The Journalist

Fond memories of Aldershot - one of my early BBC commentaries was there. They beat Bristol Rovers.

Good times.

(I was impartial throughout, obviously)

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Absolute effing horseshit. Sane as the other poster who alluded to that who I’ve forgotten…pillred was it?

Nobody wants him to fail.

You are not taking into account the situation that Manning came into.  A well executed rebuild by Nige.  Therefore the expectations of time it will take to move us forward is lessened.

Holden didn’t get time did he?

I’m happy with Manning, but imho, I’ve seen a lot of smoke blown up his arse without much substance.  As you’ll know I’m massively into my stats.  They show very little to justify anything other than we pass the ball a bit more, we block a bit more than press.  The fundamentals of goals, quality of chances both for and against are remarkably similar.  I’d summarise my 13 game view, as we are playing a bit differently for the same results.

I’m happy with that.  I do expect the trend to start going up at some point this season though.  The replacement of Nige with LM wasn’t to stand still, was it?  It was ridiculous to point at promotion, admittedly.  But somewhere in between???

As you say, while all the footbally stats are pretty similar, one bit I would be interested in is the average age of the starting XIs fielded in the first part of the season compared to under Manning.

It feels to me like we’re fielding more experienced teams with fewer minutes for some of our academy players, but I may be wrong…

12 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

Well, you don't "accidentally" hold someone's shirt and the so-called punch was actually a mild slap to the back of the head - a warning shot so to speak. Whether it met the criteria of "violent conduct" is moot. Cresswell's head doesn't even move. I had weightier blows off my kids when they were toddlers.

I'm aware both TGH and Williams could've been dismissed, but equally I can see why the ref didn't. 

He only didn’t dismiss THG because he didn’t see it!

2 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

Perhaps if the ref had taken some action over Cresswell's persistent shirt tugging and holding, TGH wouldn't have needed to feel he had to swing his arms to break free?

Perhaps. But to use your own reply below…

Cresswell’s holding could be deemed as clumsy. but not deliberately violent. The retaliation was deliberate. Violent conduct. Straight red. 

It's fantastic to get through and I thought the club showed up well on the big stage - a proper cup tie, a proper atmosphere and the first proper shock of the third round.

I actually thought we were quite poor in the first half - we broadly defended well but still conceded a couple of very good chances and struggled to string two passes together. We didn't deserve to go in ahead and it was probably the worst of the four halves we played in the tie.

But I thought we looked much more aggressive after half-time, played forward quicker and offered so much more as an attacking force. That was pleasing because if we'd come out after the break just thinking "keep it going, more of the same" it would've caught up with us.

The sending off obviously helped us but even before that we had more intent. And, from the red card onwards, we generally had pretty good control.

It's worth saying that, sat in an office full of neutral and mostly EFL club-supporting fans, the consensus was Joe Williams probably should've been booked on three occasions (although none of us were convinced the first-half challenge was a straight red card given his foot hits the ball, rolls over it and bounces up - it definitely looked worse on the slow mo) and Taylor Gardner-Hickman should clearly have been sent off for swinging his arm at Aaron Cresswell. Both were pretty lucky.

To sum up… on the face of it a good signing for the team, but nobody can be convinced it’s a good signing for the club.

We’ll wait and see, but the optics are odd without knowing more at this point.

3 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

Personally I'd say that both Palmer and Tomlin were, on the whole, bad loan - perms. 

Kalas was a successful one no?

I think you’d say Kalas was successful, albeit the way it worked out at £8m probably not value for money!

18 minutes ago, ZiderMeUp said:

Palmer? Does Dasilva count!

Dasilva is a good shout!

Palmer! Of course - mind-boggling. Bang average on loan, well stocked in his position and cost a fortune… and we still signed him. Arguably even worse than Tomlin and Dinning for that reason!

1 minute ago, Sir Geoff said:

Andy Cole

Ah, I’m too young for that one.

16 minutes ago, DaveInSA said:

I’m always a bit meh about loans becoming permanent deals.

fingers burnt so many times. The player you think you’re buying turns out to be a duffer.

lets hope he grows into a magician.

I can only really think of Tony Dinning and Lee Tomlin as bad loan-into-permanent deals - are there more?

That said, can anyone think of any successful loan-into-permanent deals we’ve had?! There’s probably some obvious ones…

Just now, Shuffle said:

Does anyone know how much we get from the game being televised? 

£42,500. Better than a slap in the face.

I know you’ll all moan but the coverage will be as biased towards us as possible, I promise.

3 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

Harsh imo

I think he just had to take some pace off of the ball .

Williams ball was threaded through about 5 players and needed to be firm, great touch by TC just to take the pace off but as others have said. That time from TC's touch to the ball hitting the next seemed a lot longer yesterday, than on the videos .

I have noticed a lot more of the passing is much firmer now, seems a definite intension . Means touch has to be good, but also means less chance of balls being cut out.

Having rewatched it a load of times this morning - agreed, I was a bit harsh. He has to drill it like he does to get it through, it just asks a lot of Conway and his touch was perfect.

Still, I stick by the thing about Conway’s likeness to Maynard - he’s one of the best ‘shooters’ we’ve had in my time watching City.

And I specifically say ‘shooter’ rather than ‘finisher’ because being able to convert crosses/score from close range/finish with one touch is a different skill which, say, Abraham was brilliant at… but I don’t think he struck a ball as cleanly as Conway. I know what I mean even if nobody else does!

Conway’s touch turned an overhit pass into a perfect pass.

And he’s the best striker of a ball we’ve had since Maynard IMO.

17 minutes ago, italian dave said:

Well, except that it there may have been a point….we just haven’t been told what it was. 

Just following Robbored‘s advice.

Another illustration of why changing managers was so utterly pointless. Mid-table squad, mid-table results.

There aren’t many games at this level that - relatively speaking - are there for the taking but within the opening 10 minutes that felt like one of them.

That said, if you’re not at your best and can’t find a way to win make sure you don’t lose and we never looked like conceding, which you can’t often say about us with the score 0-0 away from home.

If we want to be a “top-end team” (not my words) we’ll need to add a couple with genuine technical ability in the middle third IMO. 

Think we’ve controlled the game without having any real cutting edge. That said, if Mehmeti scores one of his two very good chances we’d all be describing it as the perfect away performance so far.

I’ve not seen us much under Manning so far - we seem more patient in and out of possession and less aggressive in and out of possession.

Not saying one is better than the other, but that would be my observation at a very basic level.

Worth saying that a journalist has basically just transcribed his answer to the first question of, I suspect, a five-minute post-match interview so there's at least a couple of lines of quotes on the website. He may well have said plenty about other stuff.

Funny how people get their knickers in a twist about this stuff, though.

1 hour ago, Ghost Rider said:

I'm a bit fed up with everything Bristol City right now. It all just feels a bit backward, you know? Why are we so stuck in the past as a club and as fans, especially when we've not really achieved much? Check out the first page of the forum, and you'll see what I mean:

• Nigels leaving card
• Nigel Pearson, Bit of an Artist
• Making a fuss about winning the Carabao Cup 6 years ago (No mention of that Liverpool win we keep harping on about)
• Richard Gould back
• Mark Aston thread

And don't get me started on our social media team—constantly wishing old players happy birthday and every new shirt being some kind of "throwback." It's like we're stuck in a time loop or something.

Why can't we, as a club and a fanbase, be a bit more with the times? We seem to love the same old stuff, especially this weird obsession with Nigel Pearson. The guy was just so average, I don't get where all the love comes from. It's just basic and, well, a bit rubbish. We're basically cheering on failure and being okay with being average.

Why can't we, as a club and fanbase, get with the times a bit more? We're stuck on the same old things, especially this weird love for Nigel Pearson. The bloke was just so average; I'm scratching my head wondering why everyone's so into him apart from the fact he was a bit edgy. It's just basic and, well, a bit tinpot. We're basically cheering on failure and settling for being just average.

Am I the only one who thinks like this?

P.s Don't get me started with the love for Massengo just because he had big hair. Never has such a below average player been so lorded.  

 

Probably stems from the current team being below average and under-invested in, an ownership that’s losing interesting and a new robotic manager who fans are struggling to connect with.

None of that is the fault of the supporters. Nor the media team, to be fair.

36 minutes ago, Red 90 said:

Tough to call between this and Christian Roberts's goal against Hartlepool which is my personal best memory of being at the gate!

At that point in time we were playing such exciting football, I backed us against anyone! Shame that in 6 years (on the pitch) we are no further forward, in fact we have actually regressed!

 

Weirdly, I always favoured the Goodfellow equaliser. I’d been to every home and away game that season and, having lost to Cardiff 12 months earlier, that horrible sick feeling in the pit of the stomach that it was all fizzling out to a home defeat by Hartlepool… I’ve never felt relief like it when the equaliser went in. And, from the moment it did go in, I had no doubt we’d go on to win it in extra time.

The Manchester United game was an all-round amazing night. The buzz around the ground… you felt like everyone genuinely believed we could do something special. It’s hard to explain it to a non-football fan, it was just something else (and was never there for the Man City home game IMO).

On a personal note, also memorable because I couldn’t get a ticket so twisted some arms to get in the overspill of the press box, wrote the match report on a jolly and it ended up getting read by 3.5 million people. Not normal numbers for a Bristol City match report!

5 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Suppose if our wage bill was £182m last season then we would be too.

I’m sure we’d find a way of wasting it.

18 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I said from the start, he’s talking about HIS principles, HIS ways, HIS style, etc….he's on autopilot to a degree, talking about his favourite subject.

He came across fine to me in those early weeks, but the test is when you’re not on autopilot, and having to think on the spot.

As FoxPunter said, he’s almost too clean.

He’s a bit like the Terminator (Robert Patrick version).  Will we see someone trip him up like when the original terminator tricks him with the dogs name - “how’s Wolfy”, quickly responding with “your step-parents are dead”!

Like many, many players and managers, Liam is clearly just media trained up to the eyeballs. He's so polished... I think it's just particularly jarring to us as fans because Nigel was the polar opposite.

There are very few like Nigel who are authentic and say what they actually think, rather than say what they think they should say. Ange Postecoglou is probably one of the few other examples in England at the moment? Either way, they're outliers in that respect.

Nonetheless, I do feel a bit sorry for Liam at the moment. He's had an iffy first six games and already he's getting his post-match interview technique pulled apart, eye contact analysed etc etc.

A good time, then, to remind everyone this is all on the Lansdowns and Tinnion, not the new manager.

Still pretty extraordinary how all this panned out, even by our own standards.