Middlesbrough Robin

3 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

It's like how say, Williams is clearly a good Championship midfielder, but is he what Manning wants from a Championship midfielder?

The way he was spreading around the play, setting up attacks and taking good free kicks yesterday, probably yes.

3 minutes ago, Ivorguy said:

The difference last night was the choices Manning had from the bench.  Getting nearer to having a full Championship squad.

Plus, Manning used those choices with precision and success.

Well done all.

That was my conclusion, and how we got out first 90 minute performance in a good while. So refreshing to have options off the bench that can maintain and even up the intensity.

I think people get a bit blinkered because young players develop at completely different rates. Not all of the academy outputs can hit the ground running at 18/19 and be straight up to Championship/League 1 standard. Other posters are right. Sam Bell has something about him, and with a bit more strength, experience, coaching and confidence could be a real asset at this level. We've seen it before though with the likes of Vyner and Bobby Reid, Pring. If they've not done it by the time they reach 22/23 they are written off and everyone is ready to sell.

I've voted for sub thread, simply for the reason that it gets boring when you get the obligatory 'why are we taking about ex-players/managers' post.

I like following the progress of ex-players. Either with a bit of pride or a bit of 'we got to see the best of them and they're rubbish now'.

1 minute ago, myol'man said:

I'll be the first to say it, 

If this goes on he could be out in January 

No, this masterstroke from the owners is going to get funds in January and even time to 'rebuild' in League 1 if he needs it.

There are some occasional promising signs of good play so hopefully it won't come to that.

3 minutes ago, Markthehorn said:

Seems a bit unfair we don’t get a play off spot but Belgium do ?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_at_the_2024_Summer_Olympics_–_Women's_qualification

A play off for relegation. Not sure we'd want that.

On 02/12/2023 at 05:32, Son of Fred said:

You mean a kinda forward sweeper?

But not exactly a DM??

Maybe work with wingbacks???

Been thinking for a long while this would suit him perfectly - although I'm not the person to work out the best formation to accommodate!

Is that what they called midfield 'anchor' back in the day?

We just look a better, more cohesive unit with him in the side. Would probably work well in front of a back three. Can drop in and defend and always offers an out ball.

9 hours ago, Harry said:

It’s a personnel issue. 
Our central midfield is made up of grafters. 
James is a number 6 in every sense of the word. A deep lying midfielder (note I don’t say deep lying playmaker - he’s not. He’s just a deep central midfielder). 
Williams is a 6 and half - thinks he’s an 8 but he’s not. He’s a grafter. He’s someone able to play a bit deeper comfortably and keep the ball ticking over but when in advanced area’s he lacks quality. 
Knight is also very much a grafter. He’s shown so far that he can run 20 miles every game and make good interceptions, but he’s shown very little in terms of quality on the ball - especially in tight area’s. In fact, whilst I’ve really liked his off the ball work, I’d go so far as to say that, Swansea game aside, he’s actually been very poor in possession. Off the ball - great. With the ball - for me still a helluva lot to prove. 
 

The midfield is packed with grafters and ‘tickers’. Players who can comfortably keep the ball ticking over but lack any vision or quality when it comes to attempting to open things up. 
 

This lack of a ‘technician’ in the midfield could be offset by a striker who can come deeper and hold the ball up, or an attacking midfielder/10 who can operate between the lines. 
But we don’t have either one of those either. Centrally, neither Wells or Cornick are at their best dropping into holes and linking up. Invariably, if they do they immediately look for a sweeping ball to a wide area rather than something shorter inside. 
So there is no striker to drop deep and link. And we have no attacking mid to play in the spaces behind the opposition midfield. 
So, when we do end up getting the ball wide in the opposition final third, we don’t have anyone willing to receive the ball inside, and we end up either going backwards and across or swinging a hopeful cross in. 
 

Thats the main issue. No players who can comfortably receive possession in the opposition final 3rd. 
 

Of all the teams we’ve played so far, there is one opposition player who stands out for me as someone who could fill this role for us. Adam Randall from Plymouth. Whilst we won that game quite comfortably, Randell had more touches in central area’s than 2 of our midfield 3 put together, plus he has the ability to score that goal from distance which is something we severely lack. 
 

It doesn’t completely solve our problem, but having a Randell in CM instead of 1 of our current 3 immediately gives us more creativity, technicality, composure and goal threat and would allow us to play more through the middle rather than our current very predictable routes. 

Good analysis.

We do have very predictable routes that are soon snuffed out as soon as one of our wide players has an off day or come up against good players/tactics.

Went to my first game in a while yesterday. Great atmosphere created by the City (and Leeds) fans.

I thought we played well, but lacked a little confidence when attacking in the first half and then all of the substitutions and Leeds upping their game affected our cohesion and game plan in the second half. There was a lot of pressure put on Bell and Sykes to beat their man and put in a perfect cross and neither of them were having the best of games. You probably have to give Leeds credit for crowding them out and partially blame our full backs being conservative in providing support.

That said I'm fairly optimistic for the rest of the season. It would be nice to see us moving things a bit more quickly and positively through the middle when in possession. Maybe that will come when we get a few defenders back and the likes of Naismith can be creative a bit further forward.

4 minutes ago, Cyderman said:

I think Mehmeti will be very important on Saturday for this reason - should be fresh and raring to go, and the sort of player who can then inspire the rest of the side if he gets going.

Yes, in my mind I'm pinning a lot of hopes on Mehmeti over the next few weeks. I'm sure Cornick will show his worth as he settles in too.

The players will be mentally and physically shattered, but hopefully buzzing from the experience still. The lack of rotation options in the centre of defence and midfield is a concern for the remainder of this season.

Just now, Lord Northski said:

Anyone else manage to get Radio Bristol commentary on BBC Sounds in the first half, but not the second? 

I've had that before, listening from the NE. They must forget to set the location restriction for first half.

I've never liked them and for the money anyone in the ground is already contributing to the club it seems too much. Anywhere online you would have ads turned off for life with that kind of subscription fee.

They should go back to static adverts or if they want to be clever they could put a green board around the pitch and let the TV companies put some adverts on them.

1 hour ago, Offside said:

The key thing in my opinion is the return of Williams. For all his strengths, James lacks mobility and Massengo is still young. They both need Williams to help bring out their qualities. Plus he gives us more bite. 

I’d go with:

                  Bentley

Tanner   Kalas   Atkinson  Pring

     HNM    James   Williams

                   Palmer

          Wells       Weimann

I like this, but I might go full christmas tree and play Weimann a bit further back to support the midfield too.

Yes there is no width, but at the moment we have no width and no middle. It might not stick up front either, but we might at least get some sustained possession in the midfield.

On 04/10/2021 at 21:34, Fordy62 said:

I get to see Riley Towler at the Victoria Ground in Bromsgrove Sporting versus Grimsby. 

Qualifying draws don’t come any bigger than that!

Grimsby also have That big ginger striker up front who used to play for us!

Should be a good game. Looking forward to watching it on the red button.

Just now, cityexile said:

Anyhow, it’s just the old saying, ‘draw your home games, win your away ones…’

I was just thinking that the other day. It's good to be different, right?

Is he not just on one of his winning streaks

On 10/09/2020 at 16:35, frenchred said:

Am I the only one who finds having over 2000 pages dedicated to that lot embarrassing? They are not, and haven't really been our rivals for years. The little childish comments and inuedos put us on a par with them to a certain degree

As an avid user of the 'next unread topic' function on the forum I'd just like the option to ignore topics like you can with users.

I don't think we were awful, just looked sluggish after the two week break. We controlled a game away from home for long periods without creating much and Cardiff defended very well. After several replays it looked like Bamba even cleared the Reid chance. 

On to the next one, we still look like a decent team with some good results in us along the way. 

3 minutes ago, RedLionLad said:

Brighton have had 2 shots on target resulting in 2 goals. We have had  a few chances but we're just not clinical enough.

It's a bit much when Baldock is more clinical than us. Fingers crossed for second half... 

Brilliant,  just brilliant. All of a sudden looking forward to work on Monday. 

3 minutes ago, Ash the Bash said:

Sky Sports say we're the better team most likely to score 

Everything crossed. Heard this all too often this season.