Merrick's Marvels

And the award of longest thread title ever goes to... 

32 minutes ago, Miah Dennehy said:

Some of whom no  doubt, still watch City and applaud the buy into the reinvented myth of the Ashton Gate 8, conveniently forgetting that they issued death threats to several genuine City legends.

You don't have to be a Rovers fan , a City fan or whatever to be a ****. This thread has been known to push the boundaries of pisstake , lets not forget just how despicably some of your own fans behaved in 1982.

That's still all you've got, after all these years, isn't it.

Just f u ck off you tiresome gass hole.  

10 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

Despite commentators routinely pronouncing his first name as Lou-ee, his family pronounces it Lewis.  It's a Dundry thing!  

Ah ha!

The old "I was spelling it fonetiklee" defence. 

Fair enough. 

8 minutes ago, David Woody said:

Why is everyone on here always so angry with life and looking to moan. Can’t you just wish the guy a happy birthday and leave it at that?

Happy Birthday Lewis!

Anger? Where?

"Lewis"! 

6 minutes ago, The Journalist said:

It is weird how it all ended for Carey, given as @GrahamC points out on paper you'd think he should be considered one of the absolute greats of our club... yet just isn't really truly loved by the fanbase.

It makes you wonder if he'd be more highly thought of if he'd played two fewer games (and none of that is his fault, obviously!).

More to it than meets they eye perhaps. Did the club mark our record holder's birthday? 

33 minutes ago, TammyAB said:

Louis Carey is the record holder for appearances.

True, he is. Technically.

But he won't be getting a statue, a stand or some other memorial - which record holders usually do, even at the most tinpot clubs.

Which tells you all you need to know.

Good player was Carey. But he should never be mentioned in the same breath as Atyeo, I'm afraid.

3 minutes ago, Natchfever said:

You're missing the message Pete, that's "Edgy urban Bristol vibe" the club is targetting the North St hipsters as new fans

I prefer that to carrot crunching wurzels, mind! 

And it's more accurate.

30 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I would be worried about pace in the CB position, thought that's a solid pairing.

I really hope we sign a left footed AMF this window for genuine balance.

As for Knight, IMHO the most promising I've seen him was in a MF 2 with TGH at Cardiff. I really thught that would become our starting pair.

Atkinson quick enough for me.

Agree about left sided attacker.

Certainly some potential selection posers ahead - Tanner, Vyner, Roberts, Naismith, TGH, Williams, Wells, Mehmeti, Bell not starting for me.

Some depth there, if only we could steer clear of injuries for 5 minutes.

58 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

What was interesting to me was Manning said pre match that Twine was best utilised centrally then played him largely on the left of a front three.

Just due to time constraints is my guess. Desperate to get him into the team, even if not in his optimum position.

Manning's quote when it was suggested Twine hadn't hit the heights at Hull:

"quite often he was out wide but for me I think his qualities are more inside so that's a big part for me, getting him into areas so our back players can play forwards with real purpose into players like him".

So that's where I'd expect him to be playing once he's had time to bed in.

As to formations.

Back 4 for me, necessitating some tough selection choices there but that's what he's paid for.

Twine plays behind Conway. Then 4 midfielders. The 2 wide players depend on who we're playing and how we want to play - go for it with attacking wingers pushed high and wide in more of a 433, or steady eddie's deeper and narrower in a 441, or a lopsided mix of both. 

For me - tin hat! - McCrorie, Dickie, Atkinson, Pring - Knight, James, Sykes, New attacking wide player this window??? - Twine, Conway.

Final observation, with tin hat still on, I've no idea what Jason Knight is.

3 hours ago, Graham76 said:

Slack Vyner wasn’t on his game yesterday, but was excellent vs West Ham 

Hardly.

He was no better or worse than most but I particularly didn't enjoy the brain dead pass that should have seen West Ham take the lead, only for O'Leary to save his back side with a desperate clearance that turned into an assist for Conway's goal. And a piece of indecisive after-you-Claude defending in the 2nd half when he dithered over taking control of a loose ball and then, when he eventually did, passed the ball straight out of play with about 3 unmarked red shirts just feet away ready to receive his pass - the sort of hapless, comically inept defending that continues to blight his performances.

It's a No from me.

1 hour ago, ralphindevon said:

If I remember rightly Liverpool were around, maybe a place or two lower than West Ham are now and we were about where we are now.

Does this mean there’ll be a mural from Tuesday night in the concourse soon?

Agreed. That stupid wall is an embarrassment, by itself.

If you're going to do it, include loads of other notable events too and cover the whole darn ground in it.

But a massive display celebrating just one victory is tinpot. As was today.

Liverpool weren't even any good at that time, ffs.

Zak Vyner doing Zak Vyner things.

One week Rio Ferdinand, the next Franz Ferdinand.

Twas ever thus.

1 hour ago, FNQ said:

But I thought this guy explained his thoughts on why he thought Moyes should go quite well. Basically suggesting that Moyes’ man management skills are poor and players not routinely in the staring 11 are kept too much on the outside and not made to feel part of the team, in his opinion DM is too much old school and not in tune with modern day requirements.

When Moyesie first started coaching he was sharing a flat with Joe Jordan, a man about as old school as it can get. Nuff said.

1 minute ago, Ian M said:

Rather than take this Twine thread off at a tangent I will DM you them.

Thank you that would great.

Looking forward to seeing Twine play. Up the City!

11 hours ago, Ian M said:

Opta actually. His successful dribbles was the highest of all players in the match.

I wonder how they define "successful"! Not tripping over his own bootlaces?? Personally, for instance, I wouldn't count the times a winger gets the ball in the middle third, advances 20 or 30 metres up the line unopposed, before losing possession as much of a "success".

I would watch the whole match again as I can't believe those opta stats but can't find the whole 90 minutes anywhere.

Out of interest, do opta also have Mehmeti's stats for the game at Watford as I do have access to that 90 minutes?

1 minute ago, zippycar said:

According to his interview on Radio Bristol pre-match yesterday, he has a house in Clifton!

Henry Winter???

14 minutes ago, BCFC Rich said:

I think he has stepped it up in a big way. His tactical play has massively improved, from token runs back and a few hearty challenges to being disciplined and tracking. He has come on a long way in a really short space of time.

I'm on about end product.

I'd expect anyone we sign, from wherever, to already be doing the basics you describe.

In the final attacking third we are seriously wasteful, not just Mehmeti btw.

32 minutes ago, Ian M said:

Mehmeti only misplaced 5 out of 28 passes last night and 3 of his 9 dribble attempts were unsuccessful.

Blimey were those stats from StevieWonder.com, mate?

23 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I wasn’t bigging him up per se, just complimenting him for being a good team player.  Because if you just judge Mehmeti on so called “end product” you’ll miss other aspects of his contribution.

Can you do Excel?

I get the modern style for ball carriers but the best ones don't get their team 40 or 50 metres up the pitch then surrender the ball cheaply.

And yes, I do expect end product from our wingers, certlainly from a player with MEH-meti's technical skills.

Otherwise you might as well just play anybody out wide.

Sykes delivers more with less. MEH-meti needs to step it up. It's obvious it's all in his head. Whether the penny will ever drop is anyone's guess. And I'm not sure how long we can wait if we're serious about making proper progress.

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Glad you mentioned this no1.  Thought he played a key role in getting us up the pitch.  In the first half he was good at dropping 10-15 yards into our half to receive passes from Dickie who found Pring marked.

I thought his touch upon receiving the pass was good in that in one touch and movement he was then facing up his advancing opponent.

You're basically bigging up someone for doing the absolute bleedin basics of his job.

Wish you were my boss!

3 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

 His is no more inconsistent than any winger we have had, despite what people's memories tell them.

Nope I cannot agree. Nothing wrong with my memory thanks.

16 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

I thought Anis was one our few ball carriers last night but there you go.

He was.

But it's completely irrelevant if it ends up with him being dispossessed or passing to an opponent.

Which is what happens 9 times out of 10.

Nowhere near enough end product, goal threat or assists.

Joe Williams turned it into a game the opposition didn't want. That's always a good thing.

But, by today's standards, he got lucky with the ref. In fact, we all got lucky with the ref - we got one who allowed a proper contest to develop and one who treated both sides as equals. Early in the game Cornet fell over under pressure trying to buy a cheap free kick and the ref just waved play on - i thought we might have half a chance when that happened. Fair play to him.

But for me, Matty James was our best player by a country mile.

"If you can keep your head while all about you..." wrote Mr Kipling as he baked his exceedingly good cakes.

Well James certainly did that - every other player spent the game giving the ball away, he didn't.

In the right place at the right time all the time, breaking up play, keeping it simple, always passing to a red shirt, cool, composed and committed. Not a foot out of place all night.

If the rest of our boys had his pass completion rate we'd be a heck of a team.

1 hour ago, Dullmoan Tone said:

Try looking up David Clarkson, then Lois Diony, then Ryan Kent (for City) and come back to us...

Clarkson was poor but had his moments.

I'm blessed never to have seen Diony or Kent.

Mehmeti is the most wasteful I've seen in my time - cuts inside onto his right foot and gets dispossessed/passes to an opponent - repeat ad infinitum.

No end product whatsoever.

A decent start. Looks like he's a talker and leader and obviously a strong physical type. All attributes that will make us better.

And thanks to Jonathan Pearce for confirming what the actual problem was - a pelvic bone infection. Ouch.