Harry

Maybe James was down as the 5th penalty taker. Which more often than not is the real pressure one? We had Cornick, Bell, Wells & Mehmeti take pens. We don’t know who the 5th was. But only James & Williams were likely, as I doubt Tanner, Vyner, Dickie or Lebel were up for it? That’s all we had. If James had taken it and missed I’d imagine you’d be saying “why didn’t Bell take one - he’s a striker”

In the grand scheme of things. Yes. But let’s take tonight in isolation. With Roberts & McCrorie needing to go off at 60, please tell me who your back 4 would have been?

I think I recall one vs Bournemouth in the early rounds of the JPT (or whatever it was called then, Auto Windscreens maybe)

For the record, I’m not ‘pro manning’. I’m just willing to give the bloke a chance (ie more than 10 games before writing him off). Facts are, Roberts clearly could only manage 60 minutes. So who goes to left back? Maybe Tanner? But then if you stay a back 4, he’s your right back. So if Tanner goes left back, who goes right back? We ought to remember that we have 14 first team players available tonight, with the 2 starting full backs returning from lengthy injuries. As I said on page 3 earlier. We are bare bones FC again tonight. So the subs were always gonna be rough.

Roberts has to have his minutes managed. He hasn’t played for 4 months. McCrorie has to have his minutes managed. He lost half his pelvis, didn’t play for 8 months. Knight runs 57 miles every game. He needs a rest sometimes. You realise that the players minutes are managed to the nth degree with all the sports scientists. All 3 were likely told they have 60 minutes today. I highly doubt Manning would have wanted to make those changes when he did. I mean, are some people so anti Manning that they think his thought process was “we’re playing really well here against a Prem team, we’re on top of the game and looking good. I know what I’ll do, I’ll purposely make us worse by taking off one of my best players and totally change the team shape” ??

Who would you have put at left back then?

Is it on Teletext?

Radio saying we’re playing a back 3 with Roberts as LCB and Mehmeti as wing back. Can anyone confirm?

Yep. I think we are ‘Bare Bones FC’ again tonight. If James isn’t fit we’ve only really got 14 players with first team experience. That includes 1 OAP in King and 2 full backs who are only just recovering from long term injuries (McCrorie & Roberts). So really only 11 players who have been ‘regular’ starters this season. I hear Courtney Sweetman Kirk on Talksport hasn’t done her research. Just on H&J show and she said “Forest may want to rest players so this gives Bristol City an advantage as they’ll be able to play a full strength team”. Not very likely!!

I had the same thought. And then I remembered ……

That wasn’t the point I was making. The point I was making was that, no matter who is the manager/head coach, a football club will always sign players and not rely solely on players from their academy that they have to ‘coach up’.

The Seagull is blinded by his love for Nige. He thinks that because we now have Liam in that we don’t need to sign any more players and that the academy kids should all be ‘coached up’ to top level championship players. He conveniently forgets that Nigel signed the following players : Danny Simpson, Matty James, Andy King, Rob Atkinson, Timm Klose, Duncan Idehen, George Tanner, Tim ApSion, Ben Acey, Ewan Clark, Kane Wilson, Kal Naismith, Mark Sykes, Stefan Bajic, Nikita Haikin, Anis Mehmeti, Harry Cornick, Rob Dickie, Ross McCrorie, Haydon Roberts, Jason Knight, Taylor GardnerHickman & Lewis Thomas. I can only assume that he thinks that none of those players should have been signed because we should have ‘coached up’ the academy lads and that we should now be starting with Zac Bell, Araoye, KnightLebel, Kadji, Casa Grande, Leeson, Rose, Yeboah, Joseph James, Nelson etc etc. So yeah, I’m pretty sure the Seagull thinks that having hired Manning we shouldn’t have to sign any more players ever again.

The only first team player who you’ve listed who plays the same position as Medube is Sykes. Medube is a right winger. Twine is a 10. Mehmeti is a left winger. Yeboah is a youth player. The rest are strikers.

I was only quoting what the seagull said was the plan. He said the plan was to not get relegated and that it was clear for all of us to see. Yet by the same token he thought that under Pearson we could make the playoffs? So I’m unsure exactly what the plan was that he is referring to. Was it to avoid relegation or was it to make playoffs? But I believe he also refers to the plan as being a team set up to counter attack and win through grit and determination (and all those intangibles). I don’t think that sort of plan will get you promoted from this league. A counter attacking team will get you some great results away from home but it won’t make your home form any sort of fortress (and its home form that will carry you the most points and be the base from which a promotion push is built). As I’ve always said, the home form needs to improve and without that we won’t go anywhere. So that plan doesn’t work. Yes, it’s great that under Pearson’s tenure he established a gritty, determined team ethic. But if that was the only plan then it won’t work without increased confidence in possession and the sprinkling of some stardust too. And I firmly believe that Manning is in the process of creating that extra something that we’d need to marry up with the grit and determination.

So the plan was to not get relegated. What was the next bit?

Your eyes are wide shut when it comes to the new manager though. Your strict allegiance to Nige means you wouldn’t recognise a Manning plan if you walked down Plan Street, turned into Plan Lane, over Plan Bridge, along Plan canal, into the Plan shop, perused the Plans in the window and a Plan came up and smacked you in the face screaming “Hey, Look. I’m a PLAN”.

Exactly Dave. I think some people think we should never sign anyone again. They seem to think we can reach the Premier League by just continually churning out players from the academy. Ain’t gonna happen. As for pathway blocking. Just because this kid is 19, why is he considered to be blocking a pathway whereas is we’d signed someone who was 28 would not be considered to be doing so? Maybe it’s a simple fact that there aren’t any players coming through this current age group who we think can step up in the next 2-3 years. As for Sam Bell - maybe the new manager doesn’t think he’s capable of taking us any higher. Maybe he sees him as a mid to lower champ player and we want to bring in upper level champ players. Having a successful academy doesn’t mean we can’t sign young players.

Well he’s updated his LinkedIn and has had over 700 responses from coaches interested in hearing him out.

I see they managed to get rid of Teddy Jenks today - loaned to Ross County. Possibly the worst player I’ve seen at league 2 level. Really really bad!

Should be a great appointment for FGR. But he really does have his work cut out. They’ve been terrible all season. Unless he can very quickly get 2 or 3 of his own signings in, it’s gonna be very tough. But I certainly hope he can do it - as my local club and pretty much my 2nd team really, as I tend to get to around 10-15 games a season up there.

Sorry Silvio I completely missed this reply. Yes, I certainly acknowledge that the key passes referenced were from set pieces. My initial response where I mentioned this was to the poster who basically said “oh, he gave it away every time”. I was simply saying “well his performance was good enough for me”. My main point in my first post on this thread was that he allowed us to play differently. He offered a pass to feet in central areas. Thats the big thing that’s been missing from our game for a long long time. I wouldn’t say my praise of Twine was overly gushing - it was just that I saw his ability to offer something different. Yes, he did give the ball away a number of times - actually more than he normally would to be fair, and about 8 of those were in the first 20 minutes, so perhaps he can be excused for having only had 1 training session with the team prior to going straight into the lineup. I’ve watched the game back now and I counted 13 times where Twine was able to receive a ball to feet, facing his own goal. Thats the missing link. Thats what will allow us to play quicker from the back. We haven’t seen those sort of numbers in years! Once he gets familiar with his teammates he should be able to succeed in a few more passes.

Should be confirmed soon. Wonder if Cotts might tap up his old mate Keith Burt. Because the recruitment at FGR over the last 18 months has been shocking.

Indeee he did. After leaving the gas due to Barton humiliating him and no one else at the club willing to stand up for him.

Yep. I think Tetek has played for Serbia u21’s, so they’ll no doubt have some decent standard of players at that level. I’ll be keeping my eye on these 2 (Tolaj & Tetek). Both can definitely play higher.

How could the away numbers have only been 512 when they’d sold 803 2 days before the game?