Great Result, but….

[Mr Popodopolous]

Doesn't Vyner-Tanner-Dickie have a bit of a right side bias though?

Players such as a fully fit Naismith and Atkinson can perhaps help both being natural left footed players, Naismith is more central or has been in a back 3.

I can see a certain logic to McCrorie and Pring as wingbacks, actually with Naismith in and around it those 2 can be both full back and wing back, for back 4 and back 3..Naismith gives the ability to switch.

However the squad as a whole and with the current personnel, back 4 just seems most sensible and especially with Roberts as first reserve for the position.

I cannot see that many positive arguments for the back 3, let alone with the current personnel.

Plus McCrorie and Tanner can play at full back..whereas Tanner is no wingback.

Edited February 11 by Mr Popodopolous

[Show Me The Money!]

4 hours ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

The question I have tho is this, did Boro come out fired up? Or did us changing our shape and therefore our mentality cause them to come out fired up and on the front foot? 

Why ask the question when you've already decided what the answer is in your head.

[hollydog]

52 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

I was there too.
It was our last win at AP, and given there were, what, 200 max, City fans there, I guess there are a dwindling number of city fans left who saw that historic win.

[hollydog]

55 minutes ago, Sleepy1968 said:

I was there too.
It was our last win at AP, and given there were, what, 200 max, City fans there, I guess there are a dwindling number of city fans left who saw that historic win.

you’re making me feel very old!

[Jose]

Kind of struggling to see why people are getting overly worked  up over the OPs post. it’s a valid point. I mean I’d wouldn’t use the wording angry, perhaps more baffling.
 

Just coming into Bristol after a long day. Be quicker to go and watch Barcelona and after thirty minutes I thought I was. We looked composed, organised and looked like we could break on them at will. The only thing lacking was a finish. Thought Cornick was really good and the assist for Bell was brilliant. Unfortunately Bell seems to be lacking confidence but still caused them problems. After so many changes it’s commendable that LM had them playing so well. Everyone knew their job. Got it spot on. 
 

Unfortunately the second half couldn’t have been more different. I keep reading on here we soaked up pressure well. We didn’t. They got in between the lines countless times. They got in behind countless times. And they got down the sides countless times. If not for poor decisions, good goalkeeping and some last ditch defending we could have been in trouble.
 

Thankfully we held on. Hopefully we can put that down to the amount of football played recently however it was a comment from Oxford fans that LM struggled to put 90 together. Time will tell I guess. 
 

Just because we win doesn’t mean things can’t be pointed out to improve on. As when we lose it doesn’t mean there can’t be positives taken from it. 
 

All in all a good day out with a welcome three points. Night all. 

[W-S-M Seagull]

1 minute ago, Jose said:

Just because we win doesn’t mean things can’t be pointed out to improve on. As when we lose it doesn’t mean there can’t be positives taken from it. 

Ultimately this is where the majority of us are coming from when we are mentioning the not so good stuff today. Manning will also go over all the not so good stuff with the players. 

We want the best for Bristol City. Today we held on, fantastic, however that second half performance does give concerns moving forward. 

Boro will feel they only have themselves to blame for not picking anything up. 

Luckily we were so good first half that we were able to grind out a win. 

[Show Me The Money!]

My two penneth (don't know if I've spelt that right) having only listened to the second half is that we don't know if staying in a 433 would have made things any easier for us second half or not. Who knows if playing 433 second half Boro might have scored earlier and so given them the momentum to get an equaliser, we might have got a third. We don't know. Things we probably do know though.

- Boro would have come out having had a rollicking for the first half and come out all guns blazing, nothing to lose kind of.

- Our players have played a lot of games the past fortnight, never mind just the 120 mins on Wednesday so even those that didn't play Wednesday would be suffering a bit. Boro had 6 days prep and a lot less recent travelling.

- We were desperate to get our first win of 2024

- We were 2-0 up and so had a cushion to defend.

- We've played with 3/5 at the back before successfully

So taking all those things into account going to a back 3 was not a hair brained crazy thing to do, but we won't ever know if staying with 433 would have been any better. Its all theory and jecture.

The kind of thing a forum is for.

[REDOXO]

I’m always a little bemused when people talk about set ups. 
 

City were 541 out of possession as the second half went on. Thats easy to see just watching. In possession is where it will count particularly under manning! 
 

We were worth our win no doubt. Mr Manning appears to be the sort of bloke who likes to shut up shop and to be frank our defense is decent with Atkinson to come back. 
 

Southampton in the week will be a test and I hope further evidence, if any were needed, of how crap we were against Leeds

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, joe jordans teeth said:

What did you want to set the team up second half then Dave ,hard to break down or keep attacking because the former worked

 Answered earlier.  I wanted us to keep the ball better so it wasn’t incessant defending, take any sting out of Boro.  Happy for low-block, you earn the right at h-t at 2-0 up to be more conservative. I understand from someone who spoke to LM after the match, that was his disappointment too. 

[joe jordans teeth]

3 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

 Answered earlier.  I wanted us to keep the ball better so it wasn’t incessant defending, take any sting out of Boro.  Happy for low-block, you earn the right at h-t at 2-0 up to be more conservative. I understand from someone who spoke to LM after the match, that was his disappointment too. 

Let it go Dave

[BasSavage88]

We get it. You miss Pearson.

Can we make a sub forum so the obsessed can talk to each other in peace 

Edited February 11 by BasSavage88

[Davefevs]

Just now, joe jordans teeth said:

Let it go Dave

You asked me the question…I answered.  Jeeez.

[joe jordans teeth]

Just now, Davefevs said:

You asked me the question…I answered.  Jeeez.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one 

[joe jordans teeth]

3 minutes ago, BasSavage88 said:

We get it. You miss Pearson.

Can we make a sub forum so the obsessed can talk to each other in peace 

It’s clear to see but everyone’s point is valid 

[W-S-M Seagull]

22 minutes ago, BasSavage88 said:

We get it. You miss Pearson.

Can we make a sub forum so the obsessed can talk to each other in peace 

This is getting boring now. 

The only people mentioning Pearson is people such as yourself and I think that tells us a lot. 

[Henry]

I’m not sure why @Davefevs is getting so much stick. He’s the one of the most balanced posters and rarely posts based on emotion.

Call it what you want, the formation/shape/game plan, the change didn’t work. It invited pressure on to us. It made us look like Everton v Man City.

Whats more frustrating, when we are losing a game (still not over Leeds) Manning doesn’t even tweak things, let alone completely change things to get a result.

Delighted with the result, but Mannings in game play still remains poor.

[BCFC31]

I thought cornick first half was class he played 2 or 3 through balls and offered it up on a plate for  

[2015]

2 minutes ago, BCFC31 said:

I thought cornick first half was class he played 2 or 3 through balls and offered it up on a plate for  

Some of the stick he has got from our fans has been uncalled for. Those who sit around me at AG just bully him for the minute he is on the pitch instead of support him.

He's nowhere near as bad as our fans make out.

[BCFC31]

1 minute ago, 2015 said:

Some of the stick he has got from our fans has been uncalled for. Those who sit around me at AG just bully him for the minute he is on the pitch instead of support him.

He's nowhere near as bad as our fans make out.

When cornick plays like that It does make me wounder if he is just a confidence player and needs games sometimes with a run in the side a player can look totally different

Edited February 11 by BCFC31

[2015]

17 minutes ago, BCFC31 said:

When cornick plays like that It does make me wounder if he is just a confidence player and needs games sometimes with a run in the side a player can look totally different

Yeah doesn't help when a lot of our fans are just looking to throw abuse at him for every mistake he makes

[mozo]

11 minutes ago, 2015 said:

Yeah doesn't help when a lot of our fans are just looking to throw abuse at him for every mistake he makes

Are you talking about Cornick or Manning...?

[2015]

3 minutes ago, mozo said:

Are you talking about Cornick or Manning...?

Cornick

[robin_unreliant]

11 hours ago, mozo said:

I still think McCrorie is part of the reason that Manning has brought the back 3 idea back. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we win three on the trot with a back 4, but then after those disappointing Birmingham and Millwall games where we couldn't create chances, he turned to the back 3? This also coincided with McCrorie coming back into the squad. Pring and McCrorie are very capable of the wing back role and its got to be tempting to play them further up. You also get to keep Tanner, who is very good at defending, in a defensive role. Just as Nige tried the back 3 based on available personnel, I think Manning is too. Continuing this theme, my suspicion is that Sykes coming in will see us stick with a 433 and see Tanner somewhat harshly miss out, but we will see.

I've never been a fan of a back 3, but I'm pretty agnostic about whether it is a factor in our success/failure. Players should be able to adapt and manage either situation.

I had the same feeling about LM seeing McCrorie being the catalyst for switching to WBs. Trouble is, I don't think he is worth changing the whole defence to fit in. Pretty underwhelmed by him so far.

[robin_unreliant]

2 hours ago, BCFC31 said:

When cornick plays like that It does make me wounder if he is just a confidence player and needs games sometimes with a run in the side a player can look totally different

Let's not get too carried away by one decent half from Cornick. It was a lot better than we usually see from him, granted. I was still hunting in vain for the donkey emoji to add to a comment about him on the matchday thread a couple of times yesterday.

[CityCiderEd]

Just imagine the unlikely scenario where we go on a ridiculous winning streak......but the downside being that the football is poor and the scoreline is mostly a flukey 1-0 win, catapulting us into the play offs.....Happy or not?

[mozo]

Just now, CityCiderEd said:

Just imagine the unlikely scenario where we go on a ridiculous winning streak......but the downside being that the football is poor and the scoreline is mostly a flukey 1-0 win, catapulting us into the play offs.....Happy or not?

I know you're not asking me, but I'd bloody love a totally undeserved win on Tuesday. Generally though I think we've been playing like a top half team for most of the last month (7 games!) without the points haul that we probably deserved.

[bcfc01]

6 minutes ago, CityCiderEd said:

Just imagine the unlikely scenario where we go on a ridiculous winning streak......but the downside being that the football is poor and the scoreline is mostly a flukey 1-0 win, catapulting us into the play offs.....Happy or not?

I was happy with that in 2008.

[BigTone]

32 minutes ago, mozo said:

I know you're not asking me, but I'd bloody love a totally undeserved win on Tuesday. Generally though I think we've been playing like a top half team for most of the last month (7 games!) without the points haul that we probably deserved.

Agree with that Moz but my main concern is that we need to concentrate right up to the final whistle whether that be 90 mins or 97 mins.  We concede too many at the death of a game,

Saying that yesterday was a great result and lets hope we can build on that.  Maybe the cup run has instilled some well deserved confidence.

[CityCiderEd]

38 minutes ago, bcfc01 said:

I was happy with that in 2008.

Me as well...

[BigTone]

41 minutes ago, bcfc01 said:

I was happy with that in 2008.

I remember flying back to Dublin after the final.  I am looking the doggies gonads in my City shirt and am in row 23 of the Aer Lingus flight. Get on the flight pretty much last to find that rows 1 - 22 are nearly all Hull fans also decked out & celebrating accordingly.  What started as friendly banter as I walked down the aisle started to change circa row 15 and I was getting totally pissed off by the ***** !!!