Quite Frankly Crap in the First Half -NP

[HappyClapper]

A lot of knee jerk reaction after that game, and you might say rightly so.

Some of you will see this through your lens (NP in /out). FWIW I don’t see that there is much to argue with anything he says.

[And Its Smith]

2 minutes ago, HappyClapper said:

A lot of knee jerk reaction after that game, and you might say rightly so.

Some of you will see this through your lens (NP in /out). FWIW I don’t see that there is much to argue with anything he says.

If he could fix it whilst also being plain speaking that would be great 

[GrahamC]

No, but we need to see signs of progress, not just acknowledging that it isn’t good enough.

I think we can now judge many who aren’t in his plans but he has to get more from those who are & find a better solution at RB.

[BasSavage88]

9 minutes ago, HappyClapper said:

A lot of knee jerk reaction after that game, and you might say rightly so.

Some of you will see this through your lens (NP in /out). FWIW I don’t see that there is much to argue with anything he says.

Username checks out 

[Northern Red]

Just now, BasSavage88 said:

Username checks out 

The irony...

[HappyClapper]

Just now, BasSavage88 said:

Username checks out 

I know you have little time for Pearson. But what exactly in what he said do you disagree with? As @And Its Smithand @GrahamC mention, he should be finding a way to make us more solid. But his assessment of the game was spot on IMHO.

[Gazred]

I think he nailed it with the players not being able to put in back to back performances. Thats true both individually and as a team all season for me.

How much more change is possible in the next window i don't know but it's a key moment for Nige and the club. He already knows who he wants here and who he doesn't if you ask me.

I think we'll be ok but expect a few more shitty performances before the season end.

Edited March 5, 2022 by Gazred

[054123]

2 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

No, but we need to see signs of progress, not just acknowledging that it isn’t good enough.

I think we can now judge many who aren’t in his plans but he has to get more from those who are & find a better solution at RB.

Massive summer ahead.

Hopefully Jon Lansdown will clarify our financial position and what exactly we can expect.

My concern is that no matter who the manager is we struggle to be little more than a mid table team.

[And Its Smith]

4 minutes ago, HappyClapper said:

I know you have little time for Pearson. But what exactly in what he said do you disagree with? As @And Its Smithand @GrahamC mention, he should be finding a way to make us more solid. But his assessment of the game was spot on IMHO.

His assessment should be spot on. He’s a highly paid manager. I can assess the game.  Fans love plain talking managers. For me, performances are much more important. Couldn’t give a damn what managers say really 

[GrahamC]

4 minutes ago, 054123 said:

Massive summer ahead.

Hopefully Jon Lansdown will clarify our financial position and what exactly we can expect.

My concern is that no matter who the manager is we struggle to be little more than a mid table team.

To be honest, at the moment “mid table” would be real progress as we don’t look anywhere near that good.

Not the time for debating it in depth now, but we need a significant change in personnel this summer.

[Dr Balls]

I do partly blame Pearson. Playing Sam Bell as a right back, irrespective of who was or wasn’t in front of him to provide support, was the wrong selection. Pring can clearly play as a full back as can Dasilva, so why pick a teenager who isn’t a defender against a Man Utd loanee who is going to expose all his deficiencies in that position?

As for Matty James, I would be happy if I never see him in a City shirt again. He was truly woeful today. Massengo might always have a mistake in him, but at least he can run and play a ball forward.

The only players who came out of today with any credit were the ones who set up and scored our goal, I.e. Dasilva  and Scott. Most of the others had game to forget.

Huge game on Tuesday and if Pearson doesn’t get a reaction after that (lack of) performance, then there are big questions to ask about him as much as there are about the players.

[Davefevs]

16 minutes ago, 054123 said:

Hopefully Jon Lansdown will clarify our financial position and what exactly we can expect.

Not expecting JL to do that, expect RG to.

I met RG earlier today, got to say I was very impressed.

[robin_unreliant]

Tuesday? 

[Northern Red]

3 minutes ago, Dr Balls said:

I do partly blame Pearson. Playing Sam Bell as a right back, irrespective of who was or wasn’t in front of him to provide support, was the wrong selection. Pring can clearly play as a full back as can Dasilva, so why pick a teenager who isn’t a defender against a Man Utd loanee who is going to expose all his deficiencies in that position?

As for Matty James, I would be happy if I never see him in a City shirt again. He was truly woeful today. Massengo might always have a mistake in him, but at least he can run and play a ball forward.

The only players who came out of today with any credit were the ones who set up and scored our goal, I.e. Dasilva  and Scott. Most of the others had game to forget.

Huge game on Tuesday and if Pearson doesn’t get a reaction after that (lack of) performance, then there are big questions to ask about him as much as there are about the players.

Who are we playing on Tuesday?

[DT The Optimist]

Some good points all round, same stuff regurgitated by fans and NP.

He has not got a magic wand, he or the club found Klose who is an out of contract player (and really decent at that) and I cannot believe we could not have sorted the RB out in a similar fashion…. NP knows where we are and there will be wheeling dealing in summer..

That right hand side has been issue most of the season and a young Tanner is not the solution…. I always respect NP for his honesty.  
 

I am confident next season we will be stronger..

[Dr Balls]

3 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

Who are we playing on Tuesday?

Sorry meant Tuesday week against Barnsley. I had already written off the game against Blackburn!

[Dr Balls]

1 minute ago, DT The Optimist said:

Some good points all round, same stuff regurgitated by fans and NP.

He has not got a magic wand, he or the club found Klose who is an out of contract player (and really decent at that) and I cannot believe we could not have sorted the RB out in a similar fashion…. NP knows where we are and there will be wheeling dealing in summer..

That right hand side has been issue most of the season and a young Tanner is not the solution…. I always respect NP for his honesty.  
 

I am confident next season we will be stronger..

Well if we aren’t any better, relegation looms large. We can’t be dependent on other teams getting points deductions to keep us up!

[DingleRed]

8 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Not expecting JL to do that, expect RG to.

I met RG earlier today, got to say I was very impressed.

Tell us more..... 

[Davefevs]

10 minutes ago, DingleRed said:

Tell us more..... 

just a CEO who is very open, listens to fans, very personable…and is trying to make City better….not his own ego.  Having met him now and his predecessor a couple of times, they are like chalk and cheese. Club in good hands in respect of CEO.

[1960maaan]

56 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Not expecting JL to do that, expect RG to.

I met RG earlier today, got to say I was very impressed.

I'm not surprised, from what I've read he's exactly what we wanted or needed.
Giving that , in personality he is the anti Ashton he was on to a winner anyway. But without knowing too much of what he's doing, he seems much more of a real CEO, because he isn't telling everyone how good he is.

It's hard, but I really do think we need to give things time to grow naturally.

Edited March 5, 2022 by 1960maaan

[chinapig]

32 minutes ago, DT The Optimist said:

Some good points all round, same stuff regurgitated by fans and NP.

He has not got a magic wand, he or the club found Klose who is an out of contract player (and really decent at that) and I cannot believe we could not have sorted the RB out in a similar fashion…. NP knows where we are and there will be wheeling dealing in summer..

That right hand side has been issue most of the season and a young Tanner is not the solution…. I always respect NP for his honesty.  
 

I am confident next season we will be stronger..

Simpson was supposed to be the short term right back solution. Unfortunately he is so bad we had to fast track Tanner. Indeed he is so bad we are playing a young striker there until Tanner is fit.

With our lack of funds we cannot afford to recruit that badly again. Every penny counts so we can't even afford cheap failures.

[And Its Smith]

Pearson took Simpson on trial, watched him over a period of time and deemed him a solution at right back. He got it badly wrong it seems. 

[Loosey Boy]

31 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

just a CEO who is very open, listens to fans, very personable…and is trying to make City better….not his own ego.  Having met him now and his predecessor a couple of times, they are like chalk and cheese. Club in good hands in respect of CEO.

Did he say/let on much about Nige? @Davefevs

[petehinton]

I do, ultimately, think it’s stuff like this that will be his downfall. Rightly or wrongly. 
 

Publicly saying he disagrees with the chairman (went down horrifically with the lansdowns), to performances like today with the ‘mates code’ attendance incentive, to calling us crap on the official club interview which they’ve tried to build as a slick, sky sports PR’able model.

 

This sorta stuff doesn’t end well with the Lansdowns. It’s what massively tilted SO’D and Cotts to the sack. 
 

 

[Roger Red Hat]

9 minutes ago, Loosey Boy said:

Did he say/let on much about Nige? @Davefevs

Yes, he said Nige is crap, he doesn't know what F he is doing and he's lucky to be the manager of this club........

[Red Shadow]

38 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

I'm not surprised, from what I've read he's exactly what we wanted or needed.
Giving that , in personality he is the anti Ashton he was on to a winner anyway. But without knowing too much of what he's doing, he seems much more of a real CEO, because he isn't telling everyone how good he is.

It's hard, but I really do think we need to give things time to grow naturally.

That reminds me, a former girlfriend said the very same thing to me

[Street red]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

Not expecting JL to do that, expect RG to.

I met RG earlier today, got to say I was very impressed.

Richard Gould is a breath of fresh air compared to his predecessor. He will get this club firing again like Pearson needs time.. what was it that impressed you? 

[Taz]

1 hour ago, Tafkarmlf said:

[GrahamC]

36 minutes ago, chinapig said:

Simpson was supposed to be the short term right back solution. Unfortunately he is so bad we had to fast track Tanner. Indeed he is so bad we are playing a young striker there until Tanner is fit.

With our lack of funds we cannot afford to recruit that badly again. Every penny counts so we can't even afford cheap failures.

 

34 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

Pearson took Simpson on trial, watched him over a period of time and deemed him a solution at right back. He got it badly wrong it seems. 

That’s fair comment, though to be balanced here no one gets every single signing right, but his contribution in terms of minutes played has certainly been poor.

Chris Honor said at Xmas in a podcast it was obvious seeing him with the first team on the pitch either before or after games that his legs have gone, Pearson moved away from playing Vyner there very quickly too, for what it’s worth I would rather see Zak play there than young Bell, but think NP has decided his time with us is up now so isn’t going to go back to him.

[glynriley]

1 hour ago, Dr Balls said:

I do partly blame Pearson. Playing Sam Bell as a right back, irrespective of who was or wasn’t in front of him to provide support, was the wrong selection. Pring can clearly play as a full back as can Dasilva, so why pick a teenager who isn’t a defender against a Man Utd loanee who is going to expose all his deficiencies in that position?

Bell was excellent there against boro so not the worst call

As for Matty James, I would be happy if I never see him in a City shirt again. He was truly woeful today. Massengo might always have a mistake in him, but at least he can run and play a ball forward.

laughable, James has been decent all season, players are allowed a bad game, we’re not  Real Madrid 

The only players who came out of today with any credit were the ones who set up and scored our goal, I.e. Dasilva  and Scott. Most of the others had game to forget.

Fair, although Pring and Atkinson were decent when they came on

Huge game on Tuesday and if Pearson doesn’t get a reaction after that (lack of) performance, then there are big questions to ask about him as much as there are about the players.

Enjoy Tuesday….

 

[GrahamC]

2 minutes ago, glynriley said:

 

Just to add to players who did well, he dropped the ball at a corner & got away with it, but not sure what else Bentley did wrong, couple of excellent saves late on when we left gaps.

[Sheltons Army]

29 minutes ago, petehinton said:

I do, ultimately, think it’s stuff like this that will be his downfall. Rightly or wrongly. 
 

Publicly saying he disagrees with the chairman (went down horrifically with the lansdowns), to performances like today with the ‘mates code’ attendance incentive, to calling us crap on the official club interview which they’ve tried to build as a slick, sky sports PR’able model.

 

This sorta stuff doesn’t end well with the Lansdowns. It’s what massively tilted SO’D and Cotts to the sack. 
 

 

Yes 

They prefer the ‘Ashton-I will kiss your ass-in every public interview’  type 

They can spot a good un for sure

 

God help us 

[REDOXO]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

just a CEO who is very open, listens to fans, very personable…and is trying to make City better….not his own ego.  Having met him now and his predecessor a couple of times, they are like chalk and cheese. Club in good hands in respect of CEO.

The last time he was here I thought he was an idiot, however I’ll take your word that he has developed his skills elsewhere and we are getting the benefit. 
 

The financial situation is up in the air with possible sell on clauses for Kelly, Brownhill and Webster. Whether we can keep Scott will be dependent on that and if we get offers for HNM or Semenyo 

 

[Bodiesaffer]

Lost in midfield today, as always.  Bell was exposed, bad call.  Matty Taylor is not fit and not mobile enough for the way we play.  Han is a must start even with his defensive mistakes. Let him learn on the job.  Same with all the kids really they need the experience for next year.  AS has been poor last few games, given the standards he’s set, that will happen I suppose.  Or is it the fact teams are looking to stop him now?

Any Manager will get it wrong for time to time, however the players are so inconsistent, even Williams looked dog shite today.  That’s down to the players…

 

[PHILINFRANCE]

3 minutes ago, Bodiesaffer said:

Lost in midfield today, as always.  Bell was exposed, bad call.  Matty Taylor is not fit and not mobile enough for the way we play.  Han is a must start even with his defensive mistakes. Let him learn on the job.  Same with all the kids really they need the experience for next year.  AS has been poor last few games, given the standards he’s set, that will happen I suppose.  Or is it the fact teams are looking to stop him now?

 

I am not sure why you are knocking Matty Taylor, he scored again today .

[Bodiesaffer]

26 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

I am not sure why you are knocking Matty Taylor, he scored again today .

:laugh: James I mean FFS..

[Waconda]

1 hour ago, And Its Smith said:

Pearson took Simpson on trial, watched him over a period of time and deemed him a solution at right back. He got it badly wrong it seems. 

Bakinsons fault.

[PHILINFRANCE]

8 minutes ago, Bodiesaffer said:

James I mean FFS..

I know you did, it was just a cheap ‘humorous’ retort.

[GrahamC]

8 minutes ago, VT05763 said:

Bakinsons fault.

On the subs bench in L1 today, best place for him.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Loosey Boy said:

Did he say/let on much about Nige? @Davefevs

No, that wasn’t really the topic of conversation.

1 hour ago, Roger Red Hat said:

Yes, he said Nige is crap, he doesn't know what F he is doing and he's lucky to be the manager of this club........

 

 

1 hour ago, Street red said:

Richard Gould is a breath of fresh air compared to his predecessor. He will get this club firing again like Pearson needs time.. what was it that impressed you? 

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

just a CEO who is very open, listens to fans, very personable…and is trying to make City better….not his own ego.  Having met him now and his predecessor a couple of times, they are like chalk and cheese. Club in good hands in respect of CEO.

this

[DT The Optimist]

The title of the thread is how NP called it…crap, and the first 45 was. I like the guy as he does not mess about with crass comments, he knows what he sees and with the tools he has (the players) there is not a lot he can do to fix it…

let’s be honest..16 points clear of Derby we are thankfully pretty safe, I just hope we collect a few more points to end up lower mid table, not 4th or 5th from bottom.

The criticism I would throw towards him and the ‘staff’ are the signings of King & Simpson…but then again every club in the land makes naff signings…

Ask Leicester City fans, and find the comments made by Smichael…he is attributed to building that title winning side..let him sort out the right hand side and we might be half decent..

[grifty]

I'm just disappointed that almost everything we did in those 5 or 6 games where we looked good (offensively) we've seemingly stopped doing.

The quick passes along the ground in midfield, almost playing triangles and working it around the opposition, Alex Scotts quick forward passes, Semenyo running at pace, Weimann harrying and popping up everywhere, Martin holding the ball up and runners playing off him.

We've just reverted to poor passes putting people on the back foot, lumping it up to Martin, he challenges for the ball, but no-one is within 15 years of him, Semenyo gets the ball and slows everything down. There's also a massive amount of poor football knowledge or talk on the pitch as the amount of times a midfielder or defender had time to bring the ball back and retain possession decides to head the ball back up the air in the rough direction of the centre circle astounds me. I see better footballing decisions and desire to pass the ball about made at my work kick about on a Monday evening.

Alex Scott is still the best player on the pitch in any position. Dasilva I think has been very good the last few games.

[Swede]

Sam Bell was asked to do a job and play out of position. He's done it before but he's not Alex Scott. I do think this is on NP.

Unfortunately he's a bit light weight for the Championship. Today it backfired horribly.

For me, starting both James and Williams was where the route of the problem was today. Both were off the pace. Williams looked better early second half without James.

More worryingly is the binning of players. We have a right back who is gone missing and an attacking midfielder who is just picking up his wages and nothing else.

[Olé]

9 hours ago, grifty said:

I'm just disappointed that almost everything we did in those 5 or 6 games where we looked good (offensively) we've seemingly stopped doing.

The quick passes along the ground in midfield, almost playing triangles and working it around the opposition, Alex Scotts quick forward passes, Semenyo running at pace, Weimann harrying and popping up everywhere, Martin holding the ball up and runners playing off him.

We've just reverted to poor passes putting people on the back foot, lumping it up to Martin, he challenges for the ball, but no-one is within 15 years of him, Semenyo gets the ball and slows everything down. There's also a massive amount of poor football knowledge or talk on the pitch as the amount of times a midfielder or defender had time to bring the ball back and retain possession decides to head the ball back up the air in the rough direction of the centre circle astounds me. I see better footballing decisions and desire to pass the ball about made at my work kick about on a Monday evening.

Alex Scott is still the best player on the pitch in any position. Dasilva I think has been very good the last few games.

Agree with all of this. Especially Scott and Dasilva.

But I don't think we've gone away from the improved attacking football and patterns of play, we just make far far too many unforced errors, god knows what we do in training as despite what we're force fed by Robins Uncut, we're a team that is poorly drilled in making mistake after mistake and gives the ball away needlessly in midfield with the wrong pass or touch, or in attacking positions puts 90% of its final balls and crosses too short too high too long - there are flashes of quality as you say most notably Scott and Dasilva but the chances of us stringing anything together reduce rapidly with every touch. Williams put his body everywhere yesterday but was awful at times and Matty James didn't control midfield against a very average opposition. 

Also the secret is out on Semenyo - absolutely lethal in January once he gets the ball under control and runs the channel but get into him early and disrupt his first touch of force him to lay it off and you take away his threat. He's still winning more than his fair share of balls forward but he's being forced to play like a conventional target man with his back to goal or forced to rely on crosses and not given a chance to get on the ball and run at people.

 

[Bodiesaffer]

55 minutes ago, Olé said:

Agree with all of this. Especially Scott and Dasilva.

But I don't think we've gone away from the improved attacking football and patterns of play, we just make far far too many unforced errors, god knows what we do in training as despite what we're force fed by Robins Uncut, we're a team that is poorly drilled in making mistake after mistake and gives the ball away needlessly in midfield with the wrong pass or touch, or in attacking positions puts 90% of its final balls and crosses too short too high too long - there are flashes of quality as you say most notably Scott and Dasilva but the chances of us stringing anything together reduce rapidly with every touch. Williams put his body everywhere yesterday but was awful at times and Matty James didn't control midfield against a very average opposition. 

Also the secret is out on Semenyo - absolutely lethal in January once he gets the ball under control and runs the channel but get into him early and disrupt his first touch of force him to lay it off and you take away his threat. He's still winning more than his fair share of balls forward but he's being forced to play like a conventional target man with his back to goal or forced to rely on crosses and not given a chance to get on the ball and run at people.

 

Agreed midfield pairing don’t complement each other. Like I’ve Said earlier, Sememyo is now in need on learning to force his game onto the opposition, The trap and spin off the defender with his back of goal or do as Harry Kane. Drop into Midfield to create the space he needs to operate..

[Sir Geoff]

58 minutes ago, Olé said:

Agree with all of this. Especially Scott and Dasilva.

But I don't think we've gone away from the improved attacking football and patterns of play, we just make far far too many unforced errors, god knows what we do in training as despite what we're force fed by Robins Uncut, we're a team that is poorly drilled in making mistake after mistake and gives the ball away needlessly in midfield with the wrong pass or touch, or in attacking positions puts 90% of its final balls and crosses too short too high too long - there are flashes of quality as you say most notably Scott and Dasilva but the chances of us stringing anything together reduce rapidly with every touch. Williams put his body everywhere yesterday but was awful at times and Matty James didn't control midfield against a very average opposition. 

Also the secret is out on Semenyo - absolutely lethal in January once he gets the ball under control and runs the channel but get into him early and disrupt his first touch of force him to lay it off and you take away his threat. He's still winning more than his fair share of balls forward but he's being forced to play like a conventional target man with his back to goal or forced to rely on crosses and not given a chance to get on the ball and run at people.

 

Totally agree about decision making. One surging attack second half had Wells running clear down the channel towards the edge of the box, players running into the box. What does he do, check back so defenders then run ahead of him, all momentum is lost and we quickly lose the ball.

[pillred]

15 hours ago, Northern Red said:

Who are we playing on Tuesday?

So no see you next Tuesday then?

[Davefevs]

2 hours ago, Olé said:

Also the secret is out on Semenyo - absolutely lethal in January once he gets the ball under control and runs the channel but get into him early and disrupt his first touch of force him to lay it off and you take away his threat. He's still winning more than his fair share of balls forward but he's being forced to play like a conventional target man with his back to goal or forced to rely on crosses and not given a chance to get on the ball and run at people.

 

Like Chris Martin, if you play low percentage balls into him on the half way line, he’s less effective than getting better balls into him in the final third.

Antoine wasn’t at his best yesterday.  Several others weren’t either.  Made for a miserable watch yesterday.

[Bristol Oil Services]

13 hours ago, grifty said:

I'm just disappointed that almost everything we did in those 5 or 6 games where we looked good (offensively) we've seemingly stopped doing.

 

Darned opponents! And their pesky analysts! if it hadn't been for them seeing what we were doing well and coming up with their dastardly plans to stop us, we'd be ...... 

[pongo88]

18 hours ago, Bodiesaffer said:

Lost in midfield today, as always.  Bell was exposed, bad call.  Matty Taylor is not fit and not mobile enough for the way we play.  Han is a must start even with his defensive mistakes. Let him learn on the job.  Same with all the kids really they need the experience for next year.  AS has been poor last few games, given the standards he’s set, that will happen I suppose.  Or is it the fact teams are looking to stop him now?

Any Manager will get it wrong for time to time, however the players are so inconsistent, even Williams looked dog shite today.  That’s down to the players…

 

As you say, lost in midfield as always. In most games City don’t control the midfield for any length of time. If you don’t control the midfield, you don’t win matches. The defence has had a lot of criticism this season which is to be expected, with the number of goals conceded, but considering the midfield possession other teams have it’s not a surprise that City need to score two goals per match to get a draw. Yesterday, the second half was better but in the first Birmingham we’re just waltzing through our midfield at will. Lucky to be only 2-0 down at half time.