Shout out for Bakinson

[old_eastender]

After another hugely disappointing result and performance. I will say that's the best game Bakinson has played in ages, disciplined, the only City player who passed accurately throughout. Put a great ball in when still 2-2 that Weimann should have collected and would have been in on goal.

None of the trade-mark mistakes he often does, our best player (albeit a low bar to jump).

[Edgy Red]

I think Bakinson has got decent ability and along with players like Massengo, O'Dowda etc have been let down by the negative approach that we have had for the last 24 months.

If you put a number of our players in other Champ teams, i think they would excel.

Its a mentality issue within our club and our negative style of play hinders performances.

[RedNachos]

Thank you, a poster with some sense. A 23 year old player with an irregular season being the only Championship one under his belt. Become a scapegoat unfairly, got quality, one to keep hold of.

[ProfitInMyPocket]

Would like to see him show for the ball more, his creativity and level of passing can be really top draw but he also goes for the hollywood pass way too often, mix it up and be a bit more aggressive in the tackle and he would be right up there.

 

[grifty]

With possession he was very good, without possession he was very poor.

[Shuffle]

I’m far from a fan but he was better today. However, he’s playing in a central role & the odd pass isn’t enough if you don’t do the hard yards & track runners and tackle. He tends to mark space rather than  a player and will never be convinced he’s championship quality.  He was physically shot at 75 mins. That said he was far from the worst today. 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Shuffle

[Davefevs]

I thought he had a decent game today, at the heart of our best stuff.

Without the ball @griftyi think his role was to screen and I thought he did it ok today.  It’s not his string suit, but I was ok with that part of his game today.

[bexhill reds]

5 hours ago, Shuffle said:

I’m far from a fan but he was better today. However, he’s playing in a central role & the odd pass isn’t enough if you don’t do the hard yards & track runners and tackle. He tends to mark space rather than  a player and will never be convinced he’s championship quality.  He was physically shot at 75 mins. That said he was far from the worst today. 

Good 1st half, less so in the 2nd, might do well with a couple of stronger players around him to give him the platform, but he’s far too lightweight at times, and is not great when someone is running directly at him, nor at tracking back, seems slow. Jury’s out on him as far as I’m concerned, I don’t like writing young players off, but I’m swaying on the not good enough side.

[Eddie Notgetinya]

**** giving him a shout out for one half decent game

[Olé]

He has a lot to learn (see Tuesday after Matty James went off) but the level of anticipation among City fans for him to do something wrong is ridiculous. No idea why he has become the latest "failure in waiting" when he is the only player that plays the ball forward and takes responsibility, today at least he did that more than anyone and never left the "box" in front of defence. 

[The Swan and Cemetery]

2 minutes ago, Olé said:

He has a lot to learn (see Tuesday after Matty James went off) but the level of anticipation among City fans for him to do something wrong is ridiculous. No idea why he has become the latest "failure in waiting" when he is the only player that plays the ball forward and takes responsibility, today at least he did that more than anyone and never left the "box" in front of defence. 

Yep, he’s often been poor in terms of concentration, but he was a lot better than Massengo today, did a decent screening job generally and got some good balls forward (tricky when a lot of times our forward players make the same run, in the same lane). Also took the shot for our second from outside of the box, good to see someone prepared to have a go. 

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, bexhill reds said:

Good 1st half, less so in the 2nd, might do well with a couple of stronger players around him to give him the platform, but he’s far too lightweight at times, and is not great when someone is running directly at him, nor at tracking back, seems slow. Jury’s out on him as far as I’m concerned, I don’t like writing young players off, but I’m swaying on the not good enough side.

To go further on my post above, I actually think because he played deep today, in between back 4 and midfield 4, he actually didn’t get caught NOT tracking back, because he was already back.

Today’s performance was worthy of some credit.  A few loose passes, but some good ones too.

[Antman]

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

To go further on my post above, I actually think because he played deep today, in between back 4 and midfield 4, he actually didn’t get caught NOT tracking back, because he was already back.

Today’s performance was worthy of some credit.  A few loose passes, but some good ones too.

Hmmmm...50/50 - i was watching his game.

later on he started to hide, not making space to recieve the pass ( staying too close to his marker) and generally not really looking like he wanted to be out there. He can see a pass, his through balls are often really effective, but just look how much work Massengo had to do yesterday, he ran his heart out (again) covering for him. for me Bakinson is a luxury player sadly.

we thought we had a decent midfield (James/King/Williams) but once again, we don't. they are broken.  and it shows.

Yesterday we were missing Atkinson/Baker in CD.

James/King/Williams in CMF

and a decent striker upfront

[Olé]

18 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

At 2-2 that pass to Weimann was so unlucky not to have him in on goal with minutes remaining. 

Thought he was unlucky with some of his passes yesterday. He made some very good successful passes and some of the others on another day have us through on goal. 

There have been a number of examples of him defending well too certainly yesterday and against Birmingham. Against Barnsley he didn't let us down either.

Okay last 30 of Birmingham he was poor like most others. Yesterday when we were very poor he was one of the only positives imo. Certainly improving.

Agree with all of that, and in a second half where we did next to **** all, he more or less made and finished our goal against the run of play, there is not another player in the side who would have tried to pick out O'Dowda with the deep ball over the top, and then he gets the ball back and takes on the shot from outside the area that results in the tap in.

For my money he's also running more and working harder than ever, same at Birmingham where everyone told me he was awful but first half again I thought he was trying to be positive. But because he looks quite languid and not every one of his passes comes off, he is seen by a lot of supporters as the weak link and the source of all our problems.

I don't think he'll ever succeed at City because too many now see him as the embodiment of soft touch and a mistake waiting to happen, and are ready to groan when it goes wrong. It misses the point he is the only one trying to open up teams - given the state we're in I'd far rather players who want to be brave than the ones who hide or go backwards. 

[exAtyeoMax]

4 minutes ago, Olé said:

Agree with all of that, and in a second half where we did next to **** all, he more or less made and finished our goal against the run of play, there is not another player in the side who would have tried to pick out O'Dowda with the deep ball over the top, and then he gets the ball back and takes on the shot from outside the area that results in the tap in.

For my money he's also running more and working harder than ever, same at Birmingham where everyone told me he was awful but first half again I thought he was trying to be positive. But because he looks quite languid and not every one of his passes comes off, he is seen by a lot of supporters as the weak link and the source of all our problems.

I don't think he'll ever succeed at City because too many now see him as the embodiment of soft touch and a mistake waiting to happen, and are ready to groan when it goes wrong. It misses the point he is the only one trying to open up teams - given the state we're in I'd far rather players who want to be brave than the ones who hide or go backwards. 

Totally agree. His languid style betrays his skill and effort. Think Tyreeq has done well in recent games.

[Bodiesaffer]

He’s got ability with the ball, that’s it.  He’s a pussy without.

[GrahamC]

7 hours ago, Davefevs said:

To go further on my post above, I actually think because he played deep today, in between back 4 and midfield 4, he actually didn’t get caught NOT tracking back, because he was already back.

Today’s performance was worthy of some credit.  A few loose passes, but some good ones too.

 

1 hour ago, Olé said:

Agree with all of that, and in a second half where we did next to **** all, he more or less made and finished our goal against the run of play, there is not another player in the side who would have tried to pick out O'Dowda with the deep ball over the top, and then he gets the ball back and takes on the shot from outside the area that results in the tap in.

For my money he's also running more and working harder than ever, same at Birmingham where everyone told me he was awful but first half again I thought he was trying to be positive. But because he looks quite languid and not every one of his passes comes off, he is seen by a lot of supporters as the weak link and the source of all our problems.

I don't think he'll ever succeed at City because too many now see him as the embodiment of soft touch and a mistake waiting to happen, and are ready to groan when it goes wrong. It misses the point he is the only one trying to open up teams - given the state we're in I'd far rather players who want to be brave than the ones who hide or go backwards. 

Good to hear, at least it seems like one positive.

Not going to lie, he has frustrated the hell out of me at times but if the penny has now dropped, that’s great.

I genuinely don’t care who does well, these players aren’t my mates, so whoever does so deserves support, let’s face it, those doing so are few & far between at present.

[The Swan and Cemetery]

3 hours ago, Olé said:

Agree with all of that, and in a second half where we did next to **** all, he more or less made and finished our goal against the run of play

And was critical to our first, Martin spends far too much time back to goal (due to how we use him), he’s pretty good when he gets his head up, facing their goal, see well placed/timed pass for O’Dowda. Bakinson saw Martin in space and played it to him quickly. It was a simple ball, but requires a forward looking intelligence and ability to execute that think only Bakinson has (maybe James). Also far less likely to constantly look for low percentage hero passes in the way Palmer tends to, lots of simple balls, but also the ability to pick a great pass.
 

Mentioned it somewhere else, but he’s not helped by teammates’ (not just strikers) inclination to run the same lines ahead of him, very often two ahead running towards goal in the same lane, rather than one making a cross field/in-out run to create space. 

[Red Zeppelin]

On the contrary after focusing on watching Bakinson for a 10 minute period in our turgid 2nd half - I put the game's failure to convert our extra player down to this guy.

It became quite stark that while he uses the ball well when he receives it directly, but he fundamentally does not show for the ball. Every time we built the initial phases of play from Bentley or defence, he stood still and either pointed two arms to his feet, or one arm out to the fullback. There was no yard of movement to create an angle and drag the opposition out of shape. Contrast to Massengo who didn't stop running and always created options.

Such an opportunity missed yesterday, if only we had a midfielder who could have grabbed the chance to run the show. Bakinson just used the ball well when the game worked around him, and happened to become available to make nice passes.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Red Zeppelin

[Taylor10]

17 hours ago, old_eastender said:

After another hugely disappointing result and performance. I will say that's the best game Bakinson has played in ages, disciplined, the only City player who passed accurately throughout. Put a great ball in when still 2-2 that Weimann should have collected and would have been in on goal.

None of the trade-mark mistakes he often does, our best player (albeit a low bar to jump).

He did have one of his better games in the 2nd half against 10 men, however in the first half he must of touched it 3 times at best. 

17 hours ago, JonDolman said:

Class player. We saw it start of last season. Now looking more like that player again.

Class player? Steady Jon.

[The Swan and Cemetery]

9 minutes ago, Red Zeppelin said:

On the contrary after focusing on watching Bakinson for a 10 minute period in our turgid 2nd half - I put the game's failure to convert our extra player down to this guy.

It became quite stark that while he uses the ball well when he receives it directly, but he fundamentally does not show for the ball. Every time we built the initial phases of play from Bentley or defence, he stood still and either pointed two arms to his feet, or one arm out to the fullback. There was no yard of movement to create an angle and drag the opposition out of shape. Contrast to Massengo who didn't stop running and always created options.

Such an opportunity missed yesterday, if only we had a midfielder who could have grabbed the chance to run the show. Bakinson just used the ball well when the game worked around him, and happened to become available to make nice passes.

Interesting how we all see it differently, thought Massengo was poor, lots of energy, but largely pointless and often uses it to recover from poor positional play. Critically yesterday, he let Godden run off him for their winner. 

[Taylor10]

5 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

I think he is class in his touch in tight areas, vision and forward passing. He was last season too. He's our best striker of the ball from distance too. Always had the natural ability on the ball of a top player imo.

Keep working on the basics and he will be a regular for us in the future. Deserves to stay in the side now but has to keep this going. It's all very little to get too excited about so let's see what happens.

He's only just turned 23 and his 2nd season at this level. Playing in an awful side certainly doesn't make it easy for him!

Granted being a young player in a poor side doesn’t help but from what I’ve seen he’s anything but class. He is young so time is on his side to develop  but he has an awful lot to do to become a regular at this level. Aside from a few displays I haven’t seen a lot to suggest he will succeed at this level but I hope he does of course.

[GrahamC]

8 minutes ago, The Swan and Cemetery said:

Interesting how we all see it differently, thought Massengo was poor, lots of energy, but largely pointless and often uses it to recover from poor positional play. Critically yesterday, he let Godden run off him for their winner. 

Certainly did, really poor.

[The Bard]

10 hours ago, Olé said:

He has a lot to learn (see Tuesday after Matty James went off) but the level of anticipation among City fans for him to do something wrong is ridiculous. No idea why he has become the latest "failure in waiting" when he is the only player that plays the ball forward and takes responsibility, today at least he did that more than anyone and never left the "box" in front of defence. 

I'm in no doubt the view of Bakinson you describe comes from the same place that got Ron Atkinson sacked as a commentator.

Focus on what a player can do not what they can't. Bakinson was easily our best player at Birmingham before James went off.  Put him next to a defensively minded CM who will communicate with him he will be fine.  Noticeable he seems to play better away from Ashton Gate where the prevailing attitude towards him is less overwhelming.

At some point soon he will reach that point where

a.  he asserts himself as a player at this level

b. His team mates might get on his wavelength so we will start exploiting his passing ability more.

 

 

[Bris Red]

17 hours ago, grifty said:

With possession he was very good, without possession he was very poor.

And this is my problem with him. Nobody disputes his qualities on the ball but what you do without the ball is just as important. He needs to massively improve that part of his game

[JoeAman08]

11 minutes ago, bris red said:

And this is my problem with him. Nobody disputes his qualities on the ball but what you do without the ball is just as important. He needs to massively improve that part of his game

Thought he did a really good job defensively and off the ball yesterday.
 

Our CB were having to go wide to defend with how coventry were playing and Bakinson intercepted passes and cleared quite a few dropping into the space between cbs.

Off the ball when we had possession I thought he was fine finding spaces. Generally the ball was moved far too slow as a collective and his initial space was closed down.
 

I’d say he could work harder after that space is closed to find another gap. Also, he won’t win fans by how he moves. He never looks like he is trying to run and he probably isn’t. That said, on the flip side, in the central areas I don’t think you need to sprint everywhere. I have seen James and Massengo do a lot of sprinting but they are usually sprinting out of position. Whereas Bakinson was not caught out of position that I can remember. We weren’t broken down through the central areas of the pitch. It was the wide areas and a set piece. 
 

I thought he was really good as the screen in front of defence. Better than I have seen from Matty James recently. Think it helped having the mobility of Scott and Massengo in front of him as well as their ability to draw fouls or turn out of tight situations. Thought we got noticeably worse once Scott was taken off. Didn’t help we moved players around to accommodate the change imo. 

[Davefevs]

7 hours ago, JonDolman said:

At 2-2 that pass to Weimann was so unlucky not to have him in on goal with minutes remaining. 

Thought he was unlucky with some of his passes yesterday. He made some very good successful passes and some of the others on another day have us through on goal. 

There have been a number of examples of him defending well too certainly yesterday and against Birmingham. Against Barnsley he didn't let us down either.

Okay last 30 of Birmingham he was poor like most others. Yesterday when we were very poor he was one of the only positives imo. Certainly improving.

Very low percentage pass imho, when there were options to keep the move going.  Not criticising him, just I do find that sometimes we want to play the killer pass as a team too often, before we e really established possession, or it’s likelihood of being successful.  Palmer for all of his vision, rarely executes, and again imho, is better when he keeps it more simple.  He gets on the ball more, more touches, gets others involved etc.

[johnheadbcfc]

Unsuccessful passes are not always the fault of the passer!, Coventry reminded me of Gary Johnsons city fighting for everything!!

[steviestevieneville]

22 hours ago, old_eastender said:

After another hugely disappointing result and performance. I will say that's the best game Bakinson has played in ages, disciplined, the only City player who passed accurately throughout. Put a great ball in when still 2-2 that Weimann should have collected and would have been in on goal.

None of the trade-mark mistakes he often does, our best player (albeit a low bar to jump).

Is that the same Bakinson I watched who in the second half failed to close down any of their midfield & standing right on top of our centre halves. He wasn’t the only one but he gave them acres of space . The lad has no game intelligence. Anyone would of thought it was us down to 10 men. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, JonDolman said:

Yeah I do generally agree, prefer if we could be more patient..not just him but the same goes for players always keen to make runs when we could work some moves and have a bit of patience. I don't just mean Weimann, O'Dowda and others. 

Palmer's through balls can be a bit more bizarre imo. So many really strange ones. With Bakinson usually it's a bit closer to coming off. I know Palmer does the odd unbelievable pass but like Pack in a way and like you say with Bakinson, they try a lot. People used to say about Korey's stats and that he didn't play those kind of passes but he didn't try to. He also rarely gave away possession.

I do think though that one was very close. The defender just about got there. Weimann looked really frustrated as he seemed so close to being in.

If we had more movement then blimey that will make Bakinson's game a lot easier. I could not believe how bad we were in exploiting spaces or moving their players around to create space in different areas.

The space was mainly on the wings but we could not move the ball to even create a quick pass out wide where we sometimes had 2 Vs 1. There's probably all kinds of ways we could have looked to create openings with the extra man but it mainly looked like we had no real plan. Just hope they can get something going between them.

Completely agree.  Who is the Wade Elliott, Marlon Pack, Korey Smith….always giving an option, getting on the ball, keeping it moving, getting it back….ultimately allowing the team to get into shape to create an attacking pattern.  Matty James is probably our most likely….he’s on 31 passes p90.  Korey was 43 p90 in 17/18.  Not everything is about stats but I’d say Korey wasn’t even used in that role, more as a ball winning ferret.

Yes we were slow moving the ball.