Spud21

Yea think that's perfectly reasonable and it seems he very much uses the tools he has at his disposal to get what he wants, but will not come blundering in and shoehorn players into a 3 that aren't capable of doing it even if that is his preferred set up. I don't actually see any reason we can't play 3 at the back with the squad we have, think Pring can be a fantastic left sided CB in a 3, i maybe have concerns with the right of the 3 as I don't think Vyner plays it well, but see no reason Dickie couldn't play there or maybe Tanner as he seems to defend very narrow, with Vyner in the center, I still wouldn't expect it right now as I don't think we have the numbers to play it consistently at least until Atkinson is back and fully fit. Agree on those websites which is why I didn't give them 100% credence until I admittedly lost my rag a bit with the hyperbole that some people were coming out with as if Manning would walk in and stick a back 3 out just because he loves it when it's clear he is happy to change his formation to suit and from his interviews he doesn't seem to want to get drawing into rigid I play 3-4-3 or 5-4-1 or 4-2-3-1.

Maybe he's coming for you for posting your thread about Manning That's the point I am trying to get across he has a philosophy but is not so rigid to just blindly go with it, he's not going to sit there and say I see she have 2 and a half fit centre backs, back 3 it is lads. He does not look married to any particular formation (although one of the stats sites had him for one game at MK employing a 6-8-2 formation, not sure how he managed that, but could be a key to his success) and in lots of the interviews I saw he is actually reluctant to speak about formations etc and kind of pushes back saying position on its own is not important. Same with style they seem to play a possession based game but not a Martin type of just bore everyone to death. I don't expect we will see a massive shift in style between Manning and Pearson, I think we will look to move the ball a bit more quickly and when we do have possession look to have it 30/40 yards from goal not in our own half.

Cant remove the tags for some reason. Absolutely on that one, the way the board have handled it for me has been nothing short of disgraceful, I would have been a bit shocked and miffed with a "Nige has done a teriffic job at stabilising the club when we need him to but we feel a new direction is needed to kick in from the incredible foundations Nige has out in place" but they way they did it was all kinds of wrong and not entirely out of context considering the general standard of decisions and communication (not just football related we have had many debacles in the general running of the club over the last few years) we have seen particularly since JL has taken a more active role in the club.

He's used a back 3 in 3 of his games at Oxford, and about similar in his time at MK dons, look at all the tracking sites and they all say he plays 4-2-3-1 in the majority of his games

Indeed amd it will be interesting to see what the powers that be have to say after the appointment was made, was the timing influenced by goings on elsewhere and was Manning or similar always the succession plan for Nige but for whatever reason the board thought that something going on elsewhere meant that there was an opportunity to get the man / type of man they wanted now thst would not be there if they waited longer. I can't see any reason for the timing other than for some reason they felt now was a time they could get manning that wouldn't present it's self again in their eyes. We will never truly know the exact reasoning as frankly I'm not sure any of us can understand it as it makes so little sense from outside.

Really, like Manning playing 3 at the back, despite being told multiple times that he played a back 4? Like Pearson having an elite mentality when Manning has spent more time at an elite club than Nige has? There are plenty of people who have raised concerns, and have been downright apaplectic about Niges sacking, who have not resorted to making stuff up about manning to have a whinge.

Nobody is crying about people having concerns, but you have just made up a load of shit to have a moan, so you are getting called out on it.

If your new employer has just paid somewhere around 0.5/1 million pounds to get you through the door I'd argue you are in a massively strong position to tell the people who are employing you exactly what you want. The man is in a position where we absolutely have to sell the club to him as there are no signs he's not going to carry on doing what he's doing at Oxford and if he did there would be far bigger fish lurking for him than us. I think if we are telling him there are areas where he cannot have any control that he is not happy with he is in a more than healthy enough position to say thanks but no thanks.

What exactly are you basing this on? How much personal contact have you had with Manning to know he's a yes man? As the only thing I have heard is from Oxford Journos that he is certainly his own man and does not mince his words.

How exactly is this reverting to the Lee Johnson plan? Is every club that have appointed a young coach following the Lee Johnson plan? I see almost 0 similarities between Manning and Johnson other than the fact that they have both managed in League 1.

Been spending the night watching Oxford highlights and Mannings pre and post match interviews and from what I gave seen I am quite impressed, I like the way he speaks, he definitely doesn't strike me as a LJ word salad type at all and in most of them he doesn't really dwell on "tactics" talk and mist of it is about the group and the players attitude, so in many ways he actually reminds me more of Nige with slightly more "modern" language than of LJ. (no mentions of box entries , although they do get a few pens so that will be his first challenge, to accept he isn't getting any more of those) Although one concerning thing, in every interview after international breaks he spoke if how the players and staff were given time off, so assume Lansdown will want a stop putting to that immediately.

Can't be dealing with VAR, even when they get the decision right I still don't like the way it is handled, the Romero red, I don't think you can really argue with it, but Oliver gets called over to the monitor and the first thing he sees is a still of Romero foot going into the Chelsea players shin, which is obviously going to bias his view.

So you it couldn't possibly be that circumstances may have dictated him playing 3 at the back? Again relying on third party sites to have formation data accurate other are about 3 or 4 games where ha has played 3 at the back from what I can see and the majority seem to have been 4-2-3-1. You seem to have taken a significant dislike to the bloke and his way of playing based entirely on your anger with the decision to bin off Nige and not on any actual evidence.

I agree but to me this is an obvious consequence of the decision made, however some of the enshrining of Nige into something he absolutely wasn't is just wierd, the fact that we've been told that a man who spent what a season and a half at the top level all of that either getting a side relegated or saving a side from relegation has an elite mentality that a man who has been credited with developing some top class talent at West Ham doesn't have an elite mentality.

Now if who scored is to be trusted they have played 4 at the back in every game bar 1 in the league this season. But even so define possession football? There are plenty of ways you can have possession, some teams will try and be like man city and ratain the ball and slowly move forward and move the ball side to side to work space and then exploit, other sides use possession to draw the opposition out and then move the ball quickly to bypass the press and get the ball from back to front quickly. But equally how much better would we be if we moved the ball quicker than a tortoise, how many times do we have the ball at the back and then finding 3 statues in front of them the defenders just hump a long ball aimlessly forward, where a bit of quick passing in midfield (which James, knight and TGH are all more than capable of doing) we would have a chance of breaking sides down at home. We are all judging Manning on either 2nd hand comments or minimal viewing so it's difficult to say how exactly Manning is going to have us playing, as from the limited bits I have seen his team seem capable of both moving the ball back to front very quickly and also retaining possession which I think should be more than within the skill set of our squad.

What system does he emply that won't suit our players? always difficult to tell from highlights but I've been watching some and they seem to get a good few goals by moving from back to front very quickly with 2-3 passes to move the ball from defenders to forwards, which could easily be made to suit our players I think. They also look like they can retain possession and dominate teams when necessary, so from what I have seen he looks to be exactly the type of manager we want. As I've said many times I think the timing of all this is a massive risk and bloody stupid but that doesn't mean I think someone like Manning is anywhere near a bad appointment and I am actually quite excited to see qyt he can do but at the same time concerned that he might be on a hiding to nothing because of the boards decisions.

I am comparing the bed wetters to rovers fans in their level of delusion absolutely.

But I am and have not been commenting on the expectations we should have of manning if/when he joins. I am commenting on the absolutely laughable arrogance of people saying that a man at Oxford a side a whole 10 or so places below us in the football pyramid is going to be so enamoured at getting his dream move to a championship team aiming for top 10 is going to have no professional Integrity and just allow Jon Lansdown the be defacto manager. We would all be pissing oirselfes at how deluded rovers fans were if they were doing the same.

Disagree, nobody outside of Bristol gives a shit what the board say, ask the footballing world as a whole who we are and they will say who? The "board" meerly set our expectations and have minimal bearing on our standing as a club, the only thing that does that is sustained "success"

You know nothing about the man, I will bet you have watched precisely none of his games and listened to none of his press conferences or paid him any mention at all, so you can to say he's a yes man, and you can't seriously believe we are so massive compared to Oxford that he is going to be eternally grateful to just get the chance at such a behemoth of a club that he will bin all of his professional integrity and pick the players that Lansdown wants.

Even if that is the expectation from the on highs, it doesn't change a jot how we are perceived in the footballing world outside Bristol, which is an absolute backwater that has never done anything. We would need to be in and around the top 6 consistently for 4/5 years minimum before the footballing world considers us anything more than a below average championship club.

The man is at Oxford not bloody Taunton town. The unbelievable arrogance of some on here is gas levels of delusions of grandeur. We are a middling to small championship side not a ******* giant of English football.

I find it amusing that people on here are quick to say Manning is underwhelming and not a good appointment as he got sacked from MK Dons completely ignoring the context around what happened, yet in almost the same breath will reject arguments that Pearson did a poor job because he barely improved us in his time here, pointing out the context of the job he has done. You can't have it both ways, either only results and league table position matter by which Pearson has not done a great job and Manning failed miserably at MK. Or context is everything and Pearson did a bloody good job and Manning lost basically his whole team and thus the league position was pretty poor. I think it would be a case of right man, wrong time for a Manning or Williams now (another reason the sacking of Pearson annoys me so much.) with the timing and the statements they have backed themselves into a corner where you almost have to go for a "safe" proven option as it puts massive pressure on whoever comes in to be an immediate success, whereas a more considered approach to keep Nige and if we are not in or around the top 6 in Feb you can announce that the man has done a fantastic job but will not be retained beyone the end of his contract, and then you can bring in someone to tweak the style a bit and have time to implement then looking to kick on.

You absolutely are if you are claiming he will just be a yes man and will accept any terms to just get the job.

Why? Hes potentially interviewing at a club thst could easily be in the same league as the one he is currently at, he is not sat there thinking **** me it would be a dream to manage city so I will throw all my professional integrity in the bin to get this job. We are a middling championship club ffs not a massive club stuck in this league.