hinsleburg

I think what didn't help the ref was how close to the box it was as just created more uncertainty and doubt. It kind of felt real time in the ground it had to be either a penalty or red card... A couple of yards further back I think he would have given a yellow but the extra pressure of crowd, players and also probably not being 100% sure himself if inside or outside would have added to the severity in his mind.

Because he's not a politician? He's come out and used the promotion statement as justification to sack Pearson. So for him to start back tracking is deplorable and shows further that Pearson was sacked for 'non-footballing' reasons. Think Manning is on a bit of a hiding to nothing here and sadly unless he does brilliant (which I hope) will carry the can for BT/JL

I mean we are literally paying him less than we were so can't see any negative to the new contract... I really rate Wells, isn't the poacher I thought we had signed and has a much better all round game. I don't think it's coincidence all our other attackers look more dangerous when he plays.

I get what you mean, it seems like he's got everything to be a top player. Physically very good, technically very good and reads the game really well. Might be one of those we need to persevere with and give him consistent starts in the same position. I hope we then see him dominating in games and really standing out. Hope as sign him permanently as lots of room to grow

To be fair, they probably lasted longer than they would have if they had just sat on their own area and defended. Plus they nearly scored a few times pressing Chelsea high and catching them out. I'm all for it, make the pitch as small as possible to try and negate the player advantage and if they still had Van De Ven on who's the quickest CB I've ever seen they might just have held on. One of the most mental games I've ever watched, Spurs blew them away first 20 minutes and then just imploded, was really bizarre!

Really not sure how I feel about this if we are being honest. Seems very bizarre to be bringing somebody in mid-season who needs to change the whole teams playing style to fit what they want to do. Could be an absolute disaster for everybody if it goes horribly wrong and sadly for Manning he will always he compared to LJ/Holden. (Not saying that's fair, but it will happen). Ultimately, he's also completely unproven at this level, everybody needs to start somewhere and maybe this is the one that we get right, but recent history isn't on his side. However, he does have a much better reputation in the game than those mentioned above. He has been bought in as a 'Coach' with a very clear remit and whilst I feel very uncomfortable with what happened with NP, there is a different structure there now and Manning seems to fit in better with it. As others have mentioned, I'd love to know what the expectation is on him this season and what he will be given to do it. Don't care what the club says, this squad is three players light of being a top 8 squad and believe NP had us slightly above where the squad sits in my opinion pre-injuries.

I actually thought he had a decent game Saturday against two very powerful CB's. When the ball was played into feet he held it up well and won fouls (when the ref had his eyes open) or laid off for teammates. Definitely tired near the end but still produced that bit of magic on the edge of the area which Bell should have scored from after! I do think he needs somebody playing closer to him but not sure what the answer is with our current players. The obvious right now is Weimann playing as a '10' like a couple of seasons ago but then you need to lose one from James, Knight and TGH in the middle of midfield... By all accounts Manning likes playing 3 at the back which could be the Conway answer (but then limits Sykes and no Tanner who was excellent defensively Saturday...) Vyner Dickie Naismith Sykes Pring James Knight TGH Weimann Conway

Weird to see this thread so low on match day... I think there will be a reaction today, but I don't know what it will be so I'm going 2-0 but unsure to who.

Oh god not this again, only just recovered from the last time

This has been posted a lot And I'm extremely grateful every time it comes up as it gets me every time! 'And that's it really'

If anybody ever needed to know the power of OTIB... This thread has prompted people to bet on Lampard, hence then dropping the odds. Dropping the odds has caused all the pretend ITK Twitter accounts to start tweeting which further drops the odds as people lump on more. In a weird sort of paradox, this then comes back to OTIB with more and more people starting to believe it simply due to the thread now being 20 pages and more people tweeting, even though there's no subtance to any of this. It's now at the point in the cycle where people start to go 'maybe there is something in this' and it then gains more credibility before at 2pm Bristol Live confirm it's not happening. So with that in mind, for now, Welcome Frank...

Sorry, I really don't understand your point, I'm not allowed to judge him on the job he's doing now because he's only just started? Nor the similar job he did previously? What I can do though is judge him on some other job roles with a very different skillset and criteria? I'm not angry by the decision made to remove Pearson, I'm disappointed by the timing and feel like he's been shit on massively. What I'm angry about is the inconsistent communication, lack of ownership and culpability and lies from senior figures of this football club. If you're happy burying your head in the sand because of your previous issues with Pearson then full power to you. Edit - Apologies to everybody else for biting and derailing the thread, should know better...

When Tinnion was going to be 'poached' he was in a very different role to what he is doing now which is a key bit of context... I haven't seen anybody dispute the work Tinnion has done in terms of helping to build the pathway and a streamlined club from top to bottom. He's now gone from that where he was very successful to essentially running the entire football opetstion, something he's spectacularly failed at before. So people have every right to judge him on what he's doing here and now and judge him on the criteria that's relevant

Yeah but imagine how good he would be if Pearson had given him 30 minutes in the league cup... Of all the things that people are trying to throw and lobby against Nige, James Morton is a strange one...

Thought he deserved his own thread, I appreciate this may turn into an 'injury crisis' discussion which I don't want but really don't think that's down to any individuals. What he has done though is made us as a squad fitter over 90 minutes, we run more, we run longer and we run harder. (Got no metrics so only going off the eye...) I've loved watching him in the videos, doing the tour with new signings before murdering them with running with a big grin on his face. Talking to somebody senior at another club who said we've introduced loads of new technology and use different metrics behind the scenes since Rennie arrived which other clubs have been trying to copy and replicate. Whenever people refer to Nige as a dinosaur I always point out that the person he puts the most faith in is the Science, modern thinking Rennie. I think we will miss him and seems a thoroughly good bloke

I don't think it would happen but don't think I'm against Lampard quite as much as everybody else. Would give the club a big profile raise and there's no way he would come without being given a budget. Did an OK job at Derby and as alluded to before went to Chelsea too early and Everton was never going to be the right fit. One thing that does put me on edge with any new manager but Lampard in particular is expensive loan signings. I've got used to us not having and then subsequently trying to replace them year after year. Selfishly, my eldest has just started reading his books, think it would be pretty exciting for him so for that reason alone bring him in

Official Twitter could be interesting later

I've actually been impressed with Rooney's Managerial stints and showed lots of skills, grit and a genuine desire to succeed in tough circumstances at Derby. He really grew on me and have wanted him to succeed as a manager since then. However, this seems like madness from Birmingham... They were brilliant against us earlier this season, had a clear identity and philosophy and were better all over the pitch in every area. Felt like they were on the cusp of having a side that could challenge for Play offs so this just seems really like a really bizarre decision... Bizarre until you consider the potential documentaries anyway

Is the answer until January dropping one of the Midfield 3 (probably Williams) and playing Weimann/Conway in there? I actually think Conway's best position is playing in the role that Weimann did a couple of years ago when he scored 20. Almost as a second striker, playing close to Wells/Cornick but able to drop off and find space in the number 10 spot too. Think of our current group, he's the one I would back to take a ball on the half turn in the centre and drive at the opposition. It then allows him to find space for crosses and also late runs in behind and hopefully get some decent chances for him.

Scott Brown when playing for Cheltenham against us is another! Pretty sure he collided with his own teammate (Odejayi?) as he was shooting and got the full force of it and he was a big boy. I wasn't very old and can remember saying 'did you hear his shin pad break then!' Sadly it obviously wasn't the shin pad Edit - Just googled, it was Damian Spencer he collided with not Odejayi.

Feels like we were a bit of luck away from being 4/5 points better off. Also feels like 23 other teams would probably be saying the same thing... I think we are where we are on merit and there's certainly enough positives to suggest we may improve our position between now and January. It also feels like we are very light in some areas and the International Break has come at a good time to rest and aid players with injuries/niggles. Would like to see us hit a good run of form between now and January and be in a position to 'go for it' within FFP reason. That doesn't mean try dropping an extortionate amount on Diony but continue our model of signing young, hungry players who can compete for the first team. Two of those in the right areas (which may change between now and then) could potentially define our season and whether we finish 4th-10th or 11th-22nd... Now we could also suffer 3 or 4 injuries over the next 6 weeks and be in a relegation battle but I hope not...

Fair play to him. Was one that I didn't think would breakthrough and thought his spells at wing back would shatter his confidence and belief as he looked truly lost. However, in a weird way and the same with Scott, long term it might actually have worked wonders for his development. Physically he looked small and even with his pace couldn't beat a man or got done by a winger, now he's able to run in behind and beat a man which he couldn't do before. Mentally, he would have learned what he needs to do at this level and rose from the challenge instead of shirking it, now he's established he hopefully has the belief he can keep improving. He's made that Left Wing spot his own so far this season, huge credit to him along with the coaching and medical team to get him in this position. I know we say it a lot at the moment, but I don't think we will properly appreciate the talent crop we've just had until they're all gone, even with the best academy and coaching in the world you can't guarantee success or development. This pipeline isn't guaranteed forever so while enjoy it whilst we've got it, one thing I will add, if we get a reputation it will naturally increase our ability to get bigger fee's especially if Scott takes off this year. Look at Peterborough with strikers, it's just accepted you have to pay 3x their value just because it's Peterborough, but people still do it as there's this perception of success. If we can begin having that sort of impact in the market then that will help!

Of players currently playing and on the way down career wise it would be Korey Smith for me, loved him for us especially that promotion year. Can see Pack potentially making a move their next year, believe his family still live local and whilst I think he enjoys playing for his local club it's a long distance from his family. Maybe that's their plan, to try and rebuild our promotion team with some of our 'Championship experience', JET is available and Wilbraham is in their age bracket...

I was wondering what was going on, logged in this morning expecting to see loads of positivity and was slightly disappointed by the lack of them! Thought people had ran out of things to moan about...

Feels like this has really started to click and we are seeing all of their respective skills and positive attributes enhance the team and the other 2 members. Williams and Knight as the 'busy bees' have been relentless and helped us win the ball a lot higher up the pitch especially first half West Brom and last night. Allows James to sit deeper and dictate the tempo of the play however it's worth noting that with Naismith's distribution James doesn't need to stand on the toes of the CB and helps gets him 10 yards further up the pitch as well. All of them are willing to cover and get stuck in which is evidenced by James goal last night, how often did we see him in that position last season? Once again, Naismith at CB enables a lot of this and is huge in getting the whole team up the pitch, we have fullbacks who are comfortable on the ball and can also tuck in as cover if needed. Whilst you could argue it's missing the creativity of a Scott/Palmer/Paterson type player I think the 3 players at the moment give us a really good balance, makes us really tough to beat and allows the front 3 to be our creative output. Thought there was a good cameo last night from TGH and showed what he can offer in that 3 as well, I worry what happens if James and/or Naismith get injured as think they're probably our two most important players in this system (whether in Midfield or Defence). Ultimately though at the moment, we're tough to beat, we work hard and we're getting bodies in both boxes when needed, feels like we can set up at home to win the ball high and put pressure on that way and Away can be more effective on the counter. There's going to be ups and downs throughout the season and not sure we'll be the most prolific of scorers but feel like we're doing everything we can and still going in the right direction.