Judge LJ on his two full seasons.

[Boston Red]

LJ has had two full seasons here. The 2016/17 season, and the 2017/18 season.

In the 2016/17 season, he signed about 11 million pounds worth of talent. (Tomlin, Magnússon, O' Neill, O'Dowda, T Moore, Duric, Hegeler, Patterson, Brownhill, Engvall, Wright, M Taylor AND Matthews, Abraham, and Cotterill on loan). His team, his signings. No Bristol City manager had ever, in the history of our club, been let near anything like that amount of money, let alone in such a short space of time. We were 6th in October. Steve Lansdown could hardly contain his excitement and gave him a contract extension.

Hold tight now.

We then lost 13 league games out of 16, including 8 in a row, and crashed down the table into a relegation battle. With six games to go we were 21st, one place outside the relegation zone. We dragged our way out of it and finished the season 17th. The season before we had finished 18th but it is absurd to call this progress, considering the amount of money spent and considering the aeroplane crash down the league for most of the season. And yet many City fans solemnly and piously intone the mantra that we have made progress year after year. If it takes us 11 million to go up one league place then we will get automatic promotion in the 2032/33 season at a cost of 171 million pounds. No thanks. But 11 million for Kodjia and 6 million from the Bolasie sell on, plus good fees for Ayling, Williams, and Freeman, covered our losses and covered our wastefulness.

It is fair to judge LJ on his own signings. Here we go.

TOMLIN. Didn't perform. Disruptive. Lucky to get our money back. FAILURE.

Magnússon. You expect a 2 mill + signing from Juventus to be a first team regular. Otherwise you have to buy again. He wasn't. Lucky to get our money back. FAILURE

O' NEILL. Reported 2 million in wages. Never a first team regular. Injured. FAILURE.

O' DOWDA. 1 million.  Could come good. POSSIBLE SUCCESS.

T MOORE. 1.5 million for someone not good enough for the first team. Might come good, might not. WANT MY MONEY BACK. 

DURIC. Signed for 1.7 million, sold for 1 million. Good when he played, not LJ's fault he was injured. UNLUCKY SIGNING.

HEGELER. Not good enough. LJ admits he will play a back up role this season. FAILURE. 

PATTERSON. Didn't cost much, has produced flashes. Current form means it has to be FAILURE.

ENGVALL. 1.6 million. Never started a league game. Sold for peanuts. HIDEOUS GHASTLY EYE WATERING JAW DROPPING MASSIVE PROFLIGATE SPENDTHRIFT FAT FAT FAT FAILURE. 

BROWNHILL. Cost peanuts, first team regular. SUCCESS.

BAILEY WRIGHT. Very good player. SUCCESS.

MATTY TAYLOR. Didn't cost much, improves the team, made winning goal v Man U. SUCCESS.

ADAM FAT-THEWS ON LOAN. There was a player in there (maybe two) but LJ couldn't get it to work. FAILURE.

DAVID COTTERILL ON LOAN. Did nothing. FAILURE.

TAMMY ABRAHAM ON LOAN 26 goals in 48 games. MASSIVE HEART-WARMING BRILLIANT HOPE-FILLED SUCCESS. (He is now a millionaire many times over based on his one season with us)

OVERALL VERDICT ON LJ IN 2016/17. The crash down the league and the numerous failed signings, some at great expense, means that no-one can call this a good season for BCFC. What is depressing is this absurd mythology that Lee Johnson is some kind of footballing alchemist who can turn OK players into brilliant players. No such person on the planet exists, otherwise you and I could be Lionel Messi. We sign Taylor Moore and Gustav Engvall on that basis, they stay the same, and we lose our money. Can I sell you an insurance policy Mr Lansdown? You've been conned. But Tammy Abraham's goals, the Kodjia money, and avoiding relegation keeps LJ his job. 

THE 2017/18 SEASON.

On Boxing Day, after beating Reading 2-0 with a Patterson beauty, City are second in the league. They are about to finish third in a national competition, and will only lose to one of the best sides in Europe 5-3 on aggregate over 180 minutes with a last minute goal in each leg. The national media are purring about us, the money is pouring in from sell outs and our cup run, and four Premier League sides lie by the wayside, two of them easily dispatched by our reserve team. And we knocked the holders Man Utd out of the cup in the last minute. The big boys are sniffing around our best players but we don't sell. The plush new stadium is effortlessly hitting 20,000, and City fans are buying their season ticket in advance in the hope it will be for the Premier League. Sound too good to be true?

IT WAS.

4 wins in 22 games later, City finish 11th. Our big players Bryan and Reid look like they down tools, and they say, along with Flint, that they want to leave the club. In LJ's second full season, he gives us a second aeroplane crash down the league. 

VERDICT ON SIGNINGS.

(since they are mostly still at the club, a final verdict will have to wait)

NATHAN BAKER. 5 million. Good in parts, but a worrying drop in form at the start of 2018 that is still there.

DIEDHIOU. 5.3 million. Good first season, but a worrying drop in form at the moment. 

EROS PISANO. 1 million. Sometimes looks good, but unable to hack the pace of the Championship and therefore gets injured. 

ELIASSON. Much better second season, but 1.8 million looks steep.

LIAM WALSH 1 million. Could come good. 

LOANS.

RYAN KENT. JONATHAN LEKO. CAULEY WOODROW. LOUIS DIONY.  Just don't, alright. Just don't.

 

OVERALL VERDICT ON LJ IN 2017/18 Bobby Reid up front was a masterstroke of genius. Bagged the club 21 goals and 10 million from nowhere. The cup run has given us memories for the next thirty years. The worrying crash down the league, the second in two seasons, and the fact that our best players did not want to be at the club, means that there are still questions to answer. Lansdown's verdict that we must finish higher than 11th is surely right.

 

OVERALL OVERALL VERDICT ON LJ'S FIRST TWO SEASONS. Many zany whacky unforeseen positives (cup run, Reid, Tammy), mixed with many appalling club-crippling negatives that hit us from nowhere. The signings are improving, but the way players crash and lose form out of the blue is a worrying pattern. Overall, I have to say that another manager would have made better use of all the money LJ has had to spend and that another manager would be getting more out of the players we currently have. 

 

[Davefevs]

@Boston Red very nice post.  Not dissimilar to my thoughts on many of the signings.

One thing to consider was that Cotts left him with a small squad that needed padding out.  I’m a huge Cotts fan, but we did need numbers.  No excuses on several players though.

The thing for me is that recruitment isn’t the only issue / flaw.

[formerly known as ivan]

I thought Pisano was a free transfer?

[The Dolman Pragmatist]

Cotterill didn’t do nothing.  He was a key part of us turning the 2016/17 round and was very effective in several games.  A good loan signing.

Also the fans were crying out for Tomlin to be signed permanently.  Very harsh to describe him as a Johnson failure.

the strategy of signing young unproven players was bound to be risky, but that was Lansdown’s plan, not Johnson’s.

O’Neill would have been a good signing if he’d stayed fit.

The real failures have been in the two January windows.

[Lrrr]

Some big discrepancies in your written fees to whats been largely reported, haven't seen Baker reported as £5m anywhere, if anything I've seen him reported as being a cheap signing if we used Kodjia add ons to get it reduced. Highest actual fee I've seen is £3.5m. Pisano £750,000. The other problem I have is you seem to be stuck with fees valued as what they were several years ago, £300,000 or so for Paterson and Hegeler, for that money you are signing back ups so I'd say Paterson has exceeded the fee paid for him, its hard to say paying £300,000 for back up players is failure when they've largely been signed to increase the squad size. £1.8m for a player like Eliasson is no longer a steep fee, its now the going rate for a player with first team potential at this level and Eliasson certainly has that. For £1.7m for O'Dowda (not £1m) he has still shown enough to think the money paid for him has been justified. He could easily go for a decent amount more if he signs a new contract. Mags we made our money back on, so then you ask did he do enough in his time here to justify the wages/signing on fee we paid for him and that would be a yes, he's not a failure for what he's ended up costing us. 

[One BCFC]

I disagree that David Cotterill was a failure on loan but there we go or that Bailey Wright is a very good player

[Wrongagain]

Thinking back to LJ’s last 2 seasons with us as a player, remember the player who looked to be in space when defending and standing off when attacking. We have one player now who avoids contact just as much, and he gets to play in just about every game! Last season he played our injured captain until he was near crippled and lost his international place. LJ refused to change squad and formations until it was too late to change the game, great for player morale!

 this season we give youth a chance and it pays off, but our game is still ruined by the attacking formation. I hear plenty of comments about  our defence but correct me if I wrong but we are shipping far fewer goals now than in the recent past, we need to take our chances, which means our attack has to improve! Lansdown has to bring in the change, if not getting rid of the Dwarf get him some experienced backup!

[Wanderingred]

Agree with your thoughts BostonRed.

We aren't a club that's going to throw money at promotion (and rightfully not) so we need to go down the buying for cheap, developing and selling for a profit model in order to build. We thus need a man in charge to fit that requirement and your (imho accurate) assessments on LJs signings have been pretty damning. I'm not demanding him to be sacked straight away, but I really don't envision any long term future under LJ. Just a long cycle of more poor signings that up on loan or on the treatment table, firefighting, constant changes in formation and short term solutions. It will deliver us a comfortable mid table position this season. But then what? There's no standing still at this level, if you don't move forwards you move backwards.

A few weeks back, I had a run in with @Bob Bob Super Bob when I suggested that LJ had a long term plan. He cut me down, and after a few more weeks of drab football and no sign of the brand of football we were seing 12 months ago, I have to now agree with him.

[daored]

It is frightening when you look at the players the club have signed either permanently or on loan over the past two seasons. The biggest worry is the number of players signed who’ve now left the club, whilst there is likely to be reasons behind it, Tomlin, O’Neil, Mags, Duric, Engvall. That is a relatively high number of players that have been scouted by the club and then sold within a short time frame. Add in the loan players and you have question our scouting of players at times.

My biggest concern with Johnson is the poor runs each of form his teams go on every season. It’s happened every year here, plus at Barnsley (not sure about Oldham), it’s a worry and my biggest concern is does he learn from his mistakes? 

[Major Isewater]

9 hours ago, Boston Red said:

LJ has had two full seasons here. The 2016/17 season, and the 2017/18 season.

In the 2016/17 season, he signed about 11 million pounds worth of talent. (Tomlin, Magnússon, O' Neill, O'Dowda, T Moore, Duric, Hegeler, Patterson, Brownhill, Engvall, Wright, M Taylor AND Matthews, Abraham, and Cotterill on loan). His team, his signings. No Bristol City manager had ever, in the history of our club, been let near anything like that amount of money, let alone in such a short space of time. We were 6th in October. Steve Lansdown could hardly contain his excitement and gave him a contract extension.

Hold tight now.

We then lost 13 league games out of 16, including 8 in a row, and crashed down the table into a relegation battle. With six games to go we were 21st, one place outside the relegation zone. We dragged our way out of it and finished the season 17th. The season before we had finished 18th but it is absurd to call this progress, considering the amount of money spent and considering the aeroplane crash down the league for most of the season. And yet many City fans solemnly and piously intone the mantra that we have made progress year after year. If it takes us 11 million to go up one league place then we will get automatic promotion in the 2032/33 season at a cost of 171 million pounds. No thanks. But 11 million for Kodjia and 6 million from the Bolasie sell on, plus good fees for Ayling, Williams, and Freeman, covered our losses and covered our wastefulness.

It is fair to judge LJ on his own signings. Here we go.

TOMLIN. Didn't perform. Disruptive. Lucky to get our money back. FAILURE.

Magnússon. You expect a 2 mill + signing from Juventus to be a first team regular. Otherwise you have to buy again. He wasn't. Lucky to get our money back. FAILURE

O' NEILL. Reported 2 million in wages. Never a first team regular. Injured. FAILURE.

O' DOWDA. 1 million.  Could come good. POSSIBLE SUCCESS.

T MOORE. 1.5 million for someone not good enough for the first team. Might come good, might not. WANT MY MONEY BACK. 

DURIC. Signed for 1.7 million, sold for 1 million. Good when he played, not LJ's fault he was injured. UNLUCKY SIGNING.

HEGELER. Not good enough. LJ admits he will play a back up role this season. FAILURE. 

PATTERSON. Didn't cost much, has produced flashes. Current form means it has to be FAILURE.

ENGVALL. 1.6 million. Never started a league game. Sold for peanuts. HIDEOUS GHASTLY EYE WATERING JAW DROPPING MASSIVE PROFLIGATE SPENDTHRIFT FAT FAT FAT FAILURE. 

BROWNHILL. Cost peanuts, first team regular. SUCCESS.

BAILEY WRIGHT. Very good player. SUCCESS.

MATTY TAYLOR. Didn't cost much, improves the team, made winning goal v Man U. SUCCESS.

ADAM FAT-THEWS ON LOAN. There was a player in there (maybe two) but LJ couldn't get it to work. FAILURE.

DAVID COTTERILL ON LOAN. Did nothing. FAILURE.

TAMMY ABRAHAM ON LOAN 26 goals in 48 games. MASSIVE HEART-WARMING BRILLIANT HOPE-FILLED SUCCESS. (He is now a millionaire many times over based on his one season with us)

OVERALL VERDICT ON LJ IN 2016/17. The crash down the league and the numerous failed signings, some at great expense, means that no-one can call this a good season for BCFC. What is depressing is this absurd mythology that Lee Johnson is some kind of footballing alchemist who can turn OK players into brilliant players. No such person on the planet exists, otherwise you and I could be Lionel Messi. We sign Taylor Moore and Gustav Engvall on that basis, they stay the same, and we lose our money. Can I sell you an insurance policy Mr Lansdown? You've been conned. But Tammy Abraham's goals, the Kodjia money, and avoiding relegation keeps LJ his job. 

THE 2017/18 SEASON.

On Boxing Day, after beating Reading 2-0 with a Patterson beauty, City are second in the league. They are about to finish third in a national competition, and will only lose to one of the best sides in Europe 5-3 on aggregate over 180 minutes with a last minute goal in each leg. The national media are purring about us, the money is pouring in from sell outs and our cup run, and four Premier League sides lie by the wayside, two of them easily dispatched by our reserve team. And we knocked the holders Man Utd out of the cup in the last minute. The big boys are sniffing around our best players but we don't sell. The plush new stadium is effortlessly hitting 20,000, and City fans are buying their season ticket in advance in the hope it will be for the Premier League. Sound too good to be true?

IT WAS.

4 wins in 22 games later, City finish 11th. Our big players Bryan and Reid look like they down tools, and they say, along with Flint, that they want to leave the club. In LJ's second full season, he gives us a second aeroplane crash down the league. 

VERDICT ON SIGNINGS.

(since they are mostly still at the club, a final verdict will have to wait)

NATHAN BAKER. 5 million. Good in parts, but a worrying drop in form at the start of 2018 that is still there.

DIEDHIOU. 5.3 million. Good first season, but a worrying drop in form at the moment. 

EROS PISANO. 1 million. Sometimes looks good, but unable to hack the pace of the Championship and therefore gets injured. 

ELIASSON. Much better second season, but 1.8 million looks steep.

LIAM WALSH 1 million. Could come good. 

LOANS.

RYAN KENT. JONATHAN LEKO. CAULEY WOODROW. LOUIS DIONY.  Just don't, alright. Just don't.

 

OVERALL VERDICT ON LJ IN 2017/18 Bobby Reid up front was a masterstroke of genius. Bagged the club 21 goals and 10 million from nowhere. The cup run has given us memories for the next thirty years. The worrying crash down the league, the second in two seasons, and the fact that our best players did not want to be at the club, means that there are still questions to answer. Lansdown's verdict that we must finish higher than 11th is surely right.

 

OVERALL OVERALL VERDICT ON LJ'S FIRST TWO SEASONS. Many zany whacky unforeseen positives (cup run, Reid, Tammy), mixed with many appalling club-crippling negatives that hit us from nowhere. The signings are improving, but the way players crash and lose form out of the blue is a worrying pattern. Overall, I have to say that another manager would have made better use of all the money LJ has had to spend and that another manager would be getting more out of the players we currently have. 

 

Your last sentence is not taking into account the likes of Bruce, Hughes and company. It is not a fact as you claim it .

Other than that fair analysis. How do we feel at the moment, optimistic ? Pessimistic ? 

The project sometimes seems to be built on foundations of sand. LJ will only stop the decisive atmosphere if he wins the Championship then goes into Europe. 

SL's honourable  support of his young protege risks to alienate further the supporters who can see the injustice regarding his  treatment and that of previous well respected incumbents . 

We seem to be stuck forever to a coach who doesn't inspire confidence in many .

This cannot be healthy. 

Bristol Cosy. 

[Kevin Brady]

9 hours ago, hodge said:

He could easily go for a decent amount more if he signs a new contract

Johnson has now developed COD into a high quality bench warmer. Sorry to disappoint you hodge, but there are two hopes of Callum signing a new deal - one is Bob!

[Cider-Head23]

1.8 million is a bargain for Eliasson. 

Only 22 years of age, will only get better and more confident. 

We'll easily make money on him in a few years time. 

[Boston Red]

17 hours ago, Davefevs said:

@Boston Red very nice post.  Not dissimilar to my thoughts on many of the signings.

One thing to consider was that Cotts left him with a small squad that needed padding out.  I’m a huge Cotts fan, but we did need numbers.  No excuses on several players though.

The thing for me is that recruitment isn’t the only issue / flaw.

Thanks Davefevs. What are the main issues and flaws for you?

[jayjay]

11 hours ago, Wanderingred said:

I'm not demanding him to be sacked straight away.

I agree, I'd settle for the end of the week !!

[Davefevs]

41 minutes ago, Boston Red said:

Thanks Davefevs. What are the main issues and flaws for you?

From the outside looking in:

- Recruitment (although think it was decent enough in the summer) too many fringe players 

- in-game management 

- influence / ability to convince players of his over-complications, coupled with inexperience. He can’t demonstrate from his history how something was successful, because he’s not really had any success

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Cider-Head23 said:

1.8 million is a bargain for Eliasson. 

Only 22 years of age, will only get better and more confident. 

We'll easily make money on him in a few years time. 

and when we cash in, then what ? repeat the cycle or waste the money on another Fammy; what-ever we do will not get us anywhere apart from back to square one;

Without what every club that passed us by to the prem has.......a decent manager with exp and drive to give us our CITY BACK, we are going no-where.

[ZiderEyed]

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

From the outside looking in:

- Recruitment (although think it was decent enough in the summer) too many fringe players 

- in-game management 

- influence / ability to convince players of his over-complications, coupled with inexperience. He can’t demonstrate from his history how something was successful, because he’s not really had any success

This is the one that really ******* baffles me.

LJ is a bright bloke. He's worked in football for a long while now and he has his badges. You would think that after so much training and experience in his role that he'd be able to note weaknesses on the spot. There is no excuse for a professional manager to have poor in-game management. The game that sticks out was Leeds last season, in which they were pelting long balls over Joe Bryan (who shock horror was getting his arse torn wide open), and using a big centre forward to break the lines between our midfield, and then utilise him as a platform with additional runners. I watched it on the TV, granted, but **** me, you could get a better angle in the ground if you so wanted.

This is the one that boils my piss more than anything LJ does. An almost inability to consistently impact a game with subs or minor tactical alterations. Gah.

[Mr Popodopolous]

Looking at all the signings, think the verdict on some is quite harsh- not success but not failure either- just N/A.

Magnússon, Hegeler arguably in a different shape, didn't Cotterill give us a bit of a spark during the relegation struggle?

Of the FAILURES, Paterson is the most interesting one for me- is he a confidence player? Certainly he has (IMO) never been the same since he was taken off v Wolves. He has had injuries too, underperformed and been shunted around- all 3, but sometimes with confidence players the slightest knock to their routine can **** them over. Shouldn't happen, and footballers need to be much mentally tougher but it surely  can't have helped someone who has gone through streaks like he has. Not knocking the decision to take him off from a tactical standpoint after the Fielding red card, but his output has got a hell of a lot worse since.

@Boston Red Pisano came on a free, dunno where you got £1m from.

@ZiderEyed You talking about Leeds away? Yes we could have done things differently- should have. However Hernandez got into the game and started to dominate the 2nd half- could giving Bryan more protection have saved our win? Maybe, but sometimes there's not a huge amount you can do- it was different to Sunderland at home for me, that was one huge absolute shambles but 2 up at Leeds, when their crowd get going, their team gain confidence- teams can crumble there.  Seem to remember most of their pressure, their good play going through him.

[glen humphries]

21 minutes ago, jayjay said:

I agree, I'd settle for the end of the week !!

Tin hat on mate

[Lrrr]

18 hours ago, formerly known as ivan said:

I thought Pisano was a free transfer?

I went off Transfermarkt for my one but yes club website confirms it was a free 

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/italian-defender-pisano-signs-for-city/

[Davefevs]

31 minutes ago, ZiderEyed said:

This is the one that really ******* baffles me.

LJ is a bright bloke. He's worked in football for a long while now and he has his badges. You would think that after so much training and experience in his role that he'd be able to note weaknesses on the spot. There is no excuse for a professional manager to have poor in-game management. The game that sticks out was Leeds last season, in which they were pelting long balls over Joe Bryan (who shock horror was getting his arse torn wide open), and using a big centre forward to break the lines between our midfield, and then utilise him as a platform with additional runners. I watched it on the TV, granted, but **** me, you could get a better angle in the ground if you so wanted.

This is the one that boils my piss more than anything LJ does. An almost inability to consistently impact a game with subs or minor tactical alterations. Gah.

Sunderland at home was my piss-boiler! 3-0/3-3 game

McGeady came on in the hole, didn’t track back and started getting on the ball spraying it wide to Asoro on the RW who was left 1on1 with Bryan every time, because Kent was dawdling back!  It just needed someone to sit-on McGeady for 5-10 mins to take the sting out of the game, but our coaching team continued to over-commit forward.

I don’t blame him for taking Reid off at h-t, I understood that because he had a knock, even if it was ok to continue.

I do blame him for not reacting to Sunderland’s changes.

Frankie made a point blank save too...we almost lost 4-3!

I see little evidence of learning.

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

5 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Sunderland at home was my piss-boiler! 3-0/3-3 game

McGeady came on in the hole, didn’t track back and started getting on the ball spraying it wide to Asoro on the RW who was left 1on1 with Bryan every time, because Kent was dawdling back!  It just needed someone to sit-on McGeady for 5-10 mins to take the sting out of the game, but our coaching team continued to over-commit forward.

I don’t blame him for taking Reid off at h-t, I understood that because he had a knock, even if it was ok to continue.

I do blame him for not reacting to Sunderland’s changes.

Frankie made a point blank save too...we almost lost 4-3!

I see little evidence of learning.

 

Agreed 100%- out of likes but agree with all you write here.

The funny thing about that game, was he wanted to go for more goals- but had we as you said sat on McGeady for 5-10 mins and helped take the sting out of it- I would raise that to 15- then Sunderland being 3 down and in the position they were in would have thrown so many forward, huge gaps would have appeared. We may then have got the 5 or 6 he was hoping for- lack of learning as you say.

[DT The Optimist]

Some very good and rational posts here 

No one has mentioned (unless I missed it) that LJ stated when he arrived he needed Three (3) transfer windows.  How many has he had ?

Is it 5 or 6. 

Out arch 'love to hate him character' Warnock stated that LJ has the 'dream ticket' here, and for sure he has.   I also think of SL comments at the start of the season,  that last season was not too bright as ending up mid table from where we were around new year was not what was expected. He wants to see year on year improvement.   If we 'bounce along' mid table, as i suspect we will, perhaps the pressure might mount a bit on the coach as clearly no improvement.  It is interesting period in the life and times of BCFC.  Many positives in the infrastructure  and what's happening in and around the club,   but same old inconsistency on the pitch.  I do not buy we are a 'young team' learning.  I want to see round pegs in round holes, and I want to see a settled side with LJ knowing his best 11.  

[cidered abroad]

DT Optimist, you'll just have to keep waiting, because LJ cannot provide either consistent points accumulation or consistent team and tactics selection.

[Mr Popodopolous]

@DT The Optimist

LJ really made a rod for his own back when he made the 3 windows comment- with what we know off the pitch and this League in general, it was IMO stupid to pledge that.

That said, the lack of learning on the tactical and selection front is a worry. As is regression of players with a reasonable or good track record under his management.

[Boston Red]

1 hour ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

 

@Boston Red Pisano came on a free, dunno where you got £1m from.

 

I don't know either!!! Delighted to be wrong. 

[Lrrr]

28 minutes ago, DT The Optimist said:

Some very good and rational posts here 

No one has mentioned (unless I missed it) that LJ stated when he arrived he needed Three (3) transfer windows.  How many has he had ?

Is it 5 or 6. 

Out arch 'love to hate him character' Warnock stated that LJ has the 'dream ticket' here, and for sure he has.   I also think of SL comments at the start of the season,  that last season was not too bright as ending up mid table from where we were around new year was not what was expected. He wants to see year on year improvement.   If we 'bounce along' mid table, as i suspect we will, perhaps the pressure might mount a bit on the coach as clearly no improvement.  It is interesting period in the life and times of BCFC.  Many positives in the infrastructure  and what's happening in and around the club,   but same old inconsistency on the pitch.  I do not buy we are a 'young team' learning.  I want to see round pegs in round holes, and I want to see a settled side with LJ knowing his best 11.  

Really, this again? He said he needed 3 windows to get a team together for the style of play he wanted at the time. We saw this last season pre-christmas after the 3/4 windows. Since then we've heard from LJ himself about changes to the play he wants to make, ie we can't try to press all game as it doesn't work so quicker bursts of pressing etc. There was never anything about a position being related to the amount of windows.

[glen humphries]

2 minutes ago, hodge said:

Really, this again? He said he needed 3 windows to get a team together for the style of play he wanted at the time. We saw this last season pre-christmas after the 3/4 windows. Since then we've heard from LJ himself about changes to the play he wants to make, ie we can't try to press all game as it doesn't work so quicker bursts of pressing etc. There was never anything about a position being related to the amount of windows.

What would you say our style of play is ???

[Lrrr]

2 minutes ago, glen humphries said:

What would you say our style of play is ???

Patient build or counter attack where possible, press in short bursts and if not possible sit into a shape 

[glen humphries]

1 minute ago, hodge said:

Patient build or counter attack where possible 

Ok thanks for the reply, personally think we lump it a lot of the time.