Spud21

Yes no outlet for the back 4 (not that this is a new problem) they either give the ball to James and get it straight back just with the added help if having a QPR player much closer to the, only thing I will say is we have seen less of the aimless humps to Conway. Largely not seen anything new we are just as dull as we have been whenever we are the "better" side and the opposition need breaking down. We miss Wells so much as the ball just does not stick to Conway.

Will be nice if he can get his confidence back as when he first cmae in he would consistently try and beat his man or run with the ball which just gradually seemed to ebb away, so hopefully a fresh start and Manning can get his confidence back.

Yea I think he can play there and will do a good job, and I think if he wants the 2 deep midfielders to be as industrious as the 2 at Oxford I think it's more likely you'd see TGH come in for James over time.

Yea think TGH is a bit unlucky but yea think Knight and James feel like the best 2 to play in the deep role. Will be interesting to see where Wiemann ends up as I generally am not a fan of him in thst Am role, and agree with Harry that I'd prefer to see Mehmeti in there and see what he can do. Could even go full experiment and stick Conway behind Wiemann. (really don't think he'd do that)

And I hope his cape is actually a bed sheet with Johnson out on the back

Yea I am probably on the same page in thinking QPR and Hudds are the 2 thst we should be targeting wins from, yea I don't think Norwich will be in the same place as now in terms of manager so they are somewhat of an unknown.

Ah new they lost to stoke, draw with Plymouth is not a bad result depending on the Plymouth that turned up, yea they have picked up and are now performing somewhere near where they would expected to be.

Are boro not on a rather good run at the moment? Won 5 of their last 6 or something? And we are hardly good at home so easily a game we could take nothing from. However I don't think 5/6 points is an unreasonable expectation. I will be happy with a few decent performances for the minute.

Ooohh for a moment I thought it was the root of all Evil, Visio man.

Doesn't look like a spreadsheet 0/10 for me.

I always felt sorry for Benny in thst he was brought in to do a job and then very quickly ended up being shoehorned into another job. Don't think there will ever be a city player that I loved more than Matty Hill, cannot remember a specific moment where I was happier for a player than when he got his first goal at Swindon iirc.

Absolutely loved Akinbiyi remember being in the Atyeo chanting "ade must stay" with tears in my eyes (only time I can remember ever being genuinely upset by football) Always thought Soren Anderson was an absolute baller but just never really clicked. Was it that season that we brought in Billy Mercer as well or was that the season after?

Yea think that's a great post @Sheltons Army From what I have seen / read / heard I think that Manning is much more of a continuity appointment in those terms than others are giving him credit for (obviously we have to wait and see if that bears out) , the way he spoke in his Oxford interviews I watched he seems very much whole over individual in terms of work ethic etc etc, but also treats each player as an individual and will taylor training / how he works with them to the individual rather than a one size fits all approach. Which seems to be bourne out on the feedback they had on Manning when Tinnion / the club went to Richard Keogh to get his impressions on Manning having been at MK Dons when Manning was there.

Absolutely think we started the right overall approach under Johnson and Ashton, but lacked anyone to direct it so we may have identified the right players for what was requested but there was no oversight of or sense in what was being requested, it was a data driven clubs in the bag approach that ended up with us having about 8 sets of Irons. Pearson came in and provided that clarity of process which I hope has been enshrined into internal processes that will prevent a rogue clubs in the bag approach being allowed to happen.

I suspect that they will much like they did with EPPP that was certainly not in the clubs as a whole interest. Think there will be 2 sorts of clubs thst back it for different reasons, the big clubs thst will want it to try and ensure that they get even bigger advantages as and when they go up and down, and then the other clubs like us and others who are spending beyond their means to try and compete with the bugger sides so they need the extra money that will come from this. I can't help but feel more and more that something drastic needs to happen like the big 6 sodding off to a shitty superleague to cause a financial reset where the rest of the clubs can start to live within their means and have a league system based on merit not how much money your accountants can be creative with to avoid FFP or how much you can ignore the rules because if it works it doesn't matter.

Spot on, I think in the Recruitment space more and more it's the personal attributes that are as, if not more important than pure playing attributes (obviously beyond the basics, I would like to think just because he's a top bloke and very receptive to coaching you aren't going to be recruiting a left back to play in goal) no point recruiting a player who fits the bill in terms of ability if he's not going to fit the dynamic of the squad or be receptive to the managers methods, that will likely be more problematic than recruiting a player whose technical attributes maybe aren't quite as high but will fit in with the culture and be more receptive will work out better in the long run. I think often we as fans get hung up on Formations, systems etc etc far more than a lot of modern managers do, who may have lots of very complicated and fangled systems but fundamentally they are man managers and that's how they get the players to conform to their "system" they may have an overarching ethos but will adapt the specifics to fit the players they have, to take a Manning example he does seem to prefer 3 at the back and I expect he will either start with that here if he thinks we have the players to play it, or like he did at Oxford mainly play a back 4 and then maybe transition to a 3.

I agree however my recollection of how were were playing and doing at the time goes more towards the not a sausage what he was doing, don't think he ever did anything at that level to suggest he was much good, we only got promoted because we were 17 points or something mad clear when Goater left. So yes I agree there are different types of help but my thinking is the error was to even try and not just sack the bloke. And thanks for the point in how it's accounted for didn't know that.

I would expect it probably fluctuates relatively wildly depending on who goes up and down (the figures are loosely based on some data from a while back, pre covid I think) so they could be Higher now. This season if you had figures I'd expect them to be potentially quite low as you've Lost Wednesday and Ipswich who I would expect were on the higher end of pay, (tbf god knows that Chansori could be paying loads or peanuts) and gained a couple of Basket cases in Reading and Wigan who probably can't pay much. And the bigger clubs at that level have been there for a while so guess budgets have adjusted somewhat, as there are a good number of small clubs in league 1 that don't have the resources to pay much for a manager comparatively speaking. So my considered conclusion is that I haven't got a clue, but it is certainly an interesting topic.

Yea they definatley seem to have improved since getting the new man in, easily a game we could lose or draw, especially if we are as turgid as we were against Wednesday, who again were nowhere near as bad as the league table suggested and you can see what Danny Rohl is trying to do, and they created chances that they probably should have done better with with 11 and with 10 men.

Interesting had not heard that before (or if I had I don't remember it) but that to me makes it even worse that he walked as not doubting Roy's abilities as a manager but what could he achieve in 2 days a week? So can understand the club not going for it tbf.

Ah tits, wrong Harford, my bad. But also could have been Roy Hodgson it seems (hadn't heard that before I must say)

I assume as well without being privvy to our internal documentation that there are entries in any budget and thus money set aside to be used if you get rid of your manager, such is football it would not surprise me if there was not only budget aside to pay of Nige and staff, but also to potentially pay off his replacement should he come in and drop a huge turd on Jon Lansdowns desk. I also assume that any compensation would like a transfer fee be amortised over the course of his contract as well "reducing" the immediate costs from an accounting perspective.

To be fair I assume we actually are no worse than anyone else at breaking these streaks, (if someone has done the research it would be interesting to know) but it just feels like we are.

If you want to make it even worse they are on a run of 14 games without a win, and who loves breaking those sorts of streaks

Umm god knows what this is, seem to have quoted and not edited sorry.