Back of the Dolman

4 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

It's also worth noting that rugby renewals only opened yesterday.

Definitely happy with 2,000 that quickly then 

20 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

The next email has come out. Usual caveat, this will be scheduled communication and not sent because things aren’t going well but the text isn’t dripping with “join all the others who have renewed” and seems more acceptance of “we accept a lot aren’t renewing”

 

I’ve had an email and a text message today 

23 minutes ago, Cowshed said:

Its a health and safety issue. In a fast moving mobile game. Players safety comes first. 

It could be said though that physios able to come on immediately is better for player health and safety.

No delay while play continues waiting for the ball to be kicked out or the referee to stop play.

And let’s remember this subject was brought up in respect of time wasting, I would say it’s plainly obvious when someone needs urgent attention and when it’s a case of someone going down with tactical cramp

1 minute ago, Silvio Dante said:

I believe that we recalled Raph Araoye early from Weston specifically for this game in line with our club strategy.

No Benarous ? Bench for Norwich maybe or just easing him slowly ?

Haven’t heard that he’s had a setback but as we know that isn’t unusual 

Just now, Sir Geoff said:

Is that good or bad, numbers wise. I have no idea

I’d imagine the fact they’re publicising it would mean they’re happy.

Last year there were plenty of things coming out with how many City season tickets sold, funnily enough not seen anything like that yet

2 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

I can't imagine he's got much love for Bristol City. 

He probably thinks he dodged a bullet

If he was still here now then he wouldn’t be getting 20 goals a season with our current style.

But in all fairness he drops off into the space between midfield and his fellow strikers to pick up the ball.

He does exactly what Twine was brought in to do 

38 minutes ago, JBFC II said:

As far as I’m aware, although that rule may have changed. 

I heard an interview with Karen Brady where she basically said that although the temptation is there to do just that, it won’t help the women’s game at all so West Ham refuse to live beyond their means 

Karen Brady doesn’t care about helping the women’s game.

That’s not why West Ham wouldn’t put money into their women’s team.

2 minutes ago, supercidered said:

They would be a very weird looking player.

I’d only considered the footballing ability

Just now, mozo said:

Last year, I though Pring looked like a future Premier League player, now it's Roberts who looks more likely of the two. It'll be interesting to see how they both get on next season (if they stay).

A hybrid of the two would be a tasty player 

6 minutes ago, Lorenzos Only Goal said:

 

 

Haydon Roberts has been outstanding in some games.  He's got an eye for turning defensive play into offensive play which is a massive asset.  And he's got a wicked pass on him.  He really makes me want us to play a back three so we can accommodate all our decent CB.  But I also like a good back four setup as well.

I think Naismith can push into midfield but he's got frustrating availability. He's got so many good attacking attributes, but he's fragile now which is unlucky.

I’d say there’s potential for Roberts to push into that Naismith role you suggest.

He's comfortable on the ball and can see a pass but he also has the ability to shield the defence with his defensive abilities 

21 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

Seb has no prospects in a Liam Manning led Bristol city and would be better off going elsewhere. As would any young striker. You would have to be of an exceptional standard as a young striker to break into a Championship first team that only plays with one striker. Even moreso for a head coach who has never blooded youth in his career. 

The trouble with that argument is that it's been demonstrated that results aren't massively more important than performances to fans. Indeed the latter feeds the former. We set up and play like we did against Blackburn, against Southampton, against Watford then we get both performances and results. It's perplexing that he doesn't see that.

I don't think that's the case personally. If he felt like that then he'd have played the same style and system as he did on Wednesday. Instead he pulled another Southampton/QPR trick which almost gifted another team fighting for their Championship lives a golden opportunity to pick up some much needed points.

Maybe I didn’t make my point clearly but what I was saying is that LM won’t be playing more entertaining and exciting football to appease the fans.

He’ll be well aware that there is a large amount of the fan base still unconvinced by him but I think his plan will be to win them over winning matches his way.

And after all people were happy playing along with his cringey fist pumping after Leicester and Plymouth.

I’m not convinced by him but he’s with us so I’ll support the team regardless.

Those people that think he’s the man for the future, well I respect their opinion to.

One camp will be right, one will be wrong or maybe it will end up somewhere in the middle.

Just like our league position 

2 minutes ago, The Constant Rabbit said:

I might actually give him a bit of credit here.

 

Maybe it was as simple as he wanted to be fair to Huddersfield by playing the same quality of players as he did against Blackburn as both are locked in a end of season relegation battle.

 

Probably wrong, but maybe?

I’d of thought Huddersfield would have preferred him to play a weaker side than he did against Blackburn.

Not a similarly strong side to ensure a fair and even relegation battle.

Cant see that’s the reason myself 

1 minute ago, Cole Not Gas said:

I get that and it is for many other fans too. I just like Sat 3pm and a full mid-week fixture list occasionally; Tues/Wed;

TV certainly calling the shots

TV have been calling the shots since the creation of Sky TV and the Premier League.

Thats when the game was lost to money 

5 hours ago, redkev said:

I agree , also think pring ( apart from a few games ) has been a bit of a dissapointment this season compared with last season where admittedly he was excellent 

He’s reportedly carrying an injury though, which LM said he’d have to learn to manage.

Pring has taken a lot of knocks this season and was limping heavily at the end of the Blackburn game.

He covers a hell of a lot of ground and gets through plenty of work

5 hours ago, mozo said:

I do agree, and I personally would sacrifice results at this point. 

The only counter argument I would make is... how do you think senior players will feel being left out, particularly if they're players like McCrorie, Roberts and Tamner who have had to spend time on the bench or injured already this season and are desperate for gametime for their own needs.

I personally would have benched Pring and played JKL. 

I don’t think you’ll find LM is willing to sacrifice results, especially with the fan base feeling about him.

As for senior players not liking a youngster being picked ahead of them, I’d say suck it up.

They’re all part of the squad and they don’t have a god given right to be in the first 11

1 minute ago, 1960maaan said:

The clock thing is interesting. There was talk of playing 60 minutes with the clock stopping for everything so you got a genuine 60 minutes play. When I realised the average time the ball was in play was 55 minutes, it seemed a good idea. Not sure what happened to that idea.

Having the trainer coming on is good in theory, but you just know that teams soon find a way of stopping play. Flicking the ball against, or near the trainer as he sees to the injury. 

Yes teams will always look for ways to get around the rules but if they were to start intentionally playing the ball towards the prone player or physio and indeed striking them I would say that it is something that could be considered alongside the introduction of the role on physio and could lead to a booking and free kick.

But obviously this would all facilitate new laws to the game but it’s not impossible 

5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

The one thing I disagree with is that if the keeper gets the physio (like yesterday) and opposing player does too, I don’t think the opposing player should wait 30 seconds either.

Yes that’s a fair point in those circumstances and would of been the same when Max and their player came together in the first half, I think they both received treatment from what I can remember 

8 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

I thought they look at all potential penalty decisions?

They do but you hear this clear and obvious error phrase rolled out with VAR and bearing in mind on this thread you have a split of people saying it was or wasn’t a penalty it can’t really be considered a clear and obvious error for VAR to intervene.

Personally I think it rubbish, forget clear and obvious. If it’s a wrong call it’s a wrong call as simple as that 

1 minute ago, Davefevs said:

The games I’ve watched we defend as 3 units, and each unit is disconnected and easy to play through.  We knacker ourselves by not having any compactness, and are constantly doing doggies to close the ball down.

It does seem very poor defensively for a team who are clearly set up defensively.

No point being so defensive if you can’t defend as a team.

May as well try and play higher and put the opposition under pressure a bit 

28 minutes ago, Spoons said:

This is hard to watch ….. 

I must admit I don’t watch a lot of women’s football, not because of any sort of sexism or misogyny, but it just doesn’t interest me in the same way as watching snooker or tennis doesn’t interest me.

But I am watching tonight and I would have to ask is this the way City have set up all season ?

Almost seems pointless playing, defending so deeply with no out ball.

Its just a training exercise for Arsenal

2 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

I thought the player having to stay off for 30s if the physio came one now was meant to be a deterrent.

It was annoying yesterday in ET when their player went down, physio on, messed about for a couple of mins, then they subbed him and the replacement came straight on - I get that it's harsh to punish a team for a legit sub, but that was taking the piss a bit I thought. Kind of sneaky way to get around the 30s thing and still waste time.

Yes I suppose that was meant to be a deterrent but I guess what sides think is that play will restart after a stoppage and they will of had the chance to get themselves organised defensively and so they only have to hold out for 30 seconds before they’re back to full strength.

I’d imagine most teams would back themselves to manage that, especially at the pace we play

5 hours ago, redkev said:

Personally I thought they were one of the better if not the best of the lower league sides we have played 

I certainly think they came to have a go, they didn’t just sit back.

They were definitely better than I was expecting 

21 minutes ago, Calculus said:

Rugby doesn't finish when the clock reaches 80 though - the ball has to go out of play and that can take quite a while. 

I watch quite a bit of ice hockey and that’s clock on and off with no complaints about added time.

I’ve always thought that one way of stopping these constant stoppages for injuries/cramp in football is to follow rugby and for the physio to come on and play to continue.

I know that would be difficult if the injury was in the box but at the moment the majority of it is going on in other areas of the pitch.

I bet you wouldn’t see as many players going down requiring treatment if that was the case 

7 minutes ago, phantom said:

Pretty sure I would have been 

My school did trips to all the games back then 

.... 

Sky just reported that Arsenal had 44 touches in our penalty area in the first half. That's a WSL record 

They were proper school trips, back in the days when money and Sky TV didn’t control football

15 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

I've got my headphones on and I can clearly hear one of their knobheads chanting 'what the Buckingham hell was that' in amongst the ra-ra public school like singing.

And renditions of ‘Bristol get battered everywhere they go’

I didn’t think that was part of the women’s games mantra.