mozo

Tanner is the biggest backwards passer I've ever seen at the club, but he's a bloody good defender so I'll let him off! He mostly did well yesterday, as an aside.

That has definitely crossed my mind, but there is also the issue that we play one up top and Wells wants and arguably deserves his share of minutes.

Yeah the Swansea game I think you and I were both annoyed with the block, which didn't work and is Manning's poor decision. I think another factor to the performance was that our players looked liked their confidence was shot. Not all of the individual errors were related to the tactics, but you could argue that cautiousness bred nervousness. I think Manning's defence was that we didn't moan about the block when it worked. And he's got point. But he should have just said, yeah I got it wrong.

Yeah totally. He was in 'destined for the Premier League' territory last season and looks much more like he's at his level this season, under both managers.

Yeah there was the narrative that the cup didn't matter and ppg was the important thing, and that Manning could only beat the good teams. Then we won games in the league, beat teams below us, improved our ppg, and suddenly the real issue is the quality of our wins. They're not good enough wins. We should be winning in a much more glorious manner. Thankfully there are also sensible critics of Manning too, but some of the noise is amusing.

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.

Yeah absolutely, I'm thinking that Manning should have a good idea if Twine is too good for L1 and capable of high end Champ. I'll be the first to criticise if we sign him and Twine turns out to be not worth the investment.

Pearson is the first manager we'd had for donkey's years who had top flight experience, promotion success and tons of football common-sense, there's no disputing that. Whether we would have picked up more points with Nige still here is a total mystery, however.

We've been talking about 'par', and I think we're very much a 1.4 ppg team this season. That's our level. With a little bit of investment we could be 1.5 to 1.6 and its happy days

If the stats point to Manning being a bit 'lucky' (let's simplify), then I can't really argue with that. It raises a question mark about the future and whether our chickens will come home to roost, or whatever the poultry saying is. If, however, we are lucky over a sustained period, you'd tend to feel that we must be making our own luck. Clearly, if Manning can add another 10-15% of that good fortune, we'll all be applauding him. It's an interesting one.

If you dug up my posts mate and I'm pretty sure I was predicting 10-12th. This was when it was clear that we weren't backing Nige with the Scott money.

We conceded numerous chances in the Plymouth 4-1, which we didn't in the Blackburn game (if we're applying your logic)

Yes, but every other team between ourselves and they playoffs also failed to win 6 games that they would hope to win, so they would like to rewrite history too. The reality is that football is not as simple as you win all the games you're supposed to win, unless you've got a superior (Premier League quality) team, which I think most of us agree, we do not.

Carey on co-comms mentioned that booing, but he reckoned that Pring had done the right thing. If I'm recalling the right bit, the square pass he had on was at a slightly dodgy angle, so if he'd played it badly an interception would've been a serious problem. Having said that, it didn't seem like Huddersfield were pressing particularly well during that 'passage of play'.

Hmm...tricky one. He's not played well. You can tell he's trying to impress, but mostly things aren't coming off for him. I think the big question is, is what we've seen so far Twine at his best? I'm guessing we will sign him if we are confident that he just hasn't reached top gear yet. Manning should know what Twine is capable of.

I can honestly say, I don't expect us to win away at a confident and on-form Norwich City, but if we do, our last 6 form will be excellent, and even our last 10 will be impressive. Come on the Form Army!

Yeah agree mate. Nige/Manning/whoever wouldn't have got us top 6 without adequate investment and SL decided against that. Our fate was sealed and we've achieved precisely what I and many others predicted.

Because if we missed out on what I think is par by just the 2/3 points that's a pretty fine margin. It would be a bit fussy to then turn around and say we'd convincingly underachieved. If we lose the last three games it looks a bit worse and I'd not be content with that. We only today had it confirmed that we can't be promoted this season. So we're not a million miles off, but I appreciate that you had higher expectations than me.

Yeah, I said before this game he needed 7 more points, and that's 1 ticked off. If I had to predict, I'd assume we'll lose to Norwich, beat Rotherham and anything is possible last match. But... who bloody knows with City!? I'd like 64 points, but if we finish on 61/62 I won't cry about it. Ultimately it really doesn't matter. Regards pressing high, we did for the most part today, albeit more selectively. I think Manning wants a more selective high press, but I'm not sure if the players are comfortable with that.

I presume there was a chant of 'she fell over' today?!

Agree mate. Huddersfield did a good job of disrupting us and we did a poor job of dealing with it. Seen it so many times before. Another very different challenge up next

Anything that annoys Joey Barton is good in my book

I don't think Mozo and W-S-M Seagull demanding high performance is going to make City successful. And it probably won't help our mental health because we won't get what we want. It was an irritating game, too many players were slightly off it today. Pring, McCrorie, Williams, even James were very hit and miss today and Sykes looked well off his best. But we have to be philosophical and know that over the course of ten games, you will always get at least one of these. Every single manager gets them, by the way. I appreciate that every game where we're not good will just re-awaken the feelings you have about the current boss, but whilst we're right up there in the form table, let's give him a bit of leeway and not assume that every mis-kick is his fault.

It definitely feels like that. We've had it against Stoke and Millwall this season where we've been driven mad by poor home displays and classic basic defeats. I guess fans of most Championship teams would say the same mind.

10 points in those home games?