Williams and James

[Sir Geoff]

After much criticism over the past few weeks when they were struggling for form following injury lay offs, I thought they were both outstanding today. Fully fit they will form a more than decent midfield pairing next season imo.

[Mr Sno]

Just now, Sir Geoff said:

After much criticism over the past few weeks when they were struggling for form following injury lay offs, I thought they were both outstanding today. Fully fit they will form a more than decent midfield pairing next season imo.

Yes, also helps that the likes of Weimann and Scott drop in offering them additional support- from around 60 minutes to the 4th goal they really struggled but other than that they were in complete control.

The problem is both are injury prone, add in Massengo and King likely to be leaving I recon we need 2 centre midfielders in the summer.

[CheddarReds]

It's the best performance n a City shirt I can remember from Williams. He looked like the player I thought we were signing. Lots of energy and talking, good range of passing, well anticipated pressing, doesn't shirk a 50/50. Great to see.

Well done Joe.

[Garland-sweden]

Well done City. Five unbeaten now!

[Super]

11 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:

After much criticism over the past few weeks when they were struggling for form following injury lay offs, I thought they were both outstanding today. Fully fit they will form a more than decent midfield pairing next season imo.

No No No! Let's not get carried away about today. These 2 are not mobile enough to play together

Edited April 30, 2022 by Super

[SBB]

Both brilliant today! Sometimes partnerships take a while and neither have been at 100%, firing on all cylinders. Hopefully after some rest, they both come through a tough pre-season unscathed and start next season fit and sharp. 

[Blagdon Mike]

I agree but it was not just those two, the whole team seemed to be playing at their individual and collective best.  Our forward line is really firing - if we can keep all three that would bode well for next season.  Our back four is looking solid,  With some good additions in the summer we could be knocking on the door next season.  Glad you enjoyed the game Geoff...

 

[Out of his pie crust]

Lacked quality central  midfielders with consistency for a while, prob since brownhill. Would be great to find another, would make a massive difference to us if we found a gem

[bcfc01]

Matty james ran the midfield today, he was excellent.

My MOM.

 

[Bristol_Badger]

Love how we play a relegation rival with nothing to play for and all of a sudden we’re all good 

[Rudolf Hucker]

2 hours ago, Sir Geoff said:

After much criticism over the past few weeks when they were struggling for form following injury lay offs, I thought they were both outstanding today. Fully fit they will form a more than decent midfield pairing next season imo.

Our problem in midfield is goals. Of the 62 goals we’ve scored in the league, midfield has contributed 9 - 4 from Scott, 1 each from James, King, Palmer, O’Dowda and Bakinson.
 

The forwards have been brilliant but we need more goal scoring contribution from midfield if we’re going to get into the top half of the division. I like their solidity but I don’t see James and Williams scoring many between them. 

[Malago]

51 minutes ago, Bristol_Badger said:

Love how we play a relegation rival with nothing to play for and all of a sudden we’re all good 

Excuse me, I missed the part of the season where we were in a relegation battle.  We are 23 points clear of the relegation zone and as somebody pointed out on another thread we’ve been safe since we beat Boro back in Feb.  

[Offside]

Williams and James were superb today and ran the midfield. Energetic performances from both of them. It’s been a long time since we dominated a game like we did today. 

[SBB]

1 hour ago, Bristol_Badger said:

Love how we play a relegation rival with nothing to play for and all of a sudden we’re all good 

But if we would have lost today, we would have been shit. 

[sglosbcfc]

2 hours ago, Bristol_Badger said:

Love how we play a relegation rival with nothing to play for and all of a sudden we’re all good 

to be fair we are now 5 games unbeaten, tough at anytime in a division like the Championship

[KegCity]

Looked a lot better yesterday. Always seemed to find Semenyo in acres of space. Not sure if it was Hull leaving gaps or if our movement improved but either way its encouraging.

[KegCity]

9 hours ago, Super said:

No No No! Let's not get carried away about today. These 2 are not mobile enough to play together

It is possible for footballers to improve. A good performance yesterday doesn't mean they haven't struggled previously.

They've been painfully slow together for much of the season when played together, yesterday was an improvement. More performances like that and we'll be ok.

[ZumerZetSmithy]

Regardless of who we played yesterday it was a good performance  . You can only beat whats in front of you. For me on 88mins approx they were all still fighting to keep a clean sheet.   Let's see what happens next week. I take a draw now.

[brad blit]

Yesterday (and games before) you could see the constant play where the 2 wider centre backs went really wide (as if playing as full backs) and James and/or Williams would come short centrally to make a 4th defensive player and build out from the back. 

Now if we were to go 433 next year, this tactic would literally be mirroring Liverpool with the full backs (say Tanner and JD) pushing up as wide players, and James or Williams becoming the 3 defender to build from back. This means we would have a 3rd central midfielder further up (potentially Scott) who could be more attacking minded and help with goals. Only issue with that is potentially you would have Scott and Weimann in the same pockets of space and would help neither - last thing we would want now is to disturb Weimanns fine form 

[BCFCinNW6]

8 hours ago, Rudolf Hucker said:

Our problem in midfield is goals. Of the 62 goals we’ve scored in the league, midfield has contributed 9 - 4 from Scott, 1 each from James, King, Palmer, O’Dowda and Bakinson.
 

The forwards have been brilliant but we need more goal scoring contribution from midfield if we’re going to get into the top half of the division. I like their solidity but I don’t see James and Williams scoring many between them. 

I disagree. We’re scoring plenty of goals (4th highest goal scoring team the championship?).

What we actually lack is defensive midfielders to break down play and protect the back 3/ 4.  

[Son of Fred]

1 hour ago, KegCity said:

Looked a lot better yesterday. Always seemed to find Semenyo in acres of space. Not sure if it was Hull leaving gaps or if our movement improved but either way its encouraging.

Hull were very poor..

We played very well & capitalised.

What we clearly do need is some pace in the side.

[KegCity]

8 minutes ago, Son of Fred said:

Hull were very poor..

We played very well & capitalised.

What we clearly do need is some pace in the side.

I agree with you, but as someone that's been critical of James and Williams you've got to give credit where it's due. I'd still much rather we played with a HNM style midfielder next to one of them though. Neither look to progress with the ball at their feet and against well drilled sides we get stuck trying to pass it through lines of players.

[Sheltons Army]

9 hours ago, Bristol_Badger said:

Love how we play a relegation rival with nothing to play for and all of a sudden we’re all good 

‘Relegation rival’

 

 

What a plum

Still you ‘Love how’ people think AS has prem quality / potential , Martin should never be anywhere near the side, Mark Ashton wasn’t that bad , and Taylor Moore’s treatment by the club is a disgrace .........

hmmmmmmm

Edited May 1, 2022 by Sheltons Army

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Son of Fred said:

Hull were very poor..

We played very well & capitalised.

What we clearly do need is some pace in the side.

Sometimes the opposition is poor because we are good, I.e. we make them look bad. They were in better form than us going into yesterday, played a full strength eleven…but we were too good for them yesterday.

 

Re Williams and James together.

Yesterday was just their 9th start together.  One of those, Peterborough (a) Williams played RM/RW.  Another, Bournemouth (h), Williams lasted 11 minutes.

So they’ve barely played together, yesterday was only the 3rd time they’ve played a full 90 together in CM.  Whilst there has been an occasion (plural) where they’ve struggled, Birmingham (h), I don’t think they’ve been as bad as suggested, especially when one came back from a foot injury and the other having his game-time managed due to a hamstring injury.  What I think we are seeing is two players getting used to each other, and improving as they understand each other’s game better.

What might also be helping is a settled back three behind them.  9 starts on the trot for Cundy, Klose and Atkinson.

3 clean sheets in those 9 too (10 conceded - our best rate this season).

[The Bard]

2 hours ago, brad blit said:

Yesterday (and games before) you could see the constant play where the 2 wider centre backs went really wide (as if playing as full backs) and James and/or Williams would come short centrally to make a 4th defensive player and build out from the back. 

Now if we were to go 433 next year, this tactic would literally be mirroring Liverpool with the full backs (say Tanner and JD) pushing up as wide players, and James or Williams becoming the 3 defender to build from back. This means we would have a 3rd central midfielder further up (potentially Scott) who could be more attacking minded and help with goals. Only issue with that is potentially you would have Scott and Weimann in the same pockets of space and would help neither - last thing we would want now is to disturb Weimanns fine form 

We tried that for a few games (Birmingham Home) and it didn't work.  Largely because neither Williams or James really shield the defence.  If Pack is re-signed it would make sense.

[Always red]

Williams might be OK but James has no pace or bite in the tackle. Prefer Williams and Scott

[pillred]

4 hours ago, ZumerZetSmithy said:

Regardless of who we played yesterday it was a good performance  . You can only beat whats in front of you. For me on 88mins approx they were all still fighting to keep a clean sheet.   Let's see what happens next week. I take a draw now.

Even with nothing on the game, well for us at least it will be interesting to see if we have genuinely improved, playing a team in the top four should give us some clues I'm hoping the team take the game seriously and finish the season six unbeaten.

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Sometimes the opposition is poor because we are good, I.e. we make them look bad. They were in better form than us going into yesterday, played a full strength eleven…but we were too good for them yesterday.

 

Re Williams and James together.

Yesterday was just their 9th start together.  One of those, Peterborough (a) Williams played RM/RW.  Another, Bournemouth (h), Williams lasted 11 minutes.

So they’ve barely played together, yesterday was only the 3rd time they’ve played a full 90 together in CM.  Whilst there has been an occasion (plural) where they’ve struggled, Birmingham (h), I don’t think they’ve been as bad as suggested, especially when one came back from a foot injury and the other having his game-time managed due to a hamstring injury.  What I think we are seeing is two players getting used to each other, and improving as they understand each other’s game better.

What might also be helping is a settled back three behind them.  9 starts on the trot for Cundy, Klose and Atkinson.

3 clean sheets in those 9 too (10 conceded - our best rate this season).

Statistically Williams has the best record of any City player this season in games he has started: W7 D2 L4.

[Davefevs]

17 minutes ago, pillred said:

Even with nothing on the game, well for us at least it will be interesting to see if we have genuinely improved, playing a team in the top four should give us some clues I'm hoping the team take the game seriously and finish the season six unbeaten.

Next week will be a sign for Nige as to who slacks off when they want to.  So far, this season end has shown none of them do.  Let’s hope we give Huddersfield a really tough lunchtime next Saturday.

10 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Statistically Williams has the best record of any City player this season in games he has started: W7 D2 L4.

I don’t track wins / losses but I do track points gained / lost (which is similar) and goals for / against whilst they are on the pitch.

Re goals for and against p90, only Williams, Cundy and Benarous (small minutes) have + figures.

Re points gained / lost before yesterday, Williams is top of the tree.

I don’t think he’s playing at full-tilt either, but getting 35+ apps out of him next season would make a huge difference.

[The Swan and Cemetery]

Wonder if based on last few games NP might decide 5-2-3/5-2-1-2 is the way to go, rather than 4-3-3? 4-3-3 will need some significant personnel changes which maybe tricky, whereas in recent games we’ve started to look a lot more fluid with players interchanging more effectively. Suspect he’ll still try to go for 4-3-3, as probs easier to get Scott into a position where he can add most impact, but leaves problems at RB and LB to solve (assuming Klose retained) - Tanner a decent prospect, but need at least one more there, Dasilva not a LB and not sure NP would trust Pring, but again as a min would need one more. Probs need a GK to really push Bentley and a CB or two (if Kalas goes).
But back on topic, he must at least feel as if CM is looking as if it might be in decent shape as well as our forwards - always going to be a work in progress season, so getting a frontline firing and midfield looking decent, plus signs of progress in defence feels decent to me. That said, an important summer ahead, too many of yesterday’s starters not here and we’ll be, to some degree, starting again.