Fuber

Almost strikes me as, if they go ahead for £5m that it's a bit of a panic signing. I like Twine, but he's not worth £3m with his record at this level, let alone £5m. Just worries me - don't want us going down the LJ path again backing the wrong horse. We just need comprehensive scouting and to be sensible. Doesn't strike me as the latter.

When you consider that Knight has (actually) played at this level and been fairly successful? Yes. Twine hasnt proven himself at this level yet - even in a very good Burnley side.

In Pearson mind - he was never meant to replace Scott. We were supposed to, in NPs mind have a plan A and B lined up if Scott left. We went with C, sign nobody, and sack the CEO, Manager, and Coaching Team.

Couple of points. The eight months ago argument is part and parcel of modern football, happened with LJ on multiple occasions. Point in bold I summarily disagree with. - could see a style of play and patterns that we hadn't had since Cotts. - built a squad culture that fans could get behind. - did so generating huge returns on player sales, and, with Gould, got fans feeling involved with 'the project'. - he was sacked purely during an injury crisis as only the latter could generate a set of results that the board felt they could use as an excuse to remove him from post, along with Tinnion. They didn't spend any of the Scott money - near all the summer spending and Mehmeti was offset by the Semenyo fee in January.

*Despite being in an injury crisis, that has now mostly passed.

Reality check adjustment. It's a football club, football isn't, has not been and will not be, profitable. Unless you get a club into the top 1%. If we're also aiming to increase sustainability - you don't tend to sack a well-liked manager in the middle of an injury crisis due to a difference of opinion in a professional setting and replace him with a novice coach with 24 months managerial experience for a large compensation package, with further spending to sack incumbent coaches spending more to replace them.... when the formers contract ended in 8 months anyway. This is only going to all get worse due to the way in which NP was sacked. Its lose lose for the board as, if they back Manning now, others such as myself will question as to why the predecessor didn't get backed. The fact they also feel the need to back him rubbishes 'the squad is good enough' argument. It's just flagrant egotism, cronysim, and incompetence. Utter delusion.

He preferred a smaller squad than what he inherited. Which considering how much of a car crash he inherited doesn't say much. When he was pressed on it, he rightly pointed finger upstairs and just replied 'budget'.

Bigger problem for me is Manning was and is the wrong man for this squad of players. They were not bought in to play possession football and neither are they capable of it. NPs premise was to play to a system to force openings on the transition via patterns. Mannings premise appears to be waiting for opening when the enemy loses, i.e. take the openings when they appear passively, not force them. A one-eighty in footballing philosophy. It's going to take money we don't have to get the staff in to pull it off - had and still has a similar vibe for me as Duff at Swansea. Whereas if this was end of the third season under LJ with (present) Manning in to replace him - it could've worked as that was a much more technically skilled and creative players. I'd be more optimistic. Sadly the leadership's view of this squad between JL and BT is seemingly delusional delusional.

Worth noting, assuming that the ticket will be in the email and barcode in format - you can scan it with google wallet (if you have the email on a computer) from your phone as a loyalty card and it will also still work, just converts the barcode to QR-format, and you don't have to dig around your emails on the day nor have to rely on patchy 4/5G.

If Conway was in a position where he could score and went down (which he has done twice this season) - I was and will be very annoyed with him, irrespective of if a penalty was given or not. It shouldnt be - which is the problem.

Infrastructure for me, is ownership structure, strategy, and facilities. You need all three, we only have the latter. The former two have been switched around like a continuous puzzle with all corner pieces the last five years. If it was just down to pure facilities, Darlington would have been in the PL by now.

They have better ownership, progression, and ambition. Ruthless enough to go after their targets and see deals through. The last 15 years made that pretty clear. It gives them the PL platform they need to get a better move from proving themselves at that level. Greater progression.

Would also be better with our singing section not hemmed on the opposite corner of the ground.

Correct that's its Villa, except they didn't win from a base of possession. They in fact had 46% of possession, against Man City, and regularly played on the break down the wings when Man City went to play inverted on the transition. Man City had two shots on target. Despite having more of a ball - as Villa were more organised on closing quickly in their half man to man and turned them over, with pace. Not saying, again, that you can't win with possession - but all it takes is one error with the ball and you can concede. At this level it's easier to force that single error than thread a perfect 30 yard through ball. You can worry about the former when you get to the Prem like Brighton and Bournemouth have done. As NP said, at this level it's fine margins working with what you have.

He's been fairly disillusioned there under Collins is my understanding and moved between different positions often. My post was with the assumption that James, King, and Williams all leave in the summer.

Scrumps main point, to me, was the effort by clubs (and managers) attempting to emulate Guardiola as being a poor strategy, comparing it to the style yesterday, and that without tempo it means very little. The Etihad comment is arguably wide of the mark, agreed - the PL as a whole has become more and more sterile. The issue here is you just insulted the poster without any context. Then meaning you were criticised in turn as people thought the criticism of Scrumps post could be taken as a defence of the performance. "Not Great" performance could still be interpreted as mediocre or OK, and it just wasn't - at least in my opinion, for clarity. It was just very very poor against a mediocre Millwall side. Agree to disagree.

That's not exactly outside the norm for any team playing Seffiled United this season - but again also Villa have higher quality players and could break them down. Villa average midtable in every metric for touches. https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/possession/Premier-League-Stats - SHU bottom for possession with an average of 36%. Possession is only slightly above division average. Explained by an equally slightly above average number of successful (%) take-ons. As a comparison - West Ham in 6th average 41%. When Villa are playing for a goal however - they tend to wing-play. 6th most crosses in the League. Added to which themselves and Wsst Ham are 4th and 2nd in the league for goals direct from counters. To clarify, I'm not suggesting possession isn't useful, it is, especially at killing off games or tiring the opposition - but it depends on personnel and how its being used. As an example- see if you can guess which two teams in the PLs match the image is from.

Agree for the most part - for Andi however, he needs to stop going inside all the time. A number of times he left Conway to run the channel, and didnt contribute much if anything in the pocket. He hid at time today which did him no favours and is unlike him.

Williams is not the answer if the question is who should start in a Manning system. His passing simply isnt good enough, escecially in scope of his injury record with us. We needed a new midfield in the summer with the Scott money - we only got TGH who simply is not consistent at this level, and in NPs own words Knight wasn't a Scott replacement. At the very least, by the coming summer, we need three new midfielders (across Jan and Summer coming windows) to complement Knight with a view to the longer term; with King, James, and Williams deals all expiring in 7 months time and Benarous as of yet unlikely to come back from his innjury issues, assuming McCrorie will come in and displace Tanner at right-back. Add Weimann also being out of contract come the summer. With a view to that a couple of loans for players going into the final years of their contracts next season would make financial sense if we can agree optional fees. Ironically two of our midfield targets (Adam Murphy [St Pats], and Callum Styles [Barnsley]) I'd possible enquire for, adding a loan. See if we can't shift Kingy early as I don't see a future for him under Manning.

He's also got five first teamers back from being unavilable that NP didnt have available for selection. So I'd expect him to get more out of the squad, to be honest.

You criticised SB for calling a dire performance dire and insinuated he was still drunk from NY - and said by return it was 'not great'. It was a woeful performance up there with the S'OD era, was my point. To call his critique of today 'one of the weirdest posts on this forum' is some way off the mark. Today was up there with the Barnsley game at AG back when Simpson and Downing took caretaker charge against Barnsley. For context in case people can't remember that far back - https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12220056/bristol-city-0-1-barnsley-carlton-morris-fires-tykes-to-victory.

There are teams that don't play possession based and do well. Villa, Bournemouth, Palace, West Ham - all examples of teams that play on the counter or wing-play without great amounts of possession. Secondly - Guardiola-ball has adapted, more and more season by season, it may keep the ball and focus possession still, but he uses have changed. Case in point, look at how Guardiola setup against Klopp back in April. (https://www.premierleague.com/news/3791815) Transitions is the key word. Its why I - personally - liked NP's approach as it was pragmatic. The only teams that play possession and do well is where they (already) have the players for it - usually with a great advantage of technical players with comparison to the rest of the league they play in. Leicester this season for example, along with Southampton, can affod to do so - as they have the forward players with the creativity to do so as they have the one vs one ability to beat a man. Problems with a Guardiola-like system (or how the gist of it is emulated at this level) as you moot above is that, re the bit on bold - you're not likely going to be able to get the players that can pull of that system at our level. Its that simple. Leicester manage the sort of possessions numbers under Maresca, because that squad shouldnt have been playing at this level in the first place. Compare and contrast the opposite to that (interpreted) approach with Luton of last season. Well coached 4-4-2/4-4-1-1, round pegs in round holes. Horvath, Bree/Drameh, Osho, Lockyer, Bell; Clark, Campbell, Mpanzu/Nakamba, Doughty, Adebayo, Morris. Direct and quick in general play and transition. Two forwards strong in the air and quick on the deck, with wingers in Doughty and Clark who have good technique, with quick overlapping full-backs in Bell and Drameh. The epitomy of 'football can be a simple game if you do the basics right'. I despise suggestions that suggest we need to rebuild. How many 'right' players is this evolution going to take? - as based on todays evidence, its everyone apart from the backline.

If anything your post above is the weirdest post I've seen on this forum. Period. Today was prime O'Driscoll 2013 remastered. There's no defending todays performance. Simply must be better - both tactically, selection, and individually.

If we're being serious about players who, in our personal opinion, may be let go - I'd probably go: King, James, Williams, Weimann, Cornick. Wouldn't shock me if we get interest in one of Vyner or Dickie either which we need to be ready for. The first four are out of contract with all the latter four (of the expiring) are on decent wages. Added to which I think we need a mobile pivot to suit Mannings system. I'd loan in a midfielder to compete with TGH, Williams, Knight in Jan short term, offset with the Scott funds. Iroegbunam (short term, not getting in at Villa) would be the dream but very unlikely. If we can shift Cornick in January, wouldn't mind us going for someone like Poku or Mason-Clark at P'boro. Both of these are very optimistic, but would be good if we could build some momentum, or the (sketchy) Twine rumour.

He's being hampered by the fact he's stood almost man to man, Tanner needs to overlap more. The threat of it would force a cover and eliminate the 1v2 doubling up. Meanwhile TGH needs to get closer to Anis when latter cuts in. No option when he cut inside to another 2v1 towards the latter end of that half. Small issues are accumulating to a very mediocre performance. Sloppy passes, too casual.