Dr Balls

Doesn’t that remind you of another young manager who has achieved nothing really of note before he came here but was massively indulged by the owners getting us into a right financial mess in the process? I really hate to say it, but even under LJ it was frequently better than this. Playing players who aren’t fully fit to “rest” players who haven’t played for a well? Even the LJ selection tombola had more sense than that!

Yes but when your coach also seems clueless then you might suggest that’s the root of the problem. Always easier to blame others…

At the moment I would take anything from 21st and above. Looking over our shoulders rather than looking up the table. Big games coming up and I see nothing from Manning that suggests he knows what to do.

And then he came to Ashton Gate… Even players with no previous injury history can become crocks when they are with us!

This is the recurring concern about Manning. He might be a good coach on the training pitch but that doesn’t mean he is necessarily any good at dealing with tactics and substitutions during a game. He’s a novice at this level but he’s not completely inexperienced. Admittedly he didn’t plan for Bell to pull his hamstring midway through the first half, but that still doesn’t explain the lack of impetus in the second half and then making those 3 substitutions just while we were applying some pressure on QPR.

And the other detail in your table @Davefevs that is very relevant for our upcoming matches is that Cardiff are very effective at scoring from set plays.

Well you can certainly see that fast and direct is not very successful given that most of those clubs make up the bottom of the table. Our problem would appear to be that we are slow but not very intricate. And if those stats include all our passes back and forth along the back 4, it’s even more damning!

Well if the plan in October really was get rid of Pearson and go for the playoffs, because of the upcoming financial changes, then what we have seen since really has been a failure. As for the argument that our strikers are rubbish and need replacing, that’s baloney. The problem is the lack of service and opportunities. Our xG is so low, because we create so little. The front players are living off scraps, such as mistakes by the opposition defenders rather than anything delivered by their own team mates. You could have Harry Kane up front for us and he would have trouble scoring given our current playing “style”.

It’s an interesting one, because I would say that the absolute opposite to Manning is our favourite pantomime villain, Warnock. Colin’s tactics are rarely that sophisticated but boy can he motivate a team and that’s what has really brought him repeated success. And the reality is that for all that Guardiola and Klopp might be great tacticians, a lot of their success is down to motivation. You can’t have one without the other.

Agree and have also suggested the same thing. Can Manning find an approach that suits the players and fits his preferred way of playing? In essence, the style developed under Pearson was based on what he had already and what we could afford. My concern has always been that successful possession-based football requires the best and therefore the most expensive players, which brings us back to why are 3 of the top 4 teams in the Championship playing that way? Because they are the relegated clubs with higher paid players and parachute payments. Trying to beat them at their own game, so to speak, is not very likely and actually our approach against Southampton is a better way to play these teams. I would rather we work out how to beat teams that “park the bus” at Ashton Gate. And that really means more creativity in midfield to play balls through the defence, rather than what your article for the Bristol Post showed, which is a lot of passing round a u-shaped back 4 with little or no intent to go forward. The times we do look more dangerous is when one of the centre backs brings the ball out past the opposition attacker(s) and even their midfield. Suddenly we have options and it causes difficulties for the opposition defence as they are overloaded. It doesn’t have to be Dickie every time, (although I would trust him much more than Vyner, if only because Zak’s passing in tight spaces is so poor) but we need players who are braver on the ball to drive forward and take on the opposition. That’s where we really miss Alex Scott.

@Davefevs do you have a link to the Phil Alexander SoTC interview? If not, what did he say that was so inflammatory to SL/JL or damaging to him and Nige?

But will Coventry regret not having a nest egg? Of course they ****ing won’t!

That and losing his 2 best players over the summer, including the top scorer. And he has even got Kasey Palmer looking like a Championship midfielder. Must be a miracle worker!

Twine probably the best option we have at the moment for free kicks, followed by TGH. Unfortunately neither was on the pitch when Nahki launched Bermuda’s entry into the space race!

Does Manning really see the age groups every day? My understanding is that he is “Head Coach” of the men’s first team. Not quite the same as a manager overseeing the whole club, which is what we had previously.

I don’t think it’s an issue of the fan base wanting one or the other. It’s just that developing and playing young players, particularly from the Academy, is vital to the club’s current financial model. If the club have then brought in a Head Coach who doesn’t buy into the Academy and the lads there then it may have a problem.

So an interesting case to test this will be Seb Palmer-Houlden. By this summer, he will have had a whole season at Newport and has garnered pretty good reviews as a 19 year old playing a role up front that we currently lack - a powerful centre forward who other forwards can play off. If he wasn’t already on the club’s books, he is just the type of player that many of us might imagine that the club would look to acquire given our current lack of a Plan B.

Given that our Head of Football has been so linked with its development, and that the club philosophy apparently remains developing young players through the Academy, who we can then potentially sell on for a profit, (a necessity given FFP) does anyone else share my feeling that despite what is being said publicly, Manning won’t play or develop anywhere near as many Academy players in the first team as was the case under Pearson? Just another LJ vibe from Manning, which may reflect the difference in approach and confidence between an extremely experienced and previously successful manager, with limited resources, and a relatively inexperienced head coach, who has achieved nothing tangible so far in their career. Part of the current success of the Academy and its recruitment is that young players and their families can see that there has been a pathway to the first team, but if that is disrupted then that confidence may not last, which in itself may threaten the club’s financial model.

The first seems unlikely, based on his previous coaching career, while the latter has been discussed at great length and is certainly a distinct possibility.

Agree with the observation but there is an error. We drew 1-1 against Watford at home. Still less than 50% possession though.

That assumes that we can afford a team that can play that way in the Championship. Given that there will likely be at least 3 teams with parachute payments next season and considerably more money than us, I think that’s pretty unlikely. We don’t have anyone as good as Ilyas Chair, playing for QPR today, and in reality, even if we wanted to, we wouldn’t be able to afford to buy him anyway. That’s at least one issue with getting a coach who wants to dominate possession - do you have players good enough to play that way.

The big issue for me is that we just don’t get players or the ball into the penalty box enough. The attacking intent was completely lacking. Time and time again today players wouldn’t take a chance on getting the ball forward into the penalty area, preferring instead to play it backwards or sideways, but in large part that’s because it was so slow, pedestrian and easy to defend against. So few real attempts on goal, especially in the second half, the only one of note being when Wells turned well and played it into Tommy, who then dragged his shot past the far post. That was it. Not surprising that our scoring record is so poor and that both Wells and Conway have scored so few goals in the league from open play.

From my own personal experience, data alone is useless, it’s the analysis that’s the important part. And that usually requires a degree of experience to understand what it really means in practice. If you are dependent on someone else analysing the data for you, then that immediately puts you on the back foot. And finally, simplistic interpretation is often wrong, as context is key.

This goes back to my comment on another thread that he has been coaching for 10 years or so at different levels. If he hasn’t worked out how to impact a game as a coach by now, it might suggest that he never will. Which is a major failing if he is ever to be successful. I give as a contrast Gary O’Neill. He has been a coach for maybe half the time of Manning if that, but clearly has a much better idea of how to change things during a game.

But we aren’t an average club in the Championship. Only if we are truly awful and really at risk of relegation will the club get rid of Manning. Keep repeating dross performances like that for long enough and it’s not impossible, although he’s safe this season, assuming we get to 50 points…