44 minutes ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

Breakfast In America...Supertramp

 

How D’ya Like Your Eggs in the Morning … Dean Martin

For purely sentimental reasons:

Raintown … Deacon Blue

Bookends … Simon & Garfunkel

Blue … Joni Mitchell

Ogden’s Whole Nut Gone Flake …The Small Faces

One World One Voice … (various)

or alternatively:

La Boheme … Puccini

The Dream of Gerontius … Elgar

A Sea Symphony … Vaughan Williams

West Side Story … Leonard Bernstein

Symphony no 2  … Howard Hanson

53 minutes ago, weepywall said:

Star Trekking....The Firm

Where’s Captain Kirk … Spizzenergi

Official Site can't seem to make its mind up:

? MORE THAN 20K EXPECTED FOR ANGLO-WELSH MATCHUP

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26TH 2022

19 hours ago, Sleepy1968 said:

Towler's gone out to get games and help progress his career.

Hasn't Idehen's gone out as punishment for giving it the big I am? Sounds like he's sulking, and unlikely to be doing himself any favours when it comes to extending his professional career.

I don’t know whether the loan was ‘punishment’, but I know that Pearson was very unhappy with his attitude pre-season, and he was subbed in a pre-season friendly because of lack of effort.  At that point Pearson pretty much wrote him off in terms of the first team squad this season, though I don’t know whether he already had it in his mind to send him on loan.

Time wasting is always fine if you’re winning…

8 minutes ago, Magger1 said:

Well all the happy clappers you must be joking to put up with watching that shit every week is depressing, players who if they couldn’t get a game with us would be lucky to turn out for Yeovil , what a depressing bunch of miserable players we have , non seem to enjoy the game so if their not enjoying it how the **** do they expect us to when we have to pay BIG CHANGES NEEDED 

‘General Chat’???

1 minute ago, JoeAman08 said:

I can see the logic in Naismith in dm position. It is asking him to do another position change late in his career though. I also think if it were to happen it would make sense to just go with a 4 at back formation like 433 or 4231. Think that may complicate things as we have been in this 523 formation for well over a year now. Other teams have done it but risky 

Asking a squad of players to change playing formation radically half way through a season is certainly risky.  Better teams than us have looked dreadful because of that.  Did you see Liverpool trying to play 4-4-2 today??

4 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

That’s your opinion.  Don’t give an opinion as a fact, it makes you look silly.  Look at the players we are able to select and ask yourself are they better or worse than recent performances.  When we are bad we are terrible. The squad is better than that.  

Absolutely.  The squad doesn’t explain the inconsistency.  We beat West Brom comfortably on Tuesday, doing a real job on them.  So how do you explain today?  They should hardly need motivating, but if they do then whose job is that?

All I ask is that our players give maximum effort in every match they play, and I don’t see that being the case.  The fact is that Pearson seems sadly unable to get the best out of them week in week out, which is I’m afraid a damning indictment of him as a manager.

4 minutes ago, Bs4Red said:

Any manager at any other club. He’s gone. It’s time to go.

Not getting the best out of this squad and it’s actually embarrassing how bad we are at defending set pieces. 

 

But he was a ‘top top manager’ on Wednesday …

18 minutes ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

Albequerque...Prefab Sprout

Bungalow Bill … The Beatles 

1 hour ago, DT The Optimist said:

top top manager well respected by majority of fan base..And blessed by owners who do not panic & respond to a poor run.  When we win not overboard, same when we lose.

Held in high esteem by many in the game, not least fans Leicester City.  As alluded when he can put out his best players in defence we are not that bad, a few errors have led to a loss of quite a few points, cut those out....

With respect, is this the same top top manager who has been sacked from multiple managerial posts over the past fifteen years, often after major fallings out with his club?  He may be held in high esteem by Leicester fans, but not sure who else of the clubs he has managed.  He has made some dreadful mistakes for us, and I wonder how many City fans were thinking he was a top top manager after our abject defeat on Saturday.  Ah, but it was ever the case: if we lose it’s the players fault; if we win it’s because of the brilliance of our top top manager.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see him succeed at City, but it’s been a frustrating journey of ups and downs so far, and I don’t think he’s yet earned top top manager status, nor even earned top manager status at the moment.   Fingers crossed though.

23 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

I do a bit of coaching, and I absolutely encourage my keeper to come whenever practical, but also tell them to be mindful of the game around them. What the issue here was not that Max came for the ball, but that he came for it when he could clearly see defenders had the situation under control.

I’d haul my under 11s keeper out for that decision. For a championship keeper it’s unforgivable.

You’d haul out an under-11 keeper?  Really?  Under-11 football isn’t even competitive!

1 hour ago, Better Red said:

Not brought this topic about for about 2 years.

But sadly Nothing has changed.

JD - Can’t beat a man, can’t cross.

Sykes - Can beat a man but chooses to come inside not even his position.

Both are useless and offer nothing going forward or at the back.

We would be better going 4 at the back and getting an extra man in midfield.

Vyner can play RB and Pring at LB and just let them overlap when it’s right to do so.

Both have pace both better defenders. Height wise they are better for defending.

2 from 3 in the middle - Kalas, Klose or Atkinson.

Naismith should be pushed into midfield he is the best passer in the team and can also defend not sure why that won’t work.

Play him with Williams or James 

Play Seymenyo and Wiemann wide in a 4 and they can take turns to join Wellls.

Scott in the whole

Wells upfront.

And Bentley in goal - I am an anti - Maxer.

If we had decent wingbacks then fair enough but we don’t so why do we play with wingbacks if we don’t have them….

So much wrong with this post.

JD - can beat a man, can cross, seen him do both many times this season

Sykes - usually goes outside, but does sometimes come inside.  Nothing wrong with that.  I went to today’s match with a friend who doesn’t usually watch City and he thought Sykes was by some distance our best player in the first half.

The suggestion that both are ‘useless’ and offer ‘nothing going forward or at the back’ is remarkable given how good both have been in other games this season.

Going four at the back reduces the number in midfield.  Three at the back allows you to play five in midfield.  That’s why so many managers like it.

I’d love to hear your justification for Naismith being ‘the best passer in the team’, especially given how many passes he has had intercepted this season.

Max had a great game on Wednesday, Bentley was awful at Birmingham.

The issue today was not the quality of the players.  They are the same players who have played some excellent football this season.  The problem today was - for whatever reason - their resilience, their ability to pick themselves up when they go behind, and their attitude, and possibly motivation.  Their heads dropped, and no one was able to lift them.  There was a significant lack of leadership on the field and off it.  To add to that, Pearson’s substitutions we’re awful. The match was crying out for an extra presence in midfield but Pearson does his usual thing of throwing on more strikers, while taking off Sykes (who had a decent first half) and moving the most out of form player in the side (Weimann) to wing back.  After that there was no shape and no creativity.

Amazing how one (or possibly two) bad performances can turn a player from hero to zero.  The real question for me is why Pearson cannot explain today’s performance.  Why are they not doing what he wants them to?  Why has he not identified the problems and put them right?  The one thing I don’t feel I’ve yet seen Pearson do is to lift a team which is misfiring during the course of 90 minutes.

1 minute ago, bobbyhutchscurlymullet said:

There was also a moment when their number 8 put his head into print twice off the ball

Glad to hear his head is getting some coverage!

14 hours ago, Nongazeuse said:

Having managed youth level (girls in fact) the last thing anyone wants is some idiot who certainly should know better getting physical with people who are unpaid volunteers.

I stopped refereeing youth matches due to the totally unacceptable attitude of the players' parents / relatives towards anyone who officiated (including running the line). 

I quite liked Williams as a player apart from the last few matches when he was clearly past it but he surely cannot be involved as a pundit in future if the accusations are true. 

We had an incident at under 8 level recently with an angry parent.  Under 8 for heaven’s sake!  It’s non-competitive, no offsides, all kids get game time, but someone still lost it.  You couldn’t make it up.

34 minutes ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

On A Rope...Rocket From The Crypt

You keep me hanging on … Vanilla Fudge (the best version…)

38 minutes ago, Ghost Rider said:

Everyone seems so glum tonight. I thought it was another positive display. We passed the ball well and with pace. We chased the ball down, our tails were up! I’m loving watching us play at the moment. We are always a threat. We are a million miles away from where we were a few seasons back. 
 

COYRs 

Well said.  I thought it was a really entertaining game, particularly for a 0-0.  Sometimes you just have to give the opposition credit for defending well.

23 minutes ago, weepywall said:

Chelsea Dagger....The Fratellis 

Singing The Blues … Guy Mitchell

4 minutes ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

Investigate...Major Lance

Watching the detectives … Elvis Costello & the Attractions

5 minutes ago, Mike Hunt-Hertz said:

Orgasm Addict...The Buzzcocks (sorry! )

Here Comes The Feeling … Asia

3 hours ago, Monkeh said:

It's got wide support and is the sort of private investment the country and area needs

And since when have Bristol planners made decisions based on those criteria?  

2 minutes ago, Cowshed said:

Central midfielders in Charlton time generally ran sub five miles, it’s now frequently beyond six, that is not x 10. Skill isn't overtly physical, it’s the result of deliberate practice and its neural, humans create muscle memory via training and repetition.  To have the skill set Charlton possessed the player has to have a growth mindset to create his skill level. Skill is a nurtured talent thatb can be performed on demand.

To state a exceptional player then wouldn’t be now is a rather odd argument because the driver of why these players were exceptional is being removed.

If the player was advanced across aspects of technical, tactical, physical, psychological well they would still be advanced now. Todays human is not a new species.

 

 

I agree to an extent, but then that seems to assume that all good players had room for further improvement, and we simply don’t know that.  It’s quite possible that a player who was good in a previous era would fail in this because it is a very different game - weight of ball, different type of boots, better surfaces, etc. etc.  

Just now, Davefevs said:

Yep, but then back to @TBWand the OP, why bother comparing in the first place…both methods are futile in that respect as well, aren’t they?

Exactly!!

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

But I’m not talking about taking a 1966 Bobby Charlton and dropping him into 2022. That becomes a pointless exercise / debate.

I’m saying that the players who evolved to be the best in the 60s, or whatever era, would more than likely have evolved in another era too, whether that be going forward or backward in time.  They adapted / utilised their skills to become the best in that era….and most would’ve done the same in another era.  And I’m sure if Bobby Charlton had been born 50 years later, he’d have evolved to be a top player in an era half a decade later.

Yes, I realise that, but your comparison becomes so hypothetical it doesn’t really tell us anything.  Who knows who might be able to succeed these days, given modern training methods, etc?  Who knows whether there was a limit to Bobby Charlton’s potential which he had already reached?  We can only make valid comparisons with the Bobby Charlton we know.

13 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

But that’s discounting how a player from one era might adapt to another era.  If you’re talking about just parachuting them into an era 50 years ago, then yes…but that’s not comparing them fairly Is it?

Its not just memories, it’s taking lots of other things into consideration too.  Give Bobby Charlton the environment and technology of today, and he’d still be a world class player in all likelihood (and he’s 84 ).

Well yes and no.  If you put the Bobby Charlton who played in 1966 in present day football he wouldn’t stand a chance.  He would have to be ten times fitter; to have a range of skills he didn’t have then; and to have a different mindset and lifestyle.  So the question is: would he still be Bobby Charlton?  You can only compare what you know, and sadly it’s probably true that footballers from the 1960s would struggle in today’s game.  I’ve always felt that the standard of football in the heady Division 1 days of 1976-1980 probably equates to no higher than the average Championship standard today.  I suspect that the Lee Johnson team of 2017 would have done very well in Division 1 in 1976.  Today’s Man City team would annihilate the 1966 England team.