Who’s going to take the hit?

[Aipearcey]

So if/when it goes badly again on Saturday, where do you think the fans will target their anger? The players? Simply, they’re not good enough to play the style that they’re being asked to. There’s a reason we didn’t play like this with Pearson and it shows! Manning…….. whilst some of his decisions have been questionable and I think he’s tried to change too much too quick, he was given an opportunity to take a job at a higher club doing ok, I don’t blame him for giving it a shot. The Lansdowns, now for me this is where the blame lies but they’ve also done a massive amount for the club and the grass isn’t always greener but does this give them the right to avoid criticism? Tinion…. Also had a big part to play in the switch and as others have mentioned, failed in the job that he now feels qualified to oversee, but has been a massive part of the youth players come through over recent years. 

[Shauntaylor85]

Tech director first, totally not right for role in my opinion.  Legends stay legends, don’t ruin it. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Shauntaylor85

[GrahamC]

Cornick or Weimann probably.

Definitely not the actual people to blame, the Lansdown’s & Tinnion.

[Engvall’s Splinter]

The fans are the ones taking the hit! 

[Bristol Rob]

I think any complaints will be aimed towards the halfway line of the Lansdown stand.

Middle tier.

[MarcusX]

The board, 100%.

It’s not the players - they were giving their all for Pearson. I just don’t think some of them are good enough to play this style of football and the the rest just need time to adapt to what’s being asked (as a team I mean - patterns of play and movement etc).

it’s not Manning. He’s been brought in with a particular remit and a lot of pressure due to the idiots above him comments.

its the Board, Jon, Tinnion and Steve ultimately to blame here if it gets worse.

[Graham76]

They sacked most of the management team, so its either going to be the tea lady or Scott Murray 

[tin]

The board deserve all the flak coming, or about to come, their way. 

Pearson was getting the best out of these players and didn’t even have anywhere near a full squad to choose from most of the time.

While the players are not packed with talent, they are an honest hardworking bunch IMO and a far cry from the wasters of the past. 

This situation is borne out of the Lansdowns. They set the budgets, they appointed Tinnion to a role way above his station, they took a totally unnecessary gamble from a position of stability and slow progress. It was all completely avoidable.

[Mr Popodopolous]

The board and Tinnion.

[Harry]

There are only 3 people at the club who feel this is a “top end” squad. 
 

Nige didn’t think it. Liam hasn’t said it. 
Most of us were happy with 9th-13th ish this season.

ALL flak should only be going in the direction of the idiotic ones who came out with such bullshit about the quality of this squad and therefore heaped 100 tonnes of pressure onto the new manager. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Harry

[One Team]

28 minutes ago, Aipearcey said:

So if/when it goes badly again on Saturday, where do you think the fans will target their anger? The players? Simply, they’re not good enough to play the style that they’re being asked to. There’s a reason we didn’t play like this with Pearson and it shows! Manning…….. whilst some of his decisions have been questionable and I think he’s tried to change too much too quick, he was given an opportunity to take a job at a higher club doing ok, I don’t blame him for giving it a shot. The Lansdowns, now for me this is where the blame lies but they’ve also done a massive amount for the club and the grass isn’t always greener but does this give them the right to avoid criticism? Tinion…. Also had a big part to play in the switch and as others have mentioned, failed in the job that he now feels qualified to oversee, but has been a massive part of the youth players come through over recent years. 

I’ve said a couple of times on here that when it went 2 - 2 against Boro there were chants of “Nigel Pearson’s Cider Army” and “Jon Lansdown, what a manual manipulator”. 

If we play badly and/or lose Saturday I would expect the same. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by One Team

[Bristol Rob]

24 minutes ago, Graham76 said:

They sacked most of the management team, so its either going to be the tea lady or Scott Murray 

Won't be the tea lady. Joey said she knows nothing of the men's game. 

 

[Silvio Dante]

7 minutes ago, Harry said:

There are only 3 people at the club who feel this is a “top end” squad. 
 

Nige didn’t think it. Liam hasn’t said it. 
Most of us were happy with 9th-13th ish this season.

ALL flak should only be going in the direction of the idiotic ones who came out with such bullshit about the quality of this squad and therefore heaped 100 tonnes of pressure onto the new manager. 

I agree - but - and I feel like a broken record here - Liam would have read the public proclamations from the morons above, he’d have done due diligence on both the squad and the expectations and would have understood the assignment (and if he didn’t he’s negligent or a moron).

He either believed he had the squad or was negligent in taking the job. There’s no way, even though I agree anger is more at those above, that he gets a free pass here.

[Red_Alligator]

Well a thumping win against Sunderland on Saturday would do much to ease the torment.

How about it young Manning?

[Mr Popodopolous]

I fear Saturday could get ugly, Sunderland have oddly picked up 2 impressive wins post Mowbray or is his influence still strongly over them?  Corberan suggested as much Saturday.

Not sure I have much hope all told.

[Galley is our king]

1 minute ago, Red_Alligator said:

Well a thumping win against Sunderland on Saturday would do much to ease the torment.

How about it young Manning?

Can I have a pint of whatever your drinking please????

[Red_Alligator]

2 minutes ago, Galley is our king said:

Can I have a pint of whatever your drinking please????

By all means. Cheers!

[Swede]

That is simply not going to happen. Bernard's already tinkering with the squad, playing players out of position. He's even reluctant to play our player of the month, TGH. Work that one out! Our form is poor and contrast this with the top six black cats. We are a clueless rudderless ship that was gradually moving forward but now's changed direction and is going nowhere. In fact we are now going backwards at a pace and that momentum is gathering pace.

[luke_bristol]

I fear we will get hammered on Saturday, Sunderland are looking good. The crowd response won’t be pretty.

[Dr Balls]

8 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I fear Saturday could get ugly, Sunderland have oddly picked up 2 impressive wins post Mowbray or is his influence still strongly over them?  Corberan suggested as much Saturday.

Not sure I have much hope all told.

Agree. I don’t have any confidence for either Saturday or the following Friday. We appear to be on a downward trajectory and I have no confidence that Manning knows how to turn it around. 

[Shauntaylor85]

13 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I fear Saturday could get ugly, Sunderland have oddly picked up 2 impressive wins post Mowbray or is his influence still strongly over them?  Corberan suggested as much Saturday.

Not sure I have much hope all told.

All other clubs have a new manager bounce aside from us. We just bounce down the league. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

Just now, Shauntaylor85 said:

All other clubs have a new manager bounce aside from us. We just bounce down the league. 

Maybe our bounce was the first 2 games. Thereafter..

[REDOXO]

I suspect a few were watching the match. Naismith was less than pleased with what he saw, neither was Wells. Training tomorrow and Thursday is going to be a bit fiesty. 
 

Id love to be there!
 

As for who gets the stick for inevitable defeat on Saturday. Lansdown Manning and Tinnion can all take their fair share. 
 

I haven’t seen people so fired up since the 70s over this club. 

[sglosbcfc]

TBF, when Jon Lansdown said we'd be a top six team, he didn't specify the division. League One here we come.

[Northern Red]

8 minutes ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

All other clubs have a new manager bounce aside from us. We just bounce down the league. 

Birmingham say hi.

[Redrascal2]

1 hour ago, Aipearcey said:

So if/when it goes badly again on Saturday, where do you think the fans will target their anger? The players? Simply, they’re not good enough to play the style that they’re being asked to. There’s a reason we didn’t play like this with Pearson and it shows! Manning…….. whilst some of his decisions have been questionable and I think he’s tried to change too much too quick, he was given an opportunity to take a job at a higher club doing ok, I don’t blame him for giving it a shot. The Lansdowns, now for me this is where the blame lies but they’ve also done a massive amount for the club and the grass isn’t always greener but does this give them the right to avoid criticism? Tinion…. Also had a big part to play in the switch and as others have mentioned, failed in the job that he now feels qualified to oversee, but has been a massive part of the youth players come through over recent years. 

It always has been Lansdown, so many bad decisions time and time again. In terms of Managers not just the selection but backing the wrong ones with money and starving the right ones of it. Allowing Ashton to spend his time planning his move to Ipswich and who he was going to take whilst being our CEO. Just look how well he has done at Ipswich with owners with drive and ambition and  proper oversight of  his performance. All the while Jon his direct line manager was playing with his crayons. The only person our anger should be aimed at is Lansdown. The trouble is he doesn't give a sh1t.

[Ska Junkie]

The Lansdowns won't take any blame and have lined Tinnion up beautifully to take the brunt of fan's ire.

[watkins1983]

I honestly can’t believe the negativity after the first month under with Liam manning. We are kidding ourselves that we played a more positive game under Pearson? Yeh we might have been more drilled defensively than concede that late winner against Norwich, but would we have gone on and got a late winner against boro when throwing away a 2-0 lead? No chance

As much as I loved Nigel Pearson and what he did at the club with absolutely **** all money, he’s gone. Let’s  move on. 
I think we are playing better more attacking football already then we did under nige with the squad we have. Losses away to Blackburn and Southampton are part and parcel of a hard championship season. There would have been no surprise in losing these games under Pearson by a single goal?

Get behind the manager please 

COYR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[W-S-M Seagull]

56 minutes ago, Harry said:

There are only 3 people at the club who feel this is a “top end” squad. 
 

Nige didn’t think it. Liam hasn’t said it. 
Most of us were happy with 9th-13th ish this season.

ALL flak should only be going in the direction of the idiotic ones who came out with such bullshit about the quality of this squad and therefore heaped 100 tonnes of pressure onto the new manager. 

Although Nige did have the belief that the group of players could over achieve through hard work, belief, grit and determination. 

[BristolFox]

Leicester fan (originally from Bristol) so had a great interest in what’s happened with Pearson and felt the need to pass on my condolences for what a shitty decision your board has made (not the first one either, huh).

 

Now I think there’s a couple of obvious points to make here as to why this has gone badly so far.

 

In terms of Pearson’s style of management, he tends to build a family type atmosphere, with the project not just being about him, but about his coaches, the players, the fans all being as one - almost making him like a father figure (and I have no doubt that is why a lot of you liked him despite treading water in terms of league position for 3 seasons running).

 

Now I don’t know much about Manning, but he is certainly a lot younger and nowhere near as imposing in terms of character when compared to Pearson, so that is straight away a big and unbalancing change to have in the dressing room (especially as Pearson has always been very shrewd when it comes to appointing his coaches and some of those left too).
 
 

But that aside, Manning was doing alright at Oxford, did ok at MK too and got a great result in his first game for you against the Boro, so I figured ok - maybe he’ll do alright with you.

 

However, alarm bells did start to chime when I heard about Manning’s desire to shift in style of play, because whilst it’s commendable to want to play progressive passing football - if you had the calibre of players to pull that off it’s unlikely Manning would have been getting the job in the first place (you’d have attracted much more experienced and qualified managers to the job).

Add in the fact it is mid-season (where training time is scarce) and you had god knows how many players out injured to begin with anyway, trying to make changes to a style of play that clearly requires a lot of coaching before you’ve even had time to asses your squad, seems silly.
 

To properly pull that off and embed the team structure, the patterns of play, the way you want to press, how you want to defend, etc, etc, etc - you need a pre-season.

 

It’s not something that can be done in 3/4 training sessions inbetween playing 2 to 3 games in a week. This is the worst point in the season to try and pull something like that off. There’s a reason chairman hit the Allardyce button when a season becomes desperate! 
 

So in summary (TL/DL)

• The board has compounded it’s bad decision in sacking a manager that seemed to have the players on board by appointing a manager with such a stark deficit in character.

• Manning has then added to this issue by attempting to change to a footballing philosophy he doesn’t have the coaching time to implement.

 

One final point

 

Pearson had two spells with us.

 

He got unfairly treated when booted out for Sven BUT our owners clearly realised they had made a mistake and he came back - and that was the beginning of the fairy tail, so who knows… but you would probably need to get rid of Tinnion first! 

Edited December 12, 2023 by BristolFox