RedRock

Ref was indeed pretty poor, but VAR was abject and England totally clueless. Good job the evening wasn’t entirely wasted though with that Belly air-kick, followed be an exquisite pass, for an assist which made the combined 200 minutes of watching England’s ‘elite’ teams worthwhile. Now just itching to see our new front-foot, aggressive, high pressing team destroy Boro in a Saturday festival of football.

So annoying ….. and that’s just Dion ’Something's going to happen here’ Dublin. Does he know what a football foul is? Two blatant fouls late in the second half which Dublin says ‘that’s not a foul’. What!?!

So, according to Dion Dublin, that’s not a penalty as it involved the upper body. Have I missed a change in the laws? Have they hybridised football and rugby?

A excellent dummy I’d say, finished with a nice lay-off.

Sammy… miss… hit…assist!

Defence all over the place, need Maguire on to steady the ship ………. or, possibly, sink it. Why are we playing in Netherlands Orange?

Match now streaming on You Tube. Is Sam a sub?

Inductee to the ‘Dolman Early’ Club here. Gently, nodded off during later periods of the first half and then finally lost the will to live on the 60 minute mark and went off to bed. May be watching Gareth Southgate’s England could be added to NHS sleep therapy courses. Woeful. Just really awful.

Well, frankly, the LM approach seems the polar opposite to Warnock’s ‘get in their faces/up and at ‘em lads’’ . As a Warnock ‘old school’ fan, I’ll try and keep an open mind to this new FA way. May be this is what the new modern footballer responds best too. Our players and hierarchy now have got their modern, ‘fashionable’ manager let’s hope they respond positively with winning, attractive football. The LJ bullshitometer will be reset though in readiness.

A Par 10 here.

Struth. I know he’s be out injured for a long time, but he’s aged 20 years since I saw him last.

Think it depends on length of support, game ‘experiences’, where you’ve lived as to who you consider our rivals to be, my 1-4 order in edgy, tense, atmospheric games would be:- 1) Sags 2) Cardiff 3) Millwall 4) Brum The likes of Swansea, Muff, Pompey all jostling for attention behind that group. Swindon, oddly, never really registered as a rival despite being my first away day.

May have missed it, but wasn’t the new stand supposed to be ‘temporary’? Has ‘temporary’ been very quietly dropped? So the Sags have a retro 1950’s ‘new’ stand, quite possibly, as a permanent addition to their museum of comedic sporting structures. Of their range of exhibits I still rate the 2020 close season upgrade of a single door fibreglass canopy my favourite. Their pride in revealing that canopy on social media captured the essence of tinpotness perfectly.

The grass is always greener …. oh, hang on. Next week we will see a posting by his Agent of him posing by a street sign in Bemmy declaring his undying love for BCFC and that he never wanted leave in the first place.

The Sags by a country mile. Unless, that is, you are talking to a Sag in which case it’s Bristol Manor Farm so as just to emphasise to them how insignificant their little, odious Club are. The Monopoly board makers know!

I really liked Nige. Loved his approach and ‘buy in’ to us, the fact he cleansed the Club and helped make/save the Club a fortune by his management of younger players. At the same time he kept us in the division, comfortably, while we were ‘transitioning’. I also ‘get’ that he didn’t suffer fools - as determined by himself - gladly so would have been a challenge to manage for some, and made some mistakes on transfers, subs and tactics. I also see that progress was slow, entertainment value was depressingly scarce and the old chestnut, our massive injury list, had raised its ugly head again. The hierarchy, who bravely stuck by Nige when many were calling for his head last Winter, have made an equally brave call now. This new management team won’t be perfect either. It seems though now we have a united, not divided, management/hierarchy team, a likely fresh approach on the pitch and all trying to deliver success. May be, just may be, if we all start pulling in the same direction we may get somewhere. While it may be difficult, given our respect for Nige, we need to get behind this new regime. It’s going to take a while to be comfortable with ‘Manning’s Red Army’ but as with an ex-wife, there comes a time to move on. Analysing the body language and words, in micro-detail, of ‘the heirachy/management’ ain’t going to help. Let’s just see over the next 3 months what happens on the pitch.

Not sure whether either is strong enough to play a holding/blocker type forward that can stand their ground against a couple of centre backs, which the other can play off. Maybe I’m getting old and the game has moved on from that style of play at Championship level though. Wells seems to work -although sometimes I think may be I’m grasping at straws! Don’t see why Andi or Cornick can’t do the same if they were given the chance. Either of those potentially have more goals in them than Wells as an added bonus.

Really hope, second to setting a decent scouting network up, the new management team focus on establishing playing partnerships in the team. We haven’t got any of note, aside possibly from the centre backs. We’re a dysfunctional mess up front. They've had two under 21 matches now since they arrived to assess whether JL and Tins judgement that we have established a pool of young talent to draw on to bolster the first team is correct. The two defeats, with a woeful performance at Cardiff, may have already led them to their conclusions. If so, they need to start using the Under 21s as a testing ground for first team partnerships. That’s how the Conway/Wells partnership developed. So next week vs Swansea play Weimann, as lead striker, and Bell behind upfront. Never know, it may just work. Then throw Mehmetti on for Bell later on to see if that chemistry works. We need to start experimenting. Constant use of the same old ‘solutions’ will continue to get us nowhere fast.

Gotta save that one … 0-2. Pity. We have some players that could compete look strong, composed with skills, but are carrying some that look like they’re running a treacle and tragically, make so many unforced errors.

Think Manning’s body language was a give away. He was desperately disappointed by the performance and, rather than tweaks, he’s thinking this is a far bigger job than he was sold/realised. On his ‘surprise’ starters, think all of us were hoping that Mehmeti would respond positively to someone who believed in him and a new slate. Weimann, maybe a new set up would rejuvenate him. Nope, both fails. Personally, wouldn’t entirely give up on Mehmeti just yet but the guy is running out of chances. Weimann, the only way I’d play him now is to experiment with him as the lead forward with Conway tucked in behind. Underwhelming start but let’s hope Manning is a quick learner. Needs 3 months, including the transfer window, to see where we are heading with any clarity imo.

I’ve heard they’ve applied for planning permission. In other news, they’ve interviewed four girders today and expect to appoint one tomorrow.

Ummm….. so he was great as a raw teenager but declined to pretty average in his twenties because he’s not receptive to processes. I think a contrary view might be (as I, indeed, argued at the time) keep the coaches as far away as possible from him so they don’t fill his head with ‘processes’ and just allow his natural flair and ability to develop. Anyhows, done to death. There is a clear majority on here in favour of processes, so I’ll wish LM all the best and just hope he delivers the sort of attractive, entertaining, winning football we all want. A top half finish will do me this Season as long as I see tangible progress.

Well, if it were someone like Matt Le Tiss, George Best, Stan Bowles et al, who were renown bad trainers but absolute geniuses and match winners on the pitch, then probably Player A. Genuine thanks though for explaining your view. I do get some of it, but I still fear ‘over-coaching and over-thinking things’ of which process-led play is an indicator - at least for me - has an adverse, not beneficial, impact on player and team performance. Anyhows, let’s pray whatever approach LM uses it provides us with entertaining, attractive and winning football. Onwards and, hopefully, upwards. COYRs.

OK, I think we’ll have to agree to differ as I would maintain that movement is most definitely intuitive. Human reaction times are proven to be amazing in a variety of situations. I don’t see why a footballer needs ‘process training’ to react to a situation. I suppose it’s a difference between instinctive footballers and others. I look at Rashford who was an instinctive, intuitive, ‘natural’ footballer and see what ‘process’ has done to him, as well as many others.

He’s had one of those ‘bulldog chewing a stinging nettle’ faces since Alex left. Probably ‘cause Nige gave him a right bolloxing for revealing he was injured on Twitter. Only time he appeared happy was when he scored those belters at Rotherham. Hoping to see his smiling face again soon. It suites him.