Harvey86

2 minutes ago, Boston Red said:

Sykes should not be playing down the left. He is right footed.

He’s never looked effective playing on that side (and he’s not really a wing back anyway!) Would rather see Mcrorie that side- he always cuts in when playing on the right. Or play a left sided youth player

3 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

Maybe things will improve with a change in kit manufacturer...

How long are we signed to O'Neills? Anyone know?

Just now, AppyDAZE said:

Of course you couldn't

Weird he couldn’t make it, seeing as he works there

8 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

Blackburn were absolutely terrible... but how many times have we said that over the last few years and come away with nothing, let alone a 5 - 0 win? You still have to beat them, and we absolutely put them to the sword. Yes, they made mistakes - but we forced the mistakes. Earlier in Manning's rein we wouldn't have been looking to force them, and wouldn't have been in a position to capitalise on them either. He's changed that, and for the better.

Well done City. Great performance, just what we needed, and set up in just the right way to take advantage of Blackburn's frailties so credit to Manning and the coaching staff. The fact Blackburn were so poor shouldn't take away from that imo.

I'm enjoying the football more lately. More direct, getting the ball up the pitch quickly, pressing more at the front, forcing mistakes, and a bit of grit in the middle from Williams and Knight. If he can take the best bits of what Pearson was doing, and add his own flavour to it that'll do me.

I'm not a Manning convert yet, but we're edging in the right direction. Hopefully we'll have got even closer by the end of the season.

We’re definitely mixing it up a lot more- I saw a few times Sykes and Conway showing some frustration (in a good way) that their runs weren’t picked out with a quick ball over the top. Light years better than the turgid football of not too many games ago. 
 

Not fully a Manning convert, yet, but one of my biggest concerns was how rigidly we stuck to a single style of football. If he’s worked out that the current side can thrive with a bit of direct play thrown in too, then fair play.  

Late winners (hopefully?) for Leicester and Huddersfield have cheered me right up after watching that. Brum teetering now

7 hours ago, Baba Yaga said:

Was hoping Plymouth stay up and on Monday thinking they didn't show much goal threat and that it would be a close run thing, massive 3pts for them. Nothing against Birmingham but for sacking Eustace when he had them in 6th I wouldn't mind seeing them go out of the rest of the teams down there.

My in laws are brum fans so naturally I’d love them to go down. I can’t believe they’re in the equation based off how good they looked at AG earlier in the season- bet they’re not chanting ‘USA’ now!

53 minutes ago, supercidered said:

Has recency bias been mentioned yet? 

 

Not recently

4 hours ago, phantom said:

You don't even have to pay anymore 

Anyone fancy pming me the name of their IPTV provider? I’ve already got a fire stick, but whenever I’ve looked for a provider, they all look so so dodgy. I suppose maybe that’s to be expected though 

Not much urgency since going behind. I know it’s only a friendly, but still

Just now, Bas's perfect hattrick said:

Def missed Kane this evening

Can’t see why he hasn’t given Toney a few mins instead of Watkins

15 minutes ago, OldlandReddies said:

Any codes still available please? After just 1

DM’d you matey

2 hours ago, redsquirrel said:

innit just Dave ,  sorry Harvey,id love to help but im just too busy these days.  1964 mini is worth getting someone older in who knows what they are doing, things were adjustable in those days,none of this throw away electronic twonk i deal with now

Afraid it’s a 2014 Mini, but I take your point about getting someone experienced and knowledgable in to fix it

We’ve recently lost to Sheff weds and QPR, so I really don’t think there’s any team in this division that you can hand on heart say we’d beat with confidence. Rotherham as close as a sure bet I guess, but I 100% wouldn’t bet on it

4 minutes ago, The Bard said:

The underlying stuff was sorted out. Manning didn't need to sort out the basics.

 

in fact we've got worse at them 

100%. Manning has had more than enough time ‘on the grass’ to seemingly coach out any attacking threat we used to possess- surely a better coach would introduce his methods in a way that doesn’t immediately start serving up the dross we’ve been seeing?
 

I would love nothing more than City to win every game from now til the end of the season under Manning, but it won’t happen.
 

If I took my Mini (64 plate) to a mechanic who said ‘you should be getting much better performance out of this’, then when I came back to pick it up, noticed that he’d removed a wheel, and put the indicators on backwards, then when I complained that it was worse than before, said it was my fault because it didn’t have the engine of a Ferrari, I probably would get a new mechanic. 
 

That’s what I think of Manning. I think. 
 

If anyone actually HAS got a recommended mechanic in BS3, let me know. That story was only partly a metaphor. 

11 minutes ago, Harry said:

Not sure on that. 
Its correct that Phillips isn’t in the squad as he’s been horrendous. 
But if I had to choose 1 between Phillips and Henderson, I’d pick Henderson every day of the week. 

I don't think I'd pick either to be honest! Don't think Henderson is really pulling up any more trees at Ajax than he was in Saudi Arabia, though appreciate Gareth does like a holding midfielder so he has to take someone. Be great if we had another solid option at CB so Stones could play DM regularly/ when injury permits.

2 minutes ago, Super said:

No real surprises. Not looking good for Phillips now.

 

Goalkeepers: Sam Johnstone, Jordan Pickford, Aaron Ramsdale

Defenders: Jarrad Branthwaite, Ben Chilwell, Lewis Dunk, Joe Gomez, Ezri Konsa, Harry Maguire, John Stones, Kyle Walker

Midfielders: Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher, Jordan Henderson, James Maddison, Declan Rice

Forwards: Jarrod Bowen, Phil Foden, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane, Cole Palmer, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney, Ollie Watkins

Phillips moves on loan to another Premier League team where he's starting semi regularly (more so than at Man City anyways!) and he's instantly dropped. Don't think we need him particularly, but I'd rather him than Henderson either way

If we can’t even beat the teams in the automatic promotion places any more, we’re in real trouble!

Seriously though, that’s a sickener. Sadly, the nature of losing a game in that fashion really erases the good points for me.

Assume there might be fitness issues at play, but Burns made Pring look absolutely pedestrian. 

Does anyone think we're maybe missing a 'blood and thunder' captain/ senior player in the dressing room to compensate for the lack of passion from LM? I don't question the commitment or passion from the squad, just not sure that anyone in the dressing room has the sort of personality that would drive them on (since Nige left of course). Maybe Naismith when he's back? I remember him shouting at everyone when he was on the pitch all that time ago.

I'm not an LM apologist mind! I'd much rather see passion come from the manager, or at the very least some semblance of tactical nous.

Just now, marmite said:

What is it exactly? What do opposing managers say to their team before they play us?

Do they say we play possession football, or high press football, or long ball football, or play it wide, or play it through the middle? 

I'd like to know what other managers see as our threat because under Manning, I can't work out the game plan. 

There are lots of analysts and junior coaches who post on here so can someone tell me what the f..k our gameplan is?

Lots of dissatisfied fans on here about Manning and the hierarchy.  I'm one of them and there is no way I can continue watching this painful output. We know the players can play well but not apparently to Mannings plan, whatever that is.

I keep seeing us have some sort of hybrid press/ block in place where one single player will press their central defender when they get about halfway up their own half. I don’t know if that’s intended to funnel the opposition out wide or something, as I’ve never seen them do anything other than pass it around that player and carry on. I don’t really see the value of pressing if it’s not being done by the team as a whole. 

5 minutes ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

Saints leading Brum now. Leicester back to 1-2, Ipswich 1 up at Argyle.

Stoke are two up though

You’ll struggle to find them after that performance. 

51 minutes ago, Br1stolCityBoy said:

I agree. What was Sykes doing out on the left especially when Mehmetti came on. Seems to be a different starting side every week!

God, this a thousand times. Why is he playing (at least) two players out of their preferred positions? It’s not big and it’s not clever. I assumed it was because he wants our wingers to cut inside for the shot/ pass, but after the match he said in the interview he wants to see players getting on the end of crosses into the box, which we seem to shy away from doing. Either he’s clueless or I am. 

1 minute ago, TomThumb84 said:

Currently residing at

1

Football is rubbish Road

Mediocreville

Boredtown

BS3

Oh hey neighbour, how you finding the street?

3 minutes ago, Andy082005 said:

….just joking lads 

He’s absolute pony. Completely clueless 

Get him gone 

I KNEW this would be a wind up after todays game, very well played (unlike the team)

23 minutes ago, Spike said:

We lost 2-0 to Cardiff away and put on a better performance than that under Pearson and he had half a squad out injured and he got sacked for it.

I don't blame the players, they played as they were instructed to and you could see it was not working, what did Manning do.... nothing.

In my eyes Manning had the players to win that game, he had double the squad depth his predecessor had, he had the backing of the board unlike his predecessor and he still refused to adapt and it resulted in a worse performance.

I'm done with Manning, for the first time in a very very long time I can comfortably say I actually want a manager gone early into his time here. I'd rather have O'Driscoll, Millen, even McInnes over Manning. I'm sure many people will say that's a knee-jerk reaction but I will say this, not one of those men played the same tactics, same gameplan and refused to adapt for three straight games as we were completely nullified. Manning isn't ever going to accept he's responsible so we'll continue on with the same shit, getting excited when teams open up against us allowing Mannings football to work and maybe picking up surprise wins and losing the rest to teams who identify our playstyle, nullify it and laugh at Manning on the sideline looking lost.

Agreed. Couldn’t decide whether we just didn’t have the quality of player to play his system, or his system was the problem to start with, but I’ve made up my mind after that. I didn’t think any of the players were coasting or not trying today, but the second we get to the halfway line, we’ve got no options other than backwards. Felt sorry for the players today