Dr Balls

I can very confidently predict that we will not win 3 out of the 4 games you have mentioned. We might win one but any team wanting to get a result at Ashton Gate just needs to defend deep and either hit us with speed on the break or nick a goal from a set piece. And Manning won’t come good at this level with us. It’s the equivalent of Kompany at Burnley in the Premier League - the wrong tactics for the players considering the level at which they are playing. And the same results - defeat after defeat!

We are already hoping that other teams will do us a favour. That’s worrying in itself. Another worry is that we are sleep walking into relegation and the owners will do nothing to relieve the situation because sacking Manning would prove that they got things very wrong. So the next worry is that they won’t do it. And even if they did pull the trigger, I have no faith that they would get someone decent in even on a short term basis. The worst option would be Tinnion as a caretaker manager, but I wouldn’t even put that past them because they seem to know so little about football, seem in thrall to Tinnion, and are so unaware of the opinions and feelings of supporters. I don’t think Manning will be sacked if we lose on Sunday. But lose that game and the game against West Brom that would be 6 games lost in a row and the PPG would be down to 1 exactly, which is usually quoted as relegation form, achieved over exactly half a season. That really should lead to a parting of the ways, even for the Lansdowns. With an international break after the West Brom game, that would also be the ideal time to get rid of Mannjng and his team so as to bring in someone experienced short term just to keep us in the Championship.

Really beginning to wonder if this contract issue and number of starts/performances is true…

Yes but could he commentate? I don’t think the combination of John Motson, Barry Davies, Brian Moore and even our very own Jonathan Pearce could make some of the performances under Manning anything other than a snoozefest of tedium!

Talked about this the other day and the question of “risk and reward”. Playing out from the back and using the keeper as a sweeper is potentially high risk against a pressing team but the supposed reward is you have possession and if you get past the attackers you can move the ball into midfield. However the rewards are very low if you can’t get past the attackers - passing it along the back line - but the risk still remains. By contrast a long ball out by the keeper into the opposition half is a lower risk as the ball is now a long way from your goal. You may lose possession especially if you don’t have a target man up front so the reward may not be any better than having possession 30 years further back except that you are closer to the opponent’s goal. The problem is that with our current 4-2-3-1 formation we don’t seem to get any of the second balls, which is a problem. However kicking out to the wings for McCrorie or Pring is not a bad tactic and if the ball goes out there’s little to be lost. Anything is better than the garbage that’s Manningball!

That Rob And Max are probably the only players in credit at the moment says a lot for the issue that there has been very little “front foot football” being played by our team at the moment…

If (an absolutely enormous “if” that is so large it can be seen from space!) we win tomorrow, I can guarantee it won’t be because we will have been playing “Manningball”!

The list of those with experience leaving AG under Lansdown goes back further than that. The Coppell “cameo” showed that a real football person with a brain (degree in economics iirc) took a week or so to work out that there was something very wrong with the way the club was run by the owner. The owner who brought in David James as goalkeeper on an enormous contract without informing the manager!

The real question is why wasn’t Nige going to be offered a new contract, considering he has done everything that has been asked of him to that point? Why didn’t they trust Nige and Phil Alexander to get on with using some of the Scott money to invest in players? How did they manage to lose 2 men with over 60 years’ worth of top football experience, including time at the highest level, in the space of just over a month? Why did they think that they could cope without that experience? Was it arrogance or ignorance? Why did they appoint an inexperienced League 1 coach with no actual success, but one sacking in just over 2 years, to replace Nige? Why was Tinnion elevated from Head of the Academy to Head of Recruitment and then to Technical Director, when his only period as a manager ended after just over a season in League 1 with us and in failure? How did we end up with a “board” that has only 2 people, one of whom is the son of the owner and the other was the Bristol Sport accountant? Why were all of the other board members removed over time and not replaced? All of these questions would help explain why we find ourselves in the position we do now, with a team in a terrible run of form, playing some of the dullest football ever witnessed at Ashton Gate, from a Head Coach who is out of his depth, appointed by people who think they know more about professional football than they really do.

But the whole point is that Manning’s persona and attributes suit the Lansdowns. He’s not going to challenge the hierarchy at the club. He’s a “yes man” who rather than admit he’s not up to the job will blame the players for his failures. Unfortunately the reason for needing to appoint someone and then his particular appointment are a reflection of the poor leadership at the club.

Clear that Nige was a bit of a father figure for Tommy, in part because he had the confidence to play him up front at such a young age, plus pairing him with the experienced Nakhi. And the way that Manning wants the team to play would frustrate any forward. It’s Guardiola pre-Haaland, when even Aguero was sacrificed so that they could play some kind of 4-6-0 formation.

Play 4-3-3/4-5-1 with Tommy up front, 3 in midfield (to include both TGH and Knight) plus Mehmeti on the left and Sykes on the right. Try to overload them in midfield and play on the break. It’s not ****ing rocket science - play the players the way that best suits them, play the best players in each position, and stop trying to make them play to some principle that you have but that just doesn’t work on the pitch. And if you want to catch them out or give the team more space, try playing some balls from defence over the back line that make the opposition defenders turn and that Tommy (or others) can run onto.

Brentford have some decent players but at times this season they have struggled, whatever system they have played. And let’s be clear Manning is nowhere near Thomas Frank in terms of coaching/managing ability. Nor is he as honest about his own mistakes as Frank when it doesn’t go well on the pitch…

Yep. But SL can still manage 2 out of 3 this season. Not exactly maximising his investment!

I honestly don’t think they will act before it’s too late. That would be an admission of failure on their part. So is there a real risk that we could go down? Under Manning and the hierarchy at the club, absolutely. And if not this season, then next looks even more of a struggle if Manning stays. Look how Burnley have struggled under Konpany in the Premier League. This way of playing needs considerably better players than the opposition, which actually means it’s not easily transferable without considerable investment, potentially more than a club can actually afford without significant additional financial means, either being owned by a Petrostate or in the Championship, parachute payments.

@Numero Uno I am afraid Crayon Boy and the Accountant are that naive. For goodness sake they made Tinnion Technical Director. Does that suggest switched on footballing folk? A failed League 1 manager, who helped develop the Academy but has done little else. There is no way that they are going to sack Manning this season, even if we are relegated. They have made their decision and they are going to stick by it. Anyway Manning has guided a team to the playoffs in League 1 , so by their reasoning he would be the perfect coach to get us promoted again. That’s how divorced from reality they are!

And here’s another team that are proving that just because Guardiola can make it work with the very best and most expensive players doesn’t mean that his acolytes can with lesser resources: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/03/burnley-bournemouth-premier-league-match-report

The victory against Southampton was because it played to the strengths of the squad (I.e. quick transition / on the break) developed and honed by Pearson rather than the way Manning has consistently said he wants the team to play (I.e. dominate possession). As well as a real risk of a relegation battle this season, what really worries me is that Manning will be given the nest egg this summer to blow on players for his system, whichever division we are in, when I have no confidence that he knows how to actually manage players properly, or has any other set of tactics than boring the opposition to death with our lateral and backwards passing, while creating zero scoring chances of note.

Can’t see the Upper Lansdown from where I sit but given the number of empty seats in the South Stand each game, I’m guessing quite a few in what are some of the cheapest seats won’t bother renewing if they aren’t coming now.

Then the relative cost is small compared to even the amount Manning and co are costing us in player sell-on valuations. An owner who was serious about success and appropriately concerned about the failures on the pitch would be making calls right now. Which tells me won’t do anything until mid-April, by which time things could look a lot worse and the options for change a lot less.

As the saying goes “a fish rots from the head down”…

Disaffection? Yes agree there were a lot of unhappy players out there yesterday having a go at each other. McCrorie was livid with Sykes in the second half and vice versa. It all suggests that the strong, happy bonds that appeared to have been created under the previous managerial regime have gone. Doesn’t help when the new coach constantly blames the players rather than taking any blame himself for the defeats.

Processes Major, processes. It’s the one word that Manning learnt from Guardiola!

Wells and Conway have hardly been played as a combination at any point in the last 4 months so I don’t think you can say that they aren’t working well together. It happened briefly against QPR and gave us the best opportunity of a goal in the match, as Nakhi played in Tommy and his shot narrowly missed .

It would appear that Brian is keeping a low profile this morning…