Swede

A win is a win, to stop the rot.

Front foot football? Nope.

Something positive in that I did see some influence and in game management from Manning in getting us to be a bit more aggressive in the 2nd half.

Lack of any penetration and creativity in the forward areas is a continual theme though.

However swansea's continual posession bore fest really doesn't fill me with any enthusiasm for what is instore for us if Manning gets his way.

Sykes and Roberts made a difference when they came on. Mehmeti continues to frustrate though. Ball watching and a liability first half & not releasing early enough, to having a big influence 2nd half. There is a player in there.

Not filling the subs bench does limit your opportunities. I am astonished that this goes on. I thought this was basic coaching. There are plenty of good players out there that could do a better job in the short term than some of the youngsters, and you have to include Mebude in that list who seems unable to free himself from nerves.

1 hour ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Because nothing screams "toxic" more than a lunchtime Sunday kick off at Ashton Gate. Maybe someone will shout a rude word at Lansdown?

Not exactly La Bombonera, is it?

Only time I saw Ashton Gate La Bombonera style was when Roberts scored in the last minute in the playoffs and the Dolman visibly moved.

Has to be a much improved front foot performance and a win to halt the slide. Nothing less. I am asking a lot but having put up with so much 5hite with top six squad bull from the top, behaviours and being turned over by by dross. Yet again I will be looking at his in game management.

I am looking for passion, purpose and motivation. All words that you wouldn't associate (currently) with our head coach, but if he reads this on OTIB, I hope he has a word with himself.

Surprised Colin resigned. Panto season doesn't start for another 8 months or so.

6 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

They aren’t though, that is just your excuse because a young, progressive, modern, on-the grass coach has a flawed ideaology about his best to play this game at this level at this club.

The sane flawed ideaology from the owner that he can get out of this division with a young coach.  He is hell-bent on proving that.  What he should be doing is trying to find the best coach, age is irrelevant.

And to add young coach does NOT (Necessarily) EQUAL High press, forward thinking attacking football.

In Liam Manning’s case it is almost the opposite.

Yes, I agree Mike, taking the good elements away.

No, Pearson wasn’t perfect, but he was building a squad with a realistic chance of competing.

I don’t expect people to agree, but I think they need to wake up and smell the coffee.  A summer window isn’t the answer, it probably compounds things.

Exactly the point Dave & others far more knowledgeable than me like Silvio Dante & Spudski have come to the same conclusion. He's just not the right fit. The performance last night was probably more down to the players will to succeed rather than his coaching credentials and when he had the opportunity to apply them, he didn't or couldn't.  A summer transfer window won't make any difference, it will just make it worse.

It all points to poor in game management yet again. He may blame the players for not making the right decisions on the pitch at certain times but not deploying Roberts to help Pring or use the experienced of Andy King is mind boggling and niave. Again to set up yet again with two subs short is also crazy even if it was a couple of U21's the squad experience would be immeasurable.

It is yet another indication that he is way out of his depth at this level.

I remember Cotts doing it to spite the owners for being rebuffed on signings before shortly getting the Spanish archer. One can hope.

I glazed over with an umpteenth "behaviours" several months ago. I find his press conferences as inspiring as the players listening to his prematch team talk. He would be far more interesting if he was talking about 2 - 6 -0 bogies and getting the latest numbers from Didcot railway station.

With clueless in charge I just cannot see anything other than a home win.

Math Withers is usually very supportive & looking for the positives but if even he is seeing exactly the same as the rest of the fanbase then one would hope that the club's hierarchy are seeing it too.

For me, its the players, they are not buying into this Manningball ethos. Without this belief, how on earth can they perform on matchday?

Who knows he might be successful elsewhere but one thing's for certain he will not be a success here with his one dimensional without a forward line textbook methods.

I was booing the hapless twit, not the players. He's the problem and the reason we HAVE to get rid NOW. The players simply are not buying into his methodology. It can only go one way and that's why he has to go NOW.

Performances have dipped and we are starting to fall away with this worrying trend. There is nothing he can do to affect this slide, so in effect, as a coach he cannot inspire others and do his job.

We've seen it before with LJ towards the end of his reign throwing subs on in the hope it will turn & now we are seeing the same signs like we train the players and its up to them to express themselves. So he's already starting to blame the players. What folly it was in trying to implement a complete change of playing style mid season, that shows how inexperienced this bloke is. Manningball  is DEFINATELY NOT the quick front foot pressing game that BT advocates. He is way out of his depth.

Its gone beyond who gave him the job in the first place, Manning & Bristol City just isn't the right fit. Accept it and move on. The important thing is to stay in the Championship.

Get shot before its too late and get Andy King on a caretaker capacity until the end of the season and review it then. Overnight the fanbase & players will unite and we will all start pulling together again and get out of this mess.

His taxi fare

8 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

This, a thousand times over.

Liam has had one successful season. A season where he took over a primed and ready squad Russell Martin put together with the three best players in the league. In those circumstances being beaten by Wycombe in the playoffs could even be classed as failure!

He had a summer. He recruited his own men, to his plan (side note - love that Ian on FBC said he didn’t want to sell Twine. No shit Sherlock. I’m sure the Brum manager wanted to keep Bellingham!) - he failed. Massively.

He has had a start of this season under his own steam and did well. 15 games. That’s not data - it’s an anecdote. And that’s the only period you can put solely down to his management - and if you read the Oxford forum they, although liking him, felt it was a false position.

And then here.

So now someone tell me why it’s a good idea to keep him for the summer to get his players?

It isn't a good idea. He's out of his depth, lost the players, in game management at this level is poor. League 1 is his level. 

In general, City fans are level headed but most can see right through his bluff & if the fans can see through it then I'm damn sure the players can.

Let's hope for Manning's sake as much as everyone else that there is a debrief meeting today and we have a similar outcome to when we last played Cardiff and it will be all hail the new king, Andy King, until the end of the season. That would galvanise the club and fans and get the collective spirit back into the club which has been eroded away since his unfortunate appointment.

All of the negativity towards the hierarchy and more importantly Manning would dissappear overnight.

That's the only logical outcome.

That's Manningball. He likes his wide men to play on opposite sides so they can cut in and be more dangerous. It also allows the one forward to . .  . er take a pass at 100mph or receive any pass with his back to goal. 

It also means that the said wide player carries the ball with his favoured foot on the INSIDE making it easier for the opposition to tackle. That's clever and no opposition coach would pick up on that.

This is what happens when the owner takes his foot off the pedal and takes advice from his son who's only credentials are that he's the son of the owner, nothing more and that also includes the loans manager/part time chief executive. I can't understand why he couldn't leave the football side to the experienced team he employed in the first place. It would leave him to concentrate fully on the Sporting Quarter development and ultimately selling. He must regret the decision to let his son make important decisions now.

One of the problems is the belief. I'm looking at the players and I am starting to see one or two not believing in his coaching techniques. So he's starting to lose the dressing room. Yesterday he said we did all the work but its up to the players who have to express themselves in the final third. He points to the stats in such a way that backs him up. Next he'll be saying they're not his players, the ones that are not performing. He puts a lot of emphasis on Twine because he's coached him before and can "trust" him, yet he's been injured most of the time here. So, rather than looking at the team collective, he'll slot him in no matter what. A bit like the unfit Pring last week at the expense of a fit Roberts.

I think he's already panicking and making knee jerk reactions. A clear and worrying sign of someone in the deep end, way out of his league 1 depth  who's lost confidence, not in his methods as he steadfastly believes them to be correct, but it's in his inability to adapt and harness what he has at his disposal.

He says it will be back to basics for Tuesday which I read as the players are not good enough to implement his methods. The rot has set in, especially judging by the reaction of the fans at the end of the match yesterday. City fans, I believe, are usually very forgiving &  supportive and back the coach/manager. This reaction can't have been lost on the hierarchy who are already thinking about season ticket sales. 

On the whole, we have been generally  poor at home this season and that includes Pearson's reign. But the overriding difference is that there was a belief in the former's methods that it will come good, that has evaporated with the latter. I have no doubt that Manning is a good coach but this has been a chastening experience for him in that you need the right club at Championship level for your methods to click. I just think with the type of playing staff we have its not the right fit.

I just don't think the players buy into his "processes". That would account for the variances in performances. He is way out of his depth, but then, so is BT & JL

He's a League 1 coach way out of his depth. I blame hissing sid there's where the problem is. I seem to recall his comments about high press and exciting front foot football. Where is it?

Both should go now.

1 hour ago, BCFCGav said:

Anticipate a battering here but I’ll post my thoughts anyway. 
 

We should keep him. LM is going poorly - let’s have it right. We’ve lost to three teams with worse squads than us on the spin. Criticism is more than fair and us, as paying and long-suffering supporters, are qualified to give it.

But.

- These are not his players. They don’t suit his style. His one ‘big’ signing in his mould is injured (an ongoing issue here that long precedes LM). He will need the summer.

- The same idiots still own the club. The next appointment will also struggle - they struggle at appointing managers.

- He’s got over 3 years of contract left. So has his assistant. We’ve sorted our money issues, let’s not piss all that money away now.

- This will be the least popular one. We showed some signs of progress today. We nicked the ball high on about 4 occasions, that’s our best avenue of attack and we saw signs of it. I actually think we were the better team today. They scored one set piece, and their keeper had a solid game. Today was better, albeit against a low bar.

 

We’re safe this season. Some will say we’re not but we are. 9 points AND 9 places clear. 6 more points from 11 games will do it. 
 

The problems lie above his head, and until they’re gone, we will always fail at this level. No amount of chopping and changing managers will change that fact. And even if they do finally get it right and appoint a man to take us forward… we know they’ll sack him anyway. 
 

 

Not his players!!!! Can't get much better than Andy King and Matty James with Premier League experience.

What you're not saying is that he's changed our style MID SEASON from a counter attacking set up to a possession based team or trying to. There's where the folly is. He has to work with what he's got. IF he was any good he would be able to implement his style with what he has at his disposal. More worryingly the problem is indeed above him. We have a League 1 set up now.

He has completely ran out of ideas. Listening to him post match going on about forwards taking those chances and working his a.. off on the training pitch strikes me that he's completely out of his depth. He should sit where I sit and look at his kind of unentertaining dross. Football is a simple game but in order to win games you have to score goals. You do that, Mr Manning, by CREATING chances.

Playing one up front certainly doesn't  help and throwing players on in the hope it will work out just looks like a mess unravelling which it was. 

His style of possession based play just doesn't create enough chances. I am not sure what he has in mind for a Manning striker but in Conway, Wells & Cornick they certainly aren't it. He knew that from the off yet he still persists with his ideas. Even taking into account the law of averages we should be beating Cardiff, Sheff Weds & QPR or at least have some sort of points return. But no, he's on a losing run and can't effect a change.

Considering today was a derby, the lack of anything was palpable.

He has to go.

8 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

Spoke to Cardiff mate - I said we’re hit and miss at moment and he said they’re mostly miss - would be happy with a draw. 

Really good chance today to get a confidence boosting win and shut the likes of me up for a few days!

COYR!!!!

You're being too realistic. Don't you know that will not go down well on here!

2 minutes ago, BarnzFM said:

Really selling it! 

Just seeing it as it really is. For it to be any different will be down to Manning's coaching technique. I am really looking forward to how he sets up the team and, more importantly, the decisions he makes during matches. He talks a lot about behaviours and today, with the chips down after a couple of poor performances, a local derby, another opposition team who will sit in, yet another chance to show his coaching credentials. To be a successful coach at this level you have to be able to be flexible &  overcome different styles. Its not just a one dimensional possession based game.

I have my doubts.

Two below midtable teams with similar records, a local derby which will increase the tension and mistakes especially with the poor weather. Cardiff are 5hit and we don't play a system that benefits any of our strikers.

We are due a win, not because its Cardiff, but more to to with our disappointingly average seasonal record.

They will sit in and frustrate & then break out to look to win the game later on when they realise we can't play against these types of teams.

I hope I'm wrong but its heading for a drab 0:0.

On 28/02/2024 at 23:14, TV Tom said:

I'm amazed how they've got away with it being so close to those houses, oh well, should make it easier for us should we want to enlarge the Atyeo 

The obvious answer is a few brown envelopes and stuff the locals. Really strange how the lovely local mayor is associating himself with a building that was built largely without planning permission. Doesn't say anything positive about the local planning rules. You would've thought he wouldn't have wanted to be associated with something so negative.