Losing the dressing room - and the fans.

[bbew]

Speaking to an ex City player when Manning was appointed I asked what the players would think taking instructions from someone who has never played the game, and never managed at their current level (I was just intrigued as in any other workplace that could lead to resentment).

He said it wouldn't be a problem, they would treat him like any other manager and take on board what he said. He did then say however if the manager was not up to it they would quickly work him out, and that's when problems would set in and players would become disgruntled - I think we are now at that stage 

Edited March 17 by bbew

[Phileas Fogg]

8 hours ago, exAtyeoMax said:

Nigel pearson’s cider army?

It would be quite funny if the crowd started singing various songs about previous managers - I wonder how obscure we could get?

Would be a real achievement if the crowd starting singing in appreciation of erstwhile caretaker manager Steve Wigley.

[Red-Robbo]

24 minutes ago, bbew said:

Speaking to an ex City player when Manning was appointed I asked what the players would think taking instructions from someone who has never played the game,

 

Harsh! He was twice in the Suffolk Premier Cup final for Leiston (wherever that is??) and had the backbone-building experience of losing one of those 8-0 to Ipswich Town Reserves. 

[Phileas Fogg]

9 hours ago, alexukhc said:

Osman, Pulis, Smith, DmC, Sod, Millen, Holden and now Manning… 

is he really our worst out the bunch?

Taking this on a slight tangent - from when I've been watching (roughly 05' onwards) I think this is my list of best/worst appointments taking into account the context of the time they were appointed

1) Cotterill (Was exactly what we needed at the time to galvanise the club)

2) GJ (Longest period of sustained success - probably here 2 years too long in hindsight)

3) Pearson (Brilliant ambitious appointment.. frustratingly exactly the calibre of manager we needed after Cotterill)

... then it gets a lot harder

4) SO'D (Tricky one - didn't warm to him, football was turgid and club on a downward spiral.. only 4th by virtue of making some excellent signings (pound for pound) and being able to identify that the club needed a root and branch review)

5) LJ (Been discussed on here more than any other - some real highs and some real lows - there will always be a "what might have been" question regarding the funds he was allowed compared to other managers)

6) Millen (Uninspiring choice, remember him doing ok but not a particularly memorable period)

7) Manning (Only above the others as this is still an ongoing situation - to date though, boring football, uninspiring interviews, controversial appointment.. but who can forget Southampton!)

8 ) McInnes (Similar to Millen's tenure, fairly unremarkable. At the time was seen as a fairly exciting choice if I remember correctly - lower than Millen by virtue of some of the terrible signings he lumbered us with) 

9) Holden (Just a ridiculous appointment. Likeable guy, and really wanted him to do well - but was clearly out of his depth).

10) Coppell (Textbook Lansdown marquee appointment - big name, on paper very ambitious - but that trumps the substance - clearly shouldn't have been anywhere near the role)

[Mike Hunt-Hertz]

14 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

Harsh! He was twice in the Suffolk Premier Cup final for Leiston (wherever that is??) and had the backbone-building experience of losing one of those 8-0 to Ipswich Town Reserves. 

In the Copa del Turnip?

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, Meh said:

I shouted “Tinnion Out, Lansdown must go” at the last game and of the few that heard most ignored me, some looked and a couple of apes told me to FO

 

You sure you weren’t in Go Wild instead!

[bpexile]

9 hours ago, Steve Watts said:

The "hierarchy" will be hoping that the international break gives them some breathing room so we can all remember that we beat Southampton.

Perhaps this is when the will hit the fan .

[OliOTIB]

10 hours ago, alexukhc said:

Osman, Pulis, Smith, DmC, Sod, Millen, Holden and now Manning… 

is he really our worst out the bunch?

No chance, SOD was part of one of the worst periods watching the club for me.

[ProfitInMyPocket]

All he had to do was build on the foundation he was given. And it has been thrown aside already. 

We know we are a half decent counter attacking side, our main problem being we don't do well when we have more possession and struggle to break teams down.

Here are some statistics of the games when we have had more possession in the league this season;

NP - 6 points.

Millwall 0-1 Bristol City - we had 56%.

Bristol City 0-2 Birmingham - we had 65%. 

Bristol City 2-3 Stoke City - we had 54%.

Rotherham 1-2 Bristol City - we had 58%.

Cardiff 2-0 Bristol City - we had 53%.     

Flem - 3 points.

Bristol City 1-0 Sheff Wed - we had 66%.    

Manning - 2 points.

Bristol City 1-2 Norwich City - we had 61%.

Huddersfield 1-1 Bristol City - we had 61%.

Birmingham 0-0 Bristol City - we had 64%.

Bristol City 0-1 Millwall - we had 54%.

Preston 2-0 Bristol City - we had 52%.

Bristol City 0-1 QPR - we had 59%.

Sheff Wed 2-1 Bristol City - we had 53%.

Bristol City 0-1 Cardiff - we had 60%. 

Turns out Nige was a better possession-based manager than Manning after all. Even Fleming too!

Obviously it all depends on games in context but I found the statistics to be quite interesting considering LM said he likes his side to dominate the ball. Not very well in this case.

Edited March 17 by ProfitInMyPocket

[Ronnie pickering]

14 hours ago, ohhhshauntaylor said:

Sadly, it’s now actually at the stage where the Leicester game MUST be a time to show the frustration towards the board and in turn Manning. 

 

 

Tennis balls on the pitch like Reading did earlier this season?

[steviestevieneville]

21 minutes ago, OliOTIB said:

No chance, SOD was part of one of the worst periods watching the club for me.

It was poor no doubt . I don’t get the hatred for the bloke though. He was brought in to put fires out everywhere like Pearson was initially. Lansdown had brought in mark Ashton in as a recruitment consultant. He oversaw the signings of overpaid under achievers . The squad was in a terrible mess when SOD took over. He got rid of a lot of that shite & set the foundations for the title winning side , bringing in fielding, jet , pack, flint . The one glaring shining turd in all of that was Lansdown making Ashton CEO a few years later after completely ******* the club over previously . Unbelievable really 

[Back of the Dolman]

8 minutes ago, Ronnie pickering said:

Tennis balls on the pitch like Reading did earlier this season?

 

8 minutes ago, Ronnie pickering said:

Tennis balls on the pitch like Reading did earlier this season?

Surely it’s got to be juicy red cider apples instead of tennis balls 

Edited March 17 by Back of the Dolman

[Dr Balls]

2 hours ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

Harsh! He was twice in the Suffolk Premier Cup final for Leiston (wherever that is??) and had the backbone-building experience of losing one of those 8-0 to Ipswich Town Reserves. 

So maybe good enough for Sheffield Wednesday reserves then?!

[BCFC31]

14 hours ago, Aipearcey said:

Was about to start a thread but seen this and think it’s kind of linked so. 
 

At what point do the players take some responsibility for some of this? When Pearson was here they looked like they wound run through brick walls. Now I get they are trying to follow what they’re being told by the management but for when things aren’t going their way, why doesn’t someone on the pitch take ownership and try something different rather than playing like robots?

Yes this is where I am with it aswell surely the players also have to take responsibility for not being able to play a 2 yard pass ? Or track a runner ? Or be committed in the challenge? People will say yeah but they dont like manning ... right so if you dont like your boss at work your just going to down tools and expect to pick up 700 grand a year in wages ? Absolutely no chance in the real world! I think players get away with so much nowadays there professional championship footballers all earning around £700,000 per year for christ sake how easy do they want it ? It's so self entitled I'm not saying manning isn't to blame but let's also look at these precious footballers aswell.

Edited March 17 by BCFC31

[Red-Robbo]

10 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

So maybe good enough for Sheffield Wednesday reserves then?!

Hey! Let's not mock the Eastern Counties Premier League. Prem experience, see.

(Joking aside, there are a number of successful managers who never made it as professional players. Liam Manning does not appear to be one of that number)

[Northern Red]

1 hour ago, bpexile said:

Perhaps this is when the will hit the fan .

It did for Nige...

[Capman]

5 minutes ago, BCFC31 said:

Yes this is where I am with it aswell surely the players also have to take responsibility for not being able to play a 2 yard pass ? Or track a runner ? Or be committed in the challenge? I think players get away with so much nowadays there professional championship footballers all earning around £700,000 per year for christ sake how easy do they want it ? It's so self entitled I'm not saying manning isn't to blame but let's also look at these precious footballers aswell.

In the end I am not sure the money matters that much. We have probably all had managers who made us believe and managers who turned us off. I well recall a new boss arriving once and making some absurd speech about drawing a line in the sand and how we could cross it or not and he would know and respond. I (and most of my colleagues) just thought he was an idiot who had no idea. There is no question at all that he made me worse at my job, because I had no idea what he wanted. It was like trying to find 5p on the floor of a massive dark room. 
If the players don’t believe they will play worse. And the fact that Manning throws them under a bus after every loss won’t help. 

[Dr Balls]

1 minute ago, Red-Robbo said:

Hey! Let's not mock the Eastern Counties Premier League. Prem experience, see.

(Joking aside, there are a number of successful managers who never made it as professional players. Liam Manning does not appear to be one of that number)

As my old mum used to ask “is it below the Screwfix?” If so, her opinion was that it wasn’t worth considering as any real standard of football. Have to say in Liam’s case, she’s spot on!

[westred1]

2 hours ago, Phileas Fogg said:

It would be quite funny if the crowd started singing various songs about previous managers - I wonder how obscure we could get?

Would be a real achievement if the crowd starting singing in appreciation of erstwhile caretaker manager Steve Wigley.

You are my Wigley, my Stevie Wigley…

[Red-Robbo]

4 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

As my old mum used to ask “is it below the Screwfix?” If so, her opinion was that it wasn’t worth considering as any real standard of football. Have to say in Liam’s case, she’s spot on!

 

Ah, but Arrigo Sacchi, Villas-Boas, Brendan Rogers etc etc....

Surely, it's only a matter of time before LM helms AC Milan?  

[AshtonGreat]

3 hours ago, Dr Balls said:

Manning is worse than SO’D.

Yes the end of the relegation season was terrible and the losing run at the end was extremely depressing but you could at least accept that the ship was sinking way before that because the recruitment had been poor and defensively we were shocking. At least he had a plan that you could see might work. Plus over the summer his recruitment without a nest egg and playing some of the youth (Bryan in particular) was a significant part of what set us up for the successful Cotterill era.

Manning has taken a relatively good team and set of players and made them play much worse. That is unforgivable in a manager/coach.

Not for me. He managed just two points from our last nine games in the Championship, meaning we got relegated with a whimper. That was followed by six points from our first 12 games in League One. 

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, ProfitInMyPocket said:

All he had to do was build on the foundation he was given. And it has been thrown aside already. 

We know we are a half decent counter attacking side, our main problem being we don't do well when we have more possession and struggle to break teams down.

Here are some statistics of the games when we have had more possession in the league this season;

NP - 6 points.

Millwall 0-1 Bristol City - we had 56%.

Bristol City 0-2 Birmingham - we had 65%. 

Bristol City 2-3 Stoke City - we had 54%.

Rotherham 1-2 Bristol City - we had 58%.

Cardiff 2-0 Bristol City - we had 53%.     

Flem - 3 points.

Bristol City 1-0 Sheff Wed - we had 66%.    

Manning - 2 points.

Bristol City 1-2 Norwich City - we had 61%.

Huddersfield 1-1 Bristol City - we had 61%.

Birmingham 0-0 Bristol City - we had 64%.

Bristol City 0-1 Millwall - we had 54%.

Preston 2-0 Bristol City - we had 52%.

Bristol City 0-1 QPR - we had 59%.

Sheff Wed 2-1 Bristol City - we had 53%.

Bristol City 0-1 Cardiff - we had 60%. 

Turns out Nige was a better possession-based manager than Manning after all. Even Fleming too!

Obviously it all depends on games in context but I found the statistics to be quite interesting considering LM said he likes his side to dominate the ball. Not very well in this case.

As you say context is everything, but your penultimate paragraph just highlights the flaws in Manning’s approach 

[One Team]

This post match interview from an Oxford loss is almost the same script as his post match yesterday! 

 

[Kingswood Robin]

2 hours ago, Ronnie pickering said:

Tennis balls on the pitch like Reading did earlier this season?

Bog rolls, followed by a round of Liam Manning, your footballs shit

[W-S-M Seagull]

9 minutes ago, One Team said:

This post match interview from an Oxford loss is almost the same script as his post match yesterday! 

 

He really is an AI bot. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 hour ago, AshtonGreat said:

Not for me. He managed just two points from our last nine games in the Championship, meaning we got relegated with a whimper. That was followed by six points from our first 12 games in League One. 

The sttsngr thing about the O'Driscoll one was we initially did rally at Home especially.

From memory Wins vs Ipswich, Watford, Nottingham Forest, Middlesbrough, Barnsley- draw with then high flying Brighton in his first 2 months the plus the odd point on the road.

The big turning point was Wolves Away, 11 years to this very weekend in fact.

Wad a big relegation six pointer. We were a goal up but conceded 2 in 5 mins or something 2nd half and the downward spiral begun.

[One Team]

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

He really is an AI bot. 

He is indeed. Someone said on here this week you could drop him in any club in any game and he'd say the same thing. 

[Davefevs]

pre-match tactical walkthrough:

 

[Steve Watts]

14 hours ago, Phileas Fogg said:

It would be quite funny if the crowd started singing various songs about previous managers - I wonder how obscure we could get?

Would be a real achievement if the crowd starting singing in appreciation of erstwhile caretaker manager Steve Wigley.

Ignoring the maths, but "One Three Amigos, there's only one Three Amigos..."  

[harvey54]

16 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

The sttsngr thing about the O'Driscoll one was we initially did rally at Home especially.

From memory Wins vs Ipswich, Watford, Nottingham Forest, Middlesbrough, Barnsley- draw with then high flying Brighton in his first 2 months the plus the odd point on the road.

The big turning point was Wolves Away, 11 years to this very weekend in fact.

Wad a big relegation six pointer. We were a goal up but conceded 2 in 5 mins or something 2nd half and the downward spiral begun.

And weren't they were managed by Dean Saunders at the time? That was a sickening game but the pies were good