Lee Johnson Sack Watch (Merged, again and again)

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

This club has become a laughing stock....except it is in no way, funny.

[Ashtonwurzel]

1 hour ago, ExiledAjax said:

It's this. I only get to see us play a few times.  This season it's been Wigan on the opening day, Fulham in the League Cup, QPR away, and then the Cardiff and Brighton games on the TV.  I remember so few moments during those matches where I thought "Do you know what. We're actually alright at football." Yes there have been individual moments that have excited me - Tammy's introduction against Wigan, the comeback against Fulham, watching Magnusson do his very best as a one-man defence v QPR.  However, on the whole it's been depressing.

Trouble is I really want Johnson to be a success with Bristol City.  He's the kind of manager that I want this club to be associated with.  He's relatively well-spoken, and he is eager and willing to learn. Remember when he first came to the club and was talking about his visits to the NHS and the Army?  Then the story about how he persuaded Chelsea and Tammy to come down to little old Bristol City.  These modern and innovative methods are things that I really want us to nurture.  I want us to be spoken about as model club that is the pride of its city.

However, the football is poor and from what I see there is an obvious issue with the team's mental strength, that desire to compete that can veil a large gulf in talent - as we see in the FA Cup every now and then.  To me that seems to be the fault of the manager and coaching staff.  To get 0 points from Cardiff and Forest is awful.  I still believe our form will return, we're still only losing by a goal here or there...but maybe that small difference is just...just a question of some belief, some fire in the belly.  It hurts me to say it but I don't think Johnson is the man to ignite that in our players.

You can tell an awful lot from how a team conducts itself in the pre-match warm up. Lacks focus, inspiration and tempo for me, going through the motions. At times descending into a Sunday morning whack the ball at each other event. 

[Inactive user]

14 minutes ago, RedJim said:

Yeah, we're miles off it at the moment. Plenty of time.

Statistically speaking we are some way off being in relegation trouble. I know that's not totally reliable, but depends what measure the Board are going by.

[RedJim]

Just now, Rednwhiterob said:

Statistically speaking we are some way off being in relegation trouble. I know that's not totally reliable, but depends what measure the Board are going by.

If they are going by that measure then I'm extremely worried. 2 points doesn't seem 'some way off'.

[Benjam!n Ultra]

1 minute ago, Rednwhiterob said:

Statistically speaking we are some way off being in relegation trouble. I know that's not totally reliable, but depends what measure the Board are going by.

[pongo88]

1 hour ago, ashton_fan said:

From what Stockhausen is saying this morning it sounds as though LJ will be given up to the Rotherham game to turn things around. If we lose all those then I can only see one outcome.

What if it's dire performances against Sheffield Wednesday and Rothetham, but City scrape 2 draws? This could extend the life expectancy of dead man walking LJ and make the tough February fixtures even tougher.  Time is running out and it won't be possible to make an instant improvement, so here's a qoute for SL:

"Now-peopl are winners; they say “now” and they do it “now”! Do not delay."

[ExiledAjax]

10 minutes ago, Ashtonwurzel said:

You can tell an awful lot from how a team conducts itself in the pre-match warm up. Lacks focus, inspiration and tempo for me, going through the motions. At times descending into a Sunday morning whack the ball at each other event. 

A perfect description of the warm-up I witnessed at QPR.

Anyway, I've booked my tickets for Fulham at home.  I'm hoping the team can remember how to win by then...or draw...I'd even take that right now.

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

9 minutes ago, Olé said:

You missed my post further down this page where I commented on that for the nth time! Anyone who is reassured by this now legendary stat about chances created, is not watching the same team as me - Rotherham away yes, Fulham away yes. Otherwise I have no idea what constitutes a shot as we create only low probability chances, you certainly could not describe this City as a team that creates wave upon wave of attack - even at Ashton Gate.

People keep quoting this stat, then claiming we're missing lots of chances or are not clinical enough - how many one on ones have we missed? How many sitters have we all replayed on Youtube and howled about? Where are all these bloody chances we're missing? Why don't people trust what they see with their own eyes instead taking a stat-line and building a narrative about us being a good attacking team that is all over the opposition!?

My own hunch, mentioned before, is our chances total includes every time we try and thread a ball into Tammy through the middle and he has to take a snap shot or hold off a defender and take a 50-50 shot, or the occasions when we run out of options outside the box and have a hopeful punt (you know - the type that occasionally go in, Freeman v Ipswich, Tomlin at Cardiff). Our chances are certainly not the product of lots of assists/crosses into the box.

You mean the sitters at Reading, Cardiff.. seen them with my own eyes. Plus the amount of one of one's that Tammy has missed particularly against Brentford... Wolves? We've created enough chances to win those games and I don't need a stat to tell me this.

I brought up that stat to make the point that we do actually attack contrary to the belief that others seem to possess

[samo II]

6 minutes ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

You mean the sitters at Reading, Cardiff.. seen them with my own eyes. Plus the amount of one of one's that Tammy has missed particularly against Brentford... Wolves? We've created enough chances to win those games and I don't need a stat to tell me this.

I brought up that stat to make the point that we do actually attack contrary to the belief that others seem to possess

Against Forest we didn't - and that must rank as one of the most important games recently; LJ said repeatedly pre-game that his focus was on winning that game - can he honestly say we tried to do that?  

I'll defer to those who were there, but reports suggest we simply didn't do that.  Which is utterly criminal, considering losing meant setting a new and unwanted record.

I'm afraid I can't see how we exit this tail spin without something radical happening, and nothing LJ has displayed suggest he has the capability to deliver this, unfortunately.

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

4 minutes ago, samo II said:

Against Forest we didn't - and that must rank as one of the most important games recently; LJ said repeatedly pre-game that his focus was on winning that game - can he honestly say we tried to do that?  

I'll defer to those who were there, but reports suggest we simply didn't do that.  Which is utterly criminal, considering losing meant setting a new and unwanted record.

I'm afraid I can't see how we exit this tail spin without something radical happening, and nothing LJ has displayed suggest he has the capability to deliver this, unfortunately.

I think I've said in another post on another thread that we set up too negative against Forest, that was indeed a tactical error/balls up.. seemed like he set us up not to lose rather than go for the win

[Esmond Million's Bung]

49 minutes ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

It's really not a cop out of the truth at all. 

of course it's a cop out, this pathetic run is almost into it's 4th month and you say it's just individual errors that are killing us?, take a look at a host of goals that we have conceded during that time and you will see a poor standard of basic football understanding, individual and collective errors into the lead up of most of them not just 1 single error, not getting close enough whilst marking giving attackers far too much space and respect, not doing enough to cut out crosses, not putting your body on the line and taking one for the team when defending shots, trying to be too clever in dangerous areas of the pitch including in and around our own area, defensive midfielders being caught out in front of attacking midfielders when moves breakdown, midfielders failing to spot midfield runners, midfield backing off and backing off some more and then a defender takes the blame when he has to commit a foul on the edge of our area a foul that should have been committed on the halfway line, misplaced simple passes.

And the worst failing of all is game management, take a look at how many times during this run we have been either leading or having got ourselves back into a drawing position going into the last quarter of game and have lost virtually every single time, even a meagre 5 to 8 extra points from those games would see our predicament in a far better light and LJ could possibly even claim that that better light was at the end of tunnel especially given our new signings. The glaringly obvious warning sign was at Sheff Weds when having thrown away a 2 goal lead and holding on at 2-2 whilst playing with 10 men, we never once tried to take opportunities to run the clock down, instead we were constantly being caught in midfield and all of that was compounded when ROD kicked the ball straight into touch with about 20/30 seconds of play left and all know exactly how that ended and yet shit teams like Cardiff and Forest can manage tight games against us.

All of the above are a litany of coaching problems and to merely blame individual errors is a total cop out, because they have happened every single game during this run, a run that has seen BCFC become incredibly predictable, incredibly easy to beat, LJ even admitted that teams have to do very little to beat us, the past almost 4 months virtually every game has had a predictable and inevitable outcome going into the last quarter of a game and 4 months is more than enough to sort his shit out, he is out of his depth.

[boss hogg]

Just now, Esmond Million's Bung said:

of course it's a cop out, this pathetic run is almost into it's 4th month and you say it's just individual errors that are killing us?, take a look at a host of goals that we have conceded during that time and you will see a poor standard of basic football understanding, individual and collective errors into the lead up of most of them not just 1 single error, not getting close enough whilst marking giving attackers far too much space and respect, not doing enough to cut out crosses, not putting your body on the line and taking one for the team when defending shots, trying to be too clever in dangerous areas of the pitch including in and around our own area, defensive midfielders being caught out in front of attacking midfielders when moves breakdown, midfielders failing to spot midfield runners, midfield backing off and backing off some more and then a defender takes the blame when he has to commit a foul on the edge of our area a foul that should have been committed on the halfway line, misplaced simple passes.

And the worst failing of all is game management, take a look at how many times during this run we have been either leading or having got ourselves back into a drawing position going into the last quarter of game and have lost virtually every single time, even a meagre 5 to 8 extra points from those games would see our predicament in a far better light and LJ could possibly even claim that that better light was at the end of tunnel especially given our new signings. The glaringly obvious warning sign was at Sheff Weds when having thrown away a 2 goal lead and holding on at 2-2 whilst playing with 10 men, we never once tried to take opportunities to run the clock down, instead we were constantly being caught in midfield and all of that was compounded when ROD kicked the ball straight into touch with about 20/30 seconds of play left and all know exactly how that ended and yet shit teams like Cardiff and Forest can manage games against us.

All of the above are a litany of coaching problems and to merely blame individual errors is a total cop out, because they have happened every single game during this run, a run that has seen BCFC become incredibly predictable, incredibly easy to beat, LJ even admitted that teams have to do very little to beat us, the past almost 4 months virtually every game has had a predictable and inevitable outcome going into the last quarter of a game and 4 months is more than enough to sort his shit out, he is out of his depth.

, spot on.

[CotswoldRed]

4 hours ago, daored said:

Think the 'sack watch' has got a few more episodes to run.

I personally don't believe LJ will be sacked by the club. The reason I say this is for two reasons; firstly all we've heard from the club is LJ is one of the most promising young managers in the country. As LJ will be telling the board we're only being beaten by one goal. He also has one extra window because at the minute this isn't his squad.

Secondly, the club gave him a new contract just helped Christmas. For Ashton in particular to then sack a manager some six weeks later will raise the prospect of him being questioned by the board. The way Johnson and Ashton blow smoke up each others ass has at times been cringe worthy.

Johnson will still be our manager next season, unfortunately in league 1. We will be told it's all part of the master plan for Europa football in four years. 

For me Forrest was an embarrassment, playing a team with no manager, upheaval at the club, and sold their best player. We just didn't do anything to win that game. But I see no change going forward 

Aside from the single goal defeats, we've played poorly for some of all of every game I've seen this season. Which is 15 league games. 

We are a crap team. Any stats used to paint a positive picture are papering over the truth. 

[Olé]

15 minutes ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

You mean the sitters at Reading, Cardiff.. seen them with my own eyes. Plus the amount of one of one's that Tammy has missed particularly against Brentford... Wolves? We've created enough chances to win those games and I don't need a stat to tell me this.

I brought up that stat to make the point that we do actually attack contrary to the belief that others seem to possess

Brentford maybe where Tammy is concerned, he had no luck that day and hit the crossbar as I recall... the rest, I wish I was watching the same team you are. At Cardiff? If you're on about Bobby Reid, it was cut out by the defender, as replays showed. Wolves? Laughable, at half time we were on the verge of daylight robbery, we barely got out of our own half. You're beginning to sound like there is some big highlight reel of sitters and one on ones that Tammy Abraham and others have missed, only they never seem to appear in the highlights or in the match reports. This is the first I'm hearing that finishing is our problem!

"We do actually attack" isn't saying much, it's the manner of attacking which matters, and we don't do so with any conviction or desire to create clear scoring chances - we commit limited numbers forward, who themselves don't move, and we try to play right through the middle of two lines of opponents. The quality of chances that arise is a reflection of that approach - low probability chances that either leave Abraham with a lot to do, are speculative attempts from outside the box, or are from set pieces. The problem is not that we're creating and missing lots of chances, it's that we're not trying to create any good ones.

Like in so many things, quantity rather than quality is a poor measure. Our chances created stat is a reflection of that contradiction - we have sacrificed quality of chances and real attacking threat, and yet we have a stat line that people think we should be congratulated for. Personally I find the same is true of the "fine margins", "only lose by 1 goal" storyline too, which fails to note that we setup to contain and be compact, we're never going to get thrashed, the real question is what attacking endeavour are we ever asking or allowing our team to take so we score more than the opposition. At Forest yet again, next to none.

[GodEmperor Palpatine]

1 minute ago, Olé said:

Brentford maybe where Tammy is concerned, he had no luck that day and hit the crossbar as I recall... the rest, I wish I was watching the same team you are. At Cardiff? If you're on about Bobby Reid, it was cut out by the defender, as replays showed. Wolves? Laughable, at half time we were on the verge of daylight robbery, we barely got out of our own half. You're beginning to sound like there is some big highlight reel of sitters and one on ones that Tammy Abraham and others have missed, only they never seem to appear in the highlights or in the match reports. This is the first I'm hearing that finishing is our problem!

"We do actually attack" isn't saying much, it's the manner of attacking which matters, and we don't do so with any conviction or desire to create clear scoring chances - we commit limited numbers forward, who themselves don't move, and we try to play right through the middle of two lines of opponents. The quality of chances that arise is a reflection of that approach - low probability chances that either leave Abraham with a lot to do, are speculative attempts from outside the box, or are from set pieces. The problem is not that we're creating and missing lots of chances, it's that we're not trying to create any good ones.

Like in so many things, quantity rather than quality is a poor measure. Our chances created stat is a reflection of that contradiction - we have sacrificed quality of chances and real attacking threat, and yet we have a stat line that people think we should be congratulated for. Personally I find the same is true of the "fine margins", "only lose by 1 goal" storyline too, which fails to note that we setup to contain and be compact, we're never going to get thrashed, the real question is what attacking endeavour are we ever asking or allowing our team to take so we score more than the opposition. At Forest yet again, next to none.

I think you're wrong personally but we'll agree to disagree...  but Bobbys chance he put over the bar from 2 yards.

Hardly laughable as I assume we attended the same games right?

[cityloyal473]

25 minutes ago, Esmond Million's Bung said:

of course it's a cop out, this pathetic run is almost into it's 4th month and you say it's just individual errors that are killing us?, take a look at a host of goals that we have conceded during that time and you will see a poor standard of basic football understanding, individual and collective errors into the lead up of most of them not just 1 single error, not getting close enough whilst marking giving attackers far too much space and respect, not doing enough to cut out crosses, not putting your body on the line and taking one for the team when defending shots, trying to be too clever in dangerous areas of the pitch including in and around our own area, defensive midfielders being caught out in front of attacking midfielders when moves breakdown, midfielders failing to spot midfield runners, midfield backing off and backing off some more and then a defender takes the blame when he has to commit a foul on the edge of our area a foul that should have been committed on the halfway line, misplaced simple passes.

And the worst failing of all is game management, take a look at how many times during this run we have been either leading or having got ourselves back into a drawing position going into the last quarter of game and have lost virtually every single time, even a meagre 5 to 8 extra points from those games would see our predicament in a far better light and LJ could possibly even claim that that better light was at the end of tunnel especially given our new signings. The glaringly obvious warning sign was at Sheff Weds when having thrown away a 2 goal lead and holding on at 2-2 whilst playing with 10 men, we never once tried to take opportunities to run the clock down, instead we were constantly being caught in midfield and all of that was compounded when ROD kicked the ball straight into touch with about 20/30 seconds of play left and all know exactly how that ended and yet shit teams like Cardiff and Forest can manage tight games against us.

All of the above are a litany of coaching problems and to merely blame individual errors is a total cop out, because they have happened every single game during this run, a run that has seen BCFC become incredibly predictable, incredibly easy to beat, LJ even admitted that teams have to do very little to beat us, the past almost 4 months virtually every game has had a predictable and inevitable outcome going into the last quarter of a game and 4 months is more than enough to sort his shit out, he is out of his depth.

Bang on.  It's not just the results - its the utter dross and tactical ineptitude that's been served up. There is no sign of improvement in any area of the pitch.  We cant defend; cant cross a ball; cant take a corner; cant man mark; cant manage a game, etc., etc.  Thats down to the head coach.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

2 minutes ago, cityloyal473 said:

Bang on.  It's not just the results - its the utter dross and tactical ineptitude that's been served up. There is no sign of improvement in any area of the pitch.  We cant defend; cant cross a ball; cant take a corner; cant man mark; cant manage a game, etc., etc.  Thats down to the head coach.

Can't take free kicks..........................................

[NickJ]

1 hour ago, Rednwhiterob said:

Statistically speaking we are some way off being in relegation trouble. I know that's not totally reliable, but depends what measure the Board are going by.

Reading that I was about to choke on my McVities but then luckily I noticed your profile motto below your Username.

[Septic Peg]

14.27 - LJ finishes off his Chicken Kiev in the Failand canteen.

Jamie McAllister is playing on twitter as he has **** all else to do today.

Pembo is in a meeting with MA and SL. LJ isn't worried. Pembo told him it was to talk about a pay rise, nowt to do with a promotion...

[boss hogg]

1 hour ago, Rednwhiterob said:

Here's here until and unless relegation  becomes a serious consideration.

my head hurts

[Esmond Million's Bung]

6 minutes ago, NickJ said:

Reading that I was about to choke on my McVities but then luckily I noticed your profile motto below your Username.

Apparently statistically 2 weeks ago Blackburn would take 20 games to catch us and Wigan even more.

 

 

[Inactive user]

9 minutes ago, NickJ said:

Reading that I was about to choke on my McVities but then luckily I noticed your profile motto below your Username.

There is some founding in my comments.  It's a week out of date now, but the statistical analysis done by experimental 361 shows we're 90% safe.

https://experimental361.com/2017/01/15/e-ratings-update-championship-14-jan-2017/

I know it's just one statistical interpretation and maybe form is the more worrying aspect, but I don't know what the Board look at and are informed by.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

4 minutes ago, Rednwhiterob said:

There is some founding in my comments.  It's a week out of date now, but the statistical analysis done by experimental 361 shows we're 90% safe.

https://experimental361.com/2017/01/15/e-ratings-update-championship-14-jan-2017/

I know it's just one statistical interpretation and maybe form is the more worrying aspect, but I don't know what the Board look at and are informed by.

Just a wild stab in the dark here, probably the shitty results over the past 4 months.

[Superjack]

4 minutes ago, Rednwhiterob said:

There is some founding in my comments.  It's a week out of date now, but the statistical analysis done by experimental 361 shows we're 90% safe.

https://experimental361.com/2017/01/15/e-ratings-update-championship-14-jan-2017/

I know it's just one statistical interpretation and maybe form is the more worrying aspect, but I don't know what the Board look at and are informed by.

If the board think that we're 90% safe, we're 100% ***ked.

[Olé]

55 minutes ago, Emperor Palpatine said:

I think you're wrong personally but we'll agree to disagree...  but Bobbys chance he put over the bar from 2 yards.

Hardly laughable as I assume we attended the same games right?

Apparently we did, but one of us didn't have a very good view! Seriously though - bar that scramble in the last minute, did you really see us create lots of clear chances at Wolves? My personal memory is besides Fulham (A) which was obvious to anyone, I only came away from one game feeling like we did everything we possibly could to score and created wave after wave of attack, and that was Rotherham (A). Perhaps we're just not very good at attacking.

I'm pretty sure Bobby's chance at Cardiff was proved by Sky to have been a touch by Bamba to take it away from him. I was at the game but was sure that was confirmed by various people on here.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

2 minutes ago, Olé said:

Apparently we did, but one of us didn't have a very good view! Seriously though - bar that scramble in the last minute, did you really see us create lots of clear chances at Wolves? My personal memory is besides Fulham (A) which was obvious to anyone, I only came away from one game feeling like we did everything we possibly could to score and created wave after wave of attack, and that was Rotherham (A). Perhaps we're just not very good at attacking.

I'm pretty sure Bobby's chance at Cardiff was proved by Sky to have been a touch by Bamba to take it away from him. I was at the game but was sure that was confirmed by various people on here.

You are correct Ole, but in the interests of balance, I believe that he could and should have done much better, his attempt looked a tad casual too me.

[Guest]

I ve had this account 6 years... time to break my slience, Has he gone yet ? please tell me its going to be soon

I know he doesnt come close to O'driscoll but with all the talk hes heading that way

[Vincent Vega]

5 minutes ago, Wilco said:

I ve had this account 5 years... time to break my slience, Has he gone yet ? please tell me its going to be soon

I know he doesnt come close to O'driscoll but with all the talk hes heading that way

[Northern Red]

2 hours ago, Rednwhiterob said:

Here's here until and unless relegation  becomes a serious consideration.

And to think you were the one asking people to stop joking about... 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Doozerchris said:

 everyone who is new to posting here seems to be gas to some of you... You will find there are far more forum lerkers than forum posters you know!