Bruno Berner

[Walshy5]

Anyone know how bad his injury is? because i for one think mcgivern is a useless waste of space and i s**t myself everytimee anyone runs at him. P.s anyone else notice all the thousends of growns when it was announced he was playing

[Dan]

No idea to be honest, to be fair to McGivern I thought he was better defensively than he has been all season, but still made a few silly errors. Not nearly as good as Berner mind.

When it got announced, I thought he was fucking joking.

[Trav Le Bleu]

To his credit McGiven did okay yesterday, up until the point he got clattered, after which I thought he might have been suffering a bit, but no one to replace him.

Gets on my tits when people won't give young players who have only played a handful of games a break. So on the basis of 5-6 games he's ALWAYS going to be awful. Yeah, right.

I'd still prefer Bruno back though. He's been outstanding of late, but I'm not as concerned as I might have been, cos McGiven has shown to me, however briefly, that he CAN do the job. Maybe if people got off his back?

[Ric Flair]

McGivern was steady yesterday, got caight out of position on a few occasions and that's why I still think he's better as a centre half. There's room for improvement with him, I still think he's got the ability to be a decent Championship player.

[Jimmy]

read somewhere NP said in an interview with Radio Leicester that Berner was withdrawn as a precaution with a calf problem to not miss games later on

[harpendenfox]

Anyone know how bad his injury is? because i for one think mcgivern is a useless waste of space and i s**t myself everytimee anyone runs at him. P.s anyone else notice all the thousends of growns when it was announced he was playing

Horrible post. He's an inexperienced lad bought in as cover at left-back. He has indeed had some dodgy performances. Who hasn't? Most of us perform better when encouraged, so why not try and encourage the lad. He'd have heard those groans yesterday, and to his credit he put in a pretty decent performance.

Useful waste of space indeed.

[Corky]

McGivern looked better yesterday, but to be fair, he's got to play really well as his competitor for the left-back slot has been, probably in the top three performers of the season, before he's accepted.

Hopefully Bruno will be back soon, it's reassuring seeing him play.

[Guest DavidJCW]

Disagree entirely with the idea that McGivern played well yesterday... he kept being beaten to balls that he should have dealt with, he didn't make tackles when they were there for the making, he was caught out of position far too often and also got skinned far too much. Occasionally, granted, he did put in some good tackles and interceptions but enough to warrant it being a decent performance? No.

Berner's injury was deemed as just a precaution by Pearson so hopefully he'll be back for the next game.

[Matt]

I'm sure NP said Berner's injury was a Calf strain and just a precaution he didn't play, so fingers crossed he'll be ok for Wednesday.

I'll admit I growned when McGivern was annouced in the line up but i'll give him his credit compared to previous performances he's improved based on yesterday performance, he's still got a long way to go, he's still made me worry when he got on the ball but he was better, he actually seemed even better, had more fight about him, and got more involved after he was headbutted imo...perhaps he needed to be hurt, wound up to get into the game?!

[Scow]

We missed Bruno long time.

I thought McGivern was poor. Why did he keep drifting into the centre of the pitch to challenge the ball? He's a left back, not a sodding Central midfielder/defender. I remember one moment where he challenged the lone striker Stead, when Hobbs was perfectly placed to do that. He just doesn't inspire any confidence - he gets beaten far too easily as well.

Maybe I'm being harsh because he isn't Bruno Berner; maybe I'm being harsh because he isn't really a left back. However, it speaks volumes when a 40 year old can come into the side after playing once all season and play much better.

[CosbehFox]

Disagree entirely with the idea that McGivern played well yesterday... he kept being beaten to balls that he should have dealt with, he didn't make tackles when they were there for the making, he was caught out of position far too often and also got skinned far too much. Occasionally, granted, he did put in some good tackles and interceptions but enough to warrant it being a decent performance? No.

Berner's injury was deemed as just a precaution by Pearson so hopefully he'll be back for the next game.

Which wing did the cross for both of their goals come from?

[Shrenchel]

Mcgivern was sound yesterday, much improved.

[shen]

Which wing did the cross for both of their goals come from?

Uh, one came from Solano's side and the other came from a shot outside the area

I don't want to lambast McGivern as it isn't his fault that he's being played out of position, which could hardly be more obvious. Would someone enlighten me as to what he brings to the team other than being a stop-gap solution when played there?

[Collymore]

I thought Mcgivern did ok yesterday and in my opinion some people are being a bit harsh on the lad.

Bruno Berner is a living god though so he is obviously going to be missed.

[ousefox]

McGivern wasn't as bad as he has been yesterday but he always seemed to be out of position. Glad it was only precautionary for Berner as I would hate to see him out of the team for even a small amount of time. I hope Bruno doesn't pick too many more yellows as knowing our luck he will go and get suspended for the playoffs.

[Libertine]

Can't imagine it's too serious an injury. Saw him standing pretty casually just around the tunnel yesterday when there was a shot of Coleman.

[Flynny]

I thought McGiven coped, which he hasn't always done, but wasn't actually good or anything. Looked great whenever he was covering a centre-back though, stood a couple of players up lovely. I think he needs to go out on loan somewhere with a decent left-back but no centre-backs.

[C-man]

So presumably this precaution means NP thinks Reading's wide men are more dangerous? Fair.

[Koke]

So presumably this precaution means NP thinks Reading's wide men are more dangerous? Fair.

The monster that is Jimmy Kebe needs to be kept at bay like.

McGivern did OK for me. He's blatantly a centre back playing left back. I'm pretty convinced that he will have a decent career at CB at Championship level.

[bluebeau]

I'm not really a fan of McGiven, but I don't think he let the team down yesterday. He played a lot better than I have seen him play previously.

If he plays against Reading, I hope he doesn't get booed, the guy is waering a city shirt for Gods sake. He gives his best effort so doesn't deserve to be booed.

Obviously the sooner Bruno is back, the better, 'cos he is class.

[iancognito]

His all round game isn't bad but he lets people run at him and doesn't close the space which is just inviting trouble. He did better in the game - Sheff Utd was it? - where he went in the middle with Morro.

The only other option is Luke O'Neill and he's nowhere near ready for this level, I'd prefer Berner with a limp than risk that.

[CosbehFox]

Uh, one came from Solano's side and the other came from a shot outside the area

When the shot came in, there was about four Cov players standing over the ball in an area you'd expect a right-back to be....then eventually Morrison came in unchallenged and squared it. Point was McGivern was hardly the root of yesterday's goals.

[Jimmy]

I counted 2 or 3 times where McGivern saved Jack Hobbs yesterday after he played several dodgy passes, funny how nobody has raised these as its Hobbs, other way round and we wouldn't of heard the end of it

[Orkneyfox]

I like Bruno but he seems lately to have a bit too much of a temper. I was pleasantly surprised by McGivern, his hair cut wasn't as stupid and he was really trying to take his opportunity to impress. Ge got stuck in a lot and got to a fair number of balls that I thought he was not favourite to get to.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

The one thing I never get with McGivern is his starting position a lot of the time - quite often he is disjointed from the back four, being 4-5 yards further up from the other three, leaving space for a ball to be played in behind - and this is necessarly because he's been attacking.

But I would have to give him credit for a commited performance with no real faults yesterday especially considering he came in at short notice. (I know its hard to praise when blinded by previous crapness so I can appeciate why some views have been to the contray, but you still have to give the man some due.)