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.

I'd be interested in other's opinion on whether you think players can be coached in the technique of receiving the ball whilst on the half-turn, so that their momentum is naturally forward, or whether it's in the DNA, and players either have it or not. Watching the Ipswich v Norwich game yesterday, the difference between the two teams in this respect was very noticeable. Ipswich, admittedly, are a talented side, and have a bunch of technically sound players, so they probably fancied it against a horrible Norwich team - which might have been a factor. Any prospect that LM can get our lot doing more than play it the way they are facing when receiving the ball? IMO this would be a big step in moving towards a more progressive style of play for us, and getting us on the front foot. Haven't really seen much of it since Alex left (which might be answering my own question!)

I remember getting the coach to that game (I don't know why either), got there so early they hadn't even opened the turnstiles, coach parked up miles away, so we stood there and got p*ss wet through before we even got in the ground.

So not only has SL gambled the whole BS thing on City getting into the premier league, but he's now just gambled the City getting into the premier league things on a relatively rookie coach. Just Wow.

A neat and thoughtful analysis. Thanks for sharing. Lansdown Snr is not commercially stupid, and can afford decent advice. If he gambled the whole BS venture on city getting into the Premier league that would be astonishing. You have to think that there is a buyer for BS out there, and it is the price attached to it that SL will have to compromise on.

I'm with this.

Like a few others, I did wonder whether the club was taking the flack over removing NP to distract the focus from his ill-health, having come to a mutual acceptance with NP that he wasn't able to continue in the role for health reasons. It seems from the likes of the CF pre-match interview that I was seriously wrong in thinking the owners were anywhere near as noble as that!

I can't help agreeing with you. Very uncomfortable watch. I'm imagining someone, stood just outside of shot, who has pushed him in front of the camera! And it's not like it's live, so could have had a few go's at it. Not sure that I would have expected a full blow-by-blow account of what's been going on, but blimey, that adds nothing.

For me, it was away at Wolves. Pitch like a sandpit, John Ward getting the full love-in from the city fans (couldn't understand why - he had openly admitted that he didn't know what to do next to fix city's problems at the time), our centre-half, Sebok, cantering up the left wing, Flapper let one roll in under his boot, think we were 3 down and the Wolves fans moaning that it wasn't more!

I'd take him. Love the football cov play. They start converting a few of the chances they create and things will look very different.

Took me a long time to get over the appointment of Millen. He was always a no. 2, never a leader. IIRC he was defensive coach prior to the managerial appointment, and we couldn't defend for sh*t.