Barnsley away match day thread

[frenchred]

Just now, Northern Red said:

Why are you still here then?

In the forlorn hope something may change!

[exAtyeoMax]

Sounds like some fans gave Nige a mouthful…

[keflav]

1 minute ago, grifty said:

To be fair to Martin, if you play the ball into his feet or chest, he is very good at holding the ball up and bring others into play.

Problem is, all we do is launch the ball at him from all angles to his head, but he's not great in the air. Or we launch a ball over the top and expect him to run after it.

It's no coincidence that our best run of form/performances were after Martin had a 3/4 game rest over Christmas/New Year. He needs that sort of break again, but we're just flogging him.

That's partially my point he just cant handle the pace looked slow and cumbersome from the first minute, he is not the player we need on the pitch at the moment. Perhaps use him as a sub when we need him but generally I think and I stand by it he is a waste of a shirt at the moment... he is not the way forward and hopefully he is replace in the summer otherwise I fear he will be still out there on his zimmer frame...

[BasSavage88]

1 minute ago, Northern Red said:

Why are you still here then?

Being around people like you. 

[robin for life]

The same people who want Lansdown to sell are the same people who would be gutted if he sold to someone like Mike Ashley, but realistically its only that sort of owner  we would have any appeal to. Lansdown wants City to succeed, but at the same time he knows we are not financially in a position to do so. No matter what owner you have that wont change.  The new ashton gate is lovely and all that but is definitely a huge contribution to the financial mess we're in. 

[BasSavage88]

1 minute ago, exAtyeoMax said:

Sounds like some fans gave Nige a mouthful…

Go on......

[Ivorguy]

I for one don’t appreciate his legacy.

He has failed in his stated football objectives, and he has lumbered us with BS. I am not interested on Bristol Tiddlywinks or whatever he’s got lined up next for his empire.  I am focussed as always on Bristol City 

[Red-Robbo]

We're poor on the road and Barnsley are fighting for their lives. Not sure why anyone was surprised by that. 

[exAtyeoMax]

4 minutes ago, BasSavage88 said:

Go on......

just what Nige said in his post match on RB

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2022 by exAtyeoMax

[Johnr1986]

Ideal Scenario

players out  

Palmer, Baker , Vyner , king , James, Martin. Bakinson, Klose, Cundy , Moore, O’dowda.

new  CB x2, RB , DCM , RW, LW, CF x1

keep

, Scott , Semenyo , massengo  and wells (just give him a start) 

 

team for rest of season. 
 

                     Bentley 

Tanner, Kalas, Atkinson, Dasilva    
   
                     Williams   

         Scott                 Massengo 

                    Wiemann

         Semenyo         Wells. 
 

 

 

 

 

[Spike]

3 minutes ago, grifty said:

To be fair to Martin, if you play the ball into his feet or chest, he is very good at holding the ball up and bring others into play.

Problem is, all we do is launch the ball at him from all angles to his head, but he's not great in the air. Or we launch a ball over the top and expect him to run after it.

It's no coincidence that our best run of form/performances were after Martin had a 3/4 game rest over Christmas/New Year. He needs that sort of break again, but we're just flogging him.

I have to agree with this, I think most of our issues come down to formation. With 3 at the back the opposition only needs to mark up our wide positions and our two deep midfielders and it forces a long pass as the 3 at the back means one less option in midfield. Even with a basic 4-4-2 out means when playing out of defence you double your wide options with short passing and create more triangles to move the ball in. I think if we can get a couple of good right sided players in during the pre-season we'd instantly be in a much stronger position for tactical options /changes. Looking at the squad I would argue we don't have a single natural wife right sided player in defence or midfield. Pearson is essentially playing the 3-5-2 because if he were to play 4-4-2, 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 you'd have at least two players out of their natural positions. 

[RedRock]

3 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Worrying thing for me is, actually the injury situation is much better. Yet we are still as bad. Who would’ve come in to the starting 11 today that’s injured? Tanner probably the only one? And yet we were horrific. Same as the last few weeks. Obviously more injuries added today but until this point we’ve maybe missed 1 key(ish) player through injury yet we’ve been woeful

Yep. Tanner add Kalas, plus King on bench.
 

James and Williams are/were being nursed back and not 100%. Add Cundy and Atkinson to the recovery, not fully up-to-speed group.  Williams now broken again with Scott injured.

Can’t recall, was O’Leary on the bench? Simpson was obviously not fit enough and has gone. 
 

[WolfOfWestStreet]

1 minute ago, Red-Robbo said:

We're poor on the road and Barnsley are fighting for their lives. Not sure why anyone was surprised by that. 

No one is surprised, and that's the problem 

[Ska Junkie]

17 minutes ago, swanker said:

Only last weekend someone was saying we can still make the playoffs.

That was Shelts and he was clearly bollocksed! 

[robin for life]

6 minutes ago, Johnr1986 said:

Ideal Scenario

players out  

Palmer, Baker , Vyner , king , James, Martin. Bakinson, Klose, Cundy , Moore, O’dowda.

new  CB x2, RB , DCM , RW, LW, CF x1

keep

, Scott , Semenyo , massengo  and wells (just give him a start) 

 

Why get a player like Cundy to develop, break into the team, then let him go? Cundy would be solid back up at this level. Also Klose has been brilliant since he came, and is very solid at the back. He has the experience we need at the back, and he is only getting to full match fitness now. He was a cheap signing and I personally would give him another year, even if he isn't a starter, he wont be on a huge wage at his age, and he would be excellent cover should we get injuries and s solid at this level.

Agree with the others.

I would cash in on Semenyo, he isn't as good as the hype and if theres 15-20m on the table, bite their hands off, he can be replaced with half that money. Scott has a long contract so we dont need to sell yet. Massengo I doubt will sign a new deakl, so we have to sell in the summer to try and recoup what we paid for him. 

Edited March 15, 2022 by robin for life

[aa_bcfc]

57 minutes ago, Super said:

Actually think Wells has done OK. Surely enough for a start on Sat.

Well I thought he was utter shite. 

[IAmNick]

18 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Worrying thing for me is, actually the injury situation is much better. Yet we are still as bad. Who would’ve come in to the starting 11 today that’s injured? Tanner probably the only one? And yet we were horrific. Same as the last few weeks. Obviously more injuries added today but until this point we’ve maybe missed 1 key(ish) player through injury yet we’ve been woeful

It's not just who did or didn't play in one off games though is it, it's about building partnerships around the pitch (centre backs, midfield, up and down the flanks, you know what I mean) through playing over and over again around the same people, and we just haven't been able to do that. No wonder they look so disjointed at times.

Edited March 15, 2022 by IAmNick

[Lordofthebling]

14 minutes ago, exAtyeoMax said:

 

 

 

Doesn't calm me down tbh, the first 10 seconds - isn't that his job??? 

[Red-Robbo]

10 minutes ago, WolfOfWestStreet said:

No one is surprised, and that's the problem 

Teams in the bottom three are more dangerous than any others about this time of the season. Teams like ours are going nowhere, lots of the teams aiming for a top 6 finish are nervous and bottle it. Bottom three clubs though play out of their skin. 

That said, my main gripe with Nigel Pearson is why the f- can't a former professional defender get our back line organised to defend corners. 

[Banjo Red]

Nige looks like the job has aged him. 

[WolfOfWestStreet]

1 minute ago, Red-Robbo said:

Teams in the bottom three are more dangerous than any others about this time of the season. Teams like ours are going nowhere, lots of the teams aiming for a top 6 finish are nervous and bottle it. Bottom three clubs though play out of their skin. 

That said, my main gripe with Nigel Pearson is why the f- can't a former professional defender get our back line organised to defend corners. 

I completely agree. Don't mistake anger for shock, nobody is surprised Barnsley turned us over with ease. Sadly it seems our staff and players didn't see it coming. 

[Chivs]

40 minutes ago, IAmNick said:

Oh come on, I get it's annoying when we play like crap and get beaten but I don't think "A player looked like he might be good 3 - 4 years ago" is really a fair rebuttal.

A lot on here said they'd take sorting the wages out a bit, staying up, and seeing a load of our promising youngsters get game time and kick on. That's exactly what we've got.

It's definitely not been pretty but this season is pretty much what I expected so I'm not throwing my toys out just yet personally.

I have said Semenyo has got better so not really disagreeing with you there.  I don't think "a load of our promising youngsters get game time and kick on" has happened.  "get game time" perhaps but more through circumstance than Pearson's design.

Also, I'm not sure we have definitely stayed up.  It would be very surprising to be relegated from here but there is always one team who gets dragged into the relegation fight.  Maybe losing tonight wasn't that significant; but losing to Barnsley is!

[stephenkibby.]

33 minutes ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

United? ...

Leeds? Newcastle? West Ham? Scunthorpe? Cambridge? Peterborough? Hartlepool? Southend? Sheffield?

No offence but I hate it when people latch onto the media’s very annoying trait of assuming everyone knows who they mean when they say ‘United’ or ‘City’ - some people on here even say ‘City’ when they mean ‘Manchester City FC’ - how rubbish is that?! There’s only one ‘City’ in these parts ...

Well that United cheered me up a bit tonight.

[firstdivision]

35 minutes ago, bexhill reds said:

There are signs that there is a team in that lot, Preston away was a really good example of that.

I thought we looked really good at Preston but I had one reservation at the time and it was that Preston had a physically demanding game at West Brom on the Wednesday night. I thought they struggled to get up for the match. Nine times out of ten we would have buried them. 

[stephenkibby.]

Let's be fair since 74/75.75/76, enjoyable seasons in the second tier have been few and far between.

[BS4 on Tour...]

35 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

Ignore him. It's his "thing".

Pathetic

[BS4 on Tour...]

36 minutes ago, Spike said:

I would expect with my description of having talent and going through multiple managers that it wouldn't be hard to guess which United I was referring to but hey ho. I mean if you're still unsure I was referring to Manchester United FC in the English Premier League. 

As I said, no offence, and it’s obviously nothing personal - but your description of a ‘united’ could be levelled at a few clubs who have ‘united’ as their suffix - especially Leeds and Newcastle ...

[JBFC II]

36 minutes ago, BasSavage88 said:

Go on......

Was stood next to them. 

Nothing too 'dramatic' but just people voicing their frustrations. Pearson stood and listened before heading off down the tunnel. 

After tonight I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to complain, especially after making that journey. Pearson didn't look massively impressed but obviously understood why there was such frustration from the support 

[IAmNick]

Just now, JBFC II said:

Was stood next to them. 

Nothing too 'dramatic' but just people voicing their frustrations. Pearson stood and listened before heading off down the tunnel. 

After tonight I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to complain, especially after making that journey. Pearson didn't look massively impressed but obviously understood why there was such frustration from the support 

In the interview above he said he couldn't disagree with them! I assume it was about the game rather than him in that case..!

[JBFC II]

Just now, IAmNick said:

In the interview above he said he couldn't disagree with them! I assume it was about the game rather than him in that case..!

Mainly about the game with some frustration aimed at him from what I could hear. No surprise he couldn't disagree, we weren't very good tonight and anyone travelling all the way up to Barnsley deserved better! 

[IAmNick]

1 minute ago, JBFC II said:

Mainly about the game with some frustration aimed at him from what I could hear. No surprise he couldn't disagree, we weren't very good tonight and anyone travelling all the way up to Barnsley deserved better! 

Without question, or at least something a fair bit stronger in the free drink...

[Daniro]

28 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

That said, my main gripe with Nigel Pearson is why the f- can't a former professional defender get our back line organised to defend corners. 

Same!   It's insane

[RedM]

6 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

We're poor on the road and Barnsley are fighting for their lives. Not sure why anyone was surprised by that. 

Not surprised, but if we were in Barnsley’s position I believe we wouldn’t have the fight in us. That’s my worry. 

[cityloyal473]

Sick of the team and Pearson to be honest. Team doesn’t look interested and Pearson increasingly looks like a fish out of water. 

[P'head Red]

7 hours ago, Daniro said:

Same!   It's insane

I quite agree. I really want NP to succeed here, but at times we're so painful to watch, and he has to be responsible for at least some of this. That being said, how a group of professional footballers fail to do the absolute basics of defending is beyond me, Dan Bentley must be losing his nut watching the shambles in front of him, the lad has no chance. 

[Bodiesaffer]

8 hours ago, robin for life said:

Sorry but without Lansdown we would be in League Two by now. He has backed every manager we've had. Players come to City and do shit, leave and become good again elsewhere. Thats not the owners fault.

I felt we pressed the eject button too quick on Cotts and Johnson Jnr if I'm honest. Fans expectation is part of the problem. We financially cant compete at this level without being a selling club. A state of the art fancy stadium is all well and good, but something has to pay for it. When Semenyo, Massengo and possibly Scott are sold in the summer to clear the 40m debt, well maybe most of it, the club will be focusing on the next youngsters to develop and sell on.

I personally would rather us go out and sign 7 or 8 aging experienced pros who are solid at this level on frees in the summer and then gradually blood in players. The club needs stability, these kids are burnt out with ten games to go and theres no other players here to help them, yet people are getting on the young players backs after they are knackered from 30 odd games of football when they don't have the experience of full seasons.

TBH, I don’t understand why young players get burnt out especially when they are supposed to be athletes.  

[Bodiesaffer]

8 hours ago, robin for life said:

The same people who want Lansdown to sell are the same people who would be gutted if he sold to someone like Mike Ashley, but realistically its only that sort of owner  we would have any appeal to. Lansdown wants City to succeed, but at the same time he knows we are not financially in a position to do so. No matter what owner you have that wont change.  The new ashton gate is lovely and all that but is definitely a huge contribution to the financial mess we're in. 

Agreed, I don’t want The Landsdown’s to sell, and I’m backing NP to get It right on the pitch. The foundations have been laid off it,  it’s going to be a few more seasons until we are a top 10 team.
We’ve always been a middle to bottom championship team, with being a big fish in league 1.  Once we all except that we can move forward.  Expectations are always to high, from us fans, yes we have played better and more consistent over the years, but we are what we are, and we’ve haven’t improved since we’ve came back up all those years ago. 

[MarcusX]

10 hours ago, maxjak said:

We managed to beat a side missing their top scorer, and on an appalling run of form,  who   can hardly buy a goal, and who's confidence is rock bottom.   Every dog has it's day....if you see that as some kind of epiphany, then I believe your sorely mistaken.  We are a very very average football team, who are extremely fortunate that 2 clubs had points deducted.   

Yes we are, and that's where we're at... it's about time fans accepted that.

It's not going to change this season, so no point continually whinging. We need to re-assess in the summer, be that with or without Pearson.

It's not Pearson's fault the club is ******. Right manager at the wrong time so far in my opinion.

[Super]

9 hours ago, aa_bcfc said:

Well I thought he was utter shite. 

Yet still better than Martin.

[aa_bcfc]

1 minute ago, Super said:

Yet still better than Martin.

Yes probably was better than Martin who was a 2/10. 

[Fuber]

10 hours ago, BS4 on Tour... said:

 

Absolutely no reason to ‘fix’ Pongo88’s post?! I thought he or she was spot on with their original ‘unfixed’ post - it’s actually quite annoying when people feel the need to ‘fix’ someone’s post by editing it ... 

I'll apologies unreservedly for any percieved slight. Short-sighted post from myself.

Was more that in our case it was our esteemed (former) all knowing head of football operations that was responsible for spending our chairman's money more than anybody.

[aa_bcfc]

2 hours ago, Bodiesaffer said:

TBH, I don’t understand why young players get burnt out especially when they are supposed to be athletes.  

Probably a faster game now but I don’t recall the likes of Gerry Gow getting burnt out. And let’s face it the training, fitness, conditioning and diets etc are streets ahead of where they were back in the day. 

[frenchred]

1 hour ago, Bodiesaffer said:

Agreed, I don’t want The Landsdown’s to sell, and I’m backing NP to get It right on the pitch. The foundations have been laid off it,  it’s going to be a few more seasons until we are a top 10 team.
We’ve always been a middle to bottom championship team, with being a big fish in league 1.  Once we all except that we can move forward.  Expectations are always to high, from us fans, yes we have played better and more consistent over the years, but we are what we are, and we’ve haven’t improved since we’ve came back up all those years ago. 

And there people is the exact acceptance of mediocrity that has led to the team we have today.

Dobson have no ambition? Why should we accept it? It's crap!

We are where we are, what absolute losing garbage you spout 

[wendyredredrobin]

Apart from the fact that Martin gets picked for every game and offers us absolutely nothing, why has nobody questioned why Pring is not being picked? He's big, strong, talented and our best left sided player at the moment and offers more options than DaSilva (though he did have a reasonably decent game last night to be fair).

Scott is our best right wingback at the moment even though that is not his natural position and Andi Weimann needs to play a more advanced role. Wells, Semenyo and Weimann should work well as a front 3 or a 1/2 or 2/1 and we have not seen this used all season.

We don't seem to have any sort of plan or to have practised any moves from corners and free kicks and when we get a throw in, we wait until everyone is marked before taking it rather than taking a quick one.

Finally, we really need to sort out our marking on set pieces. Players who are not used to zonal marking always struggle with it unless they are top class.  It has to be man to man with this team.

[Red-Robbo]

6 hours ago, RedM said:

Not surprised, but if we were in Barnsley’s position I believe we wouldn’t have the fight in us. That’s my worry. 

 

The Sean O'Driscoll abject surrender to relegation technique. 

[RedM]

7 hours ago, P'head Red said:

I quite agree. I really want NP to succeed here, but at times we're so painful to watch, and he has to be responsible for at least some of this. That being said, how a group of professional footballers fail to do the absolute basics of defending is beyond me, Dan Bentley must be losing his nut watching the shambles in front of him, the lad has no chance. 

Several times Bentley was absolutely furious with the other players. He completely lost it once and was rigid with rage.

He is captain but most of his communicating seems to be him screaming. I honestly think some of them are so used to it they switch off. If it ever was affective it doesn’t appear to be now as he fails to get a response most of the time.

[italian dave]

19 minutes ago, RedM said:

Several times Bentley was absolutely furious with the other players. He completely lost it once and was rigid with rage.

He is captain but most of his communicating seems to be him screaming. I honestly think some of them are so used to it they switch off. If it ever was affective it doesn’t appear to be now as he fails to get a response most of the time.

Good point. Captaincy should be about leadership. And good leadership isn’t about screaming at people. 

[Sleepy1968]

9 minutes ago, RedM said:

Several times Bentley was absolutely furious with the other players. He completely lost it once and was rigid with rage.

He is captain but most of his communicating seems to be him screaming. I honestly think some of them are so used to it they switch off. If it ever was affective it doesn’t appear to be now as he fails to get a response most of the time.

Nice to see @RedM channelling her inner Barbara Cartland (or is it Jackie Collins?)

To be serious, I agree that Bentley screaming will be counter-productive, but it probably won't make them perform noticably worse. There seems to be little communication throughout the team, and they all seem to go off and do their own thing. Which would be fine if they were a bunch of sixth-formers on a free period ...

[Lorenzos Only Goal]

7 hours ago, MarcusX said:

Yes we are, and that's where we're at... it's about time fans accepted that.

It's not going to change this season, so no point continually whinging. We need to re-assess in the summer, be that with or without Pearson.

It's not Pearson's fault the club is ******. Right manager at the wrong time so far in my opinion.

I think people keep forgetting the constraints we're operating under, its hard but let's be grateful we have some promising young players and not dwell on the poor results.

Pearson has done ok I think he's given some young players a good look during this period because he's got little choice. But also gives him an idea of whether they are good enough.

I think its important to note its often hard to get a result against a bottom team as they are fighting for their life.

[ray savino]

5 hours ago, frenchred said:

And there people is the exact acceptance of mediocrity that has led to the team we have today.

I don’t think it should be about an acceptance of mediocrity. But it should be about an understanding of the reality of where we are as a football club in the Championship. I don’t accept that we should have been turning out mediocrity for most of the time I’ve followed City since 1966. But I see a reality of where we are in the football world. I feel most angry at how this has been allowed to happen, along with shooting ourselves in the foot when we have built an upward momentum. Think our last well balanced side, built with what appeared to be planed and identified recruitment, very successful with tons of momentum. Yes, Cotts side of 2015. Look at the contrasting lack of planning and support when we went up. Think of LJ’s 17/18 Cup run, 2nd place in December to Wolves, who found a style of high press, energetic play (was that our identity, our DNA, or just stumbled on by accident!) that was attractive and seemed successful. Okay that tailed away miserably. However, what did we do (yes, I know, the loss of Reid, Bryan and Flint was not to be underestimated), but pretty much rip up the style book the following season and change plan about 3 times over the subsequent seasons. We don’t stick to our plans even if I sometimes doubt we have one!

We have paid the price on spending a lot of money (relative to our history), since we came back up in 2015, to basically be a lower mid table side that has failed to make the play-offs when well placed on 2 or 3 occasions. The cupboard is now pretty much bare, save selling off our most hopeful assets which puts us back to square one. Coventry, Millwall, Luton know what and where they are, and are trying to progress accordingly.

I would suggest that apart from a few cup runs, 2 short periods in the top tier and lower league yoyoing, we have a very, very mediocre history over our 127(?) years.

The trouble is our management from top down talk the talk of sleeping giant catchment area, massive potential, build nice stands, buildings infrastructure, etc., but when it comes to the nitty gritty of footballing knowledge decision making are at best mediocre and cautious, but more often totally inept.

Which brings me back to plans and managers. Brentford and Swansea the most obvious. They had a plan 10-15 years earlier and was reflected in the style of play, and subsequent recruitment of managers and players. Swansea may struggle again, but have tasted success, and still play decent football. Before we do anything about our manager, we have to seriously ask questions about “Our Plan/Vision” of our board of directors/owners. Yes, SL and the rest are not beyond criticism however uncomfortable, nice stadiums, training grounds, well-meaning benefactors... but would appear woefully short in terms of footballing world nous and direction. To their credit, the best decisions made seem to be in terms of investing in young academy talent which does seem to be bearing some fruit. Wider recruitment seems to be a different story of wasting resources and money. 

Oh and by the way, I think Pearson knows all this sh*t anyway, but probably didn’t realise how crap the mediocre footballing mentality was at the club. Will he see it through? Who knows...but I get the distinct feeling he will clear a lot of the crap ready for someone to start with a more stable base again. Let’s hope the whole club wake up and get out of the total staleness that has developed since that brief 3 month glimmer of  “ what could be” excitement at the back end of 2017.

Still, mustn’t grumble...

[RedM]

32 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

Nice to see @RedM channelling her inner Barbara Cartland (or is it Jackie Collins?)

To be serious, I agree that Bentley screaming will be counter-productive, but it probably won't make them perform noticably worse. There seems to be little communication throughout the team, and they all seem to go off and do their own thing. Which would be fine if they were a bunch of sixth-formers on a free period ...

I was actually going to write stiff with rage, but thought better of it

[ray savino]

8 hours ago, MarcusX said:

Right manager at the wrong time so far in my opinion.

I think so too. Should have gone for him after Cotts and give him the backing LJ had. 

Instead SL went for someone he knew and felt comfortable, trusted not to rock his boat or publicly challenge, more in control with LJ. Cotts was too abrasive for SL.

Now to be fair, it was on the surface a brave SL appointment. LJ looks a knowledgeable young, modern coach type. And to be fair again, isn’t a bad coach. However, as I say, he was safe for SL, as far as in character/personality. Now I get that nobody wants to work with a spikey, disruptive person as it can bring down a whole organisation. But there are times you need to get someone to take you out of that comfort zone to move you up a gear. That’s something definetly needed in Bristol City’s case.

Think we may be six years too late with NP, although I think and hope in retrospect that we may look back and see that he will have started to implement a more competitive and less comfort zone mentality within the club, however painful this period is now. 

[BS4 on Tour...]

13 hours ago, Fuber said:

I'll apologies unreservedly for any percieved slight. Short-sighted post from myself.

Was more that in our case it was our esteemed (former) all knowing head of football operations that was responsible for spending our chairman's money more than anybody.

No need to apologise Fuber - really appreciate your reply though. It has been a very frustrating few years - five years ago it felt like we had a bit of momentum building up, we were flying high in the championship and a major cup competition and the spotlight was on us and our potential. It sort of seems to have come crashing down somewhat and here we are rebuilding once again - oh well. Happy Wednesday mate ...