SydneyCity

Ah, I see what you're saying. Yes very good point.

I watch a fair bit of Scottish football. McInnes is a very good, pragmatic manager, in my opinion. Did very well at Aberdeen and currently has a near penniless Kilmarnck sitting in 4th in the SPL. He has a preferred style of play, but is more able to adapt to what he actually has in front of him than Manning. My take on McInnes here was the right manager at the wrong time. Certainly not rose tinted glasses as it was ultimately a failure, but I'm not convinced I'll be looking back at Manning with a similar frame of mind.

We are, remarkably, still only six points off 6th and seven off 5th (admittedly one more game played than most around us). That's not too far off a top six squad - but our form is getting worse because I agree, we are currently nowhere near good enough in the final third. We don't even know what the final third looks like. I put this down to our new way of playing, plus Sykes being out. You could argue that one player being out means we don't have a top six squad i.e. one player out shouldn't affect us that much - but I think we're being affected more by slow, predictable football.

Manning is O'Driscoll. History has been kind to O'Driscoll as he lay the foundations of our academy. Manning inherited a solid squad and really has no excuses. In the strictest sense, I do think he inherited a top six squad - 6th to 11th - but that does include 6th (maybe even 5th if the craziness and luckiness of the Championship went our way and momentum grew). On form-to-date, he's making us worse. His football is ultimately unproductive.

No it won't… "We need more bravery. We need to keep our emotions in check. We need to stick to our principles."

I have literally no opinion on this one as have no idea who he is, or where he’s come from. I have to admit though, this signing does excite me.

I often think this too, though it’s hard to say without knowing the specific situation. Dropping down a level from City could have been the kick up the arse they both needed to start focussing and using their talent... or we could have completely stuffed up their development. I think that whole “clubs in a bag” era attracted a few too many journeymen and also momentarily hindered the careers of some very promising players - like Szmodics and Woodrow. As a club now, I do think we’re very good at spotting and bringing through talent.

I agree, it is harsh. He’s a talented footballer but he can get found too easily and become anonymous. His decision making and positional play are also poor. He played well at times against Prem opposition, but a number of lower level players do in the cup. Week in, week out he’s a different story. I predict him being on the bench for the majority of his remaining City career, then dropping back down a level and probably excelling again.

Mehmeti is the only one I agree isn’t Championship standard. He strikes me as a player who has been the best at every level he’s played and now that he isn’t, he doesn’t know how to act. Clearly very talented with the ball, but can get worked out far too easily. Hopefully he’s a case of “not Championship quality yet”. Bell, I think has got worse since Manning came in. I believe he’ll make it at a higher standard than mid-table champ. Cornick makes things difficult for the opposition. I’d guarantee that defenders at this level hate playing against him. I think about his missed sitter on debut and do wonder if it could have been very different for him here.

Sykes is the key IMO. He’s the only one who does things at pace. Without attacking pace, our forwards are always going to get flogged. Bell has shown in the past that he can play this role, but he’s been struggling with the basics these past few months. Other keys are Atkinson and Naismith, with their ability to drive the ball forward without going out to the wings. In short, we’re slow and predictable at the moment which gives our forwards no chance.

We’re too slow at doing what we do. By the time we get in front of goal the opposition have men in the box and all our good work is undone. It’s a whole new sense of frustration, layered on top of all the usual frustrations of being a City fan.

I’ll have to wait for VAR, but it almost certainly looks like handball.

I would hope Haydon Roberts loves Pring being here. Teammates competing and challenging for spots, pushing each other on, is what elite sportsmen strive for. Pring is probably my favourite player but if Haydon Roberts comes in, happy days. It means he’s playing better than Pring and Pring has to come back even stronger.

I’d sub him earlier. He’s an unpredictable player until he becomes predictable.

It was almost end to end stuff. Almost because both teams were pretty average in their respective final thirds. I’m very happy with the performance but we definitely didn’t dominate them. As mentioned on here by others, no shots on target meant it wasn’t that exciting. 0-0 was fair. We’re one CF and one creative midfielder away from it clicking IMO.

Agree. He let the game flow and did an excellent job of controlling and limiting the back chat from players.

Here’s the likely starting 11, as predicted by AI.

I listened to the Martin Allen one, very similar story. Martin Allen came in as a manager and was immediately told by the owner that he had to let a few players go to balance the books - one of them was Wilbs. He called Wilbs into his office and told him he was being released. Wilbs looked him in the eye and said: “No I’m not. You haven’t seen me play yet.” Martin Allen was a bit taken aback, but liked the way Wilbs had handled himself, so he went outside onto the pitch to call the owner and tell him that Wilbs was refusing to go. The owner was also shocked but told Allen it was his call. Allen went back in and told Wilbs what had just happened, Wilbs looked him in the eyes again, shook his hand and told him he wouldn’t let him down. He went on to be an absolute legend in Allen’s eyes. Model pro and “the sort of man you want your daughter to bring home.”

Removing all emotion, King’s stated mentorship of Scott and Conway will have likely added millions of pounds to their value. From a business perspective, that’s got to be worth keeping him around for a bit longer.

I have three concerns. 1. I can't be bothered any more. The games are on at 2am to 4am over here and I have to be up at 7am to take my kid to swimming. I find the games extremely boring to watch under Manning, so I now choose bed instead. I don't bother with Manning's pre/post match either. Again I find them boring. 2. I think the pathway will fall apart. Manning will get to bring his own players in - to prove that he was the right choice - and there'll be less chance for Academy players. I also fear that if it's taking seasoned professionals (and I do think they are good enough / talented professionals) time to adapt, then it will take the Academy longer. When Manning inevitably leaves, we'll lose a generation / class of young talent who aren't suited to the needs of the new manager / coach. I didn't have this concern with Nige as I felt he had a personality that was shifting the whole club on and off grass, so to speak (and I think Tinnion has the personality to do as he's told). 3. The club now seem to be pushing Manning more than the team. A lot of the official comms are now predominately talking and asking about Manning and his principles and philosophies. We're being smothered in soundbites. I was concerned by the Behind the Scenes Scott Twine video too. It literally was just him. Nothing personal against Scott Twine but we are shifting away from an emphasis on team / squad to look at our new head coach and his new players. Regardless of what we individually thought about the overall ability of Nige's squad, I think we pretty much all felt a togetherness and connection and they were working hard for us and the badge. Other than the first concern, I don't blame Manning. He's been given a very specific role and he's doing it. The first concern is the big one though. To perform in our current style, in a way that excites, you need elite players playing against elite players. You can get away with it below the Championship as there are a lot of really good players who have, for whatever reason, found themselves at a level lower than their ability. Their ability shines and they look like Barcelona by comparison. The Championship is a brutally contested league where everyone is very good and relatively evenly matched, including the managers. You're not going to break many teams down playing slow, passing football. Something needs to change if we're going to improve on last year, but Manning seems to have one coaching manual, and he doesn't have the experience yet to know when you've got to do something different.

Living overseas, I really don’t get to see much about the Gas, but it was good to get a glimpse of their new stand. It is bigger than I expected!

There was so much gold in his commentary, and I don't want to focus on a negative, but I liked his description of Mehmeti: "…an extremely talented player but stubbornly inconsistent."

I think Bell will start against West Ham given the challenge he posed them last time - though would put Sykes ahead of him in general. Still not sold on Mehmeti and would put McCrorie instead of Tanner. I actually really like Tanner and think he’s been a victim of following instruction re: passing it back all the time. With people coming back I think we’re starting to see the genuine competition for places that’s been talked about for a while… unfortunately, I’m still not convinced about Manning’s philosophies and principles in the Champ.

It’s all about expectation setting really. Nige was very good at saying exactly what was going on - good, bad or average. That’s one of the things most of us liked about him. Liam is very much a repetitive sound bite. When that sound bite aligns with reality, great… but the majority of time so far, it hasn’t. As others have mentioned you got the sense that Nige was also uniting and moving the whole club in the right direction. I might even overthink this and say he was a good reflection of Bristolians in general. He loved the area, spoke his mind and is a bit anti-authority. Manning doesn’t strike me as having that same skill set or personality. Despite all of the above, this isn’t a Nige vs Manning post - it’s a very long-winded way of agreeing that JL and BT have messed up. Manning is performing to his remit but has come into a very bad situation that he will struggle to fix. I also don’t blame him for getting himself into this situation - I’d be gutted if any League 1 coach didn’t feel like Bristol City were a step up worth taking. Really, we needed Nige a bit longer, then the right manager/coach to transition to. He himself said it would likely be someone else who took his work to the next level. I don’t think Manning is the right coach - his football is too predictable for the Championship and undoes a lot of the foundational work that has taken place. For what it’s worth, I do think we have a 6th to 11th squad. Given the constraints under which it was built, that’s pretty good.

The way he said it, yes he was including himself.