Kolsch

Immense signing. For such a big man he has great feet.

The lad did brilliant today against the best player in the league.

I find it strange that he’s somehow the new scapegoat.

Leicester away Nige was praising the way he defended against players on tens of thousands a week. QPR he didn’t give Bryan a kick, Southampton he was arguably our best player and covered multiple positions, today he hardly gave Clarke anything in good areas.

He is a defensive fullback who gives his all for city and clearly is a good professional.

He is no Kyle Walker so why do people expect that?

Ignore them all. Well done George.

Rode our luck today to be honest. We got lucky but we were due some luck after the last few games.

Incredibly frustrating. He is capable of moments of magic but I just wish at times he’d give the simple pass

An excellent win and fully deserved. We were not working their keeper all game (if at all really) but we were controlled and the best team for at least two thirds of the game.

Back 4 superb. Vyner and Dickie outstanding once more and forming a great partnership. Pring showed more today and I thought it was Tanners best performance of the season so far. Didn’t give them a kick down the right, tidy on the ball and attacked well. Unlucky to not get an assist for Sam in the second half. Pring looked a lot more like his dynamic self. Robert’s is a very nice option and he’s going to create many chances with his crossing ability.

Midfield worked hard and a superb finish from Matty James. Sykes is my favourite option on the right and it’s great we now have that different option on the left going from Sam’s pace and directness to Mehmetis skill and unpredictability. Brilliant block from Cornick after he came on.

Difficult game for Nakhi but he worked hard.

In comparison to Preston (where I thought Lowe out thought us tactically), Nige and the staff had it perfectly today.

Very satisfying.  

3 minutes ago, Major Isewater said:

One thing I really like about this squad is they are drilled and know what they are supposed to be doing, which should be the very least of things but not so clear in years gone by. There is evidence of real coaching. 

I agree. We are very well drilled now. The goal was just a moment of lapse in concentration and good movement by McAtee.

7 minutes ago, brad blit said:

Well in the build up to the goal, Pring made a bad clearance (with his weaker foot) and then lost the man who made the assist for goal. Tanner was marking the goalscorer, but didnt track his run behind (he had just made an attacking run shortly before) and couldnt get back, resulting in him literally walking towards goal when the player was shooting rather than carry on playing, and being ready for a potential rebound.

Not a gripe at either player, just stating what happened as both have been stand out players for me this year.

4 minutes 25 seconds. Tanner is marking Berge. James fails to track McAtee.
 

It probably should have been Sykes but he had been on the attack so James should have been tucking in.

13 hours ago, nickolas said:

Barton - ‘the lino has guessed, as they do at this level’. 
‘when i saw the ref i knew we were in for it’. 
 

My god this bloke simply cannot take a defeat. I swear he blames officials after every loss!!

Love hearing his awful excuses. The man is a clown 

1 hour ago, 1960maaan said:

Interesting reading through replies, I missed a large chunk of the 2nd half including the goal as my feed went down.
I do think it's a bit optimistic to expect to dominate sides for 90 minutes, to try and do that against a side that will be in the Prem next year, near impossible. We could have done better , some of that I would level at Nige and his use and timing of Subs.

Bell gets stick for his crossing, but for me the fact he's happy to go outside the FB makes him more of a threat than Mehmetti (and it's his first real run at this level) specially in games against good sides. Wells could have done with Conway along side him and as for Conway he looks far more happy central.  Seeing as we were playing the only 4 fully fit defenders , I think we've done OK.
We have lacked a little composure and quality around the area , but we have controlled the ball a lot better than we have for a long time. When you think that only 2 of the back 4 and 1 of the midfield would have started if we had a fit squad then we do show a lot of improvement. Still needs work, but with nothing riding on these games I'm still optimistic for next year.

It was just one of those nights for Sam. Worked hard but he just didn’t quite have the touch, sharpness or decision making last night to get us that final product in their third of the half.

It’s a really frustrating thing for me. We need to improve our final ball massively.

Without much height in the team we need to be varying the style of cross too (low, pull backs etc). If I’m being honest, the forwards movements need to improve also.

3 hours ago, One Team said:

Thanks for this; which all adds to the ‘heads been turned’ cliche. 

I don’t blame him, he’s a very young lad and who knows how any of us would react in that situation.

He may well not feature that much now before he’s off. 

It’s a very hard one to call because it’ll be in the back of his mind whether he’s consciously thinking about it on the pitch or not. It’ll be a great shame if his City career just fizzles out now until the end of the season though. 

3 hours ago, Port Said Red said:

One has to Tanner, he allowed himself to be sucked into the middle, which he does too often for me. McAtee had acres of space to run into. Not sure who the other would be without watching the replay.

I disagree. Full backs have to tuck in so it doesn’t leave big gaps to the side of the centre backs. You only have to watch Kings reaction after it goes in to see that it’s the fault of the midfield. Looking at the video James failed to track him but it looks like Sykes was nowhere on that side also. I thought Jay and Tanner were superb positionally last night, they were trying to play through the channels and we managed to suppress them for the majority of the game.

2 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

TBF when anyone has dropped below a level that Pearson has been happy with, or a player has previously achieved, he has mentioned it (I wont say moaned about it). This is just trying to make sure that players stay at that level.  
I don't think it would have been easy to make a positive impression last night, playing a promotion team that had a half time bolloxing and had got up a head of steam, that said  I don't think it does any harm to want that.

I think with the character of the lads in question it’ll just motivate them and make them realise that they can’t drop levels in this league.

Nige has faults but I thought this reaction was good and it showed that we’re still pushing for the rest of the season.

That was a really frustrating performance today against a poor Reading side.

Decision making and final ball in the Reading half was poor throughout. It showed today just how much we miss Scott and his ability to cut open defences and pick a killer pass.

4 minutes ago, East Londoner said:

I’d have liked to have seen him replace Sykes and given 45-60 minutes 

I thought he should have replaced Weimann today who I thought was very poor.

Nige has mentioned a few times that his knee injury is something he is always going to manage so it could be why he can’t get fully match fit.

11 hours ago, WECANDO said:

I've put a comment about this on another heading. Football needs a flat, even pitch, rugby not so much. So the obvious thing to do is play the football before the rugby. So footy Friday night and rugby Saturday or footy Saturday and rugby Sunday. How difficult is that or is there a monetary reason for it.

Agreed, the bears should only be able to play after City games. Never the day before.

Nige has gone for pace, clearly we’re going to try and hit them quick on the break like the other games.

Just now, Gazred said:

I think what Mehmeti brings is more instantly deliverable and obvious than Cornick.

Once he settles in and finds a more defined role in the side he'll be fine. He's got all the attributes to fit into our style of play nicely.

He'll look a lot better after a pre season I reckon.

Agreed. With Mehmeti, his ability and confidence is clear to see so he naturally will make a more instant impact.

Harrys been thrown in but there’s a player in there so it’ll come.

Great news for George and great news for the club. He has become a very dependant full back which is what we’ve wanted for years and he will only get better. One of those players that you don’t realise the impact he has until he’s not in the team. Zak didn’t look as effective on Wednesday without him there. He seems a very likeable young man as well. I’m really liking our recruitment when it comes to characters, it’s a very underrated part of the recruitment process.
 

Credit to Tins and the staff for getting deals like this done. Hopefully Zak next.

2 hours ago, Loosey Boy said:

I think 1,500 is pretty good for the reasons stated by others already 

Very impressive! Especially considering it being an early kick off on a Sunday.

Very big game for us. With the depleted squad I would take a point, if we can get something from the game it’ll be a great way to go into the international break. It’ll cap a very satisfying 2023 so far. 

I think it’s harsh the criticism the lad has had. He’s just moved to us mid way through the season, just thrown in and the effort is there.

Let’s judge him after a run of games and a pre season behind his back. I trust our recruitment these days so there is clearly a player there.

Proud of the lads today. Yes Blackpool are poor but with the amount of injuries we have, to get a convincing result like that is something we should all be very proud of. 
 

Pring excellent at centre half. Jay showed he can play left back and do it well. I’m really liking how Tanner and Sykes’ relationship on the right is blossoming. Kingy put in a solid performance and Scotty was his usual excellent self. He really is a joy to watch.

We might be completely thin on the ground but these lads are giving everything.

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I think some of that is that he knew his role last night…and would’ve preferred to be the sitter, and let Pring be the risk taker dribbling forward.  Both did it v.well though.

I agree but early on he should have realised there was little risk doing that. Even if he carried it 15-20 yards he could still have easily found a red shirt but it would have left us in better positions on the pitch, potentially drawing opposition players in and creating space.

Just giving it easy when in 20 yards of free space does nothing most of the time. At times he was giving it Tanner or Jay and they had players closer to them.

I think it’s just a confidence thing but he can do it, he showed it in the times where he did take it on.

He did great though defensively, once again.

Felt like a loss. Huddersfield are very poor and we should be winning games like that. Just one of those days and we go again on Saturday. 3 points essential.

24 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Yep, a sloppy / shaky first ten mins…other than that excellent.  Leading a defence (Pring’s mentioned Zak post-match) that has barely played together needs a mention too.

I’m sure people see a player have one or two “ill-judged” moments or mis-control a ball or make a bad pass…and then put their blinkers on for any good stuff that might even it out, or in fact completely override it.

Zak’s passing after that ten mins, in particular getting the ball out to Tanner quickly was very good.

Zak played well and his leading of the defense goes underrated, as you say.

I found it frustrating last night though how he didn’t carry the ball forward a lot more though when Huddersfield were sitting back. Every time he did that it created space and some of our best moves came as a result of it.

For teams willing to sit back and remain in shape, things like that are essential. I don’t know why Nige and the coaches weren’t getting him to do that more often.