Gert Mare

As fans I don’t think we do expect much this season, but both JL and BT have clearly stipulated that the plan is to give us the best possible chance of achieving success ‘THIS SEASON’ otherwise in JL’s words…”Why make a change?” If the requirement from Liam Manning is to rip up the style of play and let things come together with time then this goes against the explicit expectations from the board for this season. The squad is good enough (apparently) and should be ‘top end’ of the Championship.

Correct. We mixed it up and tried to counter quickly when the opportunity arose.

Agree. It’s about intent. Also agree with @Harry that we lack the creativity. We conceded goals due to our own poor decision making, not from Norwich’s own attacking intent. Mind you, in the first half Norwich seemed reluctant to press us and were happy to sit back and let us have possession. I think that is due to a confidence issue on their part with their recent form. Against a more positive side I can’t see us having the luxury of the time we were afforded on the ball by Norwich. I wouldn’t say that is a tactical master stroke by Manning, for me it was a case of coming up against a side who were more concerned about making mistakes and who were out of form. Whilst we have to be patient we need to mix it up with exploiting our pace when the opposing side is higher up the field. Counter quickly and we have more opportunity to create chances for Conway who was isolated up there on his own.

I agree. It certainly wasn’t a culture of winning. More of a culture of team working.

I thought we played well in the first half, but in the second half we were pedestrian, predictable and over passed without getting anywhere. There seemed to be no plan to change the play to counteract the improvement from Norwich in the 2nd half. We changed the personnel, but continued to attempt what had become an ineffective plan which turned the match into a bore fest where we ended up being done by the good old route one. Passing and possession are great as long as the intention is to get into a promising position to score goals. As soon as you break forward and then pass back to the defence you’ve got a packed opposition defence and it’s like trying to play chess and it’s boring, especially when you lack the players with the creativity to spot and effectively execute an eye through a needle pass.

He installed a culture of competing in games and understood the limitations of the players that he had at his disposal. He made us difficult to break down.

The reality is that we’re a mid to lower table team unless everyone is fit. Knocking the ball about and pressing hasn’t been our problem. Our problem has been creativity and goal scoring. If anything, slow build up play makes it difficult for us to break teams down. What we need to do is to exploit the pace in the team and hit teams quickly on the break if we want to score goals that win games.

The only culture problem is with the board, not the players, not Liam Manning, not the fans. Their culture is living in ******* la la land where you build an academy and that takes you into the Premier League whilst selling off the ones that are any good as soon as a half tidy bid comes along. A culture that believes we are top end even with half the small squad still crocked and on the treatment table. A culture that believes they have a strategy for success when the only success we’ve had in recent years is when Keith Dawe got his man and we had a double winning season. The culture that doesn’t like to be brought back to earth by a manager who tells them straight how it actually is and gets the boot because they throw their teddies out of the pram!

You live by the sword you die by the sword. He made the same deluded statements as JL and he’s got an academy full of front foot top end championship players, so if he wants to imply that the fans are out of touch and himself, JL and SL know better then he should suck it up with the Teflon shoulders like the fans have had to do. This is typical of the regime. They all come out lapping it up when we’re doing well but all hide under rocks when the wheels come off. If we truly want Premier League football then they need to grow a pair and a spine!

Spot on. Great post. Supporters are moaning because apparently as JL said….we’ve got one of the best squads he’s seen and our aim is the Premier League. They made the change because they expect this team to finish top end of the Championship THIS SEASON, otherwise why make a change? This is the hiding to nothing that has been created for Liam Manning solely by JL, BT and SL. Deluded shit show.

JL - “I believe we’ve got a good squad. It’s probably one of the best since I’ve been involved” “Ultimately WE made the decision because WE believe the squad’s good enough and we believe in it. Um, if WE didn’t then why make a change?” BT - “It’s a squad that should be at the top end of the division. So yeah, I think there’s a lot of belief in the building, there’s a lot of belief in the staff, and um, yeah that’s a DEFINITE for us this season is to be at the TOP END” ”The squad is really competitive and they’re the best group of players we’ve had at this club for a long time” Deluded

We are top 6……….. For playing academy players. JL - “I believe we’ve got a good squad. It’s probably one of the best since I’ve been involved” “Ultimately we made the decision because we believe the squad’s good enough and we believe in it. Um, if we didn’t then why make a change?” BT - “It’s a squad that should be at the top end of the division. So yeah, I think there’s a lot of belief in the building, there’s a lot of belief in the staff, and um, yeah that’s a definite for us this season is to be at the top end” ”The squad is really competitive and they’re the best group of players we’ve had at this club for a long time”

Reminiscent of LJ’s passing it around the back line all day long running the clock down whilst allowing Norwich to get men behind the ball and then we just pass it round looking for a tight gap. You’ve got to attack at pace and create opportunities, not pass pass pass pass ******* pass at pedestrian speed. Look how route one Norwich’s winner was. No-one back apart from Vyner….******* simple. You can pass all ******* day but goals are the only thing that wins games. 1000 useless ******* passes and we lose 2-1. Sleepwalking football.

Name sake or not…..’Matty Taylor’s blue and white army!’ The gift

The biggest question for me right now is why I’m a 5XL in a City Shirt when every other garment I own is between a 2 or 3XL? I’ve had to put the pie back and go for a quinoa salad.

The most dreadful strikers for me were Bas Savage and Lois Diony. Where Scott McGarbage was concerned, yes he did score a few, but a number of them were already going in when he burst in to get the final touch before it went over the line and then celebrated like he’d done all the hard work. That’s what we noticed in the East End anyway.

I haven’t. I want them gone and the Bristol Sport shite with it. Pearson was a step too far. It’s ‘their’ club and for me it was a straight two fingers up to the supporters, so get ******! Would dearly loved to be proven wrong but let’s see what happens. I’m happy enough to admit when I get something wrong, but I don’t expect the same from those weasels if it does.

Nobody in their right mind who is a supporter wants to see Liam Manning fail. But let’s not forget that he knows what he has signed up to which in reality is an impossible job as anyone other than a select few within the club knows full well that this squad is nowhere near top end challengers. It is still very much a small squad still in transition (or at least it was). If he has the kahuna’s for the job and can turn us into world beaters then I’ll be over the moon. If he falls short then it isn’t really his fault either as he was sold a lie. I’m sure he’ll have his contract honoured so he’s never going to lose any sleep over it. I pray that my feelings of hopelessness are proved wrong and Liam leads us to the promised land. If I was a betting man my money would be on us heading to Never Never Land rather than the promised one, but if that means that the Lansdown’s depart if it goes belly up then I won’t lose any sleep over it.

I’m not watching until the Lansdown’s get the **** out of our club. Naturally I hope we win. My piss is still boiling and don’t take kindly to being called ‘halfwits’ for thinking the decision to get rid of Pearson was a ******* disgrace and an absolute ******* joke by two pricks who couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery, along side a bloke I once considered a legend just brown nosing them. Huury up and **** off Lansdown’s

Absolutely! If they can't put a decent shift in they should leave and sign for our vets team up at the tented village in Horfield!

Spot on. The facts were that we were in the top half (not the bottom 3) The squad were blighted by injuries It’s not rocket science to be able to read between the lines, and as @Davefevs says, most fans know the reality is that LM will be given time and not expected to challenge for promotion this season (unless he is given a sizeable amount of transfer money in January or a fair number of players return from the treatment table). If he is expected to pull a rabbit out of the hat by just dipping into the academy then the delusional expectations are very real….and very frightening!

But they insisted on a small squad and there were injuries to 12 players. Judge the man against his best 11 fit and playing, not when 50% of his squad is on the treatment table. The comments about top end is ridiculous when you consider the blindingly obvious constraining factors. It was nothing less than a diabolical non-football related decision.

You’re not alone in your feelings towards what has happened in the last few weeks. The squad was thin and unfortunately blighted by injuries, yet we were still competitive. We also never had a consistent spell of losing matches which was a good sign. There was me thinking that NP might finally be given some money to show what he could do without his hands being tied and instead I hear rumours that he’s about to be given the bullet?! Shock was an understatement. When the reasons came out for his departure then the feeling was a mixture of ‘deluded / completely lost the plot’. That was it for me, I was done. Haven’t watched a match since, but as my heart is with the club (not the owners) I’m staying on this forum and watching things unfold. If Manning isn’t given any money to spend then I don’t think he has a hope in hell, but I think he will be given money to spend as he has been given a 3.5 year contract. Tactics are ok, but you need players to buy in ‘in their heads’. NP had the players bought in. Let’s see what happens. My stomach is in knots. I feel like it’s only heading one way….straight down the Khazi!

Not like Bristol Sport to treat their ‘customers’ with contempt?

And that nobody agreed we had a top 6 squad! I think Liam’s just found that out today.