Supersonic Robin

I'm eagerly awaiting 37 photos of Newcastle Airport ?

It's frustrating how many goals we've conceded from set pieces. Perhaps more accurately, it's frustrating how many soft goals we've conceded - goals where the opposition haven't had to do anything special, we've just gifted them a fairly easy goal. Many set pieces we've conceded from fall into that 'soft goal' category IMO. I think part of the issue this week has simply been the volume of corners conceded. I commented after the WBA game to say that I felt the win (and specifically, the clean sheet) didn't feel sustainable. We'd allowed WBA to have the ball in and around our box a huge amount, and we'd thrown our bodies on the line when WBA had the chance to shoot inside the box. "Bodies on the line" may be admirable, but it's not a sustainable way to keep clean sheets and win games. Across the 2 games this week, we've conceded 23 corners (13 WBA, 10 Reading). By comparison, we've won 6 (1 WBA, 5 Reading). A quick google suggests that around 3-4% of corners result in a goal - so about 1 in 25. Hence, having conceded 23 corners this week, it's not that surprising we've conceded a goal from one. Improvement is needed not just in the way we defend set pieces, but also in the way we defend generally in allowing the opposition so many chances to put the ball into our box.

Hard to know for certain mate, but it was reported that we rejected bids in that region. See below, for example That's just the first article that comes up after searching "Semenyo Bid" on google. https://www.bristolworld.com/sport/football/bristol-city/exclusive-bristol-city-reject-ps9m-offer-for-coveted-striker-antoine-semenyo-3729992 Think the club were fairly clear in saying they wanted between £15m - £20m for him in the summer.

My point is that it directly disproves this statement Clubs were making £10m bids for Semenyo after he spent last season playing as a striker?

I find it incredible that stuff like this genuinely bothers some people. And to suggest his reason for being sat down is that he's "bored, run out of ideas, or couldn't give a toss" is just ridiculous.

The 2 points I'd make re comment in bold are: 1) There are also much smaller clubs who are ahead of us. Luton, Bournemouth, Brentford etc etc. 2) Of those clubs you list, are any of them actually "much bigger" than us in terms of potential? Or are they seen as bigger than us purely because they've achieved more than we have? (Sunderland I'll give you, but not convinced the other clubs there "should be well ahead of us").

He spent all of last season playing as a striker, which led to clubs bidding around £10m for him in summer?

Incredibly disappointing today. I don't think Reading are a better side than us, yet they've beaten us 2-0.......these are the games I find really annoying.

I tend to agree. I've always found the "never change a winning tam" thing a bit odd. Nothing wrong with having an unchanged side, provided there's more justification for it than the above.

Agree - perhaps slightly controversial, but I think 2-0 probably flattered us a little bit. It felt like we conceded a huge amount of "yardage" and spent a lot of time defending inside our own penalty area. On another day we probably don't keep a clean sheet in that game. That's not to say we didn't deserve to win, just that it maybe isn't a sustainable way to win games. It was still a good performance from us though - brave, committed, hard working, relatively organised. We took our chances and threw our bodies in front of their chances.

Great win for a side who are "Nailed on bottom 6" ?

IMO the "Semenyo Conundrum" is quite simple - you start him. He's a £15m striker and arguably our best player - he should be starting games and playing as many minutes as possible - sometimes there's no need to over complicate these things. He's a threat in terms of both goals and assists, and causes a huge amount of problems for defences even when he's not directly involved in goal contributions. Appreciate the arguments about our dip in attacking threat in recent weeks, but IMO that's caused predominantly by other factors: - The absence of Naismith (and to a lesser extent James) - Teams playing differently against us, congesting central areas and giving more space/time to our wing backs - A general dip in confidence/performance standards across the team

IMO we've shown that we have enough ability for our fate to be in our own hands. No need to worry about other teams - if we show up in games, we'll be fine. Our fans seem to think we're "nailed on bottom 6" after every loss. Then we win a game and it's "we look like we'll finish top half".

Would it be tough for us to justify though? It's one thing Pearson moving to a DoF role at the end of his managerial contract, but it feels a bit different if he moves part way through his contract. Supposedly the "early" move would be some sort of admission of failure in the manager's role. Would it look like Pearson "failing upwards"? Would Pearson be appropriate for the DoF role if he's been unable to turn us around as a manager?

I think this has been discussed a few times on the forum before, but the claim that we haven't improved at all under Pearson is simply untrue. Granted, that may say more about how bad we were under Holden than how good we are under Pearson, but there is clear improvement.

I think it's likely that the journalist (and many fans) understand the point LJ is making, but choose to ignore that in order to have a dig. I think the journalist has probably tweeted that quote knowing it's the sort of thing that will get a lot of interaction. Some of the criticism LJ gets often feels like high school stuff to me. Football fans have decided that LJ is dislikable and 'uncool', and therefore, like an unpopular kid at school, people look for every opportunity to have a laugh at him. For example, I genuinely believe that LJ would receive far more respect as a football manager if he happened to be a few inches taller. You claim the fact that LJ said the quote is irrelevant, but I don't agree. If Guardiola or Mourinho makes that quote, do people find it so laughable? Probably not. Lee Johnson has flaws, just like all of us. But LJ receives a completely disproportionate amount of criticism and ridicule simply on the basis that many people have decided they don't like him.

Spot on. Unfortunately, many football fans have a weird obsession with trying to mock Lee Johnson at every opportunity. It's strange enough when fans of other clubs do it. It's even stranger when our own fans do it, given the immense effort he put into managing our club (regardless of your views on his ability).

It's incredible how dramatic our fanbase can be at times. We win a few games and the forum is full of comments about us "looking likely to challenge for top 6". Now we lose a few games and I'm reading comments about us "praying there are 3 worse teams this season". Okay, yeah, the performance against Birmingham was diabolical, but why are we now assuming that's going to be our average performance standard for the remaining 33 games? IMO we've already shown that we have enough ability for our fate to be firmly in our own hands.

In fairness, that hypothetical side would have a huge amount of money available to spend on improving the squad.

Not to target you personally OP, but I find this sort of thinking so frustrating (and possibly part of the reason why we've achieved so little). It feels so unambitious. Let's be honest, it's an utterly embarrassing list of "successes". Many a team would understandably laugh at us for boasting about any of that. Loads of teams of our size and smaller have been in the Premier League: Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Wigan, Barnsley, Blackpool, Hull, Ipswich, Burnley, Oldham, Cardiff, Swansea, Charlton, Fulham, Birmingham, Coventry, etc etc Swansea, Wigan, and Birmingham have even won the FA Cup / League Cup in the last 15 years. Surely the biggest football club in one of England's biggest cities can expect to achieve more than "we beat a Premier League team in a cup game once". Let's not lower our standards by just being happy with what we've got. Our fans should rightly expect far more achievement than is present on that list.

I feel the home kit should just be full red (shirt and socks) and white (shorts). It's about having a clear and consistent identity IMO. I'm not a fan of this seasons "arsenal-style" home kit. It just doesn't feel quite 'Bristol City' enough for me. Away kits and goalkeeper kits are the place for creativity, so I'd be very open to the club doing an away or third kit in the style of those Bedminster kits. IMO the away/goalkeeper kits are better when we try to do something a bit different - nothing worse than a white & red away kit which is just the home kit with the colours reversed. If you want a controversial kit opinion, try this one for size: I'd actually be open minded about us having purple as our primary club colour, rather than red. There's an argument to say that we're better known for our purple kits than our red ones. Ask a fan to name an EFL club who are known for playing in red - I doubt Bristol City would be their first answer. Ask them to name one who plays in purple, and I imagine we'd be the most common answer (is there even another club in England who regularly wear purple?) Very few clubs in the world wear purple on their home kit. Fiorentina? Real Madrid sometime have a bit of purple? Real Valladolid? If we want a clear and distinctive identity, then it's actually not the worst idea. Of course, it would take a bit of getting used to, and I'm sure there would be a few who consider it to be a little bit too close to blue!

Incredible isn't it? For years we've seen people moaning on here about the quality of football. There's been a thousand comments akin to "I wouldn't mind us being midtable if we weren't so f****** BORING! I just want to see some good football! ?" Now we start playing good quality exciting football and the same fans are moaning about us "dicking about with it at the back instead of just getting it forward".

I think the Sunderland love in on our forum is a little extreme at times. Almost as though having lots of fans doesn't suddenly make you the biggest, best, most attractive, and most important team in the League. There are many other factors that make a club positive, effective and attractive - as illustrated by some of the stories in this thread re Sunderland's owners. People also seem to forget that Sunderland have spent roughly the last half a decade in League 1!

I recall hearing that the summer we offered Holden the manager's job, he'd received an offer from Stoke to take up a 'regular' coaching role there. That's the statement that really hits home for me.

Interesting points. I tend to feel more nerves for League games - as you say it's our primary competition. Cup games feel more like a free hit for me, especially with the fact that both teams are likely to make changes. It can be interesting to see some slightly different players/team selections though. I think fans also place more weighting for 'bragging rights' on League games, so it doesn't feel like so much is at stake in terms of our reputation when playing Cup matches. I suppose the fact we know we don't really have any chance of winning the Cup perhaps dampens that excitement a bit? It's typically more of a "when will we be knocked out?" feeling, rather than a "can we win it?" feeling. Comparatively, with the League we're more likely to be involved in a top 6 finish or relegation battle (not saying either of these are likely this season, but they're more likely than us winning a domestic Cup). If we became a Premier League team for whom winning a domestic Cup was a realistic ambition, then I think interest in the Cups would increase significantly. FWIW, seeing City win the FA Cup/League Cup is probably my ultimate goal for the club - I think it's the most we could realistically hope to achieve in my lifetime.