JoeAman08

For some reason thought it would be a good away day so I’ll be there. Will keep the route there in mind.

Worded poorly. I don’t discredit that it is a good idea in theory. I don’t think it is adding as much as NP anticipated or actually thinks.

I don’t discredit what he, James or King is bringing to the dressing room. I do wonder if we needed all 3 however. Especially as think Weimann and Martin are seen in a similar way and naming Bentley captain must have an element of that too. Did we really need all of that influence? Is there evidence it is making much of a difference? Not for me on both questions. I will say, Tanner thing come from nowhere really. Perhaps opportunity fell into our lap with him and it was planned for Simpson to be more of a factor on the pitch. Also, with change of shape and wanting to be more of a threat it was never going to be him at rwb

I wouldn’t see why he was asked to do that but Williams wasn’t. We looked a lot more secure with Williams and Bakinson both holding their central positions more often than not and both running the game from there. Massengo will get praise because he is committed to the cause. And my defence of Bakinson isn’t praise. I just see a lot of what is Massengo supposed to do with Bakinson and Benarous in there with him, when I think it is more accurate to ask what is Bakinson to do with HNM running about everywhere and Benarous not offering near as much as the other night defensively. It was often just TB on his own against Norwood, Gibbs-White, McGoldrick and Hourihane. I think they both had their flaws exposed against a very good side. Bakinson usually second to everything and not putting his body on the line ever. I get he wants to be a playmaker and reader of the game but there will be times he needs to make a tackle, win an aerial battle or take a hard yellow for the team. He doesn’t do any of that at the minute. And Massengo maybe has the feel of he has to do a lot on his own but stretches himself too thin. A lot of that is coaching for me. We aren’t really a team that can sacrifice shape at the minute. As much as Massengo is well intentioned, I feel he hurt the cause yesterday. It was an imperfect game from everyone though so he isn’t a scapegoat just feel like can still question his contribution even though committed.

You are correct. Better squad than ours but it isn’t a particularly good one. Covered more ground. Possibly because he chases the ball around and has no discipline. See Bakinson get slagged off constantly(he bottles every challenge so isn’t blameless) but he was in there on his own. Benarous wasn’t as useful helping defend and Massengo was everywhere except the middle of the pitch. As someone else said, you can see why he loses out to Williams when fit. He needs a lot more discipline.

I am really tired of his excuses. To me he is latching onto the not his squad thing far too much. When in reality he just doesn’t have it anymore. He is an average manager who’s tactics and man management are outdated. The longer we persist the closer to relegation we will get. None of his signings have made us better. Continuously burning out certain players(Williams, Weimann, Martin, Baker, James). His mate Dave Rennie has injuries piling up at a similar rate considering we trimmed the squad by 10. We killed previous head coaches/managers for this. The experiment is failing and keeping him around is only going to compound things. And just because I feel this way doesn’t mean I think the squad is blameless. There is truth in what NP says but he should still be able to organise and get more fight from who he has out there. I don’t feel the squad has any belief. It is a real concern for the long term imo.

I am a big fan. He actually cuts out quite a few passes, mops up crosses from time to time and is one of the few that will get his head up and try to pass forward. That said, he needs to be a bit more energetic and a lot more combative if he wants a long career at this level or higher. He doesn’t need to sprint everywhere like Massengo(who has been chasing the ball everywhere and leaving gaps everywhere for Bakinson and Benarous to try and fill) but he could easily win some 50/50s if he just tried to get there first. And the pulling out and not wanting to make any contact or attempt to tackle is just not how to make a career as a deeper midfielder. For as much as I like him, he won’t make it at his current ability. He needs to add those things and quickly. Reputation as a bottler will come quickly and won’t go away.

WTF was that?!? Our front 2 are routinely 30 yards more forward than anyone else. When we win it back neither one of them drop deep to help link. Despite having everyone else behind the ball they are finding massive spaces to exploit. The ref is an absolute moron. This team even gets a sniff of adversity they just shut down completely as footballer. I am done with the Weimann and Martin combo up front. Give me Conway and Semenyo all day. Idc if they have less than 5 goals combined at this level I am certain they’d offer more. I shudder to think what level Weimann would be playing at if he didn’t run like he does. Martin has ability but he is probably, if I am being nice, a L2 level athlete. Some serious adjustments need to be made at HT. Yes they are up for it with their new manager but on the couple times we ended up in their third I felt like they were shaky. We need to get more bodies in the box. COD or Scott need to be at the back post. Benarous and Massengo need to be making runs in there.

Not bad huh? ? think I was just repeating what I had heard in a podcast somewhere. Though seems like he will be having some sort of similar role after the season. I am interested to see where Ten Hag goes next. He has done an amazing job at Ajax. Not just the league which isn’t an amazing feat for them but a champions league semi final(few minutes from a final) and gone through the group again and look impressive. Man U might be a large step for him but he’d be my choice if I was in charge. A lot of people saying Zidane really only interested in the France job after the world cup. See how it plays out but if he takes PSG he may need to wait quite awhile before the France gig comes again.

I don’t think impossible to turn down. Obviously we have gotten really good deals for those you mentioned and if we get similar for our younger now then fair enough. I do think younger players are a bit smarter or managed better now though. You see a lot more young english players going abroad to get minutes. Even Massengo to us to get more minutes. I think minutes are much more valuable than money early in the career now. Players are getting good minutes in the championship now up to about 21 and then they are making premier league moves. Anyway was bit of a ramble. We do need to build a successful side to keep them but that goes for all our best players. That is how I am basing it when I say we can keep them for 2-3 years. That we go from what we are this season to hopefully top half/playoff push to promotion contenders(playoffs). I am just saying championship is more than good enough to develop in into your early 20s.

Probably but they both are young enough to get 2-3 years of championship experience to develop. So as others have said, need to build around that over the next few windows.

Oh I agree just meant it in the sense of performance at this level. We’d be much more comfortable if they could both perform at that level more often.

I have been a big critic of both lately but they were both very good last night. They aren’t perfect but the need for another forward is much less when they play like that.

I like loaning these young players to good clubs battling at the top of their leagues. Think it can only be good for them if they can force themselves into the squad. Towler has and if he keeps his level up you can see him going from there into our championship squad. Hopefully Bell can do the same.

Yep. Your first bit is why I always get a bit defensive when people say this is an awful squad. Individually, it isn’t close to a bottom 6 side imo. A lot of talent that can be selected. Maybe as a collective it doesn’t quite work as well but we have been missing a key player or more pretty much all season, especially recently.

You could probably say that about everyone for the Coventry match! I am with you though. I’d have Scott in my best XI but trying to mix what I like with what I think is likely to happen.

Bakinson really impressed me in that role against Coventry. With Williams and Massengo in front of him I really like that. For me, I don’t think our best side has both Martin and Weimann in it. Like to see Semenyo in at some point but get it is possibly a bit too early for a start. I’d rather Scott than O’Dowda but COD did play well last time out. All in all, I’d go into tomorrow with some hope of a result with that lineup.

I think a straight swap would suit us at the current time but in Fulham’s set up I’d back Massengo to be better than Reed. Reed would be an upgrade on James imo in that deeper run the game mould. From the game agaisnt us, Seri sat deepest and Reed done a lot of work around the edge of our penalty area. Feel Massengo would offer more in that role. Massengo is really good at this level but we see him in a Bristol City shirt not a Fulham or Bournemouth one. So I don’t buy he needs to learn his trade so say. We could use a more disciplined player at times for sure. I think we see a lot of our players get too hectic at times. I have seen James and Weimann sprint after the ball like Massengo does at times and leave the space they should be in. Think it is a result of us sitting back. Why I enjoyed Bakinson performance against Coventry for the most part. He was the screen for the defence and was in position to cut out a lot of passes and crosses, especially first half. Sometimes we say he isn’t running about a player without asking should he be. Anyway, the point of all this is, I don’t think HNM is going to be too keen to sign a new deal here. So, if we get a decent offer in January we definitely need to consider it. Gould talked about moving some business up to January that we might have left until the summer. I imagine that means outgoings as well as incomings with our finances as they are.

I think HNM would back himself to go anywhere and get minutes. I think he is better than Reed at Fulham so I do think he could get that at Fulham. Need to remember he will probably have suitors bigger than Fulham with respect to them. He will be on the radar of teams outside England. I’d also say that when fit he probably is pretty much first name on the teamsheet.

Think it is a tricky situation as pretty much everyone OOC in the next 18 months will be on pre covid wages. So how do those negotiations go? I think we are in dreamland a bit if we think we can convince Massengo today. Not ever seen much emotion from him before but last few games he has been visibly frustrated. Can’t say that I really blame him either to be honest. We need to be honest about the situation and weigh up the pro and cons of perhaps selling in January. I’d say same goes for Kalas and Bentley. Then we need to be honest about the valuation of players like Dasilva, Palmer and O’Dowda. We may need to take some kind of loss on them at some point which will hurt but hopefully quicken up the rebuild process.

So there is a possibility we go into the busiest time of the season without a manager? I get it is a medical issue but there has to be a point where we move forward surely? Sounds suicidal possibly having to navigate december and early january with Fleming

Thought he did a really good job defensively and off the ball yesterday. Our CB were having to go wide to defend with how coventry were playing and Bakinson intercepted passes and cleared quite a few dropping into the space between cbs. Off the ball when we had possession I thought he was fine finding spaces. Generally the ball was moved far too slow as a collective and his initial space was closed down. I’d say he could work harder after that space is closed to find another gap. Also, he won’t win fans by how he moves. He never looks like he is trying to run and he probably isn’t. That said, on the flip side, in the central areas I don’t think you need to sprint everywhere. I have seen James and Massengo do a lot of sprinting but they are usually sprinting out of position. Whereas Bakinson was not caught out of position that I can remember. We weren’t broken down through the central areas of the pitch. It was the wide areas and a set piece. I thought he was really good as the screen in front of defence. Better than I have seen from Matty James recently. Think it helped having the mobility of Scott and Massengo in front of him as well as their ability to draw fouls or turn out of tight situations. Thought we got noticeably worse once Scott was taken off. Didn’t help we moved players around to accommodate the change imo.

Bit of both I would say. Felt like we lost impetus with the changes. We lost energy with the changes imo and from there it felt like a case of here we go again. Like we lost belief we could win or we had to sit on our lead. I can’t really explain it but felt like belief just got sucked from the squad and the energy went then few minutes later the fight left as they were first to everything. If I try again felt like we had a gameplan everyone was on board with. Then we decided to change too many things. Dasilva come on and we moved O’Dowda central and pring forward. Then put Wells on and moved players around again and seemed like no one knew their job or whether to attack or defend

Hard to disagree. Leaving this football club to Mark Ashton and his dopey son was an absolute travesty that has set the club back a minimum of 2-3 years. My fear is as a fanbase we did want NP mostly. Now he will feel he has given us what we wanted and not sure where his decision making will go from here.

Again, not purely about goals. They are often wasteful and careless in possession. It puts us under constant pressure and don’t offer us any out ball. They aren’t a good pairing regardless of goals which is also not good enough.