Match Report: After week to prepare City take Wednesday off

[Olé]

After City wins against Middlesbrough and Southampton right after an impressive cup run, last weeks feeble loss at home to QPR was jarring for Lee Manning and his team. The City boss said he planned to make full use of a first clear week of training with his squad since November, but whatever they worked on backfired spectacularly away at Sheffield Wednesday as a second straight relegation threatened opponent made easy work of three points, the Owls clearly very limited but needing to do little to overcome visitors who were abysmal in every phase.

Manning's side started with 5 changes and supposedly ready to address their surrender against QPR. They started strongly and yet besides a few flashes of interplay in the first half, they would go behind twice and end up well beaten, even unable to turn a one man advantage and a rare 3 striker line up into serious chances at the end. Early on before the break the hopeless pairing of unfit Cam Pring and anonymous Anis Mehmeti on the City left allowed the hosts to twice provide Iké Ugbo opportunities to turn home, either side of Jason Knight's well glanced header. 

Despite throwing on two substitutes at half time at 2-1 down and another 3 all at once just past the hour mark, incredibly City were even worse second half, producing a half of mind numbingly second best football, losing passes, second to every ball and hopeless in attack, even totally unable to open up the Owls after Di'Shon Bernard was sent off for a second offence (he should have gone first half) and with three strikers on the pitch. For Manning not only a setback but alarming to the over one thousand travelling fans who expected more from a week of preparation.

There was little indication of City's hopeless performance in a dominant start. After five minutes Tommy Conway found space in the right channel and teased a defender before dropping his shoulder and getting a shot in from an acute angle that goalkeeper James Beadle had to push away. Slowly the hosts settled and after the quarter hour and with City under no threat they made easy work of Pring, Liam Palmer going clear to cut back for striker Ugbo in the box who had time to shield the ball before turning sharply to fire past Max O'Leary to put Wednesday ahead.

Manning's team were already resorting to punting long aimless channel balls toward the diminutive Mehmeti who looked like he was a bloke crossing a local park trying to briefly impersonate a footballer yet also desperately trying to avoid coming into any contact with the ball. The winger lost out yet again midway through the half, once more City's left flank was exposed for Wednesday  to roar clear and cross, the visitors able to half clear their lines only for Ian Poveda to be easily first onto yet another second ball but slashing his fierce shot wide of goal. 

Down at the other end in front of away fans Mark Sykes exchanged quick passes with Conway to steal in from the right only to see his cross cut out for a corner - which Taylor Gardner-Hickman's flag kick centered and energetic Jason Knight met at the near post to glance backwards brilliantly dipping into the bottom corner. This could have been the kickstart that City desperately needed and before the half hour with Conway offside a cute through ball put Knight clean in but he was clipped down by last man Bernard. The often one sided ref produced only a yellow. 

To be fair, five minutes later Rob Dickie got caught out deep on City's problem left and had to pull down Ugbo for a similar yellow. By now Manning's side were still strong on possession but picking cheap passes which the home side easily intercepted or simply bullied from the second ball. So no surprise before half time as a woeful Mehmeti was slow to react from yet another Wednesday transition across to the right and in behind, their drilled cross half heartedly cleared to Marvin Johnson in miles of space at the far post, whose strike was steered in by Ugbo.

Manning has seen enough of City's failure to control the flanks and at half time hauled off Pring and Sykes for Hayden Roberts and Ross McCrorie. Yet one of their most useless halves of Championship football was still to come - every ball laboured and easily given away or every second ball gobbled up by a faster stronger and hungrier opponent albeit  in the bottom three. Bar Williams forcing a corner after a 1-2 with Knight, it was nearly the hour when Mehmeti's skill wriggled clear on the break as City poured toward working it across for George Tanner's blocked strike.

Tanner, who gave it away cheaply twice in the first half, went from a sighter on goal to a desperate goal saving tackle just past the hour, disrupting Ugbo as Wednesday again found it easy to play into City's box. 

Anthony Musaba and Ugbo wasted chances - often put straight into O'Leary's hands or wildly wide - before Manning made it clear what he thought about the hopeless display from his side, making a triple substitution, as forwards Nahki Wells, Harry Cornick and midfielder Andy King raced on for Mehmeti, Tanner and Gardner-Hickman. It didn't get any better. With just under 20 minutes left Pol Valentin raced through onto a long ball, Roberts slipped as final man but thankfully Dickie got across and forced him wider to make him slash his shot right across goal.

With quarter of an hour left Wells smart flick out on the right touchline allowed Conway to roam - he was cut down by Bernard but the advantage was played and Williams strode forward on goal before slipping it to Cornick whose drilled cross was ripe to be turned in and eventually half cleared to Roberts who curled a shot that was blocked. The referee, who continually waved away fouls on City's players, begrudgingly produced a second yellow for Bernard's earlier foul on Conway, when he could easily have gone for his foul in the first half with Knight clean in on goal.

Home keeper Beadle took the opportunity to milk five minutes off the clock (which the ref was obviously going to forget to add on) as he sought treatment for a sudden injury but by now City looked utterly clueless anyway. Before the 90 McCrorie - who gave it away cheaply twice - cut inside and went off on a run before lashing over. Sure enough the ref only added on five minutes, deep into which Manning still had his side passing sideways until Rob Dickie went roaming forward with players camped forward only to hammer an ambitious 25 yard shot over the lot of them.

In the final seconds Wells won it off an Owls defender out literally at the corner flag and turned inside to allow Conway to slip into the box, sliding it across for King's finish which was desperately turned away for a corner. That set piece was quickly headed behind but as the visitors lined up for the next kick the ref blew up for full time, prompting City's furious players to surround the official, with Williams eventually hauled away though still remonstrating. The flashpoint showed more ambition than Manning's squad exhibited all day, utterly lacking both hunger and quality. 

Prior to the match all the talk was about the first week off since the end of November - a first full week of training under Manning in a rare week without a game. Even allowing for the fact the players were given both Sunday and Monday off after the QPR debacle, they trained for the remainder of the week and in Manning were supposedly adding patterns of play and strategies for low blocks. In the end little of this was in evidence as City got badly shown up by a Sheffield Wednesday side that had struggled all season yet came up against a histocially bad Robins opponent.

 

O'Leary 6

Tanner 5

Pring 4

Vyner 5

Dickie 6

Gardner-Hickman 5

Williams 5

Knight 6

Mehmeti 3

Sykes 5

Conway 4

 

Roberts 5

McCrorie 5

Wells 5

Cornick 5

King 5

Edited February 25 by Olé

[Garland-sweden]

Depressing.

[Dullmoan Tone]

I like what you did there with “Lee Manning” !

Great report as ever.

[Dr Balls]

9 minutes ago, Dullmoan Tone said:

I like what you did there with “Lee Manning” !

Great report as ever.

Freudian slip?!

[Silvio Dante]

 

21 minutes ago, Dullmoan Tone said:

I like what you did there with “Lee Manning” !

Great report as ever.

I read it as “Lemming”

Lemmings senselessly follow a process and eventually often succumb to their death by doing so, walking off cliffs because they are supposed to do so even though it’s clearly the wrong thing.

I don’t know why, but it seems a pretty apt name for our head coach.

Edited February 25 by Silvio Dante

[Sir Geoff]

Don't worry we've got another week off to work on our patterns of play and strategies for low blocks. 

[pongo88]

Great report as ever. I particularly liked the description of Mehmet.  It’s perfect:

“the diminutive Mehmeti who looked like he was a bloke crossing a local park trying to briefly impersonate a footballer yet also desperately trying to avoid coming into any contact with the ball.”

[CityCiderEd]

Think you were being over generous with a 3 for Mehmeti.......no threat,no pace, not a lover of physical contact.....so generally a waste of a shirt.

[RedM]

13 minutes ago, CityCiderEd said:

Think you were being over generous with a 3 for Mehmeti.......no threat,no pace, not a lover of physical contact.....so generally a waste of a shirt.

Great write up as ever @Olé, but I think you were quite generous with your marks like the poster quoted above. If 5 is Championship average, I assume, then my belief that there were quite a few below that standard today.

If I am totally honest, I'm not sure if you could find 11 players who played worse across the whole Championship today.

It's not acceptable that after a week of preparation they produce that. 

[The Original OTIB]

I would rate Cornick higher, gets so much stick but always creates opportunities and is a tenacious fighter. Qualities we will need in spades in the coming weeks.

[Davefevs]

Nice write up Rob, but I was hoping to wake-up all Pammy / Bobby Ewing style and find it was all a bad dream.  So, thanks a bunch!

[italian dave]

Nice summary as always @Olé.

Just some random thoughts from me.

A @BigTone style ‘condensed version’ might be “they wanted it more than we did”. That was my over-riding impression.

I don’t know why we started with an unfit Pring, given that Roberts has been decent recently. Physicality maybe - we certainly struggled with Wednesday’s.

I’m not sure Sykes was also unfit (as has been suggested elsewhere) - he took a very heavy knock from a nasty challenge (unpunished, as many were by the ref) and seemed to struggle after that. And, as when he picked up his last injury, LM seemed to struggle with how to replace him. Admittedly options are limited now - we will miss Bell I fear.

I thought Wednesdays first goal was a really good one, and more down to their good play than our bad. I think there was an element of good fortune with their second!

We seemed intent on playing everything wide second half, and I didn’t really understand why. We didn’t try to mix it up as we usually do. Not sure why.

Having said that, I felt TC got more and more ineffective (from a fairly low bar to start with) as the game went on. It’s not just about service; he gets that. It’s scraps, but that’s the case for most strikers at this level. He just lacks the physical presence or the guile - and I don’t know whether his confidence is just shot, or he’s thinking about where he’ll be next year, but to me there are starting to Diedhiou style signs of going through the motions just now.

It was poor, no denying. But on another day we’d have been playing against 10 for a lot longer and from a healthier starting position and we’d have had a penalty, although we’d probably have missed! 

[Davefevs]

22 minutes ago, italian dave said:

A @BigTone style ‘condensed version’ might be “they wanted it more than we did”. That was my over-riding impression.

That is the way they play, physical, intense, in your face.  I alluded to it all last week.  LM alluded to it in his press conference.

If that is what drove yesterday’s result, then LM has failed imho.

[The Nest Egg]

Couple of strange moments in the crowd. I wasn't watching the game from around the 75th to 80th minute as it was kicking off in the Wednesday singing section, several lads got thrown out. Also heard one of our 'fans' make a comment which while I didn't fully hear it was clearly something unacceptable as a lot of our fans turned and made their disgust clear.

[spudski]

26 minutes ago, italian dave said:

Nice summary as always @Olé.

Just some random thoughts from me.

A @BigTone style ‘condensed version’ might be “they wanted it more than we did”. That was my over-riding impression.

I don’t know why we started with an unfit Pring, given that Roberts has been decent recently. Physicality maybe - we certainly struggled with Wednesday’s.

I’m not sure Sykes was also unfit (as has been suggested elsewhere) - he took a very heavy knock from a nasty challenge (unpunished, as many were by the ref) and seemed to struggle after that. And, as when he picked up his last injury, LM seemed to struggle with how to replace him. Admittedly options are limited now - we will miss Bell I fear.

I thought Wednesdays first goal was a really good one, and more down to their good play than our bad. I think there was an element of good fortune with their second!

We seemed intent on playing everything wide second half, and I didn’t really understand why. We didn’t try to mix it up as we usually do. Not sure why.

Having said that, I felt TC got more and more ineffective (from a fairly low bar to start with) as the game went on. It’s not just about service; he gets that. It’s scraps, but that’s the case for most strikers at this level. He just lacks the physical presence or the guile - and I don’t know whether his confidence is just shot, or he’s thinking about where he’ll be next year, but to me there are starting to Diedhiou style signs of going through the motions just now.

It was poor, no denying. But on another day we’d have been playing against 10 for a lot longer and from a healthier starting position and we’d have had a penalty, although we’d probably have missed! 

QPR and Wednesday both fighting relegation...they have everything to play for. Both their results are improving.

Meanwhile we bob about in mid table obscurity... hopefully enough points gained from NPs time here. 

In the back of their heads, some know they won't be here next year, others will know there is nothing riding on results now. 

[italian dave]

12 minutes ago, spudski said:

QPR and Wednesday both fighting relegation...they have everything to play for. Both their results are improving.

Meanwhile we bob about in mid table obscurity... hopefully enough points gained from NPs time here. 

In the back of their heads, some know they won't be here next year, others will know there is nothing riding on results now. 

Yes, I think you’re right there. Although let’s not fall into a similar ‘everything Pearson good/everything Manning’ bad mindset either - we’ve still needed, and will still need, points post Pearson to stay up. 

[AppyDAZE]

3 hours ago, Sir Geoff said:

Don't worry we've got another week off to work on our patterns of play and strategies for low blocks. 

On grass.

[italian dave]

20 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

That is the way they play, physical, intense, in your face.  I alluded to it all last week.  LM alluded to it in his press conference.

If that is what drove yesterday’s result, then LM has failed imho.

I’m not disagreeing with that Dave, but I think the ‘wanting it more’ is a slightly different issue.

Thats more about what @spudski refers too. We were in the same position last year, of course, and a number of those final games were painful.

I also wouldn’t argue with your last point. But that’s in relation to yesterday’s game: it’s not a reason for the ‘sack Manning’ overdrive that some seem to have gone into. 

[Davefevs]

5 minutes ago, italian dave said:

it’s not a reason for the ‘sack Manning’ overdrive that some seem to have gone into. 

I agree.  They are foreseeing this as a continued trend downwards.  I honestly don’t know what the trend will be.

7 minutes ago, italian dave said:

but I think the ‘wanting it more’ is a slightly different issue.

Over a decent period I’d got used to not having to say “they wanted it more” as a reason for defeat / shit performance.  I think Brum (a) was the last time, and that prompted action and whether these were the only two or not, or were even the ones at fault, it cost Bentley and Massengo their careers at City.

It had become a given.

[Olé]

2 hours ago, italian dave said:

I felt TC got more and more ineffective (from a fairly low bar to start with) as the game went on. It’s not just about service; he gets that. It’s scraps, but that’s the case for most strikers at this level. He just lacks the physical presence or the guile - and I don’t know whether his confidence is just shot, or he’s thinking about where he’ll be next year, but to me there are starting to Diedhiou style signs of going through the motions just now.

It’s funny you say this mate, it was totally lost in the hysteria of going 3-0 up against Southampton, but I’ve noticed the same for a few weeks so was purposely watching his movement and contribution in that game and by half time largely thought he was awful and with a terrible attitude - it was a storyline that was totally forgotten after our second half.

There’d a fantastic striker there and I really want him to still be a success with us under a new contract but he is just going through the motions, probably with something else already lined up in the summer. He’s never been the biggest or strongest but he isn’t going into 50-50s any longer with anything other than to keep himself safe or feign a foul.

I’ve also noticed (Southampton first half again a case in point) he is probably the most half hearted in the press, or at least isn’t quite so quick into the block while at the same time pointing and gesticulating at teammates to close the lanes around him and make his task a bit easier, when in fact they’ve largely been doing a far better job of that.

He is a fantastic player so this is all behaviour driven - i.e. either checked out or low on morale and in either case going through the motions. Let’s not forget that as well as the terrible service you’ve called out, he also thrived much more on NPs counter oriented game, it’s no coincidence both goals against West Ham were on transition given space. 

Manning and Tecknical Tinnion may already have decided he is not part of the future and certainly not the style.

[Davefevs]

23 minutes ago, Olé said:

Manning and Tecknical Tinnion may already have decided he is not part of the future and certainly not the style.

I don’t believe that is the case, but…

…I just look back to what was being said about Nahki Wells a while back.

For me he’s cutting a frustrated player on the pitch, because of lack of service.

Edited February 25 by Davefevs

[redsquirrel]

5 hours ago, Sir Geoff said:

Don't worry we've got another week off to work on our patterns of play and strategies for Slow bOLlocks. 

see how easy i corrected your post  

[Sir Geoff]

2 hours ago, italian dave said:

I’m not disagreeing with that Dave, but I think the ‘wanting it more’ is a slightly different issue.

Thats more about what @spudski refers too. We were in the same position last year, of course, and a number of those final games were painful.

I also wouldn’t argue with your last point. But that’s in relation to yesterday’s game: it’s not a reason for the ‘sack Manning’ overdrive that some seem to have gone into. 

6 points from our last nine, giving Burnley one of their toughest games of the season. If that's painful, could we have a bit more please.

[Major Isewater]

2 hours ago, spudski said:

In the back of their heads, some know they won't be here next year, others will know there is nothing riding on results now

Luckily we have a respected coach who can get them up and firing for every match and not just the glamour, shop window, matches on telly. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

2 hours ago, italian dave said:

I’m not disagreeing with that Dave, but I think the ‘wanting it more’ is a slightly different issue.

Thats more about what @spudski refers too. We were in the same position last year, of course, and a number of those final games were painful.

I also wouldn’t argue with your last point. But that’s in relation to yesterday’s game: it’s not a reason for the ‘sack Manning’ overdrive that some seem to have gone into. 

For a time between say Man City Cup game ie after that and Reading at home, there were elements.

Overall no though, and especially not post Reading at Home. We rallied quite well..

..Not many expected much from the double header over Easter vs an upwardly trending Stoke and a Middlesbrough still in the face for the top 2 with Akpom, Archer etc.

We got 4 points, should've been 6. However t be really late on at Stoke and the overall performance v Middlesbrough were more than acceptable. 4 points was probably about right

.Should have got more at Watford, one extremely out of character error by Scott probably cost us a point and maybe more but a point minimum v Burnley.

The odd game but not overall for me..and certainly not Cardiff Away aside vs sides in the bottom 6 or 8.

[spudski]

4 hours ago, italian dave said:

Yes, I think you’re right there. Although let’s not fall into a similar ‘everything Pearson good/everything Manning’ bad mindset either - we’ve still needed, and will still need, points post Pearson to stay up. 

I agree Dave, however for me the Club are going backwards in many ways.

No definitive CEO.

A Technical Director that is learning on the job, where his strengths are obviously running the Academy. 

A new Coach that has no real experience, definitely not at this level and has achieved nothing.

And experienced older players who have won the Prem leaving.

We are left with literally no experience and knowledge at a higher level and no experience on how to achieve it. 

I don't trust JL, BT or LM to take us forward...imo, we have every reason to get worse.