Bristol City - Nottingham Forest

[ThePromisedLand]

A game of 2 halves really. First half, nice slick passing and more of an apparent intent to get forward. Second half, passing wasn't as smooth, with a lot of losing possession and less of an apparent intent to get forward IMO.

*Maybe intent is the wrong choice of word there

Still a decent point away from home though.

More a case of City improving in second half.

Another solid performance - just that final third again.

[Paplane]

We really missed sammy ami today. He would've done some real damage today.

Knockaert looks lost all of a sudden, like he needs to play a few games to get his confidence back.

[PsychoStanleyStone]

i think Krov, Mighten, Yates, Garner were very good, but could of been awesome, i think Grabban and Knocky let them down for diametrically opposed reasons, Grabban was taking to long and all his lay offs were skew wiff, too slow, too late, or suicide passes other players had to risk career ending injuries to receive, Knocky was the opposite of Grabban, being too hungry, a bit too much urgency and particularly in the first half almost to direct and usually got dispossessed, put in some good crosses though and got better as the game went on.
But Krov, Mighten, Yates and Garner looked excellent though the moves usually ended with Grabbs or Knocky for the aforementioned diametrically opposed dispositions which equally ended the moves.

[zicorice]

Will try to be brief:

Positives:
I got my 1st ever 7 point haul in The Aaron Higgs League.
Some fantastic passages of passing to get into attacking third.
Midfield completely dominant.
Clean sheet-rarely troubled (by opposition)
Christie and Blackett carried on recent form.
We have come a long way since we lost to them at home.
Sheep lost.

Negatives
Not one single clear cut chance created.
We are paying £37.5k a week for Knockeart.
Defence were so untroubled the boredom caused a couple of sloppy clearances that nearly went wrong.
To dominate 1st half so conclusively and create nothing is a bit frustrating.

Taken as a block, our last 4 games have been hopefully showing a blueprint for next season.

As an aside, I thought the young French lad for them was really good (Massonga?). Lansbury was better than I expected  but still not great.

[nothing special]

A measure of Forest's improvement: before Christmas this would have been a great performance and result.

After QPR and our recent improvement, it was slightly disappointing.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Will try to be brief:

Positives:
I got my 1st ever 7 point haul in The Aaron Higgs League.
Some fantastic passages of passing to get into attacking third.
Midfield completely dominant.
Clean sheet-rarely troubled (by opposition)
Christie and Blackett carried on recent form.
We have come a long way since we lost to them at home.
Sheep lost.

Negatives
Not one single clear cut chance created.
We are paying £37.5k a week for Knockeart.
Defence were so untroubled the boredom caused a couple of sloppy clearances that nearly went wrong.
To dominate 1st half so conclusively and create nothing is a bit frustrating.

Taken as a block, our last 4 games have been hopefully showing a blueprint for next season.

As an aside, I thought the young French lad for them was really good (Massonga?). Lansbury was better than I expected  but still not great.

Surely we are not paying the whole of Knockaerts wages. He's on loan, I would imagine Fulham are still paying part of his wages.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Mighten and krov looking very good today.

Yates getting better every time he plays.

:cool:

SA.

I know people like Cafu... but is he any better than Yates? Genuine question... I await the abuse

Why would you expect abuse for that :huh:

In my opinion they are both very good and they are keeping the likes of Sow and Colback out of the team. Not sure why one must be better than the other, for me it's win win and it's good to have them both at the club.

[Madforit]

Vast improvement by us, I just hope that the manager will see what we can all see that Taylor needs to be starting ahead of Grabban, I feel that if Taylor was starting the remaining games that we have left, then we could see us actually scoring goals, we seem to be powderpuff with Grabban or Murray leading from the front, time to start Taylor from the off  for the remaining games.

[Paplane]

Vast improvement by us, I just hope that the manager will see what we can all see that Taylor needs to be starting ahead of Grabban, I feel that if Taylor was starting the remaining games that we have left, then we could see us actually scoring goals, we seem to be powderpuff with Grabban or Murray leading from the front, time to start Taylor from the off  for the remaining games.

I think he needs a crack in this improved side. Chances are now being created that he can capitalise on.

[PsychoStanleyStone]

Vast improvement by us, I just hope that the manager will see what we can all see that Taylor needs to be starting ahead of Grabban, I feel that if Taylor was starting the remaining games that we have left, then we could see us actually scoring goals, we seem to be powderpuff with Grabban or Murray leading from the front, time to start Taylor from the off  for the remaining games.

cudda and maybe shudda tried something differant completely up front, Chelsea played with no recognised striker and look good going forward and with some outstanding and potentially outstanding interplayers, ok we have a stack of lively intricate midfield players especially if Sammy and Lolley were fit and seems Freeman might be getting to full sharpness but also other interplayers like Cafu, Yates, Mighten and most notably Krov, Garner and well should be Knocky as well

Do we need a target front man?  Or the surprise of not playing with a 'passenger' and having a more buzzy midfield with lots of darting runs and enough defence splitting passes to win quite a few games

Would improve the counterattacking potency and the defensive screen which would probably end up as we improve in confidence, like yesterday, predominantly higher up the pitch

Could run a standard back line ragged, pull them up the pitch and cause more confusion

Ok the front man ties up a couple of players or 3 but they are in an ideal buffering position, anyway we got a better than average midfield ensemble which could be rotated during the game as they seem to prepared to run their socks off

[zicorice]

Will try to be brief:

Positives:
I got my 1st ever 7 point haul in The Aaron Higgs League.
Some fantastic passages of passing to get into attacking third.
Midfield completely dominant.
Clean sheet-rarely troubled (by opposition)
Christie and Blackett carried on recent form.
We have come a long way since we lost to them at home.
Sheep lost.

Negatives
Not one single clear cut chance created.
We are paying £37.5k a week for Knockeart.
Defence were so untroubled the boredom caused a couple of sloppy clearances that nearly went wrong.
To dominate 1st half so conclusively and create nothing is a bit frustrating.

Taken as a block, our last 4 games have been hopefully showing a blueprint for next season.

As an aside, I thought the young French lad for them was really good (Massonga?). Lansbury was better than I expected  but still not great.

Surely we are not paying the whole of Knockaerts wages. He's on loan, I would imagine Fulham are still paying part of his wages.

I believe we are with a £10 million option to buy clause. Desperate times called for desperate measures and in fairness when the rest of the team were lacking any confidence, he definitely wasn't and played a part in helping turn the tanker around.

Would I take him on a free and sensible wage-Yes. But £10 million and daft wage? - Thanks for your service and good luck moving on.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Vast improvement by us, I just hope that the manager will see what we can all see that Taylor needs to be starting ahead of Grabban, I feel that if Taylor was starting the remaining games that we have left, then we could see us actually scoring goals, we seem to be powderpuff with Grabban or Murray leading from the front, time to start Taylor from the off  for the remaining games.

I think it was Paul Taylor who said yesterday that Taylor only made the squad because Ameobi had to pull out with an injury otherwise he wouldn't have even made the bench yesterday.

I agree with others though that he should be given a chance now that he has better players around him.