Gary Says

[kingswood red]

Bristol City boss Gary Johnson admitted he is struggling to manage his fully-fit squad but says his players are not becoming unhappy. Johnson has 26 fully-fit players at his disposal for this weekend's game against Nottingham Forest, with only Andy Webster (leg) and Christian Ribeiro (knee) on the sidelines. And while the Robins boss admits he faces an uphill task to keep all his players content, the 53-year-old is adamant he prefers having the options available with a large squad. "People know how I pick my teams by now. But we have lots of options - and 26 players doesn't go into a team of 11 or a matchday squad of 16 so some will be disappointed," he said.

Teamtalk

Yes Gary you are struggling, that team selection was crap

[SUMMAT OUTTA NOWT]

With 26 fit players why do you keep Dele ploughing this lone furrow, give Trunds and Noble a Good run and kick McIndoe across the severn sooner rather than later. Can,t be any worse tactically than now. Get Scotty Murray back with a tazer and he could sneek up on Mcindoe and shout left wing not centre of midfield and apply the voltage.

[Whale Eye Beef Hooked]

With 26 fit players why do you keep Dele ploughing this lone furrow, give Trunds and Noble a Good run and kick McIndoe across the severn sooner rather than later. Can,t be any worse tactically than now. Get Scotty Murray back with a tazer and he could sneek up on Mcindoe and shout left wing not centre of midfield and apply the voltage.

You sound like the thick bloke who sits on the back row of Dolman block B, who shouts Mcindoe you *u** get on the wing. UUUUUHHHH ever thought that his manager has told him to drift in and onto the right. It is not computer football

[Robbored]

Yes Gary you are struggling, that team selection was crap

I don't think the team selection was crap. He picked a side that he thought would do well against a struggling Forest side but not even Gary Johnson could predict that his defence was going to give Forest two out of character sloppy goals and fail to score a penalty in the last min. On another day Forest would have gone home empty handed but the footballing gods conspired against City on Saturday - and that ok as they smiled on City many times last season and a balance has to be maintained.

Some fans put too much emphasis on tactics and team selection after a loss or home draw. If McIndoe had scored the penalty then there would be hardly any debate about team selection. Thats how fine the line is between a satisfactory result and an unsatifactory one.

[SUMMAT OUTTA NOWT]

You sound like the thick bloke who sits on the back row of Dolman block B, who shouts Mcindoe you *u** get on the wing. UUUUUHHHH ever thought that his manager has told him to drift in and onto the right. It is not computer football

No, my point is he is never on the bloody wing and we made a point on saturday of watching him after his stick on the forum recently and all three of us came to the same conclusion that around 85% of his game was spent in the central midfield / central attacking area and Johnson and Noble laid more ball off from the left side of the pitch, bypassing him looking for Dele, Stern or on occasions breaking defenders. Surely he should be laying these balls off. I,m a McIndoe fan by the way and am a Eastender.

[boadle]

Some fans put too much emphasis on tactics and team selection after a loss or home draw. If McIndoe had scored the penalty then there would be hardly any debate about team selection. Thats how fine the line is between a satisfactory result and an unsatifactory one.

Agree with that. I've only watched the highlights, but it seems to me there were two major lapses in judgement:

1: Fontaine getting into a pace battle with Tyson for the first goal (the guy was heading to the corner flag, and just needed jockeying to safety. Fontaine was goal side and should have stayed there).

2: Skuse getting sucked in to a long ball and hopelessly misjudging it.

Two shit goals to concede. I don't blame the manager for that.

[Rob k]

No, my point is he is never on the bloody wing and we made a point on saturday of watching him after his stick on the forum recently and all three of us came to the same conclusion that around 85% of his game was spent in the central midfield / central attacking area and Johnson and Noble laid more ball off from the left side of the pitch, bypassing him looking for Dele, Stern or on occasions breaking defenders. Surely he should be laying these balls off. I,m a McIndoe fan by the way and am a Eastender.

I don't rate Mcindoe as highly as others but by doing as hes presumably told to do by the manager he should have scored on saturday as he missed an absolute sitter before the pen. I don't know why were banging on about tactics when the truth is GJ got it right. If we had won 5-0 it would have been a fair reflection for me. Conceded 2 awful goals, scored twice and missed 3 absolute sitters. No blame this week lies at the managers door

[Nibor]

I don't think the team selection was crap. He picked a side that he thought would do well against a struggling Forest side but not even Gary Johnson could predict that his defence was going to give Forest two out of character sloppy goals and fail to score a penalty in the last min. On another day Forest would have gone home empty handed but the footballing gods conspired against City on Saturday - and that ok as they smiled on City many times last season and a balance has to be maintained.

Some fans put too much emphasis on tactics and team selection after a loss or home draw. If McIndoe had scored the penalty then there would be hardly any debate about team selection. Thats how fine the line is between a satisfactory result and an unsatifactory one.

I disagree. I wouldn't say the team selection was crap but even if the pen had gone in I'd have the same concerns about it. Trundle for example was superb a couple of games back but hasn't had a sniff since - why? Noble made the XI, great but at the expense of a striker - at home I'd prefer two up.

Relying on Skuse as defensive cover seems an avoidable mistake to me. He was too easily brushed off for the second goal despite getting back on the right side of Tyson. Carey wouldn't have been caught that way IMO.

The subs I thought were strange, we effectively isolated Noble who for me was the most likely to unlock Forest by pushing him out wide and then brought him off for Maynard who we all know doesn't thrive on the direct game that we were inevitably going to end up playing without Noble's game on the deck.

The result, overall, was poor and although Forest's front two were very quick and dangerous they looked weak in midfield and not particularly good in defense. Two points dropped rather than one gained if we're ambitious and although it could well have gone our way with the penalty the truth is that would not have been a scoreline that reflected the game.

GJ has done great things for us but I think to kick on he needs to consider what style suits his squad the best and then pick a side to play to it and force it on the opposition rather than pick a side that seems to be a reaction to the last result. We have many players available now so he's got the opportunity to do that.

[SUMMAT OUTTA NOWT]

No, my point is he is never on the bloody wing and we made a point on saturday of watching him after his stick on the forum recently and all three of us came to the same conclusion that around 85% of his game was spent in the central midfield / central attacking area and Johnson and Noble laid more ball off from the left side of the pitch, bypassing him looking for Dele, Stern or on occasions breaking defenders. Surely he should be laying these balls off. I,m a McIndoe fan by the way and am a Eastender.

I don't rate Mcindoe as highly as others but by doing as hes presumably told to do by the manager he should have scored on saturday as he missed an absolute sitter before the pen. I don't know why were banging on about tactics when the truth is GJ got it right. If we had won 5-0 it would have been a fair reflection for me. Conceded 2 awful goals, scored twice and missed 3 absolute sitters. No blame this week lies at the managers door

I agree