Johnson Relishing Boro Clash.

Regarding money for Cotts; he must have had more than £10m at his disposal at one point, as we made (rejected) bids for Andre Gray and Dwight Gayle. We would t have made those bids without the funds being available - I seem to remember one bid was around £11m mark(?)

 

Very lucky in my opinion,did well getting 10 million

 

he did have other choices .. based on the objective of the club buying young and cheap /using academy players .. there were one or 2 of the academy players he may have used .. who knows they may have just turned out as well as bobby! Vyner did very well but where is he now? MC COULSKY... ok bought eisa as a prospect but maybe Shawn should be in his place? ……
so really you could say LJ's comment was not as a definive ..back against the wall, [we did have a successful U'23's that had goal scorers up front] but more of a "Bobby has the potential to play the lead role, after all he was a forward player" …………

 

I’m wondering if only you heard that press release?
We had Diedhiou, Hinds and McClusky all fit and even could of retained Tomlin. At that time only Taylor and Djuric were we injured.
Hands up how many actually thought Reid would of worked out. Whether or not injuries played a part there was more than Reid he could of tried. So he obviously saw something in the thinking of playing him there, it’s not like Reid was a high scoring midfielder.

 

Red, Rp will make anything up to discredit LJ, like a couple more on here, the coach see's a lot more than we ever see, so I give Lee and his coaching staff all credit for playing Bobby up top.

 

To be fair to RP, there are some posters on OTIB that make him look like the most loyal of ‘lovers’ by comparison.
There are 2 ‘Johnson Out’ themed threads running on there now - 2 league games into the season with no defeat.
It could only happen at Bristol City I’m amazed anyone, player or manager, would want to come here!!

 

I think the timescale RP is referring Famara was not available. Reid was pushed up with Patterson in behind in a 4-4-1-1. When City pressed aggressively they went off Reid as the trigger. When Famara and Djuric returned City ceased playing in that manner. The transfer window recruitment also moved the team and squad away from that high energy approach. The team played longer and did not press as high without Reid as the trigger.

I can recall Lee Johnson making remarks about analysts suggesting Reid could do the role, or something. It hardly indicated anything other than injury driven experiment, the game plan was abandoned and no player was brought in as back up ior Reids advanced lung bursting role. If the intent was to really play that way the squad would have been built to support it.

 

Diedhiou signed June 28 well before pre season.
RP just likes to harp on about it being a fluke as he had no choice but to move Reid up front, when he did. It was LJ who spotted he could do a job and turned him into a 10 million player.
No one is arguing or debating about high intensity, lung busting or anything like that or even formations?

 

I think RP is making a valid point.

You do not sign these players if your long term intent was to start with Reid and Patterson in behind. Mr Johnson did not start the season playing that way.

 

But that’s not what I’m talking about, RP said it was only by luck as LJ had no other option but to use Reid up front. If you heard the interview as well, well done I’m happy for you.
But you’re not listening / reading what this debate is actually about. You mentioned Diedhiou was not available, when he had already signed before pre season started. Still at a loss as to what team formation, high lines has to do with it when no one is debating that at all.
I won’t be answering any more of your comments as history on here has told me you always think you’re correct and the rest of us don’t have a clue.

 

Johnson said he played Reid as a experiment due to not wanting to spend another 5/6 million on forwards.

 

But Lee Johnson also said it was an experiment due to not wanting to spend more money on forwards and that the stats showed Bobby Reid could do a job. The experiment was because players were injured.

 

Who was injured? Taylor and Djuric is all. At that point in time we had Diedhiou, Hinds, McClusky and even Tomlin or Paterson.
LJ may of made it an preseason experiment, but it was that experiment to make Bobby Reid a 10 million player. None of any of our previous managers during Bobby’s time or the managers who had him on loan saw the potential to use him up front.

If you, your bestie and Redprint don’t agree, well done but IMO this time last season we would of been lucky to get 250k for Bobby, but LJ took the chance and it paid off.

 

Bestie!!! not sure what that is meant to mean. yes players were injured and Lee Johnson said he did not want to spend another 5/6million on players so he experimented. seriously doubt he would tried it and with Famara later injured he was forced into consistent selection and a certain way of playing.

 

Just out of interest, are you sure you haven't just made this up RP?

I distinctly remember LJ saying he decided to try Reid up front based on the numbers the statistical software threw up. Add to that the fact he scored in 6 of the 7 pre-season games he played in, and the fact he played up front alongside Diedhiou at the start of last season (he could easily have gone 1 up top). Sounds like nonsense to me...