mozo

6 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

And when.

There is definitely a case for “sterile games aren’t the right way” though.  The 60 mins v Swansea a case in point.

This caught my eye earlier:

Variety / Mix.

I talk about disrupting the opposition.  Not just high pressing either, turning a back-4 around by going in behind gives you that “unpredictability”, disrupts your opponents set plans.

Yeah and my high press comment is not aimed at you or the more analytical fans!

23 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Not knocking Tommy at all but it was as simple a finish as you will ever get in a 1 v 1. Because of the mistake by Hyam the keeper was in a poor position and literally gave Tommy the whole side of the goal to aim at. A player of his ability literally could not miss........in fact I would have been disappointed to miss that myself (accepting it would be a possibility)!! 

I felt sorry for Pears to be honest. Any keeper playing behind that back-four deserves some sort of bonus to make up for the short term harm it will do for his career. Even on back passes he had balls played back to him and then the player would "hide" behind the line of a City player so he couldn't receive it back. He would have walked off last night absolutely raging and probably had a right rant in the dressing room afterwards. There was so much "wrong" about Blackburn last night it was untrue. If they were trying to get Eustace sacked they might have made it less obvious......................

Agree on Mehmeti that whatever the rights and wrongs of the defending it was a very good bit of play that opened up a second half that had been a bit drab to that point.

You definitely wouldn't have scored the Mehmeti goal! 

24 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

I’d argue that five defeats in six would have been relegation form, but each to its own! Course of a season that gives you about 23 points at best.

By that logic someone could reach the conclusion that since we are on promotion form across a 6 game period, that Manning has therefore proved he's capable of winning the league?!

Neither are very likely!

6 minutes ago, transfer reader said:

Purely from a curiousity, what's your acceptable tolerance?

Within 10% of the par target? Although that gives a bigger leeway the higher the initial target was.

Does the way the final tally gets achieved play a part? I.e being above par (for that point in the season) for 90% then dropping off, vs being a fair bit below and then surging up- assuming equal outcome.

Does your perception of strength of other teams play a factor too?

You've said next season's will be a higher target, but let's say it's Everton that takes the final relegation spot and that it's WBA or Norwich that goes up in the playoffs. That's likely the strongest relegated side (close with Leicester) plus 2 extremely strong sides from this season staying down.

 

None of this is to argue, just wondering.

 

Haha, those are hard questions 

Regards the tolerance, I don't think there's a strict formula, although 10% sounds reasonable. Certainly in the season when we couldn't get a penalty decision, it makes sense to be more lenient. I keep banging on about the fine margins in the Coventry and Ipswich games, so I guess I'll apply a 5 point buffer this season. Injuries have affected us, but thats been happening for years, so I wont make an allowance for it. It's very subjective, obvs.

I think for next season I just want growth, the logic being that every player is a year older and has that little bit more experience at this level, and LM has had more time with the squad. If we finish 11th this season with 63 points, I'd set a par of something like 69 points and 9th.

The only factor that I would amend that expectation for is transfer activity. Selling Scott last season and not buying a quality striker with the dosh changed my outlook to the point whereby 10th was a good outcome.

4 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

I honestly don't think last night told us anything we didn't already know. As we showed against Watford and some team beginning with S that I heard we may have bested, when we play the system that the squad was built to do we look good.  Many of us have been saying this for bloody ages and last night just reaffirmed that.  Yes, it helped that Blackburn were terrible, but we attacked at pace and with purpose and was not a typical "Manningball" style yesterday and the substitutions, as utterly predictable as they were, paid off handsomely. The big question now, is can we do it all again on Saturday.  That will be key to us building some momentum, especially given that for once we're the bogey team.  We need to pretty much carry on where we left off, rather than the last false dawn after beating the southerners and then reverting back to type a few days later against QPR.

Very pleased with last night however and was nice to enjoy the match for a change.  Long may it continue.

I think the control is what we can associate with Manning. If we couldn't get down a flank we cam back and recycled the attack either on the other wing or through the middle. Early in the second half when Blackburn tried to rally, we slowed the game down a bit and squeezed and made sure we dictated the rhythm of the game.

I sense there will be a misconception that we can only win with a high press, which I don't believe is the case. We can use a block too, it's just about how you execute it. 

The most annoying thing about last night is we could have won 7-0 if we'd been more clinical!

2 minutes ago, TonyTonyTony said:

I always try to look at positives, although that's not often been easy with a lot of the negativity on OTIB : I agree Blackburn were poor last night, but you don't win 5-0 unless you play well. We did, what we have wanted to do for ages - and that was actually play decent football at home against a poor side. The kind of games you normally dread if you are a city fan. We have proven we can do counter attacking against the bigger teams, and last night showed something different.

NP says on his website he left us on course for 64 points this season : 7 points from 4 games achieves that, so 2 home wins and an away draw. 64 points, btw would be our 3rd best points haul in the 9 seasons we have been in the champ.

 

 

So if we manage those 7 points, I think that would be 20 points from the final block of 10 games, which is good going. 

I hope we can!

But will we ever overcome the trauma of the Mebude loan?!!

Just now, Major Isewater said:

A ‘ couple ‘ is two Fontaineofnoknowledge. We have been poor and defeated in more than that. 
It’s not all about results either, it’s about progress in our style of play and let’s be honest we have been dire with zero attacking play for a while now. 
I am no ‘bed wetter ‘ but had doubts and still do , despite the green shoots. I hope to be proved wrong. 
 

That is a bit subjective imo. I personally didn't think we were 'dire' in most of Manning's games. And attacking play has been a problem ever since Weimann's wonder season.

I think if we beat Huddersfield, and if the weather starts drying up, we will get a decent crowd and atmosphere for the last home game. 

Dream scenario is we win our next 2 games to set up a really positive vibe, but I appreciate I'm asking a lot.

8 minutes ago, LondonBristolian said:

As someone calling for Manning's head four games ago then my answer is that you can only make a decision based on the evidence available at the time. After West Brom, I'd have 100% have sacked Manning if we'd lost the next couple and I couldn't see it turning around. I'm delighted that there are huge signs of improvement but I still think calling for his sacking was an utterly valid call based on the info available.

Right now, there's really positive signs and he obviously deserves to see out this season, rebuild over the summer and show what he can do next season. It might be we get ten games in and are challenging for promotion and, if so, the board and Technical Director will deserve praise for a brave call in sticking with him when the fans were turning against him. On the other hand, we could revert to poor form again and it'll turn out in hindsight that his appointment does not work out. We don't know.

But, if we end up sacking him in October, the people who are praising him for the last four games are not suddenly "wrong" for their opinion at this moment in time, in the exact same way that nobody was "wrong" to feel he should be sacked after two extended winless streaks. 

That's a very good point. My only counter to that would be that the sample size available 4 games ago just wasn't enough to reach such a strong conclusion, and this run of form has proved that. I actually don't believe we should make any final assessments even if we win our remaining games. I think we need to be patient.

12 hours ago, Kibs said:

The sad thing is, this tit for tat will go on until either LM gets sacked, or wins us promotion.

 

It was the same with LJ and with Nige. And forever more...

11 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Honestly?

I’m still struggling with him.

It’s the tendency of boom and bust that’s hard.  The boom of recent games has still not got us back up to parity of wins and losses…and the underlying inability in most games to create through build-up is a worry, especially as that’s his desire.  So that makes it hard to think he’s gonna take us forward / progress us.  It’s not really about the wins and losses, over 27 league games they’re just a decent proxy for performance.

I wanna see signs, e.g. it was the move of Knight back in CM has made the difference, but then I watch Sunderland, and know that’s not doing it.

But when you use terms like bedwetters you probably didn’t deserve a considered response.

 

 

I said on a another thread that I think Manning needs 7 points from the last 4 games to hit par.

That's a stretch, but with our current momentum, it's possible.

'Par' is just my personal assessment of what I think a competent gaffer would achieve, and the same target would have applied to the previous gaffer.

If, however, we only manage 4/5 points, we're still bloody close to par. 

Finishing near my abstract par is fine, and certainly not a sign that the head coach is out of his depth IMHO.

My par will then be raised next season.

BTW, how we achieve par is irrelevant. Streaks are fine, and quite normal at this level. 

11 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I now want Ipswich to go straight up, so that at least one relegated club stats down, if not two.

Hopefully it’s Southampton, because of Russell Martin 

Yeah, I just want the yo-yo clubs to be disrupted.

Just now, Kibs said:

And on the flip side, there is a similar lack of objectivity from the other side when we get beat. 

Not just objectivity, after a few defeats it was frequent ridiculing.

I think it's a bit mad that he's become a crucial player for us already, and maybe that expectation is a bit high.

He's not playing at his absolute best atm but I'm sure he'll get back to it. 

49 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

But it clearly was. 

Nope, I fully expected us to compete in the games I mentioned. 

I pointed out to you previously that this inconsistency existed under Nige too, so that says to me that the blame isn't necessarily with the gaffer all the time.

At the start of the season, in all comps, we only won 2 of our first 7 home games. You tell me who or what you blame for that?

That includes being 2-0 against a struggling Stoke side who came back to beat us 3-2.

If we judge Manning on his inconsistent form and disappointing defeats, then we have to judge Nige the same. I personally don't blame either of them.

By the way, check out our line up for that Stoke game. Besides Conway being injured and Wells replacing him, it was a really strong side.

The reason I'm dragging Nige into this is as an illustration that our squad is not currently capable of producing consistent performances.

7 hours ago, OliOTIB said:

There is still some yappers on here who dont have a clue/can only see the ‘Negatives’. We won 5-0 ffs, give it a rest.

Boys were phenomenal tonight, something that dosent happen a lot with Bristol City. 
 

Enjoy it.

CTID

Let me explain how it works...

If we win, pro-Manning people will post 'I told you so'.

Anti-Manning people will post 'yeah, we won, but...'

If we lose, anti-Manning people will post 'I told you so, sack him'.

Pro-Manning people will post 'yeah we lost but...'

If we draw, we all grasp for positives and negatives and have a big argument. 

Then we basically just carry this one forever. 

8 hours ago, Galley is our king said:

Oh whoopy bloody do...

 

And we're still in the playoff race with 4 games to go 

Sort of...

6 minutes ago, TV Tom said:

Not very impressive results, Eustace's decision not to take Hyam off at half-time while making four substitutions was also baffling.

It's an interesting result in the context that a lot of people were hoping for Eustace over Manning. I wonder how he would have done here.

46 minutes ago, HengroveReds said:

4 in a row, first time we’ve done that in 9 years - kudos to Max and the defensive line, Tanner and Roberts brilliant in a very young back line tonight who are only going to get better  

How many years since we’ve had 5 clean sheets? 

I actually want another clean sheet more than a win on Saturday 

7 minutes ago, Red Army 79 said:

Do we think that during the international break there were some constructive meetings between the management and players where the players stood up to Manning regarding the way we were playing or Tinnion has had words as he originally said he would regarding the front foot playing style. Or finally it got through to Manning that the possession style wasn’t working and he adapted  to safe his job. 

What ever the reason  since the international break results wise anyway we are a completely different side.

I haven’t seem them since the change in form has moving Knight deeper made a big difference? 

Nooooo... you just invented a story

8 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

We are trending in the right direction now, improving.

36 pts 27 games..1.33 PPG.

10 wins in those 27...37.04%.

A positive GD in the period is also a useful indicator.

Not getting carried away but certainly some positive indicators of late. When we press more we are a better side.

I think he stills needs us to pick up another 7 points this season 

Just now, Fontaineofallknowledge said:

I know Blackburn were poor but for me it showed what we've been missing without twine-someone that can handle the ball between the lines and actually unlock defences. Not sure bird is that type (think he's more of a sitter/james replacement) so along with the striker getting twine or similar is crucial to our chances next season 

He tried a few threaded balls and long shots which didn't come off, but you want players trying these things.

50 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I hope the majority of the recent performances are the “new norm”, guess we’ll know more again after Huddersfield on Saturday.  Sunderland last Saturday was bloody poor, despite the 0-0.

One thing I can guarantee you is there will be peaks and troughs, individual errors and inconsistent performers. That's just the reality of supporting a mid table Championship side.

I do hope though that we continue the way we look to pass the ball forwards, which isn't a new thing, but is more evident during this hot streak.

Bravery + confidence = sexy football. Stick that in the coaching manual...

A boring point from me...

By my reckoning, Manning needs us to win our remaining 4 fixtures for him to end the season with a 40% win ratio in his Bristol City tenure so far.

At all his previous clubs he had 46% or more.

2 hours ago, mozo said:

Shit! Air Friers is on?!!

2 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

It’s a must see. I learnt how to make Halloumi wrapped in Cornflakes the other day and according to Marcus Brigstocke, who wasn’t getting paid to say this, it was “delicious”. 
 

Sod the football, get me the ninja.

And to think you nearly tempted me away from the game tonight!

I would like to see @Shtanley and @petehinton doing one of these