Match Day Thread Bristol City v Rotherham /25 positive covid cases

They need to get him off, he has started the 2nd half shockingly and so has Hunt.

 

Thank f*** for that.

How was that not a foul on Vyner?

Hunt and ODowda need to wake up both have been poor since the restart.

 

Yet again it shows how weak we are against physical teams, I can't imagine that Nige will be happy.

 

I think Nigel has inherited a bunch of no-hopers and I also hope it doesn't put him off from joining us longer term. When you consider the money poured down the drain bringing in this dire lot and the salaries paid to produce absolutely nothing I just hope that SL continues his funding for NP on an ongoing basis. How many more times do I have to read on this site that we are only a couple of players short of producing a contending team when we all know that currently we are more like a relegation in the near future outfit?

What happens from here until the start of the next season will be instrumental in the long term future of Bristol City and when you consider the threat put on the sport from Covid it could be even worse. Many supporters have lost the will to return to the boring ways of match days especially when you consider the total dross we have produced during the reigns of the previous yes men in the driving seat. At least now we have a person with a footballing brain pulling the reins and we can only hope that he can turn the tide of despair in to some kind of optimism and fun (yes I remember fun) to put us all in a more positive vein. Come on Steve and Nigel.

I just saw we are 0-2 down to Rotherham - WHAT?

 

Good luck with Jekyll and Hyde United Nigel.

 

Crock of 5hit

 

The defence was weak from the minute Kalas went off, none of them covered themselves in glory, although Bentley redeemed himself with a great save. If ever there was evidence needed that Hunt is a liability defensively this was it, Mariappa is not consistent enough and neither is Sessegnon.

Walsh was a bright spark, Wells certainly worked hard and Massengo had a good 1st half, Lansbury was poor again, as was Semenyo and Palmer. Diedhiou can just do one, he went down on his arse 4 times in 10 minutes at the start of the 2nd half whilst under no pressure at all and he is lazy in the box.

Bell and Pearson looked lively.

It was sad to see ODowda go off under those circumstances but he was another poor one.

For me today the starters Hunt, Mariappa, Sessegnon and Diedhiou are not good/consistent enough and the same goes for Lansbury.

Hopefully Nige has seen more than enough of the above players and hopefully will see the need to instil some guts into the squad, we were as weak as piss water again today against a physical side, it cannot be allowed to carry on.

 

The big question for Nigel and the players to ponder is that Rotherham are right at the bottom of the table. Other teams have managed to unlock them but we can’t.
They are physical - but we knew that, so we should have countered it.

 

Absolutely spot on, other teams have managed it, FFS they have won 9 games all fecking season 2 of them against us.

We have too many pussies, who are weak and that needs to change, they out fought and out thought us and we never had the answer on or off the pitch.

We cannot keep saying we have a decent squad, not when you look at the kind of teams that have beaten us this season and beyond, the team lack guts, winners and physical presence to stand up to challenges like this, it's not good enough, I hope Nige has seen enough because I have.

The only way we could have changed things by playing a long game ourselves, but that is impossible with Diedhiou, he cannot hold the ball up for toffee, he goes down every time a defender farts near him and he is like a wheelie bin in the opponents box, totally static.

Nowhere near good enough.

 

On the plus side, we have a proven manager who has the opportunity to have a massive clear out as many contracts are out in the summer, which hopefully will allow him to bring in the players he needs to improve us.

 

I am all for turd polishing, but some of our squad are beyond polishing and need flushing.

Too many have an appalling first touch, some are incapable of an accurate 2 yard pass, some are incapable of staying on their feet and go down on the merest contact, we are piss weak at dealing with set pieces, we are piss weak at the physical side of the game, our free kicks are ****.

Today our midfield and defence was so weak at times we needed Wells as a back up leaving a wheelie bin that falls over too much to hold the ball up.

Today just showed take Kalas out of that defence and the women's team would probably beat us.

 

I don't want be seen to be having a go at Pearson, but I just listened to his post match interview and I sort of agreed with the first point about dealing with Rotherham's physicality in the first half, I would say we did until we lost Kalas.

But he went on to say that we should have made the most of our opportunities during the first half, I have to ask exactly what opportunities were they?, I must have missed them because I cannot recall any opportunities during the whole game, all I can remember is 2 good crosses one from ODowda in the first half and one from Hunt in the 2nd half and of course there was nobody within 2 yards of either cross.

My advice to you Nige is this, the core of this squad have already gotten 2 managers the sack, take a long hard look at them and get rid of the deadwood.

 

Missed the game yesterday thank goodness.
I've seen the goals and shows why Bentley hasn't made the Premiership. Great shop-stopper but he's weak on crosses.
Can't offer much else as I didn't see the game but, if it ever needed proving, Pearson will need massive help from SL this summer.

 

From yesterdays wake up call for Nige

Bentley 5 Has been great this season and although at fault for the first goal, he made a terrific stop in the second half, his weakness with crosses is probably the reason he may never progress to the prem.

Hunt 4 One great cross in the 2nd half but a liability defensively. He allows far too many crosses into our box, there was one moment on the edge of our area in the 2nd half, where under absolutely no pressure he lobbed the ball over the heads of 2 of his own players straight to one of Rotherham’s strikers, had that been Mason Mount or Phil Foden Lineker would have got a boner on MOTD. Hopefully Nige has seen enough and will not renew his contract.

Kalas 7 His injury turned the game and shows how poor our defence is without him, although not playing great we were coping with their physicality, as soon as he left the field my heart sank.

Mariappa 4 His first touch and distribution was poor for most of the game, another I wouldn’t offer a contract to for next season, far too inconsistent.

Sessegnon 4 I know he like Mariappa is not a specialist left back, I personally wouldn’t have him back if the opportunity arose next season. Hopefully if DaSilva and Pring can stay fit we won’t need him.

Massengo 6 Good first half, he broke up a lot of play and played sensible passes, poor second half, needs to be protected from playing too often especially against the more physical teams.

Walsh 7 The one bright spark of another miserable afternoon at BS3, FFS sort his contract out.

Wells 6 Worked tirelessly in midfield and defence, because both were struggling to cope, cannot fault his commitment to a role that he should not be forced to play in.

Palmer 4 Nowhere near his form of late, Rotherham targeted him by putting 2 players on him, but offensively still the only player who looked capable of opening them up.

ODowda 4 It took more than 30 minutes for him to actually beat an opponent a deliver a cross and he managed one other great cross in the second half and that was pretty much it. His dead ball delivery is poor especially free kicks. I felt for him going off injured visibly upset and probably knowing it’s serious again. I am happy to give him a free pass, he is under contract anyway but really needs to step up to the next level and find a consistency that he has never found since joining us.

Diedhiou 3 It would have been a 2 but his presence at defensive set pieces is essential. But where to start. Cannot hold the ball up when we desperately need him to, piss poor first touch, goes down at the merest of contact and is static in the opponents box. Hopefully Nige has seen enough, needs to be let go.

Vyner 5 Missed having Kalas to partner him, his best work was going forward. But has come on in leaps and bounds this season.

Lansbury 3 One great pass but pretty much every other pass was woefully inaccurate, dining out on glories long since past, no thanks Nige.

Semenyo 3 Rotherham were prepared for him in the same way as they were for Palmer, was like Palmer crowded out of the game. Never looked like getting going.

Sam Bell and Sam Pearson Were both a breath of fresh air and well done Nige knowing the game was well beyond us for giving them a chance.

My sincere hope is that Nige now has a good idea who the serial bottlers are in this incredibly inconsistent squad and will address that with vigour in the summer, some of them need shifting/let go and some need a kick up the arse out of their comfort zones that did for the previous 2 managers, for me it is a timely reminder of once the rot sets in try not to hesitate to cull the culprits and BCFC have not done that in the past 2 to 3 years.

Rotherham out played us, out muscled us, tactically they got everything right sadly we never even came close for the umpteenth time this season, especially at home. Also for the umpteenth time we never looked like scoring. We tried a host of different free kick takers yesterday and the longer range free kicks were mainly all over hit straight to the keeper and the more dangerous free kicks were appalling, somebody needs to step up to the plate for free kicks.

Hopefully Bristol Bears can brighten up my weekend later today.

 

Bentleys decision making, that I thought he'd sorted out after many issues last season and the one before has clearly not permanently happened, but I guess he's allowed one bad move now and then. But there was still no reason for him to come for that ball for their first goal !

Nige has seen what we have and what we lack all over the park in his time here. But as the saying goes, you can't polish a turd, and he needs to be ruthless if we are to progress next season. He needs to use the remainder of this season to keep assessing what we lack and produce a list of players to move us in the right direction, especially at home. But this seems to be a feature of the Championship again