Dr Balls

VAR decisions to be shown in real time on a screen visible to the spectators with video and sound and no decision to take longer than 30 seconds. If it takes longer than that then the decision is not clear and obvious either way, and the original decision stands. Either that or the referee views the incident pitch side and makes the decision for themselves, but again with the spectators being able to see the same thing as the referee. Openness and transparency of decision making in football - which means with FIFA in charge it’s got zero chance of ever happening!

The only upside is that it leaves Swindon as the lowest placed league club in the South West and even they are in the playoffs and a good shout for winning them. Which as someone else pointed out considering they had pretty much no squad a few weeks before the start of the season and a “Gas reject”manager is pretty good going.

Will be a fair few local derbies in League 1 next season, but the best of the west will still be a cut (and at least a league) above!

1 hour ago, grifty said:

It was his city training kit that gave him away? Not the massive afro?

My impression is that the Afro has been trimmed a bit recently. Either that or it looks a lot bigger when he is running around on the pitch!
And whenever I have seen him around the neighbourhood before, which is quite often, he’s usually in his training kit.

He was in High Kingsdown Co-op yesterday evening at the cash till. Said hello and he seemed genuinely surprised to be recognised, although in his City training kit it was a bit of a give away. Seems remarkably down to earth for a 20 year old professional footballer, and all the stories about him off the pitch are always very positive. If he does  leave in the summer, I hope he gets a move to somewhere he can really progress.

2 hours ago, Monkeh said:

If North Somerset had joined the weca then it would of been fully funded

And it was the Tories on NSC who refused to join, then Marvin blocked them joining when the council changed hands. As per usual around Bristol, it’s small-minded politicians playing party games rather than delivering for the local population. And Grant Schapps has just done the same again, ensuring that the Portishead line will likely never happen despite widespread local support, as the money is diverted by central government to “Red Wall” constituencies up North, in an attempt to pay off first time Tory voters.

Meanwhile down here, some people will continue to vote for the Tories no matter what, and even when it’s clearly against their own self interest. For instance, where else would the smug Rees-Mogg have managed to get 50% of the votes at the General Election other than sleepy North East Somerset? Too much forelock-tugging methinks!

3 hours ago, The Bard said:

I do fear our Recruitment team is too data led.  It is obvious in my eyes that you use data to compare players but not every aspect of the game can be drilled down to data and you need to use your footballing intellect when doing so.   It's not baseball or darts or cricket which are repetitive sports that lead themselves to data analysis.  Then you have to take into account the different styles of teams.  For example, a heavily possession based side will have CBs and CDMs with high pass accuracy as they look to build play, whereas a counter attacking side like us will have lower accuracy as we're looking to play early balls forward.  

FWIW, if Pack is willing to accept a lower wage, I'd sign him up.  31 with over 300 Championship appearances?   That shouldn't stop us trying to find the next Marlon Pack though..

If you go back far enough, to when we were relegated in 2012/13, Pack was the young replacement for Skuse, once he had transferred to Ipswich. Both players were under appreciated by many on here because as noted by @Davefevsthe role that they played is not flashy but is essential to screen a back 4 plus bring the ball out from the back. And before Skuse, it was Cisse. You could argue that Matty James plays the same role now but if that is the case (and I don’t think it really is, which is why we currently need 3 central defenders) then he doesn’t do it as well as any of those above.

Over the years, our midfield has always been a problem, both in terms of shielding the defence and creating for the forwards. Our best run under LJ in 2017/18 came with our 4 central defender defence, plus Pack and Smith in central midfield, Brownhill on the right and Bryan on the left. That was solid, workmanlike and also some pace on the wings, and allowed Paterson and Reid the freedom to roam further forward. (Looking back, you also realise that when on form how top quality that 2017/18 team was and what a disaster that the post-Christmas slump was, especially as we then started selling off players to turn a profit on them.)

2 hours ago, billywedlock said:

IMHO , zero and I mean zero Source. Pack is on our sights. I look at a few things in games, but Nige was all over Marlon after our game against Cardiff. He is 31 years old, on a free lives in Portishead. IM (very) HO he was the biggest loss we had in recent years. I sat with so many away team scouts back then, and chatting away, every time Pack was detailed as our most important player. I see him as a replacement for King, as the experienced player in our group. He is not spectacular, I know, but he does the damn basics, and we miss that. Hey I think Korey Smith did some great work too, and maybe JD will become that player. But... I would be amazed if we are not in for Pack. Fits a position we need and with our finances on the floor, is the type we will be looking at. Of course some fans will be up-in arms, wanting a star signing, someone dynamic etc. But we are not in that place right now , and for me, a Pack in our midfield is a bonus if we want to try and increase our possession and also protect a back 4. I would be very happy if he came back. Extra bonus he is rarely injured and has 350 Championship games under his belt. 

The other thing that people forget about Pack is his physicality and his height. At 6ft 2in and “robust” he can easily slip back in with the centre backs in a way none of our current midfielders are able to do.
As I have said before as a potential locally-based free agent, who never actually requested a move in the first place, you can see why this might work well for both parties.

If I renewed after we got relegated in 2012/13, then this is a much easier decision to renew. The football has been frustrating this season due to conceding  late goals, but compared to the last season under LJ, we are scoring more goals, so more opportunities to jump around, plus we have some genuinely exciting prospects, if we can hold on to them and fit them into the team. Plus after our enforced time away from the match day experience, going back to the pub afterwards remains a guilty pleasure, even if all we do is moan about    what we have had to endure watching yet another last minute opposition goal go in!

12 minutes ago, NcnsBcfc said:

I think these tables tell you everything about us as a team at the moment......

Suggests our front line of strikers is pretty good and everything behind it is not in the same league. But then a suspect midfield defensively has been a City tradition for years. I can understand Pearson’s frustration with that because it mirrors the position of most of the fans!

And it implies we are soft as a team as well as a club. The fans have come to expect us to concede the last minute equaliser and perhaps the players have too. Do we have a sports psychologist in the set up anywhere, because if so that person clearly isn’t doing their job very well!

46 minutes ago, Super said:

Brought up listening to the likes of Peter Jones Mike Ingham, Alan Green along with Jimmy Armfield. None of this lot even come close. I do like Pat Nevin though.

Pat Nevin is always insightful.

I was at medical school with Chris Sutton’s brother. Chris Sutton is not an idiot, but at times he deliberately tries to be contrary just to get the debate going.

And Jonathan Pearce is the perfect foil for that, as he be also likes a good discussion.

The ratio of goals scored from open play to those from penalties would make an interesting table - especially as we would likely be at the top this season and near the top last season, whereas some others would be much more dependent on penalties to boost their goal tally. One for you @Davefevs?

2 hours ago, GrahamC said:

They cheated FFP to get there, that’s not luck.

Paid for by their Russian owner who made his money in petrochemicals. The parallels with Chelsea are interesting at the very least.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/abramovich-football-clubs-russian-owners-26383286

4 hours ago, Red Army 75 said:

What a shit stadium to have a friendly. Would be so much better if they moved it around the country. 

France played their friendly in Lille and Spain played Iceland in La Coruna. Would be good to see more England friendlies played somewhere other than Wembley, but I guess it’s all about money and contracts with the FA.

Shame that Andi was denied a late winner against the Scots by an inspired keeper, after again coming on as a substitute.

With a new manager due to take over the Austrian national team, Andi might hope to get a few more caps if he maintains his current form. Just hope that we hold onto him too!

1 hour ago, DaveF said:

That was quite a while ago and his stock and decreased somewhat since then. Maybe we can get Farke in 7 years time...

NP’s stock was good enough for Watford to appoint him in the Premier League, which IIRC was his last post before coming here. And if they had kept him for the last 2 matches of the season they might have stayed up, as he had turned around their season to that point.

2 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

Italy got totally 'football manager'd' as well 

Just proves that only one statistic really matters!

Definitely well deserved and somewhat surprised it hasn’t happened earlier. Player of the Season by some distance. And if all of the other players in the City squad gave the same commitment and effort as him, I doubt we would be where we are in the table. Not his fault we can’t defend a lead he has given us!

Given his inexperience at this level, I thought he looked alright. And he certainly has the physical presence. And I would agree with @GrahamCthat it will be Moore and Vyner who will be dispensed with and Baker probably needs to retire on health grounds. Which if Cundy and Klose stay leaves us with 4 centre backs.

If you want to see positives both of our goals today made the Sky Sports highlights clip for goals of the weekend (only team to get 2 included…) : 

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12570886/efl-goals-of-the-weekend

@Pippintoggthis has to be the thread for you?!

Something is definitely amiss when we switch off defensively once the added time board is raised…

I was just pleased to see Blyth Spartans for Northumberland. That’s a proper club if ever there was!

Obviously most people up there support “Saudi AFC”, sorry Newcastle United, who are the flip side of that observation.

2 minutes ago, harrys said:

His decisions are truly baffling, playing a young inexperienced striker at full back while the experienced Premiership full back he bought in is nowhere to be seen, playing two unfit midfielders while our best midfielder sits on the bench for 90 minutes, playing the divisions 4th highest scorer out wide, his stubborn refusal to not of used the loan market while most other teams in the division benefit massively (Forest’s three loanees last week were the best players on the pitch) his 12 month tenure has been a massive disappointment with very minimal progress.

The lack of loans is a big question. I know we want to develop our own Academy talent, but many of them are not ready for this level of football, and one or two loans in January could have shored up a few problem areas, particularly right full back. Other clubs seem to benefit hugely from loans so why don’t we?

1 minute ago, Silvio Dante said:

It’s been very noticeable from the first game Bell came in at RB that Kalas is reticent to pass to him. If you watch the Boro game, there were multiple times TK had the ball and the easy pass to Bell was on but he turned and looked for Klose instead.

My guess is that he is unsure of Bells onward distribution so doesn’t want to play to him to invite trouble. If you’ve got the time, dig the Boro game out and it’s glaring.

With that in mind, I think Kalas is playing further off Bell as he expects him to be beaten but doesn’t want to overcommit and leave the man in the middle with too much space.

Condensed version: I don’t think Kalas rates Bell there and it’s leading to knock on problems

Absolutely this. All of our attacking in the first half, bar the last 5 minutes, came down the left with Klose, Dasilva and Scott. Given how easily Bell was robbed of the ball then it would seem that Kalas was absolutely right to be  cautious about passing to him. The kid clearly isn’t a defender, and lacks the strength to play at this level. Compare him to Scott who is a similar age, or Dasilva, who is considerably shorter, as the other full back and that lack of strength on the ball or in the tackle becomes really evident.

6 minutes ago, SuperRed said:

To me, from some distance, it looked like Pearson was shouting at Kalas at one point and telling him that he should be positioned closer to Bell. 

The problem wasn’t the lack of cover from the centre back, it was the lack of cover from midfield. If we were supposed to be playing a diamond, with Weimann at the top of it, it just didn’t work. It just left a big hole in midfield that Williams had to cover, leaving Bell uncovered. Dasilva and Scott linked up well on the left, but most of the time James was playing BEHIND the central defenders. By definition that can’t be the midfield!!

1 minute ago, DT The Optimist said:

Some good points all round, same stuff regurgitated by fans and NP.

He has not got a magic wand, he or the club found Klose who is an out of contract player (and really decent at that) and I cannot believe we could not have sorted the RB out in a similar fashion…. NP knows where we are and there will be wheeling dealing in summer..

That right hand side has been issue most of the season and a young Tanner is not the solution…. I always respect NP for his honesty.  
 

I am confident next season we will be stronger..

Well if we aren’t any better, relegation looms large. We can’t be dependent on other teams getting points deductions to keep us up!