Bristol City verdict: The wrong chemistry, imperfect 10s and troubling equations for Manning All the talking points following Bristol City's 1-0 defeat to Cardiff City in the 102nd Severnside derby https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/bristol-city-verdict-wrong-chemistry-9138788 * City have a problem * Imperfect 10s * Empty seats on the bench * Something has to change
We are spiralling towards the relegation zone, boring football, lacking confidence, low team moral, indecisive managment, fragmentational performances, all the ingredients for doom are there, notice a strong silence from out glorious leadership who make all the decisions and policies. Sorry but the future looks very dim after our recovery from previous severe financial and on field problems.
On the ball, the selection of four central midfielders led to an almost 3-3-3-1 at times, with Gardner-Hickman the right-sided attacking midfielder but inverted, allowing for Ross McCrorie to overlap. That formation was news to me, only because I could see the first three, then thought it was a two and a something, but I would accept it was this complex 3-3-3-1 as it was inefficient, plodding and ponderous with players lacking movement, sharpness and intensity.
Reasonable question, knowing the illustrious 2 we will be relegated before they can decide on next move, to be fair to LM a lot of our circumstances are not of his making, we gave LJ & Nige plenty of time to sort out their predicaments, I believe LM deserves time to develop his own team and style but you never know with Junior and BT will always dance to the Lansdown tune.
We won’t be in bottom three. Like when we was 4 points of play offs. There are too many teams between the positions to leap over them, the teams in between also play each other. It is worrying times, but won’t be for a good few games yet to get that low.
Stop panicking RR - you'll be playing Championship football next season no problem. We were little or no better than you yesterday except we got the goal. We came with a plan and stuck to it and it worked unlike some of our previous outings. As far as the trap door 3 are concerned, it's a question of which 2 goes down alongside Rotherham. It's very tight down there but I doubt the recent upturn in form of some will be sustained by all. Points on the board are all that matters and we were looking over our shoulders a couple of weeks back. You've got 44 so another half dozen will put on the theoretical safety mark of 50. I will say if Manning doesn't manage that, you'll deserve to go down but some others trying to play catchup will surely fail - they won't all do it because most have to play each other and they can't all win.
If you don't mind an outsider chipping in (if it's any consolation I'm married into a Bristol City supporting family), as rudderless as it seems now, it wasn't that long ago you were picking up decent results, even against Premier League opposition! Calling for Manning's head is crazy, he's had 3/4 of a season, a shed load of injuries and new players to try bed in... Very much like our own situation. It easily takes 2 - 3 years to truly instill a new philosophy into a football club. Even Pep struggled in his first years at Barcelona and Man City despite the resources to hand! With the latter he was derided terribly for trying to play a different way in England, but now every other manager pretty much wants to be a clone or spin off of what he's done. Sadly neither fans nor, half the time owners have the patience and bravery to stick with it. Had you not seen ANY glimpses of good football and decent results then you could perhaps say it's not the right fit, but as you have seen some good stuff then it shows there's potential there and now it's about finding the consistency and balance.
Had one of our strikers actually bloody scored, I believe it would have totally changed the complex of the game.......we lack out and out goal scorers IMO, have done for a while tbf
Not a happy bunny, complains nobody willing to step up and be a leader, players won't listen to teachers instructions, too timid but will try hard at Ipswich.
You said that when we played Southampton and Middlesbrough…. Leicester lost to QPR at home yesterday.. It’s the championship.. anything can happen
I'm not hitting the panic button yet RR but I have forecasted a defeat at Ipswich, I do think LM should be given time to develop the squad.
Just a thought, we are suffering from goal starvation, we've got Seb Palmer-Houlden on loan at Newport and doing well, yes he is a youngster but why not recall him and give him a go, nothing to lose we don't score goals goals anyway. I admit he was a superstar but Wayne Rooney started at 16, Seb is 19 and has scored 6 for Newport from 23 games and it would give our superstars a good kick up the ASS.
You’ve been on our site enough to know that RR is KING of the knee-jerk reactions. If we win the next 3 (unlikely, I know), he’ll be banging on about the play-offs again.
