We go again Saturday

[1960maaan]

But with a few more options. 

The team last night did well, but that bench will look a lot stronger Saturday. Sounds like Knight-Lebel did well and I was impressed with his composure at Cardiff, but I doubt him , Backwell and Taylor-Clark make it Saturday. 
We will have Pring , TGH , Mebude and possibly Twine and Sykes available. That means , even without Atkinson some first teamers miss out.
Before last night King would be easy to drop, but he sounded very good, could James or Knight miss out with niggles or tiredness ?
If Twine and Sykes are passed fit does that mean a switch and Bell and Mehmeti drop out ?
You would think that Pring is an auto choice, but did Roberts do enough for another run ?

Good problems to have for a change, I wonder if Manning enjoyed the football from the back 4 enough to stick with it . We sounded and from highlights , looked more of a threat than we have done . 
The choice of players comes down to the shape/system LM prefers against M'Boro . A 4 allows more attacking players, but a 3/5 might be the choice for a tough game away to a good side , though only average in the form table (2W-2D-2L). 
I would expect a change in MF, if fully fit James will probably start and TGH could come in after effectively having a rest. Another great game from Williams, but due a rest ? Was there more in Knight coming off on the hour ? Possibly not , maybe just gaining full fitness after the illness. It's great to have options centrally where they do so much work, Pring too deserved the enforced rest. 

I'm usually interested and keen for the team sheet before a game, Saturday's will be really interesting for so many reasons. Not just as it could be the first time the bench will be and full with genuine experienced first team players.

[CodeRed]

I think LM said Twine wouldn't be back until the QPR game at the earliest. 

We'll get confirmation later from Ian on the pod 

[Shauntaylor85]

Why are our injured players always out for longer than original diagnosis. Wish we had more transparency from the club, Manning originally said Sykes wasn’t serious and would be up to three weeks. We need players back and fit tomorrow. Surely something is wrong with this HPC, pitches? 

Edited February 8 by Shauntaylor85

[firstdivision]

21 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

But with a few more options. 

The team last night did well, but that bench will look a lot stronger Saturday. Sounds like Knight-Lebel did well and I was impressed with his composure at Cardiff, but I doubt him , Backwell and Taylor-Clark make it Saturday. 
We will have Pring , TGH , Mebude and possibly Twine and Sykes available. That means , even without Atkinson some first teamers miss out.
Before last night King would be easy to drop, but he sounded very good, could James or Knight miss out with niggles or tiredness ?
If Twine and Sykes are passed fit does that mean a switch and Bell and Mehmeti drop out ?
You would think that Pring is an auto choice, but did Roberts do enough for another run ?

Good problems to have for a change, I wonder if Manning enjoyed the football from the back 4 enough to stick with it . We sounded and from highlights , looked more of a threat than we have done . 
The choice of players comes down to the shape/system LM prefers against M'Boro . A 4 allows more attacking players, but a 3/5 might be the choice for a tough game away to a good side , though only average in the form table (2W-2D-2L). 
I would expect a change in MF, if fully fit James will probably start and TGH could come in after effectively having a rest. Another great game from Williams, but due a rest ? Was there more in Knight coming off on the hour ? Possibly not , maybe just gaining full fitness after the illness. It's great to have options centrally where they do so much work, Pring too deserved the enforced rest. 

I'm usually interested and keen for the team sheet before a game, Saturday's will be really interesting for so many reasons. Not just as it could be the first time the bench will be and full with genuine experienced first team players.

Turn up, see who’s not knackered/unfit, and try to take on a side that is at home and has had six days to prepare. Tall order. Getting something from the game will be a significant achievement. 

[GrahamC]

11 minutes ago, CodeRed said:

I think LM said Twine wouldn't be back until the QPR game at the earliest. 

We'll get confirmation later from Ian on the pod 

Think that’s right.

We do have a few more options & certainly should have our strongest subs bench in a while.

Roberts will have certainly benefited from an hour, King showed he won’t let us down & Knight-Lebel got another chance.

Expect all 3 to be on the bench on Saturday with Mebude & several more established players.

[RobImps]

Andy King was very,very good last night

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 hours ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Why are our injured players always out for longer than original diagnosis. Wish we had more transparency from the club, Manning originally said Sykes wasn’t serious and would be up to three weeks. We need players back and fit tomorrow. Surely something is wrong with this HPC, pitches? 

Sykes within a few weeks seems within a reasonable margin of error.

Few weeks was the initial claim..I take that to mean anything up to a month.

[Numero Uno]

2 hours ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Why are our injured players always out for longer than original diagnosis. Wish we had more transparency from the club, Manning originally said Sykes wasn’t serious and would be up to three weeks. We need players back and fit tomorrow. Surely something is wrong with this HPC, pitches? 

I’m convinced the pitches aren’t helping but have been shouted down for that view. We’ll just have to assume it’s bad luck if it happens for another 25 years…….I know many players detest training on 4G.

[Numero Uno]

It was also obvious that Manning was “managing minutes” of a few players last night. With the other players now available I expect us to be competitive on Saturday. A bar has been set which is significantly in excess of our current league form and now we are out of the cup there are no excuses. We have to start picking up league points again.

[lenred]

4 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

It was also obvious that Manning was “managing minutes” of a few players last night. With the other players now available I expect us to be competitive on Saturday. A bar has been set which is significantly in excess of our current league form and now we are out of the cup there are no excuses. We have to start picking up league points again.

Completely agree. We need to get away from this mindset of ‘poor us’ . I’m sure Forest, Chelsea, Villa, Leeds, Plymouth, Cov and Southampton fans won’t be affording their teams such luxuries.  The bread and butter starts again and we need to start picking up points with no more excuses now.  

[Capman]

I appreciate that it may not be a popular view but the cup being out of the way does allow us to get a good view on where we are as a club. The board have made big claims for our squad and our aspirations. We have about a third of the season left and that is plenty of time for us to see where we are. My fear is that we are going to be buttered up for another 'we need to rebuild' there is a 'three year plan' and the rest of the standard cliches which are used to excuse the failure to deliver up to now. 

Go on JL and the board, prove me wrong! Genuinely, I hope you can do it. 

[Numero Uno]

10 minutes ago, lenred said:

Completely agree. We need to get away from this mindset of ‘poor us’ . I’m sure Forest, Chelsea, Villa, Leeds, Plymouth, Cov and Southampton fans won’t be affording their teams such luxuries.  The bread and butter starts again and we need to start picking up points with no more excuses now.  

Yep, we can add that game to an inconsistent list of games where we saw what Manning’s football might look like. The players clearly realise what is expected AND delivered it too so we’ve got to start doing it between now and the end of the season on a regular basis. A back four seems the obvious tweak to me.

[Shauntaylor85]

30 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

Think that’s right.

We do have a few more options & certainly should have our strongest subs bench in a while.

Roberts will have certainly benefited from an hour, King showed he won’t let us down & Knight-Lebel got another chance.

Expect all 3 to be on the bench on Saturday with Mebude & several more established players.

Ian says all injured players are all playing in the U21’s.

[mozo]

Who do we play either side of Tommy?

[LondonBristolian]

It'll be interesting to see how we look once Sykes and Twine are back and Mebude is eligible. In theory, we may finally have the options to create chances and stop the striker looking so isolated. Obviously theory and practice are very different things but I think the point those players are available is the point we'll start to get a clear indication of what Liam Manning believes our best formation and line-up to be. My guess is it will be 4-3-3 in the long-run but we will find out...

[Beni71]

No league win since Dec 26th, two massive games ahead and need a result in at least one of them.

If we go into QPR needing a win, think the board will need to come out and back him.

 

[W-S-M Seagull]

Let's be honest, our season is now over. 

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Numero Uno said:

I’m convinced the pitches aren’t helping but have been shouted down for that view. We’ll just have to assume it’s bad luck if it happens for another 25 years…….I know many players detest training on 4G.

Believe the “new” pitches are based on a very firm surface underneath, and although unproven, are seen to be a cause of muscle injuries.  As for knee injuries / rise of the ACL just think that is a result of the game getting quicker and quicker and the knee not meant to be put through the loads it dies in the modern game.

49 minutes ago, Shauntaylor85 said:

Ian says all injured players are all playing in the U21’s.

Someone posted last night that there is an u21 game this weekend and Big Rob is set for that???

[mozo]

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

Let's be honest, our season is now over. 

In terms of promotion and relegation it's most likely over. But then we expected that anyway. In terms of winning the FA Cup, that's over now. But then we expected that anyway. Really, as with most seasons, it's about hoping for as many good performances, and as many points as possible to finish as high as possible (most likely between 15th and 9th in my opinion!)

Edited February 8 by mozo

[Silvio Dante]

1 hour ago, Capman said:

I appreciate that it may not be a popular view but the cup being out of the way does allow us to get a good view on where we are as a club. The board have made big claims for our squad and our aspirations. We have about a third of the season left and that is plenty of time for us to see where we are. My fear is that we are going to be buttered up for another 'we need to rebuild' there is a 'three year plan' and the rest of the standard cliches which are used to excuse the failure to deliver up to now. 

Go on JL and the board, prove me wrong! Genuinely, I hope you can do it. 

Ish.

The thing that is unquestionable is that post Watford, the cup games have been an exception to the league games. In a way, they’ve acted as a bit of a useful buffer - because they’ve shown what we potentially can do against PL opposition it’s tempered some of the poor league form.

The great unknown about the cup games is motivation. We don’t know how  much we were more “up” because it was prem teams, and we don’t know how less “up” for it they were. And if you are “up” sometimes you can’t maintain that for league games.

Where we are now for the remainder of the season is a time when all the variables have been removed. The schedule is a normal schedule. The squad isn’t far off fitness. There are no cup distractions. How we perform now is where we are. 

[LondonBristolian]

1 hour ago, Beni71 said:

No league win since Dec 26th, two massive games ahead and need a result in at least one of them.

If we go into QPR needing a win, think the board will need to come out and back him.

 

It's a tricky one. I'd argue that most of our results since then have not been terrible in isolation but we've got two tough fixtures coming up that could leave us 8 league games without a win. I think there's mitigation - not just the cup games but the fact that there were only one or two games in that period that we'd be seen us heavy favourites for and Millwall home is the only one where we lost at home to a team you'd expect us to at least be drawing against. But a winless run is bound to sap morale. I don't think Manning will be under pressure after the next two unless we're genuinely abysmal but there's run of games against Wednesday, QPR and Cardiff where we'd be expecting 6 or 7 points from 9 and that's where things could look tricky if there's no sign of improvement. 

[Grey Fox]

42 minutes ago, mozo said:

In terms of promotion and relegation it's most likely over. But then we expected that anyway. In terms of winning the FA Cup, that's over now. But then we expected that anyway. Really, as with most seasons, it's about hoping for as many good performances, and as many points as possible to finish as high as possible (most likely between 15th and 9th in my opinion!)

In other words yet another mid table season , based on our favourite result , won nothing. Trust Alex Scott is enjoying life by the sea.

The only point to what remains of the season is to establish LMs style of play , and assess what positions need strengthening. Assuming that is , that the club will back him in the summer by retaining players he likes and funding the purchase of those he wants. 
 

Same old same old 

[W-S-M Seagull]

4 minutes ago, Grey Fox said:

In other words yet another mid table season , based on our favourite result , won nothing. Trust Alex Scott is enjoying life by the sea.

The only point to what remains of the season is to establish LMs style of play , and assess what positions need strengthening. Assuming that is , that the club will back him in the summer by retaining players he likes and funding the purchase of those he wants. 
 

Same old same old 

Basically the next few months is just a long pre season. 

[mozo]

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

Basically the next few months is just a long pre season. 

That's probably true.

We're not the only team that gets stuck in the Championship stodge, but it's much more fun (and more stressful) battling for playoffs.

[redkev]

4 hours ago, RobImps said:

Andy King was very,very good last night

He always is , think he made one howler in a game once and people don’t seem to be able to forget it ( even though I can’t remember what it was ) very good squad player in my eyes