bexhill reds

Not disagreeing, but surely start for 45 then change it if required. Makes sense to take the game to Southampton no?

Off because off the amount of running, not a knock… Makes little sense from that perspective

Exactly Cornick at the heart of everything we did well in Sat, but overlooked for a headless chicken with all the defensive capability of blancmange, especially with Pring out. That’s not meant to spite Roberts but he’ll need support tonight, and he won’t get that from Mehmeti. Poor.

I remember it from the shed end of the then Enclosure which was the standing terrace in front of what is now the Lansdown, it usually involved the lots of surges back and forward to the front. Great fun.

Car crash club for a car crash manager… won’t be there long, the ownership team down there are just mad.

Disagree, opinions on here are a sociologist dream. There is a whole science of covering change. As context my employer has over the past 2 years cut 50% of the workforce, and to help people manage change they’ve provided some change management sessions. One of the instruments used in the sessions, is the change curve, which covers the start of the change - anger, and then goes through a number of stages, denial, shock, depression and then you reach openness to change, acceptance and then embracing the change. I think views on the forum are very reflective of these different stages and where individuals are on the curve and everyone has their own starting point and their own rate of change and indeed some will never wish to embrace change, from a work perspective they leave and from a forum perspective they just get ignored. I don’t think that there are people deliberately wanting Manning to fail, I’d suggest that assuming we all want our team to play attractive and successful football, then their perceived negativity is merely a reflection on where they are on the curve and the obvious targets to express their fustration is Manning, Tinnion and or the Lansdowns. if my memory serves me right Cotts was not initially a widely celebrated choice initially, but he brought about one of the most successful and attractive City teams I seen in my lifetime and most supporters I suggest would agree he was a great appointment. No problem with being critical about Manning at times, I’ve been critical about his tactics this afternoon, and I was very critical when he first joined, but I’m being won over by some of the performances and the positive results of the coaching on a number of players, so I guess I’m moving towards acceptance.

And I forgot Bill Gates and Nanoprobes, never leave out the classics

Uh-oh, the vax / anti-vax rabbit has been let out of the bag….. Shall we stick to football on this thread or go down the whole George Soros / Rothschilds / Con Trail /Flat Earth debate while we’re at it as well.

And play for a Championship team that’s challenging for promotion, that Wes Burns? SB has got the reputation of a clinical finisher in his age group, and I accept that his decision making for the one on one today was poor, but I think that there is a player in there. His decision making is the one thing he’s got to improve upon and he’ll only get that through experience and coaching. I’m not prepared to write him off yet, as he appears keen to learn and adapt his game, so far he’s played LWB, RWB, RB and very little down the middle. I’d argue he’s more adaptable and a team player than Conway, who looks to have a major sulk on at present.

In a thread about Wells and Knight you still manage to get your Sam Bell dig in…. Excellent work. Perhaps given that Wells seems to have a reputation with working with younger players, he might help Bell improve, this is the same Bell that worked on weights during the offseason to bulk himself up as people complained he was too lightweight, so clearly there is a want to learn and that can only be a good thing. I’m not going to write him off yet, plenty of time for him to improve.

The decision was to get a team that’s played 120 mins of football on a Wed night and 2 centre halves that have more or less played every minute of football this season to basically recreate Rourke’s Drift for 45 mins by constantly defending. That to me does not suggest we’re making life difficult for the opposition. I never suggested he keep to 4-3-3 throughout the game, but why not give it 10 mins as a 3rd goal would have killed it. All if’s buts and maybe’s, we got over the line and that is testament to the players, but not necessarily as a benefit of the change. Still you won’t have it so best to leave it there. Enjoy your evening.

I’m not sure it was futile, but there you go all about opinions I guess, probably best to leave it as you have your opinion and I have mine, at the end of the season it will just be seen as 3 points. I am concerned that Manning sometimes appears to try to super coach and out think the opposition and only make life more difficult, and it’s not the first time I’ve felt that during a game. FWIW I do think that he has improved the team’s play at times, but I would hope that he’ll look back at his choices in the 2nd half and question whether they were right and learn just like he sets that challenge for the players. Nothing wrong with a proactive change if it takes the game to the opposition, but in this case the change was to sit deeper and ask a footballing side to play football.

Ok, you clearly have a view that you are not prepared to question or indeed accept question. I’m not talking about hindsight, but merely questioning the wisdom of making a change that did not immediately need to occur. As fans are we not allowed to question decisions made by both players and coaches? We seem to be in a place where any suggestion of being critical about Manning is wrong and he should be defended at all costs.

Perhaps you’re literally not being prepared to accept that Manning might have got it wrong….. I think sometimes he has a tendency to try to be too clever, today was one of those examples. By all means have the plan at the back of your mind especially as the players are experienced enough with that formation to be able to quickly adapt to the change if it needed to be made, so it’s not as if it takes 15 mins to change it, but why not see what Boro do in the first 10-15 mins of the half. He talks about the players learning, let’s hope he does as well, we could equally be talking tonight about a 2 goal lead squandered and 2 points lost.

Why change something that was working? Boro were a beaten team in the first half, start the 1st 10 mins of the 2nd half with the same intensity, crowd on backs etc? We just sat too deep and invited them to play and Boro have got too much quality for that. Great result, but we were definitely on the ropes.

That’s a fair point. Hopefully this is something that he gets and does not allow himself to become disillusioned especially with contract conversations seemingly coming to the fore.

I thought he looked uncharacteristically quiet, I get you have to pick your battles when you are the one up top against 3, but just looked a bit off.

Arguably tactically wrong though, we ended up clinging on a little. I’m not totally convinced about his game management, although I can’t knock how he’s improved certain aspects of our play at times.

No, but inviting the pressure did not help, we certainly looked all over the place in the 2nd half compared to the control and pressure we had in the first. Appreciate that the change might have been to help tired legs, but we never look convincing parking the bus.

I thought he was excellent, I think he’s a very underrated player tarnished by when he’s been brought onto the pitch usually when we are either chasing the game or looking to sit in and block. I’d like to see him start more often, certainly I’d be starting him over Mehmeti.

I think it’s a fair point, it did seemed to invite too much pressure today, especially when you consider our first half performance.

And so highlighting the clear value of punctuation for all kids reading this….

Jesus made that more difficult than we needed to.

Christ we’ve gone from comfortable to hanging on. Manning’s got to get his tactics sorted

Balls, that cross should never have been allowed to come in. Roberts too far inside and Mehmeti not in the picture