Manning's post match interview...

[the1stknowle]

2 hours ago, Gert Mare said:

He installed a culture of competing in games and understood the limitations of the players that he had at his disposal. 

He made us difficult to break down. 

Again, not denying any of those things (except the difficult to break down point which is maybe a reach although the start of this season we seemed a lot less fragile). But the initial post was very specifically talking about a culture of winning. And, as much as I liked Nige, didn't want him gone, and appreciate this is exactly what he was working towards, there is just no sensible way to argue that he had already instilled a 'culture of winning' when, under him, our win percentage was very noticeably below the win percentages of his three immediate predecessors in the decade since 2013. 

Edited December 4, 2023 by the1stknowle

[Davefevs]

25 minutes ago, TV Tom said:

Why are my posts desperate ? I’m just giving my point of view and opinion, just because my views don’t tally with yours doesn’t make it “desperate”

Just for a bit of clarity though I think sacking NP when we did was the wrong decision and you’ll also not find a single post from me over the years where I’ve “backed” Tinnion.

I’m pretty chilled about LM, so it’s not differing with my views.  And if you feel the decision was wrong, then why the digs at Nige?  That’s what I’m getting at.

Maybe I’ve misinterpreted your posts.  If I have, apologies.

[Sheltons Army]

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I’m pretty chilled about LM, so it’s not differing with my views.  And if you feel the decision was wrong, then why the digs at Nige?  That’s what I’m getting at.

Maybe I’ve misinterpreted your posts.  If I have, apologies.

Historically Anti Pearson , but appears to claim he disagreed with the timing 

[DaveInSA]

So here's my opinion. I think it's a clumsy use of language - he's young - he doesn't present himself well - I just wish he was more genuine. I don't think he's meaning culture per se. I think he's talking about mindset and responsibility.

Clearly, in that game the players didn't adapt to the way Norwich changed (my opinion) and they didn't step into another way of playing (which is what Manning talked about in previous interviews). He wants the players to take responsibility and find a way to win.

I'm actually behind this. You need leaders on the pitch to figure stuff out and shift what we're doing. Playing it slowly across the back 4 to Bell and Knight on the left wing, with Pring then coming to confuse matters isn't what he wants. I think this is what he was referencing. A couple of times in the second half we did what he wants - moved the ball at pace and pulled Norwich around. 

I think this will take time. Doing it in season, when you've been set up to be compact and hard to beat is tricky. Especially when he says in training they're mainly working on defensive shapes.

 

[Spudgun]

Lower league manager.

[Clutton Caveman]

16 hours ago, Numero Uno said:

It’s laughable. No mention of mindset and culture needing to change when Pearson was fired. It was all about the next manager tinkering and firing us up that league. Now it all needs ripping up and changing? If we’re going down that route how does he explain Vyner going from a Rolls Royce to a Trabant in the four games he’s been here? Can’t have your cake and eat it lad. Disappointing interview that is.

I wish he had said, " we haven't got any strikers and until we do we can 99% of the ball and draw 0.0." For me this a glaring point and no manager can be successful until it is fixed.

[Clutton Caveman]

6 minutes ago, DaveInSA said:

So here's my opinion. I think it's a clumsy use of language - he's young - he doesn't present himself well - I just wish he was more genuine. I don't think he's meaning culture per se. I think he's talking about mindset and responsibility.

Clearly, in that game the players didn't adapt to the way Norwich changed (my opinion) and they didn't step into another way of playing (which is what Manning talked about in previous interviews). He wants the players to take responsibility and find a way to win.

I'm actually behind this. You need leaders on the pitch to figure stuff out and shift what we're doing. Playing it slowly across the back 4 to Bell and Knight on the left wing, with Pring then coming to confuse matters isn't what he wants. I think this is what he was referencing. A couple of times in the second half we did what he wants - moved the ball at pace and pulled Norwich around. 

I think this will take time. Doing it in season, when you've been set up to be compact and hard to beat is tricky. Especially when he says in training they're mainly working on defensive shapes.

 

Buy what's happened to the Pring that would get up a head of steam and drive to the by line or into the box. No its seems its all about keep the ball at all costs and try to walk to ball into the net.

[GrahamC]

58 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Dave Barton's questioning doesn't help either. For an experienced journalist, he asks an awful lot of closed questions.

Manning clearly isn't that comfortable in front of a camera and is nowhere near as articulate as Pearson. Makes it even more important that Barton thinks about his questions more to ensure they're actually going to help Manning get his points across. 

All that happens is that Manning is forced to needlessly over-expand in his answers when he has very little to go on. It makes his answers wordy, boring and allows fluff and jargon to seep in. 

He’s absolutely bloody terrible.

There has been a lot of criticism on here of Downsy but this bloke’s job is basically money for jam.

He always asks 3 post match questions;

How pleased/disappointed are you with today (closed question).

Game coming up in midweek, will you be looking to build on/bounce back from today’s result (closed question).

Something about it being a competitive division, tight margins (closed question).

Before a game he asks the second of these 3 again & one mentioning the number of supporters that are travelling & how can they make a difference (Play School question).

If you don’t want to know the answer to any of these questions, look away now..

I have no idea how much he earns but he could be replaced by AI at a fraction of the cost & we wouldn’t lose any insight, as he never provides any.

 

[Spudgun]

16 hours ago, Top Robin said:

You are just bitter that Pearson has gone and you will never like anything that  Manning says or does.

Plumb.

[NcnsBcfc]

3 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

He’s absolutely bloody terrible.

There has been a lot of criticism on here of Downsy but this bloke’s job is basically money for jam.

He always asks 3 post match questions;

How pleased/disappointed are you with today (closed question).

Game coming up in midweek, will you be looking to build on/bounce back from today’s result (closed question).

Something about it being a competitive division, tight margins (closed question).

Before a game he asks the second of these 3 again & one mentioning the number of supporters that are travelling & how can they make a difference (Play School question).

If you don’t want to know the answer to any of these questions, look away now..

I have no idea how much he earns but he could be replaced by AI at a fraction of the cost & we wouldn’t lose any insight, as he never provides any.

 

I'm amazed he's actually still in a job @GrahamC.

JL acknowledged that the communication from the club hasn't been good enough for a long time. Normally in that situation the "Head of Communications" would become accountable. Unless of course, you're really good mates with Jon of course..

[Gert Mare]

31 minutes ago, the1stknowle said:

Again, not denying any of those things (except the difficult to break down point which is maybe a reach although the start of this season we seemed a lot less fragile). But the initial post was very specifically talking about a culture of winning. And, as much as I liked Nige, didn't want him gone, and appreciate this is exactly what he was working towards, there is just no sensible way to argue that he had already instilled a 'culture of winning' when, under him, our win percentage was very noticeably below the win percentages of his three immediate predecessors in the decade since 2013. 

I agree. It certainly wasn’t a culture of winning. More of a culture of team working.

[Galley is our king]

12 minutes ago, Clutton Caveman said:

Buy what's happened to the Pring that would get up a head of steam and drive to the by line or into the box. No its seems its all about keep the ball at all costs and try to walk to ball into the net.

It's called "coaching on the grass"

[Sheltons Army]

12 minutes ago, NcnsBcfc said:

I'm amazed he's actually still in a job @GrahamC.

JL acknowledged that the communication from the club hasn't been good enough for a long time. Normally in that situation the "Head of Communications" would become accountable. Unless of course, you're really good mates with Jon of course..

His mumbling apologies in the background at the Fans Forum when the question of actually bothering to publish U21 fixtures , was raised ,the other night ,spoke volumes about the Club , and those steering the ship

In most professional organisations where communications are massive in this modern age , if I was Dave Barton I’d have expected to be summonsed to Gavin Marshall , or JL’s office to explain myself and to try and save my job

The fact that none of them Lansdown , Marshall  (and ......Our head of Football and preacher of the land of the Academy included) seemed to realise this probably made that a bit awkward 

As for Dave Barton, and his deliberately softened voice,  I actually find him cringeworthy

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Sheltons Army

[Lack of Action Man]

His interviews strike me as something the bot/AI on FM would say.

Starting to think Manning is just a Lansdown-created NPC.

[robin_unreliant]

2 hours ago, Silvio Dante said:

Just read the evening post write up and this line stood out for me:

”Matty James said that’s the most controlled he’d ever felt in a game, complete dominance”

Now, that quote to me is revealing for a few reasons;

- He’s name dropping a senior professional and a “Pearson” player. A bit of this is to say “look the players are on side” but it is also a classic tactic when you know you’re under pressure or haven’t performed well “look x said it was good”. Any of us who have worked in offices will have seen that tactic and it’s normally the preserve of the weak

- It’s very unlikely to be true. Matty James has played for teams who have won this league and the league above. He’s undoubtedly been in more control of games.

It just feels uncomfortable to have a head coach quoting one of the senior players. Surely that should be left to MJ to say, you don't generally hear what's said in the dressing room, for obvious reasons. Comes across as LM lacking confidence imo.

[W-S-M Seagull]

1 hour ago, the1stknowle said:

Again, not denying any of those things (except the difficult to break down point which is maybe a reach although the start of this season we seemed a lot less fragile). But the initial post was very specifically talking about a culture of winning. And, as much as I liked Nige, didn't want him gone, and appreciate this is exactly what he was working towards, there is just no sensible way to argue that he had already instilled a 'culture of winning' when, under him, our win percentage was very noticeably below the win percentages of his three immediate predecessors in the decade since 2013. 

No but he had installed a culture of being hard to beat. Whilst it seems quite simple to expect Players to care about losing games it's actually not that easy to implement. We had a team that were getting angry about conceding goals and losing games. I liked that. 

The next step in the process was the winning culture. 

Mannings comments weren't about a winning culture, they were about a defensive mentality. 

52 minutes ago, robin_unreliant said:

It just feels uncomfortable to have a head coach quoting one of the senior players. Surely that should be left to MJ to say, you don't generally hear what's said in the dressing room, for obvious reasons. Comes across as LM lacking confidence imo.

We're not allowed to compare LJ and LM on here but if we were I'd suggest that's something LJ would have also done. 

[mozo]

Just for context, here are some quotes from Nige after defeats this season:

Cardiff: "It's a competitive league and if you don't make good decisions on the pitch, sides will turn you over."

Leeds: "We made a few too many mistakes, turned the ball over too many times where we had opportunities to choose a different option."

Stoke: "We were mugged, but basically we mugged ourselves I think is the best way of putting it"

Birmingham: "The bottom line is we didn't make the most of our key moments and after having a player sent off we had a golden opportunity to equalise and didn't take it. There's nobody else to blame but ourselves."

So, just a quick and easy selection that I think is evidence that both Nige and Manning had the same problem; getting the players to make good decisions and to execute correctly. 

For me, the messaging from both gaffers has been fairly consistent. I don't see why there isn't a link between the mindset/culture and the execution.

[RedM]

5 hours ago, robin_unreliant said:

It just feels uncomfortable to have a head coach quoting one of the senior players. Surely that should be left to MJ to say, you don't generally hear what's said in the dressing room, for obvious reasons. Comes across as LM lacking confidence imo.

Wouldn't you lack confidence too? look what he is surrounded with on and off the pitch. And all eyes looking at him. 

I do actually like him and obviously I want him to do well, but he must be looking at the hand he's been delt and thinking "oh fluck".

[Silvio Dante]

10 minutes ago, RedM said:

Wouldn't you lack confidence too? look what he is surrounded with on and off the pitch. And all eyes looking at him. 

I do actually like him and obviously I want him to do well, but he must be looking at the hand he's been delt and thinking "oh fluck".

I do have less sympathy with the hand he’s been dealt. Liam himself admits he lives and breathes football. He’s seen us twice - minimum - in the flesh before taking over plus all the scouting reports. He’d have watched lots of games of ours, he’d have spoken to people in the game and I’m pretty sure he’d have been smart enough to as a minimum have a cursory check in on the forum or social media to gauge the fanbase mood. He’d also have heard Jon and Brian’s announcements about the reason for sacking in the week before he took charge.

Does he have unrealistic expectation from the board in public pronouncement? Yep. Does he have a squad that don’t fit his preferred style? Also yep.

But, vitally, if he’s as clued up and football obsessive as he says he is, he’d have known that “hand” - or at least had a very good idea of it - before taking the job.

The shitshow is all of Jon and Brian’s making. But nobody held a gun to his head and told him to take the job.

 

[Davefevs]

Finally listened to his interview.

It wasn’t his best.  A few things I didn’t really buy, but not gonna go OTT on one interview.

[Graham76]

6 hours ago, Sheltons Army said:

His mumbling apologies in the background at the Fans Forum when the question of actually bothering to publish U21 fixtures , was raised ,the other night ,spoke volumes about the Club , and those steering the ship

In most professional organisations where communications are massive in this modern age , if I was Dave Barton I’d have expected to be summonsed to Gavin Marshall , or JL’s office to explain myself and to try and save my job

The fact that none of them Lansdown , Marshall  (and ......Our head of Football and preacher of the land of the Academy included) seemed to realise this probably made that a bit awkward 

As for Dave Barton, and his deliberately softened voice,  I actually find him cringeworthy

 

Imaging running a business this way.... oh wait

[Robbored]

I see that Brian Tinnion is being labelled as a conspirator in Nige’s sacking……..I’m a little surprised at that. Does anyone have any evidence that BT was involved?

I assumed the sacking was entirely down to the Lansdowns………..

[redsquirrel]

58 minutes ago, RedM said:

Wouldn't you lack confidence too? look what he is surrounded with on and off the pitch. And all eyes looking at him. 

I do actually like him and obviously I want him to do well, but he must be looking at the hand he's been delt and thinking "oh fluck".

i dont think he will give a monkeys, eyeing up the ££££s his contracts worth thinking at least it wont take long to bag that.

thats what id be thinking anyway

12 minutes ago, Robbored said:

I see that Brian Tinnion is being labelled as a conspirator in Nige’s sacking……..I’m a little surprised at that. Does anyone have any evidence that BT was involved?

I assumed the sacking was entirely down to the Lansdowns………..

he must have said yes to taking over some of NPs roles

[Silvio Dante]

1 hour ago, Robbored said:

I see that Brian Tinnion is being labelled as a conspirator in Nige’s sacking……..I’m a little surprised at that. Does anyone have any evidence that BT was involved?

I assumed the sacking was entirely down to the Lansdowns………..

Fair point. It didn’t say Tinnion was involved on the OS, so we have to assume he wasn’t. Thanks for clearing things up.

[Robbored]

5 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Fair point. It didn’t say Tinnion was involved on the OS, so we have to assume he wasn’t. Thanks for clearing things up.

It wouldn’t have - Boy Blunder owned the decision. Why would anyone else other than SL be involved?

[W-S-M Seagull]

4 minutes ago, Robbored said:

It wouldn’t have - Boy Blunder owned the decision. Why would anyone else other than SL be involved?

Considering the silence from SL and any speak about him from others at the club. It doesn't appear that he's had a great deal to do with the sacking of NP and the appointment of LM. 

It seems like it's very much JL's club now.

[lenred]

5 minutes ago, Robbored said:

It wouldn’t have - Boy Blunder owned the decision. Why would anyone else other than SL be involved?

Seriously? You wouldn’t expect our technical director to be involved? 

[transfer reader]

On 03/12/2023 at 18:02, petehinton said:

Yeah, thought the same. Has said similar with the post too about us “having a history of starting halves slowly” - we don’t. Not this season anyway.  Hopefully not a sign of how he is after losses, because I think he’s spoken well with the media thus far.
 

Also went straight down the tunnel at FT, after lapping up the crowd on the pitch after we beat Boro. Cannot stand managers that do that, can’t have it both ways. 

Don't we?

Stoke, Swansea, Leeds all had goals conceded early in the half.

Rotherham we didn't concede but we started extremely slow and were lucky to not be behind after the opening 15.

[Mr Popodopolous]

10 minutes ago, transfer reader said:

Don't we?

Stoke, Swansea, Leeds all had goals conceded early in the half.

Rotherham we didn't concede but we started extremely slow and were lucky to not be behind after the opening 15.

You're being a bit selective there IMO.

Swansea we also scored 2 at, start of 2nd Half and Stoke likewise start of 1st.

If you're looking at first 20 mins sample size we were shot dominant or at least ahead in the first 20 of the Stoke games.

Rotherham maybe, I'll check and Leeds likewise.

Hull away yeah we started poorly but by the same token 2nd half we came out strongly, scored and perhaps should have scored again.

While not great by any stretch at Rotherham, we still came out after HT better. First 20 of the first half yeah they were better.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[Robbored]

5 minutes ago, lenred said:

Seriously? You wouldn’t expect our technical director to be involved? 

That’s my point - are fans assuming that BT was involved given his position? I guess we’ll never know.