Cowshed

Yes he is more than a good lad. He is a resilient brilliant lad who had his knock backs through youth football, took it on the chin, grafted and improved, joined the academy late and excelled. He is a lad playing at pro and semi pro level. Playing versus adults in intense competitive football helps hone and sharpen technique. This intensity will produce more improvement for Ephraim than playing U18

How do you know that? I have ex players and mates at Melksham where players get paid £50 - £240 a week. Turning up to be scouted? Something else? City's players. Through academy and youth football I know two players contracted to City. Living like Monks, highly professional, dedicated, grinding through the training, doing extras, not in XI match day squads. Desperate to play and not doing it to be scouted by Man U. Your post is a bit sweepingly silly.

I have watched a impressive AYL Brislington junior team recently all short passing, working the ball up the pitch, high possession, but they were not playing very much like Man City. Ederson v O'Leary? Stones v ? The roles? The patterns? Use of half spaces? The formations? Possession yes, but very different possession football Mate. The team may not be necessarily more possession heavy, in the first two thirds the team is building play, its efficiency, ball circulation can be improved. The intent in the final third can differ the team may seek to penetrate quickly, take more risks versus keeping possession and moving the ball. The team could thus have -50% regularly. Liam Manning appears to wants control and possession. Mr Manning may want to dominate possession. BCFC are not a high possession team, it’s a low one. Creating more control and more possession will come from improvements in fundamental key positions. Control, building from the back, possession is Liam Mannings intent. This requires players with differing skills to primarily stop it, boot it, head it There has to be at least one player at CB in a team that is adept on the ball in a team building from back. City have options at CB. . I have seen Brian Tinnion’s remarks he was “excited” about a “big forward”, but “didn’t want to lose the running”. It’s a Giraffe! I could mold that into they want something to stretch play with a high DTI (running and recovery metric) to press like a bastard on the front foot, but it was not much to go on. I could have highlighted more players, but transition is gradual. I could have highlighted Mehmeti. I think I get the intent. I don't see it on the pitch. Getting more possession to the final third might improve .. There might be a player in there. You see how a Manning team can look. You see a process in theory. Bristol City went through a phase of semen up the wall spending with Lee Johnson and went through ways and identities, and plans A - Z, and dozens of players and tens of millions of pounds, accumulating huge financial losses till Mr Lansdown decided he wouldn’t afford it. City will never have the best to play any system. Losing players is inevitable, focussing on prioritising players skill to meet teams football is logical. And that is enough from myself.

Your not an average fan, you are very knowledgeable one. But park the comments of the club to one side about where the squad is and where the team can finish and think about what has been stated about its playing approach. There is a vision there, a bigger picture and very likely a model of play what Liam Manning x BCFC want. It may not be called any of those things, but that big picture is there. That model is the vehicle to deliver success. And that model of play should drive recruitment, and development. Its the where we/they want to be. The big picture is utopia, we are always working toward this. This model will have its principles those front foots, possession etc, and its sub principles how we keep possession, move the ball, its patterns. Each role within the team players then need key qualities (good on the ball) to meet the team expectations leading to that vision. And it’s a big and. Nothing is perfect. Clubs are always in a transition stage of some sort. Reaching the vison (non layman - actualisation blah) is rare, and staying there is rarer still, teams are in cycles .. Klopps Liverpool - Moving towards, great, not so good, moving back and great again Bristol City squad is not what they say it is. It can’t deliver that lofty expectation stuck out there. It wont be this front foot possession footballing beast now because the aptitudes of the players can’t meet the ridiculously high expectation. Working towards the vision, the big picture, the model is a linear process. Its abc, 123 and compromises will have to be made to move towards the vision. Liam Manning is not going to deliver the front foot possession footballing beast now, that’s ******* stupid, but he can move towards the vision linearly and marginally. Across the team, the team collectively will gain knowledge with training, knowledge is frequently familiarity. Great coaches can take a season to reprogramme great players, Manning and the players? Time is needed. Possession and front foot can be delivered. The two do exist in unison. Liverpools build up play is clearly possession based then they will stick in a big diag, speed up .. Their passing patterns also allow them to counter press aggressively. Its still possession on the front foot. Control and possession, Bournemouth in the championship did similar turning the burners on in the final third. Ipswich now control possession, and then attack vigorously when they break lines. The football there requires key skills in certain positions. Manning appears to want to have more control and wants to play more positionally. It is a measured approach that necessitates having good players behind the ball to reset retain. The team needs more players who can retain and switch – effective circulation. The team doesn't have this effective circulation hence passing, ponderous play, lack of penetration .. But this should be an expectation because the approach is being ingrained. The team is being developed, its in transition. GK is a problem. The circulation of the ball is not effective. Problem. CB looks .. Dickie can do a bit. CDM/HM ok. The kid Max Bird might be good. Naismith made of something other that glass could play the drop in circulate the ball Alonso (ahem) role. I struggle to think of any good possession team without good on the ball through that spine. In those first two thirds I would expect to see change. The base feeds opportunity to theoretically attack more frequently, and also counter press as the team moves up as a unit. Increase ability here, options, numbers and cohesion improves. I haven't gone on further because this is build from the back, and that is like the football. Its a team being built. Didn't once use behaviours!!

If your Man City you can what? Manchester City generally play possession football and positionally through the thirds. And how does that relate to BCFC? Bristol City are not attempting to play like Manchester City.

There is another option. You can play from possession and play on the front foot. The principles alter across thirds. A discovery, or a knowledge is that squad does not have the skills to meet the principles at this point.

I highlighted Nigel Pearson because BCFC think he is was not the right fit. Liam Manning is according to BCFC. My entrance to the thread was a point about Manning ball. The poster I replied to isn't articulating what they understand it to be. Manning ball must involve passing and possession. Liam Mannings football clearly involves build up play, building through the thirds. His football is his variant of possession football. Teams playing possession football. Starting at one which teams does Max Olearys passing ability get him into? What possession team doesn't have a GK with a high level ability that influences team shape and dispersal? Do the successful ones? The GK's starting positions have been improved, his technical distribution deficiency won't be, and that leads to tactical limitation. The team has clear technical deficiencies in key positions from GKL outwards if its big picture is possession based football. QPR exposed limitation. The team couldn't play through them. Possession is leaden and slow moving - Its technical deficiency. Problems and challenges, they are not reasons to cease pursuing the quest. Its a challenge to overcome.

The club expectation was a nonsense, and so was the removal of Nigel Pearson. The expectation of changing the Manager mid season, expecting him to change the approach of the team, and promotion are crass. Jon Lansdown in football terms is ignorant and stupid. The man doesn't even have entry level qualifications for coaching kids football. Never played. Never coached. Never Managed. But takes far reaching footballing decisions for BCFC. That is ignorance and stupidity. My expectations for the man ignorant and stupid employs is that his team continues on its path of lows and highs to the end of the season. The team has clear limitations in key positions. Players aptitudes are not synching with the football Liam Manning wants to play. The team will not be relegated. Liam Manning deserves a summer, additional players and that time of the grass to demonstrate he is the fit BCFC said he is, and Nigel Pearson evidently was not.

An answer would be the head coach develops and leads. As you are using the parallel of business. Liam Manning is clearly unskilled clearly, the team has lows, and highs, so this is not all chance. He is in that business arc of change, problems in change, challenges have to be expected, unless we believe these players are capable of promotion. My expectation was bottom half. Transition. Challenges and problems. Learning who can reach expectations, who can develop, who can cope, who progresses, and those to replace and bin because they can't, or won't meet the expectations of his big pictures vision. Any coach, super or otherwise, has big problems here if they are viewed versus months while, implementing a differing direction.

The belief is silly. No able coach coaches solely out of a text book. All football is based upon theory. And experienced and inexperienced managers apply their systems of ideas (theory) to football. Theory will tell a coach that magnets on a board are not the best means of communication for all players. Experience and theory will also tell a coach how to use differing learning styles of visual, aural, reading, kinesthetics etc (VARK).

The poster made a points about overloading players with information, flight or flight, got that wrong, I guess ... Yes it was very difficult to understand, It is all over the place. There was a sweeping assumption that Liam Manning has learned everything from the text book, the manual like there is one book guiding all learning. The coaching badges Liam Manning gained are not achieved in that manner. Aspects of badges focus very much on have you got skills, your solutions and being able to demonstrate this - Its the individual displaying their knowledge and expertise not the answers from a text book. There are coaching modules covering psychology, communication and learning styles and neurology. I made posts about the lack of the Director of football wise old owl at BCFC ten years ago. Now think of clubs that BCFC could have been considered our peers, the successes and their development. BCFC undervalue this role.

I would not argue that Liam Manning instructs what he wants the goal keeper coach to focus on with the keepers, I would not argue that Liam Manning also conducts meetings with goal keepers, and units, and the team, and why focus has been placed on starting positions and interventions.

People in fight flight are generally not reading anything Dave. The parasympathetic nervous system post fight/flight might help you read a text book. Nope. Struggling with that one as well.

You post a lot. Could you highlight what Manning ball is? Your last paragraph barely makes any sense. The sympathetic nervous system does not make an individual revert to a text book.

What are you referring to?

I have seen this refereed to as 4-2-5.

Looking at my typo that's one way of getting at teams getting behind the ball.

Having a footballing goal keeper gives Ipswich a consistent overload at the back, and he can with ease take part in the patterns of play, he also can pop balls efficiently over the top into team mates. When you have that behind the lines providing balance it makes teams bolder. They can ping it about, and put their foot on it, and their CBs can drive to release. he lays off and someone else makes the pass instead, but it’s done quickly - Up back and through. It appears relentless. If they don't go up, second season may see teams letting them have it. 4-2-4-1 they have quite frequently five players behind the ball, let them have it.

Ipswich have more possession than opponents generally, but its not high. The teams approach differs through the thirds starkly. Their keeper is very good on the ball, they use a double pivot in a 4 - 2 -3 -1 and build up play in the first third that guarantees possession. This intent alters in the second and last third - They become aggressive looking to play up back and through quickly, quick combinations attempting to penetrate, and play a lot of bounce passes bringing opponents onto them and hitting spaces in behind.

Two players there who would vastly improve Bristol City tactical flexibility because of their key technical qualities in key positions. Think of good possession teams, and great ones, and their systems as ask yourself which ones don't have above average on the ball throughout that spine from GK - CB - CDM - CAM? It will be a short list. Thats where Liam Manning is. Working towards a model without yet his quarterbacks, the numerous players to dictate play and uphold the principles. BCFC's football is forming, its in an early developing stage.

BCFC don't have a clear possession based identity. Limitations are very much to the fore in the first third, and second. Its not clear who at this point will be the teams leaders and architects are who will uphold the teams possession system in the longer term. The team does not have high passing ability in key fundamental positions throughout the spine of the team. Average yes, high, good? Err one, two. Liam Manning won't establish a clear identity in 3/4 months.

Top coaches say a lot of things. You can have the best players and be underperforming for years. A former top team in the EPL assemble top top players together and do not win regardless. The best teams have structure. Liam Manning is creating it, forming and establishing. Building towards a model and identity. Its interesting to see how this progresses when he is inhibited by players limitations in key positions.

You could be describing the best teams in the Country.

Compression increases blood flow. This player is?

There are increases now in certain injuries. One is injuries to the achilles. Sports scientists put this down toboots providing less support around the achilles and the very high use of 4G pitches (they are harder). Seems logical enough. I really don't like many modern boots, and particularly gimmicky boots with sock fitting. Its anecdotal but I have lost count of the number of kids I see suffering with blisters, and at times severe blisters caused by the ill fitting sock. Puma Kings are still a popular boot, still particularly wide fitting. Still well protected, and still soft. If you return to football in some form do not wear Kings on 4G unless they are King astro trainers, the soft leather wears out remarkable quickly v the synthetic grass.