LJ - This is Our Season.

Our season started last August and finishes in May yet we stopped in December 2017.

 

LJ threatened the player's contracts for next season -'they'll be gone, whoosh'.
Seem to remember that comment/reason/excuse in 2010.
It didn't help GJ, it won't help LJ.

LJ should take the flak, he's at least culpable.
He should remember a 'bad workman always blames his tools'.

He's still in credit as far as I'm concerned - a little self analysis would help his cause.

 

I believe he will need a good summer transfer session and a good start to the next campaign otherwise I think not only the fans will get restless, I believe SL will too..

 

No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but clearly there's still something missing.

Hopefully everyone being another year older/wiser will help, along with a few choice signings and we could/should be battling for the playoffs next season. This season would have been a bit ahead of schedule, though that shouldn't excuse the scale of the collapse since Christmas - next season we should be top 8. I know we're 8th now, but from the position we were in, being more than 3 points off of 6th is a massive disappointment.

Hard to pinpoint exactly where signings need to be made, though I'd suggest greater depth in centre midfield is high on the list, so splashing on real quality there could be good value. I like Fielding more than many, but a truly top-notch goalie would be nice too.

 

When you consider he has had 2 seasons where the team have had absolutely dismal runs that would have got anybody other than our golden boy fired he is lucky to still be in the job. I am in total agreement that we have had a better season than last time out but I still have my doubts about our ability to move forward from here. To be perfectly frank I think Lee's ventures in to the transfer market have been utterly disappointing and to now try and blame the very players that he has had 2 years to develop stinks somewhat of self pity rather than what needs to happen. If indeed the players are totally responsible for this recent shocking demise then it has to be down to Lee in some way because I consider that process to be his remit, and it's called man management.

Maybe we can still make the playoffs and make the end of the season better than anything yet to be produced in 2018 but I won't lose any sleep expecting that to happen, I have difficulty believing that nothing has gone on in the dressing room that has led to this situation and by Lee blaming the players who are not marching to his drum I think it tends to point somewhere in that direction. Why do City often appear to be in some kind of turmoil when others get it right ,and looking above us we can see that what our owner claims to want is achievable with concise dedication to the task at hand for the desired end result. There are some clubs up where we belong that must have been considered lesser than us by someone's evaluation and yet here we are again raking over the coals of a fire that was burning brightly last December asking ourselves what the hell happened. Who knows????

 

I think we'd need 4 four wins to make the playoffs - and I don't see that happening.

 

Four games lost more like,I smell a rat i wonder if SL says we don't want to go up

 

Of course SL would take promotion this season. The opportunity comes around very rarely.
Should we continue with poor transfer dealings this summer we may be fighting a totally different battle next season.

 

Completely agree with Wiz. The only thing ide add is the spells of bad form are worrying .

I really don't understand why , I've considered the obvious reasons , injuries , maybe the high press game is not possible for a whole season etc, but surely we aren't the only team to suffer these , I really don't have an answer.

Whilst Lee has done really well and progressed us greatly this last year if we are to continue the improvement next season this surely must be an area he needs to address , because at present he , like me , doesn't seem to understand it , or know what to do to get out of it.

 

Teams play far more taxing versions of pressing than Bristol City (did)

City have not been playing a high press season long.

Pressing has variants. It can save energy. City often screened in behind Reid. Reid pressing was the trigger for the team to move. This form was working in parallel to a short busy passing style. The passing football Mr Johnson moved the team away from.



.

 

Sometimes I scratch my head to your theories....When we were playing the pressing and passing game, most were saying it was the style of LJ and what he's brought to the team....
You were inferring that it was the way at Bristol City, within the club and how it was set up..how any manager coming to the club would have to adhere to..
Now on our bad run, you refer it as "The passing football Mr Johnson moved the team away from"
So are you saying that LJ is no longer working with the clubs football principles & style?

 

Well it's clear to see that things have taken a dip in form for our team since the turn of 2018.....heads are being scratched with the reasons behind it..
I think most of us on the good run was calling out for a decent striker and backup for some of our players that became tired or injured.
Unfortunately it seems that the signings we made (always a gamble) have not improved the team for whatever reason.....wrong type of player, or disruption within the camp. which can happen with footballers egos and all that.
I have had arguments with a few on here what our academy should be for.....IMO, it's not to make money and become just a selling club like Southampton (not doing so well now by the way selling their best players), but to produce the players for the style with that we want to use and stick to it...
I'm not sure how long LJ has but I can only hope that's what he is insisting on...

 

Yes. If you look at the academy teams and U teams he is not.

He is adhering to the transfer policy.

You were inferring that it was the way at Bristol City, within the club and how it was set up..how any manager coming to the club would have to adhere to.. Should was the word I have used. When Mr Johnson went through his tombola routine I said similar last season. The club purchases small, zippy passing footballers (forwards no..), develops passing footballers and should stick to what they are.

Mr Johnson has made much of his modern thinking, Bristol City possibly linking with Man City due to its philosophy and yet his XI moves away the football that was admirable and winning games.

 

I am still trying very hard get my head around why we took such a tumble and how we got there. I am sure most teams at the end of the season will have the usual end of season questions as to how things could have been different for their final standing. If I were to highlight 2 matches that might have doomed our season it would be the 2nd half collapses against Sunderland (H) where we gave away 3 points after being ahead 30 at half time, and against Derby (A) where we gave up on a 2-0 halftime lead.

Just look where the extra 4 points would put us in the table. Ah well that's the way it is and now we have grab our remaining games by the short and curlies to stand a chance. Go do it lads EH.

 

Since the 5.0 thrashing by Villa, we've not been the same.....IMO

 

Totally agree with that onefor.

 

Exhaustion, injuries, return of unfamiliar (but probably expensive) players, panic, vertigo and fear.
Not lack of ability.

 

Lee Johnson changed things around and bolloxed it up. what is the teams starting eleven now?? nobody will be able to guess.