Bristol City Post Match Thread

[sbfox]

Right, the keeper, back four and centre forward positions are pretty much sorted. Kaspar, Pelts, Mills. Bamba and Konchesky should start every game. In Nugent we have a good, skilful striker. Our midfield and wide players are the problem though.

Gallagher and Dyer don't deserve to be on the pitch for a long time after tonight's performances. Gally lacked any bottle, tried flashy passes that didn't come off and generally was a waste of space. Dyer was simply atrocious - not once can I remember him pulling out wide and making a run for the ball. King was beyond awful as well, I don't remember him being involved in a meaningful passage of play and for all his alleged goalscoring ability, should have buried that header from 3 yards (if it was him...)

I think we can play Wellens/Abe and Fernandes, then with perhaps Danns or Johnson playing just in front. Our problem is that we seem to bypass the midfield with long balls over the top, which just aren't working.

I don't think tonight was as bad as some people are making out. Bristol had 2/3 clear chances and put 2 of those away. You can't legislate for a stunning free kick and a defensive error and on another day, we could've scraped a 1-0 win. It is also very tricky to play our style of football when teams park the bus and we simply need to learn to cope with this. Indeed, in spells, we looked VERY good and were just one pass away from stunning touch and move goals.

On another note, our fans were shite tonight. Those of you sat in K and L booing SSL seriously need to piss off - how is that going to help? Also, the sense of entitlement amongst some of our fans is ridiculous - we don't have a divine right to walk this league and getting on the players' backs when they pass back or sideways isn't going to make things better.

lol lol lol lol

All that money, and you're shit.

And you've signed up to another team's message board for this sole purpose? Life. Get one.

[tulley11]

i read the title and 'd truly dyer! missing width, but then, what did we expect, we are playing 4cm's every game! not jumping on the "sack sven" bandwagon, but i am serisouly wondering what knowledge he has about this league.

[Bettsy82]

Bloke infront of me was calling Fernandez the crab because he only ever passes sideways didn't notice it at first but the guy was right. Watch him against forest.

[Bert]

I hope people are now going to realise Dyer isn't the answer. Great pace is useless if you don't use it. Always had his back to goal.

We look scared to attack, short of ideas. We need to play 4-4-2 because this isn't working.

Can't believe I've just listened to Sven say we played well.

[tulley11]

Or football in general (or is that a little harsh?)...

[sg6]

lol lol lol lol

All that money, and you're shit.

lol lol lol

What a gay name

[Yojoe36]

lol lol lol lol

All that money, and you're shit.

2 games lost. Who gives a f***. Leicester boys and we're going up

[Dylan]

Our wingers are simply not good enough for 4-3-3, end of. Teams that can play 4-3-3 such as Barcelona have wingers such as Messi, Villa, Pedro who can take a man on, cross and shoot. They also have midfielders such as Xavi and Iniesta who can control the middle of the park.

Dyer can not cross/shoot to save his ****ing life. Gallagher has no pace, can not take a man on, and his crossing hasn't exactly been amazing. We have absolutely **** all creativity in midfield. and quite honestly do not look a team at all.

I know it's only been 3 games, but we've yet to have a decent strong performance (which is what we should be having after spending the money we have). You can't count Rotherham as they're a League Two side, and Coventry- yes we won, but it wasn't exactly convincing; more of a scrape/battle. We need to start performing... very soon. We don't want to be playing catch-up all season like last year.

We couldn't get a tougher game than Forest away next up to sort things out... but if we come away with the right result it could be a real confidence boost. We need to sort it out very soon.

[thybluefox]

It's not too late to turn things around, and people need to calm down a bit. Yes there is a serious amount that needs addressing but there were some glimpses of very nice football tonight.

Had gally buried his chance, Bristol would have fallen apart. Nugent was good and I really feel for him as his job is near impossible.

But, replacing Mills was a mistake. I said so as soon as I got a team sheet. We need a settled back 4, and Mills had a lot to prove. St Ledgers distribution was poor, took too long on the ball which was helped in no way by a severe lack of movement further up the pitch. Dyer had a couple of good runs but he never seemed to be giving the wide option when it was needed. Waghorn was poor again, although with no one really shining that's no surprise.

Really not looking forward to the next 2, play like that and we'll get butchered.

[CKB]

Won't lie, some strange decisions tonight by Sven.. Dropping Mills after one bad game and he's captain? not a brilliant idea in my opinion

As for the game? very poor, disappointed with the start no doubt.. Yes it's early days, but i've got a horrible feeling Sven isn't motivating these players enough and they are believing the hype when they actually need a manager to firmly put there feet on the ground.. I could be totally wrong but i've just got some iffy feeling about the players thinking they are gonna walk every game

Lets hope i am wrong and Sven puts us on track very soon

[Heart-Shaped Fox]

Another disgraceful performance, andf Sven says on 5live that we were better today than vs Reading! What is he on? We ere poor against Reading, but made a few chances against a good team, today we didnt even test their keeper.

Sven really has soem explaining to do. He drops Mills after one game (what does that achieve?) for St Ledger who I said was a poor signing, being bought from a relegated team who shipped loads of goals last season.

I dont believe in all this 'let the players gel' stuff which people come out with on here. We havent got time to let them gel, we cant just write of the first 4/5 games and let them gel and hope it happens sooner rather than later. Thats what preseason is for, and the fact that we bought too many midfielders unecessarily is Svens fault. He doesnt know his best team and doesnt even know what formation to play.

Tactically poor, once again. Dyer is left footed, very left footed in fact. So why oh why does he get played on the right? Meaning he cant get in the box and put in half decent cross.

Once again his substitutions are bizare. How did Gallagher stay on the pitch? Really was woeful, couldnt make one pass. And did he know where he was playing? Spent time all over the midfield.

Nugent was the only player to look decent today.

A win at Forest is a must, £10 million spent and we look terrible. No improvements made since last season, especially the defensive record. We were lucky against Cov and have been taught a lesson at home twice, deservingly losing.

[MC Prussian]

One sensible thing I'd suggest to Sven, the team and the management:

No more talk in front of the media, keep to yourselves for the next two days, go to a remote location, get a discussion room together, do something worthwile and iron out any misunderstandings there could still be between all of you.

As a fan, I'd like a few days without the constant media hype that we're "promotion material". I'm getting sick of it.

Not in this shape, no we aren't.

[themotivator]

Right i just got back from the game. we didn't recover from the sucker punch of a free kick on 5 mins until the second half which was disappointing. when we gained composure we were playing some great football, king wellens gally and nugent were putting some really exciting moves together and eventually we got a goal (very nicely taken and great to see DN get his 1st for the club). after the equaliser we continued to dominate and at that point there was only one winner in my opinion.

Then StLedger went and made an absolute howler. I firmly believe that if it wasn't for all the ****ing fans screaming at any player who decided to take his time and build up the play slowly and patiently )which was working fine) shouting "ATTACK ATTACK.." he would't have been caught in two minds and he would have just laid it back to the keeper like he is supposed to. He had been doing this all game, either passing to Bamba, Peltier or Kasper and it was working fine, but the crowd were screaming at him by this point, because seemingly they wanted him to take the player on or play a killer pass to a winger or something. The only thing the team can be blamed for was not sticking to the plan and rushing things when they didn't need to, bowing to the pressure put on them by a rightly or wrongly frustrated crowd.

There was lots to be encouraged by in our play when we weren't being barrated and even booed by 'fans' mid game. Fair enough we are desperate for a home win, but we need to have patience and let the team play the game.

Sick of overreactive clueless twats who are surely already calling for svens head.

[Daggers]

I think the fans will turn on him quicker than anyone thinks if this carries on.

MON(g) Thread Alert.

Can't believe I've just listened to Sven say we played well.

Kelly II

[maynefox]

We were very poor, Defensively and Offensively. Were Playing a system where it suits really none of the players!

Gallagher was piss poor....Feel for Nugent left up front, I told people when we got him if he plays in our system he wont do as well, in that of a 4-4-2

[Guest ttfn]

Couldn't make it today or last Saturday due to work, but heading up to Forest where I'm anticipating an absolute disaster judging by this.

From watching us against Coventry, and the concerns posted here, I am starting to wonder if maybe our pre-season programme was too ambitious. Sure, we learnt a lot about chasing the ball around against Valencia, Bursaspor and Madrid, but how did that help us prepare for the Championship?

In lots of games we will have a lot of the ball in the final 3rd, and perhaps we should have been playing opposition who gave us the opportunity to practice that.

[sbfox]

Oh and if you were the guy sitting behind me blaming Pelts for their 2nd goal for "passing backwards", you shouldn't be allowed a season ticket.

[thybluefox]

Another thing, why do some no-marks moan shout when a backwards pass is made FFS? The years of lumping the ball forward have gone, get ****ing used to it.

[tulley11]

Their goals both came from stupid defensive mistakes, we had absolutely nothing upfront, nobody really even knew where to stand on the pitch.

They say money changes you, I believed that until tonight. Leicester, reassuringly shit - gotta love 'em though

[Happy Fox]

I am not one for negativity but Forest is a truly a game we cannot lose, I would take a draw hands on, to give us something to build for the Southampton game, hopefully we will have a striker and winger sooner rather than later, Michael Johnson when fit will provide that creative spark in midfield which we are truly lacking

[eaststand68]

For me King, Gallagher and Waghorn are not upto the job unless King scores he's a waste of space. Regarding Gallagher hes just a show pony,and Waghorn maybe one day but endevour is not enough at this level. Sven needs to start playing 442 I understand his logic of not wanting tp be over run in midfield, but in the last 2 games both Reading and Bristol have played three up top keeping our full backs pinned back thus causing our wide players to drop into midfield leaving Nugent isolated. He is too stubborn to change we saw that with England but this is the championship not the premiership. Sven please learn about this division. Rant over !!!

Up the City lets beat the Forest please

[reynard]

Yes we lost but the performance as a whole was pretty good, we lack penatration in the final third that's the only thing which needs to be sorted.

Nugent played a blinder tonight, and people will be harsh and slate St Ledger but his heading accuracy was brilliant, his tackling was good aswell, yes his passing in 1st half was shite, but 2nd half his passing was quality burst forward picked out players with perfection. However he cost us the win with a horrendous error, I actually feel sorry for the guy because one of a few people includes myself will say he didn't do too bad at all tonight.

We need strikers everyone knows were missing it, formation at times looked like 4-5-1 which frustrates me to my bones. We need pace Dyer gave that us tonight, King and Wellens made good bursts from midfield but still were lacking creativity and chances. Nugent had to run back to the midfield to fetch the ball at times, he played very well tonight and certainly a positive.

Keep our heads up because the striker signing will come, we have a good bunch which is capable of winning games, were just missing a goalscorer

Are you really being serious?

The first half was atrocious. We should have been 2-0 down and we had not had a shot on target in the first half from open play. We passed the ball in crab like movements had no attacking ideas and couldn't even throw the ball in correctly.

We gave the ball away cheaply and with the exception of Nugent didn't look to have much quality on the pitch.

I'll keep my head up and hope we sign a striker but frankly at the moment we could sign twenty strikers but we still wouldn't know how to get the ball to them.

It may be early days but the signs are not that encouraging. How many of the new players are an improvement on last season. So far (and I'm prepared to give them time) I'm not convinced Konchesky is going to be as good as Cunningham, neither right back is anywhere near as good as Naughton, neither Mills nor St Ledger looks as competent a footballer as Mee and both seem pretty slow.

The midfield is packed with players who are all too similar and who appear on mass to have no idea how to create constructive attacking play.

The evidence on the first three games is that we are not a work in progress but more like a work which has not even been started.

[dezza]

i agree it was annoying seeing the constant sideways and backwards passing but at least they are trying to play football and build an attack, personally i thought they were forced into passing it around at the back as none of the midfielders seemed to want to work the space ahead of them, gally kept on coming inside yet had acres out wide and when he did stay out wide he kept taking one touch too many, delivery in the final third was our biggest let down tonight the amount of crosses,corners etc that were just wasted was beyond belief. i have faith in sven and think he'll get it right!! on a positive note i thought nugent was the standout player on the pitch and i loved kaspers (not attempting to spell his surname ) passion and urgency was quality

[hornyhollthefox123]

Tonight was a shambolic performance. Fair enough, st ledger's was an error but when there are no options ahead of him what is he expected to do. As many have noticed and commented upon, the majority of our play is completely lateral. The lack of width and genuine pace outwide is worrying. Not once did peltier overlap tonight. Although I can count on one hand the amount of times lloyd dyer made himself available for the ball. There is also a serious serious lack of penetration to our play. One goal in two home game is not good enough, especially considering the fact that Reading and Bristol hardly 'parked the bus'. We lack any cutting edge; nugent played well tonight but without him we would have barely registered an attempt on goal in our first three games. As hit and miss as Kamara was, he would come and get involved an link play with Yakubu. We badly miss quality in the final third and until that is sorted, as well as our midfield learning their roles then results will be hard to come by.

[ronnup]

Our wingers are simply not good enough for 4-3-3, end of. Teams that can play 4-3-3 such as Barcelona have wingers such as Messi, Villa, Pedro who can take a man on, cross and shoot. They also have midfielders such as Xavi and Iniesta who can control the middle of the park.

Dyer can not cross/shoot to save his ****ing life. Gallagher has no pace, can not take a man on, and his crossing hasn't exactly been amazing. We have absolutely **** all creativity in midfield. and quite honestly do not look a team at all.

I know it's only been 3 games, but we've yet to have a decent strong performance (which is what we should be having after spending the money we have). You can't count Rotherham as they're a League Two side, and Coventry- yes we won, but it wasn't exactly convincing; more of a scrape/battle. We need to start performing... very soon. We don't want to be playing catch-up all season like last year.

We couldn't get a tougher game than Forest away next up to sort things out... but if we come away with the right result it could be a real confidence boost. We need to sort it out very soon.

Spent the LONG drive back to Sheffield thinking exactly this. 433 works when you've got Sinclair and Dyer, not with our players.