MATCHWATCH : Bristol City (a)

[Coppells Lost Coat]

Am I the only one who thought that was pretty good management from Pauno?

Dropped Drinkwater. Dropped Swift and brought him on at the moment I thought he should for Dele who I thought was starting to look poor. Also didn't disagree with dropping Southwood, although wasn't blown away by the GK.

Certain aspects yes. I can understand why he made the decisions he made with the team selection anyway.

Our results are coming down to a complete lack of confidence, you can see that by how many times we turned the ball over during the game and the reaction to those situations, in fairness to Pauno, that's pretty decent analysis there in his post-match presser. Again though, he as well as the players have to take the responsibility for this and it needs to change somewhere and it will be the manager that needs to be changed.

I can understand each of the changes - but not all of them at the same time. VP said we played well against QPR yet made 4 changes? if we played so well why change all those players? granted one was Puscas.

The first half must be up there as worst 45 mins of Champ football I have watched. Reading looking like subuteo players and Bristol being a fairly limited side that produced no threat, However we still managed to go 1 down and not trouble the back 5 for 95% of the half. We barely made them defend.

I genuinely thought the penny had dropped with VP and he had adapted the starting 11 last night. He went for energy over flair and that is fine if its done well. What happened was huge gaps in our formation and isolated players looking like 11 strangers. The play out from the back pointless passes was cut out but replaced with aimless nothing balls.

Until we got Swift back on the pitch then we decided to play. And to be fair to him Drinkwater looked good when he came on too. If we only see Drinkwater from the bench and he plays like that then I will be very happy.

Wasn't impressed with Hein - his kicking was awful, ball at his feet didn't fill me with any confidence either.
Joao was isolated and no where to be seen,

Every player gets 4 rating except; Swift 6, Ince 6 and Hein 5

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Am I the only one who thought that was pretty good management from Pauno?

Dropped Drinkwater. Dropped Swift and brought him on at the moment I thought he should for Dele who I thought was starting to look poor. Also didn't disagree with dropping Southwood, although wasn't blown away by the GK.

Certain aspects yes. I can understand why he made the decisions he made with the team selection anyway.

Our results are coming down to a complete lack of confidence, you can see that by how many times we turned the ball over during the game and the reaction to those situations, in fairness to Pauno, that's pretty decent analysis there in his post-match presser. Again though, he as well as the players have to take the responsibility for this and it needs to change somewhere and it will be the manager that needs to be changed.

I can understand each of the changes - but not all of them at the same time. VP said we played well against QPR yet made 4 changes? if we played so well why change all those players? granted one was Puscas.

The first half must be up there as worst 45 mins of Champ football I have watched. Reading looking like subuteo players and Bristol being a fairly limited side that produced no threat, However we still managed to go 1 down and not trouble the back 5 for 95% of the half. We barely made them defend.

I genuinely thought the penny had dropped with VP and he had adapted the starting 11 last night. He went for energy over flair and that is fine if its done well. What happened was huge gaps in our formation and isolated players looking like 11 strangers. The play out from the back pointless passes was cut out but replaced with aimless nothing balls.

Until we got Swift back on the pitch then we decided to play. And to be fair to him Drinkwater looked good when he came on too. If we only see Drinkwater from the bench and he plays like that then I will be very happy.

Wasn't impressed with Hein - his kicking was awful, ball at his feet didn't fill me with any confidence either.
Joao was isolated and no where to be seen,

Every player gets 4 rating except; Swift 6, Ince 6 and Hein 5

I'm not sure we can play both Swift and Drinkwater in the midfield, not to start with anyway. Neither are athletic enough to cover the ground necessary, not even in a diamond with both Rino and Laurent as we'd get found really easily.

We do need to get more players around Joao though and that's where Swift would come in, he has to play as the 10 for me. I can understand why he was dropped, but he has to be the 10 with 2 of Ince, Hoilett, Dele-Bashiru, Ejaria and Dele-Bashiru on the flanks.

[paultheroyal]

Last half hour was decent and the final 15 even better, but better and no goals to show from effort is not good enough.

[Vicky Pollard]

We put huge pressure on Bristol City for the last 20 minutes - it reminded me very much of the 3-2 win there under Stam - except for us being unable to find the goals to make the comeback. Played some excellent football in good areas and they couldn't get out of their own half.

BUT.

Is there anything more gutless than conceding in the 44th and 46th minutes?

[YorkshireRoyal99]

We put huge pressure on Bristol City for the last 20 minutes - it reminded me very much of the 3-2 win there under Stam - except for us being unable to find the goals to make the comeback. Played some excellent football in good areas and they couldn't get out of their own half.

BUT.

Is there anything more gutless than conceding in the 44th and 46th minutes?

I think it comes down to confidence more than it does belief and willing to work for the manager. The belief was there, hence why the last period of the game ended up like it was, the effort was there, we had plenty of shots, I just wonder if the players had any sort of confidence we were going to get anything out of the game subconsciously.

[tidus_mi2]

They have to build on the last 15mins of the Brizzle game, surely if you're the manager you turn to them and tell them that it shows they are capable of performing well.

As annoying as it is, they need to be encouraged right now, don't think we'll get anywhere telling them they're shit, they're lost 6 games in a row I'm sure they don't need reminding of that.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

They have to build on the last 15mins of the Brizzle game, surely if you're the manager you turn to them and tell them that it shows they are capable of performing well.

As annoying as it is, they need to be encouraged right now, don't think we'll get anywhere telling them they're shit, they're lost 6 games in a row I'm sure they don't need reminding of that.

Agree you have to be positive in these moments. I don't think they will spend a great deal of time looking at the negatives and rather look to build on the positives. Argue or not whether that's *the* contributing factor to our results recently, but it's a way of trying to bring confidence out in people, focus on the good and not the bad.

[Snowflake Royal]

Exactly right. But it needs to come from a new voice.

It's not like the same message won't have been being delivered for the last three months.

There's still no plan or direction.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Exactly right. But it needs to come from a new voice.

It's not like the same message won't have been being delivered for the last three months.

There's still no plan or direction.

Yeah I've said this originally really. It's not like Pauno is actively doing things wrong or that he's not trying to get us out of this situation, he's probably trying to do all the right things but it's not working, it's down to a true lack of confidence. Maybe not a lack of confidence in the manager's style, but maybe a lack of confidence in their ability to produce results. You can argue they are two sides of the same coin, but I believe they are different really.

I wouldn't expect a new manager to come in and turn things upside down as such, moreover, just deliver different messages and principles but potentially working under a similar style of play, with some variances of course. It probably does just take someone else to bring about that change.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

They have to build on the last 15mins of the Brizzle game, surely if you're the manager you turn to them and tell them that it shows they are capable of performing well.

As annoying as it is, they need to be encouraged right now, don't think we'll get anywhere telling them they're shit, they're lost 6 games in a row I'm sure they don't need reminding of that.

Agree you have to be positive in these moments. I don't think they will spend a great deal of time looking at the negatives and rather look to build on the positives. Argue or not whether that's *the* contributing factor to our results recently, but it's a way of trying to bring confidence out in people, focus on the good and not the bad.

Losing 6 games in a row, conceding 21 goals in the process, changes of formation and players with the same outcomes? I think you are really going to be scraping the barrel for positives to build on. A 20 minutes phase of play isn't enough to build from when 2 nil down and in that phase of play there were several instances where a slightly team could of made it 3 or 4.
Things to reflect on most definitely. For all of the changes, VP missed out a vital link to the final third.
Dropping Swift - even though warranted - when he come on the team as a whole looked more positive. Much better shape as Swift drops into nice pockets that link up either wings or with CF. We just missed that before he came on.