What do we do about Flint

[Drew Peacock]

9 hours ago, Bristol Rob said:

Probably. I'm in drink. You'll have to be specific!

Giving away goals are not small mistakes. Goals are very hard earned. If at work you had made the number and scale of mistakes that Flint has, you would be on a final warning,  not having an encouraging cuddle.

Unless you worked for the council,  probably.

[brizzlelou]

Not one for claiming to be ITK but, and I'm awaiting slating, I was at a 40th last night with someone who is very well known by fans and close to the club who did say that west brom bid 4.2 million on transfer deadline day and it was turned down. Apparently he's been a right moody bugger since. Not one for gossip and sure I will get called all the names under the sun but it does make sense. He's not been the same player the last few weeks and maybe a rejected move to the premier league has turned his head slightly. If it is the case and he has his head elsewhere then maybe a spell on the bench would benefit us and him?

[ashton_fan]

We haven't got a match fit replacement for Flint so no chance of him being dropped (apart from maybe Cup game). With ROD it was different since we had suitable replacement in Frankie

[funky monkey]

The way I see it is.....your Mrs cheats on you once...you let it slide....she does it a second time your starting to doubt her commitment a bit.....third time your getting really worried especially when she does it twice in 90 mins.....but four bloody times it taking the piss....and this is definitely the time to drop.....drop the camera and join in, life's to short!

[Taylor10]

6 hours ago, Phileas Fogg said:

If that's who I'm thinking of he's a well known bullsh*tter on other city forums and on twitter. Has some bizarre opinions and appears to search 'bristol city' so he can give his 2p to all and sundry who tweet those words.

It's the bloke who's on radio Bristol every single week. I just found it a bit bizarre how you can ring up and call for a player to be dropped when you didn't even see how well he played? Bloke just sounds like a bit of an idiot.

Why is he even on air if he's away anyway!? Have a day off fella!!

[spudski]

I think you have to look at the 'situation' with a wider perspective.

If you are a central defender or goalkeeper, a slight error can cost you a goal as you are most often the last line of defence.

Those errors get magnified and sometimes taken out of proportion.

For example...99% of Flints game has been good. He's been solid and done what's expected of him.

Look at it from another angle...do we have a thread asking 'What are we going to do with Tomlin?' For many of his games this season, he's been ineffective and like yesterday, made loads of errors, losing the ball to the opposition cheaply...through HIS misjudgements. The big difference being, he has other players that can mop up his mistakes or they are often not in dangerous areas. Not a dig at Tomlin...but using it as an example of perspective.

Because Flints 'Errors' have lead to goals, it's not his ability you have to worry about, but his state of mind. You only have to see what happened to Fontaine.

I'd be showing Aden on his App all the positive things he's done in match's, get him to focus his mindset on those and keep practicing the basics in training.

He's good at the basics...just do the basics Aden...let Hordur or Elstrund be the skilful CB's.

Worth noting also, we as fans don't get to hear the communication on the pitch. I'd love to know what was being said when these 'errors' have occurred. Is Aden getting calls from others of 'clear it'...'Keepers' etc or not? Communication is massive on the pitch and something I often look for.

[Alessandro]

34 minutes ago, brizzlelou said:

Not one for claiming to be ITK but, and I'm awaiting slating, I was at a 40th last night with someone who is very well known by fans and close to the club who did say that west brom bid 4.2 million on transfer deadline day and it was turned down. Apparently he's been a right moody bugger since. Not one for gossip and sure I will get called all the names under the sun but it does make sense. He's not been the same player the last few weeks and maybe a rejected move to the premier league has turned his head slightly. If it is the case and he has his head elsewhere then maybe a spell on the bench would benefit us and him?

I might believe this to be the case if you take out his reactions to his mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes, but he didn't sulk, it was obvious from his body language after Rotherham he was gutted and furthermore the reaction to our equaliser yesterday. Couple that with the fact he stayed behind yesterday to applaud all four corners of the ground doesn't sound like the actions of a sulking player looking for a move.

[brizzlelou]

15 minutes ago, Alessandro said:

I might believe this to be the case if you take out his reactions to his mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes, but he didn't sulk, it was obvious from his body language after Rotherham he was gutted and furthermore the reaction to our equaliser yesterday. Couple that with the fact he stayed behind yesterday to applaud all four corners of the ground doesn't sound like the actions of a sulking player looking for a move.

I love Flint and hope what I heard is pure bullshit for things like this alone. 

[HoldenBall]

Was watching him before the game, when they do that small passing routine with the bibs on Flint kept misplacing passes and looked visibly frustrated, his heads gone IMO. LJ got it right post match comments saying he needs to go back to the basics, and he'll have all week to work on that.

He needs taking out the limelight or we could have another Fontaine situations on our hands. We bought a fantastic young centre back for a 7 figure fee, if he does well against Fulham on Wednesday if he plays then I think he should replace Flint.

[screech]

11 hours ago, BRISTOL86 said:

Because the 1% cost us a goal? It's a perfectly reasonable talking point. 

I would hope that the club and fans were a lot better than that to be fair.

A player that has made a few mistakes in the last few games, but the vast majority of his game is still very good.

If we are to drop someone who has been a stand out player for us the past few seasons, is the best in that position in our squad then we need our heads examining.

 

[Flagon]

It would be easy to drop him if we had fully fit Championship ready players to step in. Ekstrand is still getting fitness up and Moore is untried. Both would represent a risk of sorts. Ekstrand could be very important to us this season so to push him too quickly could be detrimental to his fitness long term. Moore looks like he could be a really astute signing and could be another Abraham and take to it perfectly. But remember how quickly Vyner was written off by some when he came in at tail end of last season and made a couple of mistakes.

Dropping ROD was slightly easier with a proven fit Fielding waiting.

[chinapig]

1 hour ago, brizzlelou said:

Not one for claiming to be ITK but, and I'm awaiting slating, I was at a 40th last night with someone who is very well known by fans and close to the club who did say that west brom bid 4.2 million on transfer deadline day and it was turned down. Apparently he's been a right moody bugger since. Not one for gossip and sure I will get called all the names under the sun but it does make sense. He's not been the same player the last few weeks and maybe a rejected move to the premier league has turned his head slightly. If it is the case and he has his head elsewhere then maybe a spell on the bench would benefit us and him?

The last thing WBA need is another centre half! All the evidence was that they were after attacking players so I take this with a pinch of salt. Plus MA recently said that Kodjia apart - and Ayling and Williams for whom we invited bids - there were no offers for any of our players. Given how up front he has been since the window closed I'm inclined to believe him.

[Lanterne Rouge]

21 minutes ago, chinapig said:

The last thing WBA need is another centre half! All the evidence was that they were after attacking players so I take this with a pinch of salt. Plus MA recently said that Kodjia apart - and Ayling and Williams for whom we invited bids - there were no offers for any of our players. Given how up front he has been since the window closed I'm inclined to believe him.

I tend to agree. If MA wanted to talk things up he could have easily said `We had a seven figure bid for one of our players from a premier league club on deadline day but turned it down`. It would make him look like the club mean business in the eyes of the fans so what`s to lose?

[cidered abroad]

Aden Flint can play through this. He's a big man in more ways than one.

By all means rest him on Tuesday to give Moore his first game but if we had a whole squad that made only one mistake per player per game then we'd be in the Champions League and top of the Prem.

[brizzlelou]

31 minutes ago, chinapig said:

The last thing WBA need is another centre half! All the evidence was that they were after attacking players so I take this with a pinch of salt. Plus MA recently said that Kodjia apart - and Ayling and Williams for whom we invited bids - there were no offers for any of our players. Given how up front he has been since the window closed I'm inclined to believe him.

Just passing on what I heard. He's well connected and is a fairly good source. The fact Flint has been off as of late suggests to me and that little bit of doubt in my head that this could be true. What if they don't disclose the offer from WBA because he's so unhappy it was rejected and the club knowing what fans are like didn't want it in the open to use against him for when he does have a dip in form? Also, would you like the public knowing you have an unhappy player in the squad?

[BRISTOL86]

1 hour ago, screech said:

I would hope that the club and fans were a lot better than that to be fair.

A player that has made a few mistakes in the last few games, but the vast majority of his game is still very good.

If we are to drop someone who has been a stand out player for us the past few seasons, is the best in that position in our squad then we need our heads examining.

 

A lot better than what? We shouldn't talk about Flint's performances because.....?

For the record I'm not saying he should be dropped etc, but there's absolutely no reason whatsoever that he should be immune from having his performances discussed and analysed after a series of costly errors.

It was the only goal we conceded in a game we didn't win, it's a perfectly legitimate talking point.

[Renaissance Williams]

Now that at last we have a decent sized squad of decent quality players, do we need to stop thinking in terms of "dropped" and start thinking in terms of "rotated"?

We've all sung LJ's praises as a manager - perhaps we could let him manage?

[chinapig]

38 minutes ago, brizzlelou said:

Just passing on what I heard. He's well connected and is a fairly good source. The fact Flint has been off as of late suggests to me and that little bit of doubt in my head that this could be true. What if they don't disclose the offer from WBA because he's so unhappy it was rejected and the club knowing what fans are like didn't want it in the open to use against him for when he does have a dip in form? Also, would you like the public knowing you have an unhappy player in the squad?

I appreciate what you say and chose my words carefully so as not to be dismissive. I am sceptical but I do not reject it out of hand. Nor do I in any way question your integrity or your source.

I don't see any sign of lack of commitment on Flint's part though nor of any sulking on the pitch.

[Big C]

I appreciate people need to talk about it because it cost us a goal but I don't see Flint as being hopelessly out of form. Yes he has made a couple of mistakes and being a defender this could cost us goals. But I can't see anybody saying we should drop Tammy after he put a couple of shots off target yesterday and he was the person who missed the header that cost us the first goal on Tuesday. People need to see the bigger picture and not the focus on individual passages of play. If Flint was totally off the pace for 90mins then drop him but this wasn't the case at all.

[screech]

29 minutes ago, BRISTOL86 said:

A lot better than what? We shouldn't talk about Flint's performances because.....?

For the record I'm not saying he should be dropped etc, but there's absolutely no reason whatsoever that he should be immune from having his performances discussed and analysed after a series of costly errors.

It was the only goal we conceded in a game we didn't win, it's a perfectly legitimate talking point.

Shame people didn't want to mention that he played a big part in our goal yesterday where he outmuscled their number 16 in the air as the ball was launched up to him.

But as I say, it's far easier to vilify a player that has been a rock in our defence for the last few seasons and instead focus on the mistake that led to their goal.

[cityexile]

First game I have seen this season, and thought Flint was one of our better players - other than 'that' moment. 

Equally, if a defender is costing you a goal a game, as arguably he has in the last three, the rest of the performance kind of goes by the by. Love him to bits, and certainly some of the goals recently have been as much about communication as anything, but he just needs to focus on doing what he does well, well. Whatever way you slice it, arguably all the goals we have conceeded recently have been really really poor ones. Will be a worry if it starts getting in his head. 

A few mutterings after the goal, but overall, crowd did not get on his back, which was good to see. If they started to, I think he could be rested for a game or two. Hopefully we do not get to that.

As good a place to put it as any to put it, that while I enjoy LJs openess, not entirely convinced by his comments after the Wed game about some players crumbling. It may well have been the time to give Fielding a go, and he did well, but RoD played a part as much as anyone in the second half of last season, and not sure these types of comments are the best way to keep players motivated. Maybe just me.

[Berkshire Red]

while people will say he played well except for the couple of mistakes and he should play through to regain confidence, I have to disagree. We have a guy who Watford fans rated as a top championship defender and the England u19 captain on the bench who are both evidently quality players too and  who are not lacking confidence, so what is the point in having quality players and competition for places if you won't drop an out of form player 

[The Humble Realist]

No mention of the gaffe on lee johnson post match verdict on the offical site...

 

Media team described their goal as a 'lob' ....

[HoldenBall]

3 minutes ago, city2015 said:

while people will say he played well except for the couple of mistakes and he should play through to regain confidence, I have to disagree. We have a guy who Watford fans rated as a top championship defender and the England u19 captain on the bench who are both evidently quality players too and  who are not lacking confidence, so what is the point in having quality players and competition for places if you won't drop an out of form player 

Was just saying this earlier, what's the point of bringing in extra defenders and competition if you're just going to keep playing an out of form player?

If Moore plays well on Tuesday I'd put him in the first team for Saturday. We didn't speak peanuts on him mind!

[BobBobSuperBob]

6 minutes ago, city2015 said:

while people will say he played well except for the couple of mistakes and he should play through to regain confidence, I have to disagree. We have a guy who Watford fans rated as a top championship defender and the England u19 captain on the bench who are both evidently quality players too and  who are not lacking confidence, so what is the point in having quality players and competition for places if you won't drop an out of form player 

LJ has said publicly two weeks running that Ekstrand is not up to speed at moment

Cant speak for Moore but didn't he have an injury from Int duty ? (And has anyone actually seen the lad play to gauge how he would do at Champ level right now !  ?)

[Nogbad the Bad]

 

1 minute ago, city2015 said:

while people will say he played well except for the couple of mistakes and he should play through to regain confidence, I have to disagree. We have a guy who Watford fans rated as a top championship defender and the England u19 captain on the bench who are both evidently quality players too and  who are not lacking confidence, so what is the point in having quality players and competition for places if you won't drop an out of form player 

Ekstrand may well be quality - hopefully his awful injury will not have changed that long term - but yesterday looked far from ready for Championship football, and LJ has admitted as much.

Moore, well most of us have no idea, but the manager, having scrutinised him in training, clearly hasn't thought him ready up to now.

Flint is not out of form, he had an excellent game yesterday bar the mistake.

Are you convinced Ekstrand and Moore would be immune to making costly errors if you bring one of them in for Flint, and where would that leave us if they did?

[Berkshire Red]

4 minutes ago, Iron Man said:

Was just saying this earlier, what's the point of bringing in extra defenders and competition if you're just going to keep playing an out of form player?

If Moore plays well on Tuesday I'd put him in the first team for Saturday. We didn't speak peanuts on him mind!

Exactly! The England set up obviously feel moore has the potential to be a top player and I think if given a run of games in the championship to gain some experience he could turn out to be one of our best ever signings, so I'd like to see him given a chance.

It's must also be concerning for players like Moore and ekstrand if they're not going to play when flints out of form then when will they get a chance? 

[Berkshire Red]

6 minutes ago, Nogbad the Bad said:

 

Ekstrand may well be quality - hopefully his awful injury will not have changed that long term - but yesterday looked far from ready for Championship football, and LJ has admitted as much.

Moore, well most of us have no idea, but the manager, having scrutinised him in training, clearly hasn't thought him ready up to now.

Flint is not out of form, he had an excellent game yesterday bar the mistake.

Are you convinced Ekstrand and Moore would be immune to making costly errors if you bring one of them in for Flint, and where would that leave us if they did?

They may well make costly errors too but how will we know how well they do if they're not given the chance? 

Why is a player like Moore going to want to stay at city where there are players in his position making costly errors in games and yet he's still my being given a chance? 

[Berkshire Red]

I've heard people saying in the forum that Abraham has been quiet for large parts of games and doing very little but he then pops up and scores a late minute winner and we all consider him a very good player because he's scoring goals which is what he is in the team to do. 

Whereas Flint is arguably playing well but costing us goals which he is in the team to prevent. The difference is Abraham is doing what he's in the team to do but Flint isn't

[REDOXO]

The mistake was all Aiden Flint. That far up the pitch there was no way any blame can be attached to FF for not shouting instructions or anything else.  Flint made the error of not dealing with the ball. As Ray Wilkins once commented "as a central d fender you deal with it, nor dealing with it invites the forward to run behind you"

However as mentioned is Flint out of form or out of luck at the moment ?

what concerns me either way is after the horror shows in Yorkshire this week why would he even consider ducking out of that header? My thought is he is/was trying to convince himself and us that he has not been effected by recent games and still has confidence, which led directly to the decision to duck out of the header  

Nevertheless a very decent performance other than that howler suggests to me he will come back strongly very quickly!

keep the faith in our man Flint, he was not the subject of multiple enquires for no reason. Mistakes are made and in this case they have come often in a week, I can't remember the last time I had a bad week :laugh:! Can you?