Shauntaylor85

1 hour ago, ralphindevon said:

My pre season optimism, 4 days ago, has taken a rapid dive not felt since the Coppell fiasco.

The difference is this time I’m confident it’ll climb again soon. Though If we lose tomorrow v Oxford and Pearson walks out it may tumble again 

Little doubt that this season is last chance saloon for Nigel. Never get the feeling SL has a lot of time for him, injuries are frustrating but all the optimism of one week ago has certainly been crushed. Pressure on Tinnion and Nige now, if we sell Scott we cannot also go to Christmas without our two best forward thinking players. Big decision to be made market wise. 

Time to speak to Lucas Joao? 

Just now, BCFCGav said:

Is Nige saying this not a bit of a ploy to keep expectations in check? If we sold Scott for £20+5m having got £10m for Antoine 8 months ago, surely we’re financially very comfortable?

This. Take the risk surely, I don’t see how £25M for Scott means we cannot invest in a couple. Surely we can break that mould. Very concerning, I like Wells but we cannot rely on him, Bell also doesn’t have the strength or hold up play to go central. 

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

3? I'd go further.

Within 6 weeks Kalas, DaSilva, Nagy, Afobe all with medium to long term injuries by mid September 2019 Plus Smith carrying his range of injuries stretching back to 2018-19.

Too many games at the HPC? No doubt we have improved much better since Rolls left on that front, but it’s a concern to see how many have dropped so far. Not normal. 

Just now, George Rs said:

It’s very difficult now, as nige said we are at our wage ceiling. 
 

Still need a midfielder imo especially if AS goes.

Feel light on CBS until rob returns

And now feels like we need a striker in the door. 
 

personally would feel a lot safer with another gk as well. Our luck in recent times from that penalty drought to all these injuries has been awful.

I do wonder if our summer strategy had to be so invested in wages for those two full backs, considering likes of Leeson coming through. We still haven’t replaced the Semenyo X Factor. 

11 minutes ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

I tend to believe @Bcfcshags TBH. He`s got a lot right in the past.

He knows things but doesn’t give much good news does he! Not that we get much good news! 

50 minutes ago, Bcfcshags said:

Tore his hamstring in training, out for 12 weeks.

I’ve said all summer we are weak in the central striker spots. We do need a striker as if Wells goes down too we cannot rely on Cornick!!!

Not even one week in and this season has started in typical BCFC style. Is Ashton Gate cursed?! Do we need to start looking at Dave Rennie here? It’s not good is it. 

9 hours ago, chinapig said:

Nigel said in last week's presser that Tanner isn't an attacking full back. Make of what you will but I reckon a fit McCrorie would have started ahead of him.

Tanner has done very well for a low risk development signing, but there is a reason why we fought off strong competition to sign McCrorie from Aberdeen for reported £2M. Hoping we see him fit soon. I am tempted to see both new full backs start to give us something different (and I firmly believe Pring is our next best asset after Scott!). I see a bit of a Tierney/Zinchenko development like at Arsenal last season with both full backs. One better attacking, but the other inverted and Roberts offered that in pre season. 

2 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

I'm I right in thinking they were down to 10 men as well. Good Times

Correct, after 60 mins but we were 3.0 down already. I believe Damion Stewart also saw red for us towards the end, another debutant. The Ipswich 0.3 the following year was worse! Chopra robbed James at his feet I recall to score! Our opening day performances are genuinely poor, one of the best was a 2.0 win at Wrexham with Alan Miller in goal! Danny’s first game, seem to recall a Thorpe hat trick  at Sixfields too! 

1 hour ago, Johnr1986 said:

Couldn’t argue more about Chair, Wilock from them is decent too. 

For what it’s worth, I know a lot of QPR fans and they strongly believe any decent offer for Chair would have to be accepted. They are not in a good position overall. Incredible when you consider their start under Beale last season. Many were saying top two! 

20 minutes ago, stephenkibby. said:

Speaking of Millwall Saturday was so much worse than the last time we played them on the first game of the season.

2010, Crowd up for it and, well you know the rest.

I remember it well. David James debut followed by a 0.3. Having said that our expectations are higher now. 

If there was budget to spend on a Scott replacement, I would love a move for Chair at QPR based on their finance issues. 

12 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

As a season ticket holder you seriously can't think that was one of the worst halves of football you've ever seen surely? 

What about the game where we lost 6 nil to Cardiff? 4 nil down by half time. 

Saturdays game was poor but it doesn't even make the top 100 of poor 1st halves that I've seen. 

It was dire! One effort from Bell which should have been a goal, but aside from that countless misplaced passes, no atmosphere. Honestly in the context of pre season optimism as a fan base it couldn’t have been worse. Let’s hope we see a few players back soon and Scott plays at Millwall. 

6 hours ago, Street red said:

Any wonder why players play with the lack of confidence at Ashton gate your right he tried to make things happen and work his balls off.. Didn't people notice it's another team that come and frustrated us. We could be Leeds 2-0 down at home it's the championship we won't get what we want all the time.

They didn’t come and frustrate us at all. They were the better side overall and we were fortunate to get a point. I think the issue really is our fans overhyping someone based on pre season, more unfair to put pressure on. It is perfectly acceptable to feel underwhelmed by new signings. Dickie for example was excellent. 

42 minutes ago, Leveller said:

On yesterday’s showing, Naismith could replace James, who I thought (unusually) had a bit of a shocker.

I think it again shows how key Naismith is to our play. He’s a quality footballer. 

Thought he and Dickie were the best players our side. It would be interesting to see how Mcrorie and Roberts adapt in place of Pring and Tanner who were both average, Pring defended well but wasn’t his usual self going forward, I’m usually a big fan. 

2 hours ago, S_C said:

I also don’t post much on here, and apologies for adding to the Alex Scott thread with a post not directly commenting on Alex Scott, but for me this is hugely unfair regarding Knight.

Yesterday was an interesting day in that it popped the enthusiasm balloon for those who bought into play-off, sell out etc sound-bytes/hype, but the reality is we’re progressing, or at very least setting foundations, as a club which simply won’t be able to toe-to-toe with plenty in the league. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t be able to with Preston, who can rightly feel aggrieved not to have taken all three points following our poor performance yesterday, but to in anyway pin that on Knight’s debut, or any other individual performance, isn’t fair.

Knight showed tenacity and touches of flair which will, in my opinion at least, endear him to fans in no time. I was much more concerned with how ragged, disorganised and, perhaps most damning, passive in response we were with both James and Williams at the heart of midfield, two players you’d absolutely want to sort things out when under the cosh, as we were for pretty much the entire second half yesterday.

Don’t get me wrong, Knight was no more than 6/10, but to attach any negatives to him based on yesterdays bland and underwhelming turn-out is, in my opinion, misguided.

Fair point but it’s a game of opinions and many in here from what I read from afar were making out that we had a transformational player. For me all I saw was another LJ, who I was never a fan of as a player or manager. Felt pretty underwhelmed but then I guess he looked shoulders above our average League One and Two opponents in pre season. You could see why Derby fans weren’t overly worried. 

I honestly don’t think we need to spend on another CB, appreciate we are light at present but I don’t see it as a priority when we have Kal and Mcrorie fit. We have some good players coming through too and Cam actually played very well as LCB last season which could benefit us as a team to enable Roberts to play the inverted full back role which may make us less open and supplement our weakness in midfield. 

Even if Scott were to stay, we are short of quality in the midfield as epitomised by King having to come on for Knight as we chase a winner at home. A GK would also be welcome as Max kicking leaves a lot to be desired.  

26 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

That front 3 would be interesting, wondered about it myself a couple of times the only question is two left footers?

It would be young and full of energy. Would also be more likely to stretch if the ball played in quickly yet accurately big centre backs like those we faced Saturday.

Works for Arsenal. Saka on the right is very good at cutting in, Martinelli plays more as a traditional wide player. I can see Bell being a better threat for us on the right, if you watch him closely he struggles when crowded out as he takes the ball forward on his left, very much goes outside as opposed to inside. 

1 hour ago, mozo said:

Thanks for sharing. I think he could justify it on the basis of salary alone tbf, but to play in the top flight at that age is also pretty amazing. 

I definitely don't think we can see Knight as a Scott replacement. 

It'll be interesting to see what impact Cornick, Knight and Mehmetti can have this season. 

I would actually like to see a front 3 of Mehmeti, Conway and Bell, surprised he hasn’t tried Bell on the right. Mehmeti is an interesting one, Alan Nixon called his signing as the best of the January window in the Champ, I understand PL clubs showed interest and Wycombe valued at £5M and above, we all felt a buzz that we had replaced Antoine’s unpredictability and X Factor in the forward line, to find him behind the likes of Cornick is astonishing. There is no doubt to me Mehmeti is the best technical player at the club other than Scott. Would like him to be given a run. 

Either way no doubt the front 3 yesterday should not be our regular. I think the whole stadium was surprised Conway wasn’t starting, can only imagine he had a knock. That said, we could have had Jesus, Haaland, Toney etc up top and they would struggle with our midfield. I still think we lack that Lucas Joao type forward, someone explosive with power. 

Don’t usually post on here, but felt compelled to after yesterday. Saw a certain injured first team player on the way up to upper Lansdown and he was clear AS was genuinely injured but seemed to infer he is keen on a PL move, who wouldn’t be! I definitely got the sense that its a matter of time this window. I also raised the fact we are a bigger club than likes of Bournemouth, the response was pretty much around the PL being the PL irrespective of club size. You cannot say no to furthering your career  

This feeling of an imminent AS departure really does concern me after viewing a disappointing first game yesterday, can honestly say that was one of the worst halves of football I’ve ever seen at AG in my 30 years as a season ticket holder considering all the pre game optimism, it was utter dross.
 

Yet again another summer goes by where we don’t strengthen an area where most city fan would acknowledge we are weak year in, year out….the midfield. Knight for me was such an underwhelming debut to watch, a fellow fan perfectly described him as Neil Kilkenny meets Lee Johnson, I don’t think I could have described him any better. Our midfield again lacks bite, tenacity, quality and creation, we have lacked a creative midfielder since Tinnion retired and we just don’t ever get to grips. Stoke did a fantastic job signing Ben Pearson considering we also lack a player who can put a foot in. Have to question our approach of pre season and transfer strategy with League One and below, you could tell we were shocked with playing an average team at Champ level. 

If Scott goes, we HAVE to somehow find a way of a midfield player, perhaps even a loan like Fiorini from Man C, but the current group will not be good enough to push beyond 14th. I’m a bit NP fan but again have a sense of is he a better DOF for the club than a first team Head Coach/Manager.