First impressions post Nige

[W-S-M Seagull]

Lots of positives? What game was he watching? 

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 minute ago, Harry said:

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……. 

Should Naismith start in midfield to help with the ball quality question mark?

[NSFF]

Can managers make players play their own style ? When interviewed any prospective manager would ask what’s the budget surely 

[Cristored]

2 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

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?

Because he will be far better than the players he is coaching. Ignore what the owners say, it’s spin, you are very naive.

[citywest30]

I don't get the argument that we don't have the players to play Manning's style.

Surely if he can get players in not just one, but two League 1 squads to play it then surely our lot can. Granted we may need to add some more that do it better but you'd like to think players like Weimann, TGH, James, Bell, Conway, Mehmeti are good enough.

[ChippenhamRed]

People rushing to judgement on Manning after one game is beyond ridiculous. You’ve got to give him more time than that.

The problem the board have created is that they’ve sacked a popular manager, which means the new guy won’t get as much patience from supporters as they would had the previous manager overseen complete failure, as is normally the case.

But - as annoyed as we rightly are with the decision makers at our club - we’ve got to cut the new guy a bit of slack and at least give him a chance to implement his own way.

[joe jordans teeth]

21 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

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

Bang on,how Pearson kept us competitive I don’t know,the new manager will be given funds to address that I guess 

[Edgy Red]

14 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

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

I said in another post that we have very little quality at the top end of the pitch.

Tommy is a fox in the box type player but his overall link up play isn't great and he isn't the type of striker that makes chances for himself.

Weimann and Wells sadly have their best years behind them.

Bell is still very raw and although he always gives 100%, he doesn't really have the ability to make things happen. Mehmeti was brought in for that reason but it just hasn't happened for him (yet).

Sykes always does his best but doesn't have a level of consistency and without wishing to single out Cornick, he simply wasn't the player we needed.

For a team that struggles badly in posession of the ball you have to have outlets at the top end of the pitch, whether that is simply some physicality or pace (ideally both).

Manning has a tough job on his hands trying to turn this group in to a progressive passing team, but it can be done.

[Engvall’s Splinter]

Im sure Manning doesn’t believe what he’s just said on Radio Bristol, around positives, pressing etc. 

Hopefully by December we’ll see what JL/BT have seen to make a change. 

[The Coach]

Come back Nige. 

[petehinton]

As I said in MDT, play like that against Boro and it’ll turn sour very quickly. That was really, really bad.
 

If anyone was of the opinion that Pearson not being a ‘touchline manager’ made Any difference during games, case in point it makes no difference whatsoever. I’ve no idea why we try to play through & not over first half, they had a very high line and we had pace on the wings. 
 

Southampton away after Boro too, talk about baptism of fire.  
 

JL & Tinnion currently writing up their narrative for back tracking re: this not being a top 6 squad. 

[W-S-M Seagull]

2 minutes ago, Cristored said:

Because he will be far better than the players he is coaching. Ignore what the owners say, it’s spin, you are very naive.

So if he's far better than the players he's coaching then he has the ability to make them better? 

With Nige we were capable of challenging for the top 6 this season. We would have won today and been 2 points off the play offs.

Ripping up everything and starting again with heavy investment is going back to the LJ days.

[38MC]

5 minutes ago, Harry said:

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……. 

And there was me thinking sharp as a tack Tinnion and Crayon boy were looking for a manager who could work with this squad and the way we are setting up throughout the club. 
Manning will have to change his approach, the money pit is empty 

[W-S-M Seagull]

2 minutes ago, joe jordans teeth said:

Bang on,how Pearson kept us competitive I don’t know,the new manager will be given funds to address that I guess 

Because Pearson had players running through brick walls for him.

Just now, 38MC said:

And there was me thinking sharp as a tack Tinnion and Crayon boy were looking for a manager who could work with this squad and the way we are setting up throughout the club. 
Manning will have to change his approach, the money pit is empty 

This was my concern from the moment we were linked with him.

[BCFC Rich]

I think the simplest thing to do is take this as the baseline for Manning.

Not a great performance, but a point and a clean sheet.

No point judging him directly on this in isolation, or trying too hard to compare him to NP. We can use this performance to see what effect he has over the international break. I would expect to see a significant improvement and the beginnings of his style of football. I think from a fan's perspective it's actually a really good opportunity to see what impact he can have. 

[Redrascal2]

Far too early to assess. Manning had the team for 2 or 3 days training. In my opinion to be making judgements at this stage is a waste of time. Manning needs time and some support in the transfer window. I hope he gets both.

[RobImps]

I thought watching that first half we'd gone back 2 1/2 years & were watching us under Holden.

Very slow & turgid. Passing for passings sake, a boring approach to football unless you've mastered it (and we ain't remotely close to it!!)

Nige spent 2 years building us into a counter attacking team, ball forward quickly and attack at pace - despite some of the quotes from tins and the board - we were entertaining to watch like that.

Injuries derailed us hugely 

Point being, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, we stand 4 points off of the playoffs, a great position - let's not throw it away due to appointing a manager who wants a possession based game and thus we'll need a big rebuild.

[TV Tom]

Were any of you moaners at the Swansea, Cardiff, Brum’ or Reading games last season? If you see any worse away performances than those four I”d be surprised, in particular Reading.

Give this guy a chance

[Frenchay Red]

My thoughts are that it is irrelevant how Oxford play. They're in League One. Championship is a big step up(apart from Ipswich )

Also any new coach/manager would surely have encouraged the players to stick with Pearson's style of play for today's game and then use the international break to work on their own particular way that they want to affect change.

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

35 minutes ago, Zip Nolan said:

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

Kid Crayola and the Kuntinuts

[tin]

Early impressions — it looks to me that a) some have been rushed back from injury too soon, and b) the players didn’t show anything like the desire they mostly did under Nige.

Of course, it’s very early days for Manning. But if this is anything to go by, Pearson may well have been getting the most of out of this squad and we could well be in a dogfight if this is not a performance in isolation. 

Top six? My arse! Lansdowns out. 

[Mike Stone]

Fair play, that took some watching.

Now dring Hazy Jane just off Portobello road so the days getting better 

[And Its Smith]

16 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

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.

We’ve had shockers this season, let’s not pretend we’ve played well for many games since august 

[Harry]

6 minutes ago, citywest30 said:

I don't get the argument that we don't have the players to play Manning's style.

Surely if he can get players in not just one, but two League 1 squads to play it then surely our lot can. Granted we may need to add some more that do it better but you'd like to think players like Weimann, TGH, James, Bell, Conway, Mehmeti are good enough.

Not necessarily. 
All players are different. You wouldn’t expect Vinnie Jones to be able to play like Paul Gascoigne. 
I think the only name you mentioned above who might be able to play Manning’s way might be TGH. But even then I don’t think he’s quite ‘all action’ enough and can be very laboured in possession and not brilliantly defensive-minded in recovery positions  

Everything about our central midfield is slow slow slow. 
Slow passing, slow on the turn, slow speed of thought. 
Honestly, it’s a stark contrast to how Oxford play. We have no one-touch football. It’s all 3 or 4 touches and ponderous. Stark contrast. 
 

Manning has a huge task trying to get some of these players to play that same way. 
 

Caveat - Yes, I know Oxford are league 1.

[WayOutWest]

Well that was not a good start
 
If you are going to high press you have to high press as a unit. 

If you are going to play a possession based game players have to be able to pass the ball 10 yards. 

We did neither and looked at times completely clueless. Whilst we may not have played a "Manning" style game under Nige perfectly understandable, it was was too much of an ask for these players to change in 3 coaching sessions. 

Personally I would sacked Nige today (well I would not have sacked him in the first place) and used the international break for multiple sessions with the players to get new messages across. 

Timings all wrong on his sacking 

Edited November 11, 2023 by WayOutWest

[Cristored]

10 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

So if he's far better than the players he's coaching then he has the ability to make them better? 

With Nige we were capable of challenging for the top 6 this season. We would have won today and been 2 points off the play offs.

Ripping up everything and starting again with heavy investment is going back to the LJ days.

How do you know we would’ve won today? This is the problem with posters like you, there is no world or reality where we would’ve been guarenteeed 3 points. Of course he has the ability to make them better he will also get money to improve squad. 

[Andy082005]

12 minutes ago, The Coach said:

Come back Nige. 

Please don’t Nige 

[Andy082005]

13 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

So if he's far better than the players he's coaching then he has the ability to make them better? 

With Nige we were capable of challenging for the top 6 this season. We would have won today and been 2 points off the play offs.

Ripping up everything and starting again with heavy investment is going back to the LJ days.

No chance we would have been challenging top 6

[The Coach]

2 minutes ago, Cristored said:

How do you know we would’ve won today? This is the problem with posters like you, there is no world or reality where we would’ve been guarenteeed 3 points. Of course he has the ability to make them better he will also get money to improve squad. 

What’s your overtime rate?

[Cristored]

Just now, The Coach said:

What’s your overtime rate?

Depends on the subject.