The Swan and Cemetery

We had a decent record against Liverpool at home during our Division 1 years (W2, D1, L1), but my dad always said the best 45 mins of football he’d ever seen by a team was the first half of the draw (77/78), they were 1-0 at half time (maybe we missed a pen?). I could claim to remember it as well, but can’t.

Was never convinced by Hunt, but totally agree it’s a critical role to fix if we want to go 4-3-3, as is, to a lesser extent, LB. I’ll ‘fess to being reasonably keen on all of King/James/ Williams, as well as Scott and Massengo (and Benarous), think we’re reasonably blessed in CM. Downside is that I suspect King is most able of those to screen in front of the CBs, but even for fans of King like me, difficult to be convinced he’s got lots left in the tank, so risk that even with some very talented CMs, we’ve still got a gap. Maybe it will turn out that it was the role Vyner was always meant to do, but spend all his time doing roles he wasn’t!

Managers tend to struggle at higher levels in the same way players do, but the media often seem to assume that doing well as a manager at one level, is likely to lead to success further up. As with players, some succeed, but not many. Not keen on lower league only managers and the idea of LJ/JM returning makes me slightly nauseous, but okay with JM as a coach if NP happy with it. Will be a clear indication from SL re actually seeking success vs wanting a chummy club of low/no progress. Surprised if LJ would accept financial situation. All that said maybe the NP DoF/ LJ head coach combo will lead us to the promised land on a shoe string… hat being marinated a delicious hoisin Source in anticipation.

Not saying they’re world beaters, but with the system we’re playing at the moment it needs others to come to the party to avoid two of them being overrun. Second half both Klose and Atkinson started to step out with the ball more and WBs and front 3 also gave Sheff Utd more to worry about, which created space. Key for me is players knowing what to do in any given formation (inc the opponent’s), seems odd when (on the face of it) it needs a half time team talk to resolve some of these issues.

Agree thought RA good, RC not bad but a bit dodgy, TK great, clearing up a lot of problems, including, which think is a sign of his quality, when they hadn’t yet come to fruition. Really like Benarous, much more awareness than pretty much everyone other than the veteran… Scott. Think Andi should be issued with a klaxon and a luminous balaclava that he can use when he makes runs, so that his teammates know where he is.

Tricky with this formation, if the wing backs are pushed back, then we’re effectively playing 7-0-3, resulting in a lot of hoof. Would hope next season we’d get to have Scott in the Weimann role and therefore more of a link, with Weimann and Semenyo/Martin (Semenyo if on form) up top. Not sure we’ve the personnel for 4-3-3 yet.

I particularly liked “well drilled defence” immediately followed by “just their 5th clean sheet of the season on Friday”, jeez.

Weimann would have about 40 for the season by now if his team mates could spot his runs.

I’d definitely keep Klose - as others have said good defender and looks most likely to help those around him, more vocal than Kalas. Can see Atkinson and Cundy developing faster alongside Klose than Kalas. For financial reasons, think Kalas is pretty high on the list to go, he’s a good player, been to the Euros and a decent age, so should carry value, but not sure he’s got a higher ceiling and think we can cope without him. Maybe we keep Idehen as well, BCTV mentioned him in glowing terms yesterday and probably wouldn’t break the bank. Would aim to keep Scott and Semenyo at all costs, HNM would be the other I’d be prepared to lose, should be able to get value, last year of contract, again, think we can cope without him. 4-3-3 is tricky, probably has a higher performance ceiling than 5-3-2/4-4-2, but also requires better players? For a struggling team, yesterday showed the benefits of 5-3-2, ie more natural cover across the pitch, eg LCB/RCB able to push wide, 2 CMs screening the defence, 2 WBs able to create width when we had the ball. Think 4-3-3 would require rabbits out of the hat in the transfer market, eg we would need competition for Pring at LB (don’t think Dasilva is a plausible option in a 4 man defence) and Tanner looked more like a RWB than RB to me, but as a min would require competition. And where does Dasilva play? Think, along with Scott, he’s our best player with the ball at his feet, particularly in tight spaces. Maybe he can be converted into a left side of 3 up front, terrorising defences with Semenyo and Weimann! 4-3-3 would allow Scott back into a more central role, which would be a big positive. An interesting summer ahead.

Glenn Humphries always looked as if he earned his nickname.

Lots still to work on, defence/midfield looked much better at defending. One small but important piece of progress this season is when winning, not to drop back to our own 6 yard box. Hasn’t always worked, but at least playing further up the pitch gives us a chance. Fair play to the supporters, noisy throughout.

If we’re the best offer he gets, I’d be flabbergasted.

Personally am okay with us finishing one place above relegation, if that’s allowed us to work further towards getting our financial (and hopefully cultural) house in order. One manager in 116 years has taken us to the top division in England, so NP hardly the exception. Maybe it will turn out that NP wasn’t the right fit, but here and now, for me, results aren’t all that matters, it’s future results that matter. Don’t believe any manager would have got us close to play offs with the current squad, so therefore survival and maximum rebuild are the two main priorities for me. Lower the wage bill, develop youngsters, change the culture. The first of those has happened (more to do), think most would agree the second has as well (even if you give 100% credit to the players themselves) and the third is pretty much subjective. However, totally get that I/others in the ‘NP stay’ camp are taking a jam tomorrow view, which may not come to fruition, no guarantees. My view is based on thinking the jam today would be pretty unappetising (gooseberry?) whoever was managing, therefore jam tomorrow is less of a risk and I like the progress made on the 3 themes above. None of this is to say NP is doing the perfect job - it does appear that Shakespeare/Walsh (think we could do with Stowell as well to help the keepers, albeit suspect Leicester a marginally more attractive proposition…) would be handy additions to assist where NP is less strong/more stretched. As an example, even as an ‘NP stay’-er, it’s still very clear defensive set up in open play and from set pieces leaves a lot to be desired and think more progress should have been made. But whilst a manager staying or going is binary, his performance is unlikely to be all good or all bad, NP is doing enough given my priorities (which realise will be entirely different to lots of supporters) to stay. A lot of this is stars aligning - Nathan Jones’ 16% win record at Stoke was hardly a sign of a tip-top young coach, but he appears to fit like a glove at Luton with his 48% win record. Maybe he was solving problems in the background at Stoke for others to build on?!? I’m still unsure if we’re Leicester in progress or OH Leuven. Without the band of 3 mentioned above, Leicester probably unlikely, but maybe the things NP is good at will make the job of our Ranieri (/Cotterill) figure much easier. Eventually NP will leave and if it’s soon, fair chance we’ll all be able to say we were right: NP out folk if replacement has a better record “see, NP was rubbish”, NP in folk “see, NP sorted the mess for the next in line”. Oh well, all fun and games (sort of).

Personally didn’t think he was quite as bad yesterday as NP and lots of others did. If nothing else looks like the first CB for a while who when he heads the ball, at least considers the concept of trying to head it to a team mate rather than just winning the ball.

Personally not horrified by relegation if it really feels like a step back to take a step (ideally two!) forward. If nothing else, suspect a lot of us would say football was more enjoyable in 89/90 and 14/15 than most other seasons. But difficult to get confidence that it will be positive for the medium term. Instances like Sir Alex F (and Lord Alan Dicks) suggest sticking with someone can be hugely beneficial. But no way of assessing statistically what works, eg by now, would McInnes have us in the Champion’s League if we’d just stuck with him? Seems somewhat unlikely. However, I can see us staying up with some personnel tweaks, a decent pre season and youngsters/those with mainly lower division careers, having more experience at Championship level. I’m still in the NP stay camp (whilst that decision is binary, it doesn't mean a ‘happy-clapper’ binary view saying all NP does is perfect). Think he’s trying to make the cultural changes needed, whilst RG does the same operationally. Yes we’ve finished higher under different cultures, but often fading when it came to crunch time. That said, think good to get some different coaching support brought in, as not unreasonable to have expected a bit more progress on some of the consistent frustrations.

Tremendous effort to pick three stats that are essentially the same thing - generally a reasonably close correlation between wins, losses and points - and then position them as if they highlight multiple ways to indict NP. Maybe we could add points taken by opponents against us to the mix as one more of ‘the’ stats?

Think all these names are valid, but often the step up is a struggle for managers as it is with players. Championship requires an odd blend of a bit Prem, a bit League 1, which is, unsurprisingly, tricky to find. Quite a big challenge to find someone prepared to work with the constraints that will be in place. Think we need to be careful what we wish for if NP leaves (I know you’re not in the NP out camp) for next season, probably minimum one more season of dirty work to be done a la O’Driscoll and then hopefully we’re much better set up and a more attractive proposition to be taken forward.

Colin Cramb played in the Premier League, fair play to any individual that achieves it, but hardly a sign that they’re de facto the creme de la creme of the footballing world and worth retaining/acquiring.

Suspect our 1977 beating of St Mirren was the chastening experience that shaped Sir Alex’s tactical philosophy for the rest of his career.

Broadly agree with the last few posts in this thread. Think there’s an argument that SL can learn lessons, but learns them incredibly slowly. Eg he’s now got more experienced folk running both the football and rugby (CEO roles and team/coaching), but hasn’t inserted the DoF role we need to ensure the football side has the right support/challenge. Men’s football is the most difficult and most important for supporters of the 5 Bristol Sport teams (given costs/competitiveness and number of supporters), so therefore getting the right leadership critical and does throw into question SL’s, at least unconscious, motives, given JL has role without appropriate experience. Rather than fantasise about Steve Cooper et al, we appear to have a manager with decent experience, prepared to work under difficult conditions, therefore having someone to take some of the burden of of the footballing side (transfers, contracts etc) away seems like a relatively cost effective (/obvious) approach. That would also be the right role to decide when/if the manager needs changing, as better able to assess underlying progress or lack of and whether the current incumbent is right for the next phase etc, than non-footballing folk.

4th highest goal scorer and 6th highest assists, average of 5th puts him top across the two, so basically the best player in the Championship. Slightly less facetiously it shows what happens when decent ability (eg 100+ games in the Premier League) and hard work/attitude intersect. Not always played in the right way, but one of the relatively few transfers we’ve got spot on over the last few years. 20+ goals and 10+ assists would be exceptional given the season we’ve had.

Steve Jones on his way to the pub.

At least it implies that in the dying embers, teams are looking to win when drawing, which is positive. Totally agree about grabbing distance, needs refs to reverse throw ins more often/have something vaguely resembling gumption. Based on this season’s refereeing standards, a conspiracy theorist would assume the League are desperate to introduce VAR, so have instructed refs to be 40% worse than usual, which is 40% off something relatively abysmal. Admittedly to make that argument stick, it would be helpful if VAR in the PL managed to get more than 1 in 17 decisions right.

Lots of little goals they can set themselves, staying up notwithstanding points deductions (personally don’t think we’re ‘lucky’ to have teams with points deductions, but can silence some who’d snipe), middle 8, top half. We may not achieve them, but hopefully aligns with the view of being unhappy with last season’s whimper.

Think Jay is perhaps our most likely player to make good decisions in possession and execute them well. For example, the free kick for the goal wasn’t a difficult ball, but he saw Nakhi’s run (fair play to Nakhi as well) and played it to him, that got us up the pitch and set up Joe for one his legendary, entirely deliberate, boomerang crosses.