v Bristol City (H) Match Thread

[Steve Buckley’s Dog]

Calm down everyone.

we are not very good and won’t be this year due to poor recruitment.Dowell and Paterson have failed at this level before and will do again, don’t worry about it.

Personally I would be much happier with a proper transitional season where we play Knight, Sibley, Buchanan et al and find out if they will cut it or not. Playing other teams poo players on loan won’t get us anywhere, long or short term. Like another poster said on a thread elsewhere, how has Mitchell-Lawson dropped so far back? Is he really worse than FloJo? play the kids, accept a poor middle of the table finish but actually build something for next year rather than doing something in between. And play Marriott; he’s our best player. 

Luckily whiskey,beer, co-codamol and naproxen are making tonight’s result more palatable. We will be out of this division before I die, I am pretty sure of it. Some of you need to start worrying though.

Is Mel Sage fit for Saturday?COYR

[Marriot Ram99]

4 minutes ago, NottsRam77 said:

Im Not even thinking about the horrendous mistake 

His passing was soooo slow and ponderous, a chance to pass and easy ball  inside to keep the ball moving would present itself .. he’d wait , he’s wait, chance to pass it onto a free man gone and at best he just has to lay it back to a centre half...at worst he gave it away 

he was terrible, literally killed any momentum or attempt to build momentum 

a terrible terrible display capped by a horrendous mistake ... which perfectly summed up in a nutshell his performance ... indecisive 

He wasn’t alone, Dowell and Lawrence ... don’t get me started 

To add to that, he made a similar mistake 2 minutes later but wasn't punished this time. He tried to take on about 4 players and we almost got countered when he lost it a few minutes after the goal you would have thought he would play safe.

[Ruud Aralliss]

7 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Bringing a player off at half-time only seems to happen to Malone! Apparently Marriott has a niggle that if it was to worsen would probably mean he'd be out for ages...so says Cocu. 

Were stuck with that then, can’t start him I guess as there’s the temptation to give him another 10 mins, 20 mins .....then the niggle is an injury ?‍♂️

[Marriot Ram99]

3 minutes ago, uttoxram75 said:

Bit early to make your mind up were not going to have a great season mate.

Give it until around mid October or so then we might be able to tell. Four league games in is a tad premature to write the season off!

Wouldn't surprise me if we turned it around with Bogle and Holmes to come back and Rooney to come, but right now I struggle to be optimistic after that display fresh in my mind, win on Saturday and play great football and things will be looking a lot better.

[GrimsbyRam]

6 minutes ago, Ambitious said:

I don't want to be too negative, because I don't think it's all bad. We've certainly played worse and won. I think Bristol showed why they will be up there at the end of the season, both goals as frustrating as they are from our side were extremely well taken. Weimann showing that level of composure in the box - it was like watching a cat bark. The second, definitely down to Malone, but a very good dummy in the box made that goal. Both, had they panicked, would have blocked. Fair play to them for that. 

I felt the first half Bristol had a concise game plan that was very Rowett-esque. They targeted our physical weakness and relied on their individual quality. It worked as it did with Rowett when he was here. They will be there or thereabouts, big signing in Bentley who has always been a top keeper at this level. Baker was outstanding too. Brownhill is a grafter, ironically what we're lacking in that position. 

Cocu is tactically good, you can see his game plan and what he's trying. He's good at changing it up without disrupting too much, which isn't an easy job. I just think we lack quality in important positions - notably CM & WF - arguably two of the most important positions on the pitch in our system. I like the balance of the back three, once Bogle is back plus Lowe, we should be okay. I hope we push forward with that. I personally trust Cocu more than any other manager to get it right, I would just say the team doesn't have the quality it needs to at the moment - nothing more or less. 

Has he been tactically good so far though? He’s picked the wrong formation for the last two games running. He’s admitted as much by having to change it

[uttoxram75]

2 minutes ago, Marriott Ram99 said:

Wouldn't surprise me if we turned it around with Bogle and Holmes to come back and Rooney to come, but right now I struggle to be optimistic after that display fresh in my mind, win on Saturday and play great football and things will be looking a lot better.

Cocu is a top manager. I believe he'll find the right formation, we'll be raite!

[Ambitious]

5 minutes ago, GrimsbyRam said:

Has he been tactically good so far though? He’s picked the wrong formation for the last two games running. He’s admitted as much by having to change it

Personally, I feel like 4-3-3 is the plan A. We should always go into games with our plan A, because otherwise we will be chopping and changing each week based on the opposition. When plan A works, great, but when it doesn't at least he changes it. 

[dcfcfan1]

We can't play 4-3-3 now our wingers are that poor 

[Jourdan]

9 minutes ago, Alpha said:

No it was ok. Steady. Chilled. Easy peasy. 

With a hint of... something spicy. With quite a strong smell. One more taste.... ah! I recognise the flavour. It's absolute utter complete moronic shambles. 

Jourdan, you're chatting to a hot girl. She keeps laughing at your jokes. You have a few cheeky comments and they go down well. She's giving you that look over the top of her glass. Should at least get her number. Then you say "Do you like anal?" 

She's gone Jourdan. She's not coming back mate. You're now going home to an old football sock. You're a brief conversation on Monday morning at her work and then a night to forget. 

You, my friend, have just Derbied it up.

@Alpha thank you for your colourful description! I feel like I’ve watched the whole 90 minutes now.

PS. it was almost perfect. Just replace ‘Do you like anal?’ with ‘Do you like peanut butter on your crumpets?’ and ‘going home to an old football sock’ with ‘going home to an overpriced box of sushi’ and this is my dating life.

[ossieram]

Poor performance in the first half especially with at least 5 players not performing.

Moving Lowe to the left in the 2nd half was a good move and gave him a chance to show that he should stay there place of Malone.

I am surprised to see the ref isn't really getting a mention on here!

[Comrade 86]

I think part of the problem is that you can really only afford one 'luxury' player in a Championship side and even then, only when the bulk of the outfit is well drilled and on their game. Tom Lawrence is that player for Derby but we're not quite there yet so there's little room for the likes of Zoon and Dowell if they go missing.

I'm not terribly concerned about Dowell as yet, as there's been more than enough to suggest he can do a job for us. Zoon however... well even my patience is running thin and as a founder member of the happy-clapper's society, that's really saying something. I'm hopeful that Paterson can do a job for us but then should he start to shine, he'll be straight back to Brizzle for sure. Hardly ideal as is Huddz looking out of form - I'm a big fan but he needs to show more zip and initiative as he is scarcely justifying a starting berth right now.

Still, these remain relatively early days for so many to be losing their shizzle - not those calmly remarking on a poor performance as they are perfectly entitiled to do, but those already beginning to screech about team selections and that some of our footballers can't play football - Them. They absolutely frazzle my swede, if I'm honest.

Anyway, for me, the panic button remains safely under glass unless we ultimately prove equally toothless with the likes of Bogle, Holmes and Marriott starting games, ideally with Bielik in midfield and not part of a back 3 which I think would certainly be the case anyway were Bogle fit.

COYR

[Ruud Aralliss]

Personally, I think out of all the “transition seasons “ we were promised, I think this is the one. All the others were an excuse of non promotion. 

Fringe players, academy players are getting game time now and some are looking very promising .

Lampard used this transitional bull last season, but didn’t follow through as he needed success, how many young acadamy players did he trust? Don’t count Bogle as he was only picked through injuries and  went and signed .signing like  Malone , waghorn etc not young transitional signings for the future, 3 major loans that were never staying!! Not transitional. ( almost as if he knew he was only gonna have 1 season here ?‍♂️)

Think Cocu might be the one to stay with us till we do see a successful side and to do this we DO need that elusive transitional season.  This might be it, and if it means losing to Bristol tonight and finishing mid table so be it COYR!!

[uttoxram75]

7 minutes ago, ossieram said:

Poor performance in the first half especially with at least 5 players not performing.

Moving Lowe to the left in the 2nd half was a good move and gave him a chance to show that he should stay there place of Malone.

I am surprised to see the ref isn't really getting a mention on here!

I must have put it on another thread that the ref was worse than Atwell....?

[RamNut]

Predictably poor in the same manner as stoke away. Various causes - two holding midfielders, team sitting too deep and inviting trouble, not really laying a glove on the opposition, disfunctional midfield, and one up top versus three central defenders. The performance deteriorated rapidly. We can blame the players and the defensive errors were truly horrendous, but why set ourselves up in the same negative system which failed us three days ago. 

To lose one silly goal may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. The second balls-up really gave us a mountain to climb. I expected the half time change as per stoke. At least this time we had lowe on the left and jozefzoon on the right. Lawrence got a freer role. As against stoke he produced very little, as did the rest of the midfield. we were better after the change, but the lack of midfield quality must be obvious even to the visually impaired.

We set up in this Rowettesque 4231 formation in order to accommodate Snakey's secret weapon - Huddlestone. Is it worth it? My fear is that the other options are really not much better, but its time to find out. 

Finally, something to celebrate. one great goal by marriott.

Reminiscent of Derek Hales at his best. 

 

[uttoxram75]

2 minutes ago, RamNut said:

Reminiscent of Derek Hales at his best. 

Without the magnificent beard.

[Rev]

1 minute ago, uttoxram75 said:

I must have put it on another thread that the ref was worse than Atwell....?

Shocking as he was, he didn't affect the result, unlike Attwell and Dog Shagger.

He was even educational in a way, as I'm sure the young lad sat alongside has learned some new words to tell his mates at school tomorrow.

If anyone asks lad, it's a sheath you put your sword in.

[Steve Buckley’s Dog]

19 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

@Alpha thank you for your colourful description! I feel like I’ve watched the whole 90 minutes now.

PS. it was almost perfect. Just replace ‘Do you like anal?’ with ‘Do you like peanut butter on your crumpets?’ and ‘going home to an old football sock’ with ‘going home to an overpriced box of sushi’ and this is my dating life.

What do you do to the sushi? Pervert. 

[GrimsbyRam]

20 minutes ago, Ambitious said:

Personally, I feel like 4-3-3 is the plan A. We should always go into games with our plan A, because otherwise we will be chopping and changing each week based on the opposition. When plan A works, great, but when it doesn't at least he changes it. 

We do not have the strength in depth or quality to play wide men. 

Id like him to stick with three at the back and use Bielek to push into the Huddlestone role when needed. Play Bogle and Lowe wingbacks. Holmes and Shinnie as the ‘busy’ up and down players and Lawrence behind Waghorn and Marriott. Today showed, as with the playoff final, teams cannot cops when then they are both on

[uttoxram75]

2 minutes ago, reverendo de duivel said:

Shocking as he was, he didn't affect the result, unlike Attwell and Dog Shagger.

He was even educational in a way, as I'm sure the young lad sat alongside has learned some new words to tell his mates at school tomorrow.

If anyone asks lad, it's a sheath you put your sword in.

Having calmed down a bit and thought about it, I have to disagree with you. The ref really took the sting out of our play. We won the ball cleanly and aggressively on several occasions only to be stopped by very poor decisions which robbed us of our momentum. Coupled with Bristol's planned tie breaks to kill the game it probably did cost us.

As bad as some of our individual mistakes were this evening, the Ref contributed to our defeat just as much as a misplaced pass or player not reading the game - fine margins.

[Jourdan]

5 minutes ago, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

What do you do to the sushi? Pervert. 

Sorry, it’s been a long night. I finished 2nd in the family mini golf tournament and my brother won’t let me forget it.

Just to clarify, I go home and eat the overpriced box of sushi. In the absence of hot girls, I choose food.