Forever Bristol City Podcast - SHEFFIELD UTD. [A] the verdict .... more of the same

[Curr Avon]

 

https://foreverbristolcity.podbean.com/e/sheffield-utd-a-the-verdict-more-of-the-same/

Early dominance but no end product – just like Watford all over again but with fewer goal chances.

City silenced the home crowd with a spirited first half performance but the Blades upped the pace in the second period and scored the winner through a Man City loanee valued at £20M.

Should City have had a penalty in the first half when Bell was flattened? Who was Nigel referring to when assessing the performance of his subs who failed to make the impact he was hoping for and added the comment “I don’t care who they are”? Ian, Mark and DaveP discuss the game and more.

[Apologies for some sound issues!!]

[JP Hampton]

 Whilst I understand we once again came away after dominating much of the game without anything to show for it but the podcast was particularly negative. 

 The commentator thought we’d played better for the majority of the game yet anyone listening to the podcast wouldn’t have known it. I totally agree we’re struggling at the goal end but apart from that you can’t criticise last nights performance.  Certain people always come under the cosh no matter how well they’ve played Weimman in particular. The slagging off of Pearson despite the fact that most fans would agree we’re playing better than for several seasons but there’s no recognition of that. 
 Mark’s usually very level headed and positive, but for the rest it does get very predictable. 

Oh and Ian starting that Cornick “isn’t good enough” is ridiculous . ok that may turn out to be the case, but it’s far too early to say that!

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by JP Hampton

[Beni71]

Wow what a disappointing listen.

@Curr Avonwhat were you expecting?
 

2nd in the table Sheffield United scrape home and were jeered off at half time. 
Agree we didn’t create many chances but may be watch the game again and look how we play as a team, retain the ball, defend and also watch how SU defend. 
 

Ian already talking about sacking NP after 10 games next season. He is clueless.

Your collective performance was worse than City’s away at Birmingham this season. Think you need to get back on the training field lads. Your performance this week is not good enough. Marks out of 10 are below

Dave 3 - Started the show badly, thought we had lost 5 nil based on opening comments.Let Ian run riot without any control. 
 

Ian 2 - lots of shouting, pointing of fingers, no end product. Another Teflon performance 

Mark 5 - applied some balance to a disjointed performance but got sucked into Ian’s game.

Bring back Neil and @Davefevsfor real analysis not emotional outbursts.

[frenchred]

1 hour ago, Beni71 said:

Wow what a disappointing listen.

@Curr Avonwhat were you expecting?
 

2nd in the table Sheffield United scrape home and were jeered off at half time. 
Agree we didn’t create many chances but may be watch the game again and look how we play as a team, retain the ball, defend and also watch how SU defend. 
 

Ian already talking about sacking NP after 10 games next season. He is clueless.

Your collective performance was worse than City’s away at Birmingham this season. Think you need to get back on the training field lads. Your performance this week is not good enough. Marks out of 10 are below

Dave 3 - Started the show badly, thought we had lost 5 nil based on opening comments.Let Ian run riot without any control. 
 

Ian 2 - lots of shouting, pointing of fingers, no end product. Another Teflon performance 

Mark 5 - applied some balance to a disjointed performance but got sucked into Ian’s game.

Bring back Neil and @Davefevsfor real analysis not emotional outbursts.

Since the man city game we have played 10 games and got 9 points from a possible 30! That is relegation form no doubt yet you appear happy and complain only at the guys doing the pod?

Dubious selection and awful substitutions have contributed to this and yet you complain about the guys doing the pod?

What about the players, management and coaching staff who appear not to know how to arrest this slide in results?

We.dont need a graph to try and tell us all is well, things need and should change quickly 

Some of the points raised in the pod are valid some are not, it's people's opinion not everyone is happy when our results are this alarming and nor should they be!

 

[JP Hampton]

5 minutes ago, frenchred said:

Since the man city game we have played 10 games and got 9 points from a possible 30! That is relegation form no doubt yet you appear happy and complain only at the guys doing the pod?

Dubious selection and awful substitutions have contributed to this and yet you complain about the guys doing the pod?

What about the players, management and coaching staff who appear not to know how to arrest this slide in results?

We.dont need a graph to try and tell us all is well, things need and should change quickly 

Some of the points raised in the pod are valid some are not, it's people's opinion not everyone is happy when our results are this alarming and nor should they be!

 

Not actually disagreeing with all points you’ve raised or points raised in the podcast but it’s just the manner in which it’s done. 
 

“No one” is happy with the results but there’s no denying we are playing better and as frenchred says there’s little balance to the comments. Whilst everyone is entitled to their opinion, you’d think Ian had managed championship football at some point, inferring he knows better than all of the coaching staff. 
 

 

[Mendip City]

57 minutes ago, frenchred said:

Since the man city game we have played 10 games and got 9 points from a possible 30! That is relegation form no doubt yet you appear happy and complain only at the guys doing the pod?

Dubious selection and awful substitutions have contributed to this and yet you complain about the guys doing the pod?

What about the players, management and coaching staff who appear not to know how to arrest this slide in results?

We.dont need a graph to try and tell us all is well, things need and should change quickly 

Some of the points raised in the pod are valid some are not, it's people's opinion not everyone is happy when our results are this alarming and nor should they be!

 

Agree with this and it’s all about opinions. Imagine how “interesting” it would be if everyone agreed with everything that’s said! 
 

For what it’s worth, I think you and the podcast are correct to flag the poor form since the Man City game. I look at the table and games coming up and have a funny feeling we’ll finish 17th…. Progress… a little but not a lot is my current thought. 

[Beni71]

22 minutes ago, frenchred said:

Since the man city game we have played 10 games and got 9 points from a possible 30! That is relegation form no doubt yet you appear happy and complain only at the guys doing the pod?

Dubious selection and awful substitutions have contributed to this and yet you complain about the guys doing the pod?

What about the players, management and coaching staff who appear not to know how to arrest this slide in results?

We.dont need a graph to try and tell us all is well, things need and should change quickly 

Some of the points raised in the pod are valid some are not, it's people's opinion not everyone is happy when our results are this alarming and nor should they be!

 

It’s about perspective and balance.

Did we lose 5 nil to Wigan? No, it was a team who will be in the premiership next season. Did we compete throughout? In my view, yes we did.

It was a game of few chances for both teams, but the team with that bit more quality edged it.

If I focus on the season and how we have evolved rather than Tuesdays performance I see the following 

1. A “team” and style of play which has been missing for 4 seasons

2. A recruitment strategy and a more financial sustainable approach to the playing squad

3. A clearer pathway for the academy to integrate into the 1st team 

In business terms this is transformation and would be multi year to achieve. But…..this is football and we expect results every Saturday, regardless of who we are playing against and that’s my gripe with the moany old gits and the lack perspective and understanding.

 

[Davefevs]

20 minutes ago, Mendip City said:

Agree with this and it’s all about opinions. Imagine how “interesting” it would be if everyone agreed with everything that’s said! 
 

For what it’s worth, I think you and the podcast are correct to flag the poor form since the Man City game. I look at the table and games coming up and have a funny feeling we’ll finish 17th…. Progress… a little but not a lot is my current thought. 

Out of interest what kind of reason / rationale was given for the drop off in results (using the selective period*** of matches)?  I haven’t listened this week.

I can think of lots of reasons (or excuses).  Ian likes to say things like “you’re accepting mediocrity” as a way of dismissing mine and others views.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

*** On an aside it is always easy to frame a viewpoint of “form” / “runs” etc by choosing a “convenient” start point.

If you want to frame a positive run, you start after the last defeat.

If you want to frame a negative run, you start after the last win.

9 points from 10 games?

0 points from 2 games

4 points from 4 games

5 points from 6 games

12 points from 11 games

20 points from 15 games

etc…you can make it look better or worse.

”we are in relegation form”

“we are in top 6 form”

We are sat just below mid-table, there are always gonna be little peaks and troughs of form.

I’m not saying there has to be a standardised approach, but is weakens the point of the debate when you pick convenient start and end points to magnify the effect.

Personally I work off of 6 game rolling cycles.  They usually (not always) contain an even split of home and away games, I never choose odd number of games, because they can never be split evenly.

Our worst 6 game sequence is 4 points, our best is 13 points…our average is 7.4 points.

You can see above the 6 game average of points per match.  This season it rarely drops into relegation form (below red line).  Nor does it stay in top 6 form (above blue line) for long either.  We find a way of getting a result.

During 14/15 season our worst 6 game run was 9 points (almost playoff form in its own right), best was a full-house 18 points.

During 12/13 season our worst 6 game run was 0 points (lost all 6), best was 10 points.

 

[Mendip City]

I didn’t look at it in that way Dave. More simply! 
I just looked at our position now (good, bad and indifferent form to date), points and run-in.
I have a feeling we’ll land in 17th. I think there’s a strong possibility we’ll lose our remaining games (every opponent has far more riding on it). 
So my only point is, in the final analysis, we won’t be far forward from last season and I’d temper expectations for next season. I still think we’ll be mid/lower-mid table and we’ll need to continue to be patient…. that might be a challenge as we’ve had a few similar feeling seasons now - no promotion push and no real relegation battle. Personally, I think decent progress has been made but tangible progress (a promotion push) is still a way off. 

[Davefevs]

12 minutes ago, Mendip City said:

I didn’t look at it in that way Dave. More simply!

I did say “on an aside”!

I just looked at our position now (good, bad and indifferent form to date), points and run-in.
I have a feeling we’ll land in 17th. I think there’s a strong possibility we’ll lose our remaining games (every opponent has far more riding on it). 
So my only point is, in the final analysis, we won’t be far forward from last season and I’d temper expectations for next season.

I guess for me, looking at final league position / points total versus last season, isn’t really the whole picture in my determination of progress.  I won’t go into chapter and verse, but I’d like to feel that this summer is the “start of the beginning”.  Hugely dependent on successful recruitment.

Getting to 56 points at 5pm Saturday would be a little milestone though.  Won’t be easy though.  Rotherham are gonna feel like we are a team they can pick points off.  I’m kinda hoping Nige’s post-match comments were said with Saturday in mind…no resting on laurels now.

I still think we’ll be mid/lower-mid table and we’ll need to continue to be patient…. that might be a challenge as we’ve had a few similar feeling seasons now - no promotion push and no real relegation battle. Personally, I think decent progress has been made but tangible progress (a promotion push) is still a way off.

patience is always key.  We are at least two seasons behind Luton, Millwall, Coventry, Preston in becoming “punch above our weight” teams.  But we can make up ground next season…promotion push feels like “stars aligning plus luck”!

[maxjak]

I would put it more forcefully.........our chances of success next season are dependent on 1. Recruitment  2. Recruitment 3. Recruitment.......................and RECRUITMENT!  

[Beni71]

1 hour ago, maxjak said:

I would put it more forcefully.........our chances of success next season are dependent on 1. Recruitment  2. Recruitment 3. Recruitment.......................and RECRUITMENT!  

And…..excellent coaching