sunningdalered

Sorry to state the bleeding obvious, but it's going to take more than a single signing to effect the level of change that will propel us into genuine promotion contenders isn't it. We're so far off at the moment. We're really at square one. Don't know what shape we want to be in, what patterns we want to play, whether our head coach has the skills to navigate this league etc etc. A playmaker might be a decent start, but probably need 3 or 4 successful signings to get us anywhere near a pound-for-pound comparison with any of the top, say, 7 in this seasons championship over the course of a whole season (and not just the odd stellar performance).

No doubt that watching a winning team is more enjoyable than watching one that loses consistently, or is completely erratic, but what would a run like that actually mean at this stage of the season? I don't buy into the taking momentum into next season thing personally. The race has been run for this season, and once again we've come up well short.

Looks like he's trying to force things a bit IMO. Even though he was getting the big one from the PAFC commentators, based on scoring 4 against them for MK Dons(?), there were a number of other players (on both sides) who influenced the game to a greater extent than ST IMO. I'd be interested to see what he can do when he relaxes into playing for city a bit more though.

Have to agree with this. Although I think that I probably overly bought into the plain speaking bit, I don't actually remember hearing too much footballing insight in NPs interviews, especially post-match. Having said that, they can say whatever they want, if what they're doing doesn't translate into better performances it's all pretty pointless anyway.

The short answer is not much. Don't expect him to be a regular starter when our new midfield dynamo's come on stream. Brings a bit of energy, that's all IMO.

Pity he wasn't being asked to explain how they intend to square the circle on playing staff vs the managers preferred playing style without a wholesale change in the squad.

Always interested in your comments. A few weeks back you commented that to achieve anything we needed to develop beyond being a 100% counter attacking team, and being comfortable with a higher level of possession was the way to achieve that, which I agreed with. Now things seem to have become more polarised, and people believe that we can only be one or the other - including the manager! Sadly, it seems that LM isn't the man to help us find the happy medium.

IMO the Conway that we have seen to date is eminently replaceable. It's the Conway that he might become that we fear losing. But, then again, we've seen many who never fulfilled their apparent potential.

I thought we'd got over the rabbits in the headlights syndrome - but maybe I was deluding myself on that. Last night though, I think we were just completely outplayed by a team that moved the ball quickly and accurately. It just wasn't a case of let's get into them more, the ball had been shifted long before Williams could attempt one of his kamikaze tackles.

Tbf, Cam was way off his recent standard tonight. It might have been the effect of the knock he took early on, but he he was blowing from about 60 mins - evidenced by the fact that he failed to get anywhere near gnotto for their goal. If Anis had scored when he really should of he would of secured a get out of jail free card, as it is another massively underwhelming performance.

This all day long.

I'm very excited to see what this lad can do. I'm glad that Manning has got the courage of his convictions to bring in the players that he wants. Onwards....

Sorry if this was raised 40 pages ago, but why would Burnley recall Scott from a season long loan, where he and the team are doing pretty well, to immediately send him out on another loan to a club that are mid-table at best? The most obvious reason is the greater prospect of a permanent deal at the end of the loan period with us, although this seems to be being played down by both parties.

Millwall in good shape out of possession, but we've effectively decided not to have a right sided option going forward - bizarre.

Multiple threads full of praise for his performances to date, after an, arguably, underwhelming start at AG. Anyone else feel as though he has become more passive in his movement, and less ambitious with his passing in recent weeks? I think there's a lot more in him than we have seen so far, just wonder what the spark will be to bring that out in his game? Maybe when (if) we have Knighty.v2 in the side this will increase the forward passing options, and suit TGH's game. Probably shown enough already to warrant the sort of money being asked for, but if we don't need to commit now I don't think we should.