NcnsBcfc
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Posts posted by NcnsBcfc
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2 minutes ago, Sir Geoff said:
Glad you mentioned Vyners two lunges in front of the Dolman. In the first he was clear favourite and should have taken both man and ball. The second he had no chance with and allowed the Norwich player to just skip past him. Two terrible decisions.
Absolutely @Sir Geoff
And the complete switching off that allowed a straight ball over the top to Barnes, who looked a shadow of his former self.
Vyner yesterday demonstrated the attributes that had us all with our heads in our hands 2 years ago. I was so angry after the game, @headhunter was still having to calm me down during the podcast....
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4 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:
Even when we scored the celebrations were quite muted. We had a little spell where we got a few shots away but nothing that really troubled the keeper.
This "we should have been 2 up" talk is already getting quite boring and tedious because its complete rubbish. Norwich should have been 1 up with the Barnes 1 on 1. We didn't have any clear cut chances. A few half chances and pot shots doesn't mean we should have been 2 or r nil up.
So yes it was total and utter dross imo.
Don't think I got out of my seat once in the second half. However you try and dress it up, it was crap against a crap team.
Ok, respect your opinion.
For me the TGH shot (good save). Sykes shot that should have been on target from excellent link up play, good header from knight that bought a save and the movement from Conway to the Sykes through ball that bought another save were all in a 15-20 min period in and around the goal in the 1st half.
Yes there were periods of boredom, particularly in the 2nd half after their equaliser when they sat back and we seemed to lack attacking intent (not helped by the subs that came on). But I wouldn't say it was complete dross throughout the game.
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2 minutes ago, GrahamC said:
How long have you been watching us?
Under SOD we were in the bottom four of League One, under Holden we lost 6 consecutive games (we lost the 7th after he was sacked) culminating in a defeat at Watford (6-0) that was truly embarrassing.
I’ll assume you were too young for Pulis as no one can seriously not think that was a nadir.
You are spot on about giving Manning time (though I think I might have to take a book to read whilst we pass it square for 10 minutes) but no way was anything under Pearson as bad as those I have highlighted.
Even under GJ, the man who got us as close as anyone back to the Prem, we had an awful period of losses until the "Hand grenade" moment.
@GrahamC sorry I was over in the Lower Lansdown rather than in front of you yesterday. All the good stuff we do offensively falls down by the lack of intent or passiveness when we don't have it. Leading to long periods of as you say "boredom".
It just reminded me Swansea under Martin yesterday. Without us having a Piroe or Nitcham to actually score some goals. You literally bore the opposition into letting you score. After their equaliser, they just say back and were happy with a draw. They couldn't believe when they scored at the end.
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1 minute ago, Sheltons Army said:
I genuinely think that the only thing that will save , maybe even part save , the hierarchy moving forward is obvious success on the pitch
Im not sure that I’ve ever seen or heard across a fanbase the overall anger , distaste , or disagreement with recent events or certainly a lot of key aspects of them (To various degrees but overall a high degree of feeling)
Im bemused as they actually appear to be shocked , but have quickly become aware of it
Their body language at the Fans Forum was 3 condemned men hauled to a public showing.
Ive said a few times , I don’t just think it’s recent events , it’s been a build up from the Cotts implosion since (And probably seeds further back)
I was only thinking yesterday , .....all the talk of promotion ambitions........ Even if LM produced some miracle on the pitch in the next couple of years and got us promoted -
Look at our people in key positions at the club , the depth and quality , expertise , of the structure and management ......
Premier League ready ? .......... Jesus wept
If we ever, by some miracle, got promoted to the Prem; we would probably have some quotes like "The money is a nice nest egg for the future"
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Jesus show some ambition as a board rather than through words. Actions and some actual financial investment would help. You can't just stand there and say "We should be doing this, or be in this position etc" whereas at the same time cutting budgets and the available funding for player purchases. How many mixed messages do you want to give?
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16 hours ago, REDOXO said:
Whoever mentioned the pathetic limp footed dangle is spot on!
We played a different defensive formation in and out of possession. We switched between 2/3/4/5 in possession and blocks of 4/4/2 out of possession
Pearson had to get rid of players and change the culture with very little financial support. He turned a kid into a superstar, he turned Semenyo into a goalscorer turned Vyner back into a footballer and blooded 17/18/19/20 year olds into our first team. He made the club loads of money that is now going to go to someone else, because he had the temerity to be his own man.
The thought he would be fired while we were building a team and specifically not given money is absurd. Manning is changing a culture already we now give soft goals away for fun costing points while Vyner, Bell, ConwAy among others look crap.
yep culture change it is!
Yep that was me @REDOXO
What I can't stand is limp defending.
Hence my rant around Vyner on the 2nd goal. Either you win the ball or you take your man out. What you don't do is passively let the ball bounce, then through poor body shape and lack of physicality allow you man to get away from you.
Both Tanner and Vyner have through either poor defending or lack of application given away 4 goals in our last 2 home games.
Mark and Ian may disagree on their first goal "See it in the prem each week". But that doesn't make it right, does it? I was still angry on the podcast. Tanner isn't good enough, that's why NP bought McCrorie, unfortunately things haven't worked out so far.
I would love to see Tanner's stats re passing the ball backwards @Davefevs. There were periods in the second half where our players stopped passing the ball to him in open positions, as I'm I'm sure they knew that they would just be given it straight back.
He was the worst culprit (although not the only one) in a negative approach to our attacking play yesterday. The worst moment for me though is when we won a thrown in on the edge of their box and Weimann threw it back to Vyner on the half way line "AAAGGHHH"
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So at time when the powers at be have acknowledged that Communication with the fans hasn't been good enough, the sole remaining member of the leadership team that responds on social media decides to come off it?
I have no idea of what the club's plans are for the future, but the initial flurry of posts covering "Oh look here's Liam taking training again" seems to have tailed off.
Not sure of the communication strategy moving forward, but while we are moving towards another season of mid table mediocrity, will we still be pushing the mantra of hope and expectations of the current squad. Something tells me not, as then they themselves become accountable for the lack of investment in the squad given to NP.
Fun times ahead.....
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14 minutes ago, Davefevs said:
Thanks @Davefevs, agree with your points there.
I think in possession we appear to be patient and working to a pattern of play. The issue for me (although early doors) is out of possession. The aggressive "Front foot" nonsense clearly isn't being played in a defensive transition. Leading to games meandering for long periods of time, hence the "this is boring" element.
Alongside our build up play, we need an aggression and determination to win the ball and get it back from the opposition. That's what gets people excited "intent". Manning seems like a quiet, thoughtful man in his press interviews so far. That is kind of how this team is playing. Other than the Tanner yellow card i don't remember a bad challenge from us yesterday.
The stats i have say a total of 4 fouls during the entire game ( 2 each) with City never having an offside against us??? Hardly demonstrating a willingness to get the ball back does it?
The balance needs to be better between patient football and showing as I say the aggressive intent to win the game. Passiveness just sends people to sleep.
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7 minutes ago, GrahamC said:
He’s out of form.
I recall last season there was a consensus on here that we badly missed him when he had his hamstring issues.
Tommy is 21, he still has plenty of time to improve, last season he was our top scorer.
I’m not saying we persevere indefinitely if his drought continues (Cornick must surely be worth a try soon, maybe as his partner) but I wouldn’t write him off, at this stage in his career he’s ahead of any academy product we have had in a very long time.
He's making the runs and carving out chances for himself. However from his body language, he doesn't look confident to convert those when they arrive. Looks like the pressure of leading the line is impacting on him.
Makes him difficult to drop at the moment though. Who would have made that run for the Sykes through ball, or in the 2nd half chance with the cross from the left. We simply don't have another striker with Wells out that makes those sort of chances.
I'm sure it's an area we will look to recruit in, either permanent or loan next month. No point playing the way we are playing if we don't have the ability to put the ball in the net at the end of it.
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3 minutes ago, GrahamC said:
He’s absolutely bloody terrible.
There has been a lot of criticism on here of Downsy but this bloke’s job is basically money for jam.
He always asks 3 post match questions;
How pleased/disappointed are you with today (closed question).
Game coming up in midweek, will you be looking to build on/bounce back from today’s result (closed question).
Something about it being a competitive division, tight margins (closed question).
Before a game he asks the second of these 3 again & one mentioning the number of supporters that are travelling & how can they make a difference (Play School question).
If you don’t want to know the answer to any of these questions, look away now..
I have no idea how much he earns but he could be replaced by AI at a fraction of the cost & we wouldn’t lose any insight, as he never provides any.
I'm amazed he's actually still in a job @GrahamC.
JL acknowledged that the communication from the club hasn't been good enough for a long time. Normally in that situation the "Head of Communications" would become accountable. Unless of course, you're really good mates with Jon of course..
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2 minutes ago, Countryfile said:
Can I firstly lay claim to the shortest ever TITLE.
Without going into any of the arguments for and against him has any one actually seen SL at any of the recent football games?
Has he commented about the new coach arriving (I don’t mean the blue one that used to be red)?
He really seems to have taken a vow of silence about the club he owns, while I believe he has held a Q and A with the rugby fans?
Any thoughts?
I think there seems to be a genuine push at the moment from SL to JL to be more assertive and have a bigger presence at the club befitting what a Chairman should actually be doing.
The whole "lack of communication apology" from JL alluded to this for me. I'm not bothered about not hearing from SL as long as JL stands up and is accountable. It's when the pair of them go into silent mode, that the whole club seems to meander through long periods in a directionless manner.
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1 hour ago, W-S-M Seagull said:
I think the boos were because we had just watched 100 minutes of utter total dross.
They need to move on? Maybe Manning himself needs to find a way of connecting with these players and getting the best out of them, just like how Nige did.
Do you think it was 100% dross all the time?
First half, some clever movement, working of the space and 10 shots on goal (5 on target). Arguably we could (and should) have been 2 or 3-0 up (I know they hit the post and Barnes missed a good chance as well).
Yes, there were periods of play that were pedestrian and not entertaining, but I fail to see that the entire game (even the good goal that Knight scored ) were "utter total dross"?
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7 minutes ago, Harry said:
Yes. Weimann’s role in the first goal is one which I would I apportion almost 100% of the blame on him.
As regards Mehmeti, I think he did ok. He only receive the ball about 10 times, didn’t give it away, got 2 decent crosses in and helped to force us into good positions on the edge of the box on the final 5 minutes.
Was he brilliant? No. But he did ok.
Anyway, onto Weimann (in pictures)
Pic 1 : He’s about to receive the ball, takes a terrible touch and turns in toward the Norwich player and loses it. Absolutely no reason to have lost possession here. It’s simply poor poor play.
Pic 2 : GT, ZV & RD all have a man each in the box. Weimann knows he’s responsible for the left back and even has a look at him, correctly anticipating the switch.
Pic 3 : When the switch occurs, Weimann has turned his back on it (even though he’d scanned it 1 second earlier) and actually begins running back toward goal rather than toward the left back who is his responsibility!! This is awful.
Pic 4 : And we can now see the result. Tanner has had to come out to their left back, which meant he left his man on the near post. Vyner then has to leave his man and try to get goal side of Tanner’s man but it’s impossible to get there.
Weimann gave the ball away too easily in his own half and then didn’t defend his man properly, leaving it up to others to do his job.
This isn’t the managers fault or a style of play issue. It’s just shit play all round from our captain.
However; what is the managers fault is playing a woeful Weimann in the first place. He wouldn’t be in my team, full stop.
Thanks @Harry
Makes James Piercey's after match ratings seem even more deluded.
Weimann simply isn't the player he was 2 years ago, end of. Like Chris Martin, there comes a time when any player's legs/attributes start to wain, that I fear is where we are with him.
The days of him making runs, getting on the end of crosses appears to be gone from my perspective. Defensively he's never been great with the patented Neil Kilkenny pointing at other players to do what he should be doing. Without any positive offensive stats, what does he bring to the team at the moment?
That said, the player he replaced in the starting line up (Bell) is also struggling under the new way of playing. He was all about channel running, not link up. The forwards in the team are struggling to adapt full stop at the moment. TGH, Knight and Sykes seem to have some understanding of what is required in the new system.
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31 minutes ago, Davefevs said:
So are you saying that all the “differences” aren’t positive differences then?
I’m being facetious, because I’m mainly reading it’s all positive but it’s just a case of being patient / it will take time, etc!!
FWIW I talked about our “high press” in the week and that it’s been anything but a high press so far. I don’t have a problem with blocking, but it shows the bollox rhetoric we are asked to swallow as fans - “front foot high press”.
Its just data, but our 5 worst pressing games this season from a numbers point of view are:
Leicester 27.58 passes allowed
Norwich City 25.38
Southampton 22.27
Middlesbrough 16.74
Hull City 16.13
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Avg. 13.58
Even under Nige we weren’t really high pressing either, but this is an area we need to be careful. Because I think it’s taking some intensity out of the game, and leading to less transition, and transition we are pretty good at!
I'm trying to stay "Positive" as it is early days of course, but I'm missing the intensity somewhat of our midfield and defence.
Maybe this isn't born out through the stats. But the harassing of the midfield (Knight in particular) and aggressiveness of the defence seems to have waned in the last 3 games (discounting QPR as only a couple of days in the job).
From an early perspective we seem to be playing a more patient "Let's not chase the ball, lets wait to get it back and then develop from there " approach. I think offensively we are actually creating more (sadly forwards, Conway is particular are mis firing at the moment). It's just a bit patient build up, with what feels like unnecessary passing at times (again yesterday when Sykes lost the ball in the middle). It reminds me of Swansea under Martin, although they had arguably players better suited to the process.
It's the slow, slow, quick approach that fans are going to have to get their heads around. It leads to accusations of "this is boring", during the first half yesterday while we actually had 10 shots (5 on target). Difficult to feel uplifted by this technical feel to the football at times, it reminds me of course of how Oxford played against us in the cup for periods. Very unlikely at our level, even less so that you can keep it up for large periods of time. Hence the drop offs during the game in intensity and endeavour. That's when certain players are guilty of switching off IMHO.
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4 minutes ago, Davefevs said:
Whether he was gonna be extended or not, should’ve had no bearing on playing squad investment. Playing squad investment should’ve happened regardless. So there shouldn’t be a “rightly or wrongly” about it. And if that was the case, they should’ve acted in the summer. Because they’ve left their new man in no-man’s land for 11 games until the window opens. He might get some in early, but likelihood is most activity will be late in the window, so we will have played 14 games (29 in total) by the time any new players are in and possibly longer until they are embedded.
Sacking football managers is a normal football decision.
Bringing managers in to do a specific role, e.g. save from relegation, sort out a mess, and then moving them on is a normal football decision.
Sacking Nige WHEN they did (ignoring the reasons) is NOT a normal football decision. They should’ve done it in the summer, or next summer, I don’t care which. I’m not tied to who the Bristol City manager is, but I expect sensible football decisions. This one stank the house out in cluelessness. I’m right behind Liam Manning though, like I was Nige.
I think your second paragraph is just trying to fit a narrative (my opinion on your opinion), because if you look at the recruitment facts, it didn’t stop Jason Knight (22), Haydon Roberts (21) or TGH (21) signing did it? They were all keen to join “turgid” City. There are others before them too.
I think Dickie as well, has arguably been our player of the season.
I think the boos yesterday, were more around the manner in which we lost in the 95 mins. The game itself was playing out as two mid table teams playing out the game. Norwich knew they had stolen it due to some piss poor defending by Vyner at the end.
I can see what Manning is working to achieve, he's just being let down unfortunately by a few players, who either are low on confidence or making errors due to lack of application and concentration. The like of which we didn't really see for the last 12 months under NP.
I was angry after the game and then on the Forever Bristol City podcast. Not by the way the team played, but by the manner we once again for the second home game running gave up those 2 goals.
I feel for Manning though, the resentment felt by many for the manner of NP's departure and subsequent comments by the SLT is being transposed onto him. The patient build up is so removed from our previous way of playing, that it is going to take time to adjust. Not helped by playing right footers on the left, causing an imbalance. Certainly without the introduction of a number of players in Jan (unlikely of course) i can't see us being anything other than mid table this season.
Who knows what goes on in the dressing room after a game like that. But I'd like to think some strong words need to be said about our intensity in defending from the 1st minute to the 95th. When we have the ball, a number of players for me switch off. The 95 min wasn't the first time Vyner was caught out yesterday (twice on our right side and then the ball over the top that Barnes should have done better with).
I think NP was a father figure to a number of the young players and as such seen as a guiding light at times. They need to move on now and start to demonstrate the same level of application in Manning's team.
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1 hour ago, Sir Geoff said:
And scored only 3.
1. Penalty
1. Wonder goal from the edge of the box
1. Proper goal from open play
Glad you're satisfied with things so far, cos I'm not
4 isn't it?
Conway Pen
TGH wonder goal
Sykes decent volley
and Knight's goal yesterday.
Certainly going to get more goals from our midfield with getting them forward through the clever inward passing. Just need to get the forwards firing now and get some of the defenders to start switching on again...
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11 hours ago, GrahamC said:
“A bit of defensive donkey work”.
Lost his man completely at a corner, didn’t switch on & was little help to Pring most of the time.
Once he had the run & shot then he completely changed, but defensively he’s still a bit of a liability.
Totally get the confidence player bit but has to do more when we don’t have the ball or are defending.
This is down to him, not Manning or Pearson.
@GrahamC that defensive change of bringing Naismith on and going to a back 5 was completely to offset the defensive mess that Mehmeti created over on the left hand side.
It was his man (Bangera) that he didn't track (again) and caused Pring to take one for the team on the edge of the box (meaning he misses the Southampton game of course).
With the introduction of Naismith, Mehmeti was able to just have to think about going forward (something he is infinitely better at doing) and showed decent pace and close control.
Not sure what sort of formation you would need to accommodate him again. I'm sure Cam would be overjoyed to see him in front of him again.
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'Damaging' backlog after council department loses a third of staff
Must have been some naughtiness going on with the Rover's planning applicatio to get it through so quickly then?
Particularly after they had to pull the first application and make a new one.
No doubt the Sports Village issues aren't subject to the same level of "support" from certain Council members.
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53 minutes ago, View from the Dolman said:
https://www.bristolrovers.co.uk/news/2023/november/South-stand-statement/
"The South Stand will modernise the stadium, and with your help continue to add to that infamous atmosphere that the Memorial Stadium is known for."
Well I guess the honesty is to be admired...
Yep, certainly a massive upgrade on their previous outstanding away disabled supporter's facility
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10 minutes ago, James54De said:
So 22.5 million up-front, plus a possible 3 million in instalments.
Still a decent fee for me, particularly as he was injured when we sold him and wouldn't have had the benefit of him playing for anumber of months into this season.
25% of a future sell on , is also decent. Anything around £50-60m and another £8-10m coming our way.
We sold him at the best time for the club financially.
A few other transfers on that article are interesting as well.
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31 minutes ago, GrahamC said:
Planning permission granted by BCC for the stand, capacity of 3414.
Imagine my shock.
A certain gentleman in the Council working overtime on that then Graham?
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5 minutes ago, GrahamC said:
This is our biggest issue.
We have Rob Atkinson to return as well.
If we can keep those 3 fit we are well served at CB, plus as his been pointed out, despite ongoing noise on here about our goalkeeper we are the second best side defensively in the division.
We have options in midfield but at the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, since Scott has left we are short of creativity.
Up front we look decent on paper but no one has yet looked like being a consistent scorer, Bell started the season with a flurry but has tailed off.
Is Naismith a better option than James? Knight is nailed on to start but how we find a combination there that creates more opportunities yet still keeps us defensively solid is key.
Interesting one with Naismith.
His pass into Cornick for the 4th against Plymouth showed the type of creativity we are missing. I think a midfield 3 of Knight, James and Naismith is probably our best 3 at the moment.
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6 hours ago, Davefevs said:
Out of interest - Why are you suggesting a rebuild or am I reading it out of context? That’s not what Tins and JL are suggesting at all. They are suggesting the players are good enough, just that Nige wasn’t getting enough out of them.
@Davefevs I'm not suggesting a rebuild at all. I don't think LM will personally be given that much money to spend in the Jan Window and we don't really have anybody else that can generate further funds for him either by way of sales.
Different training regimes and different styles take a while to get embedded. I don't think that LM has to deal with the same issues players wise that NP had to deal with when he first arrived. The group we have now seem to be more professional in their general approach.
Been up at the HPC tonight with Shuffles. It would be interesting to see if fringe players such as Pearson, OTC, Idehen, Arayoe start coming into the 18 man squad again.
Certainly watching Bajic tonight, his kicking and passing seemed to be a lot better than MOLs as well (albeit with the storm and horrible weather)
I still supported NP when he was here. But in the end it did feel like it was running out of steam a bit, on the basis of rhe obvious lack of support for him within the club's hierarchy.
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I've got a gut feeling the board at Rovers are going to appointment Mangan. Particularly after the relatively successful set of recent results.
@Miah Dennehy what do you think?
Hopefully it won't take them 6 weeks and an extensive worldwide search in order to promote the assistant.
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1 minute ago, Kid in the Riot said:
Yes, I could see us maybe having been able to improve by a couple of positions on last season (so around 12th) but there was very little evidence to suggest we'd have done much better.
Agree with the point on performances too. A few good halves against Hull, Plymouth and Swansea, but unfortunately not too much else to write home about.
My own view is that it felt as if NP had stabilised the team, without us actually playing particularly well at times. We spent the whole of last season roughly in the bottom half of the table, without ever being in real danger of being dragged into a relegation battle. This year in a lot of ways feels exactly the same and on that basis it felt as if the club as a whole was drifting somewhat.
The whole budget situation, the lack of direction of the senior management team (particularly after Alexander decided to go early doors, not to be replaced), the absence of communication. It all felt like a marriage that had run it's course and was playing out until the end of the season, where there would be a parting of the ways.
The board to their credit, have decided to make the change mid season (probably forced on them as they were starting to look like complete muppets) and it will take time for LM and his coaching team to get the squad playing in the way that they want them to play. In the meantime, he has two weeks now to get the team playing what in a lot of ways will be a new system, with a new mindset. A difficult thing to do mid season.
What I saw on Saturday was two teams that seemed to be trying to play the way their new respective coaches had in their short time in their role instructed them to play. Both teams looked ineffective and disjointed at times, the way in which if can appear at pre-season friendlies. It wasn't pretty by City, but we looked defensively strong and if Bell had put that last chance away, things might have been viewed differently.
The injuries played a part in NP's team's results over the last 4-6 weeks. But there was some baffling selection decisions as well. Going with 3 keepers, playing 17 and 18 year olds that hadn't even played for the under 21s. Some players like Francois and OTC completely out in the wilderness (yes, I'm aware of the pre season rumours of those two). The over use of Yeboah, as if he would in someway have an epiphany moment and turn into the next Semenyo, when he looks what he is at the moment, a very raw 17 year old that is still learning how to play football effectively. The fact remained that we have scored 16 goals in 15 games (last season 55 in 46 games) and 2 in the last 5 (both by a CB). The forwards at the club for the second year running aren't producing what we need them to do, it's as simple as that really
This international break has probably come at the best time for LM and the squad. Let's see what the next month brings. There will be some horror shows of that I've no doubt, but we have to give LM time (and hopefully resources) to rebuild a side that plays in the way he wants them to. The appointment feels like a gamble (though not of the Lennartson type), fingers crossed it works out.
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Blip or trend- our starts to halves under Manning
in Football Chat
Posted
Bit confused on your stats there?
I have our first half yesterday as 10 shots, 5 on target, Southampton 4 shots, 1 on target, Middlesbrough 6 shots, 6 on target.