"Worst side in the League"

[Packman]

39 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Last I checked Semenyo, Weimann and Martin are part of our team. Therefore if they are good, part of our team is good. Thus the exclusion of their excellence cannot be used to support an argument that our team is the worst, or even one of the worst, in the league.

Exactly, it's like saying Liverpool wouldn't be that good if they didn't have Salah, Mane and Jota. But they have so what's your point. Bizarre argument.

[cidercity1987]

59 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Last I checked Semenyo, Weimann and Martin are part of our team. Therefore if they are good, part of our team is good. Thus the exclusion of their excellence cannot be used to support an argument that our team is the worst, or even one of the worst, in the league.

Team to me seems to mean something entirely different to individuals. 

Are Man U a good team, no they are absolutely rank but have good individuals which gets some results

[downendcity]

4 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Had missed this one but browsing the Bristol Post briefly, some interesting- salty and sour grapes another that springs to mind- comments by Michael O'Neill.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/nigel-pearson-bristol-city-stoke-6974884?int_source=nba

Seemingly told his players that they had lost vs 'the worst side in the League'.

O'Neill I've always considered to be a bit of an arse tbh, also has a forked tongue- "I enjoy the challenge of FFP" when selling both big Tangible Assets and signing loanees that they have post Parachute Payments.

Good to see NP biting back.

We are a bit of a bogey team for them tbh, or have become one- 5-1-2 in the League since they came down plus a relatively comfortable win in the Cup in 2017/18.

Doesn't reflect terribly well on players or manager to lose- twice- to the 'worst side in the League'.

He also strikes me as somewhat of a moaner about refs.

To give us our full and proper name - Bristol "we should be beating these" City 

[Loco Rojo]

Like some above have said - not the worst, but one of the worst.

We know it too, so not that shocked by what others think about us - and I often think we ARE the worst (only the table makes me realise otherwise).

Doesn't mean we can't change though. Long summer ahead and we can improve with the right decisions. 

[eardun]

3 hours ago, cidercity1987 said:

I actually think we are the worst or one of the worst teams, we just happen to have a bit of individual quality in Semenyo, Weimann to have kept us ticking the points over

So apart from Semenyo, Weimann, what have the Romans ever done for us?!

[The Swan and Cemetery]

2 hours ago, cidercity1987 said:

Team to me seems to mean something entirely different to individuals. 

Are Man U a good team, no they are absolutely rank but have good individuals which gets some results

Get the point that a team is ideally more than the sum of its parts, but very difficult to assess objectively. Think this season we’ve seen more effort and more intent to get forward (strikers can’t do that on their own) and that’s partly coming from a team ethos. Lots of other things still poor, but not sure avoiding relegation is simply down to our strikers, any more than Fulham’s promotion is down to Mitrovic alone. Agree with @ExiledAjax that whatever the sum of parts, that is the team. Opponents’ managers/supporters might say “they’re awful, but that Weimann’s handy”, but he’s still part of the team and contributing to Bristol City’s results, they can’t say “we beat Bristol City comfortably, but lost heavily to Andi Weimann”. However effective/ineffective the parts, it results in a whole - maybe Barnsley are more of a team and make more of what they’ve got (maybe), but overall their results are worse, as a team, just as ours are worse vs everyone above us. 

[tin]

No doubt we’ve had some stinkers this season, albeit nothing compared to last season, but we’ve also had games in which we’ve played pretty well. 

We’ve dropped 33 points from winning positions this season. That doesn’t show we’re the worst side in the league; it shows we have defensive issues. 

[Davefevs]

5 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Stop using facts to win the argument.

I mean just because there are no metrics whatsoever to back up that opinion doesn’t mean they’re wrong, does it?

Form table, last 6 games we are 19th, last 8 games, 18th.

Clearly 2nd or 3rd worst..

Nor does anyone speculate how Derby might’ve done in their “cheating” seasons had they not cheated.  Had they complied they might not have got Rooney as manager (player- manager initially), they might’ve not been able to sign Lawrence, or Bielik, or whoever else.  They might’ve had to sell Bird or Buchanan or whoever.  In any of those scenarios they might’ve got relegated last season.  They cheated, they lost the points this season instead of previous seasons.

The real league table is the current one published with points deductions.

We might struggle next season, we might do ok.  Who’s to say someone like Stoke might also get points deductions next season, maybe Boro and Forest are forced into sales if they don’t go up.

Its all an unknown.

[cityexile]

It also feels there have been a handful of times this season we have been ‘done’ by players on loan at other sides.

Given the finances, it did seem we took a view to save any loan fees with  a view we would survive with what we had. That has just about turned out ok. It has enabled NP also to have a better look at what he has, and who he fancies or not.

Its pretty unusual at our level to have no loans at all. Obviously next season most teams will lose those they had, and will have to hope new ones turn out ok. It seemed a calculated risk for us, that worked out.

[GrahamC]

13 minutes ago, cityexile said:

It also feels there have been a handful of times this season we have been ‘done’ by players on loan at other sides.

Given the finances, it did seem we took a view to save any loan fees with  a view we would survive with what we had. That has just about turned out ok. It has enabled NP also to have a better look at what he has, and who he fancies or not.

Its pretty unusual at our level to have no loans at all. Obviously next season most teams will lose those they had, and will have to hope new ones turn out ok. It seemed a calculated risk for us, that worked out.

I’d argue it had turned out better than that.

It really makes no difference if we had finished 8th or 19th, we are now putting a side on the pitch (minus Kalas, Wells, O’Dowda & Palmer) that I reckon is nearer the amount we can afford & stay within FFP.

Trick of course is selling those above who are not OoC this summer & then making the overall squad no weaker with their cheaper replacements.

The strategy of not borrowing players (who are never free) also has enabled Scott to play an incredible number of games, no one seriously thought he’d play nearly 40, plus Pring, Tanner, Benarous, Cundy & Atkinson have made their first appearances at Championship level whilst Bell, Conway & Towler have had games too.

I do think next season will be equally as tough but also that the ground work put in this year will help.

[Davefevs]

13 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

It really makes no difference if we had finished 8th or 19th, we are now putting a side on the pitch (minus Kalas, Wells, O’Dowda & Palmer) that I reckon is nearer the amount we can afford & stay within FFP.

 

That’s a very good way of looking at it.

[The Bard]

2 hours ago, GrahamC said:

I’d argue it had turned out better than that.

It really makes no difference if we had finished 8th or 19th, we are now putting a side on the pitch (minus Kalas, Wells, O’Dowda & Palmer) that I reckon is nearer the amount we can afford & stay within FFP.

Trick of course is selling those above who are not OoC this summer & then making the overall squad no weaker with their cheaper replacements.

The strategy of not borrowing players (who are never free) also has enabled Scott to play an incredible number of games, no one seriously thought he’d play nearly 40, plus Pring, Tanner, Benarous, Cundy & Atkinson have made their first appearances at Championship level whilst Bell, Conway & Towler have had games too.

I do think next season will be equally as tough but also that the ground work put in this year will help.

That's spot on.  Foresight from the Bristol City manager.

Personally,  I think next season will be better as we'll have less dead wood and a much clearer idea of what we're doing from CEO, to manager, coaches, 1st team players and young players.

For example,  I was impressed by Benarous on Monday. Had a confident look about him.  Not over awed and knows what's expected of him.  At least one of Conway, Benarous,  Bell , Towler etc will properly break into the team next season. 

[Red-Robbo]

16 hours ago, The Bard said:

That's spot on.  Foresight from the Bristol City manager.

Personally,  I think next season will be better as we'll have less dead wood and a much clearer idea of what we're doing from CEO, to manager, coaches, 1st team players and young players.

For example,  I was impressed by Benarous on Monday. Had a confident look about him.  Not over awed and knows what's expected of him.  At least one of Conway, Benarous,  Bell , Towler etc will properly break into the team next season. 

 

I'd argue that Benarous already has and is now a squad player, albeit not a regular starter. Conway seems the most promising of the others you've mentioned, but there are younger players pushing for chances too - which is good.  

[SecretSam]

He's entitled to his opinion. Probably makes you grumpy, having to work in a dump like Stoke.

[2015]

We haven't won back to back games all season. Scored 3 goals on only 1 occasion. Conceded how many in the last minute? It's at least 7 or 8.

It's poor and we have 2 or 3 good individuals keeping us alive.

[cityexile]

10 minutes ago, 2015 said:

We haven't won back to back games all season. Scored 3 goals on only 1 occasion. Conceded how many in the last minute? It's at least 7 or 8.

It's poor and we have 2 or 3 good individuals keeping us alive.

Not bothered to count back, but we have had at least three 3-2s this year.

[2015]

21 minutes ago, cityexile said:

Not bothered to count back, but we have had at least three 3-2s this year.

I was wrong. Just didn't seem like we did it very often at all

Edited April 21, 2022 by 2015

[cityexile]

39 minutes ago, 2015 said:

I was wrong. Just didn't seem like we did it very often at all

No worries....certainly true we have barely this season ever been up by more than a goal.

[Midred]

Didn't Tommy Docherty say this about us in the early 70s after his team had lost to us twice?

[fgrsimon]

As Joe Strummer once said "The future is unwritten". Who'd have thought Huddersfield, who were one of the few teams below us last season, would be challenging for automatic promotion. Barnsley last season made the play-offs after only surviving in the final game of the season before. 

[Wanderingred]

The league table doesn’t lie after 44 games. We are closer to Stoke in mid table than we are to either Peterborough or Barnsley in the bottom three. Not even close to the worst team in the league. 

[Waconda]

Our organisation, tactics and performance versus Peterborough would have made us the worse team in the League let alone the Division.

Opposition coaches must have a field day when studying how we organise when without the ball. 

Much improved in the last 2 games happy to concede. Changes were made after the Posh debacle for sure.

[Lanterne Rouge]

On 21/04/2022 at 18:02, SecretSam said:

He's entitled to his opinion. Probably makes you grumpy, having to work in a dump like Stoke.

The Venice of the Midlands.

With less gondolas and more shopping trollies.

[Mr Sno]

It's been a much worse season for Stoke than us. They were tipped for promotion, maybe Mr o Neil has been on the Source again.

[DaveF]

Just now, Mr Sno said:

It's been a much worse season for Stoke than us. They were tipped for promotion, maybe Mr o Neil has been on the Source again.

And Barnsley considering they were in play offs last season and as it stands they're down...

[Numero Uno]

1 hour ago, DaveF said:

And Barnsley considering they were in play offs last season and as it stands they're down...

Bottom 3 budget though. They over performed last season.

[Waconda]

13 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Bottom 3 budget though. They over performed last season.

How have we done in relation to our budget this season ?

[Rocking Red Cyril]

On 20/04/2022 at 20:45, tin said:

No doubt we’ve had some stinkers this season, albeit nothing compared to last season, but we’ve also had games in which we’ve played pretty well. 

We’ve dropped 33 points from winning positions this season. That doesn’t show we’re the worst side in the league; it shows we have defensive issues. 

Hold on we have 49 points. If we have dropped 33 points, 49+33=82 points.

That's seconed place

[Show Me The Money!]

Surely if you lose twice to the worst team in the division you should lose your job

[cityexile]

11 hours ago, Show Me The Money! said:

Surely if you lose twice to the worst team in the division you should lose your job

For us losing twice to Birmingham, 5-1 on agg is right up there as poor results.

Bham no doubt very grateful for those six points, we always seem to help them out. Equally we are as grateful for 6 points against Reading, as Reading are for their six points against Birmingham! Come the end, the table does not lie.

Hopefully next season Birmingham’s luck runs out.