Bristolcityyatton

OS has been updated with the fixture list and doesn't have the Oxford friendly...

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/fixtures-results/mens-first-team/202324-fixtures/

1 hour ago, citywest30 said:

I think it is really important we get a few younger but experienced pros. Our current ones are the wrong side of 30 - James, King, Weimann, Wells, Naismith, Kalas, if he stays, and other than Vyner and Cornick, there is a gap to the younger players.

I am really hoping we bring in 2 or 3 players in the 25-29 range to provide experience with legs as the older ones start playing less.

And Bryan is a quality player. As others had said, if his name wasn't Bryan and this was another player who had the same career history, we would all be raving about getting in such a good player from out of contract.

The mix of the squad is looking quite good if we get Bryan and McCrorie.

As you say, we have James, King, Weimann, Wells, Naismith who are all 30 -35 and then either or both of Kalas (recently turned 30) and Bryan (30 in september)

O'Leary, Pring, Atkinson, Vyner, Williams, Sykes, Cornick, McCrorie will all be 25 to 29 next season. 

And then all the promising younger players.

12 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

And some of the games he missed in 19/20 were because Marley Watkins bust his cheekbone!!

ah yeh, thats a really good point - can't blame him for that.

I would rather he stayed. Naismith, Atkinson, Vyner and Kalas would be a good set of centre backs. Hopefully next season knight-lebel and maybe Araoye will get their chance too.

4 hours ago, Simon bristol said:

I get it, but he hasnt been worth the transfer fee or overall as far as i can see. I think he would do well in a European league somewhere, extending kalas at this point it seems to me will only end up being another big contract with not a lot of benefit on the pitch?

On his day a fit Kalas would still be a top member of the squad but his availability has not been great since joining city.  

155 games in 5 seasons is 31 games per season. Even if you take out this season its 147 in 4 seasons - 36 games a season.

Compared to Weimann who has played 195 games in the same 5 seasons, despite his injury a couple of years back. Or Flint who played 246 in 5 years. 

Vyner with 122 games in the last 3 seasons has better availability despite being out of form/favour for periods. 

16 minutes ago, Johnr1986 said:

Interesting starting 11 , no Atkinson and cornick over wells ,Weimann & bell , not writing cornick off yet but he hasn’t really done anything apart form 45mins against boro to suggest he should be starting over  the other 3 . 

Yeh my thought process was just that Atkinson will start the season injured and have to work his way back in. With cornick being a recent signing I presume he'll be starting once he gets up to speed. Like you say he hasn't done enough so far though. 

I was just playing with formations to try and fit Bryan and pring in the same team. I would actually prefer 4 at the back with Bryan and pring competing at left back but it seems a bit over the top to have two players of that quality for one position. I guess if we can afford it and Pearson can keep them both happy it would be great. 

2 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

Nige has preferred to play with a front 2 at a lot of his previous clubs. We won't change formations for one player but we could bring in players to play a certain formation/system. 

I'm not sure if we will stick with playing 433. I think we may go for a 442 or even back to 352. 

At Watford Nige liked his wide midfielders to come infield and press.. This is the role I think Cornick may have been brought in for. 

Lots of us have suggested Bryan could play CM so if Nige was looking for a wide left midfielder who could come infield and press, he could be well suited to that role. 

I know a lot of people say formations do not matter that much and there is a need to be flexible over the course of a season but I do think that the players we have, and the players we are rumoured to be signing don't really fit that well in the current formation. I also think we have too many forward options to play with just a front two !

The under 21s have been playing a 3-4-3 for a few weeks now, and I wonder if we will see this next year (or maybe against QPR as a trial ?)

o'leary

vyner - naismith - pring

sykes - mccrorie - james - bryan

cornick - conway - mehmeti

4 minutes ago, RoystonFoote'snephew said:

The name of the stadium is not political, simply the Spanish name for the Falkland Islands. The city of Mendoza however is clearly political having been named after Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza y Manrique, 5th Marquis of Canete, a 16th century Governor of Chile and a Viceroy of Peru. 

It does seem like a political statement. The name was changed after the Falklands war according to Wikipedia and there doesn't seem to be any other reason to name it after a group of disputed islands 2000km away from the stadium other than to make a point. 

26 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64835082

 

14 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Team for today.

3412 I reckon:

Haikin

Leeson Idehen Wood

Wilson OT-C Owers Morrison

Francois

SPH Thomas

Interesting to see how Haikin performs.

No Zak Bell or  Knight-Lebel.... maybe rested in case they need to be on the bench for the first team ?

18 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

Group already won, Newcastle already out

Looks like a change to 4-3-3, the same as the first team ?

Haven't seen Francois mentioned for a while, has he been injured ?

21 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Just kicked off:

 

Does anyone have any information about how Sam Pearson is getting on ? He seemed to be on his way out in the summer, had a loan at Yeovil, and has now returned and started the last 2 under 21 games. From the lineups it looks like he's playing upfront and seems to be involved in good attacking play, scoring or assisting.

On 08/09/2022 at 20:22, Davefevs said:

 

Don't know if I'm being dumb, but who are the other two keepers with Bentley and O'Leary?

1 hour ago, spudski said:

It was good to watch the U23s last .

The one thing that stood out for me from previous seasons, is how more prepared the U23s are physically. They didn't get bossed at all that way...in it was their initial physicality that set a tone.

I stood half next to the dug out. It was informative in how they wished to play, move , and comments on individual players .

Both City loanees to Yate played well, which must have been strange to be playing against your own team. Tins was especially of some of the play by Taylor-Clarke.

For me, especially half, Joe Low stood out as a good prospect for the future. He's a man ...physical, , good vision and , good eye for a pass. 

City were constantly being instructed to move the ball fast and forward through the lines. To keep moving forward. To look forward. It was very noticeable. Less going sideways.

Harry Leeson coped well against a physical opposite number. He did have a tendency to switch off positionally though...constantly being made aware of his positioning.

Other comments about Palmer-Houlden not being correctly positionally aware at crosses. Not anticipating quickly enough. 

All in all a good run out.

 

interesting comments, thanks for reporting.

was josh owers playing left wingback ? We seem a bit short of leftback/wingbacks in the academy

1 hour ago, AshtonRobin21 said:

I don't believe that is the purpose of signing Sykes. 

His style of play is solely attacking. He can play centrally or out wide right. 

Nige said before that we don't have any wide players, and we don't have any defensive midfielders. This signing addresses one of those issues. 

I would certainly expect an 'out and out' right back to arrive this summer. 

Is he attacking enough to be weimann's understudy ? Sounds like he has similar energy.

40 minutes ago, frenchred said:

Since when has been the real world?

I meant its the equivalent of the first year at university or the first year in the real world !

12 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Out of interest how does the sequence go?

• 1st year scholar
• 2nd year scholar
• pro

yeh thats how I understood it.

with 1st year scholar being basically equivalent to school year 12, 2nd year scholars being year 13 and first year pros being equal to the first year of university (or the real world!)

Pretty sure you can sign a contract at 17 though, so the most promising youngsters will sign pro before they would normally finish their scholarship - like kadji, bell and leeson did this season (I think so, anyway)

Its not entirely clear from this article but are Taylor-Clarke, Palmer-Houlden, Knight-Lebel and Boyd all currently second year scholars...  the same as Zac Bell, Kadji and Leeson who have already signed pro deals?

Callum Wood I think is the same age group as Benarous, Scott and Marley Francois ? currently first year pro, going to be second year pro next season. Big vote of confidence in him seeing as he's not played first team football yet.

Anyone know which age group Tommy Backwell is in ?

Lots of young players whose contract status I'm not sure of... Buse, Owers, Soady, Taylor, etc

Final thought: the future looks bright for young centre backs: Towler, Idehen, Low, Wood, Knight-Lebel all on long(ish) term contracts.

8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

 

Not entirely sure from the teamsheet but looks like a back 4 ? Soady-wood-Idehen-Z. Bell . Think the last under23 lineup was a back 4 as well after mainly playing with a 3 this season. Could be Pearson's influence if he is hoping to play 433 next season...

I suppose the other option is benarous might have played left wing back again 

35 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

…and that’s the hard bit.  Until we either move a player or two on, or create some budget with re-contracting those players we paid fees for who have a year left, we really can’t move.  We’ve seen how difficult it is to move on players you don’t want when they are on wages that nobody else will pay.  Mutual termination weakens our position, for any posters thinking that is the way to get rid of them.

If we can arrive in with anything like a stronger, better balanced squad (on paper) it will have been a very successful summer.  We are being massively hampered by what has gone on previously.  The likelihood is that the summer feels more like inching towards what Pearson wants, rather than striding into next season.

We have to get through next season with Championship status intact as a bare minimum.  That sounds like setting the bar incredibly low, but until we see who moves and what budget it creates it’s really a massive unknown.  As it stands even bringing is a “George Tanner” is out of budget currently.

I guess we will start to build the when we know what is happening to those OOC this summer Baker:

• Andy King
• Robbie Cundy
• Callum O’Dowda
• Timm Klose
• Nathan Baker

Then we are into the likes of the players with no future (alleged / speculation) or too costly to keep based on minutes:

• Taylor Moore
• Tyreeq Bakinson
• Kasey Palmer
• Nahki Wells

can we get a fee and all of their wages picked up?  Here’s hoping.  If someone like Palmer doesn’t want to leave, we are stuck with the best part of £2m tied up.

and then we are into those with a year left who cost us fees:

• Tomas Kalas
• Dan Bentley
• Han-Noah Massengo

It really is gonna be a nervy summer.

Whats left might not be what Pearson wants, just that he can’t “trade” them either!  Sorry to depress OTIB on a sunny, Sunday .

 

I think Dasilva only has a year left too ?

You could probably add Vyner to the list of players with no future.

I guess they're not really part of what you're discussing but there's players like Morton, Janneh and Britton who are low earners on the very fringes of the first team but also need to be moved on.

Overall, more than half the squad have question marks over their future!

1 hour ago, GrahamC said:

On 14 goals in 28 starts after last night, no penalties (what are they?) or free kicks are included in that tally, so he’s already scored the highest number of goals in a season for us since Bobby Reid back in 2017/18 & if he stays fit then he needs 5 more in the last 18 games to match him.

Not bad for someone who was the constant source of criticism from one podcast, eh? Where someone seriously once used the phrase “not quite stealing a living” about him..

Brilliant professional who always puts the team first, fantastic value for money at £2m & the decision to get him to sign a new contract on much lower terms last summer looks to be a better one by the week.

Be great and a just reward for his all-round effort and improved finishing if he could get to 20 league goals for the season. I think only Tammy and Nicky Maynard have hit 20 at this level since I've been watching City.