7 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Just watching on Sky. He’s saying that the 4 subs by them made a huge impact - but it’s him that can impact that, surely????

Our squad’s not strong enough though. He put Sykes and Conway on and they’ve got us our second goal (albeit Sykes did not do enough for their third). Not sure I would have rushed to bring on anyone else from the subs bench though. 

4 minutes ago, ohhhshauntaylor said:

When are we expecting the below to return? 
James - quoted as a slight knock ahead of Cardiff  

Atkinson - ? 

Twine - bench vs QPR, nowhere to be seen since, “stiffness” pre Cardiff 

Naismith - on the grass (ffs) pre Cardiff 

Tanner - ? 

 

Atkinson is out til next season 

Decent half considering the opposition and their home form. Disrupting them well. 

Started well. Ipswich and the crowd are nervy. We need a goal first half. 

Come on lads let’s do this. Time to get back to the Southampton form and hoping that Wells, Cornick and McCrorie score. 

Wonder if this will reduce the amount of matches on Robins TV for those overseas: 

Additionally, EFL clubs will be able to continue offering the iFollow streaming service to fans based internationally where matches are not being broadcast exclusively.

From some of the comments on here, I presume that some people would be disappointed if we won 7-0 (or got any kind of win)  

55 minutes ago, Ivorguy said:

According to Bristol Live on Newsnow Bristol City, Manning has talked about being a tough guy in the dressing room. As I have said before this is not a good managerial look in 21st century.

He needs to own his own mistakes and attempt to carry a united team forward.  We have lost a great deal with Nige’s going

Don’t think he said ‘tough guy’ looking at this. Nothing wrong with what he says in my view:

Liam Manning prepared to show a different side as Bristol City look to address alarming slump

Bristol City travel to promotion-seeking Ipswich Town in the midst of a run which is veering them towards the wrong end of the Championship

We’re not exactly in “no more Mr. Nice Guy” territory here, but Liam Manning insists there’s another side to him reserved solely for the dressing room as he tries to navigate Bristol City out of their current slump.

City have lost three straight games to sides below them in the Championship table, scoring just once, and from a position of optimism and excitement at what the final third of the 2023/24 season could hold, it’s quickly become one of considerable concern with just six points separating the Robins and Stoke City in 22nd and the start of the relegation zone. 

Tuesday’s trip to Ipswich Town doesn’t resemble an obvious place to secure three much-needed points, as the second-placed Tractor Boys bid for a sixth consecutive win and a chance to join Leicester City level on points at the top of the Championship.

But, as games against QPR, Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff City have further revealed, City continue to struggle against low possession teams, something Ipswich head coach Kieran McKenna has noted in the build-up to this fixture. 

Throughout this troubling fortnight, which has opened up wounds around Nigel Pearson’s departure which had never gone away but had at least begun to heal slightly, Manning’s demeanour has remained largely the same; a default setting of composed and controlled, to the point of almost irritation among some supporters, given the chaos they believe is unfolding.

It all feeds back into the head coach’s ethos of strictly managing emotions and, in simple terms, not getting too high in moments of success, and too low when the opposite occurs.

Manning has previously admitted to using strong words to elicit a response, at half-time against Huddersfield Town when City secured a point after being 1-0 down, and he indicated a similar tone was taken post-Cardiff, which runs contrary to his public-facing persona. Although, that was quickly peppered with a trademark dose of calm when discussing the bigger picture. 

“I’m usually emotional,” Manning said. “I think the changing room is a sacred place so how I am emotionally in front of the lads, that will change game to game. So you’ll see a certain side of me out here, when I’m in there it’s not always as calm and collected as you see.

“The frustration comes from saying the same messages, and that’s the biggest bit. We can coach, we can tactically set up perfect, but we have to have people stepping up and taking responsibility - we need leaders.

“That’s something the players need to see. Do I get angry, do I get frustrated, do I show that to the players? 100 per cent I do, you only have to ask the lads that. But I do think, now we’re moving onto Tuesday, if I carry that hangover over as well, I can’t then expect the players not to. It’s how you show emotion and sometimes they need someone that stays calm in challenging situations.”

2 hours ago, tin said:

We shouldn’t be drawn into it, but the reality is we should lose three out of the next four on paper and if we do, we are likely to be perilously close to the bottom three and I don’t think the coach has the fight. 

Perhaps that’s where Liam is going wrong then - he should be spending less time on the grass and more time on paper. 

On 23/02/2024 at 12:10, robinforlife2 said:

One of my best mates is an Arsenal fan. His tickets have been used on every game, but he's transferred his seat for 7 games and sold it back to the club on 2 games, as he's not been able to attend or had friends who could, he's activated his seat for European games and cups. He got an email the other day telling him, he would not be eligible for renewal for lack of attendance! 

Don’t you just love football clubs’ IT systems!

4 minutes ago, Back of the Dolman said:

With Naismith he’s often been played as a centre back so the fact he is willing to try and make things happen and be a bit more adventurous has resulted in things going wrong and goals coming from his errors.

With a pair of centre backs behind him that level of danger is greatly reduced 

Yes Pearson played him in midfield too. If and when he’s fit I’d get him in the team - even if that means playing a back 3; he can move into midfield from there. 

17 minutes ago, Back of the Dolman said:

he’s got vision and quality of passing which creates chances by moving the ball quickly.

sadly that doesn’t seem to be our current M.O. and it appears players natural instincts are being dampened.

Maybe Naismith can’t play with the shackles on and that’s why he’s not making squads but we see him training with the squad.

He doesn’t seem like a chap to mince his words or pander to a management team who’s ideas restrict his qualities 

I just think Saturday was too early for Naismith. Manning did say prematch they would have to see how he was post full training.

1 minute ago, Back of the Dolman said:

I like Naismith and I think we play better football with him in the side.

Would be interesting to see if that’s still the case under the new style.

Sadly though it never seems to be long between each Naismith injury 

I agree. Under Pearson, it was a common view that we were more creative with Naismith in the side, breaking lines, set piece delivery etc. 

7 minutes ago, Back of the Dolman said:

The defeat to Leeds was the most one sided 1-0 defeat I’ve ever seen !

They battered us and a 4 or 5 goal defeat wouldn’t have been unjust 

Yep. Did well to keep it to 1! My point is, if confidence becomes shot, we may start losing by more even if on TV - Ipswich and Leicester! 

3 hours ago, Galley is our king said:

Vyner was injured for Ipswich at home and Cardiff away (at least). Part of the problem..

Yes. I was talking about since Manning was appointed. If either Vyner or Dickie had been injured in recent months we really would have been stuffed - we’ve been lucky in that respect (so far). Fingers crossed Naismith can stay fit now. 

5 minutes ago, Back of the Dolman said:

I think people will be less surprised getting beaten by Ipswich than the previous 1-0 defeats.

Yes they weren’t heavy defeats but you wouldn’t expect them to be when you’re playing some of the weakest sides in the division 

Southampton (away) Norwich and even Leeds were only defeats by the odd goal too of course. 

2 minutes ago, Back of the Dolman said:

I think it’s clear to see that there’s no confidence out on the pitch even before the booing.

Yes it’s a concern. All of our defeats under a Manning have only been by 1 goal (apart from one - Preston which was 2-0). Imagine the meltdown on here if we completely lose confidence and get spanked by Mark Ashton. 

I’m also concerned that the players will be losing confidence - the booing won’t help that - such that we will no longer have the confidence to play like we did against Southampton against a team that attacks us. Tues will be interesting. 

1 minute ago, italian dave said:

That maybe so. But it's not the point I'm making. Which is that there are more than just two games where we've had a good result and/or performance.

We're inconsistent. As we have been for several years now. We have crap games. We have good games. We have in between games.

It's just this black and white everything Maning does is bad, every failure is his, any success is due to something else - TV, NP's legacy or whatever that I find nonsensical. 

Agree. Which is why - as I’ve said on a different thread - we are a mid table team. Unless we get better players - or the younger players improve their consistency - we will continue to be a mid table team. 

1 hour ago, The Bard said:

Think he played him on the left because he didn't think him and Mcrorie would work.  He is a great player in front of Tanner for sure but Mcrorie leaves the Right back position to overlap, so, I guess  Manning wants someone at right mid  whose first instinct is to come inside.

I presume it was something like that plus I suspect Taylor is more comfortable on the right. Was hoping and expecting that Sykes would switch to the right when Anis came on though.

2 hours ago, GrahamC said:

I see it differently.

I think we have sold a fair amount of these to middle class families who are perfectly ok with only seeing around half the games for the cost of one adult ticket & so it looks half full a lot of the time.

Night games in particular (especially if on the red button) must see about 30% not turning up for a variety of reasons.

Our fan base is very different from the 90s now.

Yes and I think there will be even more no shows with the new TV deal, especially if kick off times are not 3pm on a Saturday. This season if you go to every match it is only £16.74 per game (that’s the full adult price). Even if you miss 8 games, it is still ‘only’ £25 per game. Of course, it is likely to be more expensive next season, but I’d be surprised if goes over £400 (it was £385 this season). 

3 hours ago, Barrs Court Red said:

I don’t know. I had planned to move from the family stand nightmare zone, to the lower Lansdown.  A hefty increase but worth it.
 

Yea the football is woeful and we’re run by mugs, but it’s worth it to take the kids . Someone on another thread mentioned value, and that’s where I get mine from. 
 

However:

How much of an impact is the new tv deal going to have - I think the club should be very open on how many games will be Saturday 3pm as a %.
 

We don’t know what division we’ll be in yet. 

Don’t think we’ll know the fixture times and tv matches until they are announced in June. Sounds like half of our matches (23) could be on TV - that’s the average anyway - but of course we don’t know the split between home and away. On the positive side we’ll know all the matches times up until Christmas. 

3 hours ago, Sir Geoff said:

We were 8th a week before then lost to Ipswich and Cardiff with an injury ravaged squad. Only one reason that the squad was mid table and that wasn't on the manager. Fwiw I believe the extra ingredients of good man management and coaching would have made us more top10 than mid table.

I class 10th as still mid table albeit top end - and we could in theory still make 10th of course. I just don’t  - and didn’t - see us troubling the playoffs this season. The squad just doesn’t have the depth, the quality or the consistency needed. And because of that lack of depth, we can’t cope with injuries. And just to add, we’ve been incredibly fortunate that Vyner and Dickie have not been injured - bare bones there so could have been even worse 

When Pearson was sacked I said it was a clueless decision. I thought he was doing a decent job based on our squad. I didn’t think that this squad was getting anywhere near the top six even with Pearson. It is a mid table squad. 

5 hours ago, Alan Dicks said:

The board sacked the manager.

Fingers crossed that lightening strikes twice.

We were 15th then. We’re 13th now. We’re a mid table squad, whoever the manager is.