Portland Bill Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 i think we have taken a step backwards same poor team as last year our best player wants out steve lansdown has lost intrest the buzzz has gone. I hope im wrong SL hasn't lost interest, he was even at the training ground watching the academy side this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esmond Million's Bung Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 RR do you still predict a lot of 4-3 score lines? or do you accept that with our piss poor defence and Millens dream team midfield, that us scoring a lot of goals may turn out to be semantics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redfred Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 He's as much to blame as the players. Hindsight may be a wonderful thing but when we've been crying out for a creative midfielder for so long it was unforgivable not to start with Kilkenny. Skuse & Marv as a midfield pairing blatantly doesn't work. Two left footers as CB's is a risky strategy too I think. Personally I would play Spence in the middle and Skuse at RB. Feel proper mugged today. Completely agree. It made me feel a bit nauseous when I saw no Kilkenny and Nyatanga and Fontaine as the centre half pairing. Plus JCR is not the answer when you have an out and winger in Woolford on the bench, We lacked shape and a leader. That changed when Kilkenny came on and took charge of things. I don't understand the enigma that is Marvin Elliott. He did sod all today and has been shit for too long for it to be acceptable that he plays anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weymouth red Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 SL hasn't lost interest, he was even at the training ground watching the academy side this morning. i hope your right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esmond Million's Bung Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 I'm one of Millen's biggest supporters and I never today's result coming either. In fact I predicted a draw. And no semantics means we saw the exact same result this game last season and we didn't see 0-3 'quite a lot' last season, twice if I recall, one being a cup match. I haven't actually checked so could be wrong. It was shambolic defending and the only thing between the two teams. Just ask how many saves James made. 3 x 0-3 1 x 0-4 or how many he should have made. Honestly for once, one question RR, when you saw the line up, did you still believe your 1-1 prediction would be a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spud55 Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 Millen must be doing his nut. Once again 3 defensive blunders leading to another 0-3 home defeat. Someone pointed out that today's starting 11 were the same 11 that started against Hull last season. I'm not sure if that's accurate. Ipswich out of the blocks a bit quicker but not really threatening until a simple ball over the top caught James in no mans land and its 0-1. Second half Skuse gives it away 20 yards from goal, no challenge anywhere to be seen and its 0-2. Third goal truly laughable. James giving Chopra the ball on a plate to roll into an empty net. Meanwhile the pairing in midfield of Skuse and Elliot lacked any creativity and Stockdale in the Ipswich net made one decent save all game. JCR tucking in left no options down the left. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and we all know that Kilkenny should have started and maybe Millen will acknowledge that and start him from now on. City looked far more threatening when he came on. But.....45 games to go and 135 points left to play for. A win on Tuesday is even more crucial for the sake of morale. I have to say i have generally been very supportive of the direction i thought Millen was taking this club, i never expected it to be pretty or fun while we waited for the garbage that previous managers have lumped on this club, however today has made me question this view in that i think Millen seems to be doing exactly all the things Johnson was doing in his last season. Today was the perfect opportunity to implement a change in the clubs direction, and not continue to rely on players that haven't been up to the standard for a long while. However instead we get the same shit served up by the same team that was so often rubbish last season, with the same old excuses being trotted out by Millen. If he'd picked a team like this, 4-3-3 James Spence Willson Fonts Ball/McAlister Kilkenny Elliot/Cisse Ried Adomah Maynard/Pittman/Stead Bolaise I could handle that side making errors and even losing like we did today, at least it would have been different and would have shown that we have our eyes on the future, as it was we have picked 11 players to start that on the whole have not been good enough for at least 2 seasons now, surely we must have realised this in that time? Today was probably the most inept performance i have seen in midfield for many a year, it was truly shocking, Elliot throws himself about a lot, but his movement off the ball is completely non existant and he has a range of passing at the same level as your average cadaver, Skuses movement is slightly better, and his passing is also slightly better, but his decision making is utterly dismal. Campbell Rice is frankly abysmal, he makes lee Johnson look like the most forward thinking player in the world, he can barely run with the ball, his passing is utter cack and his crossing is about as good as Bradley Orr's. Albert tried bloody hard but as Ipswich could basically ignore the rest of our midfield he was stuck with 3/5 players around him most of the time. It's no wonder that our defence were just humping it long as the midfield until Kilkenny came on were like 4 statues in the middle of the park, at least when we humped it to Stead it stayed up there some times, giving the ball to our "midfielders" largely resulted in us loosing possession and being well on the back foot. As a unit our defence today was actually pretty decent against what is a good attacking force, so that for me shows that the work Millen and Wigley have been doing is working, as a defensive unit we looked much, much better than we did for most of last season, and didn't look like giving away goals, i didn't think any of them had terrible games, Fontaine was probably the worst, but i think that was because he was constantly having to shift onto his left side while being the right sided center back, so that for me can be forgiven to an extent. McAllister was solid defensively, as shown by the fact that JET had to switch sides with Martin to get some joy (not that he got much out of spence either mind) and Martin didn't really pose much of a threat to Jamie either. The midfield (and James) were the problem today, until Kilkenny came on the defence had little option most of the time but to just **** it up the pitch, when he came on the defenders were much more happy to just knock it to him, but by the time he did come on desparation had already begun to set in so long hopeful balls are always more likely, but even so they were playing a lot more short balls into the midfield than we were previously. This brings me to another contention with Millens tactics, we all know McAllister is limited when it comes to going forward, frankly i'm fairly confident that his distribution is worse than Matt Hills, but he is generally a decent defender, yet we don't seem to have accepted that and still try to use him as an attacking outlet all too often, when we had Orr at right back we played to his strengths, he was a great defender but limited going forward so was largely instructed to play to the man in front of him and let them do the attacking, obviously there were times when Bradders got into good positions and we used him, to varying effect, but McAllister seems to be a key part of our attacking, despite the fact that he's crap at it. We are not in the premier league, or anywhere near it so all of our players are going to be limited in one or more areas, they key is playing to each players strengths. Using McAllister as a major attacking outlet really isn't playing to his strengths, today not helped by the fact that Campbell rice is garbage so Jamie was mostly the only outlet we had on the left, it strikes me as staggering that Millen is either aware of McAllisters weaknesses and chooses to then put someone who is incapable to attacking down the left in front of him, or more worryingly actually thinks McAllister is decent going forward. Maybe it's just me but i think Millen has been an absolute plum in the off season, not with what he's done as he's made some decent signings and has had some bad luck in terms of missing out on players that we need at the back, but with what he's said. I would have been more than happy had he come out and talked about the fact that due to the size of the squad he has, when it comes to signings his hands a re somewhat tied, but that he has a long term squad in mind which will take time to develop but he's going to start with those players he sees with a long term future and yes we may not be brilliant for a season or two but we will look to constantly improve year on year and move forward within our budget. To me that would have made perfect sense as we all know we have a squad of which a significant amount of the senior pros aren't wanted but we just can't get rid, (which isn't millens fault) and that we are currently trying to bring our costs under control (again not millens fault) so any sane person would expect that it's going to take some time to sort this mess out and get us where we want to be. It would also manage expectations to a more realistic level. Instead he decided to chat about promotion being a realistic aim and all that guff, which anyone with more than 1 brain cell knows is about as realistic as sleeping with Megan Fox, so all it does is serve to make millen look like a ****. Then to compound that he just picks the same shite team that we had last season and expect's different results. Had he made it clear that we are in the process of rebuilding, which means playing some of the young kids and building with them in mind, and that they will make mistakes and we will lose games in a stupid manner from time to time then i don't think we have an issue. However playing the same side who have just carried on making the same elementary mistakes as they were last season is just criminal in my book. Cardiff is for me a massive game now, not anything to do with the result, but the team that is put out, if a team that is broadly the same to the crap put out today then i will have lost a lot of faith in Millen and if that team is still broadly the same 5/10 games in then i will have lost all time for him as a manager. This season could have been really good, in that it could have been the start of the rebuilding process that we have needed for a while, and the things that Millen was doing off the pitch were starting to make me think he was the right man as he seemed to have the right idea that we can't just go out and buy all our players and that they must be developed from within, and then he goes and picks that team today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbored Posted August 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 Honestly for once, one question RR, when you saw the line up, did you still believe your 1-1 prediction would be a good one. Honestly for once? are you questioning my integrity? The answer is that I like many was disappointed to see Kilkenny not starting and surprised to see two left sided defender as a central partnership. That said I still expected at least a draw but no-one could have predicted three schoolboy defensive errors. They were the difference between the two sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pederho ll Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 Robbered, it doesn't matter how much you fantasise about Millen, there is no way in your wildest dreams that he will ever be true football manager. Sad for us he is manager in title alone and nothing else. If Millen truly believes that was his best starting eleven, we are doomed. He along with that baffoon James, need to improve fast or exit our club a bit pronto! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinapig Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 Honestly for once? are you questioning my integrity? The answer is that I like many was disappointed to see Kilkenny not starting and surprised to see two left sided defender as a central partnership. That said I still expected at least a draw but no-one could have predicted three schoolboy defensive errors. They were the difference between the two sides. But unforced errors, if not always as school boy as today, have been a feature of our defending for a long time. Ask Keith about our repeated failures at set pieces for starters. As long as we are stuck with the same defenders it seems reasonable to assume the pattern will persist. Which is why Keith wanted to sign new ones I assume. He sounds like he is beginning to despair so let's hope a couple of loans are imminent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westex red Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 Pretty much what i expected, but hoped wouldnt happen, as RR says Deja Vue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bucksred Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 For compleat deja vu, maybe KM will walk after defeat against Swindle! I ****** hope so, todays shambles repeated Tuesday would condemn us to a very long hard season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hicksy-BCFC Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 It was identified last season (well by a lot, even the season before) that our defence is simply not good enough and if we don't strengthen it then we'll struggle. We lost Caulker - by far the best defender we had last season - and this is not a surprise. He is a future England player and was on loan to us. So who did he bring in? Yep - absolutely fking nobody. And ................. We lose 0-3 in our starting game. If he doesn't get defenders in quickly, we will go down. Mark my words. I made that prediction last week and I'll stand by it until I see change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riaz Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 Millen must be doing his nut. Once again 3 defensive blunders leading to another 0-3 home defeat. Someone pointed out that today's starting 11 were the same 11 that started against Hull last season. I'm not sure if that's accurate. Ipswich out of the blocks a bit quicker but not really threatening until a simple ball over the top caught James in no mans land and its 0-1. Second half Skuse gives it away 20 yards from goal, no challenge anywhere to be seen and its 0-2. Third goal truly laughable. James giving Chopra the ball on a plate to roll into an empty net. Meanwhile the pairing in midfield of Skuse and Elliot lacked any creativity and Stockdale in the Ipswich net made one decent save all game. JCR tucking in left no options down the left. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and we all know that Kilkenny should have started and maybe Millen will acknowledge that and start him from now on. City looked far more threatening when he came on. But.....45 games to go and 135 points left to play for. A win on Tuesday is even more crucial for the sake of morale. Hindsight? some of us predicted that shower of shyte! Anyways, did the football purist enjoy the spectacle produced by his beloved Keith Millen?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimplyRed Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 There was only one redeeming feature for me about today's game - the fact that I hadn't renewed my season ticket this year, partially due to finances but also due to the fact the Millen was still at the helm. I left Ashton Gate very disappointed, but the disappointment was offset by the consolation by knowing that I hadn't ploughed four hundred-odd quid into a ST, to be served up with performance like that. What's worse is that the Tractor Boys and their fans will be brought down to earth with a bump when they come up against a decent side, because they were nothing to write home about and on their performance will not been in the mix come May. People have been defending Millen saying that he hasn't been able to get in the players he wanted, while other clubs seem to have no problems signing the players they need. The simple reason for this is Millen himself. He's not a "name" and is generally an unknown quantity to the majority of pros. I've always said that a club needs a name and a personality to attract good quality players, and Millen has neither characteristic. I renewed my Season Ticket last year purely on the strength that Coppell had signed up and, to this day, I feel if Coppell had stuck with it, we'd be in a better position now with a much stronger squad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esmond Million's Bung Posted August 6, 2011 Report Share Posted August 6, 2011 if Fontaine had backed off anymore for their 2nd goal he would been in the east end, ******* shocking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbored Posted August 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 I would have had more respect for Millen if he had changed it a bit and lost 0-3. To select a team that we all know is not going to work is shit - my granny could have done that. He decided to "play safe" with the same team as last season and got shafted. Tough shit on him, he deserved that result. And the club deserved a 13,107 attendance including a healthy away following given the shite pre-season and lack of signings - that can't be far off of the lowest attendance since we got promotion. The attendance on the first game of the season is often effected by lots of fans being away on holiday, particularly with the kids off school. But.....your're right Millen did 'play-safe' and on the one hand I can see why. He knows all the starting players well and what he'll get from then On the other hand a little bit of innovation might have made a difference. We all know Kilkenny should have started and possibly Bolasie/Woolford but it didn't happen. As for 'deserving' that result. That's too harsh imo. No-one can blame a manager for individual errors, two from his most experienced player and had it not been for those errors there was little between the two teams. James barely had a save to make. Ipswich didn't play us of the park and the 0-3 result seriously flattered them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Exile Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 On the attendance - it was 14 517 - which is the worst since we played S****horpe in our first home fixture of the 2006/7 League 1 season...but also worse than the attendance for Doncaster in 2005. Marginally better than the 14 275 that saw us draw with Torquay on the opening day in 2004. And as Torquay brought 1200 (according to the match report) the City following was almost exactly the same as it was yesterday...which makes you think... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinapig Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 The attendance on the first game of the season is often effected by lots of fans being away on holiday, particularly with the kids off school. But.....your're right Millen did 'play-safe' and on the one hand I can see why. He knows all the starting players well and what he'll get from then On the other hand a little bit of innovation might have made a difference. We all know Kilkenny should have started and possibly Bolasie/Woolford but it didn't happen. As for 'deserving' that result. That's too harsh imo. No-one can blame a manager for individual errors, two from his most experienced player and had it not been for those errors there was little between the two teams. James barely had a save to make. Ipswich didn't play us of the park and the 0-3 result seriously flattered them. Indeed he does, as do we. That being the same as before. Why on earth would he thnk it would be any different? In any line of work one of the signs of bad management is believing that if somethinhg doesn't work the answer is to do even more of it. If you always do .... . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miketh2nd Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 I did feel a little deflated at the start of the game having no new signings to watch and being a little confused having played Wilson most of the bigger pre season games in the first 11 to not even be on the bench! Really didn't like the thought of Nytanga starting along fonts.Yes we did do hoof ball instantly every attack from defence but only JCR came deep to try and stop the hoofing.I'd be suprised if we see the Skuse elliot as a central pairing for quite a while now. We didn't pass enough to Adomah enough until pushed further forward once Kilkenny was on and actually created space and made ipswich more stretched and stop them man marking Adomah(which I won't be suprised to see a lot this season). Maynard and stead did alright stead doing the better of the two but maynard had a better 2nd half but don't blame either of them having to put up with hoof balls. I don't even want to start on the defence and james though...yes Millen they were soft goals but why he can't just admit he had the tactics wrong today I don't know.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esmond Million's Bung Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 The attendance on the first game of the season is often effected by lots of fans being away on holiday, particularly with the kids off school. But.....your're right Millen did 'play-safe' and on the one hand I can see why. He knows all the starting players well and what he'll get from then On the other hand a little bit of innovation might have made a difference. We all know Kilkenny should have started and possibly Bolasie/Woolford but it didn't happen. As for 'deserving' that result. That's too harsh imo. No-one can blame a manager for individual errors, two from his most experienced player and had it not been for those errors there was little between the two teams. James barely had a save to make. Ipswich didn't play us of the park and the 0-3 result seriously flattered them. No of course the manager cannot be blamed for individual errors, unfortunately though RR it is becoming more than a recurring nightmare. As I alluded to earlier Fontaine backed off so far (whilst on the edge of our area) for the second goal and that is more like lack of coaching and lumping long balls is not only lack of coaching it's lack of tactics and that represents every thing you especially hate in football. if Millen ever has a plan b it is usually put into practice far too late (usually when the game is lost) he is not a pro-active manager once the whistle has blown. Millen could not have got it more wrong yesterday, his centre midfield pairing are a failed pairing, but he is determined too make it work at all costs, JCR should not be played on the left it leaves an already dodgy Mcallister exposed, both these points were known last season, we have 2 left sided players which HE signed and his treatment of Pitman is laughable. Virtually everything that was wrong last season occurred yesterday and that is worrying and as for your last sentence, that makes matters worse because they did'nt even have to play that well to put 3 past us, god knows what will happen when we play a team in real form. Millen deserves his chance and now is definately not the time to talk about sacking him. But he really needs to impose himself on this squad and the coaching needs to improve, as I have said I think he needs to bring in a proper defensive coach, because no matter how good a coach we are told he is, that is certainly not transmitted in the organisation of his defence and rarely is. or put another way the viewing public are rarely wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Portland Bill Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 if Fontaine had backed off anymore for their 2nd goal he would been in the east end, ******* shocking. Fontaine backed off mainly because he's a left footed central defender playing on the right. No left footed player is comfortable tackling with there right foot and the same goes with right footed tackling with there left. I cannot believe we played 2 left footed central defenders, you just don't do it. Carey should have played, KM dropped a real clanger picking the 2 left footers IMO. Just to back up my point, watch which leg Fontaine went to block the shot with, his left? A right footed player would have blocked that shot by sliding in with his right foot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somered Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 Just ask how many saves James made. Obviously not enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esmond Million's Bung Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 Fontaine backed off mainly because he's a left footed central defender playing on the right. No left footed player is comfortable tackling with there right foot and the same goes with right footed tackling with there left. I cannot believe we played 2 left footed central defenders, you just don't do it. Carey should have played, KM dropped a real clanger picking the 2 left footers IMO. Just to back up my point, watch which leg Fontaine went to block the shot with, his left? A right footed player would have blocked that shot by sliding in with his right foot. Our defenders get bullied too easily, we saw it far too many times last season and things have not improved. The attacker wants to cut in and Fontaine allows him to cut in. Well coached defenders shepherd attackers into areas where they can cause little or no damage, but our defenders don't do that they just back off and allow the attacker the choice of where to go. Had Fontaine got close he could and should have forced the guy wide, really all he needed to do is be strong and stay on his feet and close and then he might not of even needed to use his standing foot at all and I am a Fontaine fan, it's coaching or actually lack of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC Risk Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 I'm one of Millen's biggest supporters and I never today's result coming either. In fact I predicted a draw. And no semantics means we saw the exact same result this game last season and we didn't see 0-3 'quite a lot' last season, twice if I recall, one being a cup match. I haven't actually checked so could be wrong. It was shambolic defending and the only thing between the two teams. Just ask how many saves James made. Just re-iterates my opinion, that you know nothing about this club Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esmond Million's Bung Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 Watching the West Ham v Cardiff game, shows the virtues of good coaching. Both defences were excellent, keeping tight to attackers, closing down, talking, not making rash challenges and covering for each other. individually none of the defenders in either team were world class but they were well coached and it showed. on another note it looks as though Mckay has unearthed a raw gem in Getede he looks like a real handful and to be honest NM should take a leaf out of Kenny Millers book he never gave up and got his reward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOTR Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 The manager,the team,the club, too ******* soft, we need to grow a pair and quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bucksred Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 The attendance on the first game of the season is often effected by lots of fans being away on holiday, particularly with the kids off school. But.....your're right Millen did 'play-safe' and on the one hand I can see why. He knows all the starting players well and what he'll get from then On the other hand a little bit of innovation might have made a difference. We all know Kilkenny should have started and possibly Bolasie/Woolford but it didn't happen. As for 'deserving' that result. That's too harsh imo. No-one can blame a manager for individual errors, two from his most experienced player and had it not been for those errors there was little between the two teams. James barely had a save to make. Ipswich didn't play us of the park and the 0-3 result seriously flattered them. I personally know at least five people who have not renewed ST's due to the utter shite served up for the past two seasons, and I suspect thats the biggest reason for the drop in gate, not the phoney school holidays excuse you are peddling. Millen did play so called "safe", ie his default position. He has had 40 plus games to sort it out, know the shortcomings, the teams pluses, the weaknesses, the strengths, and we still played shit. As you said Ipswich were not the best side in the world, but they STILL made us look piss poor. 90% of forecasters have us struggling at best. No-one predicts promotion. The best prediction I have seen was the Times last Monday which predicted a 9th place IF we started well, which we were not known for. We did get what we deserved STUFFED...Ipswich have better players in every position than us. We should get the best we can afford and offload the vast majority of this shambles, as Ipswich have done, and even Crapdiff appear to have done. Me I dont know how long your beloved Millen can survive, but if we lose to Swine town (Quite possible) and Crapdiff (Even more possible) then the man should be shown the door. I do not want to have to wait until January to go on a run to garantee Championship football, as we did last season, and worse hanging on till there was a player mutiny the previous season, to get a piss poor manager removed. Gary Johnson (And I am very very far from being a fan of his) is not as bad as this clown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbored Posted August 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 Just re-iterates my opinion, that you know nothing about this club Thanks for that but most people are not interested in what your opinion of my knowledge of our club is, least of all me. I guess you predicted a 0-3 home defeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy082005 Posted August 7, 2011 Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 Thanks for that but most people are not interested in what your opinion of my knowledge of our club is, least of all me. I guess you predicted a 0-3 home defeat. To be fair, even you must be struggling to defend Millen and his team selections now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbored Posted August 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2011 To be fair, even you must be struggling to defend Millen and his team selections now? I've said in another post that I was surprised to see two left footers in the centre of defence and Kilkenny sat on the bench. I was also surprised to see James make two basic errors but hey ho that must be Millen's fault as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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