First impressions post Nige

[Randy Marsh II]

Firstly, this isn't a reflection on Manning or anything regarding him. 

It's been 13 days and two games against the bottom two. Today was probably the worst performance of the season and last week wasn't great against ten men. If the Lansdown's believe this side is capable of promotion then based on the last two games it's because of the work Pearson was doing. Pearson has these players performing above their ability on the evidence of the last two weeks. 

Robins TV commentator at one point said today that both sides showed why a change in manager was needed, for us at least it proved the exact opposite. 

The last thing Tinnion and the Lansdown's wanted was Pearson winning two games against the bottom two, it was why they acted when they did. Well they got their wish, only four points when it would have been six in all likelihood with NP. 

It'll be interesting how Manning can build on what Pearson has done but evidently the side were well behind Pearson and fighting for him - potentially to the maximum of their abilities. 

[And Its Smith]

5 minutes ago, Randy Marsh II said:

Firstly, this isn't a reflection on Manning or anything regarding him. 

It's been 13 days and two games against the bottom two. Today was probably the worst performance of the season and last week wasn't great against ten men. If the Lansdown's believe this side is capable of promotion then based on the last two games it's because of the work Pearson was doing. Pearson has these players performing above their ability on the evidence of the last two weeks. 

Robins TV commentator at one point said today that both sides showed why a change in manager was needed, for us at least it proved the exact opposite. 

The last thing Tinnion and the Lansdown's wanted was Pearson winning two games against the bottom two, it was why they acted when they did. Well they got their wish, only four points when it would have been six in all likelihood with NP. 

It'll be interesting how Manning can build on what Pearson has done but evidently the side were well behind Pearson and fighting for him - potentially to the maximum of their abilities. 

To say Pearson would have got two wins in a row is clutching at straws. Didn’t do that very often in his whole time here. 

[Randy Marsh II]

1 minute ago, And Its Smith said:

To say Pearson would have got two wins in a row is clutching at straws. Didn’t do that very often in his whole time here. 

I did say in all likelihood, rather than definitely. The hierarchy clearly felt it was likely too. 

[DaveF]

1 minute ago, And Its Smith said:

To say Pearson would have got two wins in a row is clutching at straws. Didn’t do that very often in his whole time here. 

Doubt he played the two worst teams in the league very often either?

Regardless, will take a few months to start seeing what Manning wants the team to be I imagine. Have to give him a bit of a free pass for a while in my opinion.

[Highburnred]

1 minute ago, And Its Smith said:

To say Pearson would have got two wins in a row is clutching at straws. Didn’t do that very often in his whole time here. 

Didn’t play bottom placed teams back to back often either 

[joe jordans teeth]

Brian tinnion after his new assistant manager gets a point 

[2015]

This side can't play possession Football and win games. We have too many 'runners', so we played a more counter attacking style.

NP tried the possession game early on and it didn't work because we didn't have the personnel to play this way so brought in players to fit a counter attacking style.

Today was proof that we haven't got the quality to play the ball in possession in the final 3rd and so was last week.

Proof will be in the pudding how Manning gets on, this is on the Lansdowns either way. 75% of the fans were behind Nige.

[BCFCGav]

So far, it looks as though we, the fans, were right. Nige should have stayed in post. Bet Jon was watching that ****-show between his fingers.

[Zip Nolan]

Disappointing performance by City. Tinnion should of made changes earlier but all good as Jon says we're a top 6 squad.

[And Its Smith]

Chants of ‘we want our Nige back’ 

[2015]

2 minutes ago, BCFCGav said:

So far, it looks as though we, the fans, were right. Nige should have stayed in post. Bet Jon was watching that ****-show between his fingers.

Probably found the match riveting. This is what he wanted.

[KegCity]

Too early to judge Manning, he’s had two training sessions with them.

Will need to hit play off form quickly though or he’ll be gone. Promotion is the expectation after all!

[And Its Smith]

How many players do we have that can CONSISTENTLY perform well in the final third?  I’d say none 

[One Team]

4 minutes ago, BCFCGav said:

So far, it looks as though we, the fans, were right. Nige should have stayed in post. Bet Jon was watching that ****-show between his fingers.

Bet he was watching the rugby….

[Rossi the Robin]

How many transfers windows will he need to mould his own side?

[NSFF]

Wasn’t a great game but saw plenty of them under Pearson also ! Same problem no Money best players sold and not replaced but Teflon Tinnion and daddy’s boy will tell us all different 

[RedReg]

Thanks Lansclowns 

[Silvio Dante]

I’m sorry I don’t do impressions. My training is in finance.

[Red Army 79]

First impressions are that Pearson might have over achieved with this team.

Very early days. Let’s hope that Manning over achieves as well

Lansdown was right Pearson wouldn’t have got promotion with this current team but then again neither would anyone else. He was still in the process of building a good team. Hopefully Manning can continue Pearsons good work.

[W-S-M Seagull]

7 minutes ago, 2015 said:

This side can't play possession Football and win games. We have too many 'runners', so we played a more counter attacking style.

NP tried the possession game early on and it didn't work because we didn't have the personnel to play this way so brought in players to fit a counter attacking style.

Today was proof that we haven't got the quality to play the ball in possession in the final 3rd and so was last week.

Proof will be in the pudding how Manning gets on, this is on the Lansdowns either way. 75% of the fans were behind Nige.

This was my worry.

It was clear that Mannings style was a departure from what we played under Nige. The style that we had recruited for. 

IF a change had to happened then we needed someone who could enhance upon our previous style. 

Not someone who was going to come in and rip everything up and start again on basically a new project. 

If we don't have the players to play the way Manning wants, then he was the wrong choice.

[Kibs]

Not bothered at all.

We’ve been struggling for goals and lacking quality in the final third for weeks, not just today. Last week was shite too. 

QPR, new manager as well, desperate not to lose at home. 

Pearson was doing a great job with a distinctively average squad. Manning is going to have the same problems.

Hopefully in a few months he’ll have a couple players in to suit how he wants to play and have had a reasonable amount of time “on the grass”. 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Kibs

[And Its Smith]

Judging anything on one game is futile let’s be honest.  Pearson produced a fair few shockers 

[Cristored]

We don’t have the players to suit Mannijg style but new that already, this season will show us those with a future and those without, heavy investment required.

[Bar BS3]

21 minutes ago, DaveF said:

Doubt he played the two worst teams in the league very often either?

Regardless, will take a few months to start seeing what Manning wants the team to be I imagine. Have to give him a bit of a free pass for a while in my opinion.

But he won all his games against all relegated teams in his time here, did he.?

[ExiledAjax]

4 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Judging anything on one game is futile let’s be honest.  Pearson produced a fair few shockers 

Coventry at home just a few weeks ago? Basically the same stats bar one goal.

[Mr Popodopolous]

15 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Judging anything on one game is futile let’s be honest.  Pearson produced a fair few shockers 

Most of NP's first 2 years were firefighting and keeping us steady.

It was an emergency. Finances, injuries, morale...weeding out players as a lot of them had come to the end of the road.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[Mr Popodopolous]

Just now, ExiledAjax said:

Coventry at home just a few weeks ago? Basically the same stats bar one goal.

We had 8 players out injured, set up wrong in the first place and Coventry are a bit better than QPR.

[W-S-M Seagull]

1 minute ago, Cristored said:

We don’t have the players to suit Mannijg style but new that already, this season will show us those with a future and those without, heavy investment required.

We have a squad that the owners think is good enough to challange. We shouldn't need heavy investment to challange according to the owners. 

Why bring Manning in if we don't have the players to play his style?

[Ivorguy]

The never ending Lansdown merry go round has begun all over AGAIN.

I wish Manning well, whilst also having serious doubts this will end well

[Harry]

Too early to judge Manning and that would be extremely unfair. 
I could see a couple of things that he tried to tweek. Based on watching a few Oxford games this week I could see he was trying to do a couple of the things he did there. 
 

The Oxford centre midfield is quick in possession and quick in recovery too. I think by starting Knight in the deeper CM role alongside James was designed to get some more legs/energy in that position. Then trying Weimann as a 10 was designed to get plenty of legs in that area too. 
However, I think Manning might have been a little surprised at how poor some of our players are in possession. 
Knight, for all his energy and determination, made a number of passing errors.  And Weimann just didn’t get in the game. 
So those 2 little tweeks didn’t work. Manning will learn from that I hope. 
 

Again, having watched Oxford a number of times this week, his centre backs aren’t necessarily pinging the ball around. They tend to play short passes into the midfield or into the number 10 coming toward them. They then rely on the 2 CM’s and the AM to retain possession and begin to force the play and play forward. 
I think Manning will again have learned today that Vyner isn’t the best distributor of the ball, but if he gives it short to James he basically just gets it back off of him again. This doesn’t happen with Oxford. The CB’s aren’t continually exchanging passes with the CM’s. It’s the CM’s job to turn and create and force. Because our CM’s aren’t very good at that they tend to knock it back to the CB’s too much and don’t take responsibility themselves. It’s too easy for them to pass the responsibility on to someone else. 
Plus there is no AM who can confidently receive the ball with back to goal coming back deep, so our CB’s are forced to play long - which they’re not good at. 
 

So, I think he’ll have discovered today that he doesn’t have the players to play the way he wants - which was my primary concern from day 1. 
And that’s not Manning’s fault. He has his style of play, we recruited him, but we don’t have the players that suit him. We have runners, tryers, grafters, but not much ball quality. 
Good luck Liam…….