Match Report: Max Makes City's Point at Boro

[Olé]

After two abysmal away performances at Birmingham and Reading sandwiching an oddly comprehensive win at West Brom, the chance to face another ex Premier League side in the relegation zone delivered a mix of both types of performance - City ruthless on the counter attack and solid at the back in a dominant first half and yet equally passive and anonymous in a one sided second half where Middlesbrough did everything to win.

Literally the only constant at the Riverside through both halfs was keeper Max O'Leary who made at least four stunning saves with Boro in position to finish. The returning Andi Weimann started and finished a breathless early counter attack - but City were on the back foot and miscuing by the second half and the hosts early equaliser after half time could easily have been followed by more as the visitors soaked up one sided pressure.

Boro showed first after seven as Jonny Howson put Riley McGree through in the left channel but O'Leary got out quickly to block his shot and City quickly got behind the follow up to hook it clear. Within two minutes we went in front. Alex Scott pushed out of midfield and delayed his pass before springing Weimann away from the left wing to drill crossfield to Tommy Conway who slammed the ball back across the box for the Austrian to blast in. 

Nahki Wells near post run had been central to Weimann's opener and within minutes he should have claimed City's second, Conway and Weimann exchanging the ball on the left for the former to lift it into the near post where Wells diverted it past the keeper but agonisingly just beyond the far post. Up the other end Zak Vyner gave it away under no pressure with a miscued sideways pass and Marcus Forss went clear but O'Leary blocked.

City were not pressing their opponents and instead inviting them forward and hoping to break - abandoning midfield. So no surprise that Howson strode through the space and threaded McGree into the box where man of the match O'Leary brilliantly pushed a shot over. Down at the other end Conway nearly wriggled clear and the overlapping Antoine Semenyo got in to cross high to the far post where Wells couldn't keep his header down.

The match settled down as confident City tidied up whatever was thrown at them - as best demonstrated after the half hour with Cameron Pring's amazing tackle near the corner flag with Isiah Jones racing clear of him and ready to cross from the right. The hosts were otherwise lifting the occasional opportunity to shoot or cross wildly into the back of the stand much to the frustration of the struggling teams home fans. 

With five minutes to half time Timm Klose's half clearance gave the ball straight to an opponent from which Jones on the right fed McGree who dropped a shoulder in the box to get a clear sight of goal and blasted it at the top corner only for O'Leary to instantly tip over. At the other end Wells went racing clear down the right but his cross found no one whilst before the break in Boro's best move Forss' shot deflected onto the post.

It didn't take long from the restart for the hosts to get level. Playing easily through the City right and squaring to where the largely hopeless Chuba Akpom stole yards ahead of Vyner to fire in. The only response came within ten minutes, Scott laid it back to the onrushing Wells who at the second attempt exchanged passes with Weimann and Joe Williams found his run into the box where he was nudged off the ball - but no penalty.

Before the hour Vyner's pinpoint pass put Conway away in the right channel but his low cross was put way over by Semenyo. Next Wells broke down the left and sent Conway into the box who laid it back for Semenyo who rolled his marker and drew a corner with a fierce shot. From the set piece the ball broke outside the box to Williams whose long range curling shot was held on the line by former City target Zak Steffen.

It was all Boro from then on and sixty six minutes in O'Leary produced his fourth last gasp save at the near post as somehow Akpong found himself played in just yards out - City bundling it away following the keepers parry with the goal unguarded. We threw on Jay DaSilva for Semenyo and then Sam Bell for Conway which at least gave us the opportunity for DaSilva to produce his weekly cross to no one when in space with three teammates picking positions in the box. 

City had a couple of chances with ten left - Scott's deep ball to Wells was half cleared to Bell who raced into the box but miskicked his through ball back to the Bermudan. But next the substitute brought down a high left wing clearance brilliantly to race on only to be pulled down crudely. The ref hadn't given much but after Joe Low made his debut for Weimann he suddenly decided to award a succession of Boro left touchline free kicks. 

City held on grimly and that man O'Leary had to parry a vicious long range strike from McGree in injury time as they clung onto a draw. Manager Nigel Pearson made a rare approach to the traveling fans - train strikes and long distance limiting their numbers - but in truth whilst it was a fortuitous point, Boro were enterprising yet poor in front of goal and the visitors continued their recent record of self inflicted errors when passing.

O'Leary 9

Klose 6

Vyner 6

Pring 7

Weimann 7

Semenyo 5  

Williams 6

James 6

Scott 7

Wells 6

Conway 6

 

DaSilva 5

Bell 5

Low 5

[maxjak]

Another outstandingly accurate report.......thanks Ole.    O'Leary was blinding.  Semenyo seems to have gone backwards?

[Rudolf Hucker]

Thanks @Olé. We all see things differently. I’d increase by 1 the marks you’ve awarded Pring, Klose, James and Conway and decrease by 1 your mark for Vyner. Otherwise thanks for another excellent report. 

[maxjak]

Great Guardian standard report on the main Bristol City site..................21st line down...."Semenyo blazed his Shit over the bar under pressure"   Do they never  spell check?  Ha!! Though maybe it was intentional, the way Antoine has been playing recently?

Edited November 5, 2022 by maxjak

[joe jordans teeth]

49 minutes ago, maxjak said:

Great Guardian standard report on the main Bristol City site..................21st line down...."Semenyo blazed his Shit over the bar under pressure"   Do they never  spell check?  Ha!! Though maybe it was intentional, the way Antoine has been playing recently?

Sounds like this should be in the drugs at football thread 

Edited November 5, 2022 by joe jordans teeth

[firstdivision]

‘ City ruthless on the counter attack and solid at the back in a dominant first half…’

You can’t be serious, Ole. We were shambolic at the back in the first half and lucky not to be 4-1 down at the break. We were ruthless once on the break - a class goal - but Wells missed a great chance. Apart from that, I don’t remember us threatening.

I actually thought we defended better in the second half but we did just about give up as an attacking force. 

All in all a pretty ordinary performance. Boro made us look like a relegation team. 

[italian dave]

Thanks @Olé. Pretty much spot on how I saw it too. 

It was an odd game in some ways. We certainly rode our luck first half hour and yet managed to find ourselves in front. Then we seem to settle down a bit for 15 mins, leaving us hopeful we might get something, and within minutes of the restart, disappointment! Very mixed emotions, but at the end of the day a point probably isn’t a bad result against a side playing their first home game under a new manager. And it was an entertaining game for sure.

I’d agree with all those scores. 

[Spike]

I can't agree with Conway being a 6, the lad created the goal with an outstanding pass, ran down players, made great runs, I would say he was the only striker that genuinely looked a threat, the rest however I could agree with.

Semenyo hasn't gone backwards, he's just not getting the ball the way he was at the beginning of the season when he was getting passes that he was running onto rather than the ball being played into his feet. Having him at RWB today was a bad decision all over, I get that he's big, strong and can run at a player and has amazing power in his shot but at RWB you receive the ball to feet more often than not and this isn't where Semenyo is best. Semenyo really shines with passes that he can run onto and battle with a defender using his pace and strength, his acceleration isn't great, not because he can't go from still to running but because his touch isn't so great. Off of the ball his pace will allow him to beat players to the ball and then his strength will keep them off of it, but when he has to go from still to running with the ball at his feet it slows his burst of acceleration down because he's not as adept at controlling the ball. 
This is why I would go with Scott in that attacking midfield role behind the two strikers, because he's best in the middle with a pocket of space, he can go from still to full pace with minimal touches and that's why he can dribble through players. 

I'm interested to see Pearsons team if we get players back from injuries without picking up any more because arguably Scott is better than Weimann behind the strikers because of his ability to burst and dribble past players as well as pick out passes but when you have Wells and Conway both doing an amazing job of chasing down players and winning the ball high up the pitch it's hard to drop them which means Scott gets pushed back into the midfield and Weimann plays that attacking midfield role because of his drive. It's hard to leave Weimann out.
Pearson also has an issue that Zac is great in the middle of a CB role as he has protection both sides and he naturally positions himself in that central role, however when he's on the right side of the back three he gets pulled out of position, especially if our RWB isn't covering him. Although he got the red I'd want to see Tanner there with Naismith in the middle and Atkinson on the left, Tanner seemed to work so well with Sykes, when Sykes pushed up Tanner would position himself well but when Tanner found himself able to push forward Sykes would naturally drop in to cover him, I could see those two defending our right side very successfully, certainly better than we do with Zac. On the subject of Zac I think the lad is a solid CB, but not in this system unless he's in the middle, put him in the middle and I think he'd be very solid and easily be perfect to replace Naismith when he's injured and Tanner isn't banned. I also think Vyner would be great in a back 4 as he seems to be a natural for the more central role, especially with players either side of him.

I never thought I'd see the day when we had too much choice up front, Conway is currently looking like he should be starting regularly, Wells does fantastic when we play high pressuring football, Weimann is full of energy and his workrate is so much higher than any other player in the squad, Semenyo has raw power that could be deadly if we were feeding him the right passes etc

I personally hope we get a fit squad and give Tanner a chance in place of Vyner, give Pring a game in place of DaSilva and allow Scott to play behind the strikers when we don't have strikers as wing backs.

[Sheltons Army]

1 minute ago, Spike said:

I can't agree with Conway being a 6, the lad created the goal with an outstanding pass, ran down players, made great runs, I would say he was the only striker that genuinely looked a threat, the rest however I could agree with.

Semenyo hasn't gone backwards, he's just not getting the ball the way he was at the beginning of the season when he was getting passes that he was running onto rather than the ball being played into his feet. Having him at RWB today was a bad decision all over, I get that he's big, strong and can run at a player and has amazing power in his shot but at RWB you receive the ball to feet more often than not and this isn't where Semenyo is best. Semenyo really shines with passes that he can run onto and battle with a defender using his pace and strength, his acceleration isn't great, not because he can't go from still to running but because his touch isn't so great. Off of the ball his pace will allow him to beat players to the ball and then his strength will keep them off of it, but when he has to go from still to running with the ball at his feet it slows his burst of acceleration down because he's not as adept at controlling the ball. 
This is why I would go with Scott in that attacking midfield role behind the two strikers, because he's best in the middle with a pocket of space, he can go from still to full pace with minimal touches and that's why he can dribble through players. 

I'm interested to see Pearsons team if we get players back from injuries without picking up any more because arguably Scott is better than Weimann behind the strikers because of his ability to burst and dribble past players as well as pick out passes but when you have Wells and Conway both doing an amazing job of chasing down players and winning the ball high up the pitch it's hard to drop them which means Scott gets pushed back into the midfield and Weimann plays that attacking midfield role because of his drive. It's hard to leave Weimann out.
Pearson also has an issue that Zac is great in the middle of a CB role as he has protection both sides and he naturally positions himself in that central role, however when he's on the right side of the back three he gets pulled out of position, especially if our RWB isn't covering him. Although he got the red I'd want to see Tanner there with Naismith in the middle and Atkinson on the left, Tanner seemed to work so well with Sykes, when Sykes pushed up Tanner would position himself well but when Tanner found himself able to push forward Sykes would naturally drop in to cover him, I could see those two defending our right side very successfully, certainly better than we do with Zac. On the subject of Zac I think the lad is a solid CB, but not in this system unless he's in the middle, put him in the middle and I think he'd be very solid and easily be perfect to replace Naismith when he's injured and Tanner isn't banned. I also think Vyner would be great in a back 4 as he seems to be a natural for the more central role, especially with players either side of him.

I never thought I'd see the day when we had too much choice up front, Conway is currently looking like he should be starting regularly, Wells does fantastic when we play high pressuring football, Weimann is full of energy and his workrate is so much higher than any other player in the squad, Semenyo has raw power that could be deadly if we were feeding him the right passes etc

I personally hope we get a fit squad and give Tanner a chance in place of Vyner, give Pring a game in place of DaSilva and allow Scott to play behind the strikers when we don't have strikers as wing backs.

Disagree regarding Scott in the 10 or attacking midfield role , personally, certainly atm  - fantastic footballer but how many assists / goals to date 

He'd be my hub , asking him to be available as much as poss , take lots of ball from behind , giving , receiving and giving again - keeping possession and helping some control of the game , as much as  possible 

[Mr Chappers]

3 hours ago, firstdivision said:

‘ City ruthless on the counter attack and solid at the back in a dominant first half…’

You can’t be serious, Ole. We were shambolic at the back in the first half and lucky not to be 4-1 down at the break. We were ruthless once on the break - a class goal - but Wells missed a great chance. Apart from that, I don’t remember us threatening.

I actually thought we defended better in the second half but we did just about give up as an attacking force. 

All in all a pretty ordinary performance. Boro made us look like a relegation team. 

Agree, a bit of a stretch to suggest that we were solid, lack of wing backs exposed on a few occasions, and quite a few dodgy moments. Overall, happy with the point.

[The Original OTIB]

6 hours ago, Sheltons Army said:

Disagree regarding Scott in the 10 or attacking midfield role , personally, certainly atm  - fantastic footballer but how many assists / goals to date 

He'd be my hub , asking him to be available as much as poss , take lots of ball from behind , giving , receiving and giving again - keeping possession and helping some control of the game , as much as  possible 

Yet not falling over to get the foul all the time (now and then ok), and playing the easy pass when on and under too much pressure.

[cidered abroad]

11 hours ago, maxjak said:

Another outstandingly accurate report.......thanks Ole.    O'Leary was blinding.  Semenyo seems to have gone backwards?

I suspect that Semenyo is unconsciously not wanting to get an injury that could ruin his WC dreams. Quite normal before such events. 

 

[Port Said Red]

Apparently the illness that has been in the camp is the type that has effects that can linger and can sap the stamina. I think the changes and odd line ups reflect this, Pearson trying to use the freshest of his players or at least minimising the number of players that are struggling to do 90 minutes.

[Bazooka Joe]

15 hours ago, Olé said:

O'Leary 9

DaSilva 5

Bell 5

Low 5

Low mark for Low?

And almost max for Max !

Edited November 6, 2022 by Bazooka Joe

[W-S-M Seagull]

I'd try and get Bentley out of the door during the window. Save a few £s on his wages. He's not needed. 

[Sleepy1968]

4 hours ago, Port Said Red said:

Apparently the illness that has been in the camp is the type that has effects that can linger and can sap the stamina. I think the changes and odd line ups reflect this, Pearson trying to use the freshest of his players or at least minimising the number of players that are struggling to do 90 minutes.

Good point. We can't (and nor should we) know what the exact illness situation is, but at least NP is trying to win games. Even when it backfires at bit like yesterday, he'll learn something about his players.

[Sheltons Army]

35 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

Good point. We can't (and nor should we) know what the exact illness situation is, but at least NP is trying to win games. Even when it backfires at bit like yesterday, he'll learn something about his players.

And it didn’t backfire - we got a point on the road

 

[weepywall]

Anyone know how many City fans went up yesterday?

[Spike]

13 hours ago, Sheltons Army said:

Disagree regarding Scott in the 10 or attacking midfield role , personally, certainly atm  - fantastic footballer but how many assists / goals to date 

He'd be my hub , asking him to be available as much as poss , take lots of ball from behind , giving , receiving and giving again - keeping possession and helping some control of the game , as much as  possible 

This is why stats don't always tell the whole story, how many games has he played there, I can think of 2, one being yesterday where we seemed to be god awful down the sides but kept pushing it. I don't think yesterday he was given any decent chance to shine, we lacked possession, we were set up to attack from wide and so he was nullified. When you look at players who can beat a man you either want them on the wings to get into the pockets behind a full back or you want them in the middle when you're lacking a player who can play a high quality through pass. We lack that penetrating pass person, a large part of the Semenyo problem, we don't play passes that players can run into so the next best thing is a player who can beat a man in the middle and our only option there is Scott. I really like Weimann, he's a motivator and he gives his all but in that position he drops too deep and one of his best qualities is lost which is how he pulls defenders out of position with his movement. 
I think Scott will be another Brownhill situation, some fans seen how good Brownhill was and rated him but the vast majority took him for granted. If Scott were to leave tomorrow and get a consistent run of games in that position I think we'd be saying "why didn't Pearson give him more games there?!" or "why was he played in the midfield so much?". We know why he's played in the midfield role, it's because we have Weimann who will run for a full 90 in that position and motivates others but at the same time Scott is too good to leave on the bench and we're lacking quality in the box to box role, hence he ends up there.

I think the thing holding us back right now is a center back who can play on the right hand side without losing his positioning, as Zac does, and a quality midfielder. We're currently blessed in attack with Conway and Wells shining in this formation, Semenyo having such raw talents, albeit he needs to add to his game in his close ball control and Weimann being such an all round positive influence on the team. Bell is also coming through he needs to get a goal to his name before I think we'll see the best from him.

I don't think Scott will get enough games as the attacking midfielder due to our attack being so strong, but what we need now is a player to create problems for the opposition defence when we have possession as almost all of our strikers are best on the counter attack, we need a player in the attacking ranks who can recive the ball with his back to goal, turn and cause problems and we're lacking that, even with all of the strikers we have, that's where I think Scott would shine given some time to bed into that position.

[italian dave]

6 hours ago, weepywall said:

Anyone know how many City fans went up yesterday?

I’d guess around 300, but not seen any official numbers.

[Porto Red]

@Spike credit where it's due, that's the second lengthy post of yours regarding this match with which I have agreed entirely (can't remember if the other one was also on this thread as I've been out and away all day). And my point is that I normally disagree with practically everything you say. So there.

[mozo]

With O'Leary clearly MOTM, I thought Pring and Conway were also top performers. Finally, James put in a quietly classy performance. He was still effective in the latter stages when others were looking jaded.

[Spike]

14 hours ago, Porto Red said:

@Spike credit where it's due, that's the second lengthy post of yours regarding this match with which I have agreed entirely (can't remember if the other one was also on this thread as I've been out and away all day). And my point is that I normally disagree with practically everything you say. So there.

I know I'm opinionated but I think quite often people won't accept there could be strength behind opinions until they see it happen. I've been saying for a while now that I'd have Max in goal instead of Bentley and got mocked for it, yesterday he showed his ability and presence to command his box and all of a sudden now its clear to see its now an accepted opinion. 

I see it quite a bit on here, some posters have great opinions but are rubbished because the majority don't agree at the time, a few months on and the same people who runnished said opinion find themselves agreeing with it. 

Best part of an opinion is that you can change it, I've been wrong plenty of times, I just change my opinion when it's necessary and have no issues with people disagreeing with me

[Numero Uno]

23 minutes ago, Spike said:

I know I'm opinionated but I think quite often people won't accept there could be strength behind opinions until they see it happen. I've been saying for a while now that I'd have Max in goal instead of Bentley and got mocked for it, yesterday he showed his ability and presence to command his box and all of a sudden now its clear to see its now an accepted opinion. 

I see it quite a bit on here, some posters have great opinions but are rubbished because the majority don't agree at the time, a few months on and the same people who runnished said opinion find themselves agreeing with it. 

Best part of an opinion is that you can change it, I've been wrong plenty of times, I just change my opinion when it's necessary and have no issues with people disagreeing with me

I think people were unsure on Max after his spell last season where he didn’t really take his chance. However it’s clear that the type of keeper he is, i.e tries to be positive, is exactly what our back line need because we don’t have a dominating centre half like a Shaun Taylor or Flint who heads everything. A liner like Bentley and a back three that don’t mop up everything aerial is a bad mix.

If Max can show that he has arrived at the level and it’s not just a few games of very good form then we are in a better place going into the business end of the season. Add in five defenders returning from injury, Benarous giving us another option in the middle of the park and possibly a signing or two in January and we really ought to be ok.

[Davefevs]

36 minutes ago, Spike said:

Best part of an opinion is that you can change it, I've been wrong plenty of times, I just change my opinion when it's necessary and have no issues with people disagreeing with me

That’s the thing I don’t get with lots of people, they nail themselves to an opinion and refuse to budge.  Often that opinion is made far too early.  And in football we know how things can change quickly.

What is the harm in changing an opinion?  Pride?  Nobody really gives a shit do they?

FWIW, I always saw Max as the “cheap no2”, on a relatively low wage, capable of covering the no1, but never gonna become the no1 at this level.

That was until this batch of 7 games, which is Max showing be a side of Max I’d not seen before.  On another thread a while back a number of us mentioned that we didn’t think there was much between Max and Bents, but neither of them were decisive…and that was what we felt was the key attributed we needed.  Max now looks decisive.

I don’t want to give Nige undue credit, because I want Max to take it (and he deserved to), but…

…Nige’s comments after Millwall must’ve been a big boost to him.  I think we forget that he pulled off a great save for their opener and he saved a penalty too.

[PHILINFRANCE]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

That’s the thing I don’t get with lots of people, they nail themselves to an opinion and refuse to budge.  Often that opinion is made far too early.  And in football we know how things can change quickly.

What is the harm in changing an opinion?  Pride?  Nobody really gives a shit do they?

FWIW, I always saw Max as the “cheap no2”, on a relatively low wage, capable of covering the no1, but never gonna become the no1 at this level.

That was until this batch of 7 games, which is Max showing be a side of Max I’d not seen before.  On another thread a while back a number of us mentioned that we didn’t think there was much between Max and Bents, but neither of them were decisive…and that was what we felt was the key attributed we needed.  Max now looks decisive.

I don’t want to give Nige undue credit, because I want Max to take it (and he deserved to), but…

…Nige’s comments after Millwall must’ve been a big boost to him.  I think we forget that he pulled off a great save for their opener and he saved a penalty too.

An excellent post, and one with which I agree on every aspect.

I, too, viewed Max as an ideal number two goalkeeper, a dependable backup to Bentley, but not the longterm solution.

My only regret is that I was really looking forward to watching our new French goalkeeper steal the show, something that currently seems quite a long way off due to Max’s recent performances, although I obviously hope Max continues with his excellent form.

I shall be very interested to see the team tomorrow - stay with Max, pick Bentley to keep him fit/in touch or give Bajic his chance to show what he can do.

[italian dave]

3 hours ago, Davefevs said:

That’s the thing I don’t get with lots of people, they nail themselves to an opinion and refuse to budge.  Often that opinion is made far too early.  And in football we know how things can change quickly.

What is the harm in changing an opinion?  Pride?  Nobody really gives a shit do they?

 

I change my mind about NP roughly once every 2-3 games!