Some brutal comments...

[City123]

Re: Some brutal comments...

What's he going to say if we lose against Forest and perform poorly? He needs to be quiet, that's his team he's putting out there.

Nothing to do with him of course, all on the players

Hopefully Forest have sold Brennan Johnson before we play them

[City123]

Re: Some brutal comments...

I personally find SM to be very refreshing. Lets be honest, most of the squad aren't good enough and sometimes need a kick up the backside. Players get too much of an easy ride when things aren't going right in my opinion. Yes he has certainly crossed the line on occasion (see Isaak Davies), and I feel that he has stuck with the 5 at the back for too long. But as people know he's inexperienced and hopefully he will learn over time.

He has been left with a squad bereft of any quality and the job at hand is monumental. I for one am still behind Morison, but do think he needs to look at himself with tactics/selection a little more than he's doing.

That's the issue for me though. His comments today absolved himself of any responsibility for the poor performance, but he's the one picking the same failing system, the same players and then digging them out. He seems incredibly thin skinned and a bit of self-reflection wouldn't go amiss

[LeningradCowboy]

Re: Some brutal comments...

This group of players has already quit on two managers in little over a year. Does Morison think that they won't do the same to him?

[Raymond Holt]

Re: Some brutal comments...

His comments sound like the type of things you might say about U23 players internally. It's as though he's made no adjustment whatsoever to the fact he's talking about senior players under a huge media spotlight.

I disagree with Bothroyd's Diving Coach in terms of this squad not being good enough, it should be more than good enough to stay in this league. It seems as though senior players and the coaching and management team as a whole are not stepping up to lead us away from trouble.

I thought we looked good at times today with the ball, dominating territory and creating some half-decent chances. Doyle is clearly going to be a Premier League player very soon, he looked very comfortable given it was his first game in the Championship. I also thought Collins offered a bit more today, linking better with others and not as anonymous as in previous games I've seen. Without the ball sadly, we are comical and utterly clueless.

The system doesn't work, the selections and subs are weird. I'm not a fan of binning managers but I think in this case a change would improve our chances of staying up, provided it was the right person.

[Nobody's Rep]

Re: Some brutal comments...

I personally find SM to be very refreshing. Lets be honest, most of the squad aren't good enough and sometimes need a kick up the backside. Players get too much of an easy ride when things aren't going right in my opinion. Yes he has certainly crossed the line on occasion (see Isaak Davies), and I feel that he has stuck with the 5 at the back for too long. But as people know he's inexperienced and hopefully he will learn over time.

He has been left with a squad bereft of any quality and the job at hand is monumental. I for one am still behind Morison, but do think he needs to look at himself with tactics/selection a little more than he's doing.

Agree - fully behind him - don't agree with every selection or everything he says in public but can't argue with his comments today - he was spot on about the 2nd half performance

Hope the home fans get behind him and the team next Sunday - the last things we need are the fans getting their tampons in a twist - need them more than ever

[Joe Gillis]

Re: Some brutal comments...

Let's face it, its not like Championship teams we're beating on the City's door for him. Morrison was brought in purely as the cheapest option, but he accepted the job knowing what he had at his disposal so I have no sympathy for him. The buck stops with the manager. His selection, his tactics, it's about time he started looking at himself before he unloads on the players

[Bothroyd's Diving Coach]

Re: Some brutal comments...

His comments sound like the type of things you might say about U23 players internally. It's as though he's made no adjustment whatsoever to the fact he's talking about senior players under a huge media spotlight.

I disagree with Bothroyd's Diving Coach in terms of this squad not being good enough, it should be more than good enough to stay in this league. It seems as though senior players and the coaching and management team as a whole are not stepping up to lead us away from trouble.

I thought we looked good at times today with the ball, dominating territory and creating some half-decent chances. Doyle is clearly going to be a Premier League player very soon, he looked very comfortable given it was his first game in the Championship. I also thought Collins offered a bit more today, linking better with others and not as anonymous as in previous games I've seen. Without the ball sadly, we are comical and utterly clueless.

The system doesn't work, the selections and subs are weird. I'm not a fan of binning managers but I think in this case a change would improve our chances of staying up, provided it was the right person.

You are of course entitled to your opinion but I think it's lunacy to suggest the squad is good enough, 23 points from 26 games (good for relegation zone without the points deductions). There are certainly some senior individuals who ARE good enough for this division; Smithies, Ralls, Wintle, Moore, Collins, the loanees with also promising youngsters coming through. However, the youngsters are clearly too inconsistent at this point in their careers to be relied upon and the rest of the squad, particularly at the back, are either too old, or just generally not good enough.

[Dorcus]

Re: Some brutal comments...

Let's face it, its not like Championship teams we're beating on the City's door for him. Morrison was brought in purely as the cheapest option, but he accepted the job knowing what he had at his disposal so I have no sympathy for him. The buck stops with the manager. His selection, his tactics, it's about time he started looking at himself before he unloads on the players

100% correct. The failure today was down to his initial team selection, his tactics, and his poor substitutions. It's a pity he can't see that.

Ok I feel for him, we may well be a League 1 quality side in the Championship but if he sorted the team out properly from the start we may be able to save ourselves. We could just about survive if he sorted out his ego.

[Divine Wright]

Re: Some brutal comments...

I wonder how people would react if a player came out in an interview and said

“the gaffer’s tactics and game management was substandard.”

[bluebirdcelt]

Re: Some brutal comments...

100% correct. The failure today was down to his initial team selection, his tactics, and his poor substitutions. It's a pity he can't see that.

Ok I feel for him, we may well be a League 1 quality side in the Championship but if he sorted the team out properly from the start we may be able to save ourselves. We could just about survive if he sorted out his ego.

--
SM seems quite relaxed about having a go at his players which he has done publicly on more than one occasion and yet is not as forthcoming with apologies for his own failings when things go wrong. After all, doesn't the buck stop with him on the field?? The very least he could do would be to apologise to the fans for what could only be described as an abject performance against Bristol City. Or is this too much to ask, Steve?

The defence was simply awful and is in desperate need of strategic focus, but maybe SM is truly out of his depth managing the first team? He needs to remember that every time he criticises the team and and names and shames individuals, the closer he gets to completely losing the dressing room - and that may not be too far away.

For what it's worth, my advice would be to bring in another manager for the remainder of the season to try and salvage Championship status. A club is far more saleable in the Championship than one in the lower leagues. Take note Vincent!

[J R Hartley]

Re: Some brutal comments...

He’s so far out of his depth it’s embarrassing.

Why he persists with the formation that saw his predecessor get the boot I don’t know

[Dorcus]

Re: Some brutal comments...

He’s so far out of his depth it’s embarrassing.

Why he persists with the formation that saw his predecessor get the boot I don’t know

Correct! It's so obvious one wonders just how far is he up his own arse that he can't see daylight?

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Re: Some brutal comments...

This group of players has already quit on two managers in little over a year. Does Morison think that they won't do the same to him?

Bar a handful of them, Wales' striker being one of them, I'm not sure that's entirely true. I just think they're absolutely awful. I dont think they're not trying, they're just being badly used as well as not being good enough.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Some brutal comments...

To be fair to Morison, we were terrible yesterday and the players deserved to be criticised, especially the central defenders - he was right when he said Bristol had more desire than us. “Brutal” is the right word to describe what he said, but, if it were a one off, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. The trouble is, it’s far from that - it follows on from him effectively blaming last week’s defeat on his front two and his disgraceful treatment of Isaak Davies after the Bournemouth match when, if he was going to single out individuals, it was Bacuna who was far more deserving of such treatment.

I notice Bacuna wasn’t in the eighteen yesterday despite him being available again after the suspension, so it would appear that his ridiculous sending off did have an effect on our manager. In truth though, if Morison has decided Bacuna no longer features in his plans, he is a little unlucky because he’s the only one out of the failing seven or eight senior players that I believe are most responsible for our struggles who our manager has lost faith in.

That’s the second thing I don’t like about Morison’s management, he is increasingly losing confidence in the group of home produced young players who I’d say have given us more hope that we can get out of this mess than their seniors. It shouldn’t be like that, a relegation struggling squad which is almost solely reliant on inexperienced players in their early twenties or younger for its flair and invention is a recipe for disaster, but it’s the likes of Colwill, Davies, Giles and Evans (if he were given more of a chance) who were capable of “making something happen” for us, not their seniors. Yet, such players are playing less of a part for us as Morison relies on a group who are losing games for us week in, week out with their substandard displays - I’ve still not heard about an injury to Colwill which prevented from being in the squad today and, if there wasn’t one, then it was a disgraceful decision by Morison to leave him out because it suggests that he thinks there’s only room for one number ten type player in our match day squad.

It had been Colwill, but, now we have Doyle (who, hardly surprisingly, became less influential as his first senior start of the season went on) and Morison’s selection suggested the former was no longer required when the opposite was the case when we found ourselves losing with a tiring Doyle less prominent.

I don’t really have an issue with three centre backs because I don’t see how using just two out of Flint, Nelson, Morison and McGuiness will result in an improvement in our defending. Let’s not forget either that our complete lack of wingers means we would lose the little attacking contribution we get from our current wing backs as they reverted to full backs in a flat back four as it seems to me that the only players we have capable of making a worthwhile job of a wide attacking role are in the group of players he had at under 23 level who he is now showing very little faith in.

I can’t see anything other than a defeat against Forest next week and, watching us yesterday, Liverpool will get a cricket score against us if they’re in the mood to. After that we face a side that are worse away from home than we are at home. Peterborough is a huge game for us and our manager - if we’re as insipid at home as we usually are and end up losing that one then, as someone who has always thought Morison would see out the season with us, I would agree the Board would be under real pressure to make a change.

I like the fact that Morison is trying to change the way we play, but he is doing it with a group of centrebacks and too many central midfielders who are wholly unsuited to playing a passing game well - in many ways, he’s being penalised for the failings of previous managers (Warnock in particular), but he really isn’t helping his cause with some of his selections and a lot of his public comments.

[Trigger]

Re: Some brutal comments...

He's not wrong.

He himself can do better but the senior pros in this squad are a shadow of themselves and the rot has set in.

The contract issues, or lack of have to play a part. If you know you aren't around next season and neither may SM be, then you aren't quite putting in the effort you would otherwise. Probably isn't even a conscious thing. Few % drop off in intensity here and there and we get punished.