IAmNick

Penalty call: https://streamja.com/kqG5b

City goal (Martin): https://streamja.com/GAQOO

COYR!!

PHWOAR

These big balls out to Maatsen and Dabo need dealing with

I actually think we've started OK today

Replay of the O'Dowda incident: https://streamja.com/6WJ3m

2 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

It's already awful

We're 3 minutes in ffs

23 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

On reflection Baker v Forest certainly let Brennan Johnson know he was about, a couple of really aggressive tackles.

Mistimed the one on Spence for the penalty but had imposed himself on his opponent before that, to be fair.

Pretty sure I remember in an interview before someone saying he puts himself about up at Failand as well, and especially lets the new guys know what he's about.

If 21 year old Tanner in his first season here can do it why can't most of the rest?

It's not just about being strong or big, it's about fully committing when you do do something. Doesn't even have to be in a challenge - Kalas'(?) 2 footed karate clearance the other day would put a message across as much as him going through someone.

Would love to see a bit more of that in the first 5-10m every game. Get stuck in to O'Hare early on today.

The thing is this recent period, and Gary's in the Championship before it (so 2008 onwards) have been more successful than about 30 years before it.

We actually had better finishes last time we were in the Championship (4th, 10th, 10th) compared to this time (only one top 10 finish).

It doesn't really feel good, let alone exciting though because of our "slow and steady" approach where 1 position further up the table is a pat on the back. It never feels like we're pushing on, driving for promotion, and going for it... we just bumble around in a reasonable area and hope we squeeze over the line (and inevitably don't).

It's football, give me the boom and bust of Hull/Cardiff/Swansea any day imo.

I'd rather be having an extra few pints in celebration, then crying into them 2 years later than having one to numb me before every game for about 10 years on the trot.

6 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

My view is that Steve wants to leave a bit of a legacy, i.e. here’s what I did for Bristol, which is fine.  Might be a bit of a guilt trip re Guernsey tax situation….speculation?

I think with all the housing / flats stuff, he will make back what he’s invested on football, sport, etc.

I agree, same as (on a bigger scale) Bezos with his space flight, Gates with malaria, Musk with going to Mars, and so on.

He'll make it back, but I don't think that's why he did it. If he could have a legacy and lose money in the process, he'd take that in a shot over a failed legacy but topping up his bank balance even more.

1 hour ago, Tin Soldier said:

Agreed, me too.
Lansdown has manoeuvred himself into a win/win as whoever buys him out (if anyone does), will get his millions back with profit. The Bristol Sport concept protects his investment. Bristol City football club is just part of the bigger picture as far as Bristol Sport goes. Mind you, if you were SL, you would do the same as he is going to have to find another £30million+ soon I would imagine due to COVID and loss of £ income?

I don't think it'd be win/win for him getting his money back or even profit at all personally.

People like him (billionaires) are proud, and have more money than they know what to do with. Imo as they get older they usually move on to satisfying their ego (aka dick waving).

I don't think they buy clubs because they want to make money, it's because they want to be able to say they own a premiership club or whatever when they're brushing shoulders with other people in their social class at some wanky dinner or whatever. Same as the ones who own an F1 team, or the largest yachts in the world, fire one of their cars towards mars, take a space flight, eradicate a disease... whatever.

If Lansdown sells up (and he may well do) after 25 years with us still scrubbing around in the champ/L1 and £150m spent with his name on a stand it'll be a massive bruise to his ego imo. It's a very public failure for someone who isn't used to failing in his life.

I like Jay, and think he's a good player. Not as good this season as he has been in the past I'll accept.

I don't think we're playing a good game for him, as @grifty mentioned above.

Technically I think he's excellent. With the ball at his feet in a tight space he does some great things and is one of the best in the squad, often beating one or even two players - even in a dangerous area. His height is an issue, but not an insurmountable one imo. I think he wants the ball, to play a short one two up the line or into midfield, receive in a small space and work his way past someone etc. which just isn't what we're even trying to do at the moment. I don't think he's as interested in sprinting up the line to take a high ball down which was pumped up from the back, or smash one up the line for the guy in front of him to run onto.

As @Davefevs said above too, it's easy to forget how young he is as we've seen so much of him. Same age as Pring, Bakinson, Atkinson, Cundy etc. so while he has a lot more experience (and should be judged as such) he's also not the finished article by any means.

I'd be really disappointed if we ditched him at this point, although I've been very impressed with Pring.

8 minutes ago, Clutton Caveman said:

I am not pro discrimination. In fact quite the opposite. I don't like it when the most suitable candidate for any position is discriminated against because they do not belong to a particular cultural, ethnic or gender group. My son is applying for 1 year placement for his year in industry and was told by his advisor (who incidentally is female and from India) " with large public organisations, because you come from a white middle class background you will be at the bottom of the list and as such you should concentrate on medium and small privately owned businesses."

Howz that for discrimination?

As someone who works with a lot of large public organizations I suggest he ignores her, as that's not even close to true in my experience.

You can see the civil service targets here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/civil-service/about/equality-and-diversity it's around 13% new hires being from ethnic minorities which is actually slightly under the % who live in this country I believe. So that sounds pretty fair to me?

1 hour ago, VT05763 said:

Loosing the trust and respect of the players is not meaningless - IMO

A meaningless phrase might include the words "bus" and "seats" for example.

So which of the senior players you mentioned do you think he's lost the trust and respect of? And why?

15 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Sorry mate, but every manager inherits players, no one immediately sacks the entire squad and gets a new one.  He’s had one transfer window and he signed James, King, Simpson, Tanner, Baker and Weimann, and at the same time he got rid of eleven players.  That’s a fairly significant reshaping, and in any case you can only work with the squad you’ve got.  I was worried by what I saw last season but didn’t blame Pearson because he really was working with a squad that he didn’t choose, but that was then and this season was meant to be all about progress.  Well I’m not seeing anyway.  The point is that he’s not using his squad well; he’s not motivating them; and he’s not getting the best out of them.  His win percentage is less than 25%, lower than O’Driscoll, and similar to Lennartsson, Hodgson and Houghton, all of whom saw us relegated.

I think you're mixing two things here.

Is he getting enough from the squad? Currently no, I completely agree. We look rudderless and severely lacking in confidence. While our position in the table is about what I expected our performances and recent trajectory aren't.

It's been very poor lately and I've been disappointed by Pearson.

Is it his squad? Also no for me. I don't think he'd have chosen to ditch those players, he basically had no choice. Half of our regular first team for the last few years left in one window.

The signings were his of course. But it's still two kids who have barely featured above L2 before, and some old heads he knew. I'd be interested how you think we could have got a reasonable striker in?

We need to give him time I think. I said Christmas and I'd judge him when the season started and that's still where I am.

1 hour ago, Numero Uno said:

Who are these “senior” players then? I can’t see anyone senior showing much in the way of leadership. If one does take Nige aside I hope he sparks the *** clean out.

Who are they anyway?

Martin and Wells who are starting every game? Weimann who he resigned over the summer? King, James, or Simpson? Hah.

It's just a meaningless phrase people like to say a bit like "he's clearly lost the dressing room" or "X player obviously doesn't want to be here" imo.

Imo the bigger issue is with the "middle" of the squad. 23 - 28 or so... Aka the core players we should have been developing for the last 4 or 5 years.

Just now, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Surely by current thinking, last season was Mark Ashton’s fault too?

A huge part of it was his fault, absolutely. Has anyone said otherwise? I thought that was pretty well established now.

Am I living in some kind of biazrro land compared to the "But Holden!!"ers where we didn't play like absolute shit half of last season with a far bigger and more expensive squad, then lose a load of our first team (including our top scored for the last 3 seasons and record signing) over the summer?

Just now, old_eastender said:

and you think they could be less effective?  Rather seem them offering commitment, enthusiasm, and some pace than our seasoned pros.

I don't know if they'd be less effective, hard to imagine how sometimes - but if we're thinking about the long term then what is scrapping around every game in ones like we watched today going to do for their development?

First proper games in pro football, just chucked in week in week out to this? Would be madness imo.

Just play all the kids is a nice idea, but it's never going to work from any angle as far as I can see it. They need careful management, not their confidence and everything else shot within the first month.

2 minutes ago, samo II said:

I’m not sure where I said “everyone is part of the problem” but I did say the likes of Kalas are - he might not want to be a leader here, but that alone tells you what type of person he is. I’m sure he’s nice enough, but he’s not what we need.

Add the likes of Wells and Martin to that - this feels like the squad of aging, listless, directionless ‘pros’ that Pulis assembled; no guts, no dynamism.

Sometimes you need to send a message - people will remember the end stage of GJ’s time, but his willingness to change the culture at the start by dropping players and pushing for a new direction, regardless of results is what built the bedrock of his success.

I’m not clear what NP is doing playing these aging, listless pros who offer us nothing, and yet still lose us games terribly; it’s clearly not changing anything, so for me the time for just sitting on our hands is done - start doing the hard things to get where we need to long term, as we’re getting nothing from the alternative.

Partially agree with you, but the issue is looking at our bench today what else would you have done? In the Kalas example, Vyner and Atkinson in a back two? Yikes.

Without Wells or Martin up front it'd be kids from the U23s pretty much.

I totally agree we need an overhaul (although we might disagree on who should survive it), and I'm sure it's coming, but it has to be done in stages. We have two of our back line who have barely played above L2 starting every game currently. Our best player in the middle is 20, alongside a new signing from the summer. Up front are the 2 you've mentioned. It's chaos.

Maybe you're right and we could just throw caution to the wind, but I have no idea what that'd do to the squad harmony or dressing room - or the development of the kids we'd be chucking in there. You can't just drop half the squad 1/3 of the way into the season. Rock and a hard place for me, unfortunately!

It's not pretty though, is it. As you said, we need to get to the long term, but imo we can't totally destroy everything in one go to get there.

Just now, samo II said:

One game in how many?

We look absolutely rudderless more games than not; he’s meant to be a leader and a captain - has he done anything to justify that?

I don’t get how the hugest paid, most senior players are getting defended here when they are offering us nothing in terms of performance or leadership - has Kalas driven us on to greater things since he arrived? No. He part of the problem here.

If we're looking at players/positions to replace on the field currently, or in the squad, Kalas would be near the bottom of my list personally.

He was our captain - clearly didn't want it and is no longer.

By your logic everyone is part of the problem, which I don't agree with!

Birmingham third: https://streamja.com/jqvlo

1 minute ago, samo II said:

He doesn’t want to be here.

Imagine he expected to be sold in the summer and is just biding his time now; he’s one of the worst in terms of offering none of the leadership qualities needed by this side.

It’s why he never made it in the Prem: can play but has no authority or intangible.

I take it you didn't want Saturday's game then?!

1 minute ago, JonDolman said:

Vyner had been playing well but he's never been dominant yet he's the central of the 3 for some reason 

To allow Kalas and Atkinson to bring the ball out presumably, which has worked to some degree..?

Birmingham second: https://streamja.com/kqve1

2 minutes ago, CotswoldRed said:

Any chance Scott Murray has his boots with him? 

We've got enough league 1 players already