SydneyCity

Listening to a podcast with ex-Celtic right-back Mark Wilson (who I completely forgot had played for us eight times in 2012-13). The topic of conversation was Derek McInnes and how he has excelled everywhere… except Bristol City. Wilson’s comment on that time:”It was the graveyard of Scottish football. No wonder it failed”. In my opinion, that makes it sound worse than I remember… but I can see his point.

To the tune of That’s Amore When we fly down the wing, And the crowd starts to sing, That’s Mehmetti. When we beat the last man, Like no one else can, That’s Mehmetti. When we take a shot, That’s as hard as a rock, That’s Mehmetti. When the ball hits the net Like fast flying jet That’s Mehmettiiiiii

Don’t worry, I’m sure the half-time team talk will give us a boost

Data is only one way of seeing. Part of a toolkit. Whether true or not, LM constantly talking about it while things clearly aren’t going great makes him seem like a corporate bullshitter. He’s not our new head coach, he’s our new middle manager.

I always had a hunch that the succession plan for Nige was Jason Euell.

Unfortunately he’s made it very difficult for himself. He’s come in and really gone for it in terms of selling and implementing his own ways. It hasn’t been working but having gone so full on, he can’t really backtrack otherwise he’ll look like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I can’t help but feel that we’re in a three-way game of chicken between Manning’s philosophies and principles, Lansdown and Tinnion’s ego, and the performance of the current relegation spot teams.

It’s worrying how many times he directly said, or heavily implied, we all need to stick together. Sticking together and team/squad spirit was the one thing that we definitely had

I think Bell will be a victim of the new style, leave and excel. I can’t remember which opposition Manager said this season that he was very impressed by our academy as we were able to lose Semenyo and have someone better (Bell) come in and replace him. He’s also getting called up to England, so he’s doing something right. We’re playing pretty ineffective football right now - unless possession is our only aim - and I don’t think anyone, except Sykes and to a lesser extent Knight and TGH are really achieving any thing remarkable. Bell is dipping in form, but young. He’ll achieve a career well above League 1, unfortunately not at City.

To me, this is SOD all over again with one key difference - personality. Manning gives text book answers, and everyone thinks he’s a football genius. SOD was all over the place and everyone thought he was mad… but they’re both saying and delivering the same thing. Hindsight has been kind to SOD. He started to sort out a serious mess and lay the foundations of our high achieving academy. Manning has walked into some very solid foundations so has no excuses. I’m not writing him off yet but I don’t have high hopes.

Got caught short at Freshwater on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. This was in the public toilet.

I was going to post a prediction after LM’s first game that we would see an extended run of silly errors by Vyner, but felt it unnecessarily negative at the time. I thought this because he was error prone prior to NP, but NP told him exactly what he had to do to rectify this… and fair play to Vyner, he did. Now he’s being asked to do some very different things and I feel that he’ll take some time to get into his new role and responsibilities. I believe he’ll get there if he’s afforded the time.

No it’s not. I’m not an expert but my personal belief is we’ve chosen a particular type of hybrid surface that prioritises multi-sport functionality / durability over injury prevention.

Here’s an overview of a study involving our specific hybrid playing surface during that time, vs a control surface of grass only, and the top nine boots worn by elite footballers: No support was found for our primary hypothesis that the hybrid reinforced turf system would have higher rotational traction across the different shoes. In fact, a trend towards the opposite finding is evident in this study. Large variations in the magnitude of shoe-surface rotational traction are evident across different individual shoe models and outsole groups for each surface tested here. Individual shoe type and outsole group significantly affected rotational traction which has been linked to increased lower extremity injury (Lambson et al., Citation1996; Olsen et al., Citation2003; Mack et al., 2019; Wannop et al., Citation2013). Higher shoe-surface traction increases joint loading in the frontal and transverse planes at the knee and ankle (Wannop & Stefanyshyn, Citation2016). Furthermore, anterior cruciate ligament loading parameters increase when shoe-surface traction is high (Sinclair & Stainton, 2017). These factors may contribute to an increased risk of non-contact lower limb injury. This study shows footwear selection can significantly influence (increase or decrease) rotational traction for the two surfaces tested: under the climatic conditions and mechanical surface properties at the time of testing. Players can adjust their footwear selection to suit the surface conditions at times where lower rotational traction is desirable. For example, returning to on-field rehabilitation following ACL injury or ankle syndesmosis injury where it may be prudent to minimize the chance of the shoe getting ‘stuck’ on the surface (foot fixation)… One previous study examined injury incidence between a different hybrid reinforced system (stitched), artificial turf, and natural grass in one elite rugby union team over two seasons of match play (Cousins et al., Citation2022). Overall match injury incidence doubled on hybrid or synthetic surfaces compared to natural grass. Knee injuries were 3 times higher on the hybrid playing surface compared to natural grass. The authors suggest further studies across multiple clubs and seasons in a larger cohort to investigate these initial findings… Hybrid reinforced playing surfaces on sand-based rootzones are reported to be harder than natural grass surfaces especially later in the playing season or later in their usage life because of compaction from traffic, etc. (Caple et al., Citation2012; Thanheiser et al., Citation2018). The high expense associated with the installation of hybrid systems means they are often used for many seasons in a row with grounds staff renovating the surface each season. This can increase shear stability and possible rotational traction due to the compaction of sand particles if maintenance practices are not able to manage compaction… Football boot selection is one of the few immediately modifiable factors that a player can influence just before kick-off when the surface properties or climate are largely pre-defined. Differences across outsole groups are much larger than differences across playing surfaces. This extends previous findings to suggest (Serensits & McNitt, 2014) footwear selection has a larger effect on rotational traction than playing surface properties. However, recent studies using playing surfaces and footwear designed for American football suggest playing surface affects torque more than (stud/cleat) design which contrasts our findings (Kent et al., Citation2021). Future studies should investigate… We suggest using the findings to help select football boots with lower rotational traction which may be useful for specific scenarios (e.g. during on-field rehabilitation after lower extremity injury).

I think Manning needs to work on his half time team talks.

Normally just watch it on the laptop but tried my Samsung TV for this one. It’s working but wasn’t the easiest as the buttons on the player e.g. “Watch now” weren’t being displayed. I just had to click where they normally are when watching in the laptop and it worked!

I didn’t see it. I have no egrets.

Dean Holden

Jeeeeez I totally misread that . . . Me too… but now I’ve bought eight pairs of red Skechers

To be fair, that is a good suggestion.

I don’t avoid navy and I definitely over index on red.

I’m unenthusiastic about him. I can’t even be bothered to finish the press conference or interview - just a bit boring really. Like an office middle manager. Hopefully his football is a lot more entertaining.

Robins TV didn't get the memo.

Want: Muscat Think: Beale

This is why it’s going to be Michael Beale. If you can’t get Gerrard, get his assistant who did all the coaching.