can see him and Pearson getting on reasonably well, it's a quiet place where they're not going to get into trouble or swept up into "the lifestyle", and only a couple of hours from Bristol.

Definitely. Wilbraham there also so another good influence. Think it would be really astute actually. Perfect place for the likes of Pearson, Britton, Bell, Janneh etc who may not quite be ready for this level. Think Alex Scott is definitely worth keeping around though, he has something about him. 

[Davefevs]

6 hours ago, mozo said:

This is probably me being a bit odd (very rare, I know...), but there's something about Conway looks-wise that reminds me of a young Alan Shearer, and now in my mind I want him to be the new Alan Shearer!

 

[mozo]

10 hours ago, Davefevs said:

 

Dave, I genuinely don't think I'd seen that thread so I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm not the only weirdo that saw that resemblance!

I also like that he has just the right amount of arrogance and swagger for a young striker. He doesn't look like he struggles with self doubt which I like.

The key now is does he have the football intelligence, physical resilience against powerful defenders and can he put his chances away in front of big crowds with big pressure. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, mozo said:

Dave, I genuinely don't think I'd seen that thread so I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm not the only weirdo that saw that resemblance!

I also like that he has just the right amount of arrogance and swagger for a young striker. He doesn't look like he struggles with self doubt which I like.

The key now is does he have the football intelligence, physical resilience against powerful defenders and can he put his chances away in front of big crowds with big pressure. 

Weirdo?  Spot on!

[kernored]

Is it just me or does Wells seem to be miserable, not a smile after his goal. Not sure he really wants to be here, hope I'm wrong.

 

[Bris Red]

9 minutes ago, kernored said:

Is it just me or does Wells seem to be miserable, not a smile after his goal. Not sure he really wants to be here, hope I'm wrong.

 

Sounds liken nothing has changed then. I think Wells has regretted the move from more a less the day he signed for us to be honest.

[Davefevs]

I still don’t buy it about Wells not wanting to be here. He just seems to be a striker who is only happy when he’s scoring and winning.

If you listen to him on comms and interviews, he’s just got a bit of a monotone droll.  He talks positively about things but it gets overlaid by the droll. 

[Port Said Red]

1 hour ago, kernored said:

Is it just me or does Wells seem to be miserable, not a smile after his goal. Not sure he really wants to be here, hope I'm wrong.

 

1 hour ago, bris red said:

Sounds liken nothing has changed then. I think Wells has regretted the move from more a less the day he signed for us to be honest.

 

30 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I still don’t buy it about Wells not wanting to be here. He just seems to be a striker who is only happy when he’s scoring and winning.

If you listen to him on comms and interviews, he’s just got a bit of a monotone droll.  He talks positively about things but it gets overlaid by the droll. 

It was a pre season friendly, take a look at the Portsmouth highlights,  Palmer, Wiemann and Martin all look equally subdued in their celebrations. The only person that has seemed excited is Tommy Conway and that is understandable considering where he is in his career.

As for Wells, having spent a couple of weeks in Bermuda, i can tell you that they are a friendly people, but the idea that they are happy go lucky types does not apply universally.