eardun

I thought I heard in one of the interviews that Atkinson had had covid and was struggling to get back to his peak. Hopefully will come through it shortly though. It is the defence that we need to improve.

Agree. His return from injury has been a big factor in our improved attacking displays recently. Both goals were excellent. The defenders couldn’t live with his approach play and then the finishes were class.

Cardiff game is massive. We could go 10 points above them - or 4.

I heard that as well! Probably explains why we let in 6 as he is knocking 50!

Seemed to be intentional to provide the Robins TV feed as the commentator kept welcoming audio listeners. Not sure why this has changed though.

Attacking wise, we are much better now and Semenyo’s goals today were brilliant. We do need defensive reinforcements in this window though. More so than a striker in my view. I know you can say today that ‘this is Fulham etc.’ but over the season now only Peterborough have let in more goals than us.

Thought COD was caught wrong side. Not a natural defender of course.

First one I reckon

I’m guessing that Dasilva will be RWB like last Saturday with COD LWB

I didn’t notice Weimann in that video which makes me wonder if he is available today - will know in a minute!

That’s one hell of a goalkeeping blunder to be fair. If a City goalkeeper did that, a number on here would be saying that he is not up to the standard and that he should never play for us again! As always, a judgment based on one bad error or even one performance is usually incorrect!

Especially now they are at Chelsea in the next ruins! Pleased Kidderminster got a decent home draw (West Ham).

I’ve also seen a number of people on here harping back to our poor performance against Sheff Utd as evidence that NP isn’t improving us. You need to remember that our midfield three that day were Benarous, Bakinson and Massengo. (James, King and Williams weren’t available.) Plus Scott was RWB. They were up against internationals in Hourihane, Norwood etc. So I’m not surprised we struggled! As I said above, this season it is vital that one of our experienced heads in midfield is available.

I saw improvement under NP earlier in the season as well. It is not just in the last 3 games. I thought we had a decent start to the season and we were 9th after we beat Peterborough in early Oct. King then got injured. James then got injured in early November so we were without both of them for a period. With our other youngsters in midfield, I think we need at least one of them available to help our consistency, especially without Williams. However, those youngsters will also improve with experience as will their consistency, which should in turn bring further improvement. We are seeing this now, plus James and King are also available again. Semenyo also being available has also brought improvement. But, as I say, I have seen improvement this season beyond the last few games.

I’d rather we played Scott (and Benarous) behind the front 2 (more natural position) rather than wing back, especially away at Fulham. With Tanner’s injury, I think the best option would be Vyner at RWB. Pring has been playing well and I think COD has done OK at LWB. I’d keep Atkinson in. I usually prefer Kalas in the middle but with two left footers in the back 3, I’d have him RCB. I’d start with this: O’Leary Kalas Atkinson Pring Vyner Massengo James O’Dowda Scott Semenyo Weimann

Or Dasilva - with his right foot.

English police. Land even owned by an English Council. They can’t even claim financial support from Sport Wales because they are an English club. Welsh authorities did not raise this issue when there was similar difference in covid rules in Dec 2020. Seems a waste of public money for them to do so now. BBC article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59920281

That’s your choice of course. Although to be fair to Bryan, he did a bit more for us than score a few goals and I certainly won’t be booing any City player who contributed to the one and only City league title in my lifetime.

That’s not Bryan moaning about the City fan base though. That’s just him commenting on some strange people who messaged him on social media saying he was only being picked by LJ because his Dad had performed surgery on GJ. Perhaps it is the same people booing him today!

Also a reminder that the start of Flint’s career with us didn’t start that well. He turned it around of course. We’ve had others like that overs the years. I even remember the crowd getting on Tinnion’s back at the start. Sometimes patience is needed

I didn’t realise Man Utd season ticket holders are obliged to buy cup tickets whether they attend or not. Hope we don’t ever impose such a rule!

Wonder if he’s missed the boat for another crack at management in England (if he was ever interested in that). He was linked with WBA a while back although that may have just been paper talk because he played there.

I thought Max played fine. I like his calmness (which Pearson also mentioned). Having watched the Quest highlights, though, I wonder whether Bentley might have got to the header for QPR’s winner with his ability to spring off the ground. We’ll never know of course! Max doesn’t leave the ground until the ball is behind him (best angle to see this is the replay taken from the corner.) Perhaps I’m being harsh. I do regard O’Dowda more at fault for that goal - no challenge at all on the guy who scored.

I remember thinking the same at the time. He was different class. Shame it didn’t work out that way.

Just watched the Quest highlights. Included quite a bit of analysis on the match as well: they agreed we played well and that we should have a had a penalty; they also thought that we should have had someone on the post at the corner for QPR’s winner. A few other things I noticed which I didn’t when watching it live on red button: When King was booked for dissent you can see from his gestures that his complaint was that we had not given the Scott penalty at the other end; Austin appeared to recognise Pring’s great challenge on him (that led to the corner that they scored from) - so not all bad from him!; O’Dowda did not put in any challenge on the guy who scored; it was a great header though - really tight angle.