IAmNick

I agree. As others pointed out many didn't rate him at all and didn't think he'd be good enough for us - myself included, and now want to validate that by hounding every mistake. I'm happy to just admit I was wrong! However there are also a group who personally back some players to the degree that they then desperately need them to succeed. Morrell was another one. They do the opposite and talk him up relentlessly. Imo he'd a mid Champ keeper, and I'm pleased I was wrong that he was that standard! He's gone from near the top of my "need replacing" list to somewhere in the middle. At some point, but not a priority at the moment. He's pretty representative of where we are as a team imo, was/is cheap, and has been an integral part of what's been a very solid defence this year.

Coventry second: https://streamin.one/v/d918c585

City second (Wells): https://streamin.one/v/f87fca8c

aka I definitely AM writing him off but don't want this to get quoted in 5 years when he's just finished scoring his hattrick in the CL final so am covering my back

City goal (Dickie): https://streamin.one/v/af3c65cd

We need someone arriving in the box a bit late who's checked their run, and to pull the ball back intentionally to them - rather than just blindly thumping it at 100mph horizontally. Scott's goal for Bournemouth recently was a great example (from memory). Or ideally I'd rather get either Cornick or Wells and Conway on the pitch together and try and go through a middle a bit more.

**** me these balls into the box are hopeless, come on City!

Coventry goal: https://streamin.one/v/2b47071d

Can't decide whether to have a massive meltdown before the game and quietly slope off post match when we win, or just be generally negative and snipe at anyone employed by the club for the next couple of hours. Any tips/ideas appreciated

Thoughts and prayers to all the people who went to a football match only to discover there were also people who supported the opposing team there and have similar control of their emotions as my three year old

The distribution should be the same regardless as it's a bell curve normalised on 100. If he's smarter than 99.99% now and is also smarter than 99.99% when he's older his score will be the same, no?

It's an advert so congrats on helping [some hotel chain] out by posting it on here I guess!

Not to dismiss them off course, but I don't think 1 win against West Ham changes anything. And in the rest - do we? In the last few years we've faired far, far better against the teams near the bottom and really struggled against the ones near the top. Of all our games against the top 6 this year I think we've won 1, drawn 1, and lost all the others. Against the bottom 6 we've won 2 drawn 3. Do I don't think the stats really back up what you're saying.

And none of them are worse than Millwall and Blackburn who we've lost to in the last month or so. What's your point?

I liked the idea we saw for a while of a back 4 - Tanner, Vyner, Dickie, Pring. Then as we build forwards Pring moves up and it becomes more of a back 3 - and that also allows the left hand side of our formation to be wonky/lopsided which has always appealed as a concept to me and I think can be extremely difficult to prepare for. That then gives the players on the forward left of the pitch ahead of Pring license to move more infield and join Conway to stop him being so isolated. It's flexible and unpredictable. We saw it a bit, but now we seem to have stopped, I'm not sure why. I found it interesting!

I'd much rather play Blackpool than Forest next round

Christ, I log on here expecting to see excitement but a load of you are moany old bastards when you want to be (sorry). It's not the perfect deal or whatever, no, but can we just allow ourselves a little enjoyment sometimes? I'm excited so screw the lot of you: 1. We keep talking about how Manning wants to implement his system more effectively. Well here is a player he knows, who clearly works in his system and will implement and elevate his ideas, and that can only help him and therefor the team out there. 2. Having quality players around will improve our other players - Tommy will hopefully get more chances, score more, learn more, and increase his confidence. There will be better interplay for players like Sykes and Mehmeti. Dickie and Vyner will get more chances from set pieces... This can only be a good thing even if it is temporary. 3. I watch every home game at AG. I watch every away game on Robins TV. It has, for the most part, been bloody PAINFUL watching this team for a large portion of a fair few years now. If we now have one more young, skilful, exciting player to watch then thank god for that, even if it is only for 6 months.

Images like this (and I include our "Ernie" robin in this too, sorry) are just the funniest things to me. They never look intimidating or anything apart from hilarious. They look like something I'd be trying to make using clipart at about 13 years old. Just awful.

Good posts on this thread Silvio. I keep thinking back to Jon a few times in those interviews saying something along the lines of - they (the club) clearly haven't communicated what they're looking for well enough to the fans if the sacking came as a surprise. To me the implication was that Pearson wasn't delivering the style of football they wanted, which was part of their decision. The bit that confuses me is - the way we were playing and he was going to have us playing was no secret. Why was he here for so long in that case, or why appoint him at all? Is that why they didn't let him bring in many players? I think Manning is a fine appointment in general, but as you're saying it doesn't really make sense for us right now. Or at least, it doesn't in the context of the other expectations they've set and our current trajectory. Look back at our last few managers. O'Driscoll, Cotterill, Johnson, Holden, Pearson, Manning. Can you see any, and I mean ANY "thread" through these appointments at all? Style of football, preferred type of players, budget expectations, experience... anything? Your second and third paragraphs could have been repeated with the Manning swapped out numerous times in the last 10-20 years.

Except Will Keane really is deployable to great effect in 45 minutes

Preston second: https://streamin.one/v/2472ea99

scapegoat noun 1. a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency. Not sure how saying Max is likely at fault there is making him a scapegoat exactly? Whose mistake/fault are people wrongly/unfairly blaming him for?

Preston goal: https://streamin.one/v/23081b48

Ah yes, a thread on another clubs forum about their current manager. This looks like the perfect place for my 2, 000 word unhinged rant about Nigel Pearson. Buddy. Who asked?