mozo

26 minutes ago, Super said:

not gonna happen is it?

Here's a question... How many hat-tricks does that front 6 have this season? Maybe as many as 8?!!

19 minutes ago, Super said:

not gonna happen is it?

To then have Mainoo as another option is insane. Watkins isn't a bad back up to Kane either, albeit not done anything great for England yet.

29 minutes ago, Bris Red said:

I would be absolutely amazed if he is ever in contention for England again. We have far too much talent in the position he plays and even more coming through at u21 level and below. It would take a monumental turn around in form and consistency from Dele and also a manager who is willing to take a risk and block the pathway of a younger player coming through the England youth system. Cannot see it personally.

I think he realistically just needs to get back playing regular football again, i agree with @Fpcity actually that a move to Celtic or Rangers could be very good shout just to kickstart his career again.

I'd like to see him go back to MK Dons and become a club hero.

Realistically, he'll take the best contract he can get and will probably find himself at a club where there's too much pressure and he struggles to get minutes. 

Hope I'm wrong.

8 hours ago, And Its Smith said:

Very good interview with Dele Alli on MNF. He seems in a much better place now, mentally. Talking about wanting it again and being hungry. Only 28.  Will be interesting to see where he goes next.  Wants to go to the World Cup in 2026.  His priority needs to be going to somewhere where he will play. 

I'm not mocking him, and it's good that he's being ambitious, but realistically he's not going to get back to the level required for the England team.

14 minutes ago, 95red said:

Whoever  we sign under Manning  will be a waste ,20 games in he will be gone & history. Zero confidence  in the bloke .Yep I know 5 unbeaten  but that don't fool me ,80% of his football  been garbage. 

Yeah but 20% of the time it works every time 

38 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

If he changed his name to HonestGit he would still be living up to his name…….

You saying he's definitely a git? 

35 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Are you missing the words “far from” or have you seen the light

Game management klaxon! 

Edit disappeared 

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

Fair play to people who have a life that allows them the time to watch constant football. Genuinely I'm happy for you to have the time that allows you to indulge your hobby. That's not meant to come across as facetious.

I guess so long as there's enough of you guys around (and there clearly are) to watch the adverts during the game we'll keep going with more and more football shown on TV.

I don't have time for it, I just like to know it's there 

1 hour ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

Because, as I've noted elsewhere, sides that've been cack all season are suddenly revitalised by the need not to have a relegation on their CV, with attendant potential loss of income and career prospects. It really focuses the minds of lots of players. Results at Home Park, St Andrews and the New Den show Huddersfield's players aren't the only relegation-threatened team to play with a new urgency at this stage of the season. 

Same every year, and also a time where top end team have a wobble as pressure builds. Funny old game.

56 minutes ago, Jerseybean said:

My observations about our style of play are based on the Huddersfield game, however, much of what follows has been a recurring theme under Manning.

The approach seems to be a very cautious one based on keeping the ball, particularly in our own defensive third of the pitch, this results in passing sideways or backwards and making no progress forward whatsoever. At times, despite our defence being reasonably competent, we expose ourselves to the risk of losing the ball, which would probably lead to a goal for the opponents.

Eventually, when a ball is played forward, either because Max has to kick long or we attempt to play out of defence into midfield, most times we either pass to the opposition put it out of play or pass to a  City player who is so closely marked that it is almost guaranteed he ain’t gonna control the ball and we lose possession.

Furthermore, there is virtually no movement or forward options, meaning we play a very pedestrian, predictable, chess like game, which gets us absolutely nowhere. Not only is this very, very boring and frustrating to watch, it must also be pretty soul-destroying for the players themselves.

Against Huddersfield, we had 27% possession, the vast majority of which would’ve been in our own defensive third.

Playing with a lone striker (whether that be Conway or Wells), with no creativity in front of them, or much support alongside them, means that they are extremely isolated and highly unlikely to be able to do anything when they do receive the ball, other than try to win a foul or hold the ball up in order to play it backwards again.

I’m not a professional footballer or a professional coach, but I have played the game and did some basic coaching qualifications back in the day. What I remember is that in order to score you have to get into the other teams half and better still into or around their penalty box. In pure percentage terms, this might then lead to goal scoring opportunities. In  our case we are creating so few scoring opportunities that even if we had Haaland in our team, we wouldn’t score many.

Put simply we need to play football in the opponents half far more than we do and get the ball into their box far more than we do!

The mentality under LM seems to be play for a nil-nil. Keep the opponents at bay in the hope that we might sneak a goal by some means or another, to be fair this actually did happen in the Huddersfield game, as we were awarded a 100th minute penalty, to be totally honest we never looked like scoring from open play.

So in summary Manning-ball is like a chess game involving static players and sideways or backwards passing, mainly in our own half. It’s hard to watch, unlikely to lead to much goal scoring action and highly predictable. Given that I watch football for enjoyment, entertainment, and excitement I don’t like it at all.

Finally, the style is totally at odds with what the hierarchy communicated at the time of Manning‘s appointment when they suggested we were a front-footed team that wanted to be attacking, pressing and exciting. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention, to be in the top six.

It think Manning's post match comments were interesting and suggest that what we saw on Saturday is not how we intended to play:

"It was just the basics for me. Mistakes will happen, I’m okay with the lads making mistakes, you’re never going to see or play the perfect game of football it’s then the type of mistake. It was just a little bit too sloppy, we turned it over too cheaply, too passive with the ball, too passive with our running.

"When you have an unforced error, make sure you don’t follow it up with another one, make sure you can get back in credit. If you have a little period when they’re pressing, okay, don’t be afraid to spin them and get up the pitch that way.

“I thought we did that in the second half, I thought we started okay, there was a bit more purpose and intent, engaging them a little bit higher. We still didn’t work it into enough good areas like the other night but at least we carried more of a threat and there was more play in their half than in the first half.”

...

So... if you think Manning prefers to be passive, to not engage high up, to not work the ball into attacking areas, and not to carry a threat...you might be wrong.

We have seen in the last year that our players have struggled to execute the game plan, under two regimes.

Ultimately, Manning is responsible for our success, or lack thereof, but I'm certain that it was his fault that we crap in the first half on Saturday. Sometimes the players just don't execute.

14 minutes ago, GrumpyGit said:

Lucky to get a point.  Similar to watching paint dry.

No one can accuse you of not living up to your name...

21 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

What’s interesting about the Twine discussion is that it’s not really split on “factions” - whether people are more pro LM or LM doubters, this thread has mainly the same conclusion - that he’s not really worth the likely fee and, other than Lez doing his normal stuff, pretty much everyone is on a scale of doubting the signing to straight out not wanting to do it.

There is no question LM knows more about Twine than any of us, and he may see him as a puzzle piece that is only fully effective with the rest of the puzzle, but it’d be an odd scenario when we’ve all seen him that the majority of this thread is totally wrong.

 

There is also that possibility that Twine hasn't reproduced what he does on the training pitch when he's in the game  

Based on performances I'd say no to signing him, but bringing unknowables into account, I'll remain agnostic. 

If SL does an interview, I can guarantee we won't come out of it any happier!! 

I'd probably advise his to stay in his underground lair in the Channel Isles for a while.

What he'll probably do is a short interview for Radio Bristol in which he manages to enrage supporters with a snide comment about Nige, reference to fans needing to be more patient and understanding and and confirmation that we'll be cutting our cloth and going again with our Premier League ready squad.

1 hour ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

You said you trusted the judgement of Liam Manning over Nigel Pearson.

This is despite Liam Manning having no body of evidence behind him if developing youth as a manager. 

Just bizarre that you trust his judgement over someone who did have a massive body of evidence of developing youth as a manager. 

Yeboah didn't look anything like ready to me. I was a bit baffled that he was getting so many appearances. Just my opinion obvs

Football every day suits me.

9 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.

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).

8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

In my cherry picked selection, your posts have been worse

Fair

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

I think your form is off

Oh so you've cherry picked an arbitrary selection of Silvio's posts and manipulated the data to make a point???!! 

6 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 though Sheffield Wednesday looked up for it both times we played them.

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

According to Brian, LM picks the team, decides the tactics….as it should be imho.

It probably makes a bit of a mockery of manager v head coach role titles too, both pick the team, decide the tactics.  This is not a discussion about Nige’s role v Liam’s role.

43 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

One thing I’ve been consistent on - in support of Liam - is that he’s not Tinnions puppet. I don’t think you make the hard nosed moves he has without pure single mindedness, and his time with us has proven he feels his way is the right way. If that includes not playing academy he sure as hell won’t do it.
 

I think Tinnion probably thought a young coach would be malleable. I don’t think that’s the case here.

So we don't think Tinnion will try to assert authority if LM doesn't respect the pathway?

25 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Just to say that I do think this is a very fair point - and I agree that you don’t give “minutes for minutes sake” - the players have to be the required standard.

The counterpoint is twofold - he had the opportunity to play Jamie KL yesterday and didn’t despite him being around the first team squad regularly, but probably more pertinently over 3 years of management now he hasn’t brought one academy player through. It’s possible that MK Dons, Oxford and ourselves all don’t have any academy products of the required standard, but at some point that record goes on the coach and his willingness/ability to bring through academy players as opposed to the quality of the academy players themselves. And three years, across multiple clubs, is a pretty strong sample size overall.

The thing that always perplexes me though is, we have Tinnion who is Mr Pathway, and there's a perception out there that Manning is here to be Tinnion's henchman. So, does Manning have the authority to snub the pathway? Surely it's an ironclad part of his remit?

7 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

Only him and Max turned up……..

Roberts wasn't too bad. And, um, that's it.

11 minutes ago, petehinton said:

It’s been a real mess of a season from every angle, when you look at it properly objectively. 
 

- Board to not agree on whether to sack and replace current manager and coaching staff over the summer, before pre-season starts. Dily dally, leave it too late, have to stick with. 
 

- Sell best player after the season starts (I have no real gripe with, Alex wanted to go, was inevitable he was going to). Don’t allow money for ANY replacements. 

- Owner appears on local business podcast in his place of residence to discuss the deal. Allow that to be the only time he’s publicly heard from all year.

- CEO leaves by ‘mutual consent’ after basically flagging he has no idea why he was brought in because the owners son is allowed to do whatever he wants, to the commercial detriment of a club in commercial difficulty. 
 

- Publicly say ‘we don’t actually need a CEO with the new structure’. Appoint someone who’s essentially a good accountant as Group CEO of three sporting clubs. 
 

- Ask manager to resign when sitting 7th (?) in the table. Are shocked he doesn’t want to. Cause him to go nuclear in the press, because no one at the club can string a sentence together when speaking externally. 
 

- Sack relatively popular manager after spirited performance in the middle of an enormous injury crisis

- Realising you’ve massively misread the room, make things even worse and double down on saying the team should be pushing for promotion, trying to look ambitious to get the fans excited. Fans react by saying that’s unrealistic and naive. 
 

- Roll out the Chairman who knows nothing about medical or physical performance, to explain why the most senior and experienced medical professional the club has ever had has also been dismissed. Proceed to pick up more muscle injuries than you had before sacking. 
 

- Say we have a clear playing identity from ‘first team to u11s’ which is front foot, high press, and aggressive. Proceed to appoint a head coach who built his teams to be very methodical, slow in their build up and keeping possession as much as possible. 
 

- Magically make budget available in January that wasn’t available in the summer in trying to bring in an attacking midfielder, key to the head coach’s style of play despite saying the squad is the best we’ve ever had at this level and just needed a better coach to move us on. 
 

- Lose out on number 1 target, so loan in a player for 4 months with no buy option, because you didn’t want to pay the fee that the parent club will probably still demand in the summer. 
 

- Sign a relatively unknown youth prospect with an option to buy. Blame lack of game time in Belgium due to mysterious (or made up?) visa issues. Proceed to not play him. 
 

- Sign 2 players on a permanent, but loan them back to their parent clubs, not strengthening the squad depth or quality in any way. 
 

- Sign a very promising young player from Ireland. Lie & say he is currently doing a 3 month ‘mini pre season’ to hide that he’s injured and can’t train or play. 
 

- Head coach near enough admits he can’t play the way he wants to, and way he was brought in to, with the squad he has. 
 

- In the middle of very poor run of results and performances with ST renewals on the horizon, Technical Director to appear on local radio and disclose confidential information as he can’t answer hard questions. Interview to have corrections added to it when published in local written press. 
 

- In the same poor run, head coach is clearly concerned for his job so out of nowhere implies the squad is weaker than last years, so maybe expectations should be lowered. 
 

- To get people excited for new year, use main striker who Technical Director has publicly admitted has rejected 3 contract offers in pictures and videos for ‘more of this to come next season’ comms. 
 

Have I missed anything?

Totally agree with all of that. 

Interestingly, comms/PR is a big part of the problem, as many of your examples refer to bodged communication. 

Genuinely, I could do better PR for the club, and so could you Pete. It's a really important part of the club's relationship with the fans and it has been shocking for years.

I'm not totally against our recruitment because some of it has been really good, but I would love a proper DoF; someone with experience. 

Unfortunately, our billionaire owner won't pay good money for that.

25 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I effing did, from way back too!

I called out structure v structure (sterile v sterile) relatively early on.

I’m not sure it has worked that well tbqh.  But I’ve written at length why, no need to repeat.

Cup games, Southampton to name the obvious (from memory, we used the block?)

16 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Yeah, just go back to Max, it is frustrating, but we saw at Huddersfield (a) what happens when the angle isn’t there (Tanner).

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.