Alessandro

Been a couple of very fishy posts on this thread in defence of the club….. I mean, rather than making up faceless profiles on here…you know, you could always….I don’t know, maybe, do a little bit of, what do you call it?!…PR at the club? Talk to the fans a little bit and maybe speculation would calm down…. But SL and JL clearly feel above talking to the nasty City fans these days…

I always try and look at all situations with a bit of logic to understand what is going on at the club. But TBH everything that is happening defies logic. We all know the arguments around the Scott money - “football spends what football earns” well, not always. Lansdown wants to be more hands off - so he fires his CEO and doesn’t reappoint, meaning there is 1 person (Tinnion) doing the role of maybe 3 at another club - lovely guy Tinnion, but he is the ultimate yes man to SL. So now we hear about the board questioning team selections, I mean, WTAF?! And despite this, we sit, somehow even with our young, injury hit squad, in 8th, 1 point off the hallowed play offs. Everything SL apparently wants, yet, he interferes, he doesn’t give the man who is undertaking the huge task of cleaning up his mess and installing the culture we needed and now have at the club the tools to really get it done. Nige is building something here and SL in his hubris could very quickly throw it all away. It all defies logic - unless you look at the personality himself. Ego and emotion - two things that seem to be ruling SL’s actions at the moment - perhaps even jealous of NP’s popularity. Imagine if NP actually got us up, it would be all about the miracle job NP has done, not what SL has built. So he continues to seemingly tie one of Nige’s hands behind his back, despite the job he is doing. Whether he survives this latest outburst, we’ll see. What money he gets in Jan, we’ll see. SL has run this club with ego and emotion for years hasn’t he really and I fear he’s losing sight of reality, losing touch with the fans. Could he turn into an old dictator clinging on, lashing out? Ousting Pearson would defy all logic.

A few thoughts on Ipswich/Mark Ashton. 1) I don't doubt he has learnt from some of his mistakes, of which there were no doubt many. I'm sure his experience (read 'failures') here will be of benefit to Ipswich. 2) McKenna and promotion momentum. 3) Waaaay too early make judgements on any team in the league. 2, 3 games without a win and you drop very quickly from the top 6. 4) Hard to know what his exact involvement in transfers at Ipswich is vs. what it was here. Could be much less in terms of player identification for example. Likewise we don't know how much he is 'supervised' or not by his now bosses vs. what SL did here. 5) We don't know what budgets/expectations are at Ipswich. Will a season or 2 in the championship push them towards FFP limits for example with an overloaded squad? Remember it took several years for his mess to unfold here and almost a year after he left for us to fully appreciate the full picture/shit show of his time here. We know the Ipswich fans love him, TBF he has seemingly delivered, so far. But don't forget, he was always loud and proud when things were good here, less so when it got tough....

Yeah I did wonder that. Wells Cornick and Weimann then - maybe not a natural front 3 balance but vs. Leeds could work.

I’d like to see TGH in for Williams if Tanner is fit. Maybe even James, Williams and TGH as the 3. Knight in and out of games at moment. Also wouldn’t mind a more compact/experienced front 3 of Wells Conway and Weimann. Think Sykes and Bell could do with a rest, but also Nige doesn’t do big changes, so expect similar line up TBH.

Exactly this - people have probably got used to a more defensive RB in Tanner and TGH is much more dynamic going forward, which of course will leave him exposed at the back, especially with Sykes perhaps too used to a conservative RB behind him, so not covering as well as he should. As you say I think TGH's best position is not RB and seeing his technicality on the ball, engine and range of passing (see the highlights for 2 excellent cross field passes in the second half) - think there is much more to come and we'll see in CM soon IMO.

Brilliant goal - lovely technique.

Bell running with the sprint button held down there, clean out of play, in a great position!

Well that was about the worst start to a half from us all season, very very untidy. All at sea at times - equal amounts of poor play on the ball and excellent energy and pressing from Rotherham. Sykes in particular having a bad half and TGH looks exposed at RB. They’ve certainly looked the more likely to score and a last ditch Naismith tackle kept us at 0-0. Managed to build our way back into the half, but still couldn’t create any real chances, our best being a penalty inexplicably turned down when Bell was rugby tackled in the box. Knight and Williams sloppy and James and Bell quiet. Cornick working hard and having a few decent moments, but found myself wanting him to get himself in the box more but perhaps due to the lack of service he’s had to drop deep too much - not quite as quick as Nahki getting into dangerous positions in that respect. Referee - poor. For both teams TBF. Yes let the game flow, but you have to make decisions. Seems to hope if he keeps a low profile no one will notice him. Big improvement needed

Tough game, would be happy with a draw. I think one of the things that has concerned me defensively is the ease at which teams have been able to play through the middle of us at times this season - players sitting on the shoulder of the CB’s, not enough cover in CM and one pass splitting Vyner and Naismith open. Saw it vs. Plymouth, Hull, WBA, Swansea even. Felt like we’ve been getting away with it though: Max with good saves, massive last ditch challenges or the player missing the target. Vardy and Leicester will be all over that today if we let them.

Action packed first half - Plymouth, looking like a team that’s made 7 changes, all over the place and we start hard and fast to get 2 early goals, Bell could well have made it 3. Then it’s own worse enemy stuff from City. First Vyner gets caught in possession and Naismith needs to make another last ditch tackle. Then Tanner is half clumsy/half unlucky with the ball dropping to Randall who slides it in the bottom corner from 20 yards - again where was the marking, Randall had far too much time and space. Luckily Plymouth are even more sloppy in defence than us and they leave Sykes completely free run 1 on 1 onto a super Knight switch and slot into the corner. 2 goal cushion restored. But then it’s Max’s turn to let Waine’s press get too close before he scuffs a poor clearance straight to Randall, who plays in Waine free in the middle, played onside by a slow to react Naismith, luckily blasts over under pressure from Vyner. So, very happy to be 3-1 up but just need to tidy up at the back and keep that concentration because they will bring on Hardie no doubt and we could well get a hatful tonight.

Agreed - surprised how many people wanted to make 2 or 3 changes - just back off international break, they can play 3 games in a week. I'd prefer to go out strong, look to get ahead in game then sub to see the game out if needed.

A clear ‘falling out’ otherwise the statement would give us more detail…will be interesting to find out why…

Can’t believe it took 4 pages for someone to say this…. If Cornick went to the keepers right, the defender blocks it. The keeper closed the gap, made himself big and covered the middle and left. 1) It’s a great first touch from Cornick. 2) A good recovery from the defender. 3) Top quality positioning and a top quality reaction save from the keeper. Yes maybe maybe on another day Messi in his prime curls that in the bottom left hand corner but personally think Cornick couldn’t have done much more.

My problem with Maguire and that own goal is not that he shouldn’t have gone for it, it’s the execution. A) Positionally poor B) Technically poor, the execution is clumsy and laboured. Regardless of any previous, Southgate needs to give more credit to the now and the future. Maguire isn’t that right now - so tonight was the chance to give others a chance. The pressure on him now will be massive. EDIT apart from that England excellent tonight and Bellingham is the type of talent that carries teams to trophies.

I’m pretty sure there are several billion people in the world who would argue that sentence is a load of airy fairy bollox. Summary of original post - the world is what it is - it might be shit for you. It might not. Luck of the draw. You can work to improve your chances, but you have to have been generally lucky to start with. Those people who are more lucky tell people who are less lucky, just roll with, **** all you can do about it anyway. (My interpretation as one of the luckily generally lucky ones)

It’s a forum isn’t it - came, saw there was nothing new being said, left my opinion and left thread - being pulled back in with quote replies! Please no need to reply to prove my point that no one is changing their minds. But you feel free to keep banging your heads against that brick wall, enjoy!

I know it’s international break - but am I the only one completely bored to shit by all this LJ bollocks?! Listen: you either hate or you don’t hate him - save your energy trying to persuade your opposite who is NEVER going to change their opinion - regardless of how you paint the past or any future success or failures. Very boring, even by this forums standard, going round in circles year after year - LJ is living rent free in too many heads ?

Absolutely mental to think - after just fielding a team with only 2 LJ/Mark Ashton era signings - the rest all but gone from the squad bar Weimann (all 3 also with virtually no sell on value now too) - that it's taken 2 home developed academy players to balance the books from that whole period of signings. Imagine how much SL would have been down to cover if it wasn't for Scott and Semenyo - no wonder he was keen to sell them.

I've been giving the board the benefit of the doubt recently - hell, I feel like I've been writing their PR on OTIB at times... But I have to say, despite being onboard with the strategy to build and be more 'sustainable' (within realistic limits) the discrepancies between words and actions, as others have pointed out, is plain to see. And the different messaging from board and manager, worrying to see. I'd still like to partially reserve judgement until the next few windows, however...as others have said, 'put up or get out' - a middle ground longer term simply doesn't work. I don't have the anger towards SL that many do, but I share many of the same frustrations - I'm more than OK with him selling up. But I still think we are in a damn good position as a club right now (admittedly largely in spite of SL at times) but he would leave without me throwing a huge party. You could argue we are at a bit of a crossroads moment, potentially on the cusp of something special, where a lot of these foundations could also be washed away if we don't make the right decisions going forward - investment, manager.. we can't be viewed as "treading water" from inside or outside the club. If we stand still we go backwards. Whatever happens though, it seems we are very much at the beginning of the end for the Lansdowns at the club.

Thanks Dave - that’s fairly positive news. Ayman another to add to my list - possibly who SL referred to as the player we have within the club to replace Alex Scott. Let’s hope he has a big impact as the season goes on.

I admit this is where my argument falls down - communication. It’s so poor. And as you say Red Exile, pretty disrespectful at times. But reading between the lines, as I said in my original post, quotes like those along the lines of these that he’s made: ”if we want premier league football we need a cash investment from outside” ”building a nest egg” ”letting this squad develop” So the official line is always going to be “we’re going for the play offs” isn’t it, because the club need to sell season tickets and create some hope in the fan base, business wise. Annoying as that is. But reading between the lines, the private policy could be one of building up to the point where we can have a go, rather than buying our way, which failed under LJ. Again, I admit it’s hopeful speculation, but it kind of makes sense when you look at the squad - but as you say Dave, when NP comes out and says some of the things he says it does contradict what I’ve outlined. I do agree we’re a few more injuries away from danger, but that’s the downside of NP wanting a smaller squad than before I suppose. I thought we’d get more in though, obviously we got TGH in, I suspect we tried and failed for another - but I still think we have decent cover in most areas and a lot of versatile players. With 2 weeks now, hopefully a chance to see some others getting a chance to get closer to fitness too. Do we know how far off Tommy, Andi and Rob are for example, because they’d make a huge difference to the depth?

I agree the referee was awful today. Felt we should have had a pen when Sykes was smashed from behind - but for balance, he missed/didn’t give what I believe was a clear penalty (100% given by VAR) against Naismith.

I’ll sneak this post in on the back of a win….? But is SL potentially playing a blinder here? (Takeovers aside for now…) Hear me out. He’s spoken about a ‘nest egg’ and given the squad time to ‘develop’ Interestingly since City started down the path of developing way to success, I was thinking this is the first time in 5 plus years we actually have the potential that a core of our young squad hit their peak performance windows simultaneously: Pring, Vyner, Dickie, McCrorie, Roberts, Tanner, Atkinson, Knight, Sykes, Bell, Conway, Mehmeti all on good long contracts, all heading to that window at the same time. It feels like this season is at least one season too early for several of them (especially with injuries) - so what I’m getting at is, perhaps the club have recognised we’re still working our way up the development ladder and additional spending this season may have been wasted. We have enough quality to stay up, give the current squad chance to get games and don’t block minutes for the next group coming through for now. Save spending till next summer or summer after with more of the above players hitting their prime peak, any new academy products making their mark and 3 or 4 real quality additions in the spaces left by the older members of the squad and go for it then. Patience doesn’t tend to go hand and hand in football, but keep this squad together and developing, losing only one or two to big money prem moves (notice we don’t lose our best players to Championship rivals anymore) and we’re in one hell of a position in the coming years IMO. For the first time, you can see shoots of the plan working - reasons to be positive. Or perhaps I’m just a deluded disciple - answers on a postcard.

No doubt a fantastic game and great to see - as a lot of us have been saying for a while, play to his strengths and he is clearly a threat. A superb finish today. However - one swallow does not a summer bring...he seems to rely on the team as a whole being on top the game and controlling the ball in high positions to be most effective. When we're not, he struggles and can't influence the game. I think Swansea, as an opponent, perhaps suit his game, hence why he's done well vs. them. The issue that will for me continue is when he meets a more physical back 4, he will just ushered out of the game again. But go prove me more, be more consistent and find a way to effect games when it's not going your way.