JoeAman08

3 clean sheets under Pearson this season

1 under Fleming

1 under Manning

Onwards and upward. COYR UTC

Progress 

1 minute ago, Sheltons Army said:

Ewww , have you

Lets hear  it .........  

 

Can you add any coaching qualifications or experience of managing at any level

 

Rah rah rah

You don’t read to well. Didn’t say me glad I annoyed a cultist on his saturday evening though 

Just now, DaveF said:

Must be one of the most ridiculous posts I've ever seen on OTIB... and that's in a very strong field.

Someone has to skew this place back the other way. We want our Nige backget behind the team you weirdos. Swear all you cultists would love to be relegated so you can say I told you so

2 minutes ago, Sheltons Army said:

Nah

Chip is a long established poster who has his personal views,pretty balanced

You and your little recently appearing clique , relentless in your knives for Pearson have been outed

Hope that helps

 

 

(I see the clique general / recruiter has arrived)

 

Ooh I hope that is me. I am like the forum Liam Manning I guess. Someone to put all the forum dinosaurs in their place. Recruiting fresh young city fans who have actually played and understand the game

Just now, Ecko said:

You have no clue. 

Neither does anyone else 

NP cult out in full force tonight glad the miserable bloke is gone. How refreshing it must be for the players to get instructions from the main man. Not some dinosaur that spent a few days down in Cornwall every week while Fleming and Euell took charge. Out with the journeyman “manager” and in with the fresh head coach. Well done Jon and Brian 

12 minutes ago, Spud21 said:

I can see that, I don't buy that our players are incapable of passing a ball 5 yards, you don't have to play incredible quality passes if you move the ball quickly, look at Ipswich, most of what they did was actually very simple in many ways, one of their main forms of attack is to work the ball wide and then cut it back to the edge of the box, they weren't needing to put in quality crosses because a relatively simple 5/10 yard cut back was doing the business. 

The way Pearson plays you can pretty much guarantee you will be in every game (realistically only Brum were we not really in the game, even then we should have made it 1-1 but Wells missed a bit of a sitter) however **** me it's been a slog to watch at times, Pearson has undoubtedly made us hard to beat and I still would have liked him to be given time to see if he could be the man to kick us on, but there were hardly glaring signs that quality football was just around the corner. 

Yep my feelings exactly and I will give NP credit. I think our core now will have that mentality and hopefully mesh the new LM style with some of that NP mentality 

18 minutes ago, ProfitInMyPocket said:

People expecting much change this season even with a new manager will be disappointed.

We haven't got the players to play attractive possession dominating football, 95% of the squad are terrified to dribble past a player in case they lose it, it's just not what we've got. 

Hell of a lot of running but quality on the ball when we get into the opposition third is something we are lacking in the squad.

I can see a few tweaks to some players' games but it'll be the same old story until we get another midfielder or two who can drive past someone and get other teams defenders panicking.

We already played at a high intensity and energy when trying to recover the ball, even Mark Robins said we had the metrics of the best pressing team in the division after we played Coventry. 

And the best players at passing forward into good areas are Vyner, Dickie and Naismith. Says it all really. 

I'm hopeful for LM but he's got a lot of work to do to try and get even more out of the midfield and forwards to create more chances. 

I don’t think we are amazing by any stretch but this is where I hope to see a big improvement. These are all professional footballers and the ability is probably there in most of them. It is getting that belief in them that we want to do this and certain mistakes are acceptable. I get the feeling under NP there weren’t any acceptable mistakes. Many seemed so afraid to do the wrong thing that they end up making a mistake anyway thinking about it. That is my opinion anyway. 
 

We 100% need more players. I don’t mean bigger squad either. We’ll see it in January and in the summer. Phasing out the likes of James, King, Williams and Weimann. Sorting out fringe players who may not fit like maybe Bajic, Tanner and Hickman(maybe loan not converted now?). Obviously a lot of the older ones OOC so will be the summer. In the mean time if we can get that number 10 in, then maybe we can go from there for now. 

1 hour ago, Harry said:

Quickest way for me to respond to this is to copy my post on one of the very early pages of the very long Manning thread. See below  

There’s been some debate about his 3 or 4 at the back. He’s played both at Oxford but my feeling on this is because of personnel. I think his desire would be to play the 3 CB’s, with the outside CB’s splitting wide, 2 high wing backs, 2 CM’s in a box and a creative attacking midfielder. 
We don’t have all of those components at the moment so I wouldn’t expect him to shake anything up in his first few months. I’ll be more looking for improvements in the actual footballing ability of our players (ie being able to retain possession better in tight areas) 

Anyway - my original post below ……..

 

So, Liam Manning. 
No doubt a name many City fans aren’t very familiar with. 
Not much of a playing career which he finished early to focus on coaching. Spending 4 years with West Ham’s under 23’s during the period when Declan Rice was coming through. 
Manning’s style of play is very much focussed around a style of player such as Rice, so I have no doubt that his coaching and way of playing would have been a good influence on Rice. 
 

His first proper job as a manager was in the Belgian 2nd division with Lommel. He took them from bottom of the league to 3rd in his one season there. However, this really needs to have a caveat - he spent over £11m as well as benefiting from a number of loans from Man City as they are a partner club. 
That level of transfer spend is highly unusual in the Belgian 2nd division, so I think it’s fair to say he had a significant amount of help to get them from bottom to 3rd. 
 

He took the job at MK Dons for the 21/22 season after Russell Martin left for Swansea. 
As regular readers will know, I was very keen on City signing Scott Twine. It’s for that reason that I saw a lot of MK Dons that season as I was keen to watch as much of Twine as I could. 
They had a superb season. 89 points, finishing 3rd and losing in the playoffs (rather craply to Wycombe). 

I watched a number of their games that season and they were a joy to watch. 
I am a tad bias here, because I absolutely loved watching Twine play. 

He’d mostly set up with 3 at the back (usually Darling, O’Hora and Lewington). All 3 were encouraged to play and they enjoyed vast amounts of possession. McEacheran and Matt O’Riley were a beautifully balanced midfield and then Twine creating in behind a striker - usually Eisa. 
They were superb to watch but their passing from the back style did get them into trouble a few times. 
 

As much as they played beautiful football that season, I can’t actually put it all down to Manning. He’d inherited a team which was already set up to play that way from Russell Martin - I think Manning just carried on his good work. 
Martin had signed Fisher (the keeper), Darling, O’Hora, Harvie, McEacheran, O’Riley, Kasuma and Twine. 
Martin had basically assembled this stylish squad. 
 

He lost the keeper in January to Swansea. The keeper was the catalyst to the playing out from the back style. 
He also very crucially lost O’Riley in January to Celtic. 
I thought this would be a massive blow as O’Riley was quite simply excellent. 
Manning signed a couple of loans to replace them - A keeper from Chelsea and a midfielder from West Ham (so clearly using his contacts from his West Ham u23 days). 
Twine was outstanding for the rest of the season and they didn’t miss O’Riley as much as I thought they would. 
 

So, a beautiful football team that season but one which was assembled by the previous manager. 
 

The next season didn’t start well. Won 4, Drew 3, Lost 13!! 
He’s lost the nucleus of the team though. Darling & Twine both leaving - probably the best 2 players in the league the season before. This was always going to be a massive blow. 
He also lost Kasumu in CM, who gave a tonne of legs and energy. 
 

He replaced Darling & Twine with Jack Tucker and Conor Grant. 
2 players who I was actually quite fond of myself, but they were nowhere near the same level of quality as those he lost. 
It was always going to be a bit of a struggle but quite how they went from the most beautiful team in League 1 to losing 13 of 20 is baffling. 
 

Onto Oxford. He arrived at the back end of last season when they sat 19th and in danger of the drop. He managed to keep them up but I think that was more down to other teams being so poor. He only won 2 of 12 games but got enough draws (5) to stave off relegation. 
I watched Oxford a couple of times last season before he arrived and I thought they were awful. I wouldn’t have been surprised had they gone down. So he kept them up, but only just in reality. 
 

This season, the Oxford I see now are chalk and cheese to the Oxford I saw last year who were awful. They are now playing the good stuff that Manning had at MK (perhaps it wasn’t all down to Russ Martin after all??)

He’s made some decent signings that fit his style. 
He’s loaned in a keeper from Brighton to help him play from the back. 
He brought McEacheran with him from MK - a good ball retainer for league 1. 
He brought Rodrigues in from Notts (this is his Twine, the creative roaming attacking midfielder type). 
He brought in Greg Leigh who has been an absolute revelation at wing back. 
He’s got McGuane playing well (I wasn’t overly impressed with him the year before but Manning seems to have lit his fire). 
He’s also made another couple of loans from Prem clubs to supplement his squad.  
 

Add Cameron Brannigan to this and with a tandem of either Brannigan/Maguane or Brannigan/McEacheran and he’s got a dominant ball retaining midfield. 
I think he’s still mostly playing 3 at the back as he did at MK, but he’s played a 4 sometimes too. I think he’s mostly switched to a 3 after the arrival of Leigh at wing back, so he seems open to changing his formation to suit his players. 

I must say, the transformation of the awful Oxford team last season to the stylish and winning team of this season is a remarkable one. And there is no doubt about it that this is 100% down to Manning. 
 

I can understand why many fans will see this as a rather underwhelming choice, but he is exactly the sort of person who fits the remit of how we are wanting to play. 
But ultimately, Manning’s style of play requires the right players to be able to play it. 
He’s always favoured a keeper who can play from the back - we don’t have that. 
He likes 2 deep CM’s who can control and dominate possession - we don’t have that. 
He likes a creative AM - we don’t have that. 
He likes high wing backs - we kinda half have that. 
He likes 3 CB’s who can build from the back - we don’t really have that. Naismith yes, but the others no. 
 

So he may be the right man for the way we WANT to play, but I actually don’t believe we have the players who can fit that style. 

You don’t think we have the cbs for 3 at the back? When fit I am not sure I am uncomfortable with any of our cbs on the ball. Not that they are mistake free but Naismith, Atkinson, Vyner, Roberts and I’d say Dickie too are all comfortable with the ball and most capable of firing passes into the feet of strikers. What would LM be looking for out of them that they don’t possess? 
 

Wingbacks I think Sykes, McRorie(played it) and Pring are decent options to get started with. Sykes and Pring bring a balance too for me. 
 

Mehmeti think shows some promise in the 10 role but we can’t rely on that. Probably our biggest need and imo was a need in the summer as well. 
 

The deep CMs it is hard to imagine Knight and Hickman not getting a look but could either play a role in the two under LM? I liked the look of McGuane. Think he could make the step up? Unimaginative for sure but maybe one he poaches? Think McRorie could end up back in there? 

1 minute ago, Zuni said:

Certainly agree with the attitude part but please prepare yourself for King, James and Williams not being part of a new "front foot", attacking, dynamic approach. They simply do not fit.

Bingo. I’d be letting weimann walk too. We got a grafting forward that can play across the front 3 under contract already in Cornick. I think experience is valuable but despite the age of a lot of our players, we do have plenty of experience. Wouldn’t be a massive loss to lose any of those mentioned with decent recruitment. 

1 hour ago, Gillies Downs Leeds said:

Whilst I agree on the coaching side, it could well be a good appointment. And I think it will be. My fear is the structure above him and is it strong and experienced enough to handle the non coaching side of things. Time will tell.

This will always be the case I am afraid. Have to hope they have either learned or get extremely lucky. Idk what to make of this Tinnion stuff. He seems to have an eye for young talent and progressing them. The other stuff remains to be seen though. 

Looks like the type of appointment we have been crying out for. Young manager plucked from the league below like many of our players. Has worked hard to move up through academy coaching to coaching abroad and lower league with pretty good success at all 3 clubs. What LJ was supposed to be but come here for the wrong reasons. 

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I agree yes but at the same time, players such as Morsy, Luongo, we wouldn't be excited. Hirst to some degree, a lot of them we wouldn't habe been excited about individually. Most of them aren't top end Championship players- they have more depth without doubt but a lot of that squad isn't all that special.

Which I think shows you what a good manager/head coach can do. We aren’t near as organised or well drilled as they are with possibly a better first XI on paper(fees, experience, reputation) but they are flying and we are mid table with no performances really worth mentioning. Even earlier when we had more players available

Just now, Davefevs said:

Whilst resetting us.  And then this summer was the opportunity to back Nige and kick-on.  But “they” didn’t because they’d rather worry about a bit of criticism than what’s right for the good of the club.  If indeed the strategy is set, like they tell us, they should be continually improving the squad, irrespective of who is in charge, because the recruitment strategy is common.  Let that sink in.  If they genuinely didn’t want to extend his contract they should’ve moved him on in the summer.  But recruitment should be the same.  Just effing petty or amateur, or both.

Instead they’ve played a blame game, when I honestly don’t think JL (at least) knows who is actually to blame.  When pointing the finger you better be clear you’re pointing it at the right people.

I’m just expressing my opinion, not me trying to change your mind.

I don’t think we played direct at all, or at least not to the extent you are suggesting.  My view was we actually over-passed at times.  Tempo was lacking not pass-type imho.

I don’t think one game is enough to evaluate Curtis Fleming as a man in charge either.

I agree it should have been the same recruitment regardless. City can’t make up their mind. Perhaps the break down was with OOC players coming up? Idk. I said end of last season if you aren’t going to give him a new deal then get rid. With you on that. Just happy to have a reset. For better or worse, the change is exciting for me as I didn’t enjoy the football under NP and the results weren’t stellar enough to forgive it, again for me. 

Just now, Davefevs said:

I think if Jon Lansdown had put out the sacking comms included things like you’ve done in very few words (), perhaps with a bit more “thanks Nige” included, people would’ve been much more accepting, even when in overall disagreement.  But he put out a crass message, straight out of his dad’s comms textbook.  And he’s incurred the rightful wrath as a result.

His interview with Joe Sims hardly helped when there was an opportunity to save a bit of face.

Won’t disagree there. Anytime the Lansdowns speak it usually does more harm than good. Even I have realised that since the “my club I’ll do what I want” comments. They also needlessly put pressure on anyone in the post by mentioning premier league promotion and playoffs. Their communication is atrocious. 

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

It really wasn’t the tactic.  And the final home game of last season against Burnley was a case in point.

Do you think we should’ve top-6 then?  Was that your mid-range expectation?  What were the ranges of your expectations?

We have generally been a good barometer for the rest of the league in recent times.  Beating the teams below us, losing to the teams above us.

I think it is one sided to look at recruitment inbound without looking at who has gone at the other way, and the volumes of players gone.  Some tough decisions to go with a slimmer, cheaper squad, and then to stay in this division.  Especially when two of the players leaving in recent times were fundamental to how we played, Semenyo and Scott.

Don’t get me wrong I’ve never felt our squad in 21/22 and 22/23 should’ve ever gone down, and we never flirted with relegation either, which I think was a risk without Nige’s experience to build that slim, cheap squad.  As we well know lesser mortals () have taken us down in these situations.

But alas we are about to enter another “new era”.

Not sure the volume matters. Not when we had what? Over 30 players who had featured for us at some point? Not sure NP lost anyone he’d have wanted to keep. Yes depth took a slight hit at times. We have injuries like everyone else does. He never produced anything that would give the Lansdowns hope he could produce a playoff challenge. Never exceeded expectations. As you said always enough to not get relegated. 

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Makes sense?

He would have been about to play the bottom 2 with players potentially steadily returning from injury. Only makes sense if the club are looking for an excuse IMO.

The complexion would look very different then had we got 4-6 pts, going into the International break with more time for players who are absent to improve their fitness and potentially continue to bolster the squad.

It makes sense because he wasn’t ever staying past this season anyway. Sounds like everyone in the building knew it so why are we sad about it? They aren’t going to come out and say that was the case. Had we got 4-6 points is irrelevant. Been like that his whole tenure. If If If. Unlucky or not good enough doesn’t matter. Lower half table finishes and losing 5 out of 7 when a playoff battle is expected means you go especially when the owner is not convinced by you anyway. For me, it is a blessing. We weren’t going to hit playoffs under NP so might as well start anew now. 

5 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

McCrorie could be excellent but he hasn't kicked a ball yet competitively.

Atkinson is great, but he's been injured for months!

Dickie has done well so far.

Naismith has been in and out with injuries. However must start when fit.

Knight has been impressive for us, problem is he isn't someone who will carry and the break the lines like Scott, clearly we can't replace to a like for like standard but we do need someone like that.

Would be nice if he could add a few goals, in his early days at Derby he scored a few.

Bell has edged out Mehmeti on the left so far, it happens. Different types of player too, I believe Bell is our top scorer?

I don’t argue a lack of luck with injuries but in terms of squad strength when fit it has potential for a playoff push with another forward or two and blending the right players together. I get NP had nowhere near a fit squad when sacked but I didn’t have faith when we were closer to full fitness. So the sacking makes sense to me. Even if as @A Darkwood Red said, was poorly executed.

For me, it makes sense to move on now and I have convinced myself this was always the plan when they gave him a 3 year deal. Get him in to balance the squad, see us through wage bill cut, let him be the figurehead while getting some of our academy acclimated. As I always said anyone would have had to do it. NP may have been the best man for that job. Not sure he was the man to take this club to the next level though. If it was always the plan then saving money for the next man makes sense. 

6 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

I suppose only time will tell. If the new set up succeeds with the same players and constraints Nige had to deal with…

even though it’s sad to see the previous team go, I’d rather they went now because it’s not nice working under people who don’t want you there. 

Time will tell. I am excited for the potential while realising there is a potential for a massive backfire. No risk no reward though. I don’t think the Lansdowns were massively out of line with the sacking though. 

18 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

We played well at Leeds.

We went to Leicester with a steadily rising injury list to which we added Vyner pre game.

Burnley at home last sesson, 2nd half we were excellent we matched them very well.

Watford at home just before the World Cup break, Parachute bolstered Watford Sarr and Pedro, we outplayed. We should've won.

Middlesbrough over Easter, possibly should have won. From 2 up yes. Enjoyable match and display anyway.

I think this is where I am though. We never seem to be able to match sides in a one off. Always played well but lacked at the end. Watching Blackburn destroy Norwich right now. Blackburn no PP no playoffs recently but on their day can match a lot of sides. I am sure someone can tell me but yea they do this and that.
 

No teams are a direct comparison but we just seem to lack. I am i. The belief tactically we were being let down. Yes we can use another couple forwards but most on here laughed at anyone who said we needed more attackers in the summer. Right sided left footed with some pace I begged for but got dismissed on here. Anyway, I got off topic. We aren’t very well drilled with the ball. Think we lack a coherent press. Once passed our forwards teams are in on us. 
 

We have recruited well enough too. Dickie was considered QPRs best player at one point. Derby gutted about Knight leaving. McRorie left European competition for us. Atkinson came with big reputation. Naismith off Luton player of the season. Mehmeti a star L1 player. It hasn’t been put together on a match day though. The squad has more to give even if not perfect is my point. When does BCFC get their magical playoff season? 

17 minutes ago, Peter1450 said:

Problem with your account of things is that our owners obviously don’t know what they want, you only have to look at the last two decades of going round in circles despite all their cunning  five pillar plans .

To be fair I am in between. I don’t have faith in Lansdowns at all. I just didn’t believe in NP either. I come from the point of view that I am not happy with Lansdowns or NP but NP has left and Lansdowns unlikely to be going anytime soon. 
 

So with that in mind, I am excited to possibly change our fortunes with a new man at the helm. With the complete understanding that we are going around in circles. If we are successful it’ll most likely be a fluke or lucky. Maybe this is our lucky appointment. 

Just now, Davefevs said:

I think you are missing the point.  Nobody is surprised, yep it happens all the time.  But it also, as per my post below, continue to show a disconnect with their misaligned drip-fed reasoning for sacking Nige.

It doesn’t though. If they believed what NP and the staff brought matched what they wanted he would still be here. NP had near 3 years to get what was wanted up and running. He didn’t and he is gone.
 

The sacking tells me we weren’t performing to the standard nor playing in the desired way. So why would we keep anyone from a failed regime? This isn’t NP leaving for a better job like Dean Smith leaving Brentford and Frank stepping in. They were successful we were not. Makes sense to start over. 

Very surprised an interim manager was sacked. One brought in by the last manager. How dare the Lansdowns do what every football club has done before. This forum has to be a parody

1 hour ago, steviestevieneville said:

Completely disagree , our press isnt slow at all. It’s all subjective but it’s not across the board . It depends who you’re playing . I’ll give you the Plymouth game . They play a high line & try to play out from the back. We’re 2-0 up in ten minutes forcing them into mistakes. Today , Wednesday let us have the ball . Completely different tactics . We’ve also been labelled a counter attacking team over the last year. You can’t counter attack if you don’t press the ball . Plus you don’t press everywhere because that leaves you open. You set traps &ypu can’t press high all game , it’s physically impossible 

Plymouth also played their reserves and we aren’t a countering side but we probably should be. Best way to make up the gaps we have in quality. Sheffield Wednesday with 10 men a big boys everywhere still were comfortable with playing out when they could because we make it easy. There isn’t a proper intensity to our defending. Idk how I can really explain my view on it. Maybe by saying the best pressing I can remember is a Brighton side a few years ago maybe the year they went up. That was a proper press and we aren’t close to that. 

2 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Exactly this. No honesty whatsoever in the whole episode. It stank of "we need to get rid of him now, how do we try and justify it?". I would have had more respect if they just said "we don't like Nige's personality and the way he operates so we are parting ways". Anyway we've got Tins running the show now, what could possibly go wrong?

They aren’t going to come out and say that are they? There are things they should be transparent. Like if they are reluctant to take us to FFP limits that should be relayed to the fan base. Maybe they could have said NP done the job we asked of him and the club is now where we feel we need to make change but no one here would have been any happier with that imo.