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Nigel’s post match thoughts


HappyClapper

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Both manager’s comments

Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:

"I think it's relief … we weren't good today. We didn't play very well and when you play against a side who are near the bottom and asks lots of questions of us ... I'm sure they came here knowing that if they put us under pressure we could crack. 

"We've played much, much better here and lost games and drawn games. There is not a lot of difference between today and other days where we've not played well but we've lost. It's an illustration I think of the fragility of the mental state in terms of what anxiety does and I was as nervous as everybody else, I suppose. 

"But great for the fans and I thought they were excellent in terms of turning the noise up to support the team and the players really recognised that and so did we as staff. It's about the players and the fans, the relationship between them is vital. 

"So now we've got rid of that ridiculously unfathomable run of results here we've got to now turn a corner and make sure our performances match what we want to achieve. 

"Today it was about the result, the performance was secondary."

Barnsley manager Markus Schopp told BBC Radio Sheffield:

"Today I think the better team lost, we gave the game away in five minutes in the end of the first half and you see that we are struggling with this bit of experience right now. 

"You can't give away a 1-0 lead where you were dominating the game so easily. This is definitely a hard one. 

"We are talking about individual mistakes in situations where you can't lose balls without pressure, without a situation where I think the other team was happy to get into half-time to resettle. We gave these goals away so easy, this is definitely something that shouldn't happen. 

"But in the end I have to say it was a 50 minutes where I saw a Barnsley team that did everything - created so many chances - and this is something where for me we are almost there, we are almost there. The team has to understand that we have to do this for 95 minutes and not only for 88 like we did today."

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Fair comments from Nige that reflect the chat our group had on the way out the ground. Despite the relief and happiness of the 3 points, we didn't play well today. And it's reassuring to see Nige is focused on the process of turning us into a better side at this level rather than dress up a victory to hide our short comings. 

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Think NPs first word at the final whistle was hallelujah based on the Twitter feed. 
He spoke of the anxiety being palpable but so was the sense of relief! 

Just now, Jerseybean said:

Think NPs first word at the final whistle was hallelujah based on the Twitter feed. 
He spoke of the anxiety being palpable but so was the sense of relief! 

Here’s the link….https://fb.watch/8ZgBoLfv-F/

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33 minutes ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

"A lot of pointless running around" - working title for Richard Latham's forthcoming '350 Years of Bristol City' mighty tome. Available in any book shops left standing

Knowing my luck, if reincarnation is a thing, I'll come back as a City fan again...

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28 minutes ago, CheddarReds said:

Fair comments from Nige that reflect the chat our group had on the way out the ground. Despite the relief and happiness of the 3 points, we didn't play well today. And it's reassuring to see Nige is focused on the process of turning us into a better side at this level rather than dress up a victory to hide our short comings. 

It's a very refreshing change to have a Manager who could not only see what the rest of us saw today but is prepared to say it. Obviously his job in the longer term is to dramatically improve the level of performance which was bottom of the barrel at times, terrible, but with FFP forcing Steve to keep his hands in his sky rocket this isn't an overnight transformation. In the short term we simply have to play better than that though - hopefully it's a confidence thing because if it isn't then we are in for a very tough season. My gripe today was that we should be playing better than that against Barnsley where we literally turned up for 4 minutes in terms of attacking play. Luckily those 4 minutes won us the game.

If we can battle our way to a draw on Tuesday night then it will be a very good few days for us in the context of the season.

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14 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

It's a very refreshing change to have a Manager who could not only see what the rest of us saw today but is prepared to say it. Obviously his job in the longer term is to dramatically improve the level of performance which was bottom of the barrel at times, terrible, but with FFP forcing Steve to keep his hands in his sky rocket this isn't an overnight transformation. In the short term we simply have to play better than that though - hopefully it's a confidence thing because if it isn't then we are in for a very tough season. My gripe today was that we should be playing better than that against Barnsley where we literally turned up for 4 minutes in terms of attacking play. Luckily those 4 minutes won us the game.

If we can battle our way to a draw on Tuesday night then it will be a very good few days for us in the context of the season.

Agreed.  My gripe is how is it that we can't retain possession?  Even from our own set pieces?

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14 minutes ago, Daniro said:

Agreed.  My gripe is how is it that we can't retain possession?  Even from our own set pieces?

No and I don't think it's any accident that the two coaches have been ****** out of it. When teams like Barnsley, no disrespect to them, can keep possession of the football for decent periods even if they somehow contrived not to do the most important thing of the lot then there is literally no excuse for us. Matty James passing today was shambolic and he simply cannot be that bad a player. Something is not right on the coaching side of the operation. A lot of hard work required on the training ground to repair a huge amount of damage caused over the last couple of years. The next coaching appointment is an important one imo. The huge bonus for us is that we are still managing to pick up points IN SPITE OF our performances in an attacking sense and that gives Nige a little bit of breathing space in the short term.

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1 hour ago, Jerseybean said:

"You can't give away a 1-0 lead where you were dominating the game so easily. This is definitely a hard one. 

They weren’t dominating at all….it was a scrappy half, a pretty even half.  Bugs me that just because they were leading he thinks they were dominating.  Had our passing been a bit tighter we would’ve ripped their high line apart, which is what we threatened to do and eventually did.

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1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

They weren’t dominating at all….it was a scrappy half, a pretty even half.  Bugs me that just because they were leading he thinks they were dominating.  Had our passing been a bit tighter we would’ve ripped their high line apart, which is what we threatened to do and eventually did.

Ok, them dominating it was a tad over the top. However saying it was even is one way of putting it......even in terms of both sides being as bloody awful as each other in a game that wouldn't have looked out of place at National League South level at times in terms of the "quality" on show.

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6 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

They weren’t dominating at all….it was a scrappy half, a pretty even half.  Bugs me that just because they were leading he thinks they were dominating.  Had our passing been a bit tighter we would’ve ripped their high line apart, which is what we threatened to do and eventually did.

Absolutely. I know we struggle in areas at the moment, but calm down Barnsley. 

On that performance I’d happily play them every week.

They may say the same about how us, but i didn’t see anything in them that concerned  me.

Our own frailties gave them impetus, but even with that they didn’t strike me as being able to construct anything of note.

 

Edited by 054123
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6 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

They weren’t dominating at all….it was a scrappy half, a pretty even half.  Bugs me that just because they were leading he thinks they were dominating.  Had our passing been a bit tighter we would’ve ripped their high line apart, which is what we threatened to do and eventually did.

Yeah, he’s chatting bollocks . They never dominated that first half. Poor defending gifted them their goal. Apart from that they were poor . We were the better side after they scored even though we didn’t play particularly  well. Two good goals though & the second was well worked. Two very average teams though 

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4 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

Thought if anything we slightly edged it. Both teams had 2 great chances, they scored one of theirs and we scored both of ours.

As you say we gifted them their goal, but the Atkinson pass to them for their other chance was far worse. Really we shouldn't have given them anything.

I thought we were better first 20 odd minutes. Had the ball in more dangerous areas but lacked quality. They then were on top, and we then finished the half strongly. So a bit better overall by us.

2nd half, well that's a different story! 

I thought before their goal it was like a park game. Lots of head tennis , very little quality . A few minutes after they scored , I think , we either missed a few passes or didn’t get stuck in , can’t remember . It’s was like collective bollocking from all of us though ? it was strange . We got amongst it & took the game to them & got both our goals. 
Second half I was hoping we’d carry on like that but was expecting us to give up possession . It’s not from instruction but from a mindset . I was ******* fuming with Wells . We had the chance , a very good chance to bury the game , just as we did v forest but didn’t take it. 
It was a easy square ball for a wiemann hatrick but blazed over the bar. 
After that we hardly got out , but it was of our own creation. 
that’s how I saw it anyway.

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25 minutes ago, 054123 said:

The frustrating thing was when we actual played football we looked good (scored twice!). 

I don’t know why we shrink into our shells when if we keep on the front foot they didn’t have an answer.

We really miss Joe Williams.

It’s a mindset as I said on another post. There’s no way Pearson tells them to sit deep & invite pressure . As this run has gone on, no matter what the players say it affects them mentally. It’s not just this season either. If we’d have hung on v Blackpool then I think we win the Luton & forest games . However that Blackpool equaliser was massive . Wether we were in the ground or not , the run from last season was still in the players heads plus possibly more pressure by having us back. Thank **** it’s over ?

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We were awful for the first 40 minutes and Barnsley were little better, but they were definitely better at passing and pressing. Their goal was no surprise. 
 

In the lead up to our first goal, the crowd had got really angry, and you could both hear and feel it. Whether that got through to Kalas, who was really the instigator of that goal, I don’t know, but he was absolutely fuming about something, shouting at the rest of the team, then a few moments later brought the ball out of defence, passed a couple of their midfielders and then played it forward. It was what the midfield should have been doing but hadn’t all match.

The biggest problem remains the midfield. They provide next to no cover for the defence and little creativity for the forwards. Marty James had a shocker today, while Bakinson was weak. At his size, he should be dominating like a Vieira, but he was anything but. Massengo runs himself ragged trying to cover for others and at least tries to play the ball forward. However he has proved again that he has zero shooting ability.

Lots to sort out from Pearson and his team, but a win is all important.

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24 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

Yeah first half was scrappy. I think their high line and our very narrow 4 in midfield made it very congested. 

I thought first 10 or so minutes of the 2nd half were fine. Not really much to worry about. Pearson then changed it with Weimann right wing and Massengo left in a 442 which didnt seem to help as Barnsley then got on top. 

I know he's young and some might say its harsh but I thought Benarous was the wrong sub. We looked too lightweight trying to defend a lead, but also didnt give them anything to worry about on the break as our forwards tired.

On the balance of play they should have equalised and then I would fancy them to win it, so certainly not happy with the performance overall. But it's 3 points so hopefully it raises confidence going into another winnable game on Tuesday.

Agree Jon . Strange sub. Never watched the lad play so can’t comment on the type of player he is . There was a lot of space in front of our fullbacks both halves & we seemed slow to get out . It seemed worse after the sub. With only Han in midfield with any real mobility I thought the young lad would be the last to come on. 
Pearson definitely seems to be sending a message though . He’d rather put a kid on the bench , then on the pitch than palmer(not in the squad) & O’dowda . It’s not a dig as I know you like Callum but with Palmer as well & 3-4 others we have a decent percentage of our squad that are not championship standard.  

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8 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

I've seen him quite a number of times on the internet, and been to a ground to see him play once.

At 18s and 23s levels he looks amazing. I'd be more interested to see how he does starting a game when we aren't all out defence. And in a team not being physically bullied like we were once Pring and Bakinson had gone off today.

A problem might be for us with having the likes of Benarous, Alex Scott and even Dasilva is we don't pass the ball.

These players that want lots of touches are going to be a bit disappointed if we carry on playing how we have all season.

The more players you get in the team like that though dictate the way you play to a certain extent. 
It would be nice to see him in his proper position in a game free from pressure towards the end of the season. 
Is he a no 10 or a wide forward of a three ? 

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11 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

 

I think we have quite a number of very good technical players already. Certainly able to pass and control the ball. 

I guess a more technically gifted striker might make all the difference. 

Benarous likes playing wide right cutting inside.

He has played box to box a fair bit for the 23s as well, but that was only because we have loads of wingers and not many centre mids.

Not sure on quite a number Jon tbh . There needs to be a cull imo of the senior pros , I mean that in time spent at the club rather than age. I’m sure a number of the young un’s can make it but they need help with quality pros . That’s why king & james have been brought in. 

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A common theme i'm noticing in Nige is he is incredibly honest in pointing out where we go wrong and critical where necessary, however I never get the sense he has a plan to combat what he sees.

Instead of: "we didn't play well we weren't composed"

I'd love it to be: "This performance was not the standard we strive for at City, we'll be working heavily on improving composure"

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24 minutes ago, RedNachos said:

A common theme i'm noticing in Nige is he is incredibly honest in pointing out where we go wrong and critical where necessary, however I never get the sense he has a plan to combat what he sees.

Instead of: "we didn't play well we weren't composed"

I'd love it to be: "This performance was not the standard we strive for at City, we'll be working heavily on improving composure"

How do you improve composure….and explain / convey that to the relevant audience….in a 2/3 minute media interview.

This is for the domain on the “classroom” with video, whiteboard, etc.

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I don't envy Pearson one bit.  It's one thing identifying weaknesses but being able to fix some of them..... 

I'm wondering if some of these weaknesses (which were here before NP) are simply down to player limitations, whether that's talent or mental state, and we're stuck with this until we can recruit better players.  

 

 

 

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