Spike

The worst part of that goal was even if Bentley had got more on it there were 3 Hull players chasing in the follow up with not a single City player chasing them.

Well, this is about as City as it gets.

Game over, 13 minutes or not we're toothless going forward and can't stay focused in defence. Be nice just to see the ball stay on the floor from us too.

I struggle to see how you think this. Sheff Utd were on the same points as us going into this game, if they win this they go midtable, if we win it we go midtable but watching this match so far we look miles away from getting anything. I think we'll survive relegation but only because Barnsley and Peterborough are having an awful season and Derby had the points deduction. I mean if Reading hadn't of had the points deduction they'd currently be 3 points above us too.

Another game where we've conceded due to awful defending, 3 centre backs and we had a 10 foot gap in the middle for the goal, I don't think formation will ever work for us as the spacing of the back three is always pulled apart.

Almost gave away a goal, making no effort to chase balls etc, just because he followed up for a flick on it doesn't excuse his poor performance prior to the goal.

Totally against the run of play and from a long throw in, will take it but we won't stay ahead if we don't tighten up and start playing better football.

How on earth are we not losing already? We look shaky at the back and toothless going forward.

I would say Scott is at least trying to push them back. All in all it's mostly the younger players that play with confidence, they just lack good players around them to lead them. Bakinson looks all over the place today mind.

Something need to change with our defence, we just look completely incapable of showing confidence in defence, I thought that's what Atkinson brings, he makes the odd mistake but as a whole he looks so much more comfortable on the ball.

That could have been a penalty and then awful marking allows them to hit the post. I don't rate this 3 at the back lark, it just doesn't work in the championship.

I honestly have to disagree, whilst better than we've seen recently I still think we look mentally at our weakest that we've been in the last 10 years. The ability is there, the players are arguably some of the better defenders we've had in that time period but in terms of their mental strength we're rightfully where we should be in the league. Far too often you see a wild swing at a ball and when we lose the ball in attack you can almost see how concerned the defending players are with their shape and how easily they are pulled out of position. I don't think Kalas is as good as he is viewed, in terms of ability he's very much a Premier League player but he needs to be led and Baker is not the man to lead him, nor is any of our players. Kalas is an incredible 2nd man of a defensive centre back pairing but in order to make him play at his best he needs a very confident centre back to play alongside, one who leads and is vocal enough to keep him focused so his true ability shines. Baker is another decent centre back with ability but he really does lose concentration too often which was clearly on display for the equaliser today when he lost the main threat that Blackburn had. All in all I think we should be playing 4 at the back, the 3-5-2 isn't too bad when the back three are confident but when they are not it just allows the opposition to make them doubt their positioning and as soon as Blackburn matched our wing backs today it nullified all of the threat we had from wide positions. We should be playing a 4-3-3 using width so that when we have to defend we can collapse into a 4-5-1 giving the full backs support with our younger players and still having the midfield packed to avoid being caught in the middle. If I were Pearson I'd be doing whatever was possible to bring in a striker who can play in the middle by himself, Martin isn't that bad but he's certainly not good enough to be our key striker and Wells just doesn't seem to be capable of playing on his own either, he's very much best suited in a standard front two partnership. One thing I'd like to see us do is play the 4-3-3 like so: I still think we need a better right back who has the pace to keep up with fast wide players so Simpson would have to do as I don't think Vyner always reacts quick enough to threats which leaves us venerable out wide. I'm not a huge O'Dowda fan either but with the squad we have he is the right man to play that wide left position. The strengths I think we'd have in this line up is that Scott and Weimann would be able to rotate positions as Weimann is great at making runs into wide positions creating gaps so by having him start in the middle this would allow Scott to cut inside and Weimann make his wide runs drawing out players. Scott is more than capable at running at defenders hence I'd have him looking to cut inside and run at defenders causing the opposition defence to have to react to Weimanns runs as well as Scott running at players, this would cause a lot of difficulty for center backs. I'd have Massengo advanced on the right side too when attacking as he's more than capable to creating problems but his energy would also allow him to chase the ball if Scott or Weimann were to lose it meaning it would prevent quick counters. James would be ideal in filling gaps, his experience and positioning would give Massengo a little more freedom when going forward and with Williams sitting deeper we'd have a little more cover should Massengo be caught out. I'd Atkinson play alongside Kalas because despite Kalas being the more experienced of the two I think Atkinson shows a lot more confidence on the ball and in defending and I think this would benefit Kalas. I think Pearson is trying to create balance in the starting line ups but the issue we have is that when playing 3 at the back our centre backs do not look natural, they look like they are constantly trying to figure out who should be dealing with what threat, I'd see us get back to basics, have the two at the back with our full backs concentrating on defence first and attacking support second hence I'd take Pring over DaSilva as I think DaSilva is already set in his ways, Pring is younger and could be taught to focus on his defensive side as a priority. All of this aside I think we really need to be looking for new clubs for Martin and Wells as soon as we can and should be looking to bring in a solid right back and a striker who looks to draw defenders out of position with pacey runs and who is more of a "fox in the box" type striker.

Same old City, even when we dominate the game we conceded a stupid goal. The more I watch our defence the more I'm convinced they have the ability but not the mentality. We need a proper leader who inspires confidence at the back

Well the complaint is about so many threads right? Of course there are going to be loads of threads when we throw away yet another game in the final minutes. The part about the big back balances and so on is regarding the players, they're the only ones who aren't going to be upset or pissed off as they are showing no heart at all, they're just picking up their pay and waiting until next week to do it all over again. I don't see the issue with loads of threads, if anything our fans need to vent more than ever as we've gone from being a club who were on the up and had talent galore to being a spineless club with no leader on the pitch. We cashed in on all of our players with talent and are now stuck in a hole with an overpaid squad who don't show any heart with the exception of a few who can't do everything. I say let the threads keep coming, the more the fans get heated the more the board need to do something and I'm not talking about getting rid of Pearson, I'm talking about getting rid of the shit players that you can tell he doesn't want and who are just here to pick up their money and go home.

I mean we could all join the players in accepting defeat each week and go back to the comfort of our fancy homes that are fully paid for and our bulging bank balances.... what do you mean most people don't have those things?!

I think I just didn't explain myself very clearly, I was talking about a striker that stood out based on their own ability. Reid is a fair shout in general, I did say in my opening post that Tammy wasn't ours so I thought the implication that I was talking about players who were ours was clear enough but I do admit I wasn't clear enough. I'm still interested to see who our stand out strikers in terms of their own ability and resolve are. I think when it comes to play off, own ability strikers we've not had a genuine star striker of our own since I was young. We've had stand out strikers but they've been more down to the league we were in or the quality around them. Since selling our best midfielders I don't think any striker has a chance of being prolific for us unless we can find that true stand out striker based on his own ability.

Reid - 19 goals in his only season as a striker but sold. Also had talents like Brownhill, Eliasson and Bryan in the team. I also don't think teams saw him as a threat as he was new to the position and he hasn't been as effective since as he's been found out. He was very much a part of a much stronger attacking team, not really a stand out but more of a player in a well balanced team. Tammy Abraham - never our player, never was going to be. Amazing talent but a loan that didn't cost us and an almost impossible to replicate striker. Kodjia - As mentioned before, a bargain at £2.7m and another type of striker we just can't afford in our current situation. Wilbraham - great player, great bloke but certainly not a striker that teams feared or that anyone would say was stand out. Scored his big number in League one in a stand out team in a lower league, wouldn't even be considered a threat in the Championship. My point of this was that even looking at these players who may have scored a fair amount of goals they still weren't players that scared other teams with the exception of Abraham and they are still players of a quality that we couldn't afford now. We have so many people cussing out Wells, Martin and Weimann but realistically who could we have signed this summer that we could afford and would be seen as a genuine threat in the Championship? Last season our top goalscorer was Wells, he managed 10 goals. The season prior to that it was Fammy with 12, he was also the top goalscorer the season before that with 13 and it was only one more season prior to this that Bobby scored his 19. We've not had a prolific goalscorer in 3 seasons and have less talent up front now than we've had in arguably the last 10 years but we also have no signs of getting a prolific scorer. We can't buy one, we don't have the money and we don't seem to have any youngsters of that quality that will become a prolific goalscorer anytime in the next few years. Add to that the fact our midfielders are toothless when coming forward and we've not had a genuine wide threat for a long time and our position makes a lot more sense. So my point was that we've not had a stand out striker for a long time, maybe we've had goalscorers but they've scored those goals largely down to a better quality of player around them creating the chances for them. Tammy is the only real talent we've had that Championship teams would have fought for in a very long time and he was a loan, he never was our player.

So looking at these names Reid was a discovery of a player who couldn't play in the role where he was supposed to and took a very long time to actually bear fruit at the club, Abraham never was our player, Kodjia cost us £2.7m at a time where fees were far lower and was still considered a bargain and Diedhiou cost us £5m. Looking at that I think it's fair to say we're very much going to struggle to get a stand out striker in the current climate This is essentially what I was thinking, looking at those names they were players who played when I was young and I'm no spring chicken. I think this is a truly concerning thought, I mean why would we be any better than we are when we have little to no creativity in the midfield and its hard to look back and actually identify a striker that looked threatening consistently.

Just a thought whilst reading the forums this morning, who was the last stand out striker that we had? When I say stand out I mean someone who other teams in the play off positions would want in their starting line up and wasn't a loan from another club? It's just a little bit of a scary thought, Tammy was a loan and before him I think I haven't seen a stand out striker for City in a very long time which is probably why we can't challenge in this league as almost every team that does has a least one very desirable and intimidating striker to play against. I know we have plenty of threads that seem negative but I'm just curious to see what names are mentioned, how long ago they played for us and how much they cost us.

******* pathetic.

Got to disagree, he should have had a call to leave it if it was safe to do so, it didn't appear he got any kind of shout or reassurance so he had to try and guide the ball into a less dangerous area. He did technically do that but with a diving header at that pace it was a difficult ask of any player. What it came down to is they reacted quicker to the situation.

There are so many people that seem to think Hughton is to blame but Forest are consistent in bringing in good managers and making them look bad I mean Martin O'Neill has said he wants to manage again but since Forest it seems he can't find work despite having a ridiculous amount of experience and a wealth of contacts. I have a feeling Forest chew up and spit out managers because they offer so much and deliver so little. I have already seen fans saying they wanted him to stay and have more time which is impressive when you consider if we were bottom of the league with 1 point most of our fans would be hunting the man down with pitch forks, I mean Pearson has us mid-table and there are still calls for him to go despite how many players we lost and the few he has brought in have all shown improvements to the squad as a whole.

I don't think it's time to change Pearson but that could be down to not being able to see if appoint anyone else who would do better.

I guess that's why Baker is in instead of Dasilva

Stats are saying we've had 9 shots but 0 on target? What's that all about?!